Submitting: Editor vs. Agent

After finishing* (see footnote) my first novel, I joined SCBWI, and submitted to editors listed in their newsletter. And I bought a copy of the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market to find more editors that might be interested in my book.

I did this for years.

Send a letter plus three chapters, check the mail box daily, open rejection letter, cry...rinse and repeat.

And guess what?

I survived. But I didn't get my book deal that way. And most of the 2009 debut authors I've met didn't get their book deals that way either.

After years of submitting, I switched camps. I firmly, vigorously, most vociferously insist that you (first purge all the superfluous adverbs from your mss and then) query agents instead of editors because--

-an agent will give you access to editors that don't take unagented submissions
(like mine)
- an agent will often help you improve your mss and your pitch
- an agent will negotiate a better deal for you
- many slushpile submissions to editors are read by an underpaid assistant
- some editors want to read through their slushpile, but never get around to it

An aside: Don't submit to both. Many agents won't (joyfully) represent a mss that has been submitted all over the place...and rejected.

* And now for the footnote:
How do you know when your mss is finished?
I'll present my thoughts on topic in my next blog.

So please come back.

Am I Too Late?

Yes, January is almost over...but I've finally made a New Years Resolution...blog more and blog better!

So I'm going to post a series of blogs with specifics on how to get published. I'll probably sneak in a few funny stories, some self-deprecating comments, and an occasional plug for my up and coming novel.

Add in 40 mind-blowing interviews with hot-to-trot debut authors, and a bunch of contests for things-you're-dying-to-own, and this blog will be smoking.

I'm going to get the fire extinguisher now. Stay cool.

Cross-Posting

I have been moving my blog--painful inch by painful inch--to LiveJournal. My new address is:  http://laurenbjorkman.livejournal.com/

So far, I've rewritten several of my blogger blogs and posted them over there. I will continue to do that for another few weeks....and then (drum roll plus trumpet blare), I'll put up new stuff!

I plan to do a series on endings. How many times have you loved a book until the last 30 pages? I want a lot of feedback. So, come check it out on LJ.

Where should I blog?

I haven't posted for a month! No, I didn't get sucked into a cosmic vortex and flushed. Instead, I collided with an existential crisis and disintegrated.

Really!

Blogger has been a lonely place. So I'm trying to find a new home for my blog. When I figure it out, I may just pack up and move.

I hope to see you when I land!

writing vs. revising

So you wrote a novel, got good critique, revised, and sent it out to a handful of well researched publishers. After 5 months.. you've added substantially to your form rejection letter collection. (I prefer to collect bottle caps myself).

What should you do?

Conventional wisdom says put it away and start on the next one. Many published authors write three or four novels before they get one published.

And I agree that you don't want to get stuck in some kind of rut (think Bill Murray and Groundhog Day). But I think a lot of people quit revising too soon. It's just a guesstimate, but I probably spend three to four times as long revising as I do writing a first draft.

On each revision, I look for different things...

passive voice

character arcs

plot twists

chapter endings

settings

dialog

character development

humor

inconsistencies

relationships

paragraph structure

flow

pacing

word choices

similes and metaphors

(warning: this list is far from complete)

So is your manuscript as good as it can be? If even one thing is off, your otherwise excellent story might be rejected.

I started writing My Invented Life (my second novel) in 2003. I finished it a year later (revising some as I went). It went through ten more revisions before attracting an agent in 2007. In those three years, and between revisions, I revised my first novel several times, and wrote most of a third.

So I always keep moving forward, but keep showering love on my first children.

 

Low moments

When an editor at an excellent publishing house requested a full manuscript of my first novel from a query (letter plus three chapters), I told myself not to get excited. After all, this had happened to me once before. And the editor passed on my book in the end.

(Fact: Some editors only offer on one in ten manuscripts they request.)

Still, hope has this way of creeping through the barriers. Like helium. Some part of me did a dance of happiness.

After four months of waiting, I sent a follow up letter. A month after that I got a reply. She was still considering my manuscript. More helium seeped in.

When the rejection finally came, it hit me hard. It came ten months after my original submission. It came as a form letter. The letter was addressed to Dear Writer.

Then I did a stupid thing and burned a bridge. I wrote the editor an email telling her I thought she should've written me a personal note after holding onto my mss so long. She never wrote back. Writing the email didn't make me feel better.

So ... don't use me as a role model.

Well except for one small thing. I dusted myself off and kept writing.

So do that!

Submission history

Seasoned writers will tell you that you to send out your work to get published. After all, most editors don't operate by telekinesis.

But how do you know

if it's ready

who to send it to

how many editors to hit up at once???

Well, I don't have the magic answer, but I can tell you my strategy. 

First you have to find a reader you trust...someone that reads in your genre, someone that get your work, someone who is discerning and honest. Try to pick a reader (or two) that haven't seen a gazillion drafts of your mss already.

Does your reader want more after seeing the first paragraph? the first chapter?

Are the first three chapters as good as you can make them?

Ok, then.

Next you'll want to research publishers. I used to spend hours poring through books that listed publishers without learning much. I think the best (and most fun) strategy is to read at least a dozen books in your genre (less than three years old). Also you can find interviews with editors online. You can read PWs Children's Bookshelf book reviews. It's slow work, but worth the effort.

I usually send to 3 editors at a time. One at a time feels too slow, but ten at a time means that I've burned too many bridges with one draft. What if I get a brilliant idea how to revise it?

Confession: I sent my first novel to almost 20 different editors over a five year period. I revised it about 4 times. Once in 2003 and once in 2005 an editor asked to see the entire mss. Neither event led to a sale, but each time it tied the mss up for one year.

And my point is?

Submitting is a pain. But you might learn something. No sale is no sale. Still, the interest told me I was getting closer. 

True those brown envelopes are like a dagger in the heart...but they hold clues to your future as a writer.