After-the-Sale Timeline
[Disclaimer (You knew one was coming, right?):
This is the road to publication my first book traveled. The path varies widely from publisher to publisher, author to author, and book to book, so don't be surprised if what you read here is different from what you've heard elsewhere or experienced personally.]
In January, 2006, my literary agent negotiated my first sale. She worked very hard on my behalf, and I did what every newly contracted author does: I celebrated. For about a day. Then, less than twenty-four hours after the deal was made, I sat back down at my computer with one goal in mind: to figure out what comes next.
I found quite a bit of information in small threads, which I could probably have woven into a larger tapestry on my own, had I been so inclined. I also found literally dozens of stories of "The Call." What I did not find was a single, detailed, step-by-step account of what happens to a book between the time it's acquired for publication and the day it hits the bookstore shelf. Now, for the record, such an account probably does exist. But I didn't find it. So I'm making my own.
This is what happened after my very first sale.
The Offer (of representation)
Agent Requested Revisions
STRAY Sent Out
The First Offer (to buy)
The Auction
The Sale
First Phone Call from My Editor
Moved to Mira
Cover Conference
Cover Copy
Cover Concept Revealed
First Deadline Met
Changes...
Contracts!
Second Deadline Met
Dedication and Acknowledgments
Cover art!
The Offer (of representation)
November 22, 2005
(Yes, I know this isn't really after the sale, but since I get more questions about how I found my agent than about anything else, I thought I'd include these first few entries even though they're not exactly what I said would be here.)
By the middle of November, I'd completed four novels and was half-way into my fifth. I'd been querying my third book, an urban fantasy called STRAY, for a little while, and was getting almost as many requests for material as flat-out rejections. At first the requests made me hopeful. But when the SASEs I sent out with my partials came back stuffed with form rejections, I started losing my confidence. By the 22nd, I'd already decided not to send out any more queries for STRAY once all the submissions I had out were rejected.
Then, late that morning, my phone rang. I almost didn't answer it. Seriously. I was physically and mentally exhausted from staying up late every night working on revisions and new material. In fact, I was taking my first nap in ages when the call came. One of the best decisions I ever made was to answer that phone call. It was Miriam Kriss.
She introduced herself, and in my sleep-fuzzy state, I was only vaguely aware that I was on the phone. Until she said she was an agent with the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. That woke me up. Instantly. I'd never gotten a call from a real live literary agent before. In fact, I'd only gotten one rejection with my name on it, so at the time, a personal phone call seemed monumental. It still does.
Miriam said she loved the material I'd sent her, and she wanted to know if I could please email her the rest. Since I'm not a complete idiot, I agreed, and she gave me her email address. Other than that, I can't remember a single thing about that phone call. What I do remember, however, is double checking the phone number on my cell phone screen at least half a dozen times. Then looking up the area code, to make sure the call really had come from New York. It had. From Fifth Avenue.
Since I'd told Miriam I would email the rest of the manuscript immediately, I did what any writer would do in my situation. I sat down at the computer and spent the next two hours looking for mistakes. Eventually I had to admit to myself that it was too late for proofreading. STRAY would have to go out as is. It had already been rewritten five times. Apparently that was good enough.
That night, only six hours after I'd sent the manuscript, Miriam called again. I knew it was her. I don't know how I knew before I saw the number on the screen, but I did. Of course, it's entirely possible that I would have thought it was her even if it wasn't. But I'll never know for sure, because it was her.
Miriam said she'd finished my novel. My ever-articulate answer was something like, "Already?" She said, "Yes." Then she said that she would very much like to represent me. There was more after that. Compliments and enthusiasm from her, incomprehensible babbling from me. Then I recovered enough of my wits to ask for a couple of days to gather my thoughts and compose a list of questions for her, because I couldn't think straight enough at the time to do it right then. She offered to call me the following Monday, six days later. I told her that would be great.
Over the next week, I wrote down every question I could think of to ask a potential agent. But I was only doing it because that's what I'd been told to do: ask all the right questions, and make sure you're happy with all the answers before you agree to anything. So, that's what I did. But I'd already made up my mind. I liked her from the beginning. So after she'd answered my questions and told me a little bit about herself, I accepted her offer of representation. Eagerly.
As of Monday, November 28, 2005, I was an officially agented author. Sort of. My agent/author agreement got lost in the mail and for more than two weeks I was afraid to call and tell Miriam I'd never gotten it . When I finally worked up the nerve, I was half-afraid that she'd changed her mind about me and didn't want to hurt my feelings. She laughed (kindly) and said she'd send a new copy. I got them both on the very same day. I signed one and sent it back. Then I was an officially agented author.
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Agent Requested Revisions
November 29th, 2005
I got my manuscript back from Miriam via email, the day after I accepted her offer. I'd expected lots of complicated changes, but there wasn't really much to it, which was a huge relief. She had one question, found one minor inconsistency and two omitted words, asked for more punch on the last line of the book, and gave me two compliments. And she suggested the addition of one new scene. I don't want to say what scene, because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone planning to read Stray when it comes out in February. But I agreed that the scene was appropriate, and enhanced the story. So I wrote it.
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STRAY Sent Out
Mid-December, 2005
After Miriam approved the revisions I made to Stray, the book was ready to go out on the first round of submissions. She already had a list of editors in mind when she called with an offer of representation, so the submissions process should have been pretty simple. Unfortunately, I underestimated Murphy and his pain-in-the-neck law. On my end of things, whatever could go wrong did.
I was supposed to send Miriam six clean, good-quality copies of Stray to be sent out to editors all over New York. Even though I'd never snail-mailed an entire manuscript to anyone before (I made mostly electronic submissions during the querying process) I knew without being told that printing and mailing six copies of a 409 page manuscript could get pretty expensive. So I crunched some numbers. I got estimates from two different professional copy shops and from the copy center inside the local Office Depot. Then I estimated how much it would cost me to print the manuscripts myself. Printing at home should have been a lot less expensive than any of the professional options, so I made a trip to my local Office Depot to pick up 2,500 sheets of 40lb, paper. I think it was 102 brightness. I also picked up some heavy duty rubber bands, two HP Deskjet ink cartridges, and some shipping labels. Then I went home to start printing.
I have two printers at home, both of them Ink Jet machines marketed as photo printers. One's the Dell that came with my laptop, and the other is a Hewlett Packard Deskjet that I've had more than four years. I started printing on them both, to speed up the process, and for a while, everything went well. I moved both printers into the living room so I could watch TV while I worked, inspecting each page for quality as it came out. After less than an hour, the Dell ran out of ink. Dell ink has to be ordered over the internet and takes a couple of days to arrive, so rather than waiting for it, I put the Dell printer up and continued production on the HP. I printed all day, until nearly midnight that night, and got less than two full manuscripts printed out before the printer quality began to fail. I should have seen it coming. Apparently there's a limit to how long you can run a printer before it starts to overheat, or freak out in some other equally catastrophic way. The print coming from mine was tinted blue and hazy, and each line had a blank stripe running through it.
I stopped printing for the night to give the printer a rest, and resolved to try it again in the morning. I resumed printing at nine a.m. the next day, and the pages looked no better than they had the night before. At that point, I had two options. I could suck it up and go support my local Kinko's, or I could find another printer. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately,) the decision was taken out of my hands: I'd already bought the paper, and Kinko's wouldn't let me use my own. Left with no other choice, I called a good friend and asked if I could come over and borrow her printer. Angel that she is, she said yes without hesitation.
On the way to her house, I stopped at Office Depot again and bought two ink cartridges for her printer. We put her printer to work all day long, printing until nearly five pm. When I had to go home for supper, we still had two manuscripts to go, so she said I could come back the next day. Thank goodness for good friends, because it took the entire next day to finish printing, and by then it was too late to make it to the post office. In all, the printing took three days, three different printers, and countless cartridges of ink. And by the time I got the box of manuscripts mailed, the New York transit workers were on strike and (almost) no one on 5th Avenue was able to make it to work. There was no one to confirm delivery of my manuscripts. With the strike, and the combined Christmas and New Year holidays, I didn't know for sure that my box had arrived until the first week of January, when Miriam told me she was in the process of calling editors about the book, that very day.
So, Stray officially went out to editors on January 2nd, 2006. I was ecstatic, and very nervous, but knew better than expect quick results. I made myself settle in for a long wait, with plenty of disappointment along the way. But as it turned out, in spite of all my mental preparation, I didn't have much of a wait after all...
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The First Offer
Friday, January 13th, 2006
I was composing a blog entry late on the morning of January 13th when I got The Call. Sort of. It was the first Call. My cell phone display showed Miriam's number, and my heart started beating really hard before I even answered the phone. When I did, she asked me how I was doing (as she always does), and I told her I was fine. Then she asked me what I would say if she told me that we'd gotten our first offer. I can't remember very clearly what I said after that, but I know it involved lots of grinning and unselfconscious jumping around. After a couple of minutes, the specifics of what she'd said sank in. She'd said we'd gotten our first offer. I asked what this meant, and she said she'd be surprised if we didn't get at least one more. And again, things got fuzzy after that. I gathered enough of my wits to ask about the publisher and editor, and to write down what she'd told me. Then, after I hung up, I saved my blog entry and googled the publisher. I spent the rest of the day reading everything I could find on-line about the editor/publisher who'd made the first offer.
I tried to call my # 1 fan, but couldn't get in touch with him for several hours. But when I finally did, he was just as excited as I was. And I think he did nearly as much googling as I did. That night, we went out to dinner to celebrate. If I'd known what would happen next, I might have held off on the celebrating for just a little bit.
Nah. Maybe not. ;-)
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The Auction
Tuesday, January 24th, 2006
In the course of my first Call, Miriam told me she was asking for interested editors to submit their initial bids by Tuesday, the 24th. At that point, I probably should have realized Stray had gone to auction. But I didn't. No one actually said the A-word to me, and I just couldn't believe that anything so wonderful could happen to me, a first-timer whose submission had only been out eleven days when the first offer came in. But my inability to believe didn't stop the auction from happening. Fortunately.
Unfortunately, however, I had to spend most of Initial Bid Day out of the house on errands, which meant I couldn't check my email every half-hour, as I usually do. And in spite of hours spent staring at it, my phone never rang. By the time I got back home late that afternoon, I was desperate for some information. I fired off a quick email to Miriam, asking about the status of the submissions, and she wrote me back after agency hours to tell me that we'd gotten offers from three more publishers, for a total of four bids.
It was a good thing I was sitting down, because otherwise I would have fallen flat on the floor. I was so surprised that it never occurred to me to ask who the other publishers were, what rights they wanted, or anything else. Honestly, at the time, none of that mattered. I was more than happy just knowing that someone wanted to buy my book. Four someones was a little more than I was prepared to handle at the moment. So #1 and I went out to dinner to celebrate. Again.
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The Sale
The auction took six days. Six mind-blowing, can-this-really-be-happening-to-me, unbelievably ecstatic, so-nervous-I-can't-do-anything-but-eat days. During that week, I got a flurry of emails from my agent, keeping me updated on which publisher was currently in the lead. And on Friday of that week, I called her, mostly because I couldn't not call her. I needed to hear her tell me that it was all real. That Stray really was going to be a book. A book with my name on it, comprised of words I'd written, of characters I'd created, and of places I'd invented. And I needed to thank her, as close to "in person" as I could get.
I asked her if she'd had any idea in the beginning that this would happen. She said she hadn't known, but that she'd hoped. I had no idea how to respond, so I asked if she thought it was just about over. After all, it had been four days. She said that yes, she thought it was almost over. Not quite, but almost.
Three days later, at 3:00 in the afternoon on Monday, January 30th (and yes, I know the exact day and time!), she called me. The auction was over. All the offers were in. We were ready to declare a winner. We spoke for several minutes, trying to decide on the best course of action, on the best thing for me, and for the book. More nervous than I'd ever been in my life, I made a decision. Miriam said she'd set it up.
She called me back half an hour later. This time it was the call. Mary-Theresa Hussey of Luna had bought Stray as the first book in a three-book deal. It was real. I was an author.
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First Phone Call from My Editor
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Due to an unusual and unfortunate confluence of events, I had to wait a while after the sale before speaking to my editor. At first, I was worried that she'd changed her mind about wanting to buy my books, but if I'd been thinking logically (which is hard to do right after your first sale--trust me) I'd have known better. That wasn't it at all. Lots of things got in the way, including a sales conference, an illness she caught at the conference, a take-it-or-lose-it vacation, and a funeral. But I knew within the first minute of speaking to my editor that she was worth the wait. She was patient with me (I was so nervous my teeth were chattering. Literally.) and encouraged me to ask questions. Unfortunately, though I had tons of them, I was too nervous to remember most of them at the time, and they're still dribbling out bit by bit in emails.
She told me how much she loved Stray, which is one of my favorite things in the world to hear. She asked about my family, and about several of my local RWA chapter members she knows (at least one of whom she also edits), told me a little of what would happen next to my book. Which I'll write about in chronological order below, as each process unfolds. And...she offered to send me some Luna books, to help me familiarize myself with the line. Which was awesome. Anyone who gives me books is automatically my friend, like it or not. (I have a similar policy for chocolate, and for flowers that can be planted, but my #1 fan holds exclusive rights to those two. ;-) )
By the end of the conversation, I was relaxed, happy, and excited to get back to work. So, I dived headfirst into my new book. After all, I'm happiest when I'm writing.
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Moved to Mira
Wednesday, February 23, 2006
My editor met with some people from the marketing and editorial departments, to make some decisions about my books. The next day, she met with my agent (over lunch, I believe, how cool is that?!) to discuss...stuff. I'm not sure what went on in either of these meetings, because I didn't keep very good notes, and now I have to rely on my sketchy blog entries. But, what came out of these meetings were the suggested due dates for my three contracted manuscripts/proposals, and the decision to release Stray and its sequels under the Mira imprint, rather than in the Luna line. I'm not exactly sure what prompted the change, but I've been assured that it was a business decision, and had nothing to do with me personally. And that the move will work in my favor. So I'm more than happy to be a Mira author.
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Cover Conference
Friday, March 17, 2006
(Note: according to what I've heard from other writer friends, the cover art process seems to differ more than anything else between Harlequin imprints and other publishers. I like our process a lot. Harlequin's system allowed me to have lots of input, not on what actually goes on my cover, but about the book itself, and the characters' appearances, setting, themes, cover styles I like, and lots of other stuff.)
On Thursday, March 16th, my editor called to tell me that Stray (along with lots of other books) was going to cover conference the next day. Due to a scheduling conflict, she wasn't going to be able to attend, but the senior editor for Mira would be there, and she would let us know what was decided. My editor said that my books had been loaded into the Harlequin on-line editorial system. She asked if I could try and log on, to make sure everything was working, and to enter the necessary information about Stray on the cover art fact sheet.
It was really cool. I was already in the system when I logged in, and it was absolutely amazing to see my name, and the names of my books (the third didn’t have a title yet, but was already up) on such an official-looking database. And they had an “on sale” date and an ISBN listed. I had no idea either of those had been assigned yet, so seeing them was awesome. I answered several questions about the book (themes, symbols, imagery, and stuff like that), entered a short synopsis, described the major characters, and included an image my agent had found for me on the internet.
The next day, the senior editor for Mira met with representatives from the art department (And maybe the marketing department. I'm not sure who all was there.) to discuss possible concepts for the cover art. But it would still be several more weeks before my editor and I actually saw the design chosen.
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Cover Copy
Monday, April 3, 2006
A couple of weeks after the cover conference, my editor emailed me to show me what she was working on for Stray's cover copy (the blurb on the back of the book, which tells what the story is about). She was tinkering with three different ideas, each of which focused on a different aspect of the book. I found it fascinating that there were so many different ways to describe my story accurately.
My editor asked if I had any thoughts about any of the ideas. She didn't have to do that. I was excited just to see the copy that early in the process, but the chance to help work on it was really great. I wrote out my thoughts and sent them in a reply email. After that, my editor and I sent it back and forth several times, tweaking some phrases and adjusting the wording until she had a version we both really liked.
However, in the end, Mira decided to go with a different version altogether. So I didn't actually have any input on the final draft, but it meant a great deal to me that my editor let me be a part of the process. Things like that go a long way toward helping a new author get comfortable with so many things coming so quickly, and I feel very fortunate to be working with an editor who goes out of her way to make me feel involved.
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Cover Concept Revealed
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
About a month after the cover conference, my editor sent me one of my all-time favorite emails, containing a digital copy of the cover concept Mira chose for Stray. I absolutely loved it. Loved it. I couldn't stop looking at it. It was dark, and sexy, and...it had my name on it. My name. Because it was for my book. Somehow seeing the cover concept made the entire process seem more real to me, and less like a wonderful dream.
The only down-side was that I couldn't share the image with my internet friends and blog buddies, though I sent it to my agent almost as soon as I got it. I wasn't allowed to post the image, because a cover concept isn't the actual art that will go on the front of a book. A cover concept is “a mock-up of art, design and type” to use my editor’s words. It’s made by the in-house art department and used as a guide for the artist commissioned to do the cover. It conveys the general pose and feel desired for the actual cover. I believe the art department uses stock images and photographs. The font types and sizes aren't final, and the text (cover quotes from other authors, or a short blurb about the story) are only present in the form of "place-holder" lines, so the artist knows to leave room there for them.
At this point, I still haven't seen the actual cover. I don't expect it to be done until sometime in/around August. But seeing the concept has made me very excited to see the real thing. I'll post it as soon as I'm allowed.
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First Deadline Met
May, 2006
My very first edit letter came in on Monday, May 15, 2006, not quite four months after the sale. From what I've heard from other author friends, the length of time it takes for revisions to come in varies wildly. Seriously. It varies so broadly that I couldn't even come up with a ballpark figure. I know one author who got hers in about a week, and another who had to wait six months. It all depends on how early you turn the book in, how busy your editor is, when the book is due to be released, and any number of other factors. All that really matters is that you have enough time to make the changes before your deadline.
My first deadline was June 1, 2006, so I should have had two weeks, which would have been more than enough time. Unfortunately, I had a schedule conflict. I'd been planning for nearly six months to attend the Romantic Times convention in Daytona Beach, and my edit letter arrived less than forty-eight hours before I had to leave for Florida. I was at the convention for five and a half days, from Wednesday of that week, until late Saturday night.
I took my edits with me, but only took them out to show everyone I met what a genius my editor is, as evidenced by the insightful questions in her letter. So when I got home, I took Sunday off to relax and recuperate from the trip. Then, on Monday, I got down to business. I was determined to meet my first deadline, no matter what.
And I did. I worked 12-14 hours a day for the next eight days, only stopping for short food and bathroom breaks (thanks to my #1 fan for making such a grueling schedule possible) and to sleep. A little. I finished the revisions on Monday, May 29. After that, I took the next two days to read over the changes one more time for continuity and coherence (and trust me, coherence is a concern after eight days in a single chair, subsisting on coffee and fast food), then sent the manuscript in. A day early.
Regarding the revisions themselves, each editor does things differently. I asked around about what to expect, while I was waiting on mine, and discovered that...well, there was just no way to know what to expect, short of asking another of my editor's authors. Which I didn't do, because I didn't know any of them. But from the authors I did know, I found out the following:
Some editors send hard copy letters, making reference to specific page numbers and lines.
Some send revisions via email.
Some call their authors and discuss the book over the phone, mentioning over the course of the conversation what all needs to be done.
Some editors send a hard-copy of the manuscript, with notes in the margins, as well as line edits.
My editor sent me a letter via email. It was five and a half pages long, single-spaced, with lines between the paragraphs. It consisted entirely of questions from my editor about the book/characters/plot, which I was to answer any way I saw fit, within the scope of the manuscript. More about my revisions can be found here, in the May 24, 2006 and May 25, 2006 entries.
I've read that some authors are surprised or disappointed by their first round of revisions, and I can understand why. A long list of mistakes/weak points can be a serious blow to anyone's ego, and we writers are not always the most confident bunch. But I knew going in that the manuscript wasn't perfect, and I was eager for a chance to improve it. And improvement is an editor's goal. Always. It should be the author's goal too.
I was very happy with my edits, and with the changes to the manuscript. It's a much better book now. I can't wait to see it on the shelves.
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Changes…
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Two calls in quick succession from first my agent, then my editor revealed that both the release date and the format for Stray had been changed. It was originally scheduled to come out in trade paperback (those tall, sturdy-looking paperbacks) in February, 2007. Instead, it’ll be coming out in mass market (the regular paperbacks you’re probably used to reading) in June, 2007. The date change was a little upsetting for me (like delaying Christmas by four months), but I was thrilled with the format change. Mass market books are less expensive and have a much broader placement, meaning they can now get my book into more places in greater numbers. And that made me smile. ;-)
Once the date change was explained to me in a phone call from my editor, I was happy with that too. There was too much competition for a debut novel in February, so the date change was made to benefit my sales, which I consider worth the four-month delay.
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Contracts!
June 28, 2006
My contracts came in almost exactly five months after my books sold. If I understand correctly, it doesn’t usually take quite so long, but since this was a first contract, there were many points to be ironed out, very few of which I understood or even asked about. I’m content to let my agent handle the business side of it. In fact, I’m grateful for the fact that she’s there to do it.
I read through my contracts and signed them the day they came in, and sent them back to my publisher the very next day. All three copies. Someone there signed them then, and they kept one copy, sent a second to my agent, and a third to me. It was official. I was truly a Mira author. ;-)
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Second Deadline Met
June 29, 2006
I turned in the revisions for Stray on the last day of May, 2006. Then I took a day off to catch up on some housework. Then, on June 2nd, I dove right into the revisions for the first sequel, Rogue, the second book in my three-book contract.
Fortunately, Rogue was already in completed rough draft form when the books sold. Technically, the proposal for the second book (a synopsis and three chapters) was due on June 15th, but since I already had the book finished, my editor asked me to turn the whole thing in then. Unfortunately, I knew I couldn’t get it polished in only two weeks, mostly because of a new element the revisions for Stray added to the story, so my awesome agent procured an extension for me. I would turn in the entire manuscript on June 30, rather than a proposal on June 15th and the full manuscript on Jan 1st, 2007, which was the original due date.
I had my work cut out for me, but I made it, thanks to four more weeks of very long days. Fortunately, I love the work. ;-) In the process of rewriting, I excised 94 pages of original material and replaced it with 100 new pages. Nearly 30,000 words of new material, if I remember correctly. I turned in the rewritten version of Rogue on June 29, 2006, six months and one day ahead of my original due date. I was exhausted, but pleased.
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Dedication and Acknowledgements
August 18, 2006
Okay, I have to confess, I actually wrote most of my acknowledgements and dedications way back in January, before Stray even sold. I was that excited about the possibility of a sale. But I didn’t actually have anywhere to send them until mid-August. So, I dug them back out and reworked them over the next few days, adding the people who have worked on my book since it sold. Then I sent them off via email. I can’t wait to see them in print!
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Cover Art
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Four days after my editor requested my dedication and acknowledgements, I sent them in. Three hours later, she called my cell phone while I was in the car to tell me she’d just emailed me my cover art! Two weeks earlier than expected! It wasn’t the final version, so I wasn’t free to share it with the world (and the internet) at large just yet, but I was free to stare at it as much as I wanted. Number 1 printed it for me on photo paper, and I slept with it on my nightstand. Then I took it to lunch to show my in-person friends the next day. Here’s the blog entry I wrote about it at the time. Can you tell I was excited? ;-)
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Ask not what your agent can do for you, but what you can do for your agent...
...but what you can do for your agent.
Originally posted on Work in Progress on July 13, 2006
[Disclaimer: all literary agents/agencies have different policies and personalities, so your mileage will vary. Pay attention to the generalities, feel free to laugh at my idiosyncrasies, and most of all, remember that agents are people too. And on occasion, if you’re a very lucky, very good little author, they can be so much more…]
A good literary agent can do wonders for both a writer's career and her sanity. But what about the other side of that proverbial coin? What can a good writer do to make her agent’s job easier?
First of all, meet your deadlines. You’ll get a little input on due dates for your books/proposals, and you should be honest about how soon you can have your work finished. Be sure to allow for time for your CPs/beta readers to read the book and give you the valued opinions you’re counting on them for. And make sure to give yourself time to do some serious editing and rewriting, because once a deadline is set, you’ll be expected to stick to it, and it can be really embarrassing to have to admit later that you’re going to need more time.
How does this affect your agent? Well, it will be much easier for her to get you want you want, both in terms of your contracts and any number of other minor things that come up, if you’re known for being prepared and punctual. People are more willing to make occasional allowances for those who are professional and easy to work with than for those who are late and unprepared.
Polish your work. Even after you’re published. So you’ve sold a book or two. Or maybe three. If anything, the bar has been raised, not lowered. You’re now expected to be professional, without that buffer of newbie shine. Your work should be skillfully edited and polished before your agent sees it, to cut down on the revisions she’ll suggest, and to make her first read-through go quickly.
You want your agent to be itching to see your new book. You want her to crave it. To rip it open as soon as it arrives, and devour it in a single sitting. The last thing you want is for your agent to dread reading your latest manuscript, even if she knows it’ll be fantastic, because she also knows it’ll take a lot of work to get rid of the typos, grammatical mistakes, and plot holes.
Expect revisions, and accept criticism. Your agent and editor both have a lot riding on the success of your career, and they’re probably both going to have some ideas to make your manuscript better. These suggestions will all be intended to improve your story or the strength of your writing, and to ultimately make more money for you all, and lengthen your career. Keep this in mind.
Revisions say nothing about you as a person. They’re not personal. They’re the very core of a professional writing career. Revisions are concrete proof that both your agent and your editor are watching your back. That they’re in your corner. They’re dotting your Is, crossing your Ts, and finishing your incomplete sentences. They’re filing plot holes, fixing inconsistencies, and trimming up those dangling participles. And no writer is perfect. We all need a fresh set of professionally trained eyes catching the things we miss. So don’t be offended. Be grateful for your agent's time, flattered that she's spending it on you, and open to making some changes.
(This next one is the one I struggle with the most...)
Calm down and be patient. Seriously. Yes, emergencies sometimes happen. Yes, normal problems sometimes seem like emergencies. Yes, phone calls/contracts/edits/covers are sometimes late. But it’s not the end of the world. It’s not the end of your career. It’s probably not even the end of your contract. And I promise that calling your agent every hour, on the hour, will not speed things up. In fact, it will likely slow them down, because while she’s on the phone assuring you that the publisher still does want your book, and they haven’t changed their minds, and you really can write, she can’t be out there working on your behalf. Or that of any of her other clients. And let’s not forget, you’re not the only one. Not by a long shot.
When your agent has news, she will let you know. If it’s big news, she’ll call. If it’s minor news, she’ll probably email you. But either way, she will keep you in the loop. There’s no reason to call every day to see if she’s heard anything new. Calling with questions is fine. Even expected. It really is. But calling with the same question every day is not. So take a deep breath, put down the phone, and think calm, confident thoughts. Because that’s how you want to appear. Calm and confident.
And, last of all, and possibly most important, thank your agent. I may go overboard on this one. The verdict isn’t in yet, so I’m not sure. But I am very thankful for my agent and all the things she does on my behalf, especially considering that until that first check came in, she was working on my behalf for free. Because she believed in my work. That’s a huge compliment. And I like to return the favor. I tell everyone I know how fabulous she is. I tell her the same thing, every time she does something else on my behalf, which happens all the time. In fact, I probably say it too often. But I want to make sure she knows.
Chocolate, birthday and holiday cards, small gifts--those are all optional, and will depend largely on the kind of relationship that develops between you and your agent. But like manners, thank-yous are never optional. Ever. Don't forget.
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What can an author expect from a good literary agent?
Originally posted on Work in Progress on July 12, 2006
[Disclaimer: all literary agents/agencies have different policies and personalities, so your mileage will vary. Pay attention to the generalities, feel free to laugh at my idiosyncrasies, and most of all, remember that agents are people too. And on occasion, if you’re a very lucky, very good little author, they can be so much more…]
When I signed with my literary agent, way back in the last week of November, 2005, I had no idea what to expect. None. I was probably the most clueless, wreck of a writer to ever stutter into her agent’s sophisticated New York ear. Seriously. I didn’t know what to ask. I didn’t know how to answer her questions. And I had no clue what to expect from my very first business relationship.
So…here’s what I’ve learned in the last eight months. (And for the record, I still have plenty left to learn.)
A good agent has lots to offer her clients, so let’s begin with the most obvious: a literary agent can get your work seen and seriously considered by editors. Lots of editors. More importantly, the right editors.
“Can’t I do that for myself?” you ask, oh so naively.
And the simple answer is that yes, it is possible in theory to get your work in front of an editor on your own. Especially if you write category romance. However, outside of category, there are very few opportunities to for an author to get an editor to read her manuscript without influence from someone established in the publishing industry (a favor from a friend with connections). Most major publishing houses will no longer take unagented submissions, and of those few who will, without an agent in your corner, your wait time will likely be…well, around the time it takes to turn a lump of coal into a diamond.
A year ago, I was fortunate enough to garner a request for a full manuscript from a major NY house. Even better, I got an answer back from my submission within two months of sending it out. It was a rejection, on the same story that later sold at auction. What was the problem?
I pitched to the wrong editor. She wasn’t looking for exactly what I wrote, but I didn’t know that ahead of time. It’s your agent’s job to know exactly which editors are looking for what, and to pair her clients/manuscripts with the right editor. It’s that simple. Agents know editors and publishing houses. Most authors—especially new authors—don’t.
What else can an agent do for you? How ‘bout another obvious answer? Simply put, a literary agent can almost always get you more money for your project than you could have gotten yourself. And if she can’t, she can almost certainly get you better terms in your contract, and sometimes that’s even more important than getting more money. A good agent is worth her 15% and more, because she can usually bump your advance up by at least that much. She knows which contractual clauses are negotiable, and which ones aren’t. She knows how much you’re worth, and how to exploit that fact to its fullest potential. The bottom line is that your agent doesn’t make any money until you do, so it’s in her best interest to make sure you’re getting what you’re worth. So you don’t have to worry about it.
Now, for some of the more subtler benefits of having a good agent…
A good literary agent is in your corner at all times. She backs you up, even if that means keeping you from making a fool of yourself. Or a nuisance of yourself. Or a paranoid, raving lunatic of yourself. (Is this personal experience speaking? Um, yes. Definitely.) An agent is a go-between for you and your editor on all business matters, which could potentially put a crimp in your relationship with your editor.
Late contracts? Late checks? Faulty accounting? Bad cover copy? Atrocious cover art? Unreasonable deadlines? We all hope never to have to deal with any of those things, and you may never have to. But if you do, your agent will step in on your behalf, like the palm-pilot-wielding, fast-talking, petite shark of a superwoman she really is. In short, she’ll save the day, so you can go back to doing what you do best: writing. With your editor-author relationship comfortably intact. Blossoming, even.
Another thing you can expect from your agent (and this one is really cool) is her opinion. Yes, like most of us regular folks, agents have opinions. But unlike most of us, a literary agent gets paid for her opinion, because it is necessarily well-informed, pertinent, influenced by her in-depth knowledge of the industry, and very, very valuable.
Got a new proposal? Send it to your agent. She’ll tell you what she thinks about it. Honestly. Not sure about your biography, or your author picture? Send it to your agent. She’ll tell you what she thinks about it. Worried that the market is saturated with purple unicorn-shapeshifters and their two-headed circus trainer mentors, and that your new book centered around just such creatures will be shot down before the story ever even takes off? Ask your agent. She’ll tell you what she thinks about it. The same goes for marketing strategies, career planning, cover art, etc… You name it, your agent probably has an opinion about it. And this is a very good thing.
Now, we’re down to my very favorite thing a good literary agent will do for you, if you’re fortunate enough to have signed with an agent interested in more than mere numbers and documents. Some agents will hold your hand. Metaphorically speaking, of course. And sometimes literally. (And sometimes, if you don’t let go soon enough, they’ll drag you right onto the dance floor and force you to abandon self-consciousness long enough to make an utter fool of yourself to the rhythm of “Love Shack” in front of two hundred other people.)
Worried that you can’t possibly compete with all the other fabulous authors in your genre? Your agent will probably remind you how fabulous you are, and how she would never have signed you if she wasn’t sure you could do more than just compete. Got a bad review? Your agent will probably remind you that you’re NOT ALLOWED TO READ REVIEWS! then point out all the good reviews that more than balance out that one teeny tiny little dissenting opinion. Which probably wasn’t as bad as it seemed at first glance anyway. Nervous about your first time speaking at a conference? If your agent is there, chances are good that she’ll take you out for a drink either before of after the speaking engagement in question, to calm you down, and rave over your (possibly impending) performance.
So, if you thought agents were only good for opening previously bolted-shut industry doors, well… hopefully now you know the truth. ;-) Depending upon the agent in question, your agent can also be a negotiator, a knight in shining suit-jacket-and-high-heels, a go-between, a hand-holder, and a friend.
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A peek into my plotting process
Originally posted on Work in Progress on June 20, 2006
This article comes in the form of a question from Heather Harper. Heather wrote: I am curious as to how you know you have an idea that will sustain a novel. Do your ideas come to you as a mini-movie in your mind? Or is it just something more like a one line blurb? How do you turn those into workable plots?
And the answer is…probably not what you hoped to hear. But since I'm a big believer in the truth, I’ll give it a shot. Here goes…
I’ve never had an idea for a plot that I thought would sustain a novel. Not once. Seriously. Not when I first start a book, anyway.
Some of you may remember me blogging a while back about how writers have different strengths. I think it was the Writers vs. Storytellers entry that caused all the controversy. But my point here is that for some writers, plotting is a strong point. A starting point.
But I’m not one of those writers.
When I begin a book (or rather, an outline, which is how I always start), I have nothing in mind but a character. A single, strong-willed, female, first person character. Fortunately, much like Athena, this character typically bursts forth from me almost fully formed. And what I don’t know about her I figure out quickly, because her back-story comes next. After I meet her, she tells me her life story (little of which will ever make it into the actual book), and I get to see what and who in her past made her the person she is today. At that point, I also get to see what’s missing from her personality. How she needs to develop in the course of the story.
For Faythe, that missing element was maturity, and a sense of responsibility. (For details, read Stray, from Mira, June '07)
But by this point, though I know a great deal about my MC (for the purpose of this essay, we’ll call her Jane. Original, huh?), I know absolutely nothing about the plot. I have no idea what Jane will do to keep a reader’s attention.
“But Rachel,” you say, “Surely plotting comes next, right?”
Wrong.
World-building comes next. (In case anyone’s forgotten, or is joining us for the first time, I write Urban Fantasy, and like any fantasy subgenre, world-building is the cornerstone of the story. The very foundation.) After all, how can I decide what Jane will do to entertain you, if I don’t know what the options are.
For instance, take Faythe. (And again, I’m reminded how much easier this would be if anyone had actually read Stray…) Much of Faythe’s misery comes from the conflict between what she wants, and what her society wants for her. And that society is very different from the ones you and I exist in. Enter world-building. It’s my job as the author to make sure that Faythe’s world not only makes sense, but that it feels real. (And to give credit where credit is due, both my mentor and my editor played and continue to play a large part in teaching me to do that. Wonderful women. Really.)
But I digress. My point is that until I’ve built a world for poor bored Jane, I have no idea what her options are. I don’t know who there is for her to love/hate/fight (sometimes I can get all of those in with one secondary character!). I don’t know what her obstacles are. She could be killed by exposure to sunlight. She could be dependant on the full moon in order to transform into an angry, stomping were-elephant. She could need a blood sacrifice to raise the dead. She could require a special pair of glittery red pumps to travel back to her own land and time. None of which apply to Faythe and her world, but hopefully you get my point. I don’t know what will happen in the book, until I know what’s possible in the world.
“So, then do you plot out the story?” you ask.
No, grasshopper. Not quite yet.
Once I have Jane in her sparkly red shoes, clenching a sharpened stake in one hand, a vial of holy water in the other, a straightened paperclip in her mouth, and a magical talisman around her neck…we’re still missing something.
What?
Other characters. Friends. Sidekicks. Family. Big bad villains. Minor villains dressed up like sweet little girls in bonnets and MaryJanes. Creatures. Red herrings. You name it. We have a world, and the rules of engagement. Now we need a cast of characters.
So…enter John (you knew that was coming, right?), our tall, dark and burly, I don’t-need-love-or-sissy-bandaids computer tech worker by day, zombie slayer by night hero. (And unlike a romance book, no, he does not get his own POV. We’ll only see him through Jane’s sarcastic, quick-witted, cynical eyes.)
Now, (Now?, you ask. Yes, now.) comes the plot. Beginning with the conflict. Here goes:
How can I make Jane’s goal and John’s goal conflict (and keep in mind that conflict is the most important part in any story)? How ‘bout this…Jane raises zombies for a living. Dirty work, yes, but better than punching tickets at the Cineplex, right? But…John is morally and ethically opposed to zombies being anyplace but in the ground. Six feet down. And completely inanimate. It’s his Catholic upbringing. Maybe he and an army of younger, orthodox siblings spend their evenings re-interring zombies, armed with only an axe and a Yarmulke.
Voila! Instant conflict. She must raise the zombie, he must kill the zombie. And, to up the tension level, let’s say that Jane must raise the zombie in question not just to earn a paycheck, but to…I don’t know, let’s really shoot for the sun. She has to raise this one to save the world. (I don’t know how that helps keep humanity safe yet. It doesn’t matter. We can figure that out later.) But John doesn’t understand. He thinks he’s doing the right thing. Until Jane makes him see the error of his way, through lots of argument, more than a little hand-to-hand combat, and a little…gentler persuasion.
Now the two must work together to save the world from…whatever threatens it. Maybe they have to find a specific zombie. I don’t know. It’s getting silly now. So much for my simple example.
My point was…wait, did I have one?
Yes. Yes, I did. I am not gifted with fully formed plot ideas I just have to develop into a book. Ever. Not even partially formed plot ideas. All I have are characters (tons and tons of characters), and it’s up to me to give them something tense/exciting/painful/desperate—and most of all, entertaining—to do.
So, there you have it Heather, and anyone else out there who’s interested. That’s how I plot.
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How to Write an Action Scene, According to Rachel
Originally posted on Work in Progress on January 23, 2008
Daydream says:
First […] about technique. You have a scene, where you have a lot of characters and then there are a lot of situations and the whole scene is overloaded with motion. How do you manage to write it and keep track of POV?
Rachel says:
(Okay, my answer for this got long, and kind of turned into “How to Write an Action Scene, According to Rachel Vincent." Sorry. ;-))
POV (point of view) has never really been an issue for me, mostly because I write in first person. First is harder than third in a lot of ways, but it also has several distinct advantages, not the least of which is perspective. You can only see and hear what the main character sees and hears. It's that simple.
Now, in Stray, during one of the early drafts, my beloved mentor pointed out that I had Faythe seeing something happening behind her. For those who have read the book, it was the scene early on, where Jace is chasing Faythe down the hall and Marc comes out to stop him. I had Faythe see their brief argument, even though she was running away from them. Stupid, huh? So yeah, I fixed it. And I can’t remember making another POV error since that. (Though now that I’ve said that, someone will probably pop in and point out one of my mistakes. Rinda…? ;-))
However, the real heart of your question seems to be, “How do you keep track of everything going on in a scene loaded with action?” And that is a tough one.
I actually face this fairly often, in nearly every fight scene in the werecat books, because most of them involve multiple people/cats. My only suggestion here is to take the scene in rounds, which is how I do it.
In the first pass over, I’ll put in only the basic fight maneuvers, keeping in mind where everyone is as they’re fighting. And remember, if you’re writing in 1st person, you can only see what the MC sees, so be sure to use her other senses to clue the reader in to what else is going on.
Then, I go back in and add in character reactions. Pain radiating throughout whatever part of the body took the blow. Stunned pauses. Momentary loss of hearing/consciousness. Physiological responses to fear and/or pain. Psychological reactions to the same.
Next I’ll probably layer in details from the scene. What kinds of props are they fighting with? What’s around that can be used as a weapon? If characters are slammed into walls and floors, what are those walls and floors made of? What kinds of sounds would the various materials make when they come into sudden and violent contact with a human (or not-so-human) body?
What about the weather? Does moonlight shine down to barely light the fight, or does noon-day sunlight bathe them all in sweat? Is it raining or hot and dry? Do they slip in puddles? Are they covered by shade? Does the fight take them anywhere within the setting? Through (or out) a door or window?
Every single piece of the setting a character interacts with will give your reader another detail about where they are, without resorting to those long, detail-packed setting info-dumps.
Next I’d probably layer in sounds and smells (and this is where you get to use some of the character’s other senses, if you’re writing in 1st). S/he can hear grunts as blows land, thuds as bodies hit the ground. If she has a supernatural sense of smell, she can smell blood as it’s drawn, and possibly sweat and/or fear. And any other bodily fluids anyone loses control of.
Also, each setting probably has its own smell. Forest? What kind of trees and ground cover? City? Do they smell (or see) smog or fresh asphalt? Hear traffic? Use what the characters are surrounded with to ground the scene in reality and give the reader a taste of exactly what the characters are experiencing.
Now, this doesn’t change very much if your scene isn’t a fight scene, but you still have a lot going on. Make sure to show us what the MC sees and feels, when she sees and feels it. Show us where she is. Show us what she hears.
And if it gets too complicated, don’t be afraid to slow down and take it in several stages. And re-read/tweak it as often as you need to, taking a break between run-throughs to keep from zoning out.
Does that help at all?
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Question-and-Answer with Miriam Kriss
Originally posted on Work in Progress on July 14, 2006
Okay, folks, here it is--the moment you've all been waiting for. Miriam Kriss answers your questions, in painstaking detail. Verbal gold, people. Right here.
And for the record, Ms. Kriss stayed up until very early in the morning to give us these answers, so I'd like to extend to her a huge thank-you:
THANK YOU, MIRIAM!
Okay, here goes, straight from Miriam:
Heather asks: What are your personal pet peeves in regard to new submissions?
Miriam: I get frustrated when people clearly haven’t read our submission guidelines. We ask to see 1-3 chapters. This gets super frustrating if they make reference to our website, where the guidelines are spelled out.
Bonnie asks: What is it that first sparks your notice when reading a submission?
Miriam: It’s definitely the author’s voice. Like falling in love at first sight. I can fall in love in one line. That doesn’t mean I won’t fall out of live with the next one, but a killer opening goes a long way to catching my attention. Rachel’s debut novel STRAY, for example, starts “The moment the door opened I knew an ass-kicking was inevitable. Whether I’d be giving it or receiving it was still a bit of a mystery.” Gave me shivers.
Bonnie would also like to know: What is your opinion on a writer who chooses to write in more the one subgenre, or conversely, a writer who wants to focus solely on one subgenre? Do you have a preference one way or the other?
Miriam: I don’t have a problem with an author writing in more than one subgenre but it’s important for her to think about what her brand is, what a reader can expect to find when they pick up a book with her name on it. If the voice is vastly different or if there is some other reason the audiences wouldn’t overlap, she should probably use a different name for each sub-genre.
Also from Bonnie: Is there one piece of advice that you would most like to impart to writers?
Miriam: Write what you love. Write what you’d write whether anyone read a word, just because you need to write it. Write the book that only you can write. Then step back and look at the market. How can you make what you love something that a large number of people will want to read? If you can achieve that synergy, you can sell.
Susan would also like to know: Have you or Irene seen evidence that historical fiction will continue to do well for a while?
Miriam: Historical fiction is still a strong trend, although they’re beginning to run out of underdeveloped real life women whose stories are just dying to be told. In some ways it’s harder because it was a fairly safe formula for a while there, but in others it’s very freeing, as it opens up the what’s acceptable.
Naomi says: I graduated from university last year with a 2.1 in Creative Writing. Obviously I'm very proud of this, but is it worth mentioning to agents in query letters? Or would it just be so much unnecessary waffle?
Miriam: I’m afraid it’s not very helpful. In general, unless there’s some reason a given fact would help sell your book, it’s better to leave it out. In a query letter you have only a single page to capture a reader’s attention. You’d be better served doing something with that space that highlights your voice if you don’t have any special qualifications or platform.
Yolanda asks: I was wondering if you accept more than one query from the same person, or is it better to wait for a response before submitting again?
Miriam: It definitely pays to wait for a response, after all we may say yes, but we’re not going to reject you because you’ve already submitted. If we haven’t answered yet chances are we haven’t looked at it yet.
C. Rooney asks: Is your agency accepting non-romance manuscripts?
Miriam: Yes indeed. You can see a full list of what we represent by looking at our website: http://www.irenegoodman.com/. In general, if it’s commercial fiction, we represent it. One of Irene’s passions is Historical Fiction, while I’m fanatical about Urban Fantasy.
The future of Urban Fantasy:
Susan asks: There's been a lot of talk lately about urban fiction being a "trend", on a strong but temporary high like chick lit. Do you think this is true, or is it just the creation of a new genre, where the best will continue to be popular?
Rinda asks: I was told a week ago by a multi-published friend that she'd heard the Urban Fantasy craze was over saturating the market and going to be over soon. I know I still love them, so I'm wondering about your thoughts.
Josephine says: I'd like to ask Miriam what she thinks of the Urban Fantasy trend. Is this something that will last a bit? And what about dark Paranormal? I see a lot of Urban Fantasy and darker Paranormals (vampires and angels) making their way into TV and movies right now, some even being revised in a new markets like HEX from the BBC making its way to America. I'm wondering what Miriam thinks will be the trend character-wise such as vampires, angels, gargoyles, witches or whatever else, in the near future.
Miriam: It’s important when considering this question to remember there’s a distinction between Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. Right now the romance publishers are having a lot of success with paranormals and there’s a lot of crossover. But Rinda’s friend is right. The market is reaching a saturation point. Not that I think the stars of Paranormal Romance are going anywhere, but the glut is going to kill off most, if not all, of the mid-listers. Might take a little while yet but it will happen.
Urban Fantasy on the other hand, as a sub-genre of Fantasy, has deeper roots and a longer track record (Laurel Hamilton is up to book fourteen, Jim Butcher’s up to eight and Charlaine Harris is on book six). I think this sub-genre will have a longer life, in part because Fantasy is as a genre less prolific than Romance. Because there are fewer slots to fill at a Fantasy imprint the editors have the luxury have being pickier. And I’m with Rinda, I still love them. Aside from the authors I’m fortunate to represent (and I have a lot of clients I’m extremely proud of in this genre: Rachel Vincent ;), Keri Arthur, Lilith Saintcrow, Jenna Black and Vicki Pettersson), I’ve read two new Urban Fantasy authors this year that have just blown me away: Patrica Briggs’ MOON CALLED and Karen Chance’s TOUCH THE DARK.
Part of what’s driving this, especially in the entertainment industry as a whole, is that the geeks are taking over the earth and that includes all of us fan girls. So yes, Buffy’s still off the air and I still need my fix.
Rinda asks: Do you ever take on authors with one completed novel and more in the works? Or do you prefer authors with more than one completed novel?
Miriam: Writing is just like anything else, people tend to get better at it with practice. Very few people’s first novel is going to be publishable (I’ve heard Nora Roberts has her stuck in a bank vault somewhere), but I’m not going to reject something because it is a first novel. I take people on because I love their voice and I believe the project is marketable. While I never take someone on only for one project, it is where we start and whether they already have something else in the drawer isn’t going to be a factor in my decision.
Anon-in-a-million asks: I just had a publisher request my paranormal romance/urban fantasy....Yikes. Now what? Should I start querying agents or just wait and see what the publisher says?
Miriam: By all means, start querying. That way if the publisher comes back with an offer you’ll have done all your home work and already have your work at least in all of your dream agents’ slush piles. You can and should be picky about who you have represent you. Remember, we work for you. So start querying. You can start with me.
Sara says: Writing a synopsis is one of the most frustrating tasks I have ever undertaken, and my feeble attempts to produce a clever query letter leave me more than a little discouraged...anything you would share on this subject will be greatly appreciated.
Miriam: Ah, the query letter. One page to convince that bored editor or agent that your book out of all the hundreds they’re sifting through deserves a second glance.
The basic formula for a query letter: Letterhead (with your contact information), heading, introduction, book (genre and title), short synopsis (preferably showing writing style), any qualifications (including letting me know if any editors have asked to see fulls or the like), mention you included a SASE, thanks, and closing. All while retaining your distinctive voice, but without resorting to a glitter pen.
There, that’s it. You don’t even need to follow this formatting, provided you include all the information. Remember it isn’t the brilliance of your query letter that’s going to make someone want to read more. It’s your characters, plot and writing style that are going to do that. The query letter is only a vehicle for conveying them. You want it clear and readable. You catch your reader’s attention with your writing, not how it’s presented.
Actually, that’s one reason we don’t request query letters in our submission guidelines. We ask for partials (a cover letter, 1-3 chapters, and a synopsis) not because we want you to waste stamps but because until we see pages we know nothing. (Cover letters follow the same format as query letters. Just expand the line letting me know what you’ve included and you’re set.)
Synopses can drive even the most experienced and talented authors crazy. How to condense a 300 page novel to 1/100 the size? How can a reader possibly appreciate every nuance of your painstakingly crafted story in 2-3 pages? Simple, she can’t. But that’s not what a synopsis is designed to do. A good synopsis lays out all the major plot points of your novel without belaboring any of them. A great synopsis does this while retaining some flavor of your novel.
In order to capture your reader’s attention, it pays to start strong. Just as with your manuscript, the perfect opening can help draw your reader into your story. The first paragraph of your synopsis can be a bit more expansive than the rest of your synopsis, which should be tightly written. So start out with a bang. From there you want to make sure you stick to only the major plot points. You can eliminate any subplots, minor characters or individual scenes that aren’t turning points for your plot. Things should get reduced to their essence. Some people like to use the paragraph for each chapter rule as a guide.
Not to pick on Rachel again, but I think her synopsis for STRAY did all these things admirably, so here’s the beginning:
Faythe Sanders is a graduate student and a closet shapeshifter, thriving in the company of her friends, her books, and her completely human boyfriend. But when a trespassing stray tries to stuff her into the trunk of his car, Faythe’s inner kitty is no longer content to curl up in one quiet corner of her mind. The cat wants blood.
Faythe defends herself and wounds the stray, and is damn proud to have done both. But just when she’s ready to celebrate her hard-won independence, her Alpha father sends Marc—his second-in-command and Faythe’s persistent ex-lover—to bring her back into the Pride.
Remember the synopsis is a marketing tool, and one that doesn’t get thrown away when you find your agent. She’ll use it to sell the book to your editor, who in turn will use it with her boss to get you your offer, and when the book’s sold, she’ll use it to help the sales force sell the book to the book buyers. A book is constantly having to be “resold” at every step of its production and a great synopsis can help make that happen. (A personal note from Rachel here: I had no idea about any of this!)
~Can you all tell that this is one topic I’ve given workshops on?~
And Rachel would like to know:
Have you ever advised an author to walk away from a deal?
Miriam: Yes. This doesn’t happen often but sometimes an offer comes along that isn’t going to move the author forward, isn’t going to help build their career and might even hurt them. In that case, yes, it’s time to walk away. I’m happy to say this is far more likely, though still infrequent, in a situation that’s inherited (either because the author had already submitted to them before signing with us, or because they were already published by the house) than when we’ve submitted the work to the editor. Having the ability to walk away and really mean it is a powerful tool, and authors should never be so caught up in getting a deal, any deal, that they give that up.
Do you see any real benefit of conferences for unpublished writers?
Miriam: There are some real benefits, but they may not be the ones you expect. If you feel like you know very little about the business side of publishing, a conference may be helpful. If there’s a specific editor at a house that doesn’t accept unsolicited submissions you want access to, appointments may be helpful. If you’d just like to feel people are taking you seriously as a writer for a least a weekend, get thee to a writer’s conference. It’s important to have a game plan for what you want to get out of the conference before you go. All that being said, I don’t think they’re at all necessary to be published.
Have you ever signed a writer from a conference?
Miriam: I’ve signed exactly two writers from conferences. But one of them I met in the bar.
How do you find most of your clients? Slush pile? Reference?
Miriam: I’m a young and hungry agent, and at this point I’ve gotten almost exactly half of all my clients from the slush pile (there’s gold in that there pile!).
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