Over the last few months I've sent my novel to several publishers that accept unsolicited mss, and have received positive replies along the lines of 'Our readers enjoyed it, and we seriously considered publishing it, but it's not quite right for us.' One publisher got as far as requesting to see a second draft, then rejected it because I hadn't made all the changes they wanted. I'm now planning to approach agents in the hope of getting my work in front of other publishers. In my cover letter, should I tell the agent of the responses I've had so far?
You don't have to mention all of this in your cover letter, because ideally the agent should read the manuscript on its merits, not influenced by the thought that it's been rejected. However, you will absolutely need to tell them if they offer to represent you, because it affects their ability to place your manuscript. The agent won't be able to send the manuscript to the publishers who have already rejected it, and that restricts their ability to help you get published.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The importance of patience
I finished my first novel about a month or so ago, and have a couple of published authors in the same genre reading it for me. So far the feedback has been all very positive, however I am still waiting on one author... But I'm getting impatient, more from the excitement of having finished than with her. Would it be rude or unwise of me to start submitting to agents before she gives me her feedback?
However long the author is taking to read your manuscript, you'll probably be waiting ten times as long for an agent to read it, and then twenty times as long for a publisher - so think of it as good practice! One month is really not a very long time, even though I know it seems an eternity when you are busting to send out your manuscript. But I can't overestimate the value of patience if you wish to be a successful writer.
It is worth waiting a little bit longer because if she comes back and says, 'This is great overall but this particular sub storyline is completely implausible', you'll be regretting that you sent it out before having a chance to fix any problems. You only have one shot at agents reading your manuscript - if we read your manuscript and you then call and ask if you can submit a revised version, the answer will be 'no'. Not because we don't necessarily like your manuscript, but because we don't have time to read manuscripts more than once for anyone other than our clients. (The mathematics of manuscript reading is: 1 full ms = approx. 8 hours of reading; time to read during average working week = 2 hours; ergo, time to read 1 ms = 4 weeks, if we're lucky. The figures are much more bloated for publishers). And all that was a slight digression but it leads me back to where I started: it's worth waiting a little bit longer.
However long the author is taking to read your manuscript, you'll probably be waiting ten times as long for an agent to read it, and then twenty times as long for a publisher - so think of it as good practice! One month is really not a very long time, even though I know it seems an eternity when you are busting to send out your manuscript. But I can't overestimate the value of patience if you wish to be a successful writer.
It is worth waiting a little bit longer because if she comes back and says, 'This is great overall but this particular sub storyline is completely implausible', you'll be regretting that you sent it out before having a chance to fix any problems. You only have one shot at agents reading your manuscript - if we read your manuscript and you then call and ask if you can submit a revised version, the answer will be 'no'. Not because we don't necessarily like your manuscript, but because we don't have time to read manuscripts more than once for anyone other than our clients. (The mathematics of manuscript reading is: 1 full ms = approx. 8 hours of reading; time to read during average working week = 2 hours; ergo, time to read 1 ms = 4 weeks, if we're lucky. The figures are much more bloated for publishers). And all that was a slight digression but it leads me back to where I started: it's worth waiting a little bit longer.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
After my first novel, do I need an agent?
After much research and a carefully worded query letter, I sold my first novel to my dream publisher myself. I also negotiated the contract myself with the aid of the Australian Society of Authors contract advice service. I have lots of experience in this type of negotiation from my pre-writing career and I don’t believe it impedes my creative work. So far (post-editing, pre-publication), I couldn’t be happier. However recently a very successful novelist told me that if I do this for my second novel I am ‘naïve’. She said it was acceptable to attempt the sale of your first novel yourself, because with no contacts or profile, finding an agent can be just as difficult as finding a publisher. For a second novel, she said, there was no excuse. To avoid being ‘ripped off’ and for help in building a career, it’s essential to use an agent. She also said that if my first novel is successful, it won’t be difficult to find one.
First up: congratulations on your first novel! That is a fantastic accomplishment. Now to the question.
There are some 'ifs' here. If your previous career was as a lawyer or something like that (you mentioned negotiating), you probably don't need an agent. If you're happy with your publishing company (not necessarily your publisher/commissioning editor, as they may leave), you probably don't need an agent. If you feel comfortable handling the negotiation side of things and you think it won't get in the way of your writing, you probably don't need an agent. This country is different to the US, where every writer needs an agent and most publishers want them to have one. Often publishers here want authors to have agents, too, but that doesn't mean they won't deal with you without one.
An agent would be useful to you if you ever find yourself disagreeing with your publisher and think you can't make your case strongly enough, or if you want to explore your options with other publishers and aren't sure how to do this. Agents are of great use to authors who don't wish to deal with the business side of things, but you seem very comfortable with that. However, it can't hurt you to talk to a few agents if you're curious - having a chat doesn't commit you to anything! Ask them what they can offer you that you're not already doing for yourself. If you meet one you really like, you might think, 'Great, I don't have to worry about all that business stuff any more and I completely trust them to take care of it', and there's your answer about whether you need one. And if instead you think, 'I can do all of this myself', you know that answer too.
As for whether a successful first novel makes it easier to find an agent: yes. Particularly if we've read it and liked it! But you'd need to have a manuscript to take to the agent - they won't sign you up with nothing to send to publishers, unless you wanted to talk to them about handling your foreign rights. And that's a different topic ...
First up: congratulations on your first novel! That is a fantastic accomplishment. Now to the question.
There are some 'ifs' here. If your previous career was as a lawyer or something like that (you mentioned negotiating), you probably don't need an agent. If you're happy with your publishing company (not necessarily your publisher/commissioning editor, as they may leave), you probably don't need an agent. If you feel comfortable handling the negotiation side of things and you think it won't get in the way of your writing, you probably don't need an agent. This country is different to the US, where every writer needs an agent and most publishers want them to have one. Often publishers here want authors to have agents, too, but that doesn't mean they won't deal with you without one.
An agent would be useful to you if you ever find yourself disagreeing with your publisher and think you can't make your case strongly enough, or if you want to explore your options with other publishers and aren't sure how to do this. Agents are of great use to authors who don't wish to deal with the business side of things, but you seem very comfortable with that. However, it can't hurt you to talk to a few agents if you're curious - having a chat doesn't commit you to anything! Ask them what they can offer you that you're not already doing for yourself. If you meet one you really like, you might think, 'Great, I don't have to worry about all that business stuff any more and I completely trust them to take care of it', and there's your answer about whether you need one. And if instead you think, 'I can do all of this myself', you know that answer too.
As for whether a successful first novel makes it easier to find an agent: yes. Particularly if we've read it and liked it! But you'd need to have a manuscript to take to the agent - they won't sign you up with nothing to send to publishers, unless you wanted to talk to them about handling your foreign rights. And that's a different topic ...
If my genre has limited local appeal, should I go overseas?
I write fanatasy humour because, as we all know, this is a licence to print money, particularly for Australian authors. Given the limited market for this genre, should I consider chasing local and international agents at the same time?
You should always query as many agents as you want to. Check out agents' submission guidelines to see whether they have a policy about simultaneous submissions, but generally speaking you should query your little heart out. It's a numbers game - the more people you submit to, the more responses you will get, and the faster you'll work out whether your novel is any good or not. Agents in the UK and US would not be surprised to receive a submission from an Australian. Good luck!
You should always query as many agents as you want to. Check out agents' submission guidelines to see whether they have a policy about simultaneous submissions, but generally speaking you should query your little heart out. It's a numbers game - the more people you submit to, the more responses you will get, and the faster you'll work out whether your novel is any good or not. Agents in the UK and US would not be surprised to receive a submission from an Australian. Good luck!
PhDs and publishing
Is it advisable to admit in cover letters to publishers/agents that one is completing postgraduate studies in writing (in my case, a PhD in Philosophy, writing a novel and exegesis)? Does this suggest a degree of dedication to the craft, or scream 'run for the hills'? Published and highly successful Australian writers have said (at least, privately) that a PhD is strongly advisable to ensure continuity of income from teaching — to supplement the money coming in from publishing. Yet I’ve heard from the publishing industry in the past that academia tends to produce uncommercial/unsellable writing. With more and more post-grad writing pupils winning big literary prizes, is this still the general feeling?
I can't imagine why anyone would think that postgraduate study is a bad thing - whether we like your novel or not is, of course, a different matter. But it would be a pretty bad state of affairs if you were to spend all that time working on your PhD and then feel you have to hide it! There are two separate issues here, though: the PhD and what is produced from it. The PhD will teach you patience and discipline to write a novel (as it takes years), and you shouldn't leave it off your CV. If, however, what you produce from it is uncommercial and unsellable, that's not the fault of your higher education. Certainly, PhDs don't usually produce cracker crime novels, but why shouldn't they? I don't know enough about PhDs in writing, but surely the idea of one (or part of the idea of one) is to produce writing that people - even just your supervisor - want to read.
As research is involved in completing the PhD, perhaps some of that research should look at bookbuyers. Lots of readers shy away from literary fiction because it's not telling them a story they want to read or they feel it's too much hard work. Lots of them flock towards 'commercial' fiction because it's entertaining, and they don't mind being made to think about serious stuff so long as it's easy to read. And creating writing that 'easy to read' is actually extremely difficult - just like writing a catchy pop song is harder than it looks. A PhD that produces a novel that can be entertaining while simultaneously addressing the issues the writer wants to address would take some skill but probably be a great read. Jodi Picoult does this sort of thing on an annual basis.
I can't imagine why anyone would think that postgraduate study is a bad thing - whether we like your novel or not is, of course, a different matter. But it would be a pretty bad state of affairs if you were to spend all that time working on your PhD and then feel you have to hide it! There are two separate issues here, though: the PhD and what is produced from it. The PhD will teach you patience and discipline to write a novel (as it takes years), and you shouldn't leave it off your CV. If, however, what you produce from it is uncommercial and unsellable, that's not the fault of your higher education. Certainly, PhDs don't usually produce cracker crime novels, but why shouldn't they? I don't know enough about PhDs in writing, but surely the idea of one (or part of the idea of one) is to produce writing that people - even just your supervisor - want to read.
As research is involved in completing the PhD, perhaps some of that research should look at bookbuyers. Lots of readers shy away from literary fiction because it's not telling them a story they want to read or they feel it's too much hard work. Lots of them flock towards 'commercial' fiction because it's entertaining, and they don't mind being made to think about serious stuff so long as it's easy to read. And creating writing that 'easy to read' is actually extremely difficult - just like writing a catchy pop song is harder than it looks. A PhD that produces a novel that can be entertaining while simultaneously addressing the issues the writer wants to address would take some skill but probably be a great read. Jodi Picoult does this sort of thing on an annual basis.
The non-fiction-to-fiction trajectory
How much easier is it to get agented for a work of fiction once you have a couple of published non-fiction titles to your name?
I won't lie - it certainly helps. Because it shows that you can write enough words to finish a book; because you've been through the publishing process before and will be more understanding of it; because you can, in all probability, write; because you'll already have a readership. However, some agents believe you should just pick one form of writing - either fiction or non-fiction or children's - and stick to it, so not every agent may agree with me on this one. But I'd certainly always read a submission, at least, from this sort of author and I'd usually make it a priority.
I won't lie - it certainly helps. Because it shows that you can write enough words to finish a book; because you've been through the publishing process before and will be more understanding of it; because you can, in all probability, write; because you'll already have a readership. However, some agents believe you should just pick one form of writing - either fiction or non-fiction or children's - and stick to it, so not every agent may agree with me on this one. But I'd certainly always read a submission, at least, from this sort of author and I'd usually make it a priority.
Non-fiction writers - no sales experience necessary
Is there a particular number of expected sales that an agent would have in mind before agenting a non-fiction writer?
Non-fiction writers don't need any sales at all to get an agent - in fact, they don't even need a manuscript. The hunger for good non-fiction is so great amongst publishers and, thus, agents that all you need is a good idea, a good proposal and some proof that you can write. It helps if you're a journalist - because you can point to a body of work, an ability to meet deadlines and an acceptance of the editing process - but it's not essential. It's also helpful if you're an expert in something if you're writing about health or science or gardening. If you're a previously published writer, that's nice too - but none of it guarantees you'll be considered by an agent or guarantees that you won't. It all comes down to what you're writing about and how you write it.
Non-fiction writers don't need any sales at all to get an agent - in fact, they don't even need a manuscript. The hunger for good non-fiction is so great amongst publishers and, thus, agents that all you need is a good idea, a good proposal and some proof that you can write. It helps if you're a journalist - because you can point to a body of work, an ability to meet deadlines and an acceptance of the editing process - but it's not essential. It's also helpful if you're an expert in something if you're writing about health or science or gardening. If you're a previously published writer, that's nice too - but none of it guarantees you'll be considered by an agent or guarantees that you won't. It all comes down to what you're writing about and how you write it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)