Two authors signed with an agent, both having written exceptional books. Both waited and waited and waited for six whole weeks to hear back from publishers.
Author one wanted so badly to be published and went off on his own to self-publish, so he could say he had written a book that he could show to his friends and family.
Author two got an offer from a subsidy publisher, a great deal, if she could come up with the $5000 needed for the buy-in.
Was either author properly served by the agent? Should author one have waited longer to get a positive response from a publisher? Should author two wait for another publisher or spend the money and take the offered deal?
This post could be about ten authors, or a hundred, or a thousand. It would not matter. The publishing world is fickle. We've all read books that we think should never have been published. Some of us have written books that should get a publishing contract right away. But in the publishing world, it can often take six months to get a response from a publisher. This is very, very hard for some authors, and even harder for an agent who does all the work she does and doesn't get a dime in return until after the first royalty check, which can be two years away!
Yes, the publishing world is fickle. I was chatting with a publisher just this afternoon and was told that he gets over 200 manuscript submissions a week and turns down over 90% of them. He told me about one of his authors, who was turned down 113 times before landing a book contract that has now turned into both a best seller and a movie deal!
Two authors diverged on an agent...
One took the traveled road and self-published...
The other took the less traveled road....
And waited, and waited, and waited....
And got an offer, but not the one expected...
Which one fared better?
Who knows?
(A little tribute to one of my favorite poets, Robert Frost).
Yes, the publishing road is fickle. But it is our world and we live in it and have to live with its ups and downs, its excitements and disappointments. We cannot change it.
The good thing about the above two authors - I think they both did the right thing, for them, personally. There are many roads to publishing. Which one is right for which author?
Monday, November 28, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Breast Problems?
I have been editing a lot of romance novels lately and there seems to be one grammatical mistake that every one of the writers has made. It concerns the part of the female anatomy that I call "breasts." This is an example of what I regularly find:
He ran his hands over her breast, cupping each one. But both her breast did not respond like he wanted.
Why is it that something as simple as this is being overlooked in writing, and not just by one author, but by at least eleven? Yes, eleven different authors, fourteen different books, and they all made the same mistake, over and over again. No exceptions.
I asked one of our authors the other night about it and she said agreed with me that it could be because some big-wig romance author did it once, everyone read her, and now everyone makes the same mistake. Is it a sub-culture mindset that accepted the mistake as fact and never corrected itself? I don't know, but it is sure funny. It wasn't funny the first ten times, of course, but it is now.
But let me be clear on this simple rule: one is a "breast" and two are "breasts."
He ran his hands over her breast, cupping each one. But both her breast did not respond like he wanted.
Why is it that something as simple as this is being overlooked in writing, and not just by one author, but by at least eleven? Yes, eleven different authors, fourteen different books, and they all made the same mistake, over and over again. No exceptions.
I asked one of our authors the other night about it and she said agreed with me that it could be because some big-wig romance author did it once, everyone read her, and now everyone makes the same mistake. Is it a sub-culture mindset that accepted the mistake as fact and never corrected itself? I don't know, but it is sure funny. It wasn't funny the first ten times, of course, but it is now.
But let me be clear on this simple rule: one is a "breast" and two are "breasts."
Monday, November 7, 2011
Copyright and Copywriting
I am always amused when an author tells me, their editor, before they give me the manuscript, "Remember, I own the copyright. You can't take it from me." I know this is because it is not common knowledge that copyright belongs to the creator until it is expressly assigned.
Of course, it is normal to worry about who owns copyright to your life's work. Sometimes, however, it is amusing. I had a potential client recently who told me he was not going to give me the manuscript until he heard back from the U.S. Copyright Office that he did indeed own the copyright. To me, this set off a red light.
As it turned out, he had taken someone else's nonfiction ebook and paid someone to rewrite the book. I know that means he owns copyright and I'm sure there was no flagrant plagiarism, but to me that is unethical. I refused to edit anything he had that had been "rewritten" because it was not his work or the work of his ghost writer - it was the work of the original author.
Copying is still cheating, even if you change the words around. Copyright is for the expression of ideas and sometimes for the ideas themselves. But rewriting someone's work is cheating, is unethical, and is not something an editor like me (who prides himself on his ethics) can edit and still be "clean."
Of course, it is normal to worry about who owns copyright to your life's work. Sometimes, however, it is amusing. I had a potential client recently who told me he was not going to give me the manuscript until he heard back from the U.S. Copyright Office that he did indeed own the copyright. To me, this set off a red light.
As it turned out, he had taken someone else's nonfiction ebook and paid someone to rewrite the book. I know that means he owns copyright and I'm sure there was no flagrant plagiarism, but to me that is unethical. I refused to edit anything he had that had been "rewritten" because it was not his work or the work of his ghost writer - it was the work of the original author.
Copying is still cheating, even if you change the words around. Copyright is for the expression of ideas and sometimes for the ideas themselves. But rewriting someone's work is cheating, is unethical, and is not something an editor like me (who prides himself on his ethics) can edit and still be "clean."
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Tips for Getting a Literary Agent
I was recently surfing the web to find other literary agents. In doing so, I saw a lot of advice on how to approach a literary agent. I agreed with most of it and thought I'd summarize the advice in a few rules:
RULES FOR GETTING AN AGENT
1. Make sure your manuscript is edited before approaching the agent.
2. Write a summary paragraph about the plot/story lines of your book. Any more and it is overkill.
3. Be honest with the agent about your previous publications.
4. Send ALL of your contact information to the agent.
That is all that is really needed. A good agent will read your summary paragraph and be able to tell right away if it is worth seeing the manuscript. Don't send the manuscript yet, however. Do that after you are asked. But please make sure the manuscript has been edited. If you don't have it edited and the agent asks to see it shortly after you send the query, then you will be embarrassed and may be turned down for representation.
RULES FOR GETTING AN AGENT
1. Make sure your manuscript is edited before approaching the agent.
2. Write a summary paragraph about the plot/story lines of your book. Any more and it is overkill.
3. Be honest with the agent about your previous publications.
4. Send ALL of your contact information to the agent.
That is all that is really needed. A good agent will read your summary paragraph and be able to tell right away if it is worth seeing the manuscript. Don't send the manuscript yet, however. Do that after you are asked. But please make sure the manuscript has been edited. If you don't have it edited and the agent asks to see it shortly after you send the query, then you will be embarrassed and may be turned down for representation.
Who Do You Write Like?
I was recently asked by an author this question: "who do you write like?" May answer was simple: "I write like myself."
I am paraphrasing a billboard not far from where I live, when saying that I cannot write like someone else because that person's writing style is already taken.
When I compose a query for an author, to send to a publisher, I try to include a biographical statement. A part of that statement is the author's literary influences. In other words, who does the author see as influences as to both what they write and their writing style. But who your writing style is like and who influences it are two different things. The first is impossible, the second is the fun of meeting writers.
Who are my literary influences? Well, let's list them:
James Ramsey Ullman
Frank Slaughter
Bl. Pope John Paul the Great
Thucydides
Robert Remini
Alexandre Dumas
Anne Bronte
Ralph McInerny
Margaret Truman
Robert Frost
Russell Kirk
Orestes Brownson
Parke Godwin
Taylor Caldwell
Louis L'Amour
W. P. Kinsella
I know that is a big list, but I am a complicated guy!
I am paraphrasing a billboard not far from where I live, when saying that I cannot write like someone else because that person's writing style is already taken.
When I compose a query for an author, to send to a publisher, I try to include a biographical statement. A part of that statement is the author's literary influences. In other words, who does the author see as influences as to both what they write and their writing style. But who your writing style is like and who influences it are two different things. The first is impossible, the second is the fun of meeting writers.
Who are my literary influences? Well, let's list them:
James Ramsey Ullman
Frank Slaughter
Bl. Pope John Paul the Great
Thucydides
Robert Remini
Alexandre Dumas
Anne Bronte
Ralph McInerny
Margaret Truman
Robert Frost
Russell Kirk
Orestes Brownson
Parke Godwin
Taylor Caldwell
Louis L'Amour
W. P. Kinsella
I know that is a big list, but I am a complicated guy!
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