Brick Walls

Are you a writer with a piece that's ready to be published? Want to go the traditional route to publish it? Then it's time to get your climbing gear out because there's a lot of brick walls to face and conquer before that dream willl be realized.

But it's not impossibe. Don't be daunted. Be empowered. Meet the challenge and be ready to show the world that you're made of the stern stuff it takes to scale those walls and give a whoop of triumph at the top of each one before tackling the next. Most people think the journey to get published is easy. Well, it's not. Maybe this will give a clearer picture of just how much awe they should be in when they hear you're published.

The first, and most important, hurtle is getting your work polished and ready. You can't just slap a general idea on the page and expect an agent or editor to make it pretty for you. No, write your work as if it'll go stright from your hands to the printer. Preresent your style, your voice, and your love (yes, utter devotion) of form and grammar like a champ ready for the ring. Your piece needs to be a knock-out, ready to take on the world.

Then it's the whole finding an agent process. (For more on that, please visit my previous blog about agents). Once you have your list of agents and you've researched their agency, you know they represent your genre, you've read their submission guidelines, you've crafted a query letter unique to each agent's needs and wishes (yes, it's a bit like recrafting your resume for each job to highlight that you have the qualities and skills they want), you send out the letters and hope someone gets hooked.

Let's say you get a response from an agent besides the no-thank-you-and-good-luck. It could be a request for sample pages (or more sample pages if ten or so pages were requested as part of the query). For example: Thank you very much for approaching me with your work. I am intrigued by your opening chapter and would like to request the first, full, fifty pages. They know your novel is complete (because you specified that in your query letter and shouldn’t be querying until you can honestly say that in your letter).

It’s okay if the date on your email containing said fifty pages isn’t dated for ten minutes after you receive their request. Just don’t make them wait too long. If you’re lucky enough to hook them from the slush pile, definitely rise to the occasion and send them what they want, no more, no less, and formatted exactly the way they want it.

Sometime you can get a no after this request. Most agents can tell in those first fifty pages if your project is something they want to represent. If it’s a no, it’s back to watching your inbox for another request for sample pages or the full manuscript.

But for this exercise, lets just say that agent who requested your first fifty comes back with that beautiful request of: Still intrigued. I would like to review the full manuscript if it is still available. You eagerly do so and wait with bated breath. Though, do try to breathe so that those precious brain cells you use to create don’t get damaged.

Even after that, it could still be a no. You’re lucky (yes, consider it luck) if the agent tells you why it didn’t work for them. This is very valuable information, but please remember that it is still one person’s opinion. Yes, it’s the opinion of someone in the business you’re trying to get your foot into, but it’s still only one person. Sometimes, rejection might be a personal reason, maybe they didn't connect to your piece, but the wirting is good. That's not a bad response. If it's the opposite, then you have some work to do. It's all subjective, so pay attention and use these nuggests of gold wisely and in the best way for you.

Once again, let’s consider for this example, they said they loved the piece and would love to represent you. Great! Now it’s time to get to know them as a person and as a professional. Videoconference time. Time to talk to them, get to know each other, get their notes on your work, hear their preliminary plan on what editor(s) they have in mind to pitch this too. Yep, you heard right. Just as you have pitched to them, so they must now do to the rest of the publishing world. Trust me, your agent will earn their 15%. Make sure the agent is someone you can have a professional and personal relationship with. You don’t want to dislike or be uncomfortable with the person representing you.

They should give you some good notes on how to make your work even better. Some notes you’ll may like, some you may not. Tough. If you haven’t already learned to take constructive criticism, learn quickly or you’ll be back to square one but with a reputation you don’t want. No agent is going to tear you apart because they enjoy being cruel. They’re not going to take you on unless they believe your work will go somewhere. Agents aren’t robots, they’re human and make their profession by making you a success. All they want is for you to be open to suggestions, even if it’s just: “Interesting point, let me think on it.” Then you owe it to them as a person and a professional, to really think about it. If even then, you still don’t think their suggestion is a change you want to make, you better defend it well, because an editor might say the same thing down the road and your agent will have to defend the same point. Bottom line: don’t close any doors with ego.

So then it’s the agent’s turn to be in your shoes pitching to the editors. They will go through the same scenario you just did, except they’ll be doing it face-to-face over lunch, drinks, coffee, etc. (I have to say, one of the best blogs I’ve come across recently about understanding this from the agent’s POV is by agent Kristin Nelson. Check her out here http://nelsonagency.com/pub-rants. Great stuff.) Your agent is doing to an editor what you just did to them. Then the editor goes to the big-wigs at their publishing house and pitches the project. See the brick wall getting higher and higher? Just keep breathing.

Once the big wigs say yes, then it’s a whirlwind of activity, from getting a contract drawn up (that everyone is happy with), to getting notes from the editor just as you did from the agent. Then it’s the plan for the book: the outside, the inside, the marketing strategy, etc. Then the galley is printed and sent out to get reviews, then it’s printed for real and you get to bawl like a baby in the stores and take tons of pictured with your phone when you see it on the shelf. Yes, that’s what we all strive for, but see how many brick walls you face? And just because you hit print doesn’t mean you hit the big list. RWA’s recent RWReport vol. 36 #3 just had an article about writers who had to wait until their 7th or 25th published work to hit the list.

It’s all about the long term, and dear stars in the sky, why attempt these brick walls unless you want it with everything in you and you’re not going to give up until you can scale them all, build a career, woo your fans with whimsy or action, have signings were you do more than sit and laugh with a cup of coffee and a supportive friend and hope the next one will have a line out the door. Or if you’re me, be invited to Dragon*Con as a guest artist and have two young fans come up and ask if your characters are real because it would break their hearts to hear that they’re not (Yes, I actually did this. I went to Dragon*Con in 2007 with my best friend just to see Sherrilyn Kenyon and ask her, like the fan girls we were, if her Dark Hunters were real. We knew they weren’t really, but like a champ, in her beautiful gothic dress and hat that had a big black swan on it, she said, "Of course they are!" and we all squealed and enjoyed the moment before the D*C news people pulled her away for another interview.)

Yes, that is why I will scale these brick walls: to one day be that author that makes fan’s dreams come true simply because they were willing to spend $7.99 on the hope that the awesome cover and back blurb would be worth the risk. Bring on the brick walls and the climbing gear, I'm ready!

Always be optimistic and persevere, becuase nothing comes without work and effort. It'll come. You might be lucky and it'll come quick, but it might not. You can't win the lottery without first buying the ticket. Take that first step and make your work the best it can be.