#publishing tip

[fahidbaby]

Publishing Lesson

I learned from my English professor that once’s your popular in writing world, publishing companies are going to just publish your work without much thought. That’s the case with SJM, George R.R.Martian and she even said J.K Rowling. As all their works got bad as they got more room to do what they want. That includes not getting someone to check spelling or grammar in their later works. I asked on George but I sjm.

[petite-ursus]

*deep exhalation* I just sent off my commission concept to my cover artist! It includes and excerpt from my book which is where the book cover’s scene is being pulled from. (Have I mentioned before that I actually really LOATHE the 2000′s trend of super minimalist covers? Because I do. I really do. I love book covers which are SCENES.) 

The packet also has my concept art, and a drawing I’ve done from within that scene, as well as reference photos of the characters, and the template for the cover.

She is starting work on the 15th of October! Only two weeks from now!!! Can you believe???

(Also, for your pleasure, I release to you the concept art which I sent her. One is pretty a-o-kay. The other one is very Bad.)

See, it’s nice right? But the characters can’t be falling into sewer water on the front cover. That’s not Compelling. So I need them back to back. Looking strong and tough. But also. I wasn’t. Feeling. Art. Right now. Because I only have brief flashes of being able to Art. So. I sent her. This.

You know. Sometimes you make great art. Sometimes. You do not.

Oh well, I really can’t wait to see what she makes out of what I’ve given her. I’m so incredibly excited, because she is so talented.

(I want to be clear. Besides the above listed, I also sent her a very detailed email laying out the scene, from the environment, to the vibe, and the characters positioning and emotions, and etc. and etc. And then also said explicitly that in practical application I trusted her judgement to make any necessary changes. This is just fun.)

Anyway. here’s the writing tip, and it’s really more of a publishing tip: people judge books by their covers. They just do. Booksellers who I’ve cold called have shown incredibly obvious hesitance when I ask them to look up my book, right up until the point where they see my cover. Then their tone shifts. They think, “Oh, she’s real! She’s not some hack wasting my time! Phew!” It sucks, but it’s the way it is. If you want people to buy your book investing in a nice cover is a good route to take.

And remember that when you’re interacting with your artist, they are someone just like you. Someone creating art, and slogging through a field that is uncertain by nature. Be as helpful and conscientious as possible. Trust them. They’re expensive because they’re providing you with something you can’t do on your own. As a professional writer (not a professional artist) I’m proud of that first drawing, but it does not belong on the front cover of my book. Sandara’s art does:

[tornepages-blog]

TOP 5 QUERYING MISTAKES

Querying can be scary. You have to compress your 80,000-word novel into 250 words. After that, you are going to send that query letter to an agent that gets probably between 50-100 queries a week (some get even more than that). As someone who has interned at three agencies, I’ve been shocked by what I’ve seen in the slush pile. Most rejections happen for a few simple reasons—and as long as you avoid these mistakes, you’ll be way ahead of your competition.

TOP 5 QUERYING MISTAKES

MISTAKE 1: WRONG GENRE, WRONG AGENT

This is the most common, and the one that just makes no sense to me! Seriously—why? Why would you shoot off a query to an agent without even looking at their agency profile? If the writer took five seconds to do that, they would realize: Hey, this agent doesn’t represent crime thrillers. I shouldn’t query them.

Querying an agent that does not represent your genre will get your rejected. Easy as that. Your crime thriller could be awesome, but if they don’t represent crime thrillers, they are not going to take you on as a client.

MISTAKE 2: TOO LONG QUERY / SYNOPSIS

Query letters should be around 250 words. Not hugely long, not one full page, not two pages. You don’t want to tell the entire story, aka a synopsis, in the query. You want to cover the first 2/3 of the story. When I glanced over the slush pile, if I saw a query letter that was hugely long it was already a point against it because that usually meant overwriting in the novel, or that they didn’t actually know what their plot was, so their query was all over the place.

You are doing yourself a disservice by not following the query letter guidelines: 250-300 words. Not more. (Though if you have a really killer bio filled with important information, that could push your query to 350 and be totally acceptable.)

MISTAKE 3: COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR THE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Like #1, I do not understand why a writer wouldn’t look at the submission guidelines before querying an agent. Where do you get their email address from? From the submission guidelines page! So why wouldn’t you take the extra ten seconds to read what they want to see?

If the agent wants to see pages, and you don’t send pages … that’s not good. What if they are on the fence about your query? If they have a full client list, they aren’t going to take the time to ask for more pages because they are on the fence; they needed those pages to really determine if your writing style jived with them. They are more likely to reject you and move on to the next query.

MISTAKE 4: NOT DOING YOUR RESEARCH / STRETCHING IT

Doing your research is vital. You can save yourself rejection by doing it. You can also personalize your query and set yourself apart by doing it.

For example, one literary agent can be widely known for being a horror fan. However, if you look at her profile page, you’ll see she clearly states:

“I am no longer looking at science fiction and I have never accepted paranormal/supernatural/fantasy.“

So … she isn’t interested in paranormal. She isn’t interested in supernatural. But she still got a lot of queries for paranormal horror, supernatural horror, and sometimes even fantasy horror (at least when I was her assistant). But since Bree is known for being a horror fan, people will still query her with paranormal horror because they think—she wants horror.

It’s a stretch, and obviously not true. It’s also an avoidable rejection if you read her profile. This is true with a lot of agents. There is probably another agent at the same agency that would fit with you better anyway.

MISTAKE 5: BEING POMPOUS

Declaring you are the next best thing — that you are the next JK Rowling or Dan Brown or Gillian Flynn, well, guess what? You probably aren’t. I’m sorry. You might be, but no one likes a pompous person. Don’t be pompous. No one wants to work with a pompous person. (Have I made the whole pompous = bad case repetitively enough yet?)

It’s a turnoff and a waste of space to go on and on about why your book is awesome, why you are obviously the next Stephen King, etc., etc… You would be doing yourself a favor by showing the agent your book is awesome with a strong query letter and strong opening pages.

Using them as a comp title (while not encouraged) is a separate thing. When I say pompous, I mean the people who really do declare they will be the next Dan Brown and they expect their advances to be at least six figures and to sell the movie rights within a few months after making a book deal. Yeah, these people exist. They don’t understand the way the publishing world works, and dealing with that sort of unrealistic expectation is not going to be fun for anyone involved.

[tornepages-blog]

QUERY TIP: WHEN TO NUDGE

First off—congratulations! If you’re worried about when to nudge on a submission, then you probably got a request from an agent. That’s so awesome, take a minute and pat yourself on the back.

A lot of queriers worry about when to nudge—when is it too soon or too late?

SO WHEN DO YOU NUDGE? 

FIRST: CHECK THE AGENT’S WEBSITE

The agent or agency will often have somewhere on their website that states when they welcome writers to nudge. They might say they read within the next six weeks or two months, and nudge if you haven’t heard from them since. But what if the agent’s website doesn’t say?

FOR FULL REQUESTS:

Three to six months. You really should wait at least three months before you nudge. If you feel three months is too soon, then try for six months. Most writers nudge either at three months or six. Those are the two golden periods.

FOR PARTIAL REQUESTS:

Three months. Three months is definitely the standard for Partial Requests.

FOR QUERIES:

You DON’T. Sorry, but it’s very unusual to nudge on queries. Unless the agency website specifically says you can nudge. There are a few that do, but others usually just have a NO RESPONSE/NO INTEREST policy.

WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN NUDGING

Be pushy.

There really are very little things more annoying when dealing with a query slush pile than a writer who continuously emails about a partial or full or query–once or twice, in regards to a partial, is completely fine.

Five times about a query you just sent last month? Not so much.

Agents want to find clients they will work well with, so put your best foot forward. Don’t look like you are going to be difficult to work with.

Imagine this, if you are pushy about a query or a full or a partial—what does that say about you overall? The whole publishing process is a long hard road, and patience and determination are very important. Don’t look like you’re impatient. No one wants an impatient client.

Also being pushy is rude. It’s like you’re telling the agent that they don’t have anything better to do than serve you right then and there—someone who isn’t even their client yet. Agents make no money off reading queries or partials or fulls.

Agents make their money when they sell manuscripts, so it’s kind of crazy to think about how much time they spend reading potential clients work that may never make them any money.

Be respectful of their time, and don’t make a bad impression.

[atruebloodwrites]

NAVIGATING PUBLISHING - 3 Mistakes I Made in Querying My First Book

In today's NAVIGATING PUBLISHING post: 3 Mistakes I Made in Querying My First Book. #querytip #writetip #pubtip

This series is going to be no-holds-barred. I’m pretty much going to tell you all the mistakes I made as an early writer so that you can avoid them.

Last week I talked about newbie issues I think most writers have. Understanding word count, manuscript formatting, etc. This week I want to share the three biggest mistakes I made when I started querying my first manuscript.

For reference…

View On WordPress

[tornepages-blog]

5 Hard Truths About Breaking Into Publishing

This post, just to clarify, is for breaking into publishing as a career, not a writer. There's a lot of hard truths about breaking into publishing as a writer too, but there's a lot of posts out there about it. Beware writers this, beware writers that—but what if you want to work as an editor, agent, marketer, or anything else in the publishing industry?

Hard Truth #1: You can't be in it for the money

You are not going to make bank at any job in the industry until you have paid a lot of dues. You may end up making good money as a literary agent, but only after two or three years of building a solid client list and connections in the industry. You may end up making good money as a marketing director or editor in chief at an imprint, but only after years of working your way up the ladder.

Hard Truth #2: It's a small industry and hard to break into

This is a small industry. It's also really interconnected. People jump from imprint to imprint, agency to agency, and a lot of time it's interns or assistance that end up with the entry-level openings. Being small, it's hard to break into without any connections. And there's a lot of people who want in.

Hard Truth #3: It requires a lot of (usually unpaid) internships

As I mentioned above, internships are the best way to get an entry-level job. There are very few internships that are paid. Most are unpaid, and can be long hours of doing them. I've personally had three internships. They were all instrumental in getting me my current, full-time paid position.

Hard Truth #4: The entry-level salaries are not awesome

$30,000 - $35,000 is the standard entry-level salary (yes, even in New York City). For a literary agent, a majority of those positions are purely commission based, meaning you only make 15% off of any deal you make (advance and then royalties, but it usually takes 2 years for a book to come out so there's no immediate royalties).

Hard Truth #5: Work/life balance isn't great

This really depends on your position. As an editorial assistant or assistant literary agent, you will be reading a lot of slush piles on your evenings and weekends. Your days will be mostly administrative work. You don't often get to read the submissions during work hours (which will be a majority of what your job details entail).

Marketing, publicity, and the like tend to be a different story. There's usually a good amount of work/life balance—you work at the office, and then you don't once you leave (unless you are going on a book tour as a publicity person). But most people trying to get into publishing tend to want those editorial and literary agency jobs.

I don't mean to depress anyone, but it's important to know the realities of an industry before you start job hunting. That way when it takes 6 months to a year, you know it's not just you. It's everyone.

[risingsignals]

I’m prepping to start the second draft of my novel, which gets me one step closer to submitting it to publishers. Peter’s article at Query Tracker offers some great insight into that process.