The five stages to getting published

It seems that everywhere we go online nowadays, we’re continually confronted by articles shouting about ‘20 things you didn’t know about that…’ or ‘the 10 best things for doing this…’ or ‘the 5 top articles that contain useless lists…’

And so, in celebration of this internet phenomenon (no I didn’t spell that right at the first attempt), I am going to write my very own post that has a list. Mine is the five stages you need to get through before your book is published (that’s in the traditional way, not self-pubbing, in which case the list stops after number 4).

Oh, and I’m going in reverse order because it’s more dramatic that way.

At Stage Five, we have the most obvious (and some would argue the most easy) of all the stages: writing the book. That’s right folks, without actually writing the book, not much else can happen. We are the sole masters of our destiny here, which doesn’t really happen again during the process, so enjoy this bit.

Pit2Pub

Thought this may interest some people…

Thanks Dawn Allen for the original.

Dawn Allen

The Intro: Who has fun spending hours creating that perfect 140-character pitch? Then bouncing that sentence or two off others to see if it’s fantastic? And finally having to create a couple more so you’re not posting the same one every few hours?

The Why: Kristin and Ann know what you’re going through. In fact, they both did quite a few Twitter Pitch Parties so they know your pain. Kristin remembers what it was like to see that little colored star and then checking and re-checking email to confirm that someone did in fact click on the pitch and favorite it. And Ann’s recalls her heart pounding and her palms sweaty, all the while hoping and praying that it wasn’t made by accident from a friend or some complete stranger who marked it and not re-tweeted it by mistake. They both trolled the feed all day long and didn’t work…

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It might be time for a re-write…

After my latest post, and the small amount of discussion that followed on WordPress and Twitter, it really does seem that agents are focusing on plot, characterisation, voice, etc., when addressing a query, and are not so bothered about the little things.

That’s pretty much what I thought, but it was good to have a chat with others to confirm it anyway.

Of course the upshot of that, I fear, is the prospect of undertaking a re-write as opposed to a simple bit of tweaking and tightening here and there. The overriding majority of agents ask for the first three chapters and – I have to admit – it’s my first three chapters that are probably the weakest of the lot. Hence, I think I’ll need to have a long, hard look at them before the next batch of queries go out.

My blog-buddy D.R.Sylvester has kindly offered up his beta-reading services, so I shall wait and see what his advice may be before proceeding, but then I imagine it’ll be nose-shoved-hard-into-the-gridstone and time for some serious re-drafting.

D.R. did remind me, however, that an agent once told me it was simply the marketability and niche-ness (niche-ness…?) of my concept that put him off, whilst another told me the writing was of a high quality, but lacked urgency. So the task ahead may not be too bad.

By the way, the agent didn’t use the word niche-ness. That abomination is all mine.

Oh, and one other thing; did anyone notice that in my latest post I wrote, “I found myself scrutinising the text perhaps a trifle more than is required,” but rather ironically misspelled scrutinising. Idiot. (Don’t bother looking. I already corrected it). Almost even worse was the fact that it was my dad who spotted it. Doh!

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Ready to surrender… but an agent’s rejection stalled the white flag

So I’m at that joyous point of the querying process where the rejections are rolling in thick and fast. Now, I’m tough enough to accept rejection, but the hard part here is that, without exception, every email from an uninterested agent comes across as – and most probably is – a generic response with my name merely pasted to the top (although I did get one “Dear Author” email too. Nice). And even though us novice writers are told to expect rejection, it does knock your confidence a little when it’s relentless. Hence, these rejections and their detached nature began to make me feel a little despondent.

As a consequence of this (and the fact that I’m slowly running out of agency options) I was about ready to give up on a traditional publishing deal and head down the self-pub route instead (or just head down the pub). Whilst self publishing was always a plan B for me, it was still a prospect I’d hoped to avoid… and it was knocking the wind out of my follow-up novel too.

However, in the space of just a single email, my faith in my book was restored.

How To: 7 Steps to a Great Writer Blog

Some great insight for those of you who are querying agents while trying to keep your blog going too.
Thanks a lot Carly Watters (once again) for the original.
Enjoy…

Carly Watters, Literary Agent

I love it when writers link to their blogs when they’re querying me. I know not all agents agree, but if I’m interested in a query or a project I’ll definitely be looking you up. So what do agents look for when we’re going through writers’ blogs (which are different than author websites)? Here’s a glimpse into my thought process.

How To: 7 Steps to a Great Writer Blog

1. FREQUENCY

My biggest pet peeve is writers who set up a blog but don’t keep it up. I know things get in the way (life, marriage, kids, day job, etc) but the most important thing is some sort of schedule. I’m not saying you have to blog everyday, because you certainly don’t! What I am saying is try to create a pattern: once a week, twice a month, twice a week–whatever you can manage.

2. CONTENT

What querying…

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Learn from my mistakes… please: Three things not to do when querying agents.

So I’ve now finally entered the part of my adventures into publishing where I begin to query agents. It was never a part that I looked forward to, and I’ve already gone and made some catastrophic blunders.

I know that a few others who read this blog are around the same stage as me, so I shall share with you said blunders as a reminder to… well, to not make the same mistakes.