Sarah Alderson's Blog: Writing and all the bits in between - Posts Tagged "publishing"
My story
Let me prefix this by saying I’m sorry. If you’re reading this and you are a writer (as in someone, published or unpublished who writes creatively), then you will probably read this and hate me. You might hate me loads, you might just hate me a tiny bit, but I think you will definitely hate me to some degree. Because I would hate me. And I like to think I’m generous and compassionate though not quite the light being that living in Bali should have made me by now.
You see, I never imagined being a writer. I didn’t staple paper together when I was 6 and write stories about fairies that lived at the bottom of the garden, I didn’t wile away time as a teenager writing angsty novels about loving and losing. Ok, I wrote some really, really awful poetry for a while which I think my ex boyfriend still has and hopefully won’t put on ebay when I’m famous. When I was about 10 I was asked to write a story about an invention – any invention that we could think of – and the page stayed blank. When I was 18 my English teacher told me not to bother applying to read English at university.
I did write other things despite these early warnings to take up maths instead; diaries, newsletters, amusing emails to friends, love letters (sent and unsent) an early blog at the start of the century, countless essays about the Renaissance, the resistance and neo realist cinema, and then once I started work I wrote millions of words of wildly creative nonsense in the form of funding reports and applications to government for large amounts of money.
I honed my creative writing on the battlefield of the British voluntary sector. And I won a lot. Anyway, the point is I never really aspired to be a writer, other than that vague notion in the back of my head to one day write a book which I think I shared with 99% of the population. Just one of those things I thought would be cool to do but which I would probably never get around to.
Then in 2009 I got sick of working and sick of living in London and my husband John and I decided that we’d pack up our lives and head off around the world with our then 3 year old daughter in tow to find a new place to live. (That trip and our new life in Bali is documented at www.canwelivehere.com). About the time we were planning our route I started having panic attacks about what I’d do for money when we settled somewhere else. I was swimming one day and I thought to myself, right, gotta earn some money, or I’m screwed, so now, who’s rich? Richard Branson, but he’s a workaholic, oooh Stephanie Meyer, she ‘s rich and all for writing about vampires with angsty faces and quiffy hair, right I’m going to write a book.
And that, really is the first part of my story.
By the time I’d swum twenty lengths I had the kernel of a story idea. Every time I got stuck I’d think ‘what if…’ and so the story expanded and evolved. Having said that I always felt like the story already existed and that I was just tapping into it and writing it down. I’ll detail my writing process in another blog post later.
I started writing Hunting Lila in June. I wrote it naively, I wrote without really knowing what I was doing as is obvious by the final wordcount of my first draft (117,000 words – I had no clue that first novesl in YA should run 60-80K max – didn’t even think to google it). I finished it in November and started editing it. Then I began sending out letters to agents in London whose names I’d culled from the Writers’ and Artists’ Handbook.
I was good at writing letters – that was something I’d honed through long practice in the work place. I sent out my submissions and then I headed off with a backpack to India. Most people find themselves in India, and I was no exception, in India I realised that I wanted to be a writer, that writing was no longer just a means to an end but something that I couldn’t imagine not doing, it was my passion. I’d have daydreams where I had to choose what limbs to lose and I’d make pacts with myself that I’d be fine if I had an accident so long as I was left with my head and my right arm. If I lost my right arm I decided and could no longer write I would just want to die.
I hit the beach in Goa and started writing again – this time the sequel to Hunting Lila. I didn’t have a book deal, I didn’t have an agent but I had this story and these characters of Lila and Alex who I couldn’t let go. They haunted me. I felt like I was betraying them in some way just leaving them hanging, their story only partly told. They would actually talk away in my head, whole conversations with me as the eavesdropper and then I’d just write it down. It was an awesome way to write a book – feet buried in the sand, looking out over the Arabian sea.
Whilst I was there, I received replies from the agents I’d posted to. I had sent 12 letters. I received 9 rejections, 3 of which claimed to really like it but had no room on their lists, and I received 2 requests to read the entire manuscript.
I emailed the full manuscript through to these two agents in utter terror. At the point of getting an agent I could suddenly see the glint of light through the trees and with it came this sense that I would die if it came to nothing. (see melodrama in every aspect of my life, not just my writing). If you’ve ever got to this stage in writing you’ll appreciate how hellish the waiting is. Those points where I’ve been waiting – for an agent to get back to me, for a publisher to respond – have been the most stressful and godawful but also most exciting moments of my life, like being in the throes of labour but not knowing if the child you’re giving birth to is going to be born with a head or without one.
Anyway, both agents came back almost instantly to ask to represent me and I found myself in the amazing position of being able to choose my agent. I spoke to writer friends and asked them what I should ask and I scoured the net. Both were highly reputable, well established with excellent track records. Both were very excited about the book. It was an easy choice for me to make in the end after I spoke with both – I chose the person I got on with the most and who had clearly read the book more than once, knew it very well, and who loved the characters as much as I did.
So I signed with Amanda at Luigi Bonomi Associates in London (who last year won Literary Agency of the Year) and have had an amazing year working with her now. Having someone to whom I can dump creative ideas on and who knows the publishing world enough to tell me what to run with and what to ditch is more brilliant than I could have guessed. I will do a fuller blog post on literary agents later.
I spent about 2 months editing my mammoth manuscript down to 85,000 words and then after several more read throughs by Amanda we thought it was ready to send out. Amanda handles the publishers. My job was to wait. And finish work on the sequel.
She sent it to the top 11 publishers in the UK – Penguin, Hodder, Simon & Schuster, Harper, Orion etc – and then we waited for three weeks. And then another two weeks. And I got a lot of rejections that made me feel like puking. It came very close with publishers whose names I could barely whisper and only then in reverential awe. It’s an almost impossible thing to get my head around still – that editors at these publishing houses read my manuscript.
In July last year I received an offer from Simon & Schuster for Hunting Lila and its sequel.
It was a good offer, especially in this day and age, for a debut author. It wouldn’t have been enough to let me give up my day job in London (though maybe go part time) but it’s enough to live well on in Bali. We celebrated a lot. I think I may have cried.
In August we were on the final leg of our journey, a road trip of California. We were staying in a beautiful house in Montecito with friends and one day I started writing a new story. This time a stand alone novel. I’ve since found that after every book I need a 6 week break, at the end of which time I’m leaping to get back in front of a computer, almost feverish and manic with the need to write. So I started this new book and it came to me very quickly, needing very little rewriting. I had it finished by October and sent it to Amanda. She loved it but wasn’t sure that Simon & Schuster having taken such a big leap of faith on a two book deal with me already would buy a third book when the first two hadn’t yet been published.
But they did. I think I woke every person in our village in Bali, screaming about that one at 6am.
It’s February 2011 now. I’ve just finished final edits of Hunting Lila with my editor at Simon & Schuster. It goes to print next month and Hunting Lila will be released in the UK this August. The sequel will come out sometime in 2012 whilst the third book, still untitled, is due for release by Simon Pulse (S&S’s paranormal imprint) in January 2012.
I write this and then I read it back and I think bloody hell, was that the easiest ride to the top ever?
It’s true right? You hate me. Just a little bit. But hopefully if you're an aspiring writer you can also draw inspiration.
Good luck on your own journey and I hope you enjoy my books.
S
You see, I never imagined being a writer. I didn’t staple paper together when I was 6 and write stories about fairies that lived at the bottom of the garden, I didn’t wile away time as a teenager writing angsty novels about loving and losing. Ok, I wrote some really, really awful poetry for a while which I think my ex boyfriend still has and hopefully won’t put on ebay when I’m famous. When I was about 10 I was asked to write a story about an invention – any invention that we could think of – and the page stayed blank. When I was 18 my English teacher told me not to bother applying to read English at university.
I did write other things despite these early warnings to take up maths instead; diaries, newsletters, amusing emails to friends, love letters (sent and unsent) an early blog at the start of the century, countless essays about the Renaissance, the resistance and neo realist cinema, and then once I started work I wrote millions of words of wildly creative nonsense in the form of funding reports and applications to government for large amounts of money.
I honed my creative writing on the battlefield of the British voluntary sector. And I won a lot. Anyway, the point is I never really aspired to be a writer, other than that vague notion in the back of my head to one day write a book which I think I shared with 99% of the population. Just one of those things I thought would be cool to do but which I would probably never get around to.
Then in 2009 I got sick of working and sick of living in London and my husband John and I decided that we’d pack up our lives and head off around the world with our then 3 year old daughter in tow to find a new place to live. (That trip and our new life in Bali is documented at www.canwelivehere.com). About the time we were planning our route I started having panic attacks about what I’d do for money when we settled somewhere else. I was swimming one day and I thought to myself, right, gotta earn some money, or I’m screwed, so now, who’s rich? Richard Branson, but he’s a workaholic, oooh Stephanie Meyer, she ‘s rich and all for writing about vampires with angsty faces and quiffy hair, right I’m going to write a book.
And that, really is the first part of my story.
By the time I’d swum twenty lengths I had the kernel of a story idea. Every time I got stuck I’d think ‘what if…’ and so the story expanded and evolved. Having said that I always felt like the story already existed and that I was just tapping into it and writing it down. I’ll detail my writing process in another blog post later.
I started writing Hunting Lila in June. I wrote it naively, I wrote without really knowing what I was doing as is obvious by the final wordcount of my first draft (117,000 words – I had no clue that first novesl in YA should run 60-80K max – didn’t even think to google it). I finished it in November and started editing it. Then I began sending out letters to agents in London whose names I’d culled from the Writers’ and Artists’ Handbook.
I was good at writing letters – that was something I’d honed through long practice in the work place. I sent out my submissions and then I headed off with a backpack to India. Most people find themselves in India, and I was no exception, in India I realised that I wanted to be a writer, that writing was no longer just a means to an end but something that I couldn’t imagine not doing, it was my passion. I’d have daydreams where I had to choose what limbs to lose and I’d make pacts with myself that I’d be fine if I had an accident so long as I was left with my head and my right arm. If I lost my right arm I decided and could no longer write I would just want to die.
I hit the beach in Goa and started writing again – this time the sequel to Hunting Lila. I didn’t have a book deal, I didn’t have an agent but I had this story and these characters of Lila and Alex who I couldn’t let go. They haunted me. I felt like I was betraying them in some way just leaving them hanging, their story only partly told. They would actually talk away in my head, whole conversations with me as the eavesdropper and then I’d just write it down. It was an awesome way to write a book – feet buried in the sand, looking out over the Arabian sea.
Whilst I was there, I received replies from the agents I’d posted to. I had sent 12 letters. I received 9 rejections, 3 of which claimed to really like it but had no room on their lists, and I received 2 requests to read the entire manuscript.
I emailed the full manuscript through to these two agents in utter terror. At the point of getting an agent I could suddenly see the glint of light through the trees and with it came this sense that I would die if it came to nothing. (see melodrama in every aspect of my life, not just my writing). If you’ve ever got to this stage in writing you’ll appreciate how hellish the waiting is. Those points where I’ve been waiting – for an agent to get back to me, for a publisher to respond – have been the most stressful and godawful but also most exciting moments of my life, like being in the throes of labour but not knowing if the child you’re giving birth to is going to be born with a head or without one.
Anyway, both agents came back almost instantly to ask to represent me and I found myself in the amazing position of being able to choose my agent. I spoke to writer friends and asked them what I should ask and I scoured the net. Both were highly reputable, well established with excellent track records. Both were very excited about the book. It was an easy choice for me to make in the end after I spoke with both – I chose the person I got on with the most and who had clearly read the book more than once, knew it very well, and who loved the characters as much as I did.
So I signed with Amanda at Luigi Bonomi Associates in London (who last year won Literary Agency of the Year) and have had an amazing year working with her now. Having someone to whom I can dump creative ideas on and who knows the publishing world enough to tell me what to run with and what to ditch is more brilliant than I could have guessed. I will do a fuller blog post on literary agents later.
I spent about 2 months editing my mammoth manuscript down to 85,000 words and then after several more read throughs by Amanda we thought it was ready to send out. Amanda handles the publishers. My job was to wait. And finish work on the sequel.
She sent it to the top 11 publishers in the UK – Penguin, Hodder, Simon & Schuster, Harper, Orion etc – and then we waited for three weeks. And then another two weeks. And I got a lot of rejections that made me feel like puking. It came very close with publishers whose names I could barely whisper and only then in reverential awe. It’s an almost impossible thing to get my head around still – that editors at these publishing houses read my manuscript.
In July last year I received an offer from Simon & Schuster for Hunting Lila and its sequel.
It was a good offer, especially in this day and age, for a debut author. It wouldn’t have been enough to let me give up my day job in London (though maybe go part time) but it’s enough to live well on in Bali. We celebrated a lot. I think I may have cried.
In August we were on the final leg of our journey, a road trip of California. We were staying in a beautiful house in Montecito with friends and one day I started writing a new story. This time a stand alone novel. I’ve since found that after every book I need a 6 week break, at the end of which time I’m leaping to get back in front of a computer, almost feverish and manic with the need to write. So I started this new book and it came to me very quickly, needing very little rewriting. I had it finished by October and sent it to Amanda. She loved it but wasn’t sure that Simon & Schuster having taken such a big leap of faith on a two book deal with me already would buy a third book when the first two hadn’t yet been published.
But they did. I think I woke every person in our village in Bali, screaming about that one at 6am.
It’s February 2011 now. I’ve just finished final edits of Hunting Lila with my editor at Simon & Schuster. It goes to print next month and Hunting Lila will be released in the UK this August. The sequel will come out sometime in 2012 whilst the third book, still untitled, is due for release by Simon Pulse (S&S’s paranormal imprint) in January 2012.
I write this and then I read it back and I think bloody hell, was that the easiest ride to the top ever?
It’s true right? You hate me. Just a little bit. But hopefully if you're an aspiring writer you can also draw inspiration.
Good luck on your own journey and I hope you enjoy my books.
S
Editing Sucks Balls
I suck at editing. Thankfully I am lucky enough to have an editor AND a copy editor AND a proof reader. And I'm still having to blink in awe at that sentence.
I’m not a perfectionist so I really need all the help that I can get. I just finished a short story from Alex’s point of view, which is going in the back of Losing Lila and it took my agent to point out that I’d called one character by the wrong name for half the story.
My copy editor in particular picks up not so much the spelling and grammar errors but the continuity errors and repetitions. The places where I’ve said one thing on p.23 and then totally contradicted that on p.230. She also points out where references I’ve made to obscure 80s movies might go over the heads of teenagers today. Sigh.
I heard that Charlaine Harris’s publishers employ a full time fact checker and continuity person for her because with so many Sookie Stackhouse books it’s so hard to keep a grip on who’s who and what’s gone before. One day I can dream of such a thing.
So here are some of the things I do to help me edit.
Read it out loud
I find this the most useful way of editing. When you read out loud you pick up the cadence and rhythm of sentences, you notice where you’ve used the same word in the same paragraph twice. You realize where you’re missing words or where another word might be needed to give better flow and you realize where dialogue sounds stilted and wrong. If you read it in your head it’s not the same.
Kindle-it
Add the document to your Kindle or ereader. I find that reading my manuscripts off a Kindle makes it feel more like a book already and so I read it in a different way, more critically, and can add quick notes and bookmarks as I go.
Revise Revise Revise
Editing is a process. Losing Lila has been through about six revisions. And will probably go through two more (with my editor) before it’s even read by the copy editor where the final revisions will happen. I wrote it almost two years ago so I’ve had time to do this many revisions. I leave a few months in between and then return to it with fresh eyes. It’s true that the more revisions you do the better it gets. I’m now really happy with it. It’s tighter, funnier and better constructed and I’ve had the chance to take on board feedback from Hunting Lila and edit accordingly.
Continuity
If you plot as you go or have a convoluted plot that jumps from location to location and through time it can be easy to mess up the continuity. There’s a mistake in Hunting Lila which a reader spotted (it involves Lila’s birthday) and that was down to a continuity error on my part when I was editing (I wanted her to be a Sagittarius!) Solutions to managing continuity include having someone else read your book when you’re done to check for things like this (sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees), keeping notes on a separate spreadsheet or doc, creating a timeline of dates or a story arc as well as character notes on things like birthdates, physical description, background, first appearance in book etc
If you are writing a series of books this becomes even more crucial. I still wonder how on earth JK Rowling plotted seven books so intricately.
Language
Whilst I’ve spent a lot of time in the States and now live in Indonesia surrounded by North American and Australian ex-pats, I’m English and have a sort of south London slash transatlantic accent. Most of my main characters are American and my books are for the most part set in America.
I send all my manuscripts to three American friends to read and check through for authenticity and idioms. In British editions some of the language stays British (mum for mom, vest for tank top, boot for trunk, pissed off instead of pissed) but at least I hope the characters sound how they are meant to sound for the most part.
Adjectives and adverbs
They just fill up space. Of course we need some descriptions and you can’t and shouldn’t strip out every adjective but try to SHOW- DON’T TELL as much as you can.
Instead of saying ‘He was arrogant’ – how can you show this instead of telling the reader it? Does he stand in a certain way? Speak in a certain way? Does he cock an eyebrow? Or curl his lip?
How can you show someone is nervous instead of telling us she is? Does her gaze falter, does she clasp and unclasp her hands, hop from foot to foot. If you read a lot you’ll see how other authors show and don’t tell.
Wordcount
Look into book length. As a debut author especially – an agent or publisher is unlikely to look kindly at a manuscript that is overlong.
An average YA novel is about 65,000-85,000. Hunting Lila and Fated both fall in at around 82,000 words (305pages roughly).
Adult novels at 100,000.
Whilst a 200,000 word tome is not necessarily going to be chucked on the reject pile (think Gone with the Wind, Great Expectations…) unless it’s truly a modern day classic stick with the genre averages. I’d say you have a better chance of your manuscript being read in its entirety.
If you stick to word count now you'll save hours and hours of editing time later!
Be Brutal
I cut 27,000 words from my first draft of Hunting Lila. At first I agonized over every sentence. And then I just got brutal. I chopped whole pages, even whole chapters. The rule of thumb – does it drive the story forward? Does it reveal something about the character? If not, take it out. Even characters – are they all absolutely necessary? If not take them out.
Then finally - at some point just say 'enough' - it might not be perfect but it never will be perfect. You just have to accept that.
My first draft of Lila got accepted by an agent and publisher and it was still pretty rough compared to the final cut. You could edit for forever but there isn't time for forever if you want to get your book out into the world.
I’m not a perfectionist so I really need all the help that I can get. I just finished a short story from Alex’s point of view, which is going in the back of Losing Lila and it took my agent to point out that I’d called one character by the wrong name for half the story.
My copy editor in particular picks up not so much the spelling and grammar errors but the continuity errors and repetitions. The places where I’ve said one thing on p.23 and then totally contradicted that on p.230. She also points out where references I’ve made to obscure 80s movies might go over the heads of teenagers today. Sigh.
I heard that Charlaine Harris’s publishers employ a full time fact checker and continuity person for her because with so many Sookie Stackhouse books it’s so hard to keep a grip on who’s who and what’s gone before. One day I can dream of such a thing.
So here are some of the things I do to help me edit.
Read it out loud
I find this the most useful way of editing. When you read out loud you pick up the cadence and rhythm of sentences, you notice where you’ve used the same word in the same paragraph twice. You realize where you’re missing words or where another word might be needed to give better flow and you realize where dialogue sounds stilted and wrong. If you read it in your head it’s not the same.
Kindle-it
Add the document to your Kindle or ereader. I find that reading my manuscripts off a Kindle makes it feel more like a book already and so I read it in a different way, more critically, and can add quick notes and bookmarks as I go.
Revise Revise Revise
Editing is a process. Losing Lila has been through about six revisions. And will probably go through two more (with my editor) before it’s even read by the copy editor where the final revisions will happen. I wrote it almost two years ago so I’ve had time to do this many revisions. I leave a few months in between and then return to it with fresh eyes. It’s true that the more revisions you do the better it gets. I’m now really happy with it. It’s tighter, funnier and better constructed and I’ve had the chance to take on board feedback from Hunting Lila and edit accordingly.
Continuity
If you plot as you go or have a convoluted plot that jumps from location to location and through time it can be easy to mess up the continuity. There’s a mistake in Hunting Lila which a reader spotted (it involves Lila’s birthday) and that was down to a continuity error on my part when I was editing (I wanted her to be a Sagittarius!) Solutions to managing continuity include having someone else read your book when you’re done to check for things like this (sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees), keeping notes on a separate spreadsheet or doc, creating a timeline of dates or a story arc as well as character notes on things like birthdates, physical description, background, first appearance in book etc
If you are writing a series of books this becomes even more crucial. I still wonder how on earth JK Rowling plotted seven books so intricately.
Language
Whilst I’ve spent a lot of time in the States and now live in Indonesia surrounded by North American and Australian ex-pats, I’m English and have a sort of south London slash transatlantic accent. Most of my main characters are American and my books are for the most part set in America.
I send all my manuscripts to three American friends to read and check through for authenticity and idioms. In British editions some of the language stays British (mum for mom, vest for tank top, boot for trunk, pissed off instead of pissed) but at least I hope the characters sound how they are meant to sound for the most part.
Adjectives and adverbs
They just fill up space. Of course we need some descriptions and you can’t and shouldn’t strip out every adjective but try to SHOW- DON’T TELL as much as you can.
Instead of saying ‘He was arrogant’ – how can you show this instead of telling the reader it? Does he stand in a certain way? Speak in a certain way? Does he cock an eyebrow? Or curl his lip?
How can you show someone is nervous instead of telling us she is? Does her gaze falter, does she clasp and unclasp her hands, hop from foot to foot. If you read a lot you’ll see how other authors show and don’t tell.
Wordcount
Look into book length. As a debut author especially – an agent or publisher is unlikely to look kindly at a manuscript that is overlong.
An average YA novel is about 65,000-85,000. Hunting Lila and Fated both fall in at around 82,000 words (305pages roughly).
Adult novels at 100,000.
Whilst a 200,000 word tome is not necessarily going to be chucked on the reject pile (think Gone with the Wind, Great Expectations…) unless it’s truly a modern day classic stick with the genre averages. I’d say you have a better chance of your manuscript being read in its entirety.
If you stick to word count now you'll save hours and hours of editing time later!
Be Brutal
I cut 27,000 words from my first draft of Hunting Lila. At first I agonized over every sentence. And then I just got brutal. I chopped whole pages, even whole chapters. The rule of thumb – does it drive the story forward? Does it reveal something about the character? If not, take it out. Even characters – are they all absolutely necessary? If not take them out.
Then finally - at some point just say 'enough' - it might not be perfect but it never will be perfect. You just have to accept that.
My first draft of Lila got accepted by an agent and publisher and it was still pretty rough compared to the final cut. You could edit for forever but there isn't time for forever if you want to get your book out into the world.
How to get an agent
I got an agent when I was just like you (and by that I mean Googling ‘how to get an agent’ when I should have been finishing my manuscript and / or working).
I got one of the best agents on the planet in fact. OK I’m biased but she just negotiated a deal for my 4th and 5th books on manuscripts I haven’t even written yet (well one was a half-way written mess and the other was a three sentence synopsis that went something like ‘think Drive crossed with Bourne Supremacy with a really hot boy and um, it’s set in New York’) so yeah, allow me to call her the best agent on the planet.
I actually got two agents in the space of a week – both wanting to represent me for Hunting Lila. It felt like all my Christmases had come at once. I actually got to choose my agent (how cool is that?).
I remember on my first visit to my agent’s office seeing the pile of manuscripts on the desk that they’d received that week (they get 100 submissions a week – do the math – that’s 5200 a year and they take on just a handful of those.)
The submission pile was a mountain of paper reaching almost to the ceiling. It took my breath away. And knowing that my own submission had made it all the way off that pile to an editor at Simon & Schuster and then to a happy two book contract almost made me weep. I mean, I’ve never won anything before in my life (except this crappy toy Ferrari in a raffle once. I was ten years old. I’m a girl. May as well have given me herpes.)
A lot of people ask me how they can get an agent. So here’s my advice on the topic (for what it's worth). I also asked my own agent for her top tips (those are worth a lot more).
1. Buy The Writers’and Artists' Handbook.
2. Read it.
3. Finish your manuscript (no agent is going to take on a debut author without a complete manuscript).
4. Make your first sentence really count. And then make every other sentence count just as much.
5. Tailor your submission letter to each agency. Read their website, find out who you’re submitting it to. Do they represent any authors that you admire? Do you think you would be a great fit for them? If so, why? Also – get their name right. Don’t mess up your mail merge.
6. It all counts!
Remember that everything you submit – the cover letter, synopsis and sample is there to make an impression. So, the cover letter and synopsis needs to be short and simple with the cover letter saying a little about the author and the synopsis short and attention grabbing (like a book blurb) and make sure that the sample material grabs the reader’s attention from the first page – you can’t have it getting going in the third chapter, as the likelihood is that the agent will have stopped reading before then if nothing happens in the first two chapters.
7. Always SPELLCHECK.
I asked my agent what makes her fire something straight in the bin? Her answer? ‘Although we’d never fire anything straight into the bin (!), it is off-putting when there are a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes in the cover letter and the wording doesn’t make sense!’
8. Keep it short and snappy
‘An incredibly long synopsis / covering letter is a negative – it shows that the writer is unable to self-edit. Not laying the sample material out in a manner that is easy to read – ie small, difficult to read font & not double spaced is not a good idea. And when we ask for the first three chapters, we mean the first three chapters – not the 8th, 21st and 38th [how are we supposed to see the progression if we are given three ‘random’ chapters?].’
9. Know your audience
Show that you have a clear understanding of your target readership. Your genre and your competitors. 'If the author states that they have never read a YA novel, but their submission is a YA novel, that will set alarm bells off. So obvious research and knowledge in the area that the author is writing is crucial.'
Apparently, and this surprised me, a platform (goodreads profile etc) is not essential unless you’re a non-fiction writer. ‘With regards to fiction, writing and plot is more important [obviously if they have a background or something that ties-in to what they are writing then that is great – but it isn’t the be all and end all. Once the author has a publisher, then their platform comes into play much more and needs to built up considerably (if not there) in time for publication.’
I don’t think it can hurt though to talk about a platform if you do actually have one.
Hope that's helpful to you!
Good Luck!
I got one of the best agents on the planet in fact. OK I’m biased but she just negotiated a deal for my 4th and 5th books on manuscripts I haven’t even written yet (well one was a half-way written mess and the other was a three sentence synopsis that went something like ‘think Drive crossed with Bourne Supremacy with a really hot boy and um, it’s set in New York’) so yeah, allow me to call her the best agent on the planet.
I actually got two agents in the space of a week – both wanting to represent me for Hunting Lila. It felt like all my Christmases had come at once. I actually got to choose my agent (how cool is that?).
I remember on my first visit to my agent’s office seeing the pile of manuscripts on the desk that they’d received that week (they get 100 submissions a week – do the math – that’s 5200 a year and they take on just a handful of those.)
The submission pile was a mountain of paper reaching almost to the ceiling. It took my breath away. And knowing that my own submission had made it all the way off that pile to an editor at Simon & Schuster and then to a happy two book contract almost made me weep. I mean, I’ve never won anything before in my life (except this crappy toy Ferrari in a raffle once. I was ten years old. I’m a girl. May as well have given me herpes.)
A lot of people ask me how they can get an agent. So here’s my advice on the topic (for what it's worth). I also asked my own agent for her top tips (those are worth a lot more).
1. Buy The Writers’and Artists' Handbook.
2. Read it.
3. Finish your manuscript (no agent is going to take on a debut author without a complete manuscript).
4. Make your first sentence really count. And then make every other sentence count just as much.
5. Tailor your submission letter to each agency. Read their website, find out who you’re submitting it to. Do they represent any authors that you admire? Do you think you would be a great fit for them? If so, why? Also – get their name right. Don’t mess up your mail merge.
6. It all counts!
Remember that everything you submit – the cover letter, synopsis and sample is there to make an impression. So, the cover letter and synopsis needs to be short and simple with the cover letter saying a little about the author and the synopsis short and attention grabbing (like a book blurb) and make sure that the sample material grabs the reader’s attention from the first page – you can’t have it getting going in the third chapter, as the likelihood is that the agent will have stopped reading before then if nothing happens in the first two chapters.
7. Always SPELLCHECK.
I asked my agent what makes her fire something straight in the bin? Her answer? ‘Although we’d never fire anything straight into the bin (!), it is off-putting when there are a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes in the cover letter and the wording doesn’t make sense!’
8. Keep it short and snappy
‘An incredibly long synopsis / covering letter is a negative – it shows that the writer is unable to self-edit. Not laying the sample material out in a manner that is easy to read – ie small, difficult to read font & not double spaced is not a good idea. And when we ask for the first three chapters, we mean the first three chapters – not the 8th, 21st and 38th [how are we supposed to see the progression if we are given three ‘random’ chapters?].’
9. Know your audience
Show that you have a clear understanding of your target readership. Your genre and your competitors. 'If the author states that they have never read a YA novel, but their submission is a YA novel, that will set alarm bells off. So obvious research and knowledge in the area that the author is writing is crucial.'
Apparently, and this surprised me, a platform (goodreads profile etc) is not essential unless you’re a non-fiction writer. ‘With regards to fiction, writing and plot is more important [obviously if they have a background or something that ties-in to what they are writing then that is great – but it isn’t the be all and end all. Once the author has a publisher, then their platform comes into play much more and needs to built up considerably (if not there) in time for publication.’
I don’t think it can hurt though to talk about a platform if you do actually have one.
Hope that's helpful to you!
Good Luck!
Controlling, psychotic men: The new hot?
The worst thing a writer can do is not say anything.
I have that quotation on a post it note stuck above my desk. Yet I wonder whether it’s actually accurate. It seems to me that one of the worst things a writer can do is to say something that acts in disservice of their gender.
Recently I’ve become more and more aware of the number of books being published, particularly in the YA realm, and by women too, which to my mind are damaging to girls. Books which do more to push back gender equality than any offensive statements by Kanye West, ever could.
I’m talking about books that portray controlling, obsessive, even psychotic boys as hot and desirable because they have a six-pack, cheekbones you could slice salami on, and they kiss really well. Books that portray a healthy relationship as one in which the boy beats the crap out of any guy who so much as looks sideways at ‘their’ girl. Books in which men stalk girls, act out violently, manipulate and otherwise emotionally abuse the girl because ‘they love her’. Yeah, I’m not sure in what world that qualifies as love. And always the girl forgives said boy because she needs him, he’s her soul mate, she can’t live without him…and don’t forget…he’s hot!
Please. Is this what we want to teach teenage girls? Is this what we want for the next generation of women? For them to grow up looking for this in their ideal partner? Is this what we want young men to think is what girls actually want?
Isn't it bad enough that Chris Brown's career sky rockets in the wake of him smashing his fists into Rihanna's face and that she responds by calling him the love of her life? We have awful enough 'role models' in real life - do we have to create them in fiction too?
The thing that gets me most though is that these books are written by women.
(Referring back to the Kanye West comment he made on Twitter, what riled me most was not the comment itself, but the fact that his girlfriend Kim Kardashian backed him up, telling her millions of Twitter followers that it was OK to call a woman a bitch. Again…in what world is that OK?).
Let’s stop betraying our gender girls. We can’t ever expect men to grant us respect and equal rights if we can’t even respect ourselves (Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, and all you readers and writers take note!)
As an author and as a woman (and a mother) I believe that I have a responsibility and a duty to my readers (and my daughter) to portray both healthy male and female role models and healthy relationships. Girls who are in control of their own stories, who are smart, resilient and know when a guy is being a total jerk and aren't afraid to tell him. Girls who’d never let a guy control them or tell them what to do. Girls who kick ass and can look after themselves (admittedly, having that hot, intelligent and loving boy as a sidekick). My girls are heroines in the true sense of the word.
I don’t want to paint completely idealised romances either. My characters have flaws – they’re people after all. But mainly I want girls to read my books and feel stronger, feel prouder to be a girl, to come away feeling that it’s OK to not have a boyfriend, it’s OK to feel desire and want sex, but it’s also OK to wait – in fact it’s often a good idea to wait.
I want girls to know that the right guy (and there will be one) is not the guy who likes to beat the crap out of people or tell you what to wear, what to eat and how to dress. But the guy who supports you, is kind, is loving and puts you not on a pedestal, but on an equal footing.
To writers:
Teenage readers are influenced by our words, by our stories. Make them count.
To readers:
Think carefully about what you feed your subconscious. Question the books you read and the messages they are sending. Become a critical reader and shout from the rooftops when you find something offensive or sexist. Let publishers know. But most especially, if you're female, fight back against anything that denigrates women. It's your duty.
To publishers:
STOP publishing these books. Stop running with the trends. Start bucking them. Empower the next generation through the books you choose, don't disempower them at such a critical age. Yours is a position of power, don't abuse it.
I have that quotation on a post it note stuck above my desk. Yet I wonder whether it’s actually accurate. It seems to me that one of the worst things a writer can do is to say something that acts in disservice of their gender.
Recently I’ve become more and more aware of the number of books being published, particularly in the YA realm, and by women too, which to my mind are damaging to girls. Books which do more to push back gender equality than any offensive statements by Kanye West, ever could.
I’m talking about books that portray controlling, obsessive, even psychotic boys as hot and desirable because they have a six-pack, cheekbones you could slice salami on, and they kiss really well. Books that portray a healthy relationship as one in which the boy beats the crap out of any guy who so much as looks sideways at ‘their’ girl. Books in which men stalk girls, act out violently, manipulate and otherwise emotionally abuse the girl because ‘they love her’. Yeah, I’m not sure in what world that qualifies as love. And always the girl forgives said boy because she needs him, he’s her soul mate, she can’t live without him…and don’t forget…he’s hot!
Please. Is this what we want to teach teenage girls? Is this what we want for the next generation of women? For them to grow up looking for this in their ideal partner? Is this what we want young men to think is what girls actually want?
Isn't it bad enough that Chris Brown's career sky rockets in the wake of him smashing his fists into Rihanna's face and that she responds by calling him the love of her life? We have awful enough 'role models' in real life - do we have to create them in fiction too?
The thing that gets me most though is that these books are written by women.
(Referring back to the Kanye West comment he made on Twitter, what riled me most was not the comment itself, but the fact that his girlfriend Kim Kardashian backed him up, telling her millions of Twitter followers that it was OK to call a woman a bitch. Again…in what world is that OK?).
Let’s stop betraying our gender girls. We can’t ever expect men to grant us respect and equal rights if we can’t even respect ourselves (Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, and all you readers and writers take note!)
As an author and as a woman (and a mother) I believe that I have a responsibility and a duty to my readers (and my daughter) to portray both healthy male and female role models and healthy relationships. Girls who are in control of their own stories, who are smart, resilient and know when a guy is being a total jerk and aren't afraid to tell him. Girls who’d never let a guy control them or tell them what to do. Girls who kick ass and can look after themselves (admittedly, having that hot, intelligent and loving boy as a sidekick). My girls are heroines in the true sense of the word.
I don’t want to paint completely idealised romances either. My characters have flaws – they’re people after all. But mainly I want girls to read my books and feel stronger, feel prouder to be a girl, to come away feeling that it’s OK to not have a boyfriend, it’s OK to feel desire and want sex, but it’s also OK to wait – in fact it’s often a good idea to wait.
I want girls to know that the right guy (and there will be one) is not the guy who likes to beat the crap out of people or tell you what to wear, what to eat and how to dress. But the guy who supports you, is kind, is loving and puts you not on a pedestal, but on an equal footing.
To writers:
Teenage readers are influenced by our words, by our stories. Make them count.
To readers:
Think carefully about what you feed your subconscious. Question the books you read and the messages they are sending. Become a critical reader and shout from the rooftops when you find something offensive or sexist. Let publishers know. But most especially, if you're female, fight back against anything that denigrates women. It's your duty.
To publishers:
STOP publishing these books. Stop running with the trends. Start bucking them. Empower the next generation through the books you choose, don't disempower them at such a critical age. Yours is a position of power, don't abuse it.
Self publishing vs traditional publishing
The future of publishing and books is a hot topic these days. Will e-books eventually take over and send paperbacks into the annals of history along with papyrus scrolls and horse drawn carriages? Will our kids look at them as strange antiques before trying to swipe onto the next page and highlight text with their fingers?
And what of self-publishing? It’s already opening the doors and democratizing publishing. Anyone can publish these days, and while we hear stories of self-published authors taking the industry by storm and commanding six or seven figure deals, these are very VERY rare. I think the average self-published book sells fewer than 100 copies, and most of these to friends or family.
I’m hugely fortunate to be with one of the biggest publishers in the world – Simon & Schuster. I’ve published three books with them over the last 15 months, and have another two slated for release.
But I’m now going the self-publishing route too for the sequels to my second novel, Fated. I feel privileged to be able to experience both routes, and it’s putting me in a fairly unique position, allowing me to reflect on the publishing process for both traditional publishing and self-publishing.
The key things about traditional publishing:
Firstly, I believe publishers do a great job of curating the market place. Generally speaking, most novels that come through a publishing house will be polished and of a guaranteed standard which, as an avid reader, I’m exceedingly grateful for.
For authors a publisher brings kudos, distribution channels and the power of their marketing, editing and sales departments. If a publisher really gets behind you, like S&S have done with me, your career can be kickstarted. But if you do fail to sell then equally your ‘career’ as a traditionally published author might be over just as it begins. Unless of course you can take the self-publishing world by storm.
I love having the support of a publishing team where I am surrounded and nurtured by skilled professionals. I have someone to edit, someone to copy-edit, someone to proof, someone to manage my overseas sales, someone to manage my PR and blog tours, someone to design my cover, someone else to make sure Waterstones etc are stocking my books. I mean, all I have to worry about is actually writing. I’m very well taken care of.
For me it feels a bit like getting married and having a team of top-notch stylists, wedding planners and photographers pulling out all the stops to make you look beautiful and ensure you have a perfect day.
The benefits of self-publishing:
Going the self-publishing route is more like doing your own make-up, writing your own vows and getting a friend to take your photos.
When I got married though, I actually opted for this second route and I relished the freedom of that decision. And from what I’ve seen so far, self-publishing has a lot to offer, if not the perks of a traditional publisher, then freedom, higher royalties (though no advance) and my own editorial decision making power (finally I have a sex scene in Severed!).
Self-publishing has been an interesting journey so far and I’m not even yet fully embarked on it. I’m also not self-publishing in the same manner as most writers. I’m publishing via Amazon’s white glove programme, which certainly makes things a lot easier.
Amazon are now working directly with agents to broker deals with authors. With white glove I get dedicated support, personalized cover design, support around conversion (and checking for errors) and hopefully (though not promised) access to specific marketing programmes. It’s like the VIP channel for Ryanair. It’s not like flying First class but it makes the journey more pleasant. Or it has so far.
My agent takes a cut of the royalties, but I’m happy with that for a number of reasons. 1) I love my agent and she’s worth it. 2) My agent helped me edit the book so again she deserves it 3) I think that the marketing support will hopefully ensure I make back the agent cut on extra sales anyway.
Also, Amazon offer a much MUCH better royalty than a publisher ever could (this is why they have the monopoly.)
So what would my advice be to aspiring authors or those already published?
I honestly believe that if you can get a good book deal from a traditional publisher then TAKE IT! Are you kidding me?
Top tips for self-publishing:
1. Editing
The key thing that self-publishing can’t do, that publishers can and do so well, is editing. I used to think I was pretty good at line by line edits (structural I can manage by myself). I’m pretty good at grammar and a stickler for spelling. But deciding to pay an editor for a line by line and continuity check was the smartest move I’ve ever made. It revealed several hundred errors in a manuscript I’d checked and re-checked at least a dozen times. Something to be said for not seeing the wood for the trees.
I cannot overstate the importance of editing your work before you decide to self-publish. Having said that, the cost of an edit will probably not make it worthwhile for most people who are self-publishing. I’m fairly sure, given my sales figures for my previous books, that it’s a wise move for me and that I will make the money back but if I didn’t have an existing readership I probably wouldn’t take the risk.
2. PR / Marketing for self-published authors
Most big publishers will no longer plan much if any PR to debut or even existing authors. They just don’t have the resources to do this for every author. So even with Simon & Schuster I am responsible for marketing myself most of the time; for connecting with bloggers, Facebooking and tweeting etc.
For self-publishing it’s even more important to put in the time to promote yourself because there’s no big house doing it for you.
Whether my books are published the traditional route or self-published I do the same amount of ‘selling’ and I’m equally as creative about it. I guest blog, I tweet, I use amazon’s author programme and goodreads. I do competitions and I connect at every opportunity with readers, via email, newsletters, Twitter and Facebook.
We’re still at the conversion phase and Severed won’t be released for a couple more weeks (November 12th) so I shall do a couple more posts in the coming weeks about the self-publishing process and what I’ve learned.
And what of self-publishing? It’s already opening the doors and democratizing publishing. Anyone can publish these days, and while we hear stories of self-published authors taking the industry by storm and commanding six or seven figure deals, these are very VERY rare. I think the average self-published book sells fewer than 100 copies, and most of these to friends or family.
I’m hugely fortunate to be with one of the biggest publishers in the world – Simon & Schuster. I’ve published three books with them over the last 15 months, and have another two slated for release.
But I’m now going the self-publishing route too for the sequels to my second novel, Fated. I feel privileged to be able to experience both routes, and it’s putting me in a fairly unique position, allowing me to reflect on the publishing process for both traditional publishing and self-publishing.
The key things about traditional publishing:
Firstly, I believe publishers do a great job of curating the market place. Generally speaking, most novels that come through a publishing house will be polished and of a guaranteed standard which, as an avid reader, I’m exceedingly grateful for.
For authors a publisher brings kudos, distribution channels and the power of their marketing, editing and sales departments. If a publisher really gets behind you, like S&S have done with me, your career can be kickstarted. But if you do fail to sell then equally your ‘career’ as a traditionally published author might be over just as it begins. Unless of course you can take the self-publishing world by storm.
I love having the support of a publishing team where I am surrounded and nurtured by skilled professionals. I have someone to edit, someone to copy-edit, someone to proof, someone to manage my overseas sales, someone to manage my PR and blog tours, someone to design my cover, someone else to make sure Waterstones etc are stocking my books. I mean, all I have to worry about is actually writing. I’m very well taken care of.
For me it feels a bit like getting married and having a team of top-notch stylists, wedding planners and photographers pulling out all the stops to make you look beautiful and ensure you have a perfect day.
The benefits of self-publishing:
Going the self-publishing route is more like doing your own make-up, writing your own vows and getting a friend to take your photos.
When I got married though, I actually opted for this second route and I relished the freedom of that decision. And from what I’ve seen so far, self-publishing has a lot to offer, if not the perks of a traditional publisher, then freedom, higher royalties (though no advance) and my own editorial decision making power (finally I have a sex scene in Severed!).
Self-publishing has been an interesting journey so far and I’m not even yet fully embarked on it. I’m also not self-publishing in the same manner as most writers. I’m publishing via Amazon’s white glove programme, which certainly makes things a lot easier.
Amazon are now working directly with agents to broker deals with authors. With white glove I get dedicated support, personalized cover design, support around conversion (and checking for errors) and hopefully (though not promised) access to specific marketing programmes. It’s like the VIP channel for Ryanair. It’s not like flying First class but it makes the journey more pleasant. Or it has so far.
My agent takes a cut of the royalties, but I’m happy with that for a number of reasons. 1) I love my agent and she’s worth it. 2) My agent helped me edit the book so again she deserves it 3) I think that the marketing support will hopefully ensure I make back the agent cut on extra sales anyway.
Also, Amazon offer a much MUCH better royalty than a publisher ever could (this is why they have the monopoly.)
So what would my advice be to aspiring authors or those already published?
I honestly believe that if you can get a good book deal from a traditional publisher then TAKE IT! Are you kidding me?
Top tips for self-publishing:
1. Editing
The key thing that self-publishing can’t do, that publishers can and do so well, is editing. I used to think I was pretty good at line by line edits (structural I can manage by myself). I’m pretty good at grammar and a stickler for spelling. But deciding to pay an editor for a line by line and continuity check was the smartest move I’ve ever made. It revealed several hundred errors in a manuscript I’d checked and re-checked at least a dozen times. Something to be said for not seeing the wood for the trees.
I cannot overstate the importance of editing your work before you decide to self-publish. Having said that, the cost of an edit will probably not make it worthwhile for most people who are self-publishing. I’m fairly sure, given my sales figures for my previous books, that it’s a wise move for me and that I will make the money back but if I didn’t have an existing readership I probably wouldn’t take the risk.
2. PR / Marketing for self-published authors
Most big publishers will no longer plan much if any PR to debut or even existing authors. They just don’t have the resources to do this for every author. So even with Simon & Schuster I am responsible for marketing myself most of the time; for connecting with bloggers, Facebooking and tweeting etc.
For self-publishing it’s even more important to put in the time to promote yourself because there’s no big house doing it for you.
Whether my books are published the traditional route or self-published I do the same amount of ‘selling’ and I’m equally as creative about it. I guest blog, I tweet, I use amazon’s author programme and goodreads. I do competitions and I connect at every opportunity with readers, via email, newsletters, Twitter and Facebook.
We’re still at the conversion phase and Severed won’t be released for a couple more weeks (November 12th) so I shall do a couple more posts in the coming weeks about the self-publishing process and what I’ve learned.
5 things to know when pitching to literary agents
1. Make sure you’re pitching to the right agent.
Buy the Writers’ and Artists’ Handbook (in the UK). Identify those agents that rep your genre. Google them and find out what their submission guidelines are.
Check out who their clients are. This will give you an idea of how big a player they are — how much influence they have in the publishing world.
An agent with lots of high profile authors might not have as much time for you as an agent with fewer clients. On the upside a bigger agent will have more influence with publishers and be able to get your MS onto desks quicker.
Don’t go overboard with contacting every agent in the book. I contacted 12. I had 7 responses, two of which were very polite no thank yous, three of which were ‘we really think this has potential but we have no room on our list’, and 2 who wanted to sign me immediately.
I signed with the agent who I felt I had the best rapport with but she also happened to be very established with a great client list.
2. Have a complete manuscript
If pitching fiction you MUST have a complete manuscript. It must be edited to the best of your ability and as good as you can make it. Don’t waste an agent’s time by submitting a partial.
3. Keep your cover letter brief and to the point
Keep your cover letter to a maximum three paragraphs. In the first para introduce yourself briefly. Try to think of a hook about yourself — what sets you apart from the thousand other people on the slush pile alongside you. I mentioned in my letter the fact I had just quit my job and was going travelling around the world with my family to find a new place to live.
Mention any cool awards or work you’ve had published (but only if they are impressive — leave out any High School awards etc).
In the second paragraph talk about your book. Do NOT say that you think it is the next ‘Harry Potter / Hunger Games / Dan Brown’, nor that everyone you’ve shown it to thinks it’s guaranteed to become a bestseller. No surer way to send your MS to the bottom of the pile.
Detail what the genre of your book is (young adult / new adult / literary fiction / contemporary / sci-fi), how many words the manuscript is and, if for kids, what age it is aimed at.
- In the third paragraph detail how you can be contacted and why you are interested in working with that agent (without being sycophantic).
4. Follow the individual submission guidelines to the letter.
Never submit a handwritten MS. Make sure it’s formatted neatly in Arial or similar, at 12pt, with 1.5 spacing (and not on pink paper).
5. Don’t harass the agent for an answer.
They will respond if they are interested.
Sarah Alderson is repped by Amanda Preston at Luigi Bonomi Associates. She has published 5 books with Simon & Schuster UK & US and 1 book with Pan Macmillan under the name Mila Gray.
www.sarahalderson.com
@sarahalderson
Buy the Writers’ and Artists’ Handbook (in the UK). Identify those agents that rep your genre. Google them and find out what their submission guidelines are.
Check out who their clients are. This will give you an idea of how big a player they are — how much influence they have in the publishing world.
An agent with lots of high profile authors might not have as much time for you as an agent with fewer clients. On the upside a bigger agent will have more influence with publishers and be able to get your MS onto desks quicker.
Don’t go overboard with contacting every agent in the book. I contacted 12. I had 7 responses, two of which were very polite no thank yous, three of which were ‘we really think this has potential but we have no room on our list’, and 2 who wanted to sign me immediately.
I signed with the agent who I felt I had the best rapport with but she also happened to be very established with a great client list.
2. Have a complete manuscript
If pitching fiction you MUST have a complete manuscript. It must be edited to the best of your ability and as good as you can make it. Don’t waste an agent’s time by submitting a partial.
3. Keep your cover letter brief and to the point
Keep your cover letter to a maximum three paragraphs. In the first para introduce yourself briefly. Try to think of a hook about yourself — what sets you apart from the thousand other people on the slush pile alongside you. I mentioned in my letter the fact I had just quit my job and was going travelling around the world with my family to find a new place to live.
Mention any cool awards or work you’ve had published (but only if they are impressive — leave out any High School awards etc).
In the second paragraph talk about your book. Do NOT say that you think it is the next ‘Harry Potter / Hunger Games / Dan Brown’, nor that everyone you’ve shown it to thinks it’s guaranteed to become a bestseller. No surer way to send your MS to the bottom of the pile.
Detail what the genre of your book is (young adult / new adult / literary fiction / contemporary / sci-fi), how many words the manuscript is and, if for kids, what age it is aimed at.
- In the third paragraph detail how you can be contacted and why you are interested in working with that agent (without being sycophantic).
4. Follow the individual submission guidelines to the letter.
Never submit a handwritten MS. Make sure it’s formatted neatly in Arial or similar, at 12pt, with 1.5 spacing (and not on pink paper).
5. Don’t harass the agent for an answer.
They will respond if they are interested.
Sarah Alderson is repped by Amanda Preston at Luigi Bonomi Associates. She has published 5 books with Simon & Schuster UK & US and 1 book with Pan Macmillan under the name Mila Gray.
www.sarahalderson.com
@sarahalderson
How to write full time / make money as an author
Five years into my career as an author and I’m finally at the stage where I write full time and I need only submit an opening chapter and synopsis to my publishers in order to get a book deal. I make money as an author. I don’t take that for granted. I’m aware that next year I could be in the position of not being able to sell a book to any publisher (this doesn’t scare me that much as I’ve already self-published and would do so again).
It’s become harder than ever to get a book deal. I’ve seen my advances shrink over the last four years. And they were never exactly big to begin with. Publishing is a difficult business to be in. It offers very little in the way of security or certainty. Between worrying about reviews, sales, whether your next book is going to be any good and whether you’re going to be dropped by your publisher there are days I find it hard to summon enthusiasm for writing.
And let’s not glamorise being a writer. It’s a job. It’s how I pay the bills. It’s my only source of income. I work 12-15 hour days a lot of the time, mainly on PR and marketing. My writing takes up less and less time as I struggle to make a name for myself in an increasingly saturated market place.
Someone asked me yesterday how it’s possible to quit the day job and become a full-time writer. My advice would be not to. Don’t quit your day job. Not unless you –
- Have a private source of income to sustain you during the lean months.
- Are the one in a million author who signs a seven figure deal for your first book, alongside a major film deal.
- Have a partner who can pick up the slack in the months you are waiting for your advance to get paid.
- Can move somewhere like South East Asia where you can live on a lot less (this is what I did!).
How do I manage to write full time on an author’s ‘salary’?
- I live in Bali. There is simply no way that I could live on what I earn in the ‘west’.
- I have a husband who earns more than me and who can pick up the slack when I’m broke.
- I earn extra money by running workshops on writing and retreats.
- I sold the option for Hunting Lila to a film production company (highly recommend this!).
- I learned screenwriting and was paid to co-write the screenplay for Hunting Lila.
- I got myself a film agent off the back of spec writing several scripts and my rep as an author and am now moving more fully into screenwriting (that’s where the real money is and I enjoy telling a story through this medium).
- I stopped providing free content or giving my time away unless there was a valuable return (fundamental lesson: value your time).
- I write books that are as ‘filmic’ as possible in the hope that they get optioned (you’re looking at between $5000-10,000 a year just for option rights, so if you can get it this is a brilliant passive income stream).
- I write fast. I am prolific. I write 3-4 books a year. And I now have two publishers, meaning that I can publish around 3 books a year (remember a publisher will normally only publish one book a year). If you are going to spend ten years writing a book then forget being able to live on the advance.
People are always remarking on how successful I am. Yes, from the outside I am successful. Eight books in four years with major publishers, worldwide translation deals, a film deal, a life in Bali. I’m incredibly blessed. I love my life. I travel, I have no ‘boss’, no 20 days holiday a year, no working for ‘the man’. But I also have no security and no savings. Would I change that? No. Never. I love my life and my job.
To anyone who wants to become an author though and visualises a life of glamour and riches I hope this post has given a more truthful look at the reality. I do live an amazing life. What people aren’t seeing however are the evenings when I lie on my bed crying and demanding to know from my husband that everything is going to be OK. They also don’t see the 15 hour days spent slogging.
To be a writer requires not just the skin of a rhinoceros, it also requires nerves of steel and the ability to accept uncertainty and thrive on that (oh, and a talent for social media). ☺
Sarah writes young adult fiction for Simon & Schuster UK & US. Her novels include: Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, Fated, The Sound, Out of Control and Conspiracy Girl.
She also writes adult fiction for Pan Macmillan under the name Mila Gray.
It’s become harder than ever to get a book deal. I’ve seen my advances shrink over the last four years. And they were never exactly big to begin with. Publishing is a difficult business to be in. It offers very little in the way of security or certainty. Between worrying about reviews, sales, whether your next book is going to be any good and whether you’re going to be dropped by your publisher there are days I find it hard to summon enthusiasm for writing.
And let’s not glamorise being a writer. It’s a job. It’s how I pay the bills. It’s my only source of income. I work 12-15 hour days a lot of the time, mainly on PR and marketing. My writing takes up less and less time as I struggle to make a name for myself in an increasingly saturated market place.
Someone asked me yesterday how it’s possible to quit the day job and become a full-time writer. My advice would be not to. Don’t quit your day job. Not unless you –
- Have a private source of income to sustain you during the lean months.
- Are the one in a million author who signs a seven figure deal for your first book, alongside a major film deal.
- Have a partner who can pick up the slack in the months you are waiting for your advance to get paid.
- Can move somewhere like South East Asia where you can live on a lot less (this is what I did!).
How do I manage to write full time on an author’s ‘salary’?
- I live in Bali. There is simply no way that I could live on what I earn in the ‘west’.
- I have a husband who earns more than me and who can pick up the slack when I’m broke.
- I earn extra money by running workshops on writing and retreats.
- I sold the option for Hunting Lila to a film production company (highly recommend this!).
- I learned screenwriting and was paid to co-write the screenplay for Hunting Lila.
- I got myself a film agent off the back of spec writing several scripts and my rep as an author and am now moving more fully into screenwriting (that’s where the real money is and I enjoy telling a story through this medium).
- I stopped providing free content or giving my time away unless there was a valuable return (fundamental lesson: value your time).
- I write books that are as ‘filmic’ as possible in the hope that they get optioned (you’re looking at between $5000-10,000 a year just for option rights, so if you can get it this is a brilliant passive income stream).
- I write fast. I am prolific. I write 3-4 books a year. And I now have two publishers, meaning that I can publish around 3 books a year (remember a publisher will normally only publish one book a year). If you are going to spend ten years writing a book then forget being able to live on the advance.
People are always remarking on how successful I am. Yes, from the outside I am successful. Eight books in four years with major publishers, worldwide translation deals, a film deal, a life in Bali. I’m incredibly blessed. I love my life. I travel, I have no ‘boss’, no 20 days holiday a year, no working for ‘the man’. But I also have no security and no savings. Would I change that? No. Never. I love my life and my job.
To anyone who wants to become an author though and visualises a life of glamour and riches I hope this post has given a more truthful look at the reality. I do live an amazing life. What people aren’t seeing however are the evenings when I lie on my bed crying and demanding to know from my husband that everything is going to be OK. They also don’t see the 15 hour days spent slogging.
To be a writer requires not just the skin of a rhinoceros, it also requires nerves of steel and the ability to accept uncertainty and thrive on that (oh, and a talent for social media). ☺
Sarah writes young adult fiction for Simon & Schuster UK & US. Her novels include: Hunting Lila, Losing Lila, Fated, The Sound, Out of Control and Conspiracy Girl.
She also writes adult fiction for Pan Macmillan under the name Mila Gray.
Writing and all the bits in between
I have a blog at www.canwelivehere.com which documents my life living in Bali, writing, drinking coconuts, dancing ecstatically and meeting crazy people.
I have a website at www.sarahalderson.com where ...more
I have a website at www.sarahalderson.com where ...more
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