Jason is riding a train. He thinks it's taking him into the city. Little does he realize he's actually going on the ride of his life!
The Train is an Amazon short story, available only through Amazon.com. It comes as a downloadable pdf file or read it right through your browser. It's only 49¢ - a very cheap way to check out upcoming writers.
Get yours now: Click here for more information
Friday, June 22, 2007
Saturday, June 9, 2007
So You Want to be Published (pt. 4)
You've decided to publish your book, 1001 Uses for a Dead Cat, through an online publisher. You finally see the book showing up in searches on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million and other book retailers' websites. What happens next?
If you do nothing....
Nothing happens.
Why?
Remember the business model I described for PublishAmerica in an earlier post? They have sent out a mailing to the list you provided, and that is the FULL EXTENT of their promotional commitment. The rest is up to you.
So what do you do?
It's not enough to merely have a product listed on a website on Amazon if no one 1. knows you and your work, and 2. likes your work enough to buy it. People purchase what they want, that which interests them. You need to develop interest in what you've written.
Howie Carr, a conservative radio talk show host from the Boston area, wrote a book called "The Brothers Bulger." It is about Boston gangster Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill gang. Howie has used his talk show extensively to promote the book. He is well known in Massachusetts as a columnist for the Boston Herald, and he makes occasional appearances on television news and talk shows. He has the venues from which to promote - venues unavailable to the rest of us.
Christopher Paolini is a self-published author. You may have heard of his book-became-a-movie called Eragon. He started writing Eragon when he was around 15 years old. His parents read it, and decided to self-publish. Then they spent a year touring the country and promoting the novel.
"Paolini and his family gave over 135 talks at bookshops, libraries and schools. Many of these events were done with Paolini wearing a " medieval costume of red shirt, billowy black pants, lace-up boots, and a jaunty black cap". In summer 2002 the author Carl Hiaasen brought the attention of Eragon to his publisher Alfred A. Knopf after his stepson read a copy of the self-published novel. Knopf went on to acquire the rights to the entire trilogy. The novel was once again edited, and a new cover was drawn by John Jude Palencar." (from Wikipedia.com).
So who has the time and money to do what the Paolinis did? That question will always loom to the forefront when taking on this adventure. There are many ways to promote a book you've written, and many ways that can be done creatively, with little to no cost. Here are some suggestions:
1. Donate your book to local libraries and offer to do readings.
2. Contact local newspapers a. to announce your book by sending them a press release, and b. to find out if they are willing to review your book.
3. Seek distribution through independent bookstores. If they are unwilling to purchase the book from the distributor, perhaps you could ask them to display some of your copies with a consignment agreement. Also ask them if you could do a book signing at their store. (This will require some promoting, and you may have to run an ad to announce it - local weekly papers are always less expensive than the dailies).
4. Set up a website for your book. (This is an entire lesson in itself).
5. If you write poetry, look for poetry clubs or literary guilds in your area, and get involved.
6. Again, if you write poetry, there are many poetry websites you can join to post your poetry and start developing a following there. A couple examples are:
poets.com, thepoetstree.com, poetsinkwell.com, worldofpoets.com and so on. They usually cost around $5 a month with discounted prices for longer subscription periods.
7. Have business cards made up and hand them out to everyone.
8. If you do seminars on 1001 Uses for a Dead Cat, you will want to bring your book to the seminars and promote it there.
9. Enter writing contests (make sure you understand copyright implications when you do this - every contest has different requirements. Some are free to enter, some require a reading fee). A good place to check out contests is at winningwriters.com. It is a subscription site.
10. Seek publication through literary journals. Writer's Market is a good resource publication for this. It's a thick book, updated every year. If you don't want to purchase it, you can probably find it in your library.
You can be as creative with your promoting as you want. But remember that it isn't enough to let people know you've written a book. You have to figure out a way to give them a reason to buy it. There are millions of book titles on Amazon.com. When you go to Amazon, is it to purchase every book they have? Of course not.
In the next post, I want to go into internet marketing a bit. It can be daunting and a complete flop.
But there are ways to use it to spread the word around the world, and it can work for you while you are doing something else.
If you do nothing....
Nothing happens.
Why?
Remember the business model I described for PublishAmerica in an earlier post? They have sent out a mailing to the list you provided, and that is the FULL EXTENT of their promotional commitment. The rest is up to you.
So what do you do?
It's not enough to merely have a product listed on a website on Amazon if no one 1. knows you and your work, and 2. likes your work enough to buy it. People purchase what they want, that which interests them. You need to develop interest in what you've written.
Howie Carr, a conservative radio talk show host from the Boston area, wrote a book called "The Brothers Bulger." It is about Boston gangster Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill gang. Howie has used his talk show extensively to promote the book. He is well known in Massachusetts as a columnist for the Boston Herald, and he makes occasional appearances on television news and talk shows. He has the venues from which to promote - venues unavailable to the rest of us.
Christopher Paolini is a self-published author. You may have heard of his book-became-a-movie called Eragon. He started writing Eragon when he was around 15 years old. His parents read it, and decided to self-publish. Then they spent a year touring the country and promoting the novel.
"Paolini and his family gave over 135 talks at bookshops, libraries and schools. Many of these events were done with Paolini wearing a " medieval costume of red shirt, billowy black pants, lace-up boots, and a jaunty black cap". In summer 2002 the author Carl Hiaasen brought the attention of Eragon to his publisher Alfred A. Knopf after his stepson read a copy of the self-published novel. Knopf went on to acquire the rights to the entire trilogy. The novel was once again edited, and a new cover was drawn by John Jude Palencar." (from Wikipedia.com).
So who has the time and money to do what the Paolinis did? That question will always loom to the forefront when taking on this adventure. There are many ways to promote a book you've written, and many ways that can be done creatively, with little to no cost. Here are some suggestions:
1. Donate your book to local libraries and offer to do readings.
2. Contact local newspapers a. to announce your book by sending them a press release, and b. to find out if they are willing to review your book.
3. Seek distribution through independent bookstores. If they are unwilling to purchase the book from the distributor, perhaps you could ask them to display some of your copies with a consignment agreement. Also ask them if you could do a book signing at their store. (This will require some promoting, and you may have to run an ad to announce it - local weekly papers are always less expensive than the dailies).
4. Set up a website for your book. (This is an entire lesson in itself).
5. If you write poetry, look for poetry clubs or literary guilds in your area, and get involved.
6. Again, if you write poetry, there are many poetry websites you can join to post your poetry and start developing a following there. A couple examples are:
poets.com, thepoetstree.com, poetsinkwell.com, worldofpoets.com and so on. They usually cost around $5 a month with discounted prices for longer subscription periods.
7. Have business cards made up and hand them out to everyone.
8. If you do seminars on 1001 Uses for a Dead Cat, you will want to bring your book to the seminars and promote it there.
9. Enter writing contests (make sure you understand copyright implications when you do this - every contest has different requirements. Some are free to enter, some require a reading fee). A good place to check out contests is at winningwriters.com. It is a subscription site.
10. Seek publication through literary journals. Writer's Market is a good resource publication for this. It's a thick book, updated every year. If you don't want to purchase it, you can probably find it in your library.
You can be as creative with your promoting as you want. But remember that it isn't enough to let people know you've written a book. You have to figure out a way to give them a reason to buy it. There are millions of book titles on Amazon.com. When you go to Amazon, is it to purchase every book they have? Of course not.
In the next post, I want to go into internet marketing a bit. It can be daunting and a complete flop.
But there are ways to use it to spread the word around the world, and it can work for you while you are doing something else.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
So You Want to be Published (pt. 3)
When PublishAmerica rejected my second book, I spent a little time looking around at publishing alternatives. I checked into some well know online publishers such as Xlibris and iUniverse, found them too expensive for my tastes. Some lesser known sites, which I no longer remember, were pricey as well. They had different levels of publishing, the lowest starting around $300-$400.
I had looked at Lulu back when I was seeking a publisher for my first book, found their site to be somewhat ponderous, difficult to navigate and find the information I wanted - at least on the quick. But I decided to go back to it and spend some time trying to figure out what they offered and what it would cost.
This is what I found out:
Lulu will publish a book at no cost to the author... IF the author provides all the files needed to create the book.
Lulu will provide an ISBN and distribution package which will place the book with Bowker Books who, in turn, takes care of placement on the online retailers. This service cost only $100.
Lulu offers different levels of service at various prices based upon what the author needs to produce his/her book.
Where PublishAmerica doesn't allow for color pictures in the books they publish (that's what they told me), Lulu will. However, the more frills the author adds to the book, the more expensive the book becomes. This is only logical. Printing color is always more expensive than black and white.
Lulu requires no signed contracts to fulfill publishing.
After consideration, I decided that Lulu would be my choice for my second book. It took some time to figure out how to use their website - not everything is immediately obvious. But I was able to get through the process with no problems in the end, and I have ordered 20 books for sale and promotion.
Here are the benefits of Lulu over PublishAmerica.
• In my earlier post I said that PA's book layout was only adequate. PA is obviously using a standardized template for poetry anthology layouts which means all poems are left aligned with a 5/8 inch margin. This on a sheet of paper measuring 5-1/2" wide by 8" tall. If a poem's lines are short, there will be a lot of white space to the right of the poem. There is only one poem per page, so if the poem is short, say like a haiku, there will also be a lot of white space below the poem. PA does not include a table of contents, and there is no way to create one until you can see how the poems are gonig to flow from page to page based on their length, font size used, tracking and leading and so on.
With Lulu I laid out the entire book myself using Quark Express. I was able to center the poems in the page and fill the pages to the extent I wanted them filled. I was also able to include my own table of contents and design elements, not to mention an introduction. I also placed some information, such as my website on the title page and a recognition that I designed the cover art as well as the book itself. I am much happier with the end product because I did it myself. I understand that most people won't have that ability, but if you do, you can save some serious money by doing it yourself.
• I knew from the start what the book would cost me as I filled out the specs of what I wanted in the book and Lulu tallied it up. With PA, I had no idea how much the book would cost me until it was all done. (Note: by "cost" in this bullet point, I mean how much it costs me to buy one of my own books). After the author finds out the cost, then he/she can add in the desired royalty payment and determine the retail cost of the book.
• Lulu allows for as many revisions as necessary to satisfy the author prior to making the book publicly available for purchase.
There are other aspects of Lulu I liked over PA, but the biggest, to me, was the ability to create my own book. I would have done the same with PA if they allowed me - perhaps they do, I just never found out.
So that is my experience with PODs and self-publishing.
My next post will talk about what to do with the book once it is finished.
I had looked at Lulu back when I was seeking a publisher for my first book, found their site to be somewhat ponderous, difficult to navigate and find the information I wanted - at least on the quick. But I decided to go back to it and spend some time trying to figure out what they offered and what it would cost.
This is what I found out:
Lulu will publish a book at no cost to the author... IF the author provides all the files needed to create the book.
Lulu will provide an ISBN and distribution package which will place the book with Bowker Books who, in turn, takes care of placement on the online retailers. This service cost only $100.
Lulu offers different levels of service at various prices based upon what the author needs to produce his/her book.
Where PublishAmerica doesn't allow for color pictures in the books they publish (that's what they told me), Lulu will. However, the more frills the author adds to the book, the more expensive the book becomes. This is only logical. Printing color is always more expensive than black and white.
Lulu requires no signed contracts to fulfill publishing.
After consideration, I decided that Lulu would be my choice for my second book. It took some time to figure out how to use their website - not everything is immediately obvious. But I was able to get through the process with no problems in the end, and I have ordered 20 books for sale and promotion.
Here are the benefits of Lulu over PublishAmerica.
• In my earlier post I said that PA's book layout was only adequate. PA is obviously using a standardized template for poetry anthology layouts which means all poems are left aligned with a 5/8 inch margin. This on a sheet of paper measuring 5-1/2" wide by 8" tall. If a poem's lines are short, there will be a lot of white space to the right of the poem. There is only one poem per page, so if the poem is short, say like a haiku, there will also be a lot of white space below the poem. PA does not include a table of contents, and there is no way to create one until you can see how the poems are gonig to flow from page to page based on their length, font size used, tracking and leading and so on.
With Lulu I laid out the entire book myself using Quark Express. I was able to center the poems in the page and fill the pages to the extent I wanted them filled. I was also able to include my own table of contents and design elements, not to mention an introduction. I also placed some information, such as my website on the title page and a recognition that I designed the cover art as well as the book itself. I am much happier with the end product because I did it myself. I understand that most people won't have that ability, but if you do, you can save some serious money by doing it yourself.
• I knew from the start what the book would cost me as I filled out the specs of what I wanted in the book and Lulu tallied it up. With PA, I had no idea how much the book would cost me until it was all done. (Note: by "cost" in this bullet point, I mean how much it costs me to buy one of my own books). After the author finds out the cost, then he/she can add in the desired royalty payment and determine the retail cost of the book.
• Lulu allows for as many revisions as necessary to satisfy the author prior to making the book publicly available for purchase.
There are other aspects of Lulu I liked over PA, but the biggest, to me, was the ability to create my own book. I would have done the same with PA if they allowed me - perhaps they do, I just never found out.
So that is my experience with PODs and self-publishing.
My next post will talk about what to do with the book once it is finished.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
So You Want to be Published (pt. 2)
Traditional publishers/print houses could never print just one book or a small run of books as it would make the per unit cost incredibly expensive. I have been in advertising and/or printing since 1986, and I've specced out a lot of jobs. The majority of production costs are up front, and when the presses are running finished copy, the cost then becomes merely materials for the press run.
The digital age changed all that.
I have published two books. Two books that probably wouldn't be looked at by a traditional publisher. Why?
Because they are poetry anthologies, and the market for those is rather small. This doesn't mean that the writing is bad; it just means that demand is limited. But I wanted to get some books done to 1. go through the experience and 2. have a body of work in the pipeline for the time I get my novel finished. Additionally, I wanted to officially copyright the work in order to protect it.
I published my first book through PublishAmerica. I emailed them the manuscript, and they approved it. Upon approval, they sent me a contract to sign, which I did and returned to them. Then I edited the manuscript myself for typographical and punctuation errors, and switched out a couple of poems I wanted to replace. I also created the cover artwork, which they used.
PublishAmerica took care of the ISBN registration and distribution through major online channels - note: they do not do placement in brick and mortar locations. They sent me two author's copies, and the whole process cost me nothing.
PublishAmerica will edit the book for you; it adds more time to the process if you are wiling to wait. They will also design the cover for you if you have no experience in doing it yourself. They send out files for you to approve, pdfs for your review. The whole process took about 2-3 months before I saw my book up on Amazon for the first time.
There are a lot of advantages to using a service like PublishAmerica. The biggest is the most obvious - no cost to the author. I didn't pay PA a dime for the publishing. I did purchase 25 books from them when the project was complete for sale to friends (signed copies) and for promotional use, but that was it for expense.
Unfortunately, there's a flip side to all these great advantages.
1. PA does not promote your book for you - you have to do that.
2. PA will do a mailing to a list of contacts you give them, but that's it.
3. PA's acceptance standards aren't the highest in the business.
4. PA's book prices are high - my 180-page poetry anthology, From Here to Never, costs $19.95 on Amazon and at PA.
5. PA's contract requires a 7-year commitment to them. At the end of the 7-year period, if you don't notify them that you want to end the relationship, they will extend it another 7 years automatically.
6. PA's royalty structure could be better.
7. Bookstores don't like to stock books from publishers like PA due to the lack of a buyback agreement. (PA says that this has changed on their site, and they now offer the agreement). The other reason is the high cost of the book which lowers margins for the store, plus the lack of promotional support from PA.
8. PA's book layout is merely adequate (more on that later).
The business model of PublishAmerica is to publish as many people as they can who will provide them with a mailing list of friends and family to try and promote the books to. It's that simple. Do you see the inherent problems with that model? I did early on, but I overlooked them and tried to publish my second book through them as well. Why? Refer to paragraph 4.
Well, I submitted my second book to PA. It was several weeks before I heard from them again. Their email to me was short and direct. It basically stated that because my first book hadn't sold in sufficient numbers, they were unwilling to publish a second book for me.
I wasn't surprised. I wasn't even disappointed.
Instead, I decided to check out Lulu.com.
I will cover that in my next blog entry.
The digital age changed all that.
I have published two books. Two books that probably wouldn't be looked at by a traditional publisher. Why?
Because they are poetry anthologies, and the market for those is rather small. This doesn't mean that the writing is bad; it just means that demand is limited. But I wanted to get some books done to 1. go through the experience and 2. have a body of work in the pipeline for the time I get my novel finished. Additionally, I wanted to officially copyright the work in order to protect it.
I published my first book through PublishAmerica. I emailed them the manuscript, and they approved it. Upon approval, they sent me a contract to sign, which I did and returned to them. Then I edited the manuscript myself for typographical and punctuation errors, and switched out a couple of poems I wanted to replace. I also created the cover artwork, which they used.
PublishAmerica took care of the ISBN registration and distribution through major online channels - note: they do not do placement in brick and mortar locations. They sent me two author's copies, and the whole process cost me nothing.
PublishAmerica will edit the book for you; it adds more time to the process if you are wiling to wait. They will also design the cover for you if you have no experience in doing it yourself. They send out files for you to approve, pdfs for your review. The whole process took about 2-3 months before I saw my book up on Amazon for the first time.
There are a lot of advantages to using a service like PublishAmerica. The biggest is the most obvious - no cost to the author. I didn't pay PA a dime for the publishing. I did purchase 25 books from them when the project was complete for sale to friends (signed copies) and for promotional use, but that was it for expense.
Unfortunately, there's a flip side to all these great advantages.
1. PA does not promote your book for you - you have to do that.
2. PA will do a mailing to a list of contacts you give them, but that's it.
3. PA's acceptance standards aren't the highest in the business.
4. PA's book prices are high - my 180-page poetry anthology, From Here to Never, costs $19.95 on Amazon and at PA.
5. PA's contract requires a 7-year commitment to them. At the end of the 7-year period, if you don't notify them that you want to end the relationship, they will extend it another 7 years automatically.
6. PA's royalty structure could be better.
7. Bookstores don't like to stock books from publishers like PA due to the lack of a buyback agreement. (PA says that this has changed on their site, and they now offer the agreement). The other reason is the high cost of the book which lowers margins for the store, plus the lack of promotional support from PA.
8. PA's book layout is merely adequate (more on that later).
The business model of PublishAmerica is to publish as many people as they can who will provide them with a mailing list of friends and family to try and promote the books to. It's that simple. Do you see the inherent problems with that model? I did early on, but I overlooked them and tried to publish my second book through them as well. Why? Refer to paragraph 4.
Well, I submitted my second book to PA. It was several weeks before I heard from them again. Their email to me was short and direct. It basically stated that because my first book hadn't sold in sufficient numbers, they were unwilling to publish a second book for me.
I wasn't surprised. I wasn't even disappointed.
Instead, I decided to check out Lulu.com.
I will cover that in my next blog entry.
Monday, June 4, 2007
So You Want to be Published (pt. 1)
Publishing, in its own right, is not a big deal. All it means is that you have found someone who has agreed to print your book for you, sometimes with some sort of cost involved.
There was a day when a writer would shop his/her manuscript to publishers in hopes of landing a contract. If that avenue failed, then the writer could still go to a vanity press and pay thousands of dollars for a hundred or so copies of the book. The old paradigms have changed somewhat over the years, as they often do. The large publishing houses are, for the most part, no longer interested in entertaining unknown authors. They are in business to make a lot of money off the Tom Clancys and Danielle Steeles of the world - in other words, the sure things. The low risk things. And they have swallowed up a lot of the smaller presses that used to seek out the up and comers.
That leaves a lot of "micro" publishers, one or two person operations our of a garage or small office somewhere. These folks tend to act more like brokers or agents as they don't have their own staff on hand to edit, print and bind. They also tend to be specialists, like poetic cookbooks of Maine, or something like that. So where does that leave the emerging writer class?
They can continue to send manuscripts out for probable rejection (unless they run across a publisher who is absolutely wowed by them), or they can go the print-on-demand (POD) or self-publish route for little to no cost.
Little to no cost. Yes, that's what I said.
Here is where the paradigm shift in publishing benefits you, the writer.
The traditional publishing model prints up a number of books for distribution through bookstores and promotional events. Let's say that 5000 books are printed for release into 300 bookstores (I don't know what actual numbers would be, this is just an example. For the release of a well-known author, I assume that 5000 times ten several times over is what gets printed). And let's say that those 5000 books cost the printer $2 - $3 per to produce each book. Plus you have distributors' costs, retailers' costs and royalties involved in the cost as well, which brings the book well up into the $7 - $8 range to purchase.
Well that's $10,000 - $15,000 in inventory that the publisher has committed to the process, and it also means shelf space will be required. If the book doesn't sell well, despite the money and effort put into promoting it (that's another cost), then the burden of the costs goes back to the publisher because there is usually a buy back agreement between them and the bookstores.
Enter the digital age. Enter the new paradigm.
Each book is output on high quality inkjets - even 4-color covers - from digital files. This part of the process alone negates the need for negatives, plates, and paginated artwork, not to mention stripping and darkroom work (printing terminology).
Then comes the bindery work - collating, trimming and binding the pages to the cover. This may or may not be automated as well. I don't really know about that part of it. What this new paradigm has done has allowed the publisher to produce as many books as are needed to fulfill orders. In many cases, it may just be one book. But it can all be done in a cost-efficient manner which opens up new doors of opportunity.
This is part of an ongoing series on this blog.
There was a day when a writer would shop his/her manuscript to publishers in hopes of landing a contract. If that avenue failed, then the writer could still go to a vanity press and pay thousands of dollars for a hundred or so copies of the book. The old paradigms have changed somewhat over the years, as they often do. The large publishing houses are, for the most part, no longer interested in entertaining unknown authors. They are in business to make a lot of money off the Tom Clancys and Danielle Steeles of the world - in other words, the sure things. The low risk things. And they have swallowed up a lot of the smaller presses that used to seek out the up and comers.
That leaves a lot of "micro" publishers, one or two person operations our of a garage or small office somewhere. These folks tend to act more like brokers or agents as they don't have their own staff on hand to edit, print and bind. They also tend to be specialists, like poetic cookbooks of Maine, or something like that. So where does that leave the emerging writer class?
They can continue to send manuscripts out for probable rejection (unless they run across a publisher who is absolutely wowed by them), or they can go the print-on-demand (POD) or self-publish route for little to no cost.
Little to no cost. Yes, that's what I said.
Here is where the paradigm shift in publishing benefits you, the writer.
The traditional publishing model prints up a number of books for distribution through bookstores and promotional events. Let's say that 5000 books are printed for release into 300 bookstores (I don't know what actual numbers would be, this is just an example. For the release of a well-known author, I assume that 5000 times ten several times over is what gets printed). And let's say that those 5000 books cost the printer $2 - $3 per to produce each book. Plus you have distributors' costs, retailers' costs and royalties involved in the cost as well, which brings the book well up into the $7 - $8 range to purchase.
Well that's $10,000 - $15,000 in inventory that the publisher has committed to the process, and it also means shelf space will be required. If the book doesn't sell well, despite the money and effort put into promoting it (that's another cost), then the burden of the costs goes back to the publisher because there is usually a buy back agreement between them and the bookstores.
Enter the digital age. Enter the new paradigm.
Each book is output on high quality inkjets - even 4-color covers - from digital files. This part of the process alone negates the need for negatives, plates, and paginated artwork, not to mention stripping and darkroom work (printing terminology).
Then comes the bindery work - collating, trimming and binding the pages to the cover. This may or may not be automated as well. I don't really know about that part of it. What this new paradigm has done has allowed the publisher to produce as many books as are needed to fulfill orders. In many cases, it may just be one book. But it can all be done in a cost-efficient manner which opens up new doors of opportunity.
This is part of an ongoing series on this blog.
Friday, June 1, 2007
This Says It All
Kudos to Peggy Noonan for a concise, perfect look at the White House!
PEGGY NOONAN
Too Bad
President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder.
Friday, June 1, 2007 12:00 a.m. EDT
What political conservatives and on-the-ground Republicans must understand at this point is that they are not breaking with the White House on immigration. They are not resisting, fighting and thereby setting down a historical marker--"At this point the break became final." That's not what's happening. What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.
The White House doesn't need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don't even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place.
For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. You don't like endless gushing spending, the kind that assumes a high and unstoppable affluence will always exist, and the tax receipts will always flow in? Too bad! You don't like expanding governmental authority and power? Too bad. You think the war was wrong or is wrong? Too bad.
But on immigration it has changed from "Too bad" to "You're bad."
The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his immigration bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America." His ally Sen. Lindsey Graham has said, "We're gonna tell the bigots to shut up." On Fox last weekend he vowed to "push back." Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff suggested opponents would prefer illegal immigrants be killed; Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said those who oppose the bill want "mass deportation." Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said those who oppose the bill are "anti-immigrant" and suggested they suffer from "rage" and "national chauvinism."
Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens? And often, though not exclusively, concerned conservatives? It is odd, but it is of a piece with, or a variation on, the "Too bad" governing style. And it is one that has, day by day for at least the past three years, been tearing apart the conservative movement.
I suspect the White House and its allies have turned to name calling because they're defensive, and they're defensive because they know they have produced a big and indecipherable mess of a bill--one that is literally bigger than the Bible, though as someone noted last week, at least we actually had a few years to read the Bible. The White House and its supporters seem to be marshalling not facts but only sentiments, and self-aggrandizing ones at that. They make a call to emotions--this is, always and on every issue, the administration's default position--but not, I think, to seriously influence the debate.
They are trying to lay down markers for history. Having lost the support of most of the country, they are looking to another horizon. The story they would like written in the future is this: Faced with the gathering forces of ethnocentric darkness, a hardy and heroic crew stood firm and held high a candle in the wind. It will make a good chapter. Would that it were true!
If they'd really wanted to help, as opposed to braying about their own wonderfulness, they would have created not one big bill but a series of smaller bills, each of which would do one big clear thing, the first being to close the border. Once that was done--actually and believably done--the country could relax in the knowledge that the situation was finally not day by day getting worse. They could feel some confidence. And in that confidence real progress could begin.
The beginning of my own sense of separation from the Bush administration came in January 2005, when the president declared that it is now the policy of the United States to eradicate tyranny in the world, and that the survival of American liberty is dependent on the liberty of every other nation. This was at once so utopian and so aggressive that it shocked me. For others the beginning of distance might have been Katrina and the incompetence it revealed, or the depth of the mishandling and misjudgments of Iraq.
One of the things I have come to think the past few years is that the Bushes, father and son, though different in many ways, are great wasters of political inheritance. They throw it away as if they'd earned it and could do with it what they liked. Bush senior inherited a vibrant country and a party at peace with itself. He won the leadership of a party that had finally, at great cost, by 1980, fought itself through to unity and come together on shared principles. Mr. Bush won in 1988 by saying he would govern as Reagan had. Yet he did not understand he'd been elected to Reagan's third term. He thought he'd been elected because they liked him. And so he raised taxes, sundered a hard-won coalition, and found himself shocked to lose his party the presidency, and for eight long and consequential years. He had many virtues, but he wasted his inheritance.
Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. He threw away his inheritance. I do not understand such squandering.
Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it's time. It's more than time.
Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father" (Penguin, 2005), which you can order from the OpinionJournal bookstore. Her column appears Fridays on OpinionJournal.com.
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