Rejecter,
According to you, the minimum practical length these days is around 70k. (Up from around 50k in the 1960s, judging from the SF paperbacks on my shelves. And that in any series, each novel in the series gets thicker and thicker.)
Has anyone considered reviving the old Ace Double format for slightly-shorter works? Two novellas or short novels (35-55k each) bound together into a single volume?
You'd probably have to abandon putting them back-to-back inverted with two front covers like the original Ace Doubles. (Which could lead to a fight over which of the two appears first.) Ideally, both works in the volume should have some sort of similarity to appeal to the same reader. This could also have potential as a breakthrough medium for newer authors, with the noob's work doubled with a similar but more established author.
It's a matter of what the market will bear. Publishing houses generally do not start major trends; they publish some random thing and the trend sort of springs up on its own. Unlike the fashion industry, the publishing industry is extremely reactionary because it's a safer financial bet.
At the moment, the "novel" of 70-100k seems to be what people want and are buying. The market for short story collections is very small, and understandably so. People generally don't read short stories unless they either seek them out in literary mags or they happen upon them in larger commercial magazines like The New Yorker. A short story collection is something that's tough to read. I know because I read a ton of the old sci-fi stories of the 60s and 70s, the ones that are now in collection form. You read a little story, and then you have to totally switch gears and accept a new reality in another ten pages. While two novellas is not as extreme, the principle is the same - the reader has to switch gears, and readers today don't like doing that for whatever societal reason.
If we saw more short stories being sold and shorter books being sold, we would be more inclined to lower the acceptable word count, but eventually it all comes down to what sells.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Copyright
I did not delete the post below because I was in violation of some copyright law. Whether you want to debate my ethics about posting it or not is your business, but I was fully within my legal rights to do so. However, this blog is meant to be informative and amusing, not make people angry. Unless those people are stupid.
There are two main reasons why I had every right to post material handed out in a classroom:
(1) I was handed a piece of paper with some writing on it. It was no different (in legal terms) from finding a piece of paper on the street with some terrible writing on it, which I don't think anyone here would have objected to. I think I fulfilled my moral obligations by not naming the professor OR the student. I also did not post the story in full. Whether a writer holds copyright on their work from the first word they type is irrelevant. The only way this would come up in court would be if I were to publish it and attempt to make money off of it by claiming it was mine or claiming it was someone else's and not giving any procedes to the author. Even then, the author, who in this case we are assuming is lacking a form from the US copyright office, would have to prove that they wrote the work first and I stole it. This is actually fairly difficult to do in a courtroom. If there was NO monetary gain at stake (i.e. I had not tried to sell the work), the case would simply not go to trial because there are no losses. It might go to civil court for emotional damage, but only if the original author had good grounds for it. (If I posted her work and her name on a billboard at Times Square, for example)
(2) Basically everything written on the internet falls into the "fair use" category, as the California Supreme Court recently ruled. (And it's irrelevant, because you could easily make a post on a server that was based in another country if you really wanted to) I give the example of Something Awful, which people have attempted to sue many times for "libel and slander." None of these cases have ever gone to court, and the threatening emails to the site administrator were even posted in whole, without alteration or permission.
Freedom of speech on the internet is a two-way street, people. I'm very aware of that; material I've written on this blog or in email as The Rejecter has been reposted on other websites without my permission, and the material has been altered without my permission, and I can't do a thing about it. Most people back down from an email threat from someone else to sue pretty quickly, but they actually don't have to.
As for the other complaint, which is that I keep a folder of the worst query letters I've received for my own personal amusement, it is totally legal and I've never viewed it as immoral. When you send a letter to someone through the postal service, the letter becomes their property. They can do whatever they like with it. They can make paper airplanes out of it, they can refuse the back of the paper as scrap, they can toss it in the trash (which is what happens to most query letters that aren't sent back). Now if I attempted to make some kind of a profit by reprinting the letters on a pay site or in book form, I might run into some legal trouble with the authors if I didn't bother to change or remove their names, but I would never do that for both legal and moral reasons. I don't keep the query letters so to mock the author. (I often don't even look at the author's name when reading a query letter, except to check that it's the same name on the SASE so nothing gets screwed up in the mail) The only illegal thing that ever happens in the agency is the act of opening the envelope. (It is a crime to open an envelope sent through the US Postal Service that is not addressed to you, and the letters are always addressed to my boss, not me) Once the envelope is opened, the paper and whatever's written on it is fair game.
So there.
There are two main reasons why I had every right to post material handed out in a classroom:
(1) I was handed a piece of paper with some writing on it. It was no different (in legal terms) from finding a piece of paper on the street with some terrible writing on it, which I don't think anyone here would have objected to. I think I fulfilled my moral obligations by not naming the professor OR the student. I also did not post the story in full. Whether a writer holds copyright on their work from the first word they type is irrelevant. The only way this would come up in court would be if I were to publish it and attempt to make money off of it by claiming it was mine or claiming it was someone else's and not giving any procedes to the author. Even then, the author, who in this case we are assuming is lacking a form from the US copyright office, would have to prove that they wrote the work first and I stole it. This is actually fairly difficult to do in a courtroom. If there was NO monetary gain at stake (i.e. I had not tried to sell the work), the case would simply not go to trial because there are no losses. It might go to civil court for emotional damage, but only if the original author had good grounds for it. (If I posted her work and her name on a billboard at Times Square, for example)
(2) Basically everything written on the internet falls into the "fair use" category, as the California Supreme Court recently ruled. (And it's irrelevant, because you could easily make a post on a server that was based in another country if you really wanted to) I give the example of Something Awful, which people have attempted to sue many times for "libel and slander." None of these cases have ever gone to court, and the threatening emails to the site administrator were even posted in whole, without alteration or permission.
Freedom of speech on the internet is a two-way street, people. I'm very aware of that; material I've written on this blog or in email as The Rejecter has been reposted on other websites without my permission, and the material has been altered without my permission, and I can't do a thing about it. Most people back down from an email threat from someone else to sue pretty quickly, but they actually don't have to.
As for the other complaint, which is that I keep a folder of the worst query letters I've received for my own personal amusement, it is totally legal and I've never viewed it as immoral. When you send a letter to someone through the postal service, the letter becomes their property. They can do whatever they like with it. They can make paper airplanes out of it, they can refuse the back of the paper as scrap, they can toss it in the trash (which is what happens to most query letters that aren't sent back). Now if I attempted to make some kind of a profit by reprinting the letters on a pay site or in book form, I might run into some legal trouble with the authors if I didn't bother to change or remove their names, but I would never do that for both legal and moral reasons. I don't keep the query letters so to mock the author. (I often don't even look at the author's name when reading a query letter, except to check that it's the same name on the SASE so nothing gets screwed up in the mail) The only illegal thing that ever happens in the agency is the act of opening the envelope. (It is a crime to open an envelope sent through the US Postal Service that is not addressed to you, and the letters are always addressed to my boss, not me) Once the envelope is opened, the paper and whatever's written on it is fair game.
So there.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
NEVER TAKE AN MFA PROGRAM
The email questions are piling up, and so far I've been letting them pile, because I've been busy with school work, as my semester ends in a few weeks and I have to produce something the professor will like before that. I will be open and say I had a fight with him yesterday. He rejects just about everything I submit, and sometimes I give him whole, publishable novels, but they aren't about me, so they are apparently worthless. Somehow he then succeeds in making me feel guilty about not rising to his challenge to write from the heart, because producing stories people enjoy isn't enough - I should strive to write something great.
In retrospect, his opinion of "great" may be a little skewed. This was material that someone wrote for my class and was generally considered "good."
[Content removed because it upset a lot of people. See above post]
On the other hand, maybe I should stick to writing historical fiction. Or maybe I just don't have enough daddy issues to write quality material.
In retrospect, his opinion of "great" may be a little skewed. This was material that someone wrote for my class and was generally considered "good."
[Content removed because it upset a lot of people. See above post]
On the other hand, maybe I should stick to writing historical fiction. Or maybe I just don't have enough daddy issues to write quality material.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
National Novel Writing Month
Yeah, damn straight. Actually I hit 50K on the 23rd, but they wouldn't let me validate it until the 25th. Now of course I have to go finish the novel, which has another 10-15k to it. 65k is still fairly short for novel length, but I did it with very little historical research or detail, so I could easily pad it another 10k in revisions.Recently a website interviewed me about my feelings as someone who works in publishing on the program. I'll repost it here. The website that contacted me can be found here.
I'm compiling a series of articles on National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the website 101 Reasons to Stop Writing. I'm interested in getting the literary agent's perspective on this, especially the perspectiveof one who filters the submissions from overly keen Nano participants, and would appreciate youresponses to the questions below.
How did NaNoWriMo first appear on your radar?
I'm a writer myself and 2005 was the first year I participated because I heard about it through fellow unpublished writers. I have never heard of it at work and when I mention it, honestly, very few people know what it is.
NaNoWriMo, to my knowledge, has not hit the cultural consciousness of agents and the publishing industry yet, despite the publication of Chris Baty's (founder of NaNoWriMo) book, No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days. In the book he discusses how 50,000 words is not actually an acceptable length for an adult book, but he chose it because it was a more reasonable goal for people achieve. Most literary agents are looking for first -time novelists to keep their work in the 70k-100k range.
Have you received queries or submissions that have mentioned NaNoWriMo? If so, have any of these submissions been accepted for representation, or at least passed up the ladder?
If the agent would recognize it, they would actually probably pass on it, for a number of reasons. First of all, 50k is just too low unless it's YA or a children's book. Second, only the fastest writers can write a quality full-length novel in a month - most authors need a year. The speed at which it was written is an indication against it. Third, if they wrote it in November and they submit it in December or January, they obviously haven't done the heavy polishing any manuscript needs before it's ready to be submitted.
What are the most common errors made by participants when submitting to you
(assuming any have)?
I honestly haven't seen anyone who has said they did the novel for NaNoWriMo, but as the program gains in popularity, I have no doubt that it will eventually start showing up in query letters and the agency world will collectively groan.
Is there a noticeable "spike" in queries or submissions, particularly for
50,000 word novels, in November to February?
Most people do NaNoWriMo for fun, and not everyone finishes. Serious writers who do it realize that they need time to revise and polish it - at least a few months. Besides, if a few extra queries come in during this time, we wouldn't notice. Query letters tend to spike in the fall, get heavy up until Christmas time, and then drop off again until about mid-January. This is because writers, like agents, are on vacation in the summer (August is notoriously the slowest month) and during the last week of December. They pick up again in February and March. Agencies review dozens, maybe hundreds of query letters a day. They're not going to notice a few more.
Do you believe that participation in NaNoWriMo is a "good thing" for
inexperienced writers?
Yes. I have been writing all my life, but I found it to be a useful exercise, which is why I'm repeating it this year. To start blank on November 1st with only the vaguest book idea and then to try and produce massive amounts of material by November 30th is an experience that builds stamina and quick-thinking. I am always surprised how much the plot I might have planned will change as I go along.
Do you believe it creates unrealistic expectations for participants?
I don't think 1667 words a day (or something like that) is particularly crazy, but it's asking a lot of someone who doesn't want to write for a living and hasn't been writing for many years. Many people don't hit 50K, but the point is, they tried, and they learned. Also, November is generally a very busy month for just about everyone, with the school cycle being what it is and the holidays approaching. In his book, Baty discusses why he put it in November instead of a month like June or July. I don't remember precisely what he said off-hand and my copy of his book is not at-hand, but I think it was something about how the program teaches you how to make time for writing despite your schedule. If you have lots of time, you may not actually be as productive as if you have to set aside an hour a day and you sit down at the computer knowing you can't waste that hour sitting at the screen or you're screwed for the day.
If you were in charge of NaNoWriMo, what rules would you set or change?
I would give people a little star next to their username on the lists for every year they've succeeded in "winning" NaNoWriMo. That would make of my friends who have been hitting 50K every year more accomplished - because it is an accomplishment.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Children's Books, Continued
Various people have questioned some of the things I said in my previous post as being accurate. While I do stand by my assumption that the asker's 65k fantasy novel is YA just based on its size unless it was specifically written for a younger crowd, I am not an expert on children's literature.
While I have dealt with children's literature in the publishing field to a small extent, most of my knowledge of what grades are reading what comes from a course I'm taking on children's literature in graduate school, by a professor who's written many children's books and runs various children's poetry and children's literature festivals in New York City. There were many things I honestly didn't know before taking this course.
I admit that the line between middle school, young adult, and adult literature gets kinda hazy in age range, and that a lot of it has to do with the school and culture you grew up in. An ESL student is obviously probably going to be a step behind in literature. As I mentioned, I was the first person in my class to read an "adult" book, which was not available in my school library and I had to get at the public library in town. This was mainly because it was Jurassic Park and the movie was coming out sooon, so I got the book, and I'll readily admit that I did not understand half of it. (Also, the first half of it doesn't make a lot of sense) The following month I read The Andromeda Strain and also didn't understand a word, except that a disease was eating a plane or something. It wasn't until I hit Sphere that I started "getting it," and breezed through The Great Train Robbery, which was easier because it was historical fiction instead of science-based fiction. Obviously, one of the reasons I've ended up in publishing is because I love to read. I read 1-3 books a week.
I distinctly remember that we stopped reading YA and started reading "literature" in eight grade, when I switched to a private school that had already been doing it for two grades. Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, and Philip Roth.
I'm sure this varies from school to school, so I wouldn't doubt that there are 15-year-olds out there who are reading YA. There are adults who've realized there is some terrific literature being put out in YA and are eating it up.
Anyway, the point is: I don't know everything.
While I have dealt with children's literature in the publishing field to a small extent, most of my knowledge of what grades are reading what comes from a course I'm taking on children's literature in graduate school, by a professor who's written many children's books and runs various children's poetry and children's literature festivals in New York City. There were many things I honestly didn't know before taking this course.
I admit that the line between middle school, young adult, and adult literature gets kinda hazy in age range, and that a lot of it has to do with the school and culture you grew up in. An ESL student is obviously probably going to be a step behind in literature. As I mentioned, I was the first person in my class to read an "adult" book, which was not available in my school library and I had to get at the public library in town. This was mainly because it was Jurassic Park and the movie was coming out sooon, so I got the book, and I'll readily admit that I did not understand half of it. (Also, the first half of it doesn't make a lot of sense) The following month I read The Andromeda Strain and also didn't understand a word, except that a disease was eating a plane or something. It wasn't until I hit Sphere that I started "getting it," and breezed through The Great Train Robbery, which was easier because it was historical fiction instead of science-based fiction. Obviously, one of the reasons I've ended up in publishing is because I love to read. I read 1-3 books a week.
I distinctly remember that we stopped reading YA and started reading "literature" in eight grade, when I switched to a private school that had already been doing it for two grades. Shakespeare, Maya Angelou, and Philip Roth.
I'm sure this varies from school to school, so I wouldn't doubt that there are 15-year-olds out there who are reading YA. There are adults who've realized there is some terrific literature being put out in YA and are eating it up.
Anyway, the point is: I don't know everything.
Children's Books
I am querying agents and I would like to make an effort to target
agents that will represent my type of book. The problem is, I'm not
sure what to call it.
What's the difference between children's, middle-grades, and young
adult?
I've been describing my book as young adult, but I believe that it
will more likely appeal to readers in the 9-12 range? It's 65,000
words and is kind of similar to City of Ember.
Am I worrying about nothing or is a correct genre description
important?
65,000 words is definitely going to be in the JA range unless you've specifically written it to younger children, which is a bad idea. The spectrum of children's literature is very well-defined by publishers based on age and mental maturity. 2-4-year-old books are largely picture books with extremely basic plots. 4-6 you can start getting into more complex ideas like morality, lessons, mythology, and you have more text to the pictures. This is also the age that kids might be reading instead of being read-to by the parent, so you have to be strict on content. This is also the age when "special topics" books begin (like books discussing gay parents, divorce, death, illness, and even abuse and incest. The only topic completely off-limits is abortion, which is not allowed until YA). By middle school, the pictures are cut down to minimum and the children are assumed to be reading on their own, but certain topics are still off-limits except if handled in a very gentle manner, hiding behind imagery. The word count is still relatively short because of attention span, but much larger than picture books. (Kids do read ultra-long Harry Potter books in middle school but this is a special case). YA applies generally to kids in 4-6th grades and is when the topics open up to things teenagers deal with, like sexuality, death, self-image, suicide, anger, etc. It really ends at around age 12-14, when kids generally move into adult books. I remember reading Jurassic Park in sixth grade, which was my first "adult" book, and I was the only one reading that kind of book in my class. By the end of 7th, everyone was reading adult books. (Actually, they were mainly reading magazines and listening to music)
It seems like you have a standard YA fantasy. Anything below YA (Young Adult) should be written with a lot of research into what are the acceptable limts to the content and you should specify the grade range.
agents that will represent my type of book. The problem is, I'm not
sure what to call it.
What's the difference between children's, middle-grades, and young
adult?
I've been describing my book as young adult, but I believe that it
will more likely appeal to readers in the 9-12 range? It's 65,000
words and is kind of similar to City of Ember.
Am I worrying about nothing or is a correct genre description
important?
65,000 words is definitely going to be in the JA range unless you've specifically written it to younger children, which is a bad idea. The spectrum of children's literature is very well-defined by publishers based on age and mental maturity. 2-4-year-old books are largely picture books with extremely basic plots. 4-6 you can start getting into more complex ideas like morality, lessons, mythology, and you have more text to the pictures. This is also the age that kids might be reading instead of being read-to by the parent, so you have to be strict on content. This is also the age when "special topics" books begin (like books discussing gay parents, divorce, death, illness, and even abuse and incest. The only topic completely off-limits is abortion, which is not allowed until YA). By middle school, the pictures are cut down to minimum and the children are assumed to be reading on their own, but certain topics are still off-limits except if handled in a very gentle manner, hiding behind imagery. The word count is still relatively short because of attention span, but much larger than picture books. (Kids do read ultra-long Harry Potter books in middle school but this is a special case). YA applies generally to kids in 4-6th grades and is when the topics open up to things teenagers deal with, like sexuality, death, self-image, suicide, anger, etc. It really ends at around age 12-14, when kids generally move into adult books. I remember reading Jurassic Park in sixth grade, which was my first "adult" book, and I was the only one reading that kind of book in my class. By the end of 7th, everyone was reading adult books. (Actually, they were mainly reading magazines and listening to music)
It seems like you have a standard YA fantasy. Anything below YA (Young Adult) should be written with a lot of research into what are the acceptable limts to the content and you should specify the grade range.
Monday, November 20, 2006
Plot Summaries in Queries
Dear Rejecter,
I'm nearing completion on a memoir-in-blog-form, which, with a little work, could easily be reworked into a book manuscript. I've contacted one agency so far; I'm waiting to hear from them before I approach others.
The submission guidelines for the agency I've already approached request just a short paragraph summarizing the subject of the proposed book. However, I've been looking at sample queries, and I've noticed that many of them provide a detailed, blow-by-blow account of the plot, beginning to end.
For future reference, do you suggest a brief overview, or a detailed plot description? The memoir I've been working on is very much a story, rather than a "this-is-what's-happened-in-my-life-so-far" kind of thing, and I could easily provide the entire plot, but it strikes me that that's overkill in an initial query letter.
What are your thoughts? Does it simply depend on who you're querying?
I don't know what sample queries you were looking at, but in general, a blow-by-blow account of the plot is a terrible thing to do in a query. The object of the summation of the book is to entice the agent the same way a book jacket summary would entice the reader - and book jacket summaries don't summarize the plot. They just make it sound like something you would want to read.
The best thing to focus on in that 1-3 paragraph summation is the conflict of the book (known as the "hook"), because it's conflict that makes books interesting, in fiction anyway. An example of this would be: "A factory worker wakes up one morning to discover he has transformed into a bug." I don't know how to go on summarizing that because it's been a while since I read Kafka, and I'm pretty sure he dies at the end, but the point is - guy turns into bug. Okay. That's interesting. You don't see that every day. Now tell me where you're going to go with it - in terms of making the book interesting.
I'm nearing completion on a memoir-in-blog-form, which, with a little work, could easily be reworked into a book manuscript. I've contacted one agency so far; I'm waiting to hear from them before I approach others.
The submission guidelines for the agency I've already approached request just a short paragraph summarizing the subject of the proposed book. However, I've been looking at sample queries, and I've noticed that many of them provide a detailed, blow-by-blow account of the plot, beginning to end.
For future reference, do you suggest a brief overview, or a detailed plot description? The memoir I've been working on is very much a story, rather than a "this-is-what's-happened-in-my-life-so-far" kind of thing, and I could easily provide the entire plot, but it strikes me that that's overkill in an initial query letter.
What are your thoughts? Does it simply depend on who you're querying?
I don't know what sample queries you were looking at, but in general, a blow-by-blow account of the plot is a terrible thing to do in a query. The object of the summation of the book is to entice the agent the same way a book jacket summary would entice the reader - and book jacket summaries don't summarize the plot. They just make it sound like something you would want to read.
The best thing to focus on in that 1-3 paragraph summation is the conflict of the book (known as the "hook"), because it's conflict that makes books interesting, in fiction anyway. An example of this would be: "A factory worker wakes up one morning to discover he has transformed into a bug." I don't know how to go on summarizing that because it's been a while since I read Kafka, and I'm pretty sure he dies at the end, but the point is - guy turns into bug. Okay. That's interesting. You don't see that every day. Now tell me where you're going to go with it - in terms of making the book interesting.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Diet Plans That Work
I am collecting all of your questions, but things have been crazy between NaNoWriMo, school, and work. I also would like you all to know that I am currently in the same boat as many of my readers - I am awaiting a response from a publishing company about the three chapters I sent in. Contacts within the industry only get you so far. Now my writing has to stand on its own like everyone else's. I feel your pain.
Today a query came in for a diet book. This would hardly be exceptional if not for the total idiocy of the writers. After jabbering on for three paragraphs about how much weight this husband and wife had lost (not mentioning how long it took them to lose it - it could be years for all I know), they finally got down to the actual amazing plan: "DECREASE YOUR CALORIE INTAKE AND YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT."
...Wow. What a revelation.
Today a query came in for a diet book. This would hardly be exceptional if not for the total idiocy of the writers. After jabbering on for three paragraphs about how much weight this husband and wife had lost (not mentioning how long it took them to lose it - it could be years for all I know), they finally got down to the actual amazing plan: "DECREASE YOUR CALORIE INTAKE AND YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT."
...Wow. What a revelation.
Monday, November 13, 2006
One of those rare posts where I talk about myself
A couple people have emailed me about a reference I made to 6-MP, an immunosuppressive drug commonly used for various chronic illnesses involving a hyperactive immune system. Since Yahoo mail "lost" two weeks worth of stored mail and a number of those emails, I'll answer it here.
I have Crohn's Disease (link NWS). It's one of the reasons I live in New York - all of the best doctors are here and my case is rather complicated. It's also why I don't work full time, aside from also being in grad school full time - I'm always rearranging my work schedule around procedures and emergency appointments, and my boss is incredibly understanding about it.
Someone else with Crohn's asked me why there isn't more books about it. After all, we get plenty of submissions every week from cancer survivors, or friends of people who died of cancer, or crazy doctors who think they've found a cure to every disease and it's apparently eating dirt.
The answer is probably that Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and the rest of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease family are all pretty gross to discuss in any detail. While I'm not ashamed to say I have the disease and describe the symptons to anyone who actually really wants to know, most people who have it do not come forward, because it's embarassing. And even if/when people do write about it, it probably wouldn't sell to people who don't have the disease or relatives who have it. Anything exceedingly well written will sell, but very few things are exceedingly well written, and it's even more important if the text is a sensitive topic. I've seen very few narratives, fiction or non, about waste management. (Except by environmentalists) I've never seen a protagonist who had a job cleaning septic tanks. The closest I've ever seen to that is Lore from Slow River working in a water filtration plant. It's not that the topics are "off limits" - nothing is - but they're not palatable, so they won't sell to a large audience.
I have Crohn's Disease (link NWS). It's one of the reasons I live in New York - all of the best doctors are here and my case is rather complicated. It's also why I don't work full time, aside from also being in grad school full time - I'm always rearranging my work schedule around procedures and emergency appointments, and my boss is incredibly understanding about it.
Someone else with Crohn's asked me why there isn't more books about it. After all, we get plenty of submissions every week from cancer survivors, or friends of people who died of cancer, or crazy doctors who think they've found a cure to every disease and it's apparently eating dirt.
The answer is probably that Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and the rest of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease family are all pretty gross to discuss in any detail. While I'm not ashamed to say I have the disease and describe the symptons to anyone who actually really wants to know, most people who have it do not come forward, because it's embarassing. And even if/when people do write about it, it probably wouldn't sell to people who don't have the disease or relatives who have it. Anything exceedingly well written will sell, but very few things are exceedingly well written, and it's even more important if the text is a sensitive topic. I've seen very few narratives, fiction or non, about waste management. (Except by environmentalists) I've never seen a protagonist who had a job cleaning septic tanks. The closest I've ever seen to that is Lore from Slow River working in a water filtration plant. It's not that the topics are "off limits" - nothing is - but they're not palatable, so they won't sell to a large audience.
Mysterious Questions from an Agent
Dear Rejecter,
I queried an agent who emailed me asking two
questions: 1)if the book had been workshopped with any
writers' groups and 2) if any publishers had seen the
book.
Why do you think the agent would be interested,
especially in the writers' groups?
The answer to the second question is obvious. He/she wants to know if you have been rejected by any or all of the big five companies, which would be a serious reason for the agent not to take on the manuscript.
The answer to the first question is not so obvious. The agent might be implying that the book needs to be edited, but I don't know why the agent wouldn't have come out and said "You need an editor." Writer's groups are a mixed bag, and I don't know an agent who would send a client to one. What the agent is probably doing is fishing for big names - if you did a workshop with a famous author or attended Clarion or whatnot. But that's just a guess.
I queried an agent who emailed me asking two
questions: 1)if the book had been workshopped with any
writers' groups and 2) if any publishers had seen the
book.
Why do you think the agent would be interested,
especially in the writers' groups?
The answer to the second question is obvious. He/she wants to know if you have been rejected by any or all of the big five companies, which would be a serious reason for the agent not to take on the manuscript.
The answer to the first question is not so obvious. The agent might be implying that the book needs to be edited, but I don't know why the agent wouldn't have come out and said "You need an editor." Writer's groups are a mixed bag, and I don't know an agent who would send a client to one. What the agent is probably doing is fishing for big names - if you did a workshop with a famous author or attended Clarion or whatnot. But that's just a guess.
Creating a Synopsis
I have finished my first novel and am embarking on the
terrifying process of trying to find an agent. I have
been researching how to write a good synopsis.
However, nowhere have I found an answer to my
question: should my synopsis narrate events in
chronological order? Or should it narrate events in
the order in which they occur in the novel? The two
are not the same, in my case. The story takes place
over a span of 60 years, and is told through
alternating points of view, so a chapter set in 1949
might follow upon a chapter set in 2005.
That's a tough call. I don't pay particular attention to a synopsis unless I have to, but I know a lot of agents and assistants do. I would say .... it depends on how often you flip back and forth, because you don't want to be writing "Meanwhile, in the future" all that often. I wrote a manuscript with two parallel storylines - one involving a news reporter in 1996 and one involving his brother in the year 2016, and honestly, I would probably be stumped on a synopsis, and then eventually end up just writing it the way it appears in the book. There's not a hard and fast answer to this question that I know of. You may want to check with some other agent's blogs.
terrifying process of trying to find an agent. I have
been researching how to write a good synopsis.
However, nowhere have I found an answer to my
question: should my synopsis narrate events in
chronological order? Or should it narrate events in
the order in which they occur in the novel? The two
are not the same, in my case. The story takes place
over a span of 60 years, and is told through
alternating points of view, so a chapter set in 1949
might follow upon a chapter set in 2005.
That's a tough call. I don't pay particular attention to a synopsis unless I have to, but I know a lot of agents and assistants do. I would say .... it depends on how often you flip back and forth, because you don't want to be writing "Meanwhile, in the future" all that often. I wrote a manuscript with two parallel storylines - one involving a news reporter in 1996 and one involving his brother in the year 2016, and honestly, I would probably be stumped on a synopsis, and then eventually end up just writing it the way it appears in the book. There's not a hard and fast answer to this question that I know of. You may want to check with some other agent's blogs.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Editors, Editors, Editors
Rejecter - one tiny defense here --last week at Backspace tghe agents told us the LIKED when we hired an editor because implied that the MS might be cleaner than if we hadn't, meaning less work for YOU. And also, they liked that we had invested our own moolah in our work. I know nothing of which editor or the quality of the work presented -- just sharing some info that was bandied about last week in NY. Perhaps the writer was at Backspace? Was YOUR boss there?????
My boss was not there, but many reputable agents were from the looks of the webpage. I can only guess what they were referring to in terms of editors, but I would assume they mean reputable editors and no people like Edit Ink. I suggest you ask on Kristin Nelson's blog, as she was at the conference.
EDIT: There was a change and she was not present. Don't bother her about the conference.
My boss was not there, but many reputable agents were from the looks of the webpage. I can only guess what they were referring to in terms of editors, but I would assume they mean reputable editors and no people like Edit Ink. I suggest you ask on Kristin Nelson's blog, as she was at the conference.
EDIT: There was a change and she was not present. Don't bother her about the conference.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
The First Five Pages
Dear Rejector,
Agent Query says, "Do NOT include sample chapters of your novel with your query UNLESS an agent's submission guidelines specifically SAY to include sample pages with your snail mail query. If you really feel compelled to show an agent your writing style along with your query letter, include only the first 5 pages of your novel." I'm not trying to just provoke a battle of experts here, but what do you (or most agents) think of that? If you were to recieve five pages with a query, would you read them? Ignore them? Shred the whole package and send it back in the SASE?
This will vary from agency to agency, but in general, the 5 pages will either be ignored (if the query is so bad that we don't get that far) or actually read, depending on who's reading it. I'm paid by the hour, and I'm an insanely fast reader, so I'll read the pages. A very, very busy agent with no assistant might not, but 5 pages in manuscript format is really not a lot of text.
On the other hand, if I say, "Yeah, go ahead and send five pages," everyone who reads this will start doing it, and then it'll become a nuisance, which is why AgentQuery says that. So I answered your question, but I'm not going to take a hard line and tell everyone to send 5 pages or not. In general, listen to what the agency says they want. If they don't specify, just send a query.
Agent Query says, "Do NOT include sample chapters of your novel with your query UNLESS an agent's submission guidelines specifically SAY to include sample pages with your snail mail query. If you really feel compelled to show an agent your writing style along with your query letter, include only the first 5 pages of your novel." I'm not trying to just provoke a battle of experts here, but what do you (or most agents) think of that? If you were to recieve five pages with a query, would you read them? Ignore them? Shred the whole package and send it back in the SASE?
This will vary from agency to agency, but in general, the 5 pages will either be ignored (if the query is so bad that we don't get that far) or actually read, depending on who's reading it. I'm paid by the hour, and I'm an insanely fast reader, so I'll read the pages. A very, very busy agent with no assistant might not, but 5 pages in manuscript format is really not a lot of text.
On the other hand, if I say, "Yeah, go ahead and send five pages," everyone who reads this will start doing it, and then it'll become a nuisance, which is why AgentQuery says that. So I answered your question, but I'm not going to take a hard line and tell everyone to send 5 pages or not. In general, listen to what the agency says they want. If they don't specify, just send a query.
New York Or Bust
Here is my question: I see a lot of uproar about how much an agent’s
location really matters. What I’d like to know is how much a writer’s
location matters to the agents. For example, if a writer is located
outside
the big publishing countries such as USA and England.
It’s most likely a silly question, so feel free to be snarky if you
answer it. ;)
It's actually a not a silly question at all. What was silly was my original post, which skimmed your email a little too quickly and I answered the wrong question. Gack, Nanowrimo!
The answer is: No. We do not care if you live on the Upper West Side or in Tehran.
location really matters. What I’d like to know is how much a writer’s
location matters to the agents. For example, if a writer is located
outside
the big publishing countries such as USA and England.
It’s most likely a silly question, so feel free to be snarky if you
answer it. ;)
It's actually a not a silly question at all. What was silly was my original post, which skimmed your email a little too quickly and I answered the wrong question. Gack, Nanowrimo!
The answer is: No. We do not care if you live on the Upper West Side or in Tehran.
The "Holding Pen"
Dear Ms. Rejecter,
What are some of the reasons your boss might sit on a manuscript (not an exclusive) she likes after six months or more instead of offering representation right away? Miss Snark recently blogged about having a potential client in a “holding pen” for a year. As the assistant, how are you instructed to manage that type of situation given that you are probably being asked to read any requested revisions and the potential client is probably contacting you or the agent for updates?
I don't particularly know what Miss Snark is referring to by a "holding pen," but in general, agents give responses as soon as they have made a decision. We're not interested in putting people in suspense unnecessarily - that's cruel and they're in suspense enough just waiting for the mail delivery. The "six months or more" wait generally refers to a wait for the manuscript to actually be read and decided upon, or just decided upon. Sometimes the agent says, "I need to read it again" and then some emergency with a client comes up and she gets distracted for a while. I can't think of a time when I have ever seen a boss actually decide to offer presentation and then not do so in the next three minutes, maybe 5 if she got a busy signal on the first call.
What are some of the reasons your boss might sit on a manuscript (not an exclusive) she likes after six months or more instead of offering representation right away? Miss Snark recently blogged about having a potential client in a “holding pen” for a year. As the assistant, how are you instructed to manage that type of situation given that you are probably being asked to read any requested revisions and the potential client is probably contacting you or the agent for updates?
I don't particularly know what Miss Snark is referring to by a "holding pen," but in general, agents give responses as soon as they have made a decision. We're not interested in putting people in suspense unnecessarily - that's cruel and they're in suspense enough just waiting for the mail delivery. The "six months or more" wait generally refers to a wait for the manuscript to actually be read and decided upon, or just decided upon. Sometimes the agent says, "I need to read it again" and then some emergency with a client comes up and she gets distracted for a while. I can't think of a time when I have ever seen a boss actually decide to offer presentation and then not do so in the next three minutes, maybe 5 if she got a busy signal on the first call.
Why are we STILL on the subject of gift baskets?
Just curious: If the "Gift" basket/certificate is sent to the agent as a thank you, is the agent supposed to send a thank-you for the thank-you?
A quick email acknowledging that it arrived is more than adequate if you ask me.
But you didn't, did you . . . ask me?
I would assume the same rules apply here that apply in any real life gift basket situation - you send a thank you if you feel like it or feel you should. My dad, who is a skin cancer surgeon, often does work pro-bono for needy patients or friends, so he regularly gets gift baskets. I don't know if he sends thank yous, but I've never seen him do it. On the other hand, if someone sent me a large gift basket for my birthday, I might send a thank you note. Who knows?
A quick email acknowledging that it arrived is more than adequate if you ask me.
But you didn't, did you . . . ask me?
I would assume the same rules apply here that apply in any real life gift basket situation - you send a thank you if you feel like it or feel you should. My dad, who is a skin cancer surgeon, often does work pro-bono for needy patients or friends, so he regularly gets gift baskets. I don't know if he sends thank yous, but I've never seen him do it. On the other hand, if someone sent me a large gift basket for my birthday, I might send a thank you note. Who knows?
Saturday, November 04, 2006
.......What?
Apparently my last post was accidentally cross-posted in some alternate universe in which people are born without the mass of brain known for processing "rationality" and instead just have a giant impulse center that forces them to hit "Leave Your Comment" on every website they see.
Allow me to repost:
Question: "When your boss makes a sale, does expect her client to send her a gift?" [In other words, is the agent/client relationship a tipping situation?]
Answer: No, it is not a tipping situation. Gifts are not necessary. If you feel compelled to give one, it will be appreciated, but try not to send bulky or perishable items that will take up space in the office and/or go bad if the agent happens to be on vacation. Do not send food, as you don't know if the agent is vegetarian, vegan, kosher, halal, allergic to peanuts, allergic to gluten, diabetic, on TPN (intravenous feeding), or is fasting while sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment.
I hope this clears everything up.
(P.S. If your agent is sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment, he/she may be doing that for a while and you should probably seek literary representation elsewhere.)
Allow me to repost:
Question: "When your boss makes a sale, does expect her client to send her a gift?" [In other words, is the agent/client relationship a tipping situation?]
Answer: No, it is not a tipping situation. Gifts are not necessary. If you feel compelled to give one, it will be appreciated, but try not to send bulky or perishable items that will take up space in the office and/or go bad if the agent happens to be on vacation. Do not send food, as you don't know if the agent is vegetarian, vegan, kosher, halal, allergic to peanuts, allergic to gluten, diabetic, on TPN (intravenous feeding), or is fasting while sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment.
I hope this clears everything up.
(P.S. If your agent is sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment, he/she may be doing that for a while and you should probably seek literary representation elsewhere.)
Friday, November 03, 2006
The Giving of Gifts
When your boss makes a sale, does expect her client to send her a gift? Flowers, perhaps? A bottle of champagne? Something more expensive if it was a big sale?
No. We expect our fifteen percent. Actually we take it, because the publisher writes us a check and then we cut a smaller check to send to the author. It's part of the author/agent relationship and it's written into the publishing contract under the agency clause.
Gifts are actually sort of annoying. A lot usually come in at Christmas time, from authors on our client list who haven't written anything for a while and from publishing houses. This is a problem when they are gift baskets that contain fruit or something else that expires, because very often, the agent isn't in the office on Dember 24-25 and so the package might sit on the desk until January 2nd. Once I went in on December 23rd or so to handle the mail while my old boss was away, and I called her up because we'd gotten this huge gift package from some offer that contained a lot of different types of fruit and candy. She said, "Well, I'm not coming in to pick it up, so just take it home and eat it or whatever. Oh, and remember to tell me what it contained so I can write a thank you note." A lot of the items were unkosher and therefore went uneaten by me. Waste of money.
No. We expect our fifteen percent. Actually we take it, because the publisher writes us a check and then we cut a smaller check to send to the author. It's part of the author/agent relationship and it's written into the publishing contract under the agency clause.
Gifts are actually sort of annoying. A lot usually come in at Christmas time, from authors on our client list who haven't written anything for a while and from publishing houses. This is a problem when they are gift baskets that contain fruit or something else that expires, because very often, the agent isn't in the office on Dember 24-25 and so the package might sit on the desk until January 2nd. Once I went in on December 23rd or so to handle the mail while my old boss was away, and I called her up because we'd gotten this huge gift package from some offer that contained a lot of different types of fruit and candy. She said, "Well, I'm not coming in to pick it up, so just take it home and eat it or whatever. Oh, and remember to tell me what it contained so I can write a thank you note." A lot of the items were unkosher and therefore went uneaten by me. Waste of money.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
The Sad Scam of Professional Editors
Every once in a while a writer comes along that I feel sorry for, not because I'm crushing their hopes and dreams by mailing them a rejection, but because they've clearly got no clue what they're doing.
Today we got an unrequested full manuscript. This happens from time to time - usually the author tries to make it seem in the query like it was requested by being vague. (We hate that) Today the manuscript was an especially long piece of historical fiction, something like 150K. That's not totally unacceptable for historical fiction if it's a sweeping epic, by the way (Shogun must be well over 200K), but the poor guy mailed it unrequested, and it obviously cost him a fortune to do so - especially because he sent it priority from Canada.
Rubbing salt in his own wounds was his mention of using a "profesional editor" for his manuscript. There are professional editors out there who are actually professionals, and you don't know who they are. They're usually individuals who get contract work from agencies and publishing house editors who know them and are willing to shell out the money for their services. It's sort of an in-industry thing - we only contact a professional editor if we know them personally and know their track record.
He even included the recommendation letter from the editor, who was from some scam editing company in Canada. I know the pain of being tricked into "professional" editing companies. When I was sixteen, after a slew of rejections for my terrible novel, I shelled out about $600 of my Bat Mitzvah money to use the services of a company. I think it was Edit Inc. Anyway, I got the manuscript back and all they had done was change around some punctuation. They didn't mention the obvious problems with the novel, which I had written when I was thirteen and actually made very little sense because, well, I was thirteen.
These companies usually charge by the page (I think the rate I got was 5 cents a page) or by every hundred words, so this author shelled out big for the editing, which clearly did nothing for his manuscript. I'm particularly tough on historical fiction, because I have a BA in history and about half the books I read for fun are history books, and historical fiction is really a genre that requires a lot of research and if you make a mistake, I probably have enough expertise to catch it. Well, I didn't get more than three paragraphs in before the first mistake.
The story took place in Roman Britain and the main character was a rather foul-mouthed Briton. He was so foul-mouthed that he apparently had gone forward in time to learn new curse words that hadn't been invented yet. Shit is legitimately a word that predates the Norman invasion (1066), but it probably originated the Germanic tribes who fought against the Romans and didn't make it to the isle of Britain until the Anglo-Saxon invasion, when it was scitte. It didn't become schītte until Middle English developed after the Norman invasion. (Chaucer wrote in Middle English)
Fuck is another word that probably wasn't in the regular vocabulary of a first-century Briton. It also only has origins back to the Anglo-Saxons, when it was probably a different word, because by the Norman invasion it was still fuken. In other words, having the main character say, "What is the fucking problem?" denotes a serious problem - lack of research.
This guy should have spent the probably thousand bucks he dropped on editing and mailing around his huge manuscript on some history books instead.
Today we got an unrequested full manuscript. This happens from time to time - usually the author tries to make it seem in the query like it was requested by being vague. (We hate that) Today the manuscript was an especially long piece of historical fiction, something like 150K. That's not totally unacceptable for historical fiction if it's a sweeping epic, by the way (Shogun must be well over 200K), but the poor guy mailed it unrequested, and it obviously cost him a fortune to do so - especially because he sent it priority from Canada.
Rubbing salt in his own wounds was his mention of using a "profesional editor" for his manuscript. There are professional editors out there who are actually professionals, and you don't know who they are. They're usually individuals who get contract work from agencies and publishing house editors who know them and are willing to shell out the money for their services. It's sort of an in-industry thing - we only contact a professional editor if we know them personally and know their track record.
He even included the recommendation letter from the editor, who was from some scam editing company in Canada. I know the pain of being tricked into "professional" editing companies. When I was sixteen, after a slew of rejections for my terrible novel, I shelled out about $600 of my Bat Mitzvah money to use the services of a company. I think it was Edit Inc. Anyway, I got the manuscript back and all they had done was change around some punctuation. They didn't mention the obvious problems with the novel, which I had written when I was thirteen and actually made very little sense because, well, I was thirteen.
These companies usually charge by the page (I think the rate I got was 5 cents a page) or by every hundred words, so this author shelled out big for the editing, which clearly did nothing for his manuscript. I'm particularly tough on historical fiction, because I have a BA in history and about half the books I read for fun are history books, and historical fiction is really a genre that requires a lot of research and if you make a mistake, I probably have enough expertise to catch it. Well, I didn't get more than three paragraphs in before the first mistake.
The story took place in Roman Britain and the main character was a rather foul-mouthed Briton. He was so foul-mouthed that he apparently had gone forward in time to learn new curse words that hadn't been invented yet. Shit is legitimately a word that predates the Norman invasion (1066), but it probably originated the Germanic tribes who fought against the Romans and didn't make it to the isle of Britain until the Anglo-Saxon invasion, when it was scitte. It didn't become schītte until Middle English developed after the Norman invasion. (Chaucer wrote in Middle English)
Fuck is another word that probably wasn't in the regular vocabulary of a first-century Briton. It also only has origins back to the Anglo-Saxons, when it was probably a different word, because by the Norman invasion it was still fuken. In other words, having the main character say, "What is the fucking problem?" denotes a serious problem - lack of research.
This guy should have spent the probably thousand bucks he dropped on editing and mailing around his huge manuscript on some history books instead.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Living wage? Hahahahahahaha.
I'm interested in the publishing industry. I work for a small online publisher in the DC area but would like to be in the lit agency biz. That would mean, of course, doing some time in the trenches and doing that time in NYC. Like DC, New York isn't cheap. So, that leaves me wondering. What is the average salary for the entry-level agent? How much mac and cheese will I have to eat until moving up the ladder?
Standard pay for an assistant in NYC is $10/hour. Sub-agents make their money on commission, which is usually next-to-nothing when starting out. In other words, get ready to sell your plasma for cash if you want to stay financially afloat.
Me? I'm in grad school full time, so I'm supported by my parents, to be perfectly honest. My job at the agency is really more about gaining enough experience to get a full-time job at a publishing house once I graduate, where I'll get a salary plus maybe health and dental.
Standard pay for an assistant in NYC is $10/hour. Sub-agents make their money on commission, which is usually next-to-nothing when starting out. In other words, get ready to sell your plasma for cash if you want to stay financially afloat.
Me? I'm in grad school full time, so I'm supported by my parents, to be perfectly honest. My job at the agency is really more about gaining enough experience to get a full-time job at a publishing house once I graduate, where I'll get a salary plus maybe health and dental.
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