Writers in the Storm

Chuck Sambuchino

(This column excerpted from Chuck’s 2015 book, Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work.)

No author I know signs with an agent wanting that partnership to end. But, sadly, things do break down sometimes. Here are four signs that your agent-author relationship has turned sour.

1. Lack of communication from the agent. This is the big one. Most agents will respond to your e-mails within forty-eight hours, if not much quicker. But if you’re e-mailing your agent and repeatedly getting nada in return, that’s a bad sign. It means your agent no longer considers you important enough to communicate with, or she is simply avoiding you. A serious lack of communication is a large problem and one of the first signs of a sinking ship.

2. Disagreement on big issues in your writing career. You and your agent should be on the same page concerning what you write and your career goals. Sometimes an agent sees an opening for you in another area and wants to guide you in that direction. You may take this change of direction easily, or you may not. If you feel uneasy writing what your agent wants you to write—whether it’s a completely different type of book or the suggestion to change the age of your main character from 33 to 63—then that’s another red flag.

3. Dreading to talk with one another. Personally, I always look forward to my agent’s phone calls. Why? Because she only calls with news, and news is welcome. Even bad news is welcome, because it gives us answers and closure, and helps us move on and decide the proper next step. So if you don’t look forward to your agent’s calls, or she always acts put out when you get her on the phone, that’s bad. This partnership is fueled by enthusiasm, and dread is the opposite of enthusiasm.

4. A major difference of opinion on an offered deal. An agent’s job is to get you a book deal. But, oddly enough, sometimes a deal offer can be a problematic thing and lead to disagreements between you and your agent. An agent is likely to be excited about her hard work paying off with a deal offer (and thus want you to take the offer)—but what if the deal is not what you expected? All of the following scenarios are plausible:

• The offer comes from XYZ Publisher, but a writer friend of yours published by that house has told you of her negative experience there.
• The offer for your nonfiction proposal was much lower than hoped, and you now feel like writing the book will not be financially worthwhile. (This scenario actually happened to me in 2009. My agent and I got an offer on a small nonfiction book I wrote. The problem: The publisher only offered a $1,000 advance, and we had no other offers. I could sense that my agent still wanted me to take the deal even with the measly advance, but when I told her I couldn’t say yes to that figure, she understood my response and respected the decision. We ended up declining the deal and moving on, faring better with our subsequent books.)
• A publisher offers you a healthy deal, but they, in fact, want to make your book the next edition of an existing novel series and take your name off the book.
• The publisher wants to release your book, but only as an e-book at first—with print copies discussed only after certain sales figures are reached.

If your agent is pushing you to take any deals such as these, but your gut tells you no, that’s a tough situation.

So what happens if you feel like your efforts together have taken a downward turn? At that point, it’s time to compose an honest e-mail expressing your concerns. Make sure you don’t get upset or point fingers. Just calmly express what’s on your mind. It’s also an invitation for the agent to write back and tell you what’s frustrating her. You both have nothing to lose at this point, and it’s time to stop holding back and express your true thoughts—albeit politely.

(Hi, everyone. Chuck here chiming in for a second. I wanted to say I am now taking clients as a freelance editor. So if your query or manuscript needs some love, please check out my editing services. Thanks!)

Ideally the open conversation will illuminate some issues or ideas you two didn’t understand before. Then you can use it as a jumping-off point for getting your relationship—and you career—back on track.

Conversely, the conversation may confirm your fears that the match is not a true match, and it’s time to move on. In the worst case, the agent may choose not even to reply to your “Let’s talk” e-mail. If that happens, it’s time to pull up the anchor and sail on. You can then send a follow-up e-mail requesting the termination of your partnership, effective in however many days as set forth by your contract. Thank her for her time and hard work, and start drafting a new query letter to begin your agent search anew.

Keep in mind that if you want to find another rep who might be a better fit for your style, you should cut ties with your current agent before doing any new querying. It’s disrespectful to both agents if you talk representation with new agents before formally terminating your current contract.

Comment on the post by Monday, June 1 for a chance to win a copy of Chuck’s 2015 book, Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work.

About Chuck

Chuck Sambuchino of Writer’s Digest Books edits the GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS and the CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His Guide to Literary Agents Blog is one of the largest blogs in publishing.

His 2010 humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK, was optioned by Sony Pictures.  Chuck has also written the writing guides FORMATTING & SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT and CREATE YOUR WRITER PLATFORM.

Besides that, he is a freelance book & query editor, husband, sleep-deprived new father, and owner of a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham.

Find Chuck on Twitter and on Facebook.

Laurie Schnebly Campbell

What makes people talk about your book before they've ever read Page 1?

Well, maybe they remember you from high school and can’t wait to see if they’re featured on page 28.

Or maybe they heard the publisher paid a billion-dollar advance to get your manuscript.

Or maybe they saw that Josh Brolin and Jessica Alba agreed to co-star when it’s also released as a movie on Publication Day.

But aside from news like that, pretty much the ONLY thing that gets people talking is word of mouth.

We've all heard (or read) comments like:

"I’ve already pre-ordered that one."

"I hear it's a great book, can’t wait to get it."

"It looks really good; I was reading the blurb."

Ah, the blurb.

While we might have no control over our publisher's budget, much less over movie stars, we CAN control the blurb.

But a lot of writers feel uneasy about writing their own. Sure, no problem writing an entire novel, but a blurb?

Most people would rather face dragons.

 If that sounds like you, you're sure not alone. Even writers who are naturally gifted at self-promotion - and, boy, don't we envy them? - find it tough to condense their fabulous book into 50 words.

Which is easy to understand. If you had to condense your entire life into 50 words, where would you even start?

Getting just 50 words to sum up everything that's great about a story you've spent the past however-many months on can be every bit as challenging.

So that’s why it helps to think like an advertising copywriter.

All you marketing people already know this, right? I DIDN’T know it when I started wondering why writing blurbs came so easily - far easier than writing the actual novels - until I realized blurbs are all about presenting the product in its best possible light.

In a very short space.

To the people who want it.

Who ARE those people?

It’s a good idea to figure that out early in the game. After all, no advertiser would waste money producing a TV commercial or a full-page ad in the New York Times or a billboard on Main Street without knowing who they want the ad to reach.

(Er, whom. But that sounds so pedantic!)

Anyway, we writers tend to be a bit more all-inclusive and democratic than the advertisers who maintain "the ONLY consumers we care about reaching are suburban females age 35-49 with pre-schoolers in a $50-75K household."

We tend to say "I want to reach every reader on Planet Earth."

But, drat it, that makes it tough to target our blurb toward any specific market.

It could very well be, of course, that every single reader on earth will agree HERE's the book they've been waiting for their entire life, and they'll order millions of copies for all their friends.

(And even as we authors dismiss such a premise as being unrealistic, some little secret part of us still thinks "yes, exactly!")

The realistic part, though, recognizes that not every reader WILL want this fabulous book. Someone seeking a sweet romance doesn’t want incredibly hot love scenes. Someone who wants a medieval historical won't be satisfied with the Old West. Someone shopping for a relaxing escape doesn’t want a nail-biting thriller.

But who cares? Those aren’t your readers anyway.

The readers YOU want already know what they're looking for...and it's the kind of book you write.

So how do you show them?

 Tell, don’t show.

In a blurb, you flip the traditional show-don’t-tell advice on its head. Here, telling instead of showing is doing the reader a favor. Someone who’s skimming through a whole selection of possible stories wants to get the flavor of yours in just a few sentences or paragraphs.

Think of it like writing a commercial for a brand new car, or a traditional favorite snack food. You have fifteen seconds to present the image of how this car or this snack food will make life better for someone glancing through videos.

Seems daunting, right?

But you have an advantage -- because you don’t have to catch people glancing through videos. They’re glancing through story descriptions because they ALREADY want to buy your kind of book.

So you need to make the most of that advantage, putting your best blurb-writing skills to work. And that’s where we come up against today’s question:

What’s the best blurb you've read lately? It can be your own or somebody else's, just mention the book's title and author.

Everyone who answers will go into a drawing pool, and the winner gets free registration to my class on “Blurbing Your Book” June 1-26.

Fun stuff, right?

Although maybe not quite as much fun as choosing who stars in the movie of your book...

About Laurie

Laurie Schnebly Campbell (BookLaurie.com) works in advertising, where her job is to convince buyers they'll love a particular product. She's spent years writing about products people might not think of buying, until they saw a message that makes 'em realize "yes, THIS is what I want!" She's always pleased, but not surprised, when people who've taken this class report increased sales with their new and improved blurbs.

Sometimes you have a flat tire, real or symbolic, and a planned writing session doesn’t happen. Sometimes you are“stuck” and have to think awhile on a solution for the corner you’ve written yourself into. Life gets busy and other responsibilities take precedence. Or a host of other daily intrusions muscle into your schedule.

This is not what I’m talking about today.

When you are slammed with a major life-changing event, death or loss, it can take months (or even years) for your heart to have healed enough to have your writing spirit back onboard. Without a heart that is open to feelings, it’s hard to write, let alone write anything compelling.

I know this place well.

After my father died suddenly, I thought that writing a new book about a girl's love for her father would be cathartic. It was, to a point. But I was unwilling to lay my feelings out on the page, so the book wasn’t all it could be and the process didn’t help as much as I’d hoped.

I’m still recovering from a death early this year.  For six months I was the primary caregiver for the after-care of two surgeries and a battle against two kinds of cancer (others, not myself). I am finally able to sit at the computer and write again. Until recently, I didn’t have the heart to write.

But here is a list of what I was able to do.

1. Use a post-it pad to jot down snippets of dialogue or a word, like desolation.

You know how forgetful you can be when you’re severely stressed. I now keep a pad of paper in my car. Seeing just one word on a page has helped me address that feeling - and remember the love.

2.  Spend time in nature.

While life is slows in your grief, notice everything - the colors of the sky at dawn, the sounds of traffic, the smells in a bouquet of flowers. A bunny scurrying across the trail, or a mother duck shepherding her ducklings down a creek can make me smile at the worst of times.

 

3. Listen to music.

Music can put you in touch with feelings at light speed. That’s why a producer spends big bucks for the right composer for a film. Initially, I listened to a lot of what I call “Angry Young Man” music (AKA alternative rock). My choice in music softened as my heart healed.

4. Consider characters that have no relationship to what you’re going through.

Give your brain a break. It doesn’t do any good to beat yourself up about things you could have done better. A new life means a new outlook. Who doesn’t get energized thinking about new characters.

5. Think about characters that are going through the same thing as you.

When you’re ready, let your fictional characters walk your path. Perhaps through their eyes and hearts, you will see and feel things you’ve overlooked.

6. Critique other’s work.

This kept me in the writing game. I could engage in a writing activity by editing my critique partners’ pages, with a mind detached from my own problems. It also reminded me that I had stories to tell and made me sit at the computer to try to tell them. Even though I did a lot of “trying to proceed,” the act of critiquing kept my writer’s muscles from atrophying.

7. Build a movie in your head of a brand new project.

This is another “get out of your world” technique. Of course, as a science fiction writer, I have to admit I use this one often, even when I’m not stressed. I worked on my “movie” and now that I’m writing again, the words are flowing.

8. Record new story ideas, new characters, new settings that intrigue you.

I’ve found memory and stress to be mutually exclusive, so if I come up with what I think is a great idea, I write it down and save it for later. Even if it seems pretty stupid. Heck, I’m a writer. I can use pieces of everything.

9. Research something totally new, unrelated to any current project.

You may find something to help you out of your writer slump and life funk.

10. Write short paragraphs about how you feel.

Save these pages! You will be able to use them in your books. Maybe not your current project, but your raw emotions will propel your work to places it hasn’t reached before. The more we share our life journey, whatever the masquerade of genre and characters, the more our readers can relate. After all, don’t we all read to feel?

11. Read.

Reading will not only take you away from your misery for a time, it helps to open your heart. And an open heart not only lets us take in, but allows us to release doubt, pain, anger and so much more. Reading also will remind you that you are a writer. And eventually you will start telling your stories again.

The curse of life is that nothing is permanent.
The beauty of life is that nothing is permanent.

What have you done to help you “soldier on” during a life crisis? How have you been able to come back to your writing?

*  *  *  *  *  *

About Fae

Fae Rowen discovered the romance genre after years as a science fiction freak.   Writing futuristics and medieval paranormals, she jokes  that she can live anywhere but the present.  As a mathematician, she knows life’s a lot more fun when you get to define your world and its rules.

Punished, oh-no, that’s published as a co-author of a math textbook, she yearns to hear personal stories about finding love from those who read her books, rather than the horrors of calculus lessons gone wrong.  She is grateful for good friends who remind her to do the practical things in life like grocery shop, show up at the airport for a flight and pay bills.

A “hard” scientist who avoided writing classes like the plague, she now enjoys sharing her brain with characters who demand that their stories be told.  Amazing, gifted critique partners keep her on the straight and narrow. Feedback from readers keeps her fingers on the keyboard.

When she’s not hanging out at Writers in the Storm, you can visit Fae at http://faerowen.com  or www.facebook.com/fae.rowen.