I have sent my first novel to four publishers, and had encouraging feedback from all of them, but not to the extent that they want to publish my book! So I was advised to try to get an agent. A published writer friend sent a very nice introductory letter about me to a well-known Sydney agency (several chapters of the novel have won prizes in short story competitions, and one has been published in Island) but three weeks later we have had no response at all. Is this normal? Do you have any recommendations/suggestions/advice on how I might proceed? (The novel is not a collection of short stories as such, but the story/chapters are closely linked, and there is an overall narrative.)
Three weeks! This is but a nanosecond in reading-manuscript time. Well, a bit more than a nanosecond. But definitely not a minute. In order for a well-known agency to read a submission in three weeks, they would had to have lost 75% of their clients and all other submissions. There's a sort of formula for reading manuscripts that has as its result that the number of clients an agent has is in inverse proportion to the amount of time they have available to read submissions. As mentioned elsewhere in this blog, it's not because we don't want to read submissions, but it has to be done around our existing business. If the agency got back to you within three weeks, you should be worrying about how successful they really are. And I'm sorry to so that a letter of recommendation from a published writer won't speed things up - if they're a client of the agency it will get you read faster than other submissions, but it won't mean they drop everything to read it.
Three months is actually more feasible, and that's the point at which you can drop them a line and enquire about what's going on. If you feel that's too long, send out the submission to other agents - but let the first agency know that you're doing it. Email this information to them, rather than calling. And whatever you do, if it's before the three-month mark don't ask if they've read it yet.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Monday, October 29, 2007
Answers coming soon ...
Thanks to those of you who have submitted questions in the last three weeks, and apologies for not responding sooner - I did a forum for the Queensland Writers' Centre and then felt all answered out. But your answers are forthcoming ... probably this week. Unless one of the dead tree piles on my desk falls on my head.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Common writing mistakes #2 – What is the narrative voice?
A big question for any writer is: who is my narrator? And are they talking in the first or third person? Or, sometimes, second person (but make sure you can carry it off à la Jay McInerney in Bright Lights, Big City or don’t even bother attempting it)?
In first novels the narrator – whether in first or third person - is often the novelist, and this is understandable but it’s usually a mistake, because it means the writer ends up producing something for an audience of one: him- or herself (see Common writing mistakes #1).
The narrative voice needs to be immediately engaging and consistent throughout – although that doesn’t mean you can’t have an unreliable narrator (i.e. one who is concealing things from the reader, like Lionel Shriver’s Eva in We Need to Talk About Kevin). It just means that the unreliable narrator’s voice needs to be reliable. We need to trust that, when we open that book up after a three-day absence, we’re being told the story by the same person who was telling it to us three days ago.
A consistent, appealing voice is difficult to attain and takes practice, and yet more practice. Quite often it helps to read your work aloud – humans were originally oral storytellers, so a good story should always be read-aloudable, and difficulties with the narrative voice may be revealed by a read-aloud exercise. But once you’ve got the voice – once you can hear the narrator chattering away in your head – then you can tell your reader anything. Plot is important, characters are important, but that narrator … well, there’s no story without them.
In first novels the narrator – whether in first or third person - is often the novelist, and this is understandable but it’s usually a mistake, because it means the writer ends up producing something for an audience of one: him- or herself (see Common writing mistakes #1).
The narrative voice needs to be immediately engaging and consistent throughout – although that doesn’t mean you can’t have an unreliable narrator (i.e. one who is concealing things from the reader, like Lionel Shriver’s Eva in We Need to Talk About Kevin). It just means that the unreliable narrator’s voice needs to be reliable. We need to trust that, when we open that book up after a three-day absence, we’re being told the story by the same person who was telling it to us three days ago.
A consistent, appealing voice is difficult to attain and takes practice, and yet more practice. Quite often it helps to read your work aloud – humans were originally oral storytellers, so a good story should always be read-aloudable, and difficulties with the narrative voice may be revealed by a read-aloud exercise. But once you’ve got the voice – once you can hear the narrator chattering away in your head – then you can tell your reader anything. Plot is important, characters are important, but that narrator … well, there’s no story without them.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The quid pro quo
If a top Aussie publisher has requested a rewrite on my novel, is this the time to call an agent?
It's time to get some advice, whether that's an agent or someone else who might have some knowledge about the industry (for example, a published author or someone at your state's writers' centre - links are at the right for those). It sounds as though the publisher has not promised anything much in exchange for the rewrite - they're asking you to do what may amount to a lot of work presumably in exchange only for another reading by them, not for a promise of publication. If you want to do this work anyway - you were planning to do another draft, and their feedback is just exactly what you wanted to hear - then that's great, because even if they don't end up taking the novel, you have a new draft to send to agents and publishers. But if you're only doing this work because they're asking you to, it's time to get a second opinion.
It's time to get some advice, whether that's an agent or someone else who might have some knowledge about the industry (for example, a published author or someone at your state's writers' centre - links are at the right for those). It sounds as though the publisher has not promised anything much in exchange for the rewrite - they're asking you to do what may amount to a lot of work presumably in exchange only for another reading by them, not for a promise of publication. If you want to do this work anyway - you were planning to do another draft, and their feedback is just exactly what you wanted to hear - then that's great, because even if they don't end up taking the novel, you have a new draft to send to agents and publishers. But if you're only doing this work because they're asking you to, it's time to get a second opinion.
Keeping up with the Rowlings
How much attention should we pay to the current market of the genre we write in?
I was reading about current trends in fantasy at the moment from an American publisher and had no idea – he mentioned the “hot” ideas at the moment being zombie fiction and superheroes in novels, but I haven’t seen anything like this at all. When Harry Potter first became famous (I think it was the second or third novel it really started getting publicity), fantasy books about the typical coming-of-age/orphan hero stories set in a wizard school started appearing everywhere.
Then again, some people say not to care about the current market at all because by the time you start writing and finish your book, many months, if not the usual years, would have passed and it would have all changed again.
As an agent, would you reject something because it isn’t a ‘current fad’?
My general rule is that once a trend has been identified, it's over. This is particularly true of publishing, because the 'trend' books of today were actually being picked up by publishers at least a year ago, and they're probably onto something else now. It's also the case that true global trends should just be left to wear themselves out - none of the HP imitator books did as well as JK Rowling's tomes (how could they, after all?) and those authors who did imitate her might have done themselves out of the career they may have had if they'd written stories they really wanted to write rather than trying to follow a trend.
I never pick novels, in particular, because of a trend - I choose them based on the quality of the writing and the story being told. None of the first novels I've placed have been part of a trend - they stood alone very nicely, and that's what's needed if you want them to be read for several years hence. So not only would I not reject something if it's not part of a current fad, I'm probably more likely to pay attention!
I was reading about current trends in fantasy at the moment from an American publisher and had no idea – he mentioned the “hot” ideas at the moment being zombie fiction and superheroes in novels, but I haven’t seen anything like this at all. When Harry Potter first became famous (I think it was the second or third novel it really started getting publicity), fantasy books about the typical coming-of-age/orphan hero stories set in a wizard school started appearing everywhere.
Then again, some people say not to care about the current market at all because by the time you start writing and finish your book, many months, if not the usual years, would have passed and it would have all changed again.
As an agent, would you reject something because it isn’t a ‘current fad’?
My general rule is that once a trend has been identified, it's over. This is particularly true of publishing, because the 'trend' books of today were actually being picked up by publishers at least a year ago, and they're probably onto something else now. It's also the case that true global trends should just be left to wear themselves out - none of the HP imitator books did as well as JK Rowling's tomes (how could they, after all?) and those authors who did imitate her might have done themselves out of the career they may have had if they'd written stories they really wanted to write rather than trying to follow a trend.
I never pick novels, in particular, because of a trend - I choose them based on the quality of the writing and the story being told. None of the first novels I've placed have been part of a trend - they stood alone very nicely, and that's what's needed if you want them to be read for several years hence. So not only would I not reject something if it's not part of a current fad, I'm probably more likely to pay attention!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Call your publicist
Beyond contract negotiations and the selling of international distribution deals and or rights, what does the literary agent do after the book has hit the shelves? In other words: after the marketing machine of the publishing company has shifted towards another writer’s book, how actively involved is the lit agent in maintaining some momentum in keeping the public’s interest in the work – as in readings, signings, panels at festivals, interviews and so forth.
What you're describing is a publicist's job more than an agent's - we don't tend to have expertise in organising signings and getting authors onto panels at festivals. We have expertise in giving you editorial advice, getting you published and keeping you writing; we provide advice on writing and other stuff, usually, that has nothing to do with writing but which may be stopping you writing; we're here to sort out any problems that may arise with you getting interviews etc, but we can't organise them. We may be able to rely on our contacts to get you a foot in the door but, again, we can't organise them.
There's a good reason for this, beyond the fact that it's not our core competency: it takes a lot of work to find you a publisher, to negotiate a contract and to handle foreign rights. In most cases, it takes many more hours than the commission actually covers. Once the book is out, we'll liaise with your publicist if the need arises (although in my experience most book publicists do just fine), and handle anything else that needs handling, but if we added publicity to our list of duties, we'd only be able to take on about two clients a year. As far as I know, there's only one agency in the US that provides those sorts of services - Folio - but the US is in a different stratosphere.
What you're describing is a publicist's job more than an agent's - we don't tend to have expertise in organising signings and getting authors onto panels at festivals. We have expertise in giving you editorial advice, getting you published and keeping you writing; we provide advice on writing and other stuff, usually, that has nothing to do with writing but which may be stopping you writing; we're here to sort out any problems that may arise with you getting interviews etc, but we can't organise them. We may be able to rely on our contacts to get you a foot in the door but, again, we can't organise them.
There's a good reason for this, beyond the fact that it's not our core competency: it takes a lot of work to find you a publisher, to negotiate a contract and to handle foreign rights. In most cases, it takes many more hours than the commission actually covers. Once the book is out, we'll liaise with your publicist if the need arises (although in my experience most book publicists do just fine), and handle anything else that needs handling, but if we added publicity to our list of duties, we'd only be able to take on about two clients a year. As far as I know, there's only one agency in the US that provides those sorts of services - Folio - but the US is in a different stratosphere.
Common writing mistakes #1 – Who is the reader?
There are some common problems (or iss-ewes, if you watch Kath and Kim) that pop up in manuscripts – usually more in fiction but, as most aspiring writers are writing fiction, it could be relevant to some of you. The principles apply for fiction, non-fiction and children’s writing, though. So I thought I’d identify some of these problems/iss-ewes in the hope that it may help some of you with your writing.
The first one is: WHO IS YOUR READER? It becomes quite obvious early in a manuscript if a writer has addressed the story only to him or herself. This is a problem that usually arises with a first novel, but it’s a killer, because if you’re the designated reader of your own novel, who else is going to want to read it?
There is nothing wrong with writing a novel only for yourself; the difficulty arises when you send it off to agents and publishers and then become distressed when they don’t want to see your story published. But they’re just being pragmatic – if they can’t identify who your reader is, they’ll logically assume the reading public won’t be able to either and thus won’t buy the book. So if you’re hoping that a publisher will invest some money in publishing your pride and joy, you need to make it easy for them to identify who they’re going to sell it to. Quite early on in the writing process, identify your target readership and keep them in mind while writing. This is no different to a musician deciding whether they’ll write a pop song that lots of people will like, or whether they’ll record a three-hour chord progression that only they understand.
You may need to give your novel to trusted friends and readers, or investigate some professional development programs, in order to work out if you have this problem – let’s face it, if you’ve written the novel for yourself, you’re unlikely to truly see that it is a problem. Remember also that it’s only a problem if you want to get your book published – if you just want to read it to yourself, don’t worry!
The first one is: WHO IS YOUR READER? It becomes quite obvious early in a manuscript if a writer has addressed the story only to him or herself. This is a problem that usually arises with a first novel, but it’s a killer, because if you’re the designated reader of your own novel, who else is going to want to read it?
There is nothing wrong with writing a novel only for yourself; the difficulty arises when you send it off to agents and publishers and then become distressed when they don’t want to see your story published. But they’re just being pragmatic – if they can’t identify who your reader is, they’ll logically assume the reading public won’t be able to either and thus won’t buy the book. So if you’re hoping that a publisher will invest some money in publishing your pride and joy, you need to make it easy for them to identify who they’re going to sell it to. Quite early on in the writing process, identify your target readership and keep them in mind while writing. This is no different to a musician deciding whether they’ll write a pop song that lots of people will like, or whether they’ll record a three-hour chord progression that only they understand.
You may need to give your novel to trusted friends and readers, or investigate some professional development programs, in order to work out if you have this problem – let’s face it, if you’ve written the novel for yourself, you’re unlikely to truly see that it is a problem. Remember also that it’s only a problem if you want to get your book published – if you just want to read it to yourself, don’t worry!
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