Writers in the Storm

Sierra Godfrey

I am a reader. Yes, I read books, but I mean an agent’s reader. I read requested manuscripts. I read your requested manuscript.

Readers are one of the secrets of the industry—most agents utilize them as there are simply too many manuscripts and not enough pairs of eyes. Some agents use one or two, some use eight or ten. For me, it was a fantastic opportunity to learn about both sides of the business.

Here’s how it works: when you get a material request from an agent, that manuscript is read by several different people, including the agent. The overall consensus helps the agent decide whether to keep reading—and get to that no or yes quicker.

Being an agent’s reader has been illuminating, and I’ve learned several things already. But before I tell you what those things are, there’s something you need to know: just because we readers have thoughts on what isn't working doesn't mean that you'll get a specific rejection naming what those things(s) are.

So here is what that rejection-speak could mean:

1. You should have started your story at chapter 4.

This is the problem I see most often. The action in the first few chapters is slow, and I’m talking a slug-who’s-taken-Xanax-slow. But by chapter four, bang! The action really starts.

I know. I know. You need to set up your story, and you need those first four chapters! You also need to take some the energy that often resides in chapter 4 and pull it into the first chapter to create and build that tension right from the get-go.

Try this: take a moment to think over your first four chapters. Can you identify the break—where things really pick up? As an experiment, can you delete the material up until that point? Now, do you feel the difference in energy? If your characters can think back to earlier that day when things were calmer (and boring), and work that into the action, would that still be the same story?

2. You whispered.

There are many beautiful and wonderful manuscripts out there. But the ones that really stand out are the ones with a terrific sense of voice. Those make you stand up and notice. You know this already, because you’ve been told a thousand times.

But what I am telling you is that agents see so many manuscripts that it’s mind-boggling, and the ones that stand out are the ones with a great voice. Does your story come alive right from sentence one? I don’t mean your work has to be stylized or contain a southern accent. But there should be a sense of atmosphere, tension, and personality.

If you struggle with this idea (and believe me, I know), then just remember that if you whisper, your work won’t get heard over the reams of other manuscripts in an agent’s inbox.

Try this: Rewrite a chapter in another point of view. If you wrote in third person, write in first person. If you wrote in first person, write in a stream of consciousness, as though your character was sitting across from you in a café and telling you his or her story as a friend. Does that change anything?

3. You didn’t cover all your story bases.

Your prose is great; your mechanics are all there. But something’s missing. Plot! Structure! Everything hinges on it. Your characters will fall flat if there’s no underlying structure to carry them along. Be sure that your opening chapters aren’t just snapshots of your characters la-dee-dahing. There should be an underlying sense of SOMETHING that is ABOUT TO HAPPEN that will SHAKE YOUR CHARACTER’S WORLD. (Often, that something occurs in your chapter four. See above.)

Likewise, if you have structure and your writing isn’t clean, it will still fall flat. And so on.

What I see as I read is that everything ties together, and if you’re missing just one of those elements, your manuscript could earn a rejection. Readers and agents will sense there’s something missing, but they won’t be able to tell you what it is.

Try this: Match up your plot to the Save the Cat story beats, invented by Blake Snyder. There are actually a bunch of story structure formulas out there, but Save the Cat is simple (there are 15 total beats in a story) and clear. You can check those out on www.savethecat.com or get his book. I’ve also created a beat worksheet that you can download here.

If that’s too rigid for you, then how about breaking down your story into acts: Act 1 (the set up), Act 2A, Midpoint, Act 2b, and Act 3 (the finale). Are there clear acts in your story? Is there a sense of a clear break between acts?

Finally, a last word on submissions

The three problems above are the most frequent ones I see. But readers and agents really, truly are looking for a great read. Really! We want to read something wonderful and we’re pulling for you. If your query made it to the request phase, then you’re doing something right. I’m genuinely bummed when a manuscript doesn’t work for me, because I know the writer put in his or her blood, sweat, and tears into it. I know how hard writers book, because I am one, too.

Agents know that, too.  So we’re all pulling for you. Writing is hard. Story-telling is hard! You are valued, and your work is appreciated, whether it ends up getting you signed or not. That’s something that I finally got to see and understand as a reader, and I’m grateful.

What is the best or worst rejection you ever received? Do you have any tips to add to mine?

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About Sierra

Sierra Godfrey writes fiction with international settings and always a mention of football (soccer) or two. She is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and a quarterly contributor to Writers in the Storm. She writes weekly about Spanish football for various sports sites, and is also a freelance graphic designer. She lives in the foggy wastelands of the San Francisco Bay Area with her family.

Come visit her at www.sierragodfrey.com or talk with her on Twitter @sierragodfrey.

Kathryn Craft
Turning Whine Into Gold

To navigate the gauntlet that is publishing today, your best strategy for success can be to embrace your new paradox: you are both artist and businessperson.

Why?

Because it’s not all business. Your publishing team is well aware that they would not have their salaried jobs without the creative talent that is willing to gamble for dollars in order to drive the industry.

Because it’s not all art. Oh they want your art, all right, but if truth be told, they’d rather not add one ounce of your artistic temperament to their business meetings.

Here are some strategies for achieving that all-important balanced perspective that will help your support team to thrive. Each one presents a new paradox.

1. Be both entrepreneur and team player.

No matter what path you took to achieve it, your decision to pursue publication meant that you were starting a home-based business. This is true in the eyes of the IRS and it will help if this also feels true in your heart. You are the author and therefore the brand; your story is now a product. And no matter how many times you tell yourself “I only want to share my story with others,” your publishing team will appreciate you getting on board with the fact that sale of your work is how you all intend to make money.

It therefore behooves you to understand the basics of running a small business as concerns record-keeping, budgeting, and the tax ramifications of your endeavor. Donning your role as sole business owner, ironically, will empower you to step onto the publishing team. You will see your agent, editor, cover designer, publicist, and marketing department for what they are: your business partners.

Too many authors feel sidelined in their own careers, saying things like, “I don’t know how my book is selling because I don’t want to bother my editor.” Um—why? If your publisher wants you on the sales team—and they do—you have a right to periodic sales numbers and whatever explanations you need to understand your contract and your royalty statement. You have a right to know where your agent is submitting your work and what kind of feedback your work is getting. Only by defending these rights can you be an effective part of your publishing team. 

2. Be both field marshal and herd dog.

Each member of your team has such an all-consuming role that they can forget they are on a team. Especially with a larger publisher, the right hand may not know what the left is doing. You are the lowest common denominator—without you, there wouldn’t be a team—so it’s on you to remind them.

Sometimes that will require you to get out front and take the lead. I needed to do this when my in-house publicist failed to achieve even one little piece of her ambitious PR plan for my second novel. As uncomfortable as it was, I had to get out front and act as field marshal: this is the new plan, and this is the support I expect from each of you to make it happen.

Other times, if you sense a member of your team lagging, it is best to herd from behind, calling to remind that you are awaiting edits or a cover concept or whatever. Ask to be apprised of the revised publication schedule. In the case of overdue services—unless you make the mistake of unleashing the full wrath of your artistic temperament—as long as you respect each member for the expertise each brings to the table, such “poking” is not an annoyance. It is simply gathering the information you need to best manage your time and contribution to the team. 

3. Be both enthusiastic and realistic.

Many writers pin up a mock cover for their manuscript that comes with “New York Times Bestseller” pre-affixed. There is nothing wrong with lofty goals! They can propel us through the muck and mire of workaday publishing. But we must also bring our A game to workaday publishing, and find value and joy in it, or we may never hit a list.

4. Let both emotional validation and data feed your sense of success.

A business person wants the data—how many books sold at the event, how many attended your Twitter chat, how many hits your blog or Facebook ad received. Such data may point to the most efficient use of your limited time and resources, but it will not tell the entire tale of your success. Your inner artist will feel successful as soon as readers email to say how your book moved them or opened their hearts. People do not forget books that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.

We must all start somewhere, after all, and not everyone will start at the top of their game. Use the feeling of success engendered by positive reviews to motivate your team to even greater heights.

It is a universal truth that everyone wants to play on a winning team. Set the bar high, with your inner artist holding one side of the bar and your inner business person holding the other—and then ask as much of yourself as you ask of others.

Do you ever feel torn between what seem to be conflicting roles in your publishing journey? How have you navigated such paradoxical moments?

To catch up with this series of posts, check out:

• How avoid energy-stealing dramas when dealing with your team.
• How to contribute the kind of elevated energy that we can only access when acting from our higher selves.

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About Kathryn

Kathryn Craft is the award-winning author of two novels from Sourcebooks: The Art of Falling, and The Far End of Happy. Her chapter “A Drop of Imitation: Learn from the Masters” will appear in the forthcoming guide from Writers Digest Books, Author in Progress, available now for pre-order.

Her work as a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, specializing in storytelling structure and writing craft, follows a nineteen-year career as a dance critic. Long a leader in the southeastern Pennsylvania writing scene, she leads workshops and speaks often about writing.

Twitter: @kcraftwriter
FB: KathrynCraftAuthor

Tasha Seegmiller

When I was just starting on my writing journey, I attended a workshop where a children’s book writer and illustrator said something along the lines of, “If you like to do anything besides writing, do that.”

Writing is hard.

Writing takes grit.

But this is the case for lots of things in life. Parenting? Check. Marriage? Check. Quality friendships? Check.

And yet, there is something about creative endeavors that make them seem harder. I saw this when I was teaching high school English – students were much more comfortable writing research papers than writing about themselves. Why? Because that is a creation of self. I’ve never taken it personally when someone has told me I did a math problem wrong. Yes, I tried to reason through it, but my self-worth was not connected to my ability to solve that problem.

This doesn’t tend to be the case with writing though. Sure, a discussion of the nuances of grammar feels safe and logical and non-threatening. But if someone mentions not liking a character I made – one who I wanted to be likable? I must be a hack, a fraud, what-the-heck-am-I-thinking-trying-to-be-a-writer?

When the waves of self-doubt settle, then comes the berating of letting myself talk to myself that way. I know better. Mind over matter. And other self-love jazz.

The reality of reality is that we are programmed with a psychological and physiological predisposition toward negativity bias. Daniel Kahneman explains that “The brains of humans and other animals contain a mechanism that is designed to give priority to bad news. By shaving a few hundredths of a second from the time needed to detect a predator, this circuit improves the animal’s odds of living long enough to reproduce.”

That bad review that you got? It’s going to linger longer than the good. Your fear of someone hating your book before it even comes out? Not all the way your fault.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be able to dismiss this lingering evolutionary trait just because you know it’s there. And if you have a long-lasting memory like me, even things from DECADES ago and creep back in, agitating the flight-or-flight response and derailing productivity.

So what’s a writer to do?

A couple things.

1. Take some time to really get to know yourself.

How do YOU deal with the stress of negative feedback? Is it there and gone? Do you have physical side effects? Does it provide motivation for you to do even more and prove all the idiots wrong or will that one whisper of dislike send you in a spiral of fear-based procrastination?

Just like the ice cream in the freezer at ten o’clock at night might be kryptonite for some and a non-factor to others, keeping accessibility to these things that might trigger you IS something you can control. You don’t have to open the freezer for a midnight snack, and you don’t have to open review sites to read what people say about your book.

2. Get yourself a support team.

Ideally, your support team will develop into three groups: people who are working toward the same thing as you, people who are ahead of you on the publishing journey, and people who are behind you on the path toward publication.

Why?

You need someone to commiserate with when you get the rejection. And the next one. And the next one. You need someone who you can send a screen shot to when the rejection comes back as:

I’m not interested in this story.

Send from my iPad

(true story from my querying experience)

You need someone who is ahead of you so they can be the voice of keep going, and that is normal, and it’s worth it, I promise. You need someone who can send you pictures of their ARC and promotional material to remind you of the goal and the victory following the trenches.

You need someone behind you so you can see how far you’ve come. I have attended the same writing conference every year for five years, but about two years ago, I realized I had shifted from a person there to pull in as much knowledge and advice as I could to someone who could give some.

3. Keep track of the good.

I still have the emails from my beta readers. Why? They start like this:

“Wow. Just… wow, Tasha. What a beautiful story! And your writing style. Sigh. I was enraptured from the first word.”

And this:

“TAAAAASHAAAAA! I loved your book! Like, loved it so much I kinda went through sections where I didn't offer much crit because I got so sucked in!”

You’d better believe after the “Send from my iPad” rejection, I went back to these. I needed to remind myself that other people HAD liked my writing, that these other people were further on the path than me, knew more than me, and believed in me.

I recently did a “mock reading” where I pretended like my book was out and I read from it for five minutes to a captive audience also charged with critiquing. The comments I got back were strong, good, encouraging, and I’m putting all of them in an Evernote file for future reference.

I think we’re all aware of the amount of positive it takes to overcome negative. It is up to us to acknowledge when negativity is creeping in, and it is up to us to work toward defeating it. Because chances are decent, when you thought if there was anything you’d rather do besides writing, in the back of your mind, you answered no.

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About Tasha

 

Tasha Seegmiller is a mom to three kids and coordinator of the project-based learning center (EDGE) at Southern Utah University. She writes contemporary women’s fiction with a hint of magic, and thrives on Diet Coke, chocolate and cinnamon bears.

She is a co-founder and the managing editor for the Thinking Through Our Fingers blog as well as the Women's Fiction Writers Association quarterly magazine (Write On!), where she also serves as a board member. Tasha is represented by Annelise Robey of the Jane Rotrosen Agency.