Mari Walker’s Blog
A New Author’s LifeArchive for August, 2007
Ten Keys To Approaching the Giants –What I’ve Learned
Key Number 2 Rewrite! Rewrite! Rewrite!
This should really have been Key number one. Okay, so you’ve labored long and hard and have finally written “the end” to your very first novel. Congratulations! Finishing is your very first hurdle and is not to be taken lightly. You love your book, your family and friends rave about it. But is it time to begin sending it out to prospective agents or publishers? Absolutely not! Surprised, hunh? Once you get your story down on paper, this is just your first draft. Your manuscript should go through second, third, fourth, or even more drafts before it’s polished enough to begin sending out. Even bestselling authors must edit the first draft and revise it before submitting it to thier editors.
Rewrites are part of t-phe business. This is a fact of life. And it is a process that will make a poor writer better, a good writer great, and a great writer a best selling author! (well, sometimes.) Writing is just like any other craft. You must work on your skills to become the best you can be. The common misconception among beginners is that “If they like my story enough, THEY will fix all my errors and make my story better.” Nothing could be farther from the truth! Most professionals are extremely busy. Most credible agents and editors, have multiple clients that they currently represent and must shuffle through hundreds of submissions per day to find new clients. Put yourself in thier shoes. Would you read a submission that is sloppy, riddled with errors, some so common that a simple spell check would fix them, and just overall unprofessionally put together with the thought, “That’s okay, I can fix this for them later?” Not hardly. Chances are you’re so busy taking work home each night and on the weekends has become a course of business for you. Why would you add correcting spelling and grammar so that I can read this, to your already long list? A well written, revised, error proofed, manuscript together with a story that takes thier breath away, is every agent or editors dream. Doing your best to deliver what they’re looking for should be the goal. This will go a long way in setting your work above the rest. Remember, a submission is the first impression the agent or editor gets of you. If your submission is sloppy and carelessly thrown together, that’s how that person will view you. If you don’t take pride in your work, why should anyone else? That’s all for now. More on this later. Take care! Mari
Find A Good Agent Part ll
Question number 2.
Are you saavy enough about publishing contracts to negotiate your deal? Do you know which rights to “give” to the publisher and which ones you should hold on to? Do you know how many different rights come with a book that you have written on your own? How about which territories your publisher should have to sell your book in? Which territories, if any should you keep? Should you have the right to look at the cover of your book before it goes to press or should your publisher be allowed to make these decisions with no input from you? These are just a tiny fraction of the items to be negotiated in a standard “boilerplate” publishing contract. Are your negotiation skills good enough to make sure your best interest has been represented?
Chances are if you’re anything like I was, by the time you receive your contract from one of the big publishers, whether they live in New York or Elsewhere, you will be so excited you will want to sign on the dotted line and send that contract back as soon as possible without even reading it! (I didn’t do that, but I had an agent to make sure I didn’t do anything that dumb!) Can you begin to see why having a good agent is very beneficial? Even those who manage to land a contract without getting an agent first, end up getting one when they receive thier contract for all the reasons I’ve mentioned here. And like my mom always told me: When you’re trying to sell something (in this case your manuscript!) 85 -90% of something is better than 100% of nothing! Take Care and I’ll write more soon! Mari
Ten Keys To Approaching the Giants –What I’ve Learned
Key Number One: Find a Good Agent!
Many first time novelists ask if they need an agent. That answer depends on what your expectations are. Almost all of the major publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. What is an unsolicted manuscript? Quite simply it is a manuscript that has not been requested by a specific editor at a publishing house. So the first hurdle that you would have to overcome would be getting an editor to request your manuscript. This is where having a good agent jumps you way ahead of the crowd of other first time writers who are trying to land a brand new manuscript in the hands of an editor.
Most good agents (please note that I said GOOD AGENTS) already have connections with editors at major houses. So who do you think will be able to attract the attention of an editor first:
An agent whom the editor knows has prescreened the manuscript and would not want to ruin an existing relationship by wasting the time of a very busy editor, by giving her a sloppy, error-riddled, unpolished manuscript, thereby saving that same editor countless hours reading something that she will most likely end up rejecting anyway,
OR: the new author who she doesn’t know from the thousands (yes thousands!) of other first time novel writers vying for her attention? You guessed it. The agent.
Before you decide that you don’t need an agent and you would rather keep all of the money from all the sales you will generate from your book ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I know which editor to approach at a major house who handles the genre that my novel falls under?
Most houses have specific editors who handle specific genres. So do you want to take a chance on sending your novel to an editor whose name you got from the internet your fiction manuscript titled Seven Ways to Fry a Trout when the only type of books the editor accepts are NON-fiction works in the medical field by physicians only? Guess where your unsolicited manuscript sent to the wrong editor will end up? If you’re “lucky” it may end up in the slush pile. If not it will be trashed. Considering how much it costs to print an entire manuscript and the postage you will spend sending your manuscript out is this where you want all your hard work to end up? I think NOT! While an agent can’t guarantee that an acquistion’s editor at a major house will buy your work, an agent can almost certainly use her connections to make sure it gets a read and increase your chances of getting an offer by matching the right editor with the right manuscript!
More on this subject and question number 2 next time! Meanwhile if you need more info please feel free to contact me! Take Care! Mari
Welcome!
Hi,
I was working on my website and I thought about my journey to become an author. I got a lot of mis-information along the way, which made an already difficult journey even moreso. So I thought that I would start this blog to share information with others just beginning the journey, to try to make it easier for you. Let me know if it helps and if you have had experiences that are different than mine,, please share yours as well!
