Writers in the Storm

Chuck Sambuchino

This column excerpted from Chuck's book, GET A LITERARY AGENT (2015, Writer's Digest Books)

 

Concerning the definitions of high fantasy vs. urban fantasy:

“In high fantasy, an entire world is created; it doesn’t take place in what we recognize as the world as we currently know it. It usually has magic or magical creatures of some sort, though there are some exceptions. Urban fantasy also takes place in what is recognizably our world and has vampires, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, etc. The stories involve characters that are human, or were once human, but have evolved into something else.”

—Tamar Rydzinski (Laura Dail Literary Agency)

 

On the confusion between urban fantasy and paranormal romance:

“Urban fantasy versus paranormal romance is always a fine line. I think urban fantasy lingers a tad longer on the wider plot, and paranormal romance lingers a tad longer on the chemistry between the two main characters.”

—Robin Rue (Writers House)

“There is a lot of overlap in these two genres, but at its core, paranormal romance cannot exist without a romance. Urban fantasy can.”

—Sarah LaPolla (Bradford Literary Agency)

 

On mystery vs. thriller:

“The way I see it, a pure mystery is where the crime has already happened and the protagonist must solve it. In a thriller, the protagonist is often waiting for the crime to occur or working to prevent it. Mysteries can be more introspective, with a focus on the protagonist’s mental powers of deduction, where thrillers are known for more action and physicality. In mysteries, a key element of the plot is hidden from the reader, such as (most traditionally) who the villain is. In a thriller, you often know who the villain is fairly early on, and the plot is centered around a game of cat and mouse.”

—Cameron McClure (Donald Maass Literary Agency)

 

On an agent’s willingness to work with a book that straddles two, three, or even four genres: 

“If you are unable to tell me what it is you’re writing (and do not say you ‘really can’t’ because ‘it has never been done before,’ because every time an author says that, a kitten explodes), then how am I going to frame it and sell it? There are of course subgenres within genres, but an author straddling too many genres is akin to Shark-Octopus-Bear lurching out of the ocean, growling and biting and thrashing its eight arms hither and thither. And no one wants to approach that—not an agent, not a publisher, and not Greenpeace.”

—Barbara Poelle (Irene Goodman Literary Agency)

 (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!)

On what constitutes crime fiction:

“I would say that crime fiction is less about the whodunit than about the protagonist’s dilemma in a criminal milieu. The protagonist may not have all the information—so there is a mystery in that he is trying to find something out—but the story is really about how he solves his problems, which are often as much about his lifestyle as about the particular crime that spurs the plot. For instance, in Ray Banks’s brilliant Saturday’s Child, Cal Innes is forced by a local mob boss to find a former employee and the money he stole, but in many ways the story is about Cal trying to find a place for himself and form an adult life within a socioeconomic stratum that offers very few options.”

—Stacia Decker (Donald Maass Literary Agency)

 

On the categories of children’s fiction:

“In a nutshell: Early Readers = Frog and Toad, and Elephant and Piggie. Chapter books = Judy Moody, and Ivy and Bean. Think of the stages of development in this order: picture books lead to early readers, which lead to chapter books, which lead to middle grade, which lead to young adult.”

—Jen Rofe (Andrea Brown Literary Agency)

“Early readers are for young kids just beginning to learn to read and are more heavily illustrated. Their language is restricted to basic words and concepts that help kids ages 4-6 learn to read. An example would be The Berenstain Bears. Chapter books are for intermediate readers ages 7-10. Chapter books are for kids that are not quite ready for Harry Potter, but The Very Hungry Caterpillar isn’t going to hold their attention either. Chapter books have illustrations but are primarily about the prose, and they have a bit more narrative complexity. Early readers can be indistinguishable from picture books and often have color illustrations on every page, whereas chapter books usually (though there are plenty of exceptions) have only black and white line illustrations sporadically interspersed. Early readers aren’t usually more than 1,000 words, whereas chapter books are usually over 10,000 words. Both types of books are targeted at the school and library markets, so there are a lot of considerations when it comes to the vocabulary you should use. I would recommend doing a lot of research before attempting to write either sort of book.”

—Evan Gregory (Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency)

“A middle grade book is generally intended for eight- to twelve-year-olds, and the protagonist should be in that age range as well. YA is geared toward ages 13 and up, although sometimes a YA book is classified as younger or older YA. Obviously subject matter must be appropriate for the intended age group, but equally as important is the voice. Too often the voice strikes me as too old or too young for the character’s age. If the protagonist is an eleven-year-old boy, then the reader must feel like an eleven-year-old boy is speaking to them. An authentic voice makes the reader want to accompany that boy on his journey, whatever it may be.”

—Ann Behar (Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency)

 

On classifying erotica, romance, erotic romance, and women’s fiction:

“The book crosses the line into erotica when the sexual journey is more important than the romantic journey. And that’s not a bad thing, just a different market.”

—Michelle Johnson (Inklings Literary Agency)

“To me, erotic romance is primarily between a couple (or sometimes a threesome) that will have a happily ever after. At its heart, it’s the story of people finding their soul mates and exploring the connection via sex. Straight-up erotica doesn’t have to end in a committed coupling. The focus (to me, and I’m sure others’ [tastes] will vary) is more on the voyage of self-discovery … a character or characters learning what it is that makes him or her happy and comfortable and finding the courage to accept whatever might be revealed.”

—Lucienne Diver (The Knight Agency)

“A contemporary romance’s plot revolves around the love/romantic element, whereas women’s fiction tends to revolve around women’s issues and the growth and empowerment of the female protagonist. Women’s fiction can have romance, but it’s not the driving force of the plot.”

—Kathleen Ortiz (New Leaf Literary and Media)

“Women’s fiction novels are not simply stories with female characters, but stories that tell us the female journey. Women’s fiction is a way for women to learn and grow, and to relate to others what it is to be a woman.”

—Scott Eagan (Greyhaus Literary Agency)

 

On writing an LGBTQ novel/memoir:

“It drives me crazy that I get so many queer memoirs and coming-of-age novels where the author assumes that it’s enough to just be gay, and nothing much else is going on in their stories other than this identity crisis. I don’t mean to trivialize that experience, but at the same time, many coming out stories don’t make for a riveting read or can sustain the scope of a novel on their own. This only works if you’re writing at the level of someone like David Sedaris or Alison Smith.”

—Cameron McClure (Donald Maass Literary Agency)

“If the protagonist’s sexuality isn’t an issue in the story line—if the protagonist just happens to be gay—I don’t think that book would be pigeonholed [as LGBTQ fiction]. But if the book is about the protagonist’s gay lifestyle, then it would be categorized as such.”

—Jennifer De Chiara (Jennifer De Chiara Literary)

 So, what do you think? Any surprises here? Did you learn anything you didn't know?

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.

Susan Spann

In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi refers to Mos Eisley spaceport as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” and adds, “we must be careful.”

Obi-Wan’s wisdom applies to the Internet too. 

Regardless of your publishing path, if you write for publication, you should take steps to protect your copyrighted work against Internet-based infringement.

Today, we take a look at how to do that. While no single post can cover all of the ways to protect your work online, here are some tips on things all authors can do to protect and enforce their copyrights:

1. Perform Regular Copyright / Infringement Searches. Every author should search the Internet regularly (at least once a month) for: (a) the author’s name, (b) the author’s published titles, and (c) any other words, phrases, or marks which might reveal infringement or illegal copying of the author’s work. For example, my searches include “Susan Spann,” “Shinobi Mystery,” and the titles of each of my published works (as well as “Flask of the Drunken Master” which doesn’t release until July. Using quotation marks around the search terms returns only those results which contain the exact phrase within the quotes.

Internet searches are important even if you also use Google Alerts or another monitoring service. While effective, automated alerts don’t catch all infringement, and can’t be relied upon to screen for all uses of an author’s work on the Internet.

Warning: Not all sites that come up on these searches will be safe to click on. Protect your computer with anti-script and antivirus software and other protective measures before clicking through to unknown or untrusted websites. Many websites that contain infringing content also contain trojan horses and other dangerous computer viruses. Protect your rights…but know that you click through at your own risk.

2. Set Up and Monitor Automated Alerts (e.g. “Google Alerts”). Programs like Google Alerts will monitor the Internet and automatically send the author updates when the search terms appear online. Google alerts is available free of charge in many circumstances; some programs and monitoring systems offer this service for a fee, but in most cases authors can get the same services free of charge through a combination of Google Alerts and regular Internet searches for the author’s name and title(s). Unfortunately, Google Alerts doesn’t actually notice updates to the “entire” Internet, so the results are not 100% reliable – everything which shows up is actually there, but your work may also appear in other places that Google Alerts did not notice. This is why I recommend using Google Alerts in conjunction with regular “live” Internet searches.

As with Internet searches, authors should set up Google Alerts for the author’s name and for each of the author’s published (or soon to be published) titles. Also: beware clicking through links on Google Alerts or other alert notifications. Be sure your computer is properly protected against viruses and hacking before you travel to the Mos Eisley Cantinas of the Internet.

3. Register Copyrights and Use Copyright Notices When Appropriate. Make sure that your publisher registers your copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office in a timely manner (and if you’re self published, remember: the publisher is you.) Use copyright notices on all published works, including articles, presentation handouts and lecture notes, and blogs (unless the blog already has a copyright notice on it).

A proper copyright notice looks like this: © [year] [author name]. All rights reserved.

4. Understand How to Prepare and Use a DMCA Notice. The DMCA (which stands for Digital Milennium Copyright Act) is a U.S. law designed to protect authors’ rights and facilitate access to information. The law contains a provision requiring Internet Service Providers and website administrators within the U.S. to investigate and address claims of copyright infringement promptly, as long as the notice of infringement complies with the requirements contained in the DMCA. Earlier this week, I posted a blog explaining how to prepare and use a DMCA Notice, along with a sample notice I use with my copyright clients. You can find that tutorial here: http://www.susanspann.com/how-to-prepare-and-use-a-dmca-takedown-notice/

Traditionally published authors should check with their publishers before preparing and sending DMCA notices, because in many cases the publisher prefers to handle those notices in-house. Self-published authors need to learn the procedure and how to use a DMCA notice, in order to protect their legal rights.

5. Track Your Licenses and Permissions. Authors should have a file (either physical or electronic) for every copyrighted or published work, which states: (a) which rights in the work the author has licensed, sold, or granted, (b) to whom, and (c) when the contract or grant of rights expires. This way, if any question arises about whether uses are legal or not, the author has a quick-reference guide to the work’s current copyright status. At the start of an author’s career, it’s easy to track these rights, but the more works you produce, and the more years pass since their creation, the harder it will be to remember without a written record.

While these steps can’t prevent infringement altogether, and no one can control the Internet (in all its gruesome glory), they do offer concrete steps all authors can take to reduce the chance of infringement and theft.

If infringers refuse to respond to DMCA notices or requests for removal, authors should consult a copyright lawyer to determine their legal rights and whether legal action is worthwhile. In some unfortunate cases, infringers host their sites “offshore” in countries where copyright protection is nonexistent or favorable to thieves. These sites are difficult to shut down and often impossible to regulate, so pursuit of their owners may be a waste of time. However, other infringers may respond to attorneys (or court orders) even if they ignore the author’s initial contact. It’s often worth a call to an experienced lawyer if an infringer ignores or disregards your rights.

Have you ever had to police your legal rights on the Internet? How did the experience go for you?

*  *  *  *  *  *

About Susan

Susan Spann writes the Shinobi Mysteries, featuring ninja detective Hiro Hattori and his Portuguese Jesuit sidekick, Father Mateo. Her debut novel, CLAWS OF THE CAT (Minotaur Books, 2013), was a Library Journal Mystery Debut of the Month and a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for Best First Novel. The second Shinobi Mystery, BLADE OF THE SAMURAI, released on July 15, 2014, and her third novel, FLASK OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER, releases in July 2015. Susan is also a transactional attorney whose practice focuses on publishing law and business. When not writing or practicing law, she raises seahorses and rare corals in her marine aquarium. You can find her online at her website, http://www.SusanSpann.com, and on Twitter (@SusanSpann).

 

Readers are smart. Smarter than we authors give them credit for. They get where we’re going way before we think they do. I think that’s why it’s so hard to give them an ending that will shock them.

I mean, think of the books you've read. How often have you been truly stunned by a plot turn, or an ending? I can think of two: The Haunting of Hill House (still getting over that one, and I read it in high school!) and South of Broad, by Pat Conroy.  Films? The Sixth Sense and Primal Fear. That’s it.

Oh sure, I've been surprised by others – where I’ve thought, ‘Oh, didn’t see that coming,’ and I move on. But not stunned.

I don’t write mysteries, but in those, you’re usually reading to find out whodunit, not what the ending will be, right? It’s a foregone conclusion that the bad guy (whoever he is) will be, if not apprehended, at least revealed at the end. And mystery aficionados usually narrow the choices to at least two by that time, right?

I’m talking about a reveal that shocks.

Why is it so hard to surprise readers? Because, while they’re reading, they’re thinking. They’re noting small details and storing them, to be used later to draw conclusions. And because readers are so smart, it takes a lot less clues than you think they’re going to need to get there.

I’m considering this subject because I just finished a women’s fiction novel that isn’t a mystery, but has a reveal at the end of the book. This subject in the background the entire book, but it’s the basement of the plot, characters and motivation that the entire book rests on.

So yeah, it’s important.

I want the reveal to come as a shock to the reader. When I finished South of Broad (no spoilers here - I’m not ruining it for you) I felt like I’d walked into a door. Then I put my head on the table and cried. Now, I’m no Conroy (though I aspire, impossibly, to be), but I want this reveal to hit the readers in the gut – to make them at least pause to take a breath as the implications dawn.

But how do you do that? I’m certainly not the expert, but I’ll share what I've learned from this book.

First, the protagonist can’t know the secret. I mean, we’re in their heads the entire book – if this is a big deal to them, they’re going to be thinking about it. If they know it, we’ll know it. You can’t withhold facts to manipulate the reader – it pisses them off. Remember Stephen King’s, Misery? ‘Nuf said.

The secret can’t be the total purpose of the book. If the reader is waiting 320 pages only for a reveal, they’re going to be at best frustrated, at worst, your book will hit the wall way before they’re done. Even if you’re Pat Conroy, you’re not that good.

In my case, the mystery pertained to the past. It’s backstory.

I learned a lot about the effective use of backstory from this book, because it forced me to focus on NOT putting in the actual event.

My story is of two sisters, told third person from the older sister’s POV. We get a hint that something bad happened to the younger sister, in the first scenes. By the third chapter, she’s fallen into serious depression. The reader will probably think/guess it pertains to some kind of sexual abuse.

My protagonist (the older sister) didn't know the secret. But I did. I had to be vigilant not to let the protag. in on the secret (and yes, it sounds like I’m dealing with a real person, but y’all are writers – you get that they ARE real, right?)

Knowing how hard it is to keep a secret from the reader, I came at this from a different direction. Instead of dropping clues, I worked hard NOT to. I scrutinized every tiny detail to be sure I wasn't saying one word more than what was needed to make the plot hold, and the motivations make sense.

And in doing this, in taught me the BEST way to handle backstory. Which is, using as little of it as possible.

When the younger sister falls into a catatonic state, she’s put in a mental facility. The older sister gets a job that takes her on the road. She has her own arc – her own problems and challenges.  The story moved on. This not only distracts the reader from the mystery, it (if I did it well), makes the book rich and layered. The mystery falls into the background, as I wanted/needed it to. The book is really the older sister's story.

The backstory stays alive through the protag’s thoughts. Think about it. If this happened to you, how would your sister being catatonic effect you? This is a great way to slip in slivers of backstory.

Thoughts: Wouldn't your mind keep coming back to the problem like a toddler’s hand to a checkout stand candy display? Even if you don’t have the answer, your mind would work at the problem.

Focus on the details: Have you ever lost a loved one? I have, and I still see that person in the flash of a second - a stranger’s gait from behind, the curve of a cheek, in passing. I want to pick up the phone and call, when I see something that would tickle them. I'll caress a shirt I know they’d love on a rack I pass in a store.

Flashbacks: These can be powerful, but again, you need a lot less than you think. I inserted only a couple of two-paragraph slivers, maybe twice, in the whole book. They deal with the sisters’ childhood, to explain the older sister’s world-view.

The above are what our own Orly Konig Lopez calls, Tiny Tells. They are a split second reminder to the reader. They build the character, one small tell at a time. They are a subtle reminder of the sister, who, though not on-scene through most of the book, is still there in the background.

Which is my last point.

Always Trust Your Reader

Remember how smart they are. You need a LOT less details, hints and backstory than you think.

This is what I learned, by writing my book. Did I apply what I learned well?

I have no idea. I’ll let you know when the book comes out, and you can judge for yourself.

Do you have any tips for using backstory, or keeping Secrets?

Any books or movies whose end actually stunned you?

 

About Laura

Laura Drake is a city girl who never grew out of her tomboy ways, or a serious cowboy crush. She writes both Women's Fiction and Romance.

She sold her Sweet on a Cowboy series, romances set in the world of professional bull riding, to Grand Central. The Sweet Spot (May 2013), Nothing Sweeter (Jan 2014) and Sweet on You (August 2014). The Sweet Spot won the 2014 Romance Writers of America^®   RITA^® award in the Best First Book category.

Her 'biker-chick' novel, Her Road Home, sold to Harlequin's Superomance line (August, 2013) and has expanded to three more stories set in the same small town. The Reasons to Stay released August, 2014.

In 2014, Laura realized a lifelong dream of becoming a Texan and is currently working on her accent. She gave up the corporate CFO gig to write full time. She's a wife, grandmother, and motorcycle chick in the remaining waking hours.

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