A Necessary Step

This week has been about what (nearly) every author experiences and what (nearly) every author hates*: rejections. It’s part of the process and not at all fun. But hey, even famous authors and celebrities are rejected at some point in their career. I put myself out there; I talked about my writing with people in the industry who matter. That’s moving in the right direction. As of now I think I’m going to take a step back and revise more before sending out additional query letters. *Chug chug chug up the big mountain*

*Unless you’re Kathryn Stockett (The Help) who was so aware that rejection letters were part of the publication process that she was jubilant when she received her first couple (not so much after 40 or so…). 

The Query Letter

Sorry for my absence on Wednesday. This has been a busy week—I have started querying agents about my manuscript The Rose of Coracus! And part of that process is writing the dreaded query letter. How do you sum up years of hard work and revision and a 75k+ manuscript in 200 or so words? I don’t have answers. I don’t know if my query letter will get me an agent or not. I do know (excuse the cheesiness) that I’ve done my best and I’m trying hard and will keep trying hard until it works out. After all, “A published author is an amateur who didn’t quit.”* So, drum roll, here’s the letter that will hopefully set me down the path to publication:

Dear [agent],

Shayna won’t let anyone—from her parents to King Morader himself—tell her she can’t explore the city of Coracus just because she is Hilla, part of the hated ethnic group. She has been snubbed by merchants and even assaulted, but could always dance away her anger as the most admired performer in the bustling market square.

Growing up Prince Johnathan had obeyed when told never go near the Hilla. But the desire to know all of his future subjects leads him to see beyond the capital’s walls.

The passion in her dancing catches his eye; his chivalry helps her to trust him. Soon Johnathan is escaping the palace to dance with Shayna in smoky taverns and show her the world she couldn’t know as a Hilla. Even if those who see them disapprove—verbally and violently. They weren’t supposed to meet, let alone fall in love.

But when Shayna leads a Hilla rebellion demanding equal treatment and Johnathan joins her, the couple must choose: sacrifice their relationship so Johnathan maintains the crown and can one day secure rights for the Hilla, or stay together in an increasingly dangerous world.

The Rose of Coracus is a stand-alone 77k high fantasy young adult novel in the vein of Tamora Pierce and Kristin Cashore. It is envisioned as part of a non-sequential series with recurring characters.

By night I write and by day I’m an editorial assistant at Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins Publishers, so I am surrounded by children’s books nearly 24/7 and couldn’t be happier. [Sentence about why I’m querying particular agent.]

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Sincerely,

Laurel Symonds

[contact information]

And thanks to lovely author Jodi Meadows (Incarnate, Jan. 2012) for giving me feedback on the letter!

*Author and Lit. Agent Mandy Hubbard

Plan of Action

Writing and editing all my WIPs is going so well right now! Maybe it’s those extra hours during summer Fridays that are making all the difference. J Here’s what’s going on now and what will happen in the near future:

My best friend just gave me wonderful notes for my WIP The Rose of Coracus. I’m going to do another thorough rewrite this month, focusing on making Shayna a more dimensional character and her relationship with Johnathan more romantic yet realistic. And editing and adding and changing a million other little things. Heather’s notes were fantastic and gave me the direction I needed, so June is rewrite month.  It’s a tough goal, but goals are good (see this great post). One week down, three to go! And then I will be finished and submit query letters to agents by July 5^th. It’s the plan and I’m sticking to it!

My next WIP, Dueling Princesses, will be put on the burner until July, but after that I will be writing lots and lots. I’ve found two critique partners to work with, who will hopefully read the manuscript in small batches and help form the story as I go along. I’m looking forward to working on that!

So there you have it; my summer writing plans. I’m excited!

How a Book Gets Published

Working in the publishing industry means I inevitably get emails from friends or friends of friends or long lost relatives asking, “how can I get my book published?”.   I have no problem assisting them, so long as the query is for guidance rather than magical fairy wand flicking to get their book published by my contacts within the next month. Publishing is a mysterious industry for those who aren’t in it and aspiring writers often don’t know where to look first for information.  So, here we go: How a book gets published.*

A writer, let’s call her Wendy, writes a manuscript.  She writes and edits and polishes and then has trusted people critique her manuscript. Then Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many drafts, she thinks she is done and decides that she wants to get this manuscript published.

Writer Wendy then begins researching literary agents.  She does this online or through books at her local library, discovering not only which agents represent the genre of her manuscript, but which are accepting new queries, what the agents have sold to publishing houses recently, etc.  Full of that knowledge, Writer Wendy picks a handful of agents to query. 

The query Writer Wendy writers is very carefully constructed.  A query gives her less than five hundred words to present her manuscript to a potential agent, illustrating the main character and his/her conflict within the story. Writer Wendy researches how to write a good query, using websites like Query Shark.  She writes and edits and polishes and then has trusted people critique her query.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many drafts, she thinks she is done and decides that she wants to send this query out to the agents she has selected.  Sometimes this query is submitted electronically, sometimes by snail mail.  Sometimes it is accompanied by none of her manuscript, sometimes by a few (normally between 10-20) sample pages.  Writer Wendy makes sure to send each agent the appropriate materials because of her careful research. 

Then Writer Wendy waits. Then she gets a rejection, from Agent Adam.   Then another rejection from Agent Alyssa.  Then another rejection from Agent Allen.  Writer Wendy is disappointed, but realized that perhaps her manuscript and query letter weren’t quite polished enough. She writes and edits and polishes and then has trusted people critique her manuscript and query letter.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many drafts, she thinks she is done and sends out query letters again.

Writer Wendy waits.  This time she receives positive feedback from Agent Amanda. Agent Amanda requests to see the full manuscript.  Then Agent Amanda wants to be Writer Wendy’s agent, and will help Writer Wendy find a publishing house to publish her manuscript and will look out for Writer Wendy’s behalf during complicated contract negotiations, payments, and so forth.  Writer Wendy is so happy!

Agent Amanda gives Writer Wendy feedback on her manuscript on how to make it more appealing to publishing houses.  Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes and then has Agent Amanda critique her manuscript again.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many revisions, she and Agent Amanda think it is done and decide that they want to submit this manuscript to publishing houses.

Agent Amanda knows all about the industry, so she carefully selects a few editors to whom to send Writer Wendy’s manuscript. Agent Amanda waits.  She gets positive feedback from Editor Emily.  Editor Emily wants to publish the manuscript.  Agent Amanda and Editor Emily negotiate the contract, such as when the final draft of the manuscript is due, how large Writer Wendy’s advance is, and what rights (world, audio, eBook, etc.) the publishing house is buying.

Editor Emily gives Writer Wendy feedback on her manuscript on how to make it more appealing to readers.  Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes and then has Editor Emily critique her manuscript again.  Next Writer Wendy writes and edits and polishes some more.  Eventually, after many revisions, she and Editor Emily think it is done.

In the meantime, Editor Emily has been the champion for Writer Wendy’s manuscript, getting sales/marketing/publicity/ librarians/booksellers/the reading public excited about Writer Wendy’s manuscript.  Editor Emily also works with design to make a cover for the book. 

Writer Wendy’s job isn’t complete either, even after revisions are finished.  She provides Editor Emily with ‘extra’ writing blurbs to help publicize her book and is also hopefully on social networking sites getting librarians/booksellers/the reading public excited about her book.

Finally, at least a year later from when Editor Emily acquired the manuscript, Writer Wendy’s book is published.  Now all the readers out there can enjoy it!

* This post isn’t meant to be representative of all the ways in which a book can get published; it is just one explanation of the complicated journey a book may go through from manuscript to bookshelf.

Focus

I’ve been feeling a lot of personal pressure to get my manuscript published.  And I think this is because both at FP-NC and HC so many of the authors I (or the agents or editors) work with are so young.  There’s Kody Keplinger (The DUFF and upcoming Luststruck), Veronica Roth (the upcoming and going-to-be-huge Divergent), Hannah Moskowizt (Break, the upcoming Invincible Summer and several others) and Courtney Allison Moulton (Angelfire).  They’re under the age of 25 and have wonderfully successful books under their belt.  I obviously still haven’t entirely grown out of selfish-teenager-mode because I. Want. That. Too.  NOW.

I have to stand back and remind myself that that isn’t right for me.  I just started my fantastic dream job.  I love it, but it’s new and I’m still learning the ropes.  As I mentioned last week, it’s beginning to take up even more of my time.  Add that on top of finding and settling into my new apartment, I’ve been busy, and my focus needs to be on that fantastic job and becoming the best editorial assistant I can be.

Querying is also a full time job.  While I have an advantage of knowing the industry, it’s very fledgling knowledge, and like all (good) writers, I need to research which agents would be a best fit for my manuscript.  Just like my 9-to-5 job I want to be able to put in 100% when querying.  This means I have come to the decision to wait on querying my manuscript.  My original goal had been to start the first of this year, but I haven’t yet received all the feedback I was waiting on, so I pushed that goal back.  Now, with some more revision under my belt, I’ve still decided it’s still better to wait until the time is right for me, not anyone else.

This isn’t to say I won’t be writing- this weekend I finally got the chance to start working on my New Years Resolution (yes, I am aware that it is the beginning of February and not January, but I knew that going into the New Year my resolution would start a month late).  It felt so good to write!  And I will continue with that good writing feeling until I am more settled in my job and have found a way to balance full time job and writing career. 

Any advice on how to do so?

Professionalism

There has been quite a bit of talk recently about literary agency interns (and sometimes agents themselves) anonymously posting bits of queries on twitter.  While most of the tweets are written with the intention to amuse or educate, many querying authors have been insulted by the idea.  And blame agencies.  Which in turn get insulted, because most agencies would never ever employ an intern that had the gall to do that. Why do I think anonymously posting parts of queries online is so terrible? It comes down to one word: professionalism.

Some elements of professionalism seem old fashion: business causal attire, lunch meetings, etc. yet one element of professionalism should never go out of style: personal integrity.  And by invading a query author’s privacy and posting their query, which was written with the intention of only being read by the agency, online is not professional.

Many in my family are teachers so it’s easy for me to flip this situation around to apply to education, and teachers have been fired for acting similarly.   Take note:

Example #1, To Entertain: A student does something stupid or amusing in class.  The teacher remarks about it to her friends or in public.  It gets back to the student’s parents.  The parent complains to the principal or superintendant, and lo and behold, that teach is in deep do-do (to put it bluntly).

Example #2, To Educate: A teacher gives students an exam.  Wanting to help her students realize how they can improve, the teacher copies a poor exam, crossing out the student’s name, and hands it out to the class.  The student whose exam is passed out, is mortified, even if the exam is anonymous.  Again, the student’s parent finds out, complains and the teacher is in trouble. 

In both examples, the teacher isn’t trying to hurt the student.  He/she wants to entertain his/her friends or educate the students.  But they’re still invading the student’s privacy and right to respect. 

Thus, querying authors deserve the same respect.  They’re writing to the agency with the understanding that their query will only be seen by the agency (interns and agents, alike).  By breaking that trust, the intern tweeting about the query ruins any potential relationship that could be formed between the client and agent.  Integrity is about building trust, respecting others and being a generally upright person.  It’s part of what being a professional is.  And what I continue to strive to be; I get angry when interns are judged on the few who act unprofessionally.  We’re not all like that.  And I know for one that FP-NC would never ever tolerate an intern acting the way in which others are. 

So, to those who are tweeting queries, reconsider what type of person you want to come off as; someone who breaks trust easily, or someone who is respectful and professional.  I, at least, know what type of person I’d like to be and what type of person is going to get (or keep) the job in the end.

Internship: One Month In

I’ve now been at my internship at FinePrint Literary Management

/Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation for just about a month.  I love it and I feel like I’m learning so much.  Can anyone ask for more from an internship?

Because most people I’ve talked to don’t know how a literary agency plays into the lengthy process of getting a book published, I just want to run through it quickly:

Step #1: Author Writes A Book

Step #2: Author Writes A Query Letter to an Agent at a Literary Agency Asking the Agent to Represent Them

Step #3: Agent (or Intern, in the beginning) Reads the Query Letter/ Partial Manuscript. There Are Four Options:

Option #1: The Query Letter/Manuscript is Plain Old Bad.  Reject.

Option #2: The Agent the Author Wrote to Isn’t Accepting New Clients or That Genre/ Type of Book the Author Wrote Isn’t Selling Well In Today’s Market.  Reject.

Option #3: The Query Letter/Partial Manuscript is Intriguing.  Request Full Manuscript.  Potential Offer of Representation to Follow.

Option #4: Wow! The Query Letter/Partial Manuscript is Great.  Request Full Manuscript and then Agent Wants to Represent Author.

If Option #3 or #4 Happens:

Step #4: Agent Works with Author to Edit Manuscript.

Step #5: Agent Pitches Manuscript to Publishing Houses.

Step #6: Manuscript Sells.  Everyone Celebrates!

Step #7: Manuscript Now In the Hands of a Publishing House.  (Then, for the

Following Year+: Editor Works with Author and Agent to Edit Manuscript.  Editor Works with Sales/Marketing/Etc. to Pitch Manuscript to Entire Company and Sell it to Bookstores/Libraries/Etc. Editor Works with Design/Art Department to Create Cover.  And more….I covered quite a bit of this at my first internship, at Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

Step #8: Manuscript, now a Book, Makes it to Bookstores.  Everyone Celebrates Again!

There you have it.  Eight simple steps to getting a book published.  Piece of cake, right?

At FP-NC I’ve been dealing mostly with Steps #3 and #4.   Every day when I get to work there will be a pile of queries waiting to be read.  Most of them fall into Options #1 or #2: REJECT.  The writing, even for the query letter, needs to be fantastic and hook a reader immediately.  Most aspiring writers could benefit from a look at QueryShark, by FP’s own Janet Reid.   There have been a few manuscripts in the pile of many that have fallen into Option #3 for me.   With the full manuscript in hand, I was eager for it to turn into an offer of representation.  No luck for that author: REJECT.  I have yet to personally see an Option #4.  They’re a rare species.  But I’m on the lookout!  I was, however, able to sit in on a meeting where one of the agents signed a new client.  This client’s work is fantastic- I’m very excited!

The larger part of my day (and often, night) deals with Step #4.  I help the agent I’m working for that particular week read and edit a large pile of manuscripts. Some belong to potential clients, some to first time clients, some to long time clients with a new manuscript.  But the process is the same: they all need editing, and lots of it.  Reading an average of one full manuscript a day, I’ll settle into the far-too-comfy-for-my-own-good armchair or red couch and I begin reading, taking detailed notes along the way to turn into a reader’s report.

If it’s a good manuscript, I’ll still have an average of five pages of comments and suggestions for improvement.  Language can always be tighter, characters always more relatable, world building always more vivid.  Whether authors make these changes or not is another story, but the agents know what they’re talking about, and they’re teaching their faithful interns to do the same.

If it’s a bad manuscript and doesn’t belong to a client, that’s normally the end of the road.  REJECT.  Once if it’s client’s, however, the agent has to work with the author to make the manuscript better.  I couldn’t believe it at first- no rejections (at least, from the agent) anymore!

So, good or bad, I’m writing up a lengthy reader’s report detailing all the changes the author should make to their work.  I’ll pass this report on to the agent I’m working for, and she’ll add her own opinion/comments, and then forward it to the author.  Time for revisions.

A huge part of agent’s job is Step #5: Pitching the Manuscript to a Publishing House.  Just last week I was lucky enough to listen in on one of the agents working hard to sell a manuscript she is so passionate about.  Per my request, she sat down with me and another intern and explained how she selected the eight or so editors to focus on based on her relationships with the editors, the editors’ interests and what type of books the imprint or company tends to publish.  That little chat was so eye opening.  There is A LOT to know!   The agents at FP-NC, however, are fantastic and, of course, know their stuff.  The office ended up with a Step #6: Celebration on that one the following week!

Celebrating a big sale or the debut of a novel is also a big part of literary agency life (Celebrating does make it twice on Steps-to-Publishing-A-Book!).   Although I sadly couldn’t attend, there was a launch party for Kody Kepliner’s debut novel, The DUFF, during my first week of the internship.  And I may have secretly been jumping up and down when she visited the office the week later to rehash all the launch’s excitement.  The perks of being an intern!

Phew! That was long! But that’s the life of an intern (and really anyone who works in publishing.  Hours are L-O-N-G!).  But, as anyone in the industry will tell you: IT IS SO WORTH IT.  You get to read books and make great books available to the masses.  FOR YOUR JOB! I’ve read great projects, ones that I know will absolutely be books in the future.  (Oh, how I wish I could tell you about them…but I had to sign a confidentiality agreement…but you’ll read those books soon in stores.  Promise.)

And not just the job, it’s the people, too.  Where else can you find such like-minded people?  People who get excited as much as you do about a manuscript or a newly released YA novel or a debut author.  Case in point: during my very first lunch while I was interning at Bloomsbury the three assistant/associate editors were saying that they needed to read Twilight.  Now I had just read Stephanie Meyer’s book, but NO they couldn’t be talking about the YA novel, now could they? These were intelligent, mature women, after all.  So, shy intern that I was, I kept my mouth shut.  But there was no need, I soon learned.  It was the YA novel they were talking about.  Of course, why wouldn’t it have been? They were children’s book editors.  I was a children’s book intern.  You read children’s books for work, to stay up with trends, but also because you love them.  In how many other jobs is your work reading the same thing as your pleasure reading and you have the colleagues to talk about it with?

This is why I’m willing to do a second unpaid internship in the hopes of it leading to a full time job.  Because I need that publishing job.  Not for the money, although that is a big plus (even though publishing pays infamously low), but because I LOVE books.  I love reading them, writing them, and I want to make great new ones available to read and help everyone to feel the same way I do.  I always want to be surrounded by books.

There I go again.  I started talking about the daily grind of an unpaid intern and ending up preaching about why I’m a Book Lover.   But it’s all related.  And so worth it.