And then life gets away from you and you find that the blogging has become secondary again. I'm really sorry about that guys, I've just been crazy busy, doing edits, doing chores . . .
I will recommend that if any of you are feeling antsy with my poor blogging habits of late, that you follow me on Twitter. Tweeting, I have discovered, is a the perfect way to stay in touch during the crazy times. It takes only a couple seconds to make a tweet. Of course this ease of Twitter also means that people can just say things without thinking every now and then (let us recall author Alice Hoffman's angry tweeting in response to a bad review - news of which quickly made the rounds around the net back in July). But I digress.
My point is, if you ever find that I'm just not posting here as much as usual, check me out on Twitter where I do occasionally share interesting industry links and post oh so insightful tweets about my life. For example: I like to share with the world how much I love LOST. Yes. I know. You're feeling enlightened now aren't you?
I will continue to blog however. I love it. I really do. But like I've explained many times before I put a lot of work into my blog posts, and I don't want to compromise their quality because I feel a pressure to post at a point when I really don't have the time to spare. I know you guys understand this as you've always been supportive. I guess I just wanted to acknowledge that I am aware that my posting of late has been . . . crappy.
In the meantime, check out this lovely video about publishing books for teens that is both thought provoking and very true. I've always felt kids/teens don't always get the respect they deserve, and this video speaks to that:
And here's a video that's just plain adorable and has nothing whatsoever to do with publishing:
Confused Lamb Can't Find Owner - Watch more Funny Videos
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Friday, March 05, 2010
Friday Roundup
Sorry guys for the lack of posting. Back to doing crazy edits and so have been a bit remiss with the whole blogging thing.
Also back to writing very detailed film reviews which is equally as time consuming. If anyone's curious I reviewed "Alice in Wonderland" over at HardcoreNerdity.com today.
More news. . . Timothy and the Dragon's Gate made the Ontario Library Association's Best Bets list for 2009 (yay)!
And now for a couple links, but not that many as I really haven't been surfing as much this week. I'll try to be better next week I promise.
From Jean Naggar (yes that would be the head of my new lit agency, though my agent is Jessica Regel): A really interesting article about how the role of editor these days has been moved onto the shoulders of agents - The Editorial Role: An Agent's View
Agent Jessica Faust defines some publishing terms for all of us (very useful).
And last but not least, you might have already seen this, but it's so worth seeing again. 3D sidewalk art. You absolutely must visit this link, your mind will be like totally blown man.
Also back to writing very detailed film reviews which is equally as time consuming. If anyone's curious I reviewed "Alice in Wonderland" over at HardcoreNerdity.com today.
More news. . . Timothy and the Dragon's Gate made the Ontario Library Association's Best Bets list for 2009 (yay)!
And now for a couple links, but not that many as I really haven't been surfing as much this week. I'll try to be better next week I promise.
From Jean Naggar (yes that would be the head of my new lit agency, though my agent is Jessica Regel): A really interesting article about how the role of editor these days has been moved onto the shoulders of agents - The Editorial Role: An Agent's View
Agent Jessica Faust defines some publishing terms for all of us (very useful).
And last but not least, you might have already seen this, but it's so worth seeing again. 3D sidewalk art. You absolutely must visit this link, your mind will be like totally blown man.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Friday Roundup
Here we go:
Agent Rachelle Gardner blogs about the difference between Craft, Story and Voice
Two very interesting blogs about gender and hypocrisy, and holding women (both fictional and not) to ridiculous standards: one about characters within books from Sarah Rees Brennan, one about female writers from Diana Peterfreund
An old blog post from 2005 by author Tobias Buckell: Author Advances Survey
Some deeply pragmatic writing advice from author Patrick Rothfuss
Here is a fantastic link to a video of a wonderful poem about Speaking With Conviction (as opposed to, like, you know, ending each, like sentence with an upward inflection, and like, you know, adding, like and you know, to like, you know, every sentence)
An honest essay from the Los Angeles Times "A Writing Career Becomes Harder to Scale". As you guys know, I'm a fan of positivity when it comes to dealing with the book world, but even though this article paints an unfortunate picture, it's not bleak, and the information within it is very interesting and useful to know. However, if you aren't in the mood to deal with the issues of being an author in today's market, maybe skip this link for now.
And to cheer everyone up, a demonstration of a true Canadian athlete: gold medal winner of men's skeleton John Montgomery apologises (without anyone asking him to) for getting excited he won.
Lastly, here's a fun video for any LOST fans (of which I am one). Some staff members from Newsweek are shown clips of LOST and asked to explain what's going on. Oh how we shall laugh at their false assumptions watching clips that utterly do not relate to each other from a show that's now six seasons long and requires a vigilant attention to follow and is not always comprehensible to people who've seen it on multiple viewings. Those fools.
Seriously though, it's pretty funny.
Agent Rachelle Gardner blogs about the difference between Craft, Story and Voice
Two very interesting blogs about gender and hypocrisy, and holding women (both fictional and not) to ridiculous standards: one about characters within books from Sarah Rees Brennan, one about female writers from Diana Peterfreund
An old blog post from 2005 by author Tobias Buckell: Author Advances Survey
Some deeply pragmatic writing advice from author Patrick Rothfuss
Here is a fantastic link to a video of a wonderful poem about Speaking With Conviction (as opposed to, like, you know, ending each, like sentence with an upward inflection, and like, you know, adding, like and you know, to like, you know, every sentence)
An honest essay from the Los Angeles Times "A Writing Career Becomes Harder to Scale". As you guys know, I'm a fan of positivity when it comes to dealing with the book world, but even though this article paints an unfortunate picture, it's not bleak, and the information within it is very interesting and useful to know. However, if you aren't in the mood to deal with the issues of being an author in today's market, maybe skip this link for now.
And to cheer everyone up, a demonstration of a true Canadian athlete: gold medal winner of men's skeleton John Montgomery apologises (without anyone asking him to) for getting excited he won.
Lastly, here's a fun video for any LOST fans (of which I am one). Some staff members from Newsweek are shown clips of LOST and asked to explain what's going on. Oh how we shall laugh at their false assumptions watching clips that utterly do not relate to each other from a show that's now six seasons long and requires a vigilant attention to follow and is not always comprehensible to people who've seen it on multiple viewings. Those fools.
Seriously though, it's pretty funny.
Publish Post
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Where Have All the Genre Authors Gone?
Last Thursday here in Toronto the Toronto Public Library Foundation had their annual fundraising gala The Book Lover's Ball. It's a rather posh event that usually features a fashion show, a banquet, and an auction. And it's a truly lovely idea considering books seriously need some love, especially these days.
But I noticed something odd about this year's author invitation list, and as I investigated further, I felt a need to write about it. Please understand that I am in no way condemning anyone in particular with this post, and that I fully admit to not knowing the reasons behind any decisions and could very easily be wrong. My conclusions are drawn from observation, not from any conversations with any insiders or anything. I'm hardly an investigative reporter.
I'm a children's book author with probably a few too many opinions than is good for her.
I also think it is very important for The Book Lover's Ball to exist, and I understand they need to invite people to their event who will draw in sponsors and donations. I get that. I do.
So. With that caveat.
Out of the 54 invited authors this year, two can be said to be writers of SF/Fantasy, and both of those were for children. Not a single adult genre writer was invited. The closest I suppose to genre it got were a couple thriller authors. But true adult SF/Fantasy authors? Not. A. One.
This really struck a chord with me. And I'll tell you why. There has been in general, a feeling that SF/Fantasy books are somehow considered less worthy writing than other kinds. Here's an excerpt from a very interesting article specifically relating to SF books:
It isn't just the amorphous "establishment" that makes the above reclassifications, but well known authors themselves, who have dabbled in genre, have also famously denied that their work is such as if that is the ultimate insult.
Anyway. Back to the ball.
I did a very very unscientific test and looked at the lists of author invitees for the last three years that is up on their website. It's pretty clear something odd happened this year.
We begin with exhibit A: Robert J Sawyer. He arguably is THE top SF writer in the country and just this year got probably the biggest demonstration of recognition of his awesomeness - his book FlashForward was turned into a television series (you know you've made it when Hollywood takes notice - and Joseph Fiennes (yum) is your leading man). From what I can see on The Book Lover's Ball website, he was invited the previous two years. But not this year. What's changed exactly? Certainly not a lack of recognition nor a lack of books being published. Guy Gavriel Kay, again, arguably the premiere Fantasy author we have, the exact same thing: two years of invites, not again this year.
Don't tell me the inviting committee was getting bored with these authors and wanted to shake things up. I noted other authors who appeared on those previous years' invites lists, and were invited this year too.
I don't know whether something happened this year, whether this is just a coincidence that isn't worthy of me spending time blogging about it (and I really hope it is), but when you spend your time in a genre that has to fight so consistently to be recognised, you do tend to take note of situations like these.
Side note: I talk about SF/Fantasy as being not very well respected in the literary community. But don't even get me started on the poor maligned Romance category. Which, though I know little about, I do know gets even less respect than SF/Fantasy. What's even more deeply disturbing is that Harlequin has got to be one of the most successful Canadian enterprises internationally, and still evidently the books they produce aren't worthy of being included in a celebration like this.
Now I'm sure there are some of you who are shaking your heads and thinking, "Adrienne, come on, would you have written about this had you been invited? You're probably just bitter is all."
Well yes and no. I'm certainly not bitter. However, I might not have written this post had I been invited (though had I been invited that would have helped with my issue in the first place, my presence would have helped make up for the lack of genre authors). But I would not have written this blog post simply to whine about my lack of invitation. We all know I don't do that sort of thing. Nor am I at all the kind of author who thinks she deserves to be invited to every event (though, I mean, who wouldn't want me at their event, I'd be fabulous darling! ;) ).
My lack of invitation made me curious to see who had been invited. And it was upon investigating this, that I realised something wonky had happened to the genre fiction authors. And that was the reason I wrote this blog. Had something wonky not had happened to the genre fiction authors, I wouldn't have felt a need to say anything. After all, I wasn't invited last year either, did you hear a peep out of me then?
I do realise that such an event is a tricky one to organise, and that not every Canadian author can be invited. I also realise we have some amazing authors who are staples in this country and who really do deserve to have an open invitation. I can appreciate a star system as much as the next person. But this lack of genre writers really does make me cock my head to the side and go, "Huh?"
I guess what I'm trying to say is, for an event called The Book Lover's Ball, it'd be nice to see all books loved and celebrated. As they have been at past galas. Something happened this year, and it should be noted. That's all.
But I noticed something odd about this year's author invitation list, and as I investigated further, I felt a need to write about it. Please understand that I am in no way condemning anyone in particular with this post, and that I fully admit to not knowing the reasons behind any decisions and could very easily be wrong. My conclusions are drawn from observation, not from any conversations with any insiders or anything. I'm hardly an investigative reporter.
I'm a children's book author with probably a few too many opinions than is good for her.
I also think it is very important for The Book Lover's Ball to exist, and I understand they need to invite people to their event who will draw in sponsors and donations. I get that. I do.
So. With that caveat.
Out of the 54 invited authors this year, two can be said to be writers of SF/Fantasy, and both of those were for children. Not a single adult genre writer was invited. The closest I suppose to genre it got were a couple thriller authors. But true adult SF/Fantasy authors? Not. A. One.
This really struck a chord with me. And I'll tell you why. There has been in general, a feeling that SF/Fantasy books are somehow considered less worthy writing than other kinds. Here's an excerpt from a very interesting article specifically relating to SF books:
Considered by the literary establishment, and frequently by non SF award-giving institutions, to be trashy, pulpish, commercially driven lightweight gutter fiction (only a slight exaggeration, believe me), it’s no surprise that very few works of science fiction have won major literary awards. Recent notable exceptions include Cormac McCarthy winning the Pulitzer Prize for The Road (arguably science fiction), and Ray Bradbury receiving a special citation from the Pulitzer Board in the same year. On the whole though, the accolades are few and far between.
In an article about the death of science fiction author J.G. Ballard in the New York Times (April 21, 2009), Ballard’s American editor at Norton, Robert Weil, said “His fabulistic style led people to review his work as science fiction. But that’s like calling Brave New World science fiction, or 1984”
Apart from demonstrating that Robert Weil is amazingly silly, this quote highlights the problem: if you’re a famous writer in the literary world who writes a science fiction novel - and Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s 1984 are clearly science fiction works - then you’re not writing science fiction as far as publishers and the literary establishment are concerned. Great literature can never be science fiction. When established “great” authors are writing it, it’s something else entirely. No wonder science fiction is always viewed as second rate. Anything good or even above average is simply reclassified.
It isn't just the amorphous "establishment" that makes the above reclassifications, but well known authors themselves, who have dabbled in genre, have also famously denied that their work is such as if that is the ultimate insult.
Anyway. Back to the ball.
I did a very very unscientific test and looked at the lists of author invitees for the last three years that is up on their website. It's pretty clear something odd happened this year.
We begin with exhibit A: Robert J Sawyer. He arguably is THE top SF writer in the country and just this year got probably the biggest demonstration of recognition of his awesomeness - his book FlashForward was turned into a television series (you know you've made it when Hollywood takes notice - and Joseph Fiennes (yum) is your leading man). From what I can see on The Book Lover's Ball website, he was invited the previous two years. But not this year. What's changed exactly? Certainly not a lack of recognition nor a lack of books being published. Guy Gavriel Kay, again, arguably the premiere Fantasy author we have, the exact same thing: two years of invites, not again this year.
Don't tell me the inviting committee was getting bored with these authors and wanted to shake things up. I noted other authors who appeared on those previous years' invites lists, and were invited this year too.
I don't know whether something happened this year, whether this is just a coincidence that isn't worthy of me spending time blogging about it (and I really hope it is), but when you spend your time in a genre that has to fight so consistently to be recognised, you do tend to take note of situations like these.
Side note: I talk about SF/Fantasy as being not very well respected in the literary community. But don't even get me started on the poor maligned Romance category. Which, though I know little about, I do know gets even less respect than SF/Fantasy. What's even more deeply disturbing is that Harlequin has got to be one of the most successful Canadian enterprises internationally, and still evidently the books they produce aren't worthy of being included in a celebration like this.
Now I'm sure there are some of you who are shaking your heads and thinking, "Adrienne, come on, would you have written about this had you been invited? You're probably just bitter is all."
Well yes and no. I'm certainly not bitter. However, I might not have written this post had I been invited (though had I been invited that would have helped with my issue in the first place, my presence would have helped make up for the lack of genre authors). But I would not have written this blog post simply to whine about my lack of invitation. We all know I don't do that sort of thing. Nor am I at all the kind of author who thinks she deserves to be invited to every event (though, I mean, who wouldn't want me at their event, I'd be fabulous darling! ;) ).
My lack of invitation made me curious to see who had been invited. And it was upon investigating this, that I realised something wonky had happened to the genre fiction authors. And that was the reason I wrote this blog. Had something wonky not had happened to the genre fiction authors, I wouldn't have felt a need to say anything. After all, I wasn't invited last year either, did you hear a peep out of me then?
I do realise that such an event is a tricky one to organise, and that not every Canadian author can be invited. I also realise we have some amazing authors who are staples in this country and who really do deserve to have an open invitation. I can appreciate a star system as much as the next person. But this lack of genre writers really does make me cock my head to the side and go, "Huh?"
I guess what I'm trying to say is, for an event called The Book Lover's Ball, it'd be nice to see all books loved and celebrated. As they have been at past galas. Something happened this year, and it should be noted. That's all.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
"Timothy and the Dragon's Gate" nominated for an Audie!
Like the title says, Timothy was nominated in the children's titles category (ages 8 - 12) for an Audie!
The Audies, for those who don't know, are awards for audio books, and I am very excited that Timothy has received this nomination. Mostly because Christopher Lane, who narrated the book (and Alex as well) is just so fantastic. He brings a whole new dimension to the work and does some wonderful voices (and considering how many characters I like to put in my books, he does a remarkable job at keeping track who is who). So I'm really thrilled for him to say the least.
And okay, I'm also thrilled for me :) .
For a full list of nominees click here. And to visit the Audio Publishers Association website (the organisation responsible for The Audies) click here.
----------------------------------------
For those of you unaware that Alex and Timothy were available as audio books, and for those of you interested in purchasing copies they can be found online at Audible.com:
Alex and the Ironic Gentleman - Audio Book
Timothy and the Dragon's Gate - Audio Book
The Audies, for those who don't know, are awards for audio books, and I am very excited that Timothy has received this nomination. Mostly because Christopher Lane, who narrated the book (and Alex as well) is just so fantastic. He brings a whole new dimension to the work and does some wonderful voices (and considering how many characters I like to put in my books, he does a remarkable job at keeping track who is who). So I'm really thrilled for him to say the least.
And okay, I'm also thrilled for me :) .
For a full list of nominees click here. And to visit the Audio Publishers Association website (the organisation responsible for The Audies) click here.
----------------------------------------
For those of you unaware that Alex and Timothy were available as audio books, and for those of you interested in purchasing copies they can be found online at Audible.com:
Alex and the Ironic Gentleman - Audio Book
Timothy and the Dragon's Gate - Audio Book
Monday, February 15, 2010
I have a new agent!
I am finally able to share some news with everyone that is both good and bad. But ultimately good.
I have a new agent.
But, Adrienne, how can this be? The way you have spoken about the Darley Anderson Literary Agency and your agents, first Julia, then Becky, would suggest you all rather got along.
Ah, Adrienne, you are so right. But the publishing industry is a strange beast, and things can, for want of a better word . . . change.
In this case my agent Becky decided to move on to a new job at Random House UK (with which we must all wish her the best of luck). Such was the situation that the head of the agency, Darley, who was unsure when exactly they would replace her, did not want me to sit languishing as they went about the very difficult task of finding someone new.
It made sense. One of those "sad but true" kind of situations. So we parted ways. I will admit to being a little tearful at the time. After all there are very few people you can say actually changed your life, but the amazing people at the Darley Anderson Agency did. Before them I was an actress and a temp. After them . . . I was a writer. A path I had never ever intended to take was taken, and my life went on an unbelievable adventure that I could never have anticipated.
So to everyone at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency. Thank you. Thank you so much.
That is the sad news.
However!
I am happy to say that I have signed with Jessica Regel at the Jean V Naggar Agency in New York!
I am very happy to say this, because in the few short weeks we've been working together, I've had edits on two novels of mine, one is currently out on submission, and I have a great deal of hope for the second. I feel very supported and truly lucky to be able to work with such an awesome gal.
If the name sounds familiar, it should. She also represents my good friend Lesley, whom I've mentioned on this blog possibly once or twice. I also actually blogged about meeting her three years ago when Lesley and I went to NY for BEA. Lesley was meeting her agent in person for the first time, and said agent was lovely enough to invite me along to their breakfast meeting. This is what I said about the experience at the time:
Lesley and I meet up at the Parker Meridian to meet with her agent Jessica for lunch at Norma's. Norma's is AWESOME! All breakfast food, but really, you know, good breakfast food. They served us a shot of tropical frozen smoothie, and the best tasting orange juice ever. I had eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, mmmm tasty. And we chatted about writing and publishing and Jessica talked about how much she adored Lesley (and really what's not to adore) and it was just delightful.
This is the picture we took. Left to right - me, Lesley, Jessica
For your interest, since I have talked in the past about Getting An Agent and the steps one takes, I should point out that this time was a little different than back when I was an unpublished author who didn't know anyone in or really anything about the industry. In this case, because I knew Jessica, I asked Lesley if she wouldn't mind giving her a call and seeing if she would be interested in getting a query from me. I was fortunate enough that her response was not only yes, but that she'd always been really enthusiastic about my work and was keenly interested in the possibility of representing me.
I sent her less of a query, and more a straightforward email explaining the situation (what had happened with Darley etc) along with a copy of my latest manuscript.
Two days later (this girl is fast), she had sent it back with edits and an offer.
I was utterly over the moon. I went from the fear of having no agent after so many years, to the joy of having a brand new one in a very short but stressful few days.
I want to now take a brief moment to analyse what happened. As you know, I like to take everything I've learned and share it with you guys. And this whole situation taught me a pretty big lesson. It is important to remember how much things can change in this industry, and how when they do, not to give up hope. It's also important to remember that you never know where someone might wind up and it's probably best not to burn any bridges (I'm so glad, for example, I kept all my horrible opinions about Jessica to myself . . . I kid I kid . . . there's really nothing bad to say about this girl, which is a bit annoying really). Nothing is certain, even when you are a published author. Editors can change houses (I've had this happen to me twice), agents can leave you (again, twice). The one thing you can control is your work and your reputation.
To use me as an example: I already had a good reputation with Jessica. But here's the kicker. . .
I had a manuscript that I was getting rejections for last year. A lot of rejections (I've hinted at this in other posts). I was truly upset about it. But finally I decided I would write something else, something I considered far more commercial. I did. I wrote it in two and a half months which is the fastest I have ever written anything ever, and I still can't believe I did it.
And it was because I now had this commercial manuscript, a manuscript that had yet to be sent out to any publishers, that I was a viable prospect for Jessica. Had I not written this book and had I parted ways with my agency . . . I don't know if I would have received representation as quickly.
So you see: reputation and work.
It's so important to keep that in the back of your mind. Trust me, I don't always do so myself, and having just experienced what I have has really sent this message home for me.
As ever, let us all remember to be professional and thoughtful in this business. I've said it a million times, but it really matters a lot. It's so easy to vent on Twitter, on blogs, etc. It is so easy to wallow that our manuscript isn't selling. But often the most dangerous things are those that are easy.
Anyway, enough lesson learning. This is meant to be a joyful post, though bitter sweet. It's also an interesting way to start the decade. Feels like a new beginning. A new part of the adventure begins.
And as is pretty evident from my books, I do love me my adventures :) .
I have a new agent.
But, Adrienne, how can this be? The way you have spoken about the Darley Anderson Literary Agency and your agents, first Julia, then Becky, would suggest you all rather got along.
Ah, Adrienne, you are so right. But the publishing industry is a strange beast, and things can, for want of a better word . . . change.
In this case my agent Becky decided to move on to a new job at Random House UK (with which we must all wish her the best of luck). Such was the situation that the head of the agency, Darley, who was unsure when exactly they would replace her, did not want me to sit languishing as they went about the very difficult task of finding someone new.
It made sense. One of those "sad but true" kind of situations. So we parted ways. I will admit to being a little tearful at the time. After all there are very few people you can say actually changed your life, but the amazing people at the Darley Anderson Agency did. Before them I was an actress and a temp. After them . . . I was a writer. A path I had never ever intended to take was taken, and my life went on an unbelievable adventure that I could never have anticipated.
So to everyone at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency. Thank you. Thank you so much.
That is the sad news.
However!
I am happy to say that I have signed with Jessica Regel at the Jean V Naggar Agency in New York!
I am very happy to say this, because in the few short weeks we've been working together, I've had edits on two novels of mine, one is currently out on submission, and I have a great deal of hope for the second. I feel very supported and truly lucky to be able to work with such an awesome gal.
If the name sounds familiar, it should. She also represents my good friend Lesley, whom I've mentioned on this blog possibly once or twice. I also actually blogged about meeting her three years ago when Lesley and I went to NY for BEA. Lesley was meeting her agent in person for the first time, and said agent was lovely enough to invite me along to their breakfast meeting. This is what I said about the experience at the time:
Lesley and I meet up at the Parker Meridian to meet with her agent Jessica for lunch at Norma's. Norma's is AWESOME! All breakfast food, but really, you know, good breakfast food. They served us a shot of tropical frozen smoothie, and the best tasting orange juice ever. I had eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, mmmm tasty. And we chatted about writing and publishing and Jessica talked about how much she adored Lesley (and really what's not to adore) and it was just delightful.
This is the picture we took. Left to right - me, Lesley, Jessica
For your interest, since I have talked in the past about Getting An Agent and the steps one takes, I should point out that this time was a little different than back when I was an unpublished author who didn't know anyone in or really anything about the industry. In this case, because I knew Jessica, I asked Lesley if she wouldn't mind giving her a call and seeing if she would be interested in getting a query from me. I was fortunate enough that her response was not only yes, but that she'd always been really enthusiastic about my work and was keenly interested in the possibility of representing me.
I sent her less of a query, and more a straightforward email explaining the situation (what had happened with Darley etc) along with a copy of my latest manuscript.
Two days later (this girl is fast), she had sent it back with edits and an offer.
I was utterly over the moon. I went from the fear of having no agent after so many years, to the joy of having a brand new one in a very short but stressful few days.
I want to now take a brief moment to analyse what happened. As you know, I like to take everything I've learned and share it with you guys. And this whole situation taught me a pretty big lesson. It is important to remember how much things can change in this industry, and how when they do, not to give up hope. It's also important to remember that you never know where someone might wind up and it's probably best not to burn any bridges (I'm so glad, for example, I kept all my horrible opinions about Jessica to myself . . . I kid I kid . . . there's really nothing bad to say about this girl, which is a bit annoying really). Nothing is certain, even when you are a published author. Editors can change houses (I've had this happen to me twice), agents can leave you (again, twice). The one thing you can control is your work and your reputation.
To use me as an example: I already had a good reputation with Jessica. But here's the kicker. . .
I had a manuscript that I was getting rejections for last year. A lot of rejections (I've hinted at this in other posts). I was truly upset about it. But finally I decided I would write something else, something I considered far more commercial. I did. I wrote it in two and a half months which is the fastest I have ever written anything ever, and I still can't believe I did it.
And it was because I now had this commercial manuscript, a manuscript that had yet to be sent out to any publishers, that I was a viable prospect for Jessica. Had I not written this book and had I parted ways with my agency . . . I don't know if I would have received representation as quickly.
So you see: reputation and work.
It's so important to keep that in the back of your mind. Trust me, I don't always do so myself, and having just experienced what I have has really sent this message home for me.
As ever, let us all remember to be professional and thoughtful in this business. I've said it a million times, but it really matters a lot. It's so easy to vent on Twitter, on blogs, etc. It is so easy to wallow that our manuscript isn't selling. But often the most dangerous things are those that are easy.
Anyway, enough lesson learning. This is meant to be a joyful post, though bitter sweet. It's also an interesting way to start the decade. Feels like a new beginning. A new part of the adventure begins.
And as is pretty evident from my books, I do love me my adventures :) .
Friday, January 29, 2010
Friday Roundup
Yes, I realise I didn't post this week, I've been under the weather.
But I have been collecting a few links for you guys to enjoy this Friday, so check them out:
A oldy but a goody: I just stumbled on author Robert J Sawyer's post from back in 1996 about Heinlein's Rules for Writing Success - it's a good one.
The always insightful agent Kristin Nelson explains why Apple's latest iPad is a Game Changer for the publishing industry.
Following on my positivity kick of late, Agent Rachelle Gardner posts about how important it is as an author to make friends within our industry (and not just for networking purposes).
A game from Agency Gatekeeper - spot the twelve mistakes this caller made to the agency in: How Not To Communicate With Agents
In sad news JD Salinger passed away this week.
And for those of you who truly still believe agents have the evil in them, then I think the following video will help solidify that belief. For the rest of us, it's just really funny:
But I have been collecting a few links for you guys to enjoy this Friday, so check them out:
A oldy but a goody: I just stumbled on author Robert J Sawyer's post from back in 1996 about Heinlein's Rules for Writing Success - it's a good one.
The always insightful agent Kristin Nelson explains why Apple's latest iPad is a Game Changer for the publishing industry.
Following on my positivity kick of late, Agent Rachelle Gardner posts about how important it is as an author to make friends within our industry (and not just for networking purposes).
A game from Agency Gatekeeper - spot the twelve mistakes this caller made to the agency in: How Not To Communicate With Agents
In sad news JD Salinger passed away this week.
And for those of you who truly still believe agents have the evil in them, then I think the following video will help solidify that belief. For the rest of us, it's just really funny:
Saturday, January 23, 2010
First Professional IT Visit
Sticking with my positivity theme of late . . .
With all the doom and gloom about the state of the publishing industry, how evidently it will cease to exist once things move to e-books etc, I thought I'd share with you this lovely comedy sketch from Norway. You might have seen it before, it's been on the web for a few years. Technically it mocks people who call IT professionals to help them with new technology, but there is a bit of a reference to the constant evolution of reading material as well.
And it's funny.
Enjoy.
With all the doom and gloom about the state of the publishing industry, how evidently it will cease to exist once things move to e-books etc, I thought I'd share with you this lovely comedy sketch from Norway. You might have seen it before, it's been on the web for a few years. Technically it mocks people who call IT professionals to help them with new technology, but there is a bit of a reference to the constant evolution of reading material as well.
And it's funny.
Enjoy.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Darklight Book Trailer
Since Monday was the day of self-aggrandisement, I thought Wednesday should be the day of celebrating others. I should honour someone who I think is totally awesome, who's abilities I totally respect, and who you all should get to know immediately.
And then I was all like . . . but what about me???
So I came up with a remarkable solution. Today I am going to showcase a brilliant book trailer for the amazing Darklight, the second book in the series by Lesley Livingston (the first is Wondrous Strange).
This is the cover for the book:
Now, you may wonder how this in any way has to do with me. Well. I'll tell you.
First I submit that all the people involved in creating this trailer (well most, I don't know all of them I must admit) are friends of mine, so I think that shows my remarkable good taste that I would hang out with such talented, gorgeous, intelligent people.
But most importantly . . . I'm in the trailer. You will see me at the end, laughing merrily as I play Titania.
And that is why this blog post is also about me.
(But seriously guys, you have to check out this series - it's a YA Urban Fantasy Romance, about faeries in NY, and unlike some protagonists in these kinds of books we could mention, the main girl Kelley is totally kick ass. Oh. And her love interest Sonny ain't to bad either.)
The trailer:
And then I was all like . . . but what about me???
So I came up with a remarkable solution. Today I am going to showcase a brilliant book trailer for the amazing Darklight, the second book in the series by Lesley Livingston (the first is Wondrous Strange).
This is the cover for the book:
Now, you may wonder how this in any way has to do with me. Well. I'll tell you.
First I submit that all the people involved in creating this trailer (well most, I don't know all of them I must admit) are friends of mine, so I think that shows my remarkable good taste that I would hang out with such talented, gorgeous, intelligent people.
But most importantly . . . I'm in the trailer. You will see me at the end, laughing merrily as I play Titania.
And that is why this blog post is also about me.
(But seriously guys, you have to check out this series - it's a YA Urban Fantasy Romance, about faeries in NY, and unlike some protagonists in these kinds of books we could mention, the main girl Kelley is totally kick ass. Oh. And her love interest Sonny ain't to bad either.)
The trailer:
Monday, January 18, 2010
Welcome and A Walk Down Memory Lane . . .
In the last few weeks I've had some new visitors to my blog and I just wanted to say thank you very much for stopping by, I hope you visit again, and, of course, welcome! It means a lot to me that people feel like I'm blogging on subjects that interest, inform, and sometimes even inspire.
With that in mind, and seeing as I missed Friday and my usual roundup, I thought I'd post a list of previous posts I've written for those of you new to my blog. Yes, it's Monday - the day of self-aggrandisment. I do have a list of what I consider quite helpful posts in my sidebar to the right, including my road to publication, advice on how to read aloud, and General Advice on Writing/Publishing, but I thought for all my new visitors who have enjoyed my entries from the last week that you might like a quick list of posts that have garnered a particular bit of attention in the past.
I've also finally decided to add that "Followers" thingy in my sidebar, so if you are so inclined, please do click on the "Follow" button. Wondrous things will happen when you do. Namely you'll be . . . following . . .my . . . blog . . .
Now, without further ado, some of my previous posts on the world of publishing:
So you want to get published . . .Getting An Agent and From Agent To Publisher
Magical Realism
Advice and Uber Helpful Links
Chasing Trends
Addendum to Chasing Trends
Thoughtfulness
On Editing
Why I write for Children (a guest blog post at agent Nathan Bransford's blog)
Lauren Conrad's Book (about celebrity authors)
The New YA
The Self Publishing Debate
The Self Publishing Debate Becomes a Debate
Gender in the Publishing World
Why "New Adult" Interests Me
With that in mind, and seeing as I missed Friday and my usual roundup, I thought I'd post a list of previous posts I've written for those of you new to my blog. Yes, it's Monday - the day of self-aggrandisment. I do have a list of what I consider quite helpful posts in my sidebar to the right, including my road to publication, advice on how to read aloud, and General Advice on Writing/Publishing, but I thought for all my new visitors who have enjoyed my entries from the last week that you might like a quick list of posts that have garnered a particular bit of attention in the past.
I've also finally decided to add that "Followers" thingy in my sidebar, so if you are so inclined, please do click on the "Follow" button. Wondrous things will happen when you do. Namely you'll be . . . following . . .my . . . blog . . .
Now, without further ado, some of my previous posts on the world of publishing:
So you want to get published . . .Getting An Agent and From Agent To Publisher
Magical Realism
Advice and Uber Helpful Links
Chasing Trends
Addendum to Chasing Trends
Thoughtfulness
On Editing
Why I write for Children (a guest blog post at agent Nathan Bransford's blog)
Lauren Conrad's Book (about celebrity authors)
The New YA
The Self Publishing Debate
The Self Publishing Debate Becomes a Debate
Gender in the Publishing World
Why "New Adult" Interests Me
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Positivity
Apparently my "It's Not About the Odds" post really struck a chord with many of you, and I am absolutely thrilled that it did. Obviously I don't write this blog just for the fun of it, I do my best to share what I've learned in my two industries and try to put things in perspective for some. So it does mean a lot to me that you came by to let me know your thoughts, and that many of you will be sharing in my resolution this year (which I can tell you has already been tested several times over this year for me).
But the biggest thing I noticed was a sense of gratitude at the positivity in my post, and I wanted to touch on that today.
I have to tell you all, I'm not a person who's all sunshine and rainbows. I'm no Pollyanna. I can get quite down on myself just like the next person. And this industry is tough, both industries (acting and writing) are tough. From the outside I can understand how it can appear that I have it made, but trust me, I am facing the struggle as much as any of you (maybe not the same struggle, but still one that is equally frustrating and demoralising). And I wallow. And I mope. And I cry.
But here's the thing. It isn't like anyone is forcing us to take this path. Nor is it like this path is particularly treacherous compared with other certain career choices out there. I'm not trying to minimise our pain, but we don't have to go through this if we don't want to. We chose to be authors, actors, and as much as we can insist that it's more of a calling and less of a choice (something I've always felt personally), we don't need to go through all this if we really don't want to.
So the thing is . . . we do want to. Sure we don't want to feel sad in doing it, but we feel it's worth it for the ultimate goal (whatever yours may be). What's more we have enough to struggle with, the actual act of writing, the networking, the rejections, we don't need to add more to that list. And since that is the case, may I offer the following advice:
- don't read articles about the demise of publishing. First of all, publishing isn't going anywhere, and secondly, exactly what do you plan on doing with that information anyway?
- don't pay attention to the numbers (as I've already addressed)
- don't compare your path to success to anyone else's (as, again, I've already mentioned)
- Twitter wisely. By which I mean, if you find you are following someone that you constantly feel jealous of, or if you find you are following someone who only wants to post links to articles about how crappy the writing world is these days, stop following them. Follow people who inspire you, follow people you care about, you have the choice. And in turn try to tweet things that others will find positive. Don't make Twitter your personal soapbox. Try to spread the cheer, not the pain.
- to that end, read blogs wisely. Choose the industry blogs that speak to you. I like a good sarcastic rant every once in a while, so I like The Rejectionist, but I also like (as you can tell from this post) positive messages, and so really enjoy agent Kristin Nelson.
- change your way of thinking. Okay, that's a big task. But what I mean is, there tends to be the positive way of looking at something, and the negative (glass half full thing). I've blogged in the past about Celebrity Books for example. Many people hate that they exist, but instead of looking at them as if they are taking away contracts from "real" authors (which they don't, they are a totally separate market), look at them as earning tons of money for publishers so that the publishers can then take a risk on a new untested author. Also . . . Instead of looking at all the "crap" that's been published, look at all the interesting original stuff that's out there too: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures etc. Also realise that what you might consider crap, someone else considers wonderful. And it's likely that there's someone out there who considers your taste to be less than stellar.
- relish the small successes. Sure we all want to be published, and big goals are always very important. But relish achieving a word count you set for yourself in a day. Relish creating a really awesome description. Relish sending out two more queries. Relish making a new friend. Eating some good food. Look back at your day when lying in bed and list all the good things that happened.
- don't get upset with yourself for getting upset. This is something I post about often. Look, rejection sucks. That's all there is to it. But you don't want to add to the sucky-ness of the moment by being angry at yourself for feeling bad. Feel what you feel. Let it pass through you. Then you can move on. Don't waste energy on feeling that you shouldn't be feeling a certain way.
Last but not least -
- give yourself permission to fail. And don't be scared of it. Especially when it comes to your writing. So many people ask if they are allowed to do something in writing, and my answer is always, "Try, see, what's the worst that could happen?" It goes hand in hand with playing. The freer you feel to just see what happens, the more exciting the discoveries will be. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, these fears hold us back more than anything else I know.
We don't have to sit around grinning like crazy all the time in order to be positive. And I'm not saying it's easy either. Nor am I saying that we all must follow every step of my advice and never just want to bang our heads against the wall.
I'm just saying that we do have some control in a situation where we have very little. We depend on so many other people supposedly for our happiness - agents, editors, reviewers, readers. But we can also depend on ourselves. We can focus on the writing. We can choose what information we allow into our lives.
We can also just step back, take a deep breath, and stop for a second. This world might seem so fast paced, but we can choose whatever speed we want really.
Anyway, some thoughts. I hope they were helpful. I know I'll be checking this post every once in a while to remind myself of all of it. Trust me, out of everyone, I really need to practice what I preach.
But the biggest thing I noticed was a sense of gratitude at the positivity in my post, and I wanted to touch on that today.
I have to tell you all, I'm not a person who's all sunshine and rainbows. I'm no Pollyanna. I can get quite down on myself just like the next person. And this industry is tough, both industries (acting and writing) are tough. From the outside I can understand how it can appear that I have it made, but trust me, I am facing the struggle as much as any of you (maybe not the same struggle, but still one that is equally frustrating and demoralising). And I wallow. And I mope. And I cry.
But here's the thing. It isn't like anyone is forcing us to take this path. Nor is it like this path is particularly treacherous compared with other certain career choices out there. I'm not trying to minimise our pain, but we don't have to go through this if we don't want to. We chose to be authors, actors, and as much as we can insist that it's more of a calling and less of a choice (something I've always felt personally), we don't need to go through all this if we really don't want to.
So the thing is . . . we do want to. Sure we don't want to feel sad in doing it, but we feel it's worth it for the ultimate goal (whatever yours may be). What's more we have enough to struggle with, the actual act of writing, the networking, the rejections, we don't need to add more to that list. And since that is the case, may I offer the following advice:
- don't read articles about the demise of publishing. First of all, publishing isn't going anywhere, and secondly, exactly what do you plan on doing with that information anyway?
- don't pay attention to the numbers (as I've already addressed)
- don't compare your path to success to anyone else's (as, again, I've already mentioned)
- Twitter wisely. By which I mean, if you find you are following someone that you constantly feel jealous of, or if you find you are following someone who only wants to post links to articles about how crappy the writing world is these days, stop following them. Follow people who inspire you, follow people you care about, you have the choice. And in turn try to tweet things that others will find positive. Don't make Twitter your personal soapbox. Try to spread the cheer, not the pain.
- to that end, read blogs wisely. Choose the industry blogs that speak to you. I like a good sarcastic rant every once in a while, so I like The Rejectionist, but I also like (as you can tell from this post) positive messages, and so really enjoy agent Kristin Nelson.
- change your way of thinking. Okay, that's a big task. But what I mean is, there tends to be the positive way of looking at something, and the negative (glass half full thing). I've blogged in the past about Celebrity Books for example. Many people hate that they exist, but instead of looking at them as if they are taking away contracts from "real" authors (which they don't, they are a totally separate market), look at them as earning tons of money for publishers so that the publishers can then take a risk on a new untested author. Also . . . Instead of looking at all the "crap" that's been published, look at all the interesting original stuff that's out there too: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures etc. Also realise that what you might consider crap, someone else considers wonderful. And it's likely that there's someone out there who considers your taste to be less than stellar.
- relish the small successes. Sure we all want to be published, and big goals are always very important. But relish achieving a word count you set for yourself in a day. Relish creating a really awesome description. Relish sending out two more queries. Relish making a new friend. Eating some good food. Look back at your day when lying in bed and list all the good things that happened.
- don't get upset with yourself for getting upset. This is something I post about often. Look, rejection sucks. That's all there is to it. But you don't want to add to the sucky-ness of the moment by being angry at yourself for feeling bad. Feel what you feel. Let it pass through you. Then you can move on. Don't waste energy on feeling that you shouldn't be feeling a certain way.
Last but not least -
- give yourself permission to fail. And don't be scared of it. Especially when it comes to your writing. So many people ask if they are allowed to do something in writing, and my answer is always, "Try, see, what's the worst that could happen?" It goes hand in hand with playing. The freer you feel to just see what happens, the more exciting the discoveries will be. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, these fears hold us back more than anything else I know.
We don't have to sit around grinning like crazy all the time in order to be positive. And I'm not saying it's easy either. Nor am I saying that we all must follow every step of my advice and never just want to bang our heads against the wall.
I'm just saying that we do have some control in a situation where we have very little. We depend on so many other people supposedly for our happiness - agents, editors, reviewers, readers. But we can also depend on ourselves. We can focus on the writing. We can choose what information we allow into our lives.
We can also just step back, take a deep breath, and stop for a second. This world might seem so fast paced, but we can choose whatever speed we want really.
Anyway, some thoughts. I hope they were helpful. I know I'll be checking this post every once in a while to remind myself of all of it. Trust me, out of everyone, I really need to practice what I preach.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Friday Roundup
Yes it's time for Friday Roundup! Yay!
Before we launch into our list I'd like to share a wee bit of good news with y'all.
The big SF/Fantasy bookstore in Toronto is called Bakka Phoenix. It's a great place, super supportive of authors, and has just about every SF/Fantasy book you can imagine. I took my friend Emily there for the first time last year, and she was so excited to find a book she'd been looking for for years. Anyway, it totally rocks.
And I am pleased to announce that "Alex and the Ironic Gentleman" came in number 5 in their top Trade Paperback Bestsellers! What's even more impressive about this is that it's the second year that "Alex" has been out. Very cool!
My dear friend, the lovely Lesley, topped the list with her first novel "Wondrous Strange", and the delightful Robert J. Sawyer topped the hardcover list, with Megan Crewe coming in 5th. Here are all said lists for your perusal:
Mass Market Bestsellers
1. Ages of Wonder, Julie E. Czerneda & Robert St. Martin, eds.
2. Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
3. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
4. On the Edge, Ilona Andrews
5. Tyrant, Christian Cameron
Trade Paperback Bestsellers
1. Wondrous Strange, Lesley Livingston
2. Black Man, Richard Morgan
3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
4. Cast in Silence, Michelle Sagara
5. Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, Adrienne Kress
Hardcover Bestsellers
1. Wake, Robert J. Sawyer
2. Makers, Cory Doctorow
3. Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff
4. Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
5. Give Up the Ghost, Megan Crewe
And now . . . some links!
A blog from last year, but a very good read - the Waxman Agency waxes thoughtful on the definition of High Concept
Agent Janet Reid: The Fifteen Things You Need to Know B'twixt "The End" and "Send"
Agent Rachelle Gardner: The Book's the Thing
Plus ca change . . . Robert Gray on the Publishing Trends of Futures Past - yes, the book industry has always been in trouble it seems.
And last but not least:
The next link might confuse some not so deeply passionate about fonts as I am. I'll try to explain. There are certain fonts that are very popular with people who don't know a lot about design. Often these fonts are requested over and over by people of designers, and tend to be used most often on self made advertising, invitations etc. To anyone in the design world, using these fonts is considered the mark of an immature design. These are fonts that most designers can't stand. Two of them are Comic Sans and Papyrus. With all that in mind: An Open Letter to James Cameron from Papyrus
And that's it for now! Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Before we launch into our list I'd like to share a wee bit of good news with y'all.
The big SF/Fantasy bookstore in Toronto is called Bakka Phoenix. It's a great place, super supportive of authors, and has just about every SF/Fantasy book you can imagine. I took my friend Emily there for the first time last year, and she was so excited to find a book she'd been looking for for years. Anyway, it totally rocks.
And I am pleased to announce that "Alex and the Ironic Gentleman" came in number 5 in their top Trade Paperback Bestsellers! What's even more impressive about this is that it's the second year that "Alex" has been out. Very cool!
My dear friend, the lovely Lesley, topped the list with her first novel "Wondrous Strange", and the delightful Robert J. Sawyer topped the hardcover list, with Megan Crewe coming in 5th. Here are all said lists for your perusal:
Mass Market Bestsellers
1. Ages of Wonder, Julie E. Czerneda & Robert St. Martin, eds.
2. Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
3. Anathem, Neal Stephenson
4. On the Edge, Ilona Andrews
5. Tyrant, Christian Cameron
Trade Paperback Bestsellers
1. Wondrous Strange, Lesley Livingston
2. Black Man, Richard Morgan
3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith
4. Cast in Silence, Michelle Sagara
5. Alex and the Ironic Gentleman, Adrienne Kress
Hardcover Bestsellers
1. Wake, Robert J. Sawyer
2. Makers, Cory Doctorow
3. Enchantment Emporium, Tanya Huff
4. Unseen Academicals, Terry Pratchett
5. Give Up the Ghost, Megan Crewe
And now . . . some links!
A blog from last year, but a very good read - the Waxman Agency waxes thoughtful on the definition of High Concept
Agent Janet Reid: The Fifteen Things You Need to Know B'twixt "The End" and "Send"
Agent Rachelle Gardner: The Book's the Thing
Plus ca change . . . Robert Gray on the Publishing Trends of Futures Past - yes, the book industry has always been in trouble it seems.
And last but not least:
The next link might confuse some not so deeply passionate about fonts as I am. I'll try to explain. There are certain fonts that are very popular with people who don't know a lot about design. Often these fonts are requested over and over by people of designers, and tend to be used most often on self made advertising, invitations etc. To anyone in the design world, using these fonts is considered the mark of an immature design. These are fonts that most designers can't stand. Two of them are Comic Sans and Papyrus. With all that in mind: An Open Letter to James Cameron from Papyrus
And that's it for now! Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
It's not about the odds.
Yup another resolution post. Everyone's writing these. Everyone's making them. Why not jump on the bandwagon? I like the music they're playing and it's being pulled by horsies.
So, here's mine:
Stop comparing myself to others.
And there's kind of an interesting story behind coming to this conclusion. It has been something I've been thinking about for a while (and um maybe have been told a few times by others), but what made it finally click was the following:
Before the holidays many agents, as has almost become tradition, posted their stats for the year. How many queries they got, how many full manuscripts they requested, how many clients they signed. Here, for example, are some of the lovely Kristin Nelson's stats -
15
books sold
6
number of new clients (Kristin & Sara combined)
38,000
estimated number of queries read and responded to (and yes, that is up from last year)
55
full manuscripts requested (down from last year)
These stats I think are always interesting as a glimpse into the world of publishing. And yup. The numbers do paint a pretty intimidating picture.
How do I know they are so intimidating?
Because for the two weeks of holiday that followed the agent round up posts, writers on various forums spent hours upon hours analysing what the stats meant. Some were depressed by the odds, others invigorated, many many were overwhelmed. And then there was me.
I couldn't have cared less.
Well yes you would say that Adrienne, you have an agent, you've been published.
But, lest we forget, I didn't always, and I'm still trying to get other stuff published out there and still trying my hand at this insanity that is acting - where the numbers I imagine are ten times more terrifying.
I know the odds my friends, but again . . .
I couldn't care less.
Why?
Because they don't matter.
There is luck in the arts. Yup. Totally. You need to find the right person who likes the same stuff as you do, the market has to be just perfect for the kind of book you've written. And I will always maintain that the crazy successes (Harry Potter etc) get the crazy success because of good timing, not a good story (I think good storytelling would have still resulted in books that were published and had a following, but the degree of success of those kinds of books, in my mind, is not about talent - oh, btw, I think Rowling rocks, not trying a diss here).
But despite all the luck, publishing still isn't a lottery. It isn't. I've written about that before. There are very solid steps you can take that will get you published. You need to learn the craft, read a lot of books, write a lot of words. You need to then write a killer book, edit said book, have others look at the book, perfect the book. You need to write a fab query, submit to the correct agents/publishers. You need to be professional. You need to also not give up if the first book doesn't get you where you want it to. Perseverance is just as important as talent in this business. If not, arguably, more important.
And because publishing truly isn't a lottery, you can't look at the agent stats, or any stats, as meaning anything to you.
Yes, for Kristin, she signed 6 new clients out of 38 000 queries. But this doesn't lead to the conclusion that 6 authors get agented out of 38 000 queries. It means that this year, there were 6 authors who suited what Kristen was looking for, could write more than competently, and who in turn accepted her offer (she has blogged about writers turning her down in favour for other agents). It doesn't mean that there weren't authors out of the 38 000 queries who didn't sign with other agents.
Nor does it mean that if you submit your book to agents chances are they will reject it.
Basically the key point to all of this is: all books are not created equal.
When you buy a lottery ticket you have as much of a chance as the person who bought it just before you of winning that cash. You are equal.
When you submit your manuscript you have no idea how it compares to the thousands of other manuscripts that are submitted to that same agent. Chances are it is better than some, hopefully not worse than too many others. But I bet, if you're reading this blog as a hopeful as yet unpublished author doing some research, you are probably writing something better than 90% of the submitted works out there.
But let me do a little quiz just to make sure:
1. Can you write in coherent sentences, with proper spelling and grammar?
2. Do you do your research which agent is best for you to submit your work to?
3. Did you learn/or are planning to learn what a query letter is and how to construct one?
4. Are you professional and thoughtful?
If you answered yes to these questions, congrats! You are now in the top 10% of submissions.
Yes. You read that right. The lion's share of submissions sent agents are pure crap. Crap. Would you like to know how crap? Please read this lovely post by The Rejectionist. Warning it's a bit blunt, and meant to be cynically funny, please take the attitude as one as being a little over the top.
Here's another very famous post called Slushkiller over at Making Light (to which I've linked in the past). Scroll down to find a much more comprehensive quiz than the one I just made.
So, fine, Adrienne, fine. We get it. So we aren't competing against 38 000 queries for 6 slots. We are competing against 3 800 queries for 6 slots. Awesome.
No. No you're not. First of all, there aren't 6 slots. You have no idea how many new clients an agent is going to take on in a year. Guess what? Neither does the agent. They don't have a quota to fill. They are taking on new clients because they want to represent their work. This means they could take on no clients even. Hmm . . . that might not be that inspiring . . .
Second of all, and in my mind, most importantly, you aren't competing. You aren't. If you're competing against anyone it's yourself, but in a far more metaphorical way. To compete means there is a winner and a loser. Competing is what happens in acting. 100 actresses vying for one role. Only one person gets that part. End of. But anyone can get published - in theory. If you've written a quality book that suits the current market. Every book written by every author is different. Except if you've plagiarised. But that's wrong. Don't do it. You have agents who represent sometimes only one genre and yet have many clients. They can do that because there are enough differences between author voices, choices, characters etc. I mean look at the YA section these days, all urban fantasy romance, but look at all the different choices within that. All these authors co-exist. And sure some do better than others. But who knows, maybe ten years down the road, the roles will be reversed.
Agents want good books. Books that speak to them by authors they think they can work with for several years. The only numbers that matter to you are your numbers. How many rejections are you getting, are you getting requests for partials and fulls? Those matter because you can tell if there's something wrong with your query or manuscript. But what do those other numbers matter to you? In the end. What do they matter?
Nothing. The only thing I can think of is to point out just how many people want this and that we have to make sure our stuff is as awesome as possible. But. Were you not already working really hard on your novel? Were you not already making sure that everything in your query was so crystal clear so you won't alienate a potential business partner? Were you not intending on being thoughtful and professional?
Anyway.
Back to me.
After all my trying to comfort others that the stats don't matter, that we need not compete with our fellow authors, I realised that I spend far too much of my life comparing myself to others ironically. I felt like a hypocrite. And I want to change. My career is my own. And that author I'm comparing myself to has her own journey to travel. She's taking care of herself, why shouldn't I take care of me? (btw, I just used "she" so I wouldn't have to get all messed up with the "they" thing, I'm not talking about anyone in particular in case an investigation ensues post reading this)
And I hope this resolution resonates with some of you. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the lives of others, I mean, isn't that the essence of Twitter? We need to remember that we are different, and we know what works best for us, and that might not be what works best for someone else. We might want what others have, but who's to say we won't get it, in our own way. And then in turn have others comparing their lives to ours.
It's time to strip away the excess. It's too much energy taking on board everyone else's life as well. So I'll focus on the people I care about, and I'll focus on me. But the rest? It's time to let go.
It's not about the odds. It's about what I can do so they don't matter.
So, here's mine:
Stop comparing myself to others.
And there's kind of an interesting story behind coming to this conclusion. It has been something I've been thinking about for a while (and um maybe have been told a few times by others), but what made it finally click was the following:
Before the holidays many agents, as has almost become tradition, posted their stats for the year. How many queries they got, how many full manuscripts they requested, how many clients they signed. Here, for example, are some of the lovely Kristin Nelson's stats -
15
books sold
6
number of new clients (Kristin & Sara combined)
38,000
estimated number of queries read and responded to (and yes, that is up from last year)
55
full manuscripts requested (down from last year)
These stats I think are always interesting as a glimpse into the world of publishing. And yup. The numbers do paint a pretty intimidating picture.
How do I know they are so intimidating?
Because for the two weeks of holiday that followed the agent round up posts, writers on various forums spent hours upon hours analysing what the stats meant. Some were depressed by the odds, others invigorated, many many were overwhelmed. And then there was me.
I couldn't have cared less.
Well yes you would say that Adrienne, you have an agent, you've been published.
But, lest we forget, I didn't always, and I'm still trying to get other stuff published out there and still trying my hand at this insanity that is acting - where the numbers I imagine are ten times more terrifying.
I know the odds my friends, but again . . .
I couldn't care less.
Why?
Because they don't matter.
There is luck in the arts. Yup. Totally. You need to find the right person who likes the same stuff as you do, the market has to be just perfect for the kind of book you've written. And I will always maintain that the crazy successes (Harry Potter etc) get the crazy success because of good timing, not a good story (I think good storytelling would have still resulted in books that were published and had a following, but the degree of success of those kinds of books, in my mind, is not about talent - oh, btw, I think Rowling rocks, not trying a diss here).
But despite all the luck, publishing still isn't a lottery. It isn't. I've written about that before. There are very solid steps you can take that will get you published. You need to learn the craft, read a lot of books, write a lot of words. You need to then write a killer book, edit said book, have others look at the book, perfect the book. You need to write a fab query, submit to the correct agents/publishers. You need to be professional. You need to also not give up if the first book doesn't get you where you want it to. Perseverance is just as important as talent in this business. If not, arguably, more important.
And because publishing truly isn't a lottery, you can't look at the agent stats, or any stats, as meaning anything to you.
Yes, for Kristin, she signed 6 new clients out of 38 000 queries. But this doesn't lead to the conclusion that 6 authors get agented out of 38 000 queries. It means that this year, there were 6 authors who suited what Kristen was looking for, could write more than competently, and who in turn accepted her offer (she has blogged about writers turning her down in favour for other agents). It doesn't mean that there weren't authors out of the 38 000 queries who didn't sign with other agents.
Nor does it mean that if you submit your book to agents chances are they will reject it.
Basically the key point to all of this is: all books are not created equal.
When you buy a lottery ticket you have as much of a chance as the person who bought it just before you of winning that cash. You are equal.
When you submit your manuscript you have no idea how it compares to the thousands of other manuscripts that are submitted to that same agent. Chances are it is better than some, hopefully not worse than too many others. But I bet, if you're reading this blog as a hopeful as yet unpublished author doing some research, you are probably writing something better than 90% of the submitted works out there.
But let me do a little quiz just to make sure:
1. Can you write in coherent sentences, with proper spelling and grammar?
2. Do you do your research which agent is best for you to submit your work to?
3. Did you learn/or are planning to learn what a query letter is and how to construct one?
4. Are you professional and thoughtful?
If you answered yes to these questions, congrats! You are now in the top 10% of submissions.
Yes. You read that right. The lion's share of submissions sent agents are pure crap. Crap. Would you like to know how crap? Please read this lovely post by The Rejectionist. Warning it's a bit blunt, and meant to be cynically funny, please take the attitude as one as being a little over the top.
Here's another very famous post called Slushkiller over at Making Light (to which I've linked in the past). Scroll down to find a much more comprehensive quiz than the one I just made.
So, fine, Adrienne, fine. We get it. So we aren't competing against 38 000 queries for 6 slots. We are competing against 3 800 queries for 6 slots. Awesome.
No. No you're not. First of all, there aren't 6 slots. You have no idea how many new clients an agent is going to take on in a year. Guess what? Neither does the agent. They don't have a quota to fill. They are taking on new clients because they want to represent their work. This means they could take on no clients even. Hmm . . . that might not be that inspiring . . .
Second of all, and in my mind, most importantly, you aren't competing. You aren't. If you're competing against anyone it's yourself, but in a far more metaphorical way. To compete means there is a winner and a loser. Competing is what happens in acting. 100 actresses vying for one role. Only one person gets that part. End of. But anyone can get published - in theory. If you've written a quality book that suits the current market. Every book written by every author is different. Except if you've plagiarised. But that's wrong. Don't do it. You have agents who represent sometimes only one genre and yet have many clients. They can do that because there are enough differences between author voices, choices, characters etc. I mean look at the YA section these days, all urban fantasy romance, but look at all the different choices within that. All these authors co-exist. And sure some do better than others. But who knows, maybe ten years down the road, the roles will be reversed.
Agents want good books. Books that speak to them by authors they think they can work with for several years. The only numbers that matter to you are your numbers. How many rejections are you getting, are you getting requests for partials and fulls? Those matter because you can tell if there's something wrong with your query or manuscript. But what do those other numbers matter to you? In the end. What do they matter?
Nothing. The only thing I can think of is to point out just how many people want this and that we have to make sure our stuff is as awesome as possible. But. Were you not already working really hard on your novel? Were you not already making sure that everything in your query was so crystal clear so you won't alienate a potential business partner? Were you not intending on being thoughtful and professional?
Anyway.
Back to me.
After all my trying to comfort others that the stats don't matter, that we need not compete with our fellow authors, I realised that I spend far too much of my life comparing myself to others ironically. I felt like a hypocrite. And I want to change. My career is my own. And that author I'm comparing myself to has her own journey to travel. She's taking care of herself, why shouldn't I take care of me? (btw, I just used "she" so I wouldn't have to get all messed up with the "they" thing, I'm not talking about anyone in particular in case an investigation ensues post reading this)
And I hope this resolution resonates with some of you. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the lives of others, I mean, isn't that the essence of Twitter? We need to remember that we are different, and we know what works best for us, and that might not be what works best for someone else. We might want what others have, but who's to say we won't get it, in our own way. And then in turn have others comparing their lives to ours.
It's time to strip away the excess. It's too much energy taking on board everyone else's life as well. So I'll focus on the people I care about, and I'll focus on me. But the rest? It's time to let go.
It's not about the odds. It's about what I can do so they don't matter.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Friday Roundup - on Thursday . . . ooh, different . . .
Yeah, so I kind of never lived up to my promise of those Friday Roundup link posts I said I'd do a couple weeks ago. Sorry about that. Add that to the New Year's resolution list (which is turning into a tome I have to say). And yes, technically it's not actually Friday, but I've got a full day tomorrow ahead of me (much eating of food, and watching of movies, you understand), so I thought I'd do tomorrow's post today. Because, why not?
So . . . here are a couple items I thought I'd share:
Top 10 Most Surprising Performances in Genre Film 2009 - an article what I wrote over at HardcoreNerdity.com which I think is rather fun
We all know my interest in Gender in Publishing (see my blog post here), and here's a very well written, well thought out article on the subject by Julianna Baggott of the Washington Post: The Key to Literary Success? Be a Man - or Write Like One
Another new blog I've found for you industry lovers out there: S. Jae Jones - Editorial Assistant over at St. Martin's Press (she's also the lovely young lady responsible for advertising and answering any and all questions with regards to this whole "New Adult" concept they've come up with - see my blog on said subject here)
And because I am a sucker for cute cat youtube videos, here's one I just found, Whack a Kitty, and another classic, Ninja Cat - for those of you who've yet to experience their awesomeness.
Finally I want to wish you all a most happy new year's eve! Here's to 2010 and it's amazingness! And what the heck, here's to all of us and our amazingness too!
So . . . here are a couple items I thought I'd share:
Top 10 Most Surprising Performances in Genre Film 2009 - an article what I wrote over at HardcoreNerdity.com which I think is rather fun
We all know my interest in Gender in Publishing (see my blog post here), and here's a very well written, well thought out article on the subject by Julianna Baggott of the Washington Post: The Key to Literary Success? Be a Man - or Write Like One
Another new blog I've found for you industry lovers out there: S. Jae Jones - Editorial Assistant over at St. Martin's Press (she's also the lovely young lady responsible for advertising and answering any and all questions with regards to this whole "New Adult" concept they've come up with - see my blog on said subject here)
And because I am a sucker for cute cat youtube videos, here's one I just found, Whack a Kitty, and another classic, Ninja Cat - for those of you who've yet to experience their awesomeness.
Finally I want to wish you all a most happy new year's eve! Here's to 2010 and it's amazingness! And what the heck, here's to all of us and our amazingness too!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Happy holidays and a look back at the decade that was . . .
It's that time of year, and I want to wish you all a very happy holiday and very happy end to the year. It's been a daunting one for yours truly, filled with both good and bad, and it will be very interesting what the new decade brings.
It's also a little weird for me to sit back and realise that the decade of my twenties is coming to a close. Trying to think back on everything I did in the 00s is pretty overwhelming. I graduated from university, lived in England for three years, got to meet some pretty impressive people while there (like Edward Albee, Robert Altman), published two books, been in too many plays to count, founded a nerd website, interviewed a ridiculous number of people, discovered I loved writing movie reviews, and went to my first SF/Fantasy convention. I learned how to live away from home, how to have a variety of roommates. I learned how to relax and be a bit more spontaneous, that I loved to dance despite really not enjoying the club scene. I learned I actually didn't mind working out, even though I never really was that sporty. I also learned that I'm not giving up on my acting any time soon, and that setbacks never prompt the desire to quit.
This was a decade of glorious films - lest we forget it produced Lord of the Rings people. A decade of Harry Potter. This was a decade that began with 9/11 and finished with election of the first African American President in the States. The world has changed. The world has stayed the same.
Mostly this decade was one of making some extraordinary friends, and maintaining connections with those from previous decades. The people I have met the last ten years have been amongst the cream of the crop, truly talented, truly hilarious, truly fabulous.
There have been ups and downs, people we have lost along the way, and the last two years have been particularly difficult - both for the world, and also just for me. But I got through many things, am working my way through the other stuff, and have faith I'll come out the other end, have faith that we all will.
So here's to the new decade, and cheers to the last one. It's time to move on, but it's amazing to look back. I am who I've ever been, but I definitely think I've come out at this end of the decade a better person for having gone through it. I hope you all feel something similar.
See you in the new year! And can we finally come up with a name for our decades now?
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Timothy and the Dragon's Gate was reviewed and recommended over at Kidlit.com's Holiday Gift Guide. I second the motion that Timothy would make an excellent book for any child 8 - 12 this holiday season. It's a book that boys love, as well as girls, and appeals to reluctant readers with its fast paced adventure and sense of humour.
While your at it, why not pick up Alex and the Ironic Gentleman as a companion piece? :)
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The Self Publishing Debate becomes a Debate!
I received the following comment to my Self Publishing Debate post, and I thought the commenter made some interesting points and asked some interesting questions. So I wanted to address them, but felt that my answers might be interesting to you guys too, so I'm creating an entire post in honour of this comment.
Not everyone considers self-publishing just because they received a couple rejections and never tried revising their work.
To this I agree. I already said as much in the initial post. For those who may not recall this is what I said:
I think self-publishing has its place. I think if you have a niche market, maybe are on the lecture circuit, self publishing is an excellent venue for you. If, let's say, you want to put together a collection of poems for your family, or print up a story you've written so you can share it with your loved ones, that too is awesome.
This I said in the middle:
I know that there have been works out there that have been rejected and it isn't because they aren't any good. It's because they just don't fit the market, or they're too much of a risk, or any other number of reasons. But again, that is the exception to the rule. That is actually the same exception to the rule as the one with the successfully self published authors. Because those successful authors were probably the ones that had that book that actually was awesome but rejected for other reasons in the first place.
And this I said this at the end:
But please, for those of you who do choose to go down that path, do it with respect for those who have gone before you and were successful at it. Those people had to work ten times harder than a commercially published author to get to the success they enjoy today, they spent time, energy and money. They were incredibly talented, and I bet they had an outside eye work with them on perfecting their book. It's darn hard to do what they did. Don't just think you can print off a book and voila!
So I do think there are some fiction authors who do go that route and have been successful at it, but those that were were incredibly talented, not only as authors but as marketers.
Moving on:
I don't know how many rejections you had before you found an agent.
13
I'm not going to say how many agents have rejected me. I will only say every agent on agentquery.com that represents YA has rejected me; the majority have never read more than a short query with ten pages attached. I've been trying to break in for the past four years and I am now beyond frustrated. I believe people are turning to self-publishing because they are finding the gates into traditional publishing to be shut.
This is the first point I wish to address here. I think you are right about why many authors are turning to self-publishing. And I still think this is a bad thing, and I'll tell you why. Many authors are rejected on their first work. For whatever reason it is simply not publishable, and many authors who have looked back on those works have understood why with the hindsight that is, as we all know, 20/20.
Yet these days so many authors who find their first work rejected take the blame outward, to the industry. They don't look at themselves and ask if maybe their work is not quite ready yet. So they turn to self-publishing, as you say, and then spend many man hours creating a work that looks like a published book (formatting the pages, hiring an artist to do the cover etc), years marketing said work, and a lot of money to do both. In my mind, 9 times out of 10, the author could have done herself a much better service by setting that rejected work aside, and writing a new book, and submitting that one. After all, we are authors. We aren't just "writers of one book", well except for Harper Lee. Our plan is to write many a book, to have a career writing stories. What's the harm in writing something new?
That's my biggest concern. I hate the idea of authors wasting valuable writing time on formatting, and design, and marketing when that isn't their niche. Now there are authors out there for whom those are also a passion, and that's cool. But most authors are, you know, authors.
It is possible the rejected work truly is marvelous, and just not right for the market at present. Again, I would still say set it aside and write something else. I'd suggest writing something maybe a bit more commercial, get a publishing contract with that, and then sell the more complicated work.
BUT. If you truly want to spend the time and money on self-publishing your work, then I respect that. A few authors have had success at that, but like I stated above, they are exceptions to the rule, and they not only turn out to be brilliant writers, but brilliant marketers with serious internet savvy. They also have the money to spend.
But who knows? Perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps there really is something terribly wrong with my query and first ten pages that would make any rational person turn away. http://inkpop.com/projects/4362/twilight-chronicles-dawn/ Go ahead and take a look. I'd love to know what about my pitch and first ten pages justifies an immediate "This-sucks-and-isn't-worth-a-partial-request" rejection.
You know what, I actually have a bit of time on my hands. I would never normally agree to this as I have a lot of projects, but if you send me an email so I can send you a private critique, then I will have a look. But I warn you I may be a pretty nice person, but I come from a long line of teachers and my interest has always been first and foremost to educate. And if I'm going to critique your work, I will critique it honestly, I'm not going to be "nice".
I've had over a hundred beta readers and even if they have criticisms, everyone agrees it is a good read.
Honestly, this really doesn't mean much. I'm sorry. Often beta readers are just so impressed we've written a book at all, that they think the book is awesome. Besides, considering all the rejection you've had, I have to keep that in mind as well. After all, I don't think the industry is out to get you personally. I mean, do you seriously think agents look at your work and think, "This is marvelous, now let's reject it because it's all just such a fun game!"? So you have to honestly ask yourself, what's going on here?
I am on the verge of self-publishing not because I've been rejected but because I've done everything in my power to appease the gate keepers and they still won't give me the time of day.
And I get it, really I do. We've all been rejected and it hurts. But I've already explained my reasoning for not wanting to self-publish: I don't have the means, nor the ability. Plus, I'm at a stage in my career where I believe I ought to be paid for my work.
I wish it was as simple as revising the manuscripts. They don't even read the manuscripts. The majority decide whether to ask for a partial based on what amounts to jacket copy, which they dissect in a way no rational human would do (ex. no question hooks, despite the fact I can walk down to Wal-Mart and find numerous books and DVDs with question hooks on their jacket copy).
Okay, so this now sounds like you've had some blanket advice from someone: Never use a question hook, never do this, never do that. Whoever gave you this advice was doing you a disservice, there are very few absolutes in writing in general. The fact is that every agent is different. Nathan Bransford hates rhetorical questions. Guess what? My query was nothing BUT rhetorical questions. So I think you need to take a step back from the minute details and just find what works for you. Remember "Pirates of the Caribbean" - they're not rules, they're guidelines.
Also the idea that they dissect a query in no rational way is just, I'm sorry to say, irrational. Why on earth would they do that? Agents are people, people who love books. They aren't this giant amorphous mass that came from outer space with a whole different set of reading rules. Just because an agent takes the time on her blog to state preferences doesn't mean that they won't read the exception. In fact I've read so many blogs from agents stating just that. That when they offer specifics it's to help, but nothing is ever set in stone. I'll address the reading of queries in a moment.
However this is the bigger issue. If you haven't had a full request from a single agent, this means something really really positive. Your query sucks.
What? Uh . . . how is that a good thing?
I'll tell you. A query is a very difficult thing to get right. So what you need to do is work on your query. This is a great thing because it means you don't have to re-write your novel or anything. It just reflects a poorly constructed query, and that is something that can be fixed. There are some excellent venues for you to do that, I'd highly recommend Absolute Write, a writing forum with an entire critique section devoted to making queries awesome (password "Vista").
Let me now also address your other question from above, namely how can an agent judge a book based on a query letter and first ten pages.
When you buy books, what do you do? I'll tell you what I do, which I think is pretty much the same as most people. I go into a bookstore knowing I can afford one book today, that's it. So I need to spend my money wisely. First, I am drawn to a cover. Can't help it, and that's what covers are there for. Then I flip the book over, or open it to the front flap, and read the plot summary. Then if I like that, I go to chapter one and read a little bit. If I'm satisfied with that, I'll buy it.
Well that's EXACTLY the same thing agents are doing. They already have a lot of clients, so they have to be picky who they are going to represent next. They pick up a query, there's no cover to draw them to it, but since they get sent queries, they read them. If they like the query and there are ten pages sent with it, then they'll check those out. If they like those pages then they'll ask for a full.
Let me tell you, you can tell pretty quick in those first ten pages if you're going to like a work or not, and I am sure you've been able to tell, flipping open a book, if you're going to like a book or not by even just the first page.
You can even tell from a query blurb if you'll like the story (just like reading the back cover of a book). You can also tell from a query if:
- the writer understands grammar and spelling
- the writer understands how to write in a manner so as to be able to express herself accurately to a reader
- the writer has done her research into the industry, knows how to follow rules (which is very important because as you get into the industry more and more, and have to deal with deadlines, etc, an agent is going to want to know an author is capable of being a professional)
There is so much that can be revealed from a query alone, let alone those first ten pages which is more than enough to let you know if the writer is any good, or at least has written something you're interested in.
If you haven't read this already, here's a very informative article about what rejection means from an editor's perspective: Making Light's Slushkiller
And when publishers like Harlequin encourage us to pay AuthorHouse a bunch of money to "self-publish", I admit my faith in the publishing industry to ever give my work an honest chance is all but gone. By doing things like this they are telling me they are longer interested in working with writers to make money-- they are only interested in taking money out of our pockets.
This I agree with. This was the purpose of my original post. But I will add that Harlequin is just one publisher. That it isn't representative of the entire industry. And there are other commercial publishers that do own self-publishing outfits, but you'd never know it because they don't recommend it. It's just another revenue stream for them, and the company has an entirely different name so authors aren't fooled into thinking they are being legitimately published by a big company. My issue was with the recommending, not with having alternate means to make money. Most all publishers these days are still interested in publishing books, and most every editor I have met is obsessed with literature. What Harlequin did was wrong, ditto Thomas Nelson, but it is not representative of the entire industry. It is important to not take an individual case and then apply it blanket to everything.
So there we go. I hope I answered some of your questions, and addressed your concerns in an adequate manner. I hope others found what I had to say useful.
Thank you so much for the comment, it's always fantastic to be made to think, and I definitely had to give your questions a good deal of thought because I understand the frustration you are feeling.
In the end, I'd truly recommend writing another book. I had a friend who for ten years tried to get an agent with one book until her boyfriend made just that insistence. That second book she wrote landed her an agent. And yet even that one her agent couldn't sell. It was her third that got her that contract with Harper Collins, that has made her an author published around the world. If she had just decided to self publish at the beginning, she quite probably would have never landed that agent, and she most certainly never would have written this series that she adores, and, what's more, is bringing so much joy to so many readers. In fact, that's another really important point to note, just because you might have to write another book, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. You might discover that your next book is even better, something even closer to your heart. Writing another book should be an exciting prospect, not a negative one.
Oh and, btw, my friend's second book? The one her agent couldn't sell?
It now has a publishing contract.
Not everyone considers self-publishing just because they received a couple rejections and never tried revising their work.
To this I agree. I already said as much in the initial post. For those who may not recall this is what I said:
I think self-publishing has its place. I think if you have a niche market, maybe are on the lecture circuit, self publishing is an excellent venue for you. If, let's say, you want to put together a collection of poems for your family, or print up a story you've written so you can share it with your loved ones, that too is awesome.
This I said in the middle:
I know that there have been works out there that have been rejected and it isn't because they aren't any good. It's because they just don't fit the market, or they're too much of a risk, or any other number of reasons. But again, that is the exception to the rule. That is actually the same exception to the rule as the one with the successfully self published authors. Because those successful authors were probably the ones that had that book that actually was awesome but rejected for other reasons in the first place.
And this I said this at the end:
But please, for those of you who do choose to go down that path, do it with respect for those who have gone before you and were successful at it. Those people had to work ten times harder than a commercially published author to get to the success they enjoy today, they spent time, energy and money. They were incredibly talented, and I bet they had an outside eye work with them on perfecting their book. It's darn hard to do what they did. Don't just think you can print off a book and voila!
So I do think there are some fiction authors who do go that route and have been successful at it, but those that were were incredibly talented, not only as authors but as marketers.
Moving on:
I don't know how many rejections you had before you found an agent.
13
I'm not going to say how many agents have rejected me. I will only say every agent on agentquery.com that represents YA has rejected me; the majority have never read more than a short query with ten pages attached. I've been trying to break in for the past four years and I am now beyond frustrated. I believe people are turning to self-publishing because they are finding the gates into traditional publishing to be shut.
This is the first point I wish to address here. I think you are right about why many authors are turning to self-publishing. And I still think this is a bad thing, and I'll tell you why. Many authors are rejected on their first work. For whatever reason it is simply not publishable, and many authors who have looked back on those works have understood why with the hindsight that is, as we all know, 20/20.
Yet these days so many authors who find their first work rejected take the blame outward, to the industry. They don't look at themselves and ask if maybe their work is not quite ready yet. So they turn to self-publishing, as you say, and then spend many man hours creating a work that looks like a published book (formatting the pages, hiring an artist to do the cover etc), years marketing said work, and a lot of money to do both. In my mind, 9 times out of 10, the author could have done herself a much better service by setting that rejected work aside, and writing a new book, and submitting that one. After all, we are authors. We aren't just "writers of one book", well except for Harper Lee. Our plan is to write many a book, to have a career writing stories. What's the harm in writing something new?
That's my biggest concern. I hate the idea of authors wasting valuable writing time on formatting, and design, and marketing when that isn't their niche. Now there are authors out there for whom those are also a passion, and that's cool. But most authors are, you know, authors.
It is possible the rejected work truly is marvelous, and just not right for the market at present. Again, I would still say set it aside and write something else. I'd suggest writing something maybe a bit more commercial, get a publishing contract with that, and then sell the more complicated work.
BUT. If you truly want to spend the time and money on self-publishing your work, then I respect that. A few authors have had success at that, but like I stated above, they are exceptions to the rule, and they not only turn out to be brilliant writers, but brilliant marketers with serious internet savvy. They also have the money to spend.
But who knows? Perhaps I am mistaken. Perhaps there really is something terribly wrong with my query and first ten pages that would make any rational person turn away. http://inkpop.com/projects/4362/twilight-chronicles-dawn/ Go ahead and take a look. I'd love to know what about my pitch and first ten pages justifies an immediate "This-sucks-and-isn't-worth-a-partial-request" rejection.
You know what, I actually have a bit of time on my hands. I would never normally agree to this as I have a lot of projects, but if you send me an email so I can send you a private critique, then I will have a look. But I warn you I may be a pretty nice person, but I come from a long line of teachers and my interest has always been first and foremost to educate. And if I'm going to critique your work, I will critique it honestly, I'm not going to be "nice".
I've had over a hundred beta readers and even if they have criticisms, everyone agrees it is a good read.
Honestly, this really doesn't mean much. I'm sorry. Often beta readers are just so impressed we've written a book at all, that they think the book is awesome. Besides, considering all the rejection you've had, I have to keep that in mind as well. After all, I don't think the industry is out to get you personally. I mean, do you seriously think agents look at your work and think, "This is marvelous, now let's reject it because it's all just such a fun game!"? So you have to honestly ask yourself, what's going on here?
I am on the verge of self-publishing not because I've been rejected but because I've done everything in my power to appease the gate keepers and they still won't give me the time of day.
And I get it, really I do. We've all been rejected and it hurts. But I've already explained my reasoning for not wanting to self-publish: I don't have the means, nor the ability. Plus, I'm at a stage in my career where I believe I ought to be paid for my work.
I wish it was as simple as revising the manuscripts. They don't even read the manuscripts. The majority decide whether to ask for a partial based on what amounts to jacket copy, which they dissect in a way no rational human would do (ex. no question hooks, despite the fact I can walk down to Wal-Mart and find numerous books and DVDs with question hooks on their jacket copy).
Okay, so this now sounds like you've had some blanket advice from someone: Never use a question hook, never do this, never do that. Whoever gave you this advice was doing you a disservice, there are very few absolutes in writing in general. The fact is that every agent is different. Nathan Bransford hates rhetorical questions. Guess what? My query was nothing BUT rhetorical questions. So I think you need to take a step back from the minute details and just find what works for you. Remember "Pirates of the Caribbean" - they're not rules, they're guidelines.
Also the idea that they dissect a query in no rational way is just, I'm sorry to say, irrational. Why on earth would they do that? Agents are people, people who love books. They aren't this giant amorphous mass that came from outer space with a whole different set of reading rules. Just because an agent takes the time on her blog to state preferences doesn't mean that they won't read the exception. In fact I've read so many blogs from agents stating just that. That when they offer specifics it's to help, but nothing is ever set in stone. I'll address the reading of queries in a moment.
However this is the bigger issue. If you haven't had a full request from a single agent, this means something really really positive. Your query sucks.
What? Uh . . . how is that a good thing?
I'll tell you. A query is a very difficult thing to get right. So what you need to do is work on your query. This is a great thing because it means you don't have to re-write your novel or anything. It just reflects a poorly constructed query, and that is something that can be fixed. There are some excellent venues for you to do that, I'd highly recommend Absolute Write, a writing forum with an entire critique section devoted to making queries awesome (password "Vista").
Let me now also address your other question from above, namely how can an agent judge a book based on a query letter and first ten pages.
When you buy books, what do you do? I'll tell you what I do, which I think is pretty much the same as most people. I go into a bookstore knowing I can afford one book today, that's it. So I need to spend my money wisely. First, I am drawn to a cover. Can't help it, and that's what covers are there for. Then I flip the book over, or open it to the front flap, and read the plot summary. Then if I like that, I go to chapter one and read a little bit. If I'm satisfied with that, I'll buy it.
Well that's EXACTLY the same thing agents are doing. They already have a lot of clients, so they have to be picky who they are going to represent next. They pick up a query, there's no cover to draw them to it, but since they get sent queries, they read them. If they like the query and there are ten pages sent with it, then they'll check those out. If they like those pages then they'll ask for a full.
Let me tell you, you can tell pretty quick in those first ten pages if you're going to like a work or not, and I am sure you've been able to tell, flipping open a book, if you're going to like a book or not by even just the first page.
You can even tell from a query blurb if you'll like the story (just like reading the back cover of a book). You can also tell from a query if:
- the writer understands grammar and spelling
- the writer understands how to write in a manner so as to be able to express herself accurately to a reader
- the writer has done her research into the industry, knows how to follow rules (which is very important because as you get into the industry more and more, and have to deal with deadlines, etc, an agent is going to want to know an author is capable of being a professional)
There is so much that can be revealed from a query alone, let alone those first ten pages which is more than enough to let you know if the writer is any good, or at least has written something you're interested in.
If you haven't read this already, here's a very informative article about what rejection means from an editor's perspective: Making Light's Slushkiller
And when publishers like Harlequin encourage us to pay AuthorHouse a bunch of money to "self-publish", I admit my faith in the publishing industry to ever give my work an honest chance is all but gone. By doing things like this they are telling me they are longer interested in working with writers to make money-- they are only interested in taking money out of our pockets.
This I agree with. This was the purpose of my original post. But I will add that Harlequin is just one publisher. That it isn't representative of the entire industry. And there are other commercial publishers that do own self-publishing outfits, but you'd never know it because they don't recommend it. It's just another revenue stream for them, and the company has an entirely different name so authors aren't fooled into thinking they are being legitimately published by a big company. My issue was with the recommending, not with having alternate means to make money. Most all publishers these days are still interested in publishing books, and most every editor I have met is obsessed with literature. What Harlequin did was wrong, ditto Thomas Nelson, but it is not representative of the entire industry. It is important to not take an individual case and then apply it blanket to everything.
So there we go. I hope I answered some of your questions, and addressed your concerns in an adequate manner. I hope others found what I had to say useful.
Thank you so much for the comment, it's always fantastic to be made to think, and I definitely had to give your questions a good deal of thought because I understand the frustration you are feeling.
In the end, I'd truly recommend writing another book. I had a friend who for ten years tried to get an agent with one book until her boyfriend made just that insistence. That second book she wrote landed her an agent. And yet even that one her agent couldn't sell. It was her third that got her that contract with Harper Collins, that has made her an author published around the world. If she had just decided to self publish at the beginning, she quite probably would have never landed that agent, and she most certainly never would have written this series that she adores, and, what's more, is bringing so much joy to so many readers. In fact, that's another really important point to note, just because you might have to write another book, it isn't necessarily a bad thing. You might discover that your next book is even better, something even closer to your heart. Writing another book should be an exciting prospect, not a negative one.
Oh and, btw, my friend's second book? The one her agent couldn't sell?
It now has a publishing contract.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Friday Roundup - and some appreciation
I've decided to follow the example of my fellow bloggers and use Fridays to list links to articles etc I've found interesting over the last week that I'd like to share with you guys.
But first.
Evidently some author somewhere decided that today would be Agent Appreciation day, and I think that that's just a lovely idea. Often I see agents vilified as little more than gatekeepers, keeping hardworking authors away from their dream of being published, or as thieves taking the hard earned money from the authors they represent. You can read my post called "15%" in response to that attitude (in short: it's ridiculous).
So I'd like to offer up some agent love and take the time to send my appreciation to the amazing Becky Stradwick at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency.
Now some of you who've been with me awhile will remember that my original agent at the agency was Julia Churchill, and I spoke often and highly of her until she decided to leave to pursue her own dreams. But I realise I have been remiss in writing about Becky who is as equally worthy of attention and admiration. I suppose the reason you haven't heard me talk about her is because I haven't had any recent book sales and haven't been reporting too often of late on the goings on behind the scenes of my writing career, but that goes back to the misconception about agents. Just because I haven't sold another book yet, does not mean Becky hasn't been totally amazing to me.
First off, she works so carefully and closely with me to make my manuscripts as awesome as possible. She puts so much work into them, it's kind of overwhelming having someone else take so much time and care so much with something I've written. Next, of course, she works on getting them sold, sending them to publishers etc.
But most importantly she puts up with a neurotic author worried about the future (both for her and her books), and someone who likes to rant possibly a bit too much. Becky has been there for me to give me pep talks, make me laugh when I'm feeling down, and to steer me in the right direction - by which I mean away from self-pity and towards self-motivation.
And she's always been in my corner.
So Becky thank you so much for everything you've done for me this year. I know I can be a handful at times, but your advice and help has been invaluable to me.
I'd also like to thank Madeleine Buston who is another agent at the agency. As some of you may know, agencies can have many different agents who work there, and many work with specific sub-rights etc. Madeleine is responsible for selling my books to the States (quite an important market), and she too has been amazingly supportive and wonderful in all she's done for me.
Oh what the heck, to everyone at the agency, including of course the man himself, thank you! You've been so amazing to me and believed in me even when there were times I didn't.
I appreciate you.
And now . . . on to some links!
- Here you can find the most interesting bookstores in the world. Be warned, they will make you sigh with longing.
- With all the doom and gloom circulating the net of late about the state of publishing, it's nice to read something relatively positive.
- I've a couple new industry blogs I've been enjoying reading of late (just a note, some of the content on these blogs could be considered PG 13, with some bad language at times, and discussions of mature themes):
And that's it for now! I decided to do this link thing kind of last minute, so I promise next week I'll keep my eyes peeled for more links for next Friday, now that I know I'll be sharing them with you!
Happy Weekend!
But first.
Evidently some author somewhere decided that today would be Agent Appreciation day, and I think that that's just a lovely idea. Often I see agents vilified as little more than gatekeepers, keeping hardworking authors away from their dream of being published, or as thieves taking the hard earned money from the authors they represent. You can read my post called "15%" in response to that attitude (in short: it's ridiculous).
So I'd like to offer up some agent love and take the time to send my appreciation to the amazing Becky Stradwick at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency.
Now some of you who've been with me awhile will remember that my original agent at the agency was Julia Churchill, and I spoke often and highly of her until she decided to leave to pursue her own dreams. But I realise I have been remiss in writing about Becky who is as equally worthy of attention and admiration. I suppose the reason you haven't heard me talk about her is because I haven't had any recent book sales and haven't been reporting too often of late on the goings on behind the scenes of my writing career, but that goes back to the misconception about agents. Just because I haven't sold another book yet, does not mean Becky hasn't been totally amazing to me.
First off, she works so carefully and closely with me to make my manuscripts as awesome as possible. She puts so much work into them, it's kind of overwhelming having someone else take so much time and care so much with something I've written. Next, of course, she works on getting them sold, sending them to publishers etc.
But most importantly she puts up with a neurotic author worried about the future (both for her and her books), and someone who likes to rant possibly a bit too much. Becky has been there for me to give me pep talks, make me laugh when I'm feeling down, and to steer me in the right direction - by which I mean away from self-pity and towards self-motivation.
And she's always been in my corner.
So Becky thank you so much for everything you've done for me this year. I know I can be a handful at times, but your advice and help has been invaluable to me.
I'd also like to thank Madeleine Buston who is another agent at the agency. As some of you may know, agencies can have many different agents who work there, and many work with specific sub-rights etc. Madeleine is responsible for selling my books to the States (quite an important market), and she too has been amazingly supportive and wonderful in all she's done for me.
Oh what the heck, to everyone at the agency, including of course the man himself, thank you! You've been so amazing to me and believed in me even when there were times I didn't.
I appreciate you.
And now . . . on to some links!
- Here you can find the most interesting bookstores in the world. Be warned, they will make you sigh with longing.
- With all the doom and gloom circulating the net of late about the state of publishing, it's nice to read something relatively positive.
- I've a couple new industry blogs I've been enjoying reading of late (just a note, some of the content on these blogs could be considered PG 13, with some bad language at times, and discussions of mature themes):
And that's it for now! I decided to do this link thing kind of last minute, so I promise next week I'll keep my eyes peeled for more links for next Friday, now that I know I'll be sharing them with you!
Happy Weekend!
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
The Business of Selling Books
I thought this topic would be interesting for you guys because I'm not sure if everyone is aware of what a big influence book buyers at the big box bookstores stores have in the industry. How their business model shapes what gets published and how books are bought by publishers.
Despite how it may seem, most books these days still are bought in brick and mortar bookstores. So it is vital that your book, as an author, is on those shelves otherwise, to be perfectly blunt, your book will fail. Thus publishers have to appeal to the taste of the book buyers for these stores. They have to choose to publish books they know will be bought by the book buyers.
Think about that for a second. Let's look at the States. We've got Borders and Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart. That's four people who decide whether a book fails or succeeds, is bought from an author in the first place. Four people.
I know of books that are bestsellers in one country that book buyers for the big chains in another country wouldn't buy from the publisher and so (obviously) the book totally flopped.
I also know, personally, that the American cover of the paperback of "Alex" had to be changed at the request of the book buyers. In fact covers in general these days are being created to suit the taste of these buyers..
Interesting right?
Now of course the book buyers are buying books with an eye to what we the readers want. Their job is to sell books so they want to buy books that sell. They see what kind of covers readers buy, what kind of topics are of interest, so it isn't like there isn't method to the madness. I also happen to have met some book buyers over the years, and I can tell you, they are pretty passionate about books. But they really do have to be careful, and they can't buy everything, and it's a better business practice to purchase a sure thing over what might be perceived as a risk.
So that's one thing. The people who buy from the publishers the books to place on the shelves.
Here's another thing.
Bookstore chains are paid money by the publisher to place their books in certain parts of the store. It's called co-op. So books are paid to be on the table, as opposed to the shelf. On the front table, as opposed to the one in different sections. Paid to be face out on the shelf (where you can see the whole cover and is more eye catching), as opposed to spine out. This also determines what gets bought from the publishers. If a publisher is willing to invest the money, then the book has a distinct advantage.
There is a very interesting article over at the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency Blog about the big box bookstores, and their (possibly) faulty line of reasoning in selling books. The article actually references yet another, so if you have the time, you've got some pretty interesting reading ahead of you. To quote from the article:
" In brief: placement on the front table in a major chain bookstore costs the publisher up-front, about $30,000. Yes, after the publisher has paid the author’s advance, the costs of publishing and manufacturing the books, they also have to pay the booksellers to try to sell the book. . . they switched the book retailing model from selling books, to charging for shelf space for displaying books.
. . .
I believe that book chains don’t really want to be in the book business. They just want money because they control the access to readers. This allows them to dodge the question of responsibility for doing their job (selling books) and instead to collect an entitlement (basically a tax) for being in control of a step in the process. Unfortunately, they never draw new book buyers into their stores. The message is always: if you buy books we got a bunch of cheap stuff here, but they don’t even try to get new people to buy books. That would require a different type of marketing."
I have to say that I'm not surprised that the people in charge of these book stores don't feel it necessary to adopt a different model of marketing. It's been a trend of late that all you need is an MA in Business and that qualifies you to sell any product to anybody. Of course this is illogical, but you see it applied to many different businesses so it must be working to a degree. A profit must be being made. Of course we then return to the argument, is profit the only thing worth being in business for?
That's a debate for another time.
At any rate. When bookstores are making a lot of their money from publishers and not readers, what incentive do they have to work to sell books?
It's an interesting question.
At this point I should point out that people who work at these chains, including the managers, are often huge book lovers, and it is because of them that you still get all the love in these stores. I remember when the last Harry Potter came out, my local big bookstore chain store had a massive party, I'm talking closing off part of the street massive. The next week I was chatting with one of the booksellers in the children's department about what a great time I'd had, and she said it had been her idea initially. It surprised me because I assumed it was an order from on high, but no, it had started as an idea from someone who worked at the store who loved books.
There's also a woman called Wendy at the Indigo at Yorkdale mall,
whom you have seen several times on this blog as she's been so helpful in helping me get together my book launches. This is a woman who ADORES children's books, and does everything she can to promote them.
In all there are wonderful people who work in these stores who are as in love with books as the rest of us.
The issue is with the business model. I'm not sure exactly what needs to be done, if it even needs to be fixed. I just know that the idea of so much power in the hands of the few can be a little frustrating (it can also be fantastic if you turn out to be the next Stephenie Meyer). But aside from trying to make any kind of statement, I just thought you guys should know this. That the books on the front tables (aside from ones which are marked "staff picks" etc) have spent a lot of money to get there. That it isn't necessarily a value judgment in placing them up front. That maybe, once in a while, you should check out what's in the back, spine out, next to hundreds of other such books.
There be jewels in them shelves. There be jewels.
Despite how it may seem, most books these days still are bought in brick and mortar bookstores. So it is vital that your book, as an author, is on those shelves otherwise, to be perfectly blunt, your book will fail. Thus publishers have to appeal to the taste of the book buyers for these stores. They have to choose to publish books they know will be bought by the book buyers.
Think about that for a second. Let's look at the States. We've got Borders and Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart. That's four people who decide whether a book fails or succeeds, is bought from an author in the first place. Four people.
I know of books that are bestsellers in one country that book buyers for the big chains in another country wouldn't buy from the publisher and so (obviously) the book totally flopped.
I also know, personally, that the American cover of the paperback of "Alex" had to be changed at the request of the book buyers. In fact covers in general these days are being created to suit the taste of these buyers..
Interesting right?
Now of course the book buyers are buying books with an eye to what we the readers want. Their job is to sell books so they want to buy books that sell. They see what kind of covers readers buy, what kind of topics are of interest, so it isn't like there isn't method to the madness. I also happen to have met some book buyers over the years, and I can tell you, they are pretty passionate about books. But they really do have to be careful, and they can't buy everything, and it's a better business practice to purchase a sure thing over what might be perceived as a risk.
So that's one thing. The people who buy from the publishers the books to place on the shelves.
Here's another thing.
Bookstore chains are paid money by the publisher to place their books in certain parts of the store. It's called co-op. So books are paid to be on the table, as opposed to the shelf. On the front table, as opposed to the one in different sections. Paid to be face out on the shelf (where you can see the whole cover and is more eye catching), as opposed to spine out. This also determines what gets bought from the publishers. If a publisher is willing to invest the money, then the book has a distinct advantage.
There is a very interesting article over at the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency Blog about the big box bookstores, and their (possibly) faulty line of reasoning in selling books. The article actually references yet another, so if you have the time, you've got some pretty interesting reading ahead of you. To quote from the article:
" In brief: placement on the front table in a major chain bookstore costs the publisher up-front, about $30,000. Yes, after the publisher has paid the author’s advance, the costs of publishing and manufacturing the books, they also have to pay the booksellers to try to sell the book. . . they switched the book retailing model from selling books, to charging for shelf space for displaying books.
. . .
I believe that book chains don’t really want to be in the book business. They just want money because they control the access to readers. This allows them to dodge the question of responsibility for doing their job (selling books) and instead to collect an entitlement (basically a tax) for being in control of a step in the process. Unfortunately, they never draw new book buyers into their stores. The message is always: if you buy books we got a bunch of cheap stuff here, but they don’t even try to get new people to buy books. That would require a different type of marketing."
I have to say that I'm not surprised that the people in charge of these book stores don't feel it necessary to adopt a different model of marketing. It's been a trend of late that all you need is an MA in Business and that qualifies you to sell any product to anybody. Of course this is illogical, but you see it applied to many different businesses so it must be working to a degree. A profit must be being made. Of course we then return to the argument, is profit the only thing worth being in business for?
That's a debate for another time.
At any rate. When bookstores are making a lot of their money from publishers and not readers, what incentive do they have to work to sell books?
It's an interesting question.
At this point I should point out that people who work at these chains, including the managers, are often huge book lovers, and it is because of them that you still get all the love in these stores. I remember when the last Harry Potter came out, my local big bookstore chain store had a massive party, I'm talking closing off part of the street massive. The next week I was chatting with one of the booksellers in the children's department about what a great time I'd had, and she said it had been her idea initially. It surprised me because I assumed it was an order from on high, but no, it had started as an idea from someone who worked at the store who loved books.
There's also a woman called Wendy at the Indigo at Yorkdale mall,
whom you have seen several times on this blog as she's been so helpful in helping me get together my book launches. This is a woman who ADORES children's books, and does everything she can to promote them. In all there are wonderful people who work in these stores who are as in love with books as the rest of us.
The issue is with the business model. I'm not sure exactly what needs to be done, if it even needs to be fixed. I just know that the idea of so much power in the hands of the few can be a little frustrating (it can also be fantastic if you turn out to be the next Stephenie Meyer). But aside from trying to make any kind of statement, I just thought you guys should know this. That the books on the front tables (aside from ones which are marked "staff picks" etc) have spent a lot of money to get there. That it isn't necessarily a value judgment in placing them up front. That maybe, once in a while, you should check out what's in the back, spine out, next to hundreds of other such books.
There be jewels in them shelves. There be jewels.
Monday, December 07, 2009
Why New Adult Interests Me
The who did what with the what now?
The "New Adult".
Yeah, Adrienne, seriously don't know what you're talking about.
Fair enough. Let me explain.
So several weeks ago St. Martin's Press ran a contest looking for what they termed "New Adult". This is what they said they were looking for:
"We are actively looking for great, new, cutting edge fiction with protagonists who are slightly older than YA and can appeal to an adult audience. Since twenty-somethings are devouring YA, St. Martin’s Press is seeking fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an “older YA” or “new adult.”"
Basically the genre has been invented by St. Martin's because of the obvious crossover appeal we've been seeing with such books as Twilight, and heck, even Harry Potter.
And I found this very interesting, and is something I've been keeping my eye on. Agent Kristin Nelson over at Pub Rants blogged about it today, and as such inspired me to add my thoughts to the chorus.
As some of you may know, and others may not, selling work that isn't quite adult and isn't really YA has been very tricky for a while now. You'd think the idea of college age stories, or stories with individuals just out of highschool would be highly coveted by just that age group, but for some reason, and probably a pretty pragmatic one, it's always been a very tough sell to publishers.
What is the pragmatic reason you may ask? I'll tell you. Shelving.
Weird, I know, right? But think about it. Where would such books go? It's just one small category after all, in a book store full of tons of categories. We separate adult from kids, sometimes even putting one on a totally different floor. New Adult would be a smallish category (unless the next Twilight wound up being from that genre), not requiring that big a section. But where would you put it? Upstairs with the kid's stuff? Downstairs with the adult (after all New Adult is still Adult, 18+). Maybe on the stairs? So it's tricky to deal with a genre like this because it's hard to sell a genre like this. To make buyers aware of its existence.
I've also heard arguments against creating this new category because we are dividing books up so much already as it is. YA already gets marginalised for not being "real" writing, for not being serious enough to be considered Adult literature. What would happen now to New Adult? Would that therefore be considered a category for adults not quite ready for the good stuff?
See, gets complicated doesn't it?
Here's my thinking. I don't like the idea of categories in general. I don't like the snobbery associated with division. And I don't like the judgment, and that good books can be totally overlooked because they aren't on the correct shelf.
BUT.
I also happen to know that books that would fall into this New Adult category are not being accepted and published by publishers because they currently have no place on the market. So if we have to have categories, I highly approve of creating one so that these books can find their place out there as well.
Therefore, this is my plan. I am going to spread the good word. I am going to keep bringing up the idea of New Adult when chatting online, or with my fellow author buddies. And I'll blog about it. Wait, I just did. Because the more we talk about New Adult, the more people will hear about it, and the more people hear about it, the more people may realise they want it. And maybe when a lot of people know such a category exists, the bookstores will feel better creating a section for it because buyers will know to look for it. And then . . . oh then . . . then the publishers will want to publish it.
All hail New Adult! Let the spreading begin!
----------------------------------------------------------
S. Jae-Jones from St. Martin's Press answered some questions on the new category over at Jodi Meadows's blog Words and Wardances here.
The "New Adult".
Yeah, Adrienne, seriously don't know what you're talking about.
Fair enough. Let me explain.
So several weeks ago St. Martin's Press ran a contest looking for what they termed "New Adult". This is what they said they were looking for:
"We are actively looking for great, new, cutting edge fiction with protagonists who are slightly older than YA and can appeal to an adult audience. Since twenty-somethings are devouring YA, St. Martin’s Press is seeking fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an “older YA” or “new adult.”"
Basically the genre has been invented by St. Martin's because of the obvious crossover appeal we've been seeing with such books as Twilight, and heck, even Harry Potter.
And I found this very interesting, and is something I've been keeping my eye on. Agent Kristin Nelson over at Pub Rants blogged about it today, and as such inspired me to add my thoughts to the chorus.
As some of you may know, and others may not, selling work that isn't quite adult and isn't really YA has been very tricky for a while now. You'd think the idea of college age stories, or stories with individuals just out of highschool would be highly coveted by just that age group, but for some reason, and probably a pretty pragmatic one, it's always been a very tough sell to publishers.
What is the pragmatic reason you may ask? I'll tell you. Shelving.
Weird, I know, right? But think about it. Where would such books go? It's just one small category after all, in a book store full of tons of categories. We separate adult from kids, sometimes even putting one on a totally different floor. New Adult would be a smallish category (unless the next Twilight wound up being from that genre), not requiring that big a section. But where would you put it? Upstairs with the kid's stuff? Downstairs with the adult (after all New Adult is still Adult, 18+). Maybe on the stairs? So it's tricky to deal with a genre like this because it's hard to sell a genre like this. To make buyers aware of its existence.
I've also heard arguments against creating this new category because we are dividing books up so much already as it is. YA already gets marginalised for not being "real" writing, for not being serious enough to be considered Adult literature. What would happen now to New Adult? Would that therefore be considered a category for adults not quite ready for the good stuff?
See, gets complicated doesn't it?
Here's my thinking. I don't like the idea of categories in general. I don't like the snobbery associated with division. And I don't like the judgment, and that good books can be totally overlooked because they aren't on the correct shelf.
BUT.
I also happen to know that books that would fall into this New Adult category are not being accepted and published by publishers because they currently have no place on the market. So if we have to have categories, I highly approve of creating one so that these books can find their place out there as well.
Therefore, this is my plan. I am going to spread the good word. I am going to keep bringing up the idea of New Adult when chatting online, or with my fellow author buddies. And I'll blog about it. Wait, I just did. Because the more we talk about New Adult, the more people will hear about it, and the more people hear about it, the more people may realise they want it. And maybe when a lot of people know such a category exists, the bookstores will feel better creating a section for it because buyers will know to look for it. And then . . . oh then . . . then the publishers will want to publish it.
All hail New Adult! Let the spreading begin!
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S. Jae-Jones from St. Martin's Press answered some questions on the new category over at Jodi Meadows's blog Words and Wardances here.
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