MUST READ JUNE UPDATES from Steve Alten

Steve Alten June Newsletter

TO: My MEGheads, Readers, Family & Friends:

This summer will mark 26 years since MEG: A Novel of Deep Terror debuted in hardback in stores. I was thirty-seven years old when I made my first TV appearance as a published author… on The TODAY SHOW with Matt Lauer – who could not have been kinder or more encouraging. After the interview I gave him a 4-inch MEG tooth as a gift.

It’s been a while since I watched this, and it brought back memories of things I had not thought of in a long time – crazy insane things that happened to me and very few other authors (if any). What kind of things? How about my novel, UNDISCLOSED (hardback, A & M Publishing) was pirated and sold as a trade paperback on Amazon – by a print-on-demand company owned by Amazon!

But back to the TODAY Show and MEG:

To be interviewed by Matt Lauer on The TODAY Show (summer 1997) for my first novel… it doesn’t get much better for a first-time author. MEG had actually been optioned for a movie (June 1996) by Hollywood Pics/Disney) – four months BEFORE the book was even finished. On Friday the 13th of September, I lost my job as GM of a wholesale meat company; we literally had $48 in the bank. That weekend, a select group of senior editors at the biggest publishing houses in the country were reading the finished manuscript of MEG. A few days later, a bidding war broke out, the winning offer – a two book, $2.1 million deal with Bantam-Doubleday-Dell. And that wasn’t even the highest offer – we only went with BDD because they had published JAWS (by Peter Benchley). Big mistake.

This interview… the whole damn “RAGS 2 RICHES” story – God, I hated that crap. True or not, I would never have brought it up – because you are just begging the UNIVERSE to swat your dumbass back to earth. And that’s not me – never has been, never will be. My father taught me humility by his actions…he never judged another person by anything other than their heart and deeds -- he treated every stranger with kindness. My Dad was with me that morning. After the interview he said, “Steve, that was great, but do they have to keep using the rags to riches thing?” He hated it, because he knew it made his son an easy target – and boy was he ever right.

Six months after the TODAY interview and three months after we had moved into our “dream home,” BDD fired me. Technically they cancelled the second book of my 2-book deal, Doubleday president Arlene Friedman calling it “unpublishable.” BDD sent a blurb to TIME magazine who ran it next to a sobbing cartoon shark. How appropriate… that the magazine whose August 14, 1995 issue featured the deep-sea trenches article responsible for seeding my career would be used in an attempt to end it.

Yes, end it. The process of creating MEG: LEGACY motivated me to locate an old scrapbook filled with articles last read 20-25 years ago… wow. Long-dormant memories came rushing at me like pieces of a puzzle I never realized existed... and there it was! The 37-year-old Steve Alten could not have put the clues together… there was no time. I had one shot at saving our new home and my career – while my attorney sued BDD for breach of contract, I was furiously penning the MEG sequel, The TRENCH (yes, the novel whose adaptation will debut in movie theaters this coming August 4. The TRENCH had to be better than the first novel and written in a third of the time…

Four months. That’s how long the money would last in our bank account.

Now, as I sit here at my keyboard - my desk covered with faded yellow news print - one article in particular – the missing breadcrumb… the one that reveals the identity of the puppet-master who had Arlene Friedman dancing from their strings… fighting for her job as she toyed with my new career.

“You’re going to be our new Peter Benchley,” Friedman TOLD me. She had flown in from NYC that morning to see her mother, but really to deliver her news to me over lunch at a private club in Boca.

“Why do you need a new Benchley?” I asked. Did she not hear me talk about reading JAWS when I was fifteen… how Benchley’s novel led me to research Great Whites and their prehistoric cousin, Megalodon.

She made a reference to a drinking problem… wow.

“Arlene, I’m flattered, but I don’t want to just write about sea creatures… my second book is about the Mayan Doomsday Prophesy—”

“Change it. Seventy percent of it has to take place underwater. Shawn (my editor) will help you.”

And that was it… message delivered. Of course, I tried to keep the Mayan story while altering the plot. But Shawn was writing entirely new underwater chapters, with others contributing… and I had no idea where the story was going. After a year, I was burned out from two major rewrites, but there was a million dollars at stake, so I shut my mouth and gave them what they asked for.

They accepted the first two-thirds of the new manuscript, triggering two payouts of $100k each. I was actually excited when Shawn showed me the cover art: FATHOM. As in, I can’t FATHOM what this book is about.

BDD cancelled the second book deal a week before the final payment of $800,000 was due. One major p.r. problem: MEG had hit every best-seller list, including the NY Times (#19, #7 audio) and if the mass market of JAWS was any indicator, then with the right scary shark on the cover strong sales were expected.

What no one knew at the time was that Bertlesmann, the German publisher and conglomerate, were negotiating to buy Doubleday… and they were not fans of the book. In fact, they were steamed when Doubleday arrived at the 1996 Frankfurt Book Fair looking to sell Meg’s foreign rights. According to one article, an irate Bertlesmann manager was quoted as saying, “It’s the end of us all.”

Bertelsmann bought Doubleday and fired Arlene Friedman. Bantam had the MEG paperback cover designed to avoid any clue what the novel was about – no doubt following orders from the new owners. As for me, I finished writing The TRENCH in four months. Ken optioned it to Kensington/Pinnacle for $175,000 – the book also hitting the NY Times list – albeit lower.

We settled out of court with Doubleday; more important – we got the rights back to the Mayan story which I rewrote as DOMAIN. My third book was published by Tor/Forge – my third publisher where I have made my home over the last fifteen thrillers. In 2011, a small Spanish publisher bought the rights in Spain and renamed it, The Mayan Testimony. The novel (and parts 2 and 3 of the trilogy) hit #1 in Spain, Argentina, and Mexico.*

*Excerpted from Steve Alten biography – to be included in MEG: LEGACY.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: My father passed away in 2011 of stage-4 melanoma. And YES, the GC extract at www.GoneCancer.com would have saved his life if we knew it existed – which it did, and which is why I stubbornly refuse to let it die—even though the cost to house the equipment in a warehouse these last two years is like carrying a second mortgage.

To purchase MEG: Legacy and the Steve Alten bio, go to ww.MEGlegacy.com. A percentage of the proceeds will be used to bring this natural p-53 gene enhancer to the public.

I hope you enjoyed the excerpt – as stated, it will be included as a free bonus with MEG: Legacy.

Steve Alten

UPDATE #1 LOCH-3: Heaven Lake:

This novel just rocks. As reported in April, after finishing the first 400+ pages of the manuscript, I wanted to do a hard-copy read and edit. While this can take several weeks or more, when writing a manuscript this long over so many years it is crucial to have everything fresh in my mind before beginning the final third of the book in order to “stick the landing.” So far – I couldn’t be happier! As often is the case, the most challenging manuscripts are often among the best and I already know LOCH-3 will be a TOP-3 Alten read, if only for the characters. That only happened because I refused to settle and forced myself to take a needed break from Dec. 2019 thru January 2021. Once refreshed, I could start again., and it has paid off big-time.

STEVE: WHEN CAN I EXPECT MY SIGNED FIRST EDITION COPIES TO ARRIVE?

I am still targeting mid-September to finish, then I will submit the edited manuscript to our printer and get some more precise delivery dates. A lot depends on the MEG-2 publicity and interview schedules.

SPECIAL BONUS GIFT: For everyone who purchases at least 2 First Edition copies of LOCH-3: Heaven Lake before June 15, you will receive a free LOCH-3 pdf e-book in full color FOR FREE - the day after the L-3 manuscript is sent to the printers… a gift I suspect you’ll love and use right away.

UPDATE #2: MEG-7: PURGATORY

First - my sincerest apologies. I know a few of you grew quite anxious when my website store stopped pre-selling the hardback before you could buy a copy or three. I took the book down from my website store for several reasons:

1. The cost of paper/printing is going a bit crazy. Since I won't be back to writing the novel full-time again until October -November (The LOCH-3: Heaven Lake must be completed first) and it will be another 12-15 months of writing from there, it is best to wait until I have an accurate page count to decide whether to raise the price to cover the print costs.

2. TOR owns the pub rights on PURGATORY - including the hardback. While I can privately print and sell the hardback, adding any changes and extras I want, they requested I take it down from the store. No problem. When sales resume, I will send out a private link where to purchase copies.

TOR is my longtime publisher and we have always had a great relationship so the last thing I want to do is jeopardize that. Believe me, I WISH I could just write full-time, never having to deal with printing books or selling posters or other avenues to bring in more money that force me (at age 63) to have to work 14 hour days/7 as a week. Unfortunately, Amazon's destruction of the retail book-selling industry over the last fifteen years (Borders, Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and major independents ... so sad) forced major changes. As an author, my advances (which allowed me to write full-time and support my family) were cut by 75%. In addition, with 80% of the retail stores competition for shelf space affected ALL BOOK SALES - which cut into royalties. So now my author income candle is burning at both ends.

Selling directly to readers was the only way my fellow authors and I could survive. TOR knows that, and they also realize that I am the rare author fortunate enough to have major motion pictures coming out that will drive new readers to my novels. More rare is the author with TWO SERIES soon to be in theaters (God bless you, Belle Avery)... AND these are all TENT-POLE PRODUCTIONS. So no worries; if your book was ordered, your book will be signed and delivered.

Knowing how patient you have been, I did come up with a very good option that would lock in your price to the best version of Purgatory available AND give you a 25% bonus credit to switch.

SWAP OUT Purgatory for Legacy Volume 1:

The absolute BEST format to purchase MEG-7: PURGATORY will be in the MEG: Legacy Collector’s Editions. You can just order Volume VII, or (BEST DEAL) purchase each book, starting with VOLUME I – applying a 125% credit to swap out your MEG-7 order as such:

$34.95 MEG-7 purgatory

25% = $8.73 plus $8.75 s & h credit = $52.43 credit

Cost of Volume I = $72.69 - $52.43 = $20.26 balance for Legacy Vol.1.

Not too shabby.

To complete: Order the LEGACY Vol. I. Send me the receipt in an email to Meg82159@aol.com SUBJECT: PURG Exchange. I will refund you $52.43.

If you wish to call it a day and request a refund: No problem. As soon as I finish writing LOCH-3, I will establish a refund schedule.

Why is a schedule required?

Because these transactions take time to look up (especially transactions over a year old.) If I do 25 in one sitting, it takes 5-6 minutes; if I do them as they come in, it takes three times as long, and I simply can’t spare the writing time until LOCH=3 is done.

*NOTE: The swap option is fast as it’s usually the last transaction done.

UPDATE #4:

SEA MONSTER COVE VIDEO GAME IS HERE!!!

After a two-and-a-half year labor of love, the brilliant 3D artist & programmer’s masterpiece is here…and IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! Go… run along and hunt down those cute little young Dunks and other sea creatures and transport them up to their new habitats in Sea Monster Cove before their angry mommas serve you up as lunch. Compete to win prizes; everyone who tries the game (or other activities like cage diving with our fearsome Plesiosaur, Yoko Krono) can earn coupons by videotaping your experiences and sending them to me at Meg82159@aol.com

Prizes include (real) 4-5 inch fossilized MEG teeth, movie tickets to the premiere of MEG-2 The TRENCH, signed copies of the mass market paperback and much more. Be sure to check out the first two episodes of Where Sea Monsters Roam… or head to my private library where you can read any of my novels (ENHANCED with hundreds of color images) or my screenplays for FREE!