posted
So, I don't get the whole 'selling-out' complaint. He sold out, they sold out, don't you want your book to sell out?
Okay, to the point. I have a book that's almost ready to send to publishers. My question is, how do you do that? I understand how to find markets and submit to publishers, but I don't want to spend the next ten years doing that. Most markets listed in Writer's Market say that average turn around time can be 4 months, 6 months, even a year. And they don't like you to send your manuscript to multiple publishers at one time. I don't want to wait 6 months to send it to a publisher, wait for a rejection, before sending it out to the second publisher. It could take ten years to go through all the major publishers.
Does anyone know how to talk to publishers without having to wait so long for responses?
posted
If you're truly ready to start shopping around, get a list of agents you're interested in (agentquery.com is a good site for starters) and send out a bajillion agent queries, each specifically tailored to the query submission specifications of each agent. Also hand craft each query to each agent, don't just send out a "Dear Agent: ..." form letter.
Agent queries don't need to be exclusive, though some agents will ask for it if/when they get to the point of wanting to see your entire manuscript.
As for how exactly to keep the interest of an agent... I'm still working on it. All you really have to do is have a perfect query letter, a million published stories under your belt, a brilliant synopsis, a fabulous partial packet and a flawless manuscript.
posted
In my opinion (which is not much of a commodity) the capable writer who wishes to be published is facing two issues: marketing and self-belief.
Self belief
Have you been watching American Idol? Probably not, but this season illustrated the point so well. They narrowed the field down to 12 guys, gave them a week to work on a song and let them perform it live with full musical backing in front of millions. Every one of them was awful, looking and sounding totally amateur. But the show was committed now so they criticized and encouraged. These boys went back, watched themselves on national television, received votes, made it through and finally began to take themselves seriously. This week, in the exact, same set of circumstances they were unrecognizable, most sounding totally professional with power in their voice and confidence in their poise. In one week! What happened? For the first time in their lives they truly believed in themselves. They stood on the stage with all the self doubt put away and actual talent flowed unfettered with joy. My point is that in all likelihood your writing is filled with, easy to see, self-doubt that hurts its marketability. All I’m saying is believe in your style and run with it. Grammar is important obviously, like singing on key is important, but do your runs, bring your style. Listen to the Simon Cowell’s on this board but don’t let them crush you (or confine you). I have some obscure OSC stuff in my possession. I could change the names, post the first 13 and it would be shredded with, “I’m confused” and “where’s the hook” and “I’m frustrated because you didn’t tell me the MC’s postman’s shoe size in the first 13 lines.” Ok, ok I exaggerate but not totally. This is however; the best writing group I’ve ever seen and the first 13 is an unfortunate truth, sad to say. I live in Southern California and have personally known many Hollywood hopefuls. The agented ones all tell you that you need self-confident arrogance to make it. I scoffed at them for twenty years but in truth they’re right, it’s the only thing that shuts the eager critics up and makes them just listen to something that is perhaps new and interesting (or absurdly introverted lol). Yesterday I wrote a blurb in Hatrack discussions that was totally free, just me raving; brain to page and it was so fun. Most completely ignored it (probably considered it out of range of convention) other opinions were, it was beautiful or I’m on drugs. It was leaning towards the drugs, last I checked, but it was good for me and I got to laugh at myself. Look, your not going to invent a new color this late in human history but there has never been another you. God is the architect of infinite diversity you have to trust that Matt. There is beauty in your writing, your love, your loss, your joy and your despair, the sum total of your life’s experience and if you let that flow from your heart people beyond those in your life who love you will see it on the page. Who here is uncertain of OSC’s passions?
Marketing
Yeah, it’s a protracted nightmare with your work likely being rejected by some incompetent, only knows talent as it was described to them, slush pile reading for almost no money, imbecile. All this, while you sit optimistically for months or years. We’ve all known artists who so badly deserve to make it and just never do. Sometimes writers get all excited because their story is going to be published but then watch it totally flop because the publisher applied zero dollars to actually marketing it. The writer, who spent the entire $5000 advance redoing his office to create a better writing environment, decides to find new interests, like alcohol and Internet porn. I know I sound negative but the publishing industry is a tough nut and success generally requires inordinate amounts of effort. Agents…. hmph, don’t like em. The ones you would actually want are far too busy with authors who have a history of selling books and making money doing so. The others, well, I don’t advise anyone to put themselves through the torture of figuring out exactly how they make money but needless to say, little of it is coming from royalties. Just like a real estate agent, if you can manage without one you’re better off. You want to hear my strategy? Of course you do. Lol.
First. Read and write a hell of a lot more than I do now. Possibly look into selling wife and kids and quitting job.
Second. Sell some short stories online or to periodicals. Get some kind of cheap recognition and elevate it incrementally to more respected recognition. Build web site with new resume.
Third. Approach publisher with full novels… yell at him for being an idiot and self publish traveling the country promoting my amazing book.
Fourth. Die homeless and alone on a wet street corner near one of the big publishing houses. The only one who attends the funeral is Matt, who says, “thanks for telling me to open that pet store, it was good advice… well - the wife and kids will be wondering where I am.” Matt turns slowly and walks down the damp grass hill, stepping gingerly so as not to slip in his polished black shoes.
posted
The advantage of an agent is that you can que3ry as many of them as you like at the same time. If they ask for a full manuscript, you can do that one at a time, but the queries can all go out in one mas mailing. Good agents know the publishers, they have lunch with them, and they can get your book seen faster.
Although, realistically, you may have to be prepared for ten years of waiting to get a novel published. Many writers do not sell their first books. Always keep writing. Plus, the best way to pass the time while waiting for a response from agents/publishers is to distract yourself with another project.
posted
Trace, no offense meant by suggesting that your other post was chemically induced. I actually thought it was insightful, but unhinged from sober reflection (this is not necessarily a bad thing Hemingway used to get loaded every morning as his pre-writing ritual, because he did not want to be hinged to sober reflection).
As for selling a book, I think it falls into the category of Great Mysteries that Are Simpler Than You Think. The only parallel examples I could give (how do you get on law review? how do you get a federal clerkship? how do you get hired by a top firm?) are law-related, but in each case experience has taught me that the seemingly too-simple answers you commonly hear are actually true. In the case of the law, the seemingly oversimple answer is "work really hard and get good results on everything you do," but it's the only true answer. In the case of selling writing, it appears to be "write a great book, and send great queries to well-researched agents." I can't represent from experience that this oversimple answer is the right answer, but my gut tells me it's the same sort of thing.
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