Saturday, July 14, 2018

chapter outlines on submission (or ever)

I learned from a writer/freelance editor that some agents now require chapter outlines as part of the submission package, in addition to the query letter, synopsis, and specified number of manuscript pages.

Chapter outline: single or double space? A few sentences per chapter or major plot points as bullets? Or a summary paragraph per chapter?

I'll have it in my toolbox if needed.

Wait, what??
I've never heard of this for novels.
Non-fiction sure, but for a novel?

The first question you need to ask W/FE is "who asked for that" and get actual data.
And then think about this: most novels have DOZENS of chapters.
Non-fiction may have 20; I've sold books on proposal that have had as few as 10 chapters.

But outlining 48-100 chapters is nuts.
It's like a synopsis on steroids.
And I've never had an editor ask for something like this for a novel. Synopses sure, but never chapter outlines.

So, let's verify that someone actually did ask for this.
Then let's just all agree to say "naaaahhh"
Cause this is insane.

Friday, July 13, 2018

Pilgrimage

Many years ago I was at Powell's City of Books with an author whose name is lost to my shrinking memory cache. 

After the author's reading, as we were leaving, we came across a young writer gazing at a sign that was a line from a short story by Raymond Carver.

A brief meeting of the Raymond Carver Fan Club, Chapter 97209 was called to order.

The young writer told us he was on his way, that very night, to Port Angeles, to visit the grave of Raymond Carver. A pilgrimage of sorts. He was getting ready to start a new novel, and paying homage to Raymond Carver was his way of invoking the Muse, much as the ancients did before they took up the task of taming words into a story.

I was enchanted by that idea (as you can see, I've remembered it - albeit missing bits - for years). I wondered for whom I would undertake a pilgrimage. Who would I invoke to bless my efforts?

James Crumley would top the list. But I wouldn't visit his grave, I'd visit Crumley corner in The Depot, Missoula, Montana.




And if you don't know the work of James Crumley, I envy you. You now get to buy his books and experience the raw pleasure of reading an undisputed master for the very first time. Like how Keats felt about another writer who was known to invoke the Muse:


On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

Do you invoke a muse?
And for whom would you make a pilgrimage?

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Published authors have read my ms! Three cheers, right? right?

If I've had published authors read my manuscript and have given positive feedback, can I / should I use this in my query letter. I know you shouldn't mention beta readers, but I wondered if pubed pubbed* authors also fall in this category.

I've found people that say yes do it and people that say hell no! What's the real deal about doing this?

Well, yes you should tell me but not for the reason you think.
You should tell me so I know what blurb opportunities you've squandered.

You don't get two trips to the well on a single book.
Once someone has read your book for a blurb (be they pubbed, not pubbed, almost pubbed, regretting their life choices in pubbing) that's it.

You don't get to go back and say "hey, the book underwent substantial revisions with the agent and the editor. Can you read again and give me a blurb?"

And let's face facts. The number of books that came in and went out without a fair amount of revision is
ZERO

The question you didn't ask but should have is: should I ask someone to read my book for a blurb before I send it to an agent? The answer is NO.

And if you think I'm just a fussy cross patch:




Bottom line: don't ask anyone for a blurb before you have a publishing deal.

What you CAN do is mention that you know Published Author and s/he had indicated she's up for blurbing the book. That's actually of far greater value than a blurb on a book now.



*I love this typo with all my heart, and you know I make a LOT of typos my own self!

Wednesday, July 11, 2018

Your book is categorically not fiction. What is it?

I'm currently in the process of drafting query letters, but I'm having a genre problem.

I've written an extensive collection of limericks on mental and social health. I know it's not fiction. It's closer to non-fiction, but submission instructions for non-fiction often ask for sample chapters, and this collection won't be in chapter format.

Ok, fine, it's a poetry book, but... I think of poetry as relatively esoteric stuff, and I don't see this book belonging in the poetry section. I think it makes more sense to present it as a kind of humorous self-help book, or a novelty book one buys near the cash register at Urban Outfitters.

Thanks for any guidance you can offer on creating an appropriate and effective query letter. 

You're closest with "novelty book" but the correct term is gift book.
You query this as you would non-fiction, and while it's true you don't have sample chapters, you have sample pages. You'd include some of the limericks.

Were this to cross my desk the first thing I'd look for is platform. This is the kind of book that needs 10,000+ Instagram followers to be viable.

Also, I don't know what "social health" means.

The trick to getting category right is find books that are like yours.  Look at the back cover. Often there will be a category listed for the book.



This is the back cover of Life's Little Instruction Book which is a gift book, and also considered self-help.  Most books have this kind of information somewhere on the back cover.

Here's are some other examples from three books pulled at random from my shelf:

Lower center

Upper Left corner

Upper left corner


Tuesday, July 10, 2018

Notifying other agents of an R&R

I know you're supposed to notify other agents if you get an offer from an agent, but not to notify them if you get a full request. But what if you get a Revise and Resubmit? Should you let others with the full know? How are you supposed to know whether to proceed with the request if others still have the full? Should you give them a head's up?

Don't assume that the requested revisions improve the book. Just cause An Agent said it, doesn't make it the best choice.

It's one thing to say the pacing is off in the middle chunk of the book; it's another thing entirely to say all your characters need to be vegan cause that's the new hot thing in dino porn, and oh by the way more sex scenes so it's not Lickosaurus lite.

However, if you do decide to undertake major revisions, what you can do is withdraw your manuscript from the other agents who have it, revise, then send it back.

Most of us would rather read the version you think is best.

You don't HAVE to do that; you CAN do it.

You can also let the submissions run their course. I can hear you muttering on your hamster wheel "but what if this new revision would have worked where the first version didn't??!!??"

And that is why writer should always have bottle of hooch next to their desk.

How to decide?

Well, if the revision requests are things like "pick up the pacing", "develop the characters", "build the world" generally those are things most agents will agree on as problems.

You'd be well advised to withdraw the manuscript, fix the problems and resubmit.

Things that are more idiosyncratic, and more personal reading taste "I didn't like Felix Buttonweezer very much" vary from agent to agent and "fixing" that "problem" might not improve the ms from another agent's point of view.

If those are the revisions requested, you can make them but NOT withdraw the other manuscripts from consideration, and send this revision only to the agent who suggested it.

There is no one right way here.

How to figure out what to do: email the agents with the requested fulls and ask them.

I get these kind of emails and my standard response is "I always want to read your best work. If you intend to revise in a major way, I'd rather read the revisions."

Not all agents will respond that way, but at least you'll know the lay of the land.

Bottom line: you do not have to notify other agents of a revise and resubmit.

Monday, July 09, 2018

Revising while your novel is a requested full

I'm just back from a reading binge of 26+  novels/memoirs/proposals.
I didn't read all of them start to finish. My practice is to read until I have to say no.
Often that's within about 100 pages.

But for a couple novels I knew I was going to say no, but I still read the whole thing cause I wanted to find out what happened. That's VERY good since it means I was interested even though there were problems with the book.

Both these novels had undergone revisions while they were pending in my reading pile. (Probably more than a few, since you can't keep an author from tinkering unless you tape their hands to something, and even then they try to type with their noses or toeses).

What happened with both the books was the revisions changed key pieces of information about characters and the time line. That change had NOT been integrated into the manuscript as a whole. So, someone who majored in math in chapter 206, was introduced as someone who majored in physics on page 2.

When you're revising, and familiar with the manuscript, you don't see that.
When I'm reading, and page 2 was six hours ago, I do.

This is not the kind of meticulous writing I look for.
Enough of it, and I'm much more likely to stop reading.

So, how to fix it?
Well, don't stop revising. I often find that my 101st revision is where the really good stuff finally gets on the page.

When you finish a revision you need to let the manuscript lie fallow for a week,  then go back and read it all the way through again.

And you probably need to read it aloud to catch the homonyms and wrong words. My favorites are hoard/horde, and stubble/stumble. (In fact, I caught your/you're in the title of this blog post ONLY after I let it sit overnight.)

In other words, if you revise, you need to make sure you've improved the ms, not created problems for yourself.

Sunday, July 08, 2018

Back to the real world!

Yesterday's blog post asked you guess how many manuscripts I'd read during this past reading retreat.

Some of you were pretty skeptical of my reading speed!
John Davis Frain guessed 1
Steve Forti guessed 6
Lisa Bodenheim guessed 7
AJ Blythe guessed 8

Sharyn Ekbergh, Melanie Sue Bowles
and Karen McCoy all guessed 9
Some of you were pretty skeptical of my need for sleep, food, or water!
lamandarin guessed 42
Jennifer R. Donohue guessed 48
Amy Johnson thinks I'm the Tasmanian Devil Reader: 104!!!

Here are the ones closes to the correct number:
22 Dahcee Sahaydak
22 Adele 
22 Kate Larkindale
23 April

25 Heather
25 Donnaeve

26 Jen

27 Megan V
28 Peggy Larkin 

30 MB Owen
30 Sam Mills
Jen was right on the money, it was 26.


Then I looked at the more difficult category: the most common phrase.

It's very clear a lot of you have gotten enough form letters to recognize them

Cecilia Ortiz Luna There is a lot to like about your ms, however

Adele Thank you for sending me your work, however  
Sharyn Ekbergh Some great writing here, but

RosannaM There is a lot to like about your work, but

Charlogo Just one agent's opinion

Jeannette Leopold Not quite right for me

Jennifer R. Donohue Thank you very much for the opportunity to review your manuscript, Regretfully

Jen "not what I'm looking for at at this time"

Dena Pawling Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to consider your work

Joseph Snoe I have to pass

Barbara Ellis not quite right for my list. However writing is subjective and I'm sure another agent will feel differently

Kate Larkindale While there's is a lot to love about this manuscript, I'm afraid

Some of you took the criteria literally

C.M. Monson Best of luck

Sam Hawke Very best wishes to you

AJ Blythe Regards, Janet Reid

Sam Mills Good Luck

Beth Carpenter Best of luck

Sherin Nicole I finished

Colin Smith Dear/Not right for me

April not a good fit

Some of you channeled the Hopes of All Writers
Amy Johnson (she of the 104!) love, love, love it

Craig F rewrite and resubmit

CynthiaMc I can sell this book!

Timothy Lowe I love this

And the best of the Optimist lot is Claire Bobrow's
If you have not yet found representation, I would be happy to discuss your project further. Would sometime next week be convenient for a telephone call

Some of you were pretty darn hilarious (no surprise there!)
BrendaLynn Have you any salt?

John Davis Frain This is how I define unputdownable. This is also how I define markupable

And of course, the all time prompt word wrangle champion Steve Forti:
They don't think it be like this but it do
which is not something Marlo Stanfield says in The Wire, but should be.


I didn't express myself well enough on the blog post. What I was looking for was a word or phrase I used during this particular reading retreat, one I didn't use regularly.

Some of you intuited that was what I was looking for:
Curt David Please forgive

Sherry Howard I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting so long

Megan V Thanks for/your patience/writing to me about your work/sending me your tears, they were delicious (JR: ok, 3 out of 4 here!)

Peggy Larkin I'm sorry for the long delay in my response (but I'm sure you've enjoyed a lot of exercise on your hamster wheel in the interim ) (JR:not the parenthetical, even if I thought it!)
But no one actually got it quite right: "I apologize for the unconscionable amount of time it's taken me to reply to your email of (date.)



Megan V
and Peggy Larkin and Jen all came close enough in both mss count and common phrases that I think we need three winners today!


If all y'all will email me with your mailing address, I'll get a copy of Jeff Somers' Writing Without Rules out to you you. If you already have a copy, we can pick another book!



Thanks to all of you who weighed in on the question! Reading these made a nice transition back to the real world, and, sadly, leaving Intern Ty my fuzzy friend.