Fear and Loathing in Las Portsmouth
Without the road trip and psychedelics, though!
As some of you know, a couple of weeks ago, I finished the first draft of my novel. I'm leaving it to rest at the moment and trying to get on with other projects in the mean time, but I'm hoping that, within 6 months, I shall have something that is worth sending out to agents. We'll see how it goes.
This bit, I'm actually looking forward to. I'm quite looking forward to the revising and the tweaking and the editing, to meeting my characters again and perfecting the world they live in and the tales they have to tell.
What I am not looking forward to is the bit that comes after that. And with it comes a bit of a confession:
The publishing industry terrifies me.
Not so much the rejection or the negative critiques - I'm not looking forward to this inevitable part of the process, but that doesn't scare me. What does scare me is just getting started in the first place.
It all seems such an impenetrable miasma of 'do this' and 'don't do this', of warnings and scams. Just finding the agents I wish to send off queries to in the first place is mortifyingly complicated. And that's before I've even considered trying to write the query letter (which, if I am honest, probably daunts me more than writing the damn novel). Even though I am pretty happy with my story and have confidence in it (heh, someone has to!) I'm not great at selling myself and find the idea of having to essentially say 'hey, look what I've done - isn't it fantastic?' quite petrifying (and more than a little distasteful - one has been taught, in the proper British manner, not to crow about one's perceived accomplishments). Not because of their possible responses (I have resigned myself to the reality of huge amounts of rejection), but just... just... why does everything have to be so horribly complicated? It's so intimidating, it's unreal!
Although, that might be the point - only those who really want it would bother putting themselves through it...
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I think it helps a little to separate out your living breathing self, from what you're trying to sell. (This is also extremely good practice for how to cope when you do get published.) Think not 'I must tell the world this is wonderful', but 'What does the agent want to know?' That means thinking "How would an AGENT sell me and my book?", and then explaining how. Put agently glasses on (and yes, Harry's book is just the thing) and try to see it through their eyes. Better still, get others who've read the book to tell you. Imagine writing the blurb on the back of a book which just happens to be by a certain person who happens to share your name and story: what would you say to lure people in? and so on.
Now I am reading a book that descibes how to write the letters and blurb. The advice is for non fiction.
You say, 'not so much the rejection or negative critiques'. But are you sure that is not part of it?
I feel it is the hard part, as it is ourselves we are presenting and not our characters. Also we have to say that we are unpublished, and that is not a good way to start.
I am so bad at writing the letters and synopsis that the 3 manuscripts stay on the floor in a pile.
I am sorry you feel that way but thank you for sharing.
So there you are. Be Mistress Elysia's pal. See what you can do for the poor soul. (She sounds a deserving case.)
To even worry about the letter you send to accompany your work says it all?
I suppose you just have to put it all aside and remember that you have a novel that will bring enjoyment to people, and a whole world that deserves to be shared - that way you're doing it for 'them', not just yourself.
If you think it is ready then it probably is and sod the rest of em, just keep a few melons and parsnips handy (See Steves blog)
I hear you about the hoop-jumping that agents and publishers put us writers through. I think they're sadistic bastards.
I'm sure that a clear head and a logical approach will win out, but right now it's all so nebulous and alien to me - which I suppose can apply to anything when you're the outsider looking in.
And there are things (perhaps unfairly) which experience has shown them are usually a marker of a useless book - green ink, incompetence with commas, waking-up-with-a-hangover openings, or whatever. Maybe you have excellent reasons for doing any or all of these things, but I think it's worth knowing about things which, unfairly, may mean your MS starting off on the back foot. Is there another way to do what you want to do?
I wouldn't personally bother with any agent who isn't in WAAYB, (unless you know of them through a book trade friend say: there are some good agents who are happy with their client list and don't want to deal with slush, getting enough new clients to make up for the ones who die or stop selling by that route.). In the first trawl for agents the internet is not your friend, a) because there's so much that it's completely boggling, b) because the people who come up are the people who spend most on advertising, which tends not to be the legit agents, who don't need to. Their website is for information, not marketing.
And THEN the internet becomes your friend, because when you've made a shortlist you can check their individual and more up-to-date requirements. And if they're not an agency you've already heard of or you know good authors are represented by, you can check them out on Preditors and Editors. Certainly in the UK the number of legit agents is not unmanageably huge, by the time you've ruled out the ones who don't represent what you write.
And, ultimately, you have to remember that although agents have individual preferences, and although they are alert to what have become the markers of books/writers they don't want, they also passionately don't want to miss the Next Big Thing: the fact that they know that 99.99% of the slush pile is no good and therefore approach it in that spirit, is in eternal tension with the fact that the next piece in the pile might be Harry Potter. So don't get wound up on the details, follow basic advice about presentation, be sensible but not obsessive about who you send to, and get stuff out there, and go back and start Chapter One of your next novel.
I think much of many writer's agony over this stuff is actually the deep, deep terror of being judged. Your whole life can trickle away, trying to pre-empt the horrifying possibility that someone will think you Haven't Got It Right: the whole X-factor phenomenon is predicated on playing with our terror/fascination with being judged. But whatever minor idocy you commit, someone has done before, and quite possibly someone who the agent then took on. And what's more, you're not looking them in the eye, they're not your spouse, they're not your teacher - hell, they don't know any more than your name, and you don't have to tell a soul back home what happened if you don't want to. Be brave.
Oh, and write an absolutely stonking book. In the end, that's what will mean you get picked up, sooner or later. It's easy to forget that bit.
Send out in batches of 5. If (!) you get a rejection, send it straight off to the next one on the list. Meanwhile, try to concentrate on the part of this process you do have control over ie the next piece of writing. If you get about 20 form rejections that are not personalised and have no feedback at all, this is a sign that something fundamental is probably not right. At that point, you may choose to seek editorial feedback. If just one says they don't like a particular aspect, don't rewrite on the basis of one person's opinion. If OTOH more than one says the same, it makes sense to take that on board and consider redrafting before you pitch further.
The current received wisdom is that your list should have 60 agents on it. (I know that's shocking and daunting.) If you get 'positive' rejections that indicate no particular consensus, it seems you may just not have arrived on the right desk at the right time, so it makes sense to keep on working through that list. Try to see each one as bringing you closer to the one who will eventually say 'yay'.
The covering letter needs to include reasons for them being interested (your hook) as well as NOT giving them reasons for rejecting you. Don't include things like 'I believe I have a commercial product' or 'My writing is visual and well-paced'. Show, not tell, even in a letter. They will want to make these judgements themselves based on the content. Do include a brief pitch for the concept (hook) and some details about yourself including any relevant publishing experience. If you don't have any, you can just say this is your first novel and you're working on another. Above all, keep it brief and to the point. You don't want to give the impression you don't know what's important, even in a letter. And remember, good writing always. No typos, spelling/grammar errors etc.
It's really, really hard to have to sell yourself in this way - and to find the time and energy to keep going. But having written the book, you owe it to yourself and your creation to at least give it its best chance of being picked up. Good luck!
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