The Importance of the Second Opinion

High time I did another post. I've been working my fingers to the bone after RWA Nationals, because of course conventions happen right when I have to do about fifty other things.

I haven't said much about critique partners, writing groups, and critique groups but it's a good topic.

I offer this advice:

1. Don't expect to find the perfect crit. partner/group right away. In my opinion, it's better to be on your own than be with a bad critique partner. Take time to find just the right person/people.

2. Find someone who "gets" you. If your goal is to write novels for Silhouette Special Edition, that will take a different kind of voice and storytelling style than if you're writing gritty thrillers for Random House. Your crit. partner should understand the genre and subgenre you are writing. (They don't necessarily have to write it themselves, but they should have read it and understand what the audience wants. This is true for everything from Young Adult fantasy to Harlequin to gritty thrillers at Random House.)

3. A critique group isn't a bashing session. Constructive criticism is helpful, saying "I can't believe you wrote that crap" isn't. A critique is pointing out weaknesses and saying why they're weak, and pointing out strengths and saying why they're strong. (I always start by saying what I loved before I get down to what bugged me.)

4. Wait 24 hours after getting the criticism to respond. The immediate instinct is to explain what the CP didn't think was good or didn't understand. Let it sink in--then decide whether to agree with the critique, ignore it, or ask for more clarification.

5. Find people who can turn your material around quickly, like in a day or two to a week. When you get published, deadlines are tight, and you need someone who can read fast so you can revise quickly. Likewise, if you decide to enter a contest, you need that critique so you can fix things before the contest deadline. Turn their material around just as quickly.

6. Don't believe everything your CP or crit. group says absolutely. Everything is subjective. If you have four people agree your hero is weak, your hero might be weak. If you get four different responses, then it might just be different tastes.

A true story: I once had a partial ms. critiqued by two different published authors. Each circled the same paragraph (description of the hero). One told me it caught her attention because it was wonderful and vivid, the other told me it was putrid (she used more diplomatic words, but that was the gist). Who was I to believe? (I never finished that book, btw.)

7. Don't let your ms. get critiqued to death. Give your CP or group a chapter or chunk and have them critique it ONCE. Fix it and move on. If you radically rewrite the entire book and want their opinion on the rewrite, that's fine, but again, ONCE.

8. Don't let your CP change your voice, your characters, and your plot into something they want to write themselves (and don't do that to your CP). It's ok if they don't like what you're writing, as long as they understand your audience and what you're trying to do. And a bad transition is a bad transition no matter what the genre.

9. On the other hand a CP or critique group who gushes about everything you do ("Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, I love it!") and offers no constructive criticism isn't helping you. Stroking your ego, yes; helping, no.

10. And last: Don't get critiqued to seek validation; get critiqued to make your writing stronger.

There it is, ten thoughts on critique groups.

I'm sure there's more. Feel free to add.

www.jennifersromances.com

RWA

I'm off to SF and RWA Nationals today. I plan to have a low-key RWA this year--meet with my editors, sign books, and listen. If I hear any good industry news, publishing tips, and whatnot, I'll report.

Jennifer
www.jennifersromances.com

On Professionalism

Someone on a yahoo group posted this link to a Writer's Digest article on professionalism, and I'm offering it lieu of a post.

I am working on a post about writers's block (which I suffered last year and am happily over--I want to share the misery and how I overcame it).

I'm also working on three books, two novellas, a proposal, and preparing for the RWA National conference in between various dr.'s appointments. Hence the blog has been a bit quiet.

Follow the link below to "Don't Be a Writing Diva." I especially like #11 and #18. #2 Send your book in before deadline---umm, I'll have to work on that one. :-)

http://writersdigest.com:80/article/dont-be-a-writing-diva/

BEA and things

Over the past weekend, I went to Los Angeles to Book Expo America.

What a reader's paradise! Books, books everywhere from almost every publisher you can name--booths had authors signing free copies or gave away samples and arcs. I had to mail a big box home with all the stuff I collected (I'm still waiting for UPS to deliver it).

I signed a large stack of arcs for my September release (Immortals: The Redeeming) and gave away many bookmarks and pens.

What is Book Expo America? And why do we care?

BEA is a trade show, the American equivalent of the London Book Fair and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Here publishers spread their wares and try to woo booksellers, distributors, libraries, and wholesalers to buy, buy, buy.

Many publishers simply had tables with catalogs where the publisher's sales reps could sit and chat with buyers. I saw much activity of this sort. In fact, when I approached the Penguin booth (I write for Berkley, one of their imprints), all the sales reps were engaged, so I didn't get a chance to introduce myself.

Another thing that happens at BEA and the other fairs is secondary rights sales. It's a place where publishers try to interest overseas publishers into buying foreign rights or interest tv/movie producers into offering options. This is why you want your publisher to go to BEA. :-)

(By the way, don't think you are ever too new or too unknown to get foreign rights sales or interest from tv/movie producers. It can happen to any author at any publisher at any time. This is why you need to know exactly who is getting what percentage of what rights in your first book contract. Which is why I'm always going on about needing agents.)

For me, the author, the fun was simply to see what publishers were up to (and get freebies). There were 37,000 attendees at the show, which took up two huge halls in the Los Angeles Convention center. The place teemed with people, and my feet ached from walking from one hall to the other.

A disappointment for me was that most publishers were ignoring their genre books in favor of pushing their big-name, hardback and mainstream authors. I am a huge genre fan--I read sf-fantasy, mystery, thriller, romance, and the like by the ton. If I have a choice between a Pulitzer winning, Oprah-sanctioned novel and a midlist science fiction, I'll go for the midlist sci-fi every time. I think there's a lot in genre novels that gets buried by all the glitter/glamour surrounding the mega-stars of mainstream.

So, I was disappointed that most of the big publishers completely ignored their top romance novelists, their top urban fantasy writers, and others who sell tons of books and make them gobs of money, in order to look serious and literary.

That's just my opinion. Ahem.

My other publisher, Dorchester, publishes nothing but genre novels, so I loved their booth (and it was quite popular, I might add). Dorchester publishes romance, thrillers, horror, and the Hard Case Crime imprint (and I think still westerns, but I'm not sure about that).

I have a pic of the wall of their booth, showing the books they were showcasing. (Can I be smug that one of them was mine? It's one of the red covers on the yellow background. Click the picture to look at a larger version)

Another disappointment was that I didn't get much industry buzz. Since the point was to push to buyers, of course no one was going to talk about what wasn't working any more.

What I gleaned just through observation was that many publishers are pushing children's books and YA (the third book of the Eragon series was prominently featured all over the place, and I do mean all over the place).

Romance still is selling well. Any publishers (like Harlequin and Dorchester) who were showcasing their romance writers had constant traffic at their booths. (I confess I have no idea how much of that was booksellers/book buyers vs. fans.)

Paranormal apparently is still strong. At the Dorchester booth, almost all the romances showcased were paranormal. The Penguin booth featured huge posters for Christine Feehan and L.K. Hamilton (yes, they're genre, but they're also big-name hardback sellers.)

I heard that far fewer booksellers and librarians attended this year as compared to last year. I think part of that was the location. Los Angeles is expensive and difficult to get to for east coast or midwest people. (I went only because California is a short flight for me.) L.A. is a royal pain to navigate as well.

If you are an unpublished author and decide to look in on BEA, don't go with the idea you'll be able to pitch a book. Most of the acquiring editors don't go. It's for the sales side of the house. However, it's a good place to look around, pick up the publishers' catalogs, and grab the books the publishers are giving away.

Why read those other authors' books? Because those authors are the ones the publishers are showing off--usually offering advance copies of books that will come out in the fall. It's a good way to know what kind of books and writing has the publishers excited.

In other words, they're not just giving away the books they have too many of. It's expensive for the publisher to produce advance reader copies for giveaway, expensive to ship them to the expo, expensive to get the author a badge so they can come in and sign--you get the idea. They bring in what they want the buyers to notice. Good market research.

I admit I was not pursuing as much market knowledge this trip as I could have been. Just walking from hall to hall was draining, I was looking for specific publishers and authors, and I was worried about not getting back to our booth in time for the signing. Plus I was only there Friday, so if anything exciting happened on Saturday I missed it.

Here we are, from right to left: C.L. Wilson, Gemma Holliday, and Jennifer Ashley

All in all, it was an interesting, upbeat, exciting experience, and I'd do it again. Though I'll bring a bigger bag next time.

Facing Rejection

Author Karen McCullough posted such a wonderful take on handling rejection (on the blog of author Marilu Mann) that I thought I'd link to it for my blog advice today:

http://marilumann.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-blog-karen-mccullough-on-handling.html

She's spelled it out very well.

I'm off to Book Expo America to see what's up and sign arcs of Immortals: The Redeeming. Take care,

Jennifer Ashley

Brenda Novak's Charity Auction

Each year Brenda Novak raises thousands of dollars for juvenile diabetes research, and receives donations from hundreds of authors, editors, and agents.

This year I dontated a big tote bag of goodies. Included in my giveaway are signed books, tea and coffee, kitchen goodies, pens, jewelry bags and other fun stuff, all in a Jennifer Ashley / Allyson James totebag.

Click here to view the item and bid. You can click the around the site to find many, many more items to bid on while you're there, including agent or editor manuscript evaluations.

Bidding ends May 31.

Jennifer Ashley
http://www.jennifersromances.com/

Reflections of a 5.5 - year career

November 2002 marked the anniversary of my first ever publication, a romance novel called Perils of the Heart published by Leisure Books. I was on top of the world, and at the same time terrified. I thought I knew so much, but when the first book hit the shelves, I realized I knew so little.

I thought I'd share some of what I've learned since then, listed in no particular order:

1. Getting a book published is only a step. If you want to make a career of writing, you have to make plans, work hard, lose sleep, get indigestion, and keep going.

2. Authors have little or no control over the following:

• Covers
• Type size and layout inside the book
• Back blurbs
• Book size (hardback, trade, or mass market)
• Print runs
• Bookseller orders
• Bookstore placement
• Book reorders and restocking
• Reviews
• Sales

3. What made some of my books sell well:

• Good cover
• Catchy title
• Catchy premise
• Part of a series
• Books published close together
• Publisher marketing to booksellers
• Popularity of previous books

4. What had little to do with book sales:

• Reviews (good or bad)
• Online rankings (Amazon; B&N)
• Some of my own marketing efforts
  

5. It's hard to believe you can get published when NY just isn't buying, when bookstores report declining sales, when everyone around you says it can't be done unless you sleep with two agents, an editor, and a sales director. THEY'RE WRONG. Keep trying.

6. What's in your heart and what publishers are buying may not be the same thing. The trick is to combine the two. (If what's in your heart is what's selling, then you've saved a step.)

7. Bad reviews don't mean bad sales. What drove the reviewer nuts might be the exact element that readers glom like there's no tomorrow.

8. Good reviews and nice awards don't necessarily mean good sales, either.

9. Patience is a must!! Things will not always happen to your time-table. Keep a relative time-table, but learn to be flexible.

10. You're not always in the spotlight. When you are, enjoy it, bow graciously, move back to the wings, and plan your next foray into the spotlight.

11. An agent is essential to moving beyond small press. You can get into a few NY houses without one, but you need one to move beyond their midlist.

12. Agents do much more than sell your book to a publisher. They do a bazillion things you never thought of to keep you happily published, paid, and have a chance at that spotlight.

13. Writers can make gobs of money or they can make next to nothing. Just a year can make a big difference either way.

14. The key to success is persistence and consistency. Keep writing, keep submitting, keep writing, keep submitting.

15. The publishing world is "not fair." Other authors will get the things you want (more publicity, a better contract, more money--or they'll get published and you won't). Likewise, you will get things that other authors want. New authors can explode into bestsellerdom while authors who have worked patiently for ten years still haven't reached it. That is the way of things.

16. Other authors will become some of the best friends you will ever have.

17. You will pick up strange enemies who think that if they can shoot you down, you'll fail and they'll step into your shoes. Ha ha ha ha ha. It doesn't work that way. (See the "not fair" point).

18. Making a bestseller list is more about mathematics than about the book itself. You not only need a great book but 1. large print run; 2. terrific distribution; 3. quickly filled orders and re-orders; and 4. good placement in the stores (this is paid for by the publishers). If you have a great book and not the other four, it will not hit a bestseller list. (This does not mean that it will not sell well, because word of mouth is very powerful.)

19. Publishing is the most illogical, old-fashioned, uncontrollable business you can ever get into. Don't expect it to make sense.

20. Some of your books will sell better than others (or some will be published, and some won't). Learn to enjoy the surprise of a good seller, let go of those that disappoint you.

21. Pick your battles. You won't and can't win them all. Go for the most important ones and let the little things go. On the other hand, don't let too many little things add up into one big nightmare.

22. Be courteous to everyone, not just the people you think will make you rich and famous. Treat everyone like they might make you rich and famous. You never know! (And it's just good manners.)

23. If you hate what's selling like hotcakes, don't force yourself to write it. The trend won't last forever, and you'll be miserable. Remember that after you sell the first book, your editor will expect your next one to be in the same vein. Keep an eye on the market, but don't be a slave to it.

24. Don't wait for "permission" to write. Explore, enjoy, learn, hone your skills, revel in the art, write what you want to.

25. Enjoy writing!! Why on earth should you be an author if you hate it? I still love to write. I just came off of heavy deadline stress and had free time (wow). What did I do? Wrote! I still do it for my own entertainment--I've just found a way to make money at it.

Please feel free to add to this list! What have you learned since starting to write with an eye toward publication?

All about Print Runs

I'm back!! The deadlines from hell are over!! (for now; they'll come back).

I've been pondering what to post on this blog, and many things have occurred to me such as:

Writer's Block
Professionalism
Thoughts on a five year career (which will be six-year by the time I get to this)
Print runs
Another rant about people who say there's no way you can get published in NY

So many topics, so little time.

I've decided I'll do this post on print runs, because it's a practial thing that every writer, sooner or later, needs to understand, plus I can write it in my sleep.

Even if you haven't been published yet, or think print runs/numbers are beyond your grasp, this is something you seriously need to know. (I'm talking about mass market, NY publishers in this post, btw.)

Once I understood print runs and percentages, my stress level went way down, because I can now predict how each of my books will do even before they hit the stands. No more biting my nails and glaring at the Amazon ranks wondering if I can lower them with the power of my eyeballs. (That doesn't work, btw.)

Oh, and I learned that Amazon rank is a piss-poor way of determining whether your sales are good or bad. B&N is a tiny bit better, but still not terrific. Those ranks are way off reality and don't reflect the percentage of your sellthrough, which is much more important. But I digress.

How print runs are determined:

Wait a minute, what on earth is a print run? you ask.

A print run, very simply, is the number of books the publisher prints of your novel right before it goes on sale.

More complicated:

Announced print run: Publishers "announce" print runs, usually for books they're very excited about and want to push. This happens before the book is offered to the distributors. These announced runs can look very good, but it is NOT the actual number of books they ulitmately print. I call it the "cheerleader's" print run (Give me a 2, give me an 0, give me an 0 -0 -0 -0).

Your book might acheive this print run, or it might not. Don't feel bad if it doesn't. No one is disapponted. Publishers announce a big print run to indicate enthusiam and support for a book they think will be big. It's meant to start everyone's engines.

Initial print run: This is more or less the number of books actually printed to be shipped to the distribution points and stores right before the release.

How is the initial print run determined? By the number of orders the publisher receives from distributors and booksellers.

About four-six months before release date, the publishers send their sales reps out to the distributors with a pile o' covers and data on their upcoming releases. The more excited the publisher is about the book the more incentives they will offer to the distributors and buyers.

Incentives can include coop (often offering the book to the distributors as a "buy one get one free"). They can include payment for placement at the front of stores, a "dump" (a single stand filled with one book), and other incentives I don't understand because they involve accounting.

The distributors will look at an author's sales history, how much incentive the publisher is willing to give, what the cover looks like, and other factors (like how well similar books are selling--this is why you see a slew of vampire books or whatever at the same time).

Yes, covers have to do with what distributors purchase, especially if it's a debut author with no sales history. That's because the books are being sold to the distributors/buyers sometimes before the manuscript is even finished, or it might be in the editing stages. These buyers don't even read the book--all they see is the cover and the sales line. (Scary, no? I guarantee you that so far the better my cover, the better my sales).

So--the publisher takes the total number of orders they receive (or promises of orders or whatever), and go back home and determine the print run. They'll print that many plus a little bit more to cover the re-orders. This is your initial print run.

A couple of weeks before release date, the books are shipped out to the distributors, etc. This is called the initial ship.

The number of books initially shipped will probably be a little less than your total print run. Or it could be the whole run

OR, even better, there could be more demand than anticipated and suddenly the print run is completely depleted by orders. This can happen before the book is even released or the same week, or a week after.

This is called selling out the print run, and from here you can go to a second or even third and fourth printing.

Selling out your print run does NOT mean you sold all those books (I wish). It means all those books were ordered by the bookstores/distributors, and the publisher's warehouse has run out. The publisher now needs to print more to fulfill the orders. (The print run can sell out, but the books can be stacked in the back of a store or sit three months at a wholesaler's warehouse unsold. You just don't know.)

Also, a publisher might decide to let the book go out of print and not print any more, for reasons known only to the universe and the accounting and sales departments.

However, quickly selling out a run is a good sign that your book is selling swiftly in the stores and the stores want to reorder to fulfill customer demand.

If the print run doesn't sell out right away, it's not a bad thing either. It means the publisher guessed right.

I've had books go to third printing within weeks; I've had them go to second printing after a couple of months. My early books weren't reprinted until after a couple of years, LOL.

You can guess, from your initial print run, about how many books you'll sell. The average overall sale of mass market paperbacks is 50% of the books printed and shipped. So if my print run is 70,000, I can expect that at least 35,000 will sell. At least. It could be more (which is good). It could be less (not as good). I'm pleased to say that so far (knock heavily on wood), my percentage has been more than the average 50%.

(An aside: It's 50% in romance. I hear that it's less in other genres--I don't know if that's right so someone correct me if so.)

BTW, hardback sellthrough needs to be better, like 70%, trade paperback also 70%.

Do we as authors have any control over the initial print run?

Not really. Especially not if you're brand new or in the midlist.

Your print run will also reflect where you are on the publisher's list:

A-level authors are the leads. They will get the most sales incentives and the biggest push. The most money will be spent on them. (I won't say they get the best covers because I've seen lead authors get putrid covers.) The publisher will print advanced review copies (arcs) for them and spend the most money and time on advertising and marketing. Publishers are looking for big print runs for these people.

Why? Because these authors either have a good history of big sales or they have such a fantastic debut novel that the publisher is willing to back them. The publisher feels that with these authors, they'll get their money back.

(Although--I hear many tales of the big, big, big authors getting such high advances and such unbelievable marketing push that publishers actually lose money on them. Loss leaders, I guess.)

Try this: Think of a genre, and think of the authors that spring immediately to mind. Think of authors who are household names, or the ones you see the most often in the grocery stores or airports. Those are A-level authors, the ones every budding novelist aspires to be.

B-level authors are often called the 2nd leads. They get more push than the lower midlist, but often not as much money/incentives as the A levels. However, these authors can do very well and get solid sales and pretty good print runs. B-level authors can often make bestseller lists (which you need a good print run to do).

C and D level authors are the midlist authors. C's probably get a little more push than D's. These books can sell solidly, and are kind of "bread-and-butter" books. Many authors are started here when the publisher simply wants to see how they do. (This is where I started, btw!)

Another point I want to make about print runs is this: That the success of your book is pretty much determined four to six months before readers even see it.

That's not to say the book can't do surprisingly well, or that your efforts marketing to readers is completely useless.

But realistically, most books are sold by word or mouth and by impulse buy. That's why we all want our publishers to get those front-of-store or end-of-shelf spaces at the bookstores and mass retailers.

So what can we as authors do to get a big print run and front of store placement??

Here's the answer (deep breath):

WRITE A DAMN GOOD BOOK!

(Caveat: A damn good book that has wide appeal.)

Have a catchy premise.

Write characters that spring off the page and people can fall in love with (or at least find so interesting they have to come back to them again and again).

Write solid stories without plot holes or too much meandering or dead wood.

Write strong dialog between your characters and keep the most interesting characters on your pages at all times.

Develop a strong, full, interesting voice. (Please don't ask me how!! I dunno, except practice, practice, practice.)

A damn good novel is no guaratee you'll be put at the top of the list, get huge advances, and a huge print run. Publishers and distributors can guess wrong

But if readers think it's a damn good book, you're off in the right direction.

I hope you find this information helpful, and as always, please correct me where I'm wrong. I want to learn too (although I reserve the right to argue).

Catch Up

I know I haven't posted in an age, but I'm caught on a deadline. When I turn in my ms. this week, I'm going to be playing catch up on a lot of things (like the laundry, LOL!)

I am musing on posts on professionalism (which I had planned to do before my conference but oh well), conferences, reviews, and still what I've learned in the first five years of my career.

I'll get back to everyone when I've caught up with myself. Back to writing!!

How to Find an Agent that's Right for You

Ok, enough motivational and creativity talk. I want to address a very important practicality in the writing business--how to find an agent.

To answer the question "Do I Need an Agent?" see my post: Why You Need an Agent

I strongly suggest you do find one--if you want to be a top author in your genre, see your mass markets in Walmart with your name in big shiny letters and have a shot at NY Times. Without an agent, you can still get published, but it's likely you'll stay midlist, if you even stay published beyond a couple of books.

Lecture over. So how do you find this stellar, godlike being who will take your career from nothing to mega-stardom?

You write the best book you can write.

You research.

You pitch or query.

You take a chance.

RESEARCH

1. The top questions to ask yourself are:

• What genre do you write?


• What agents represent my genre?


• Of those agents, which have clients who write things similiar to what I write?


• Does this agent have a good track record of recent sales?


• Is the agent small and independent or work for a large agency? (There are advantages and disadvantages to both--another post)


• Does the agent land good deals for at least some of his/her clients?

(Note: I won't even put in the question: Does the agent charge a reading fee? because that's an automatic disqualifier. Never send to an agent who charges a reading fee. Never, ever, ever. Ever.)

2. Go Hunting.

• Read Guides to finding an agent, such as: Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors, & Literary Agents (This is the best, most up-to-date guide. Amazon has it at a good price, but most libraries carry it as well).


• Check sources such as Predators and Editors: http://www.anotherealm.com/prededitors/pubagent.htm where complaints can be lodged against fraudulent agents. Look for agents with "$" after their names, which means there is a record of them making sales to legitimate publishers.


• The Association of Author Representatives lists agents who fit their criteria (no reading fees, and the standard 15% of royalties after they sell you, among other things.)


• Double-check anything you find in a print or online guide against the agent's own website (if he/she has one) or by asking his/her clients. The very nature of print guides ensures that the info. is out of date as soon as they hit print, but they are excellent places to start.
• Reading an agent's blog is a good way to figure out what kind of books they like and are having the most success with.


• Make sure the agent charges the standard fee after they sell you of 15% of your royalties.

3. Make lists

• List agents who represent books in your genre, who have made sales for authors at legitimate publishing companies (not vanity presses), and who you think you'd like to work with.


• List your "dream" agents as well as agents you might not have known about who on paper fit your criteria.


• List what conferences your agents will be attending and see if it is convenient and cost effective for you to meet them there.

Now you can go two ways: 4. Send out queries; 5. Pitch at conferences. Most people do both.

QUERIES and PITCHES

4. Send out queries

• Learn how to write a good query letter. There are plenty of books out there to teach you, or see my guide to writing queries.


• Send out query letters five to ten at a time. (A tip from my own agent--don't make it obvious that you're doing a mass mailing. An agent likes to be approached as though you put a lot of thought into seeking her out because you thought she would be a good match for you. EVERY agent in your list should be someone you think would be a good match, or you shouldn't be querying them. Do take the time to make the letters a little personal.)


• When a query comes back with a rejection, file it and send the next letter to the next person on the list.


• When a query comes back with a request for a partial, send a well proofread synopsis and first three chapters (or whatever they ask for) with a SASE--right away!


• When a query comes with a request for a full, print your ms. (if they don't ask you to email it), put it in a tyvek priority mail pouch or box and send it. I say priority mail, because it's worth the $15 it will cost to get it to the agent quickly and efficiently. Buy delivery confirmation to calm your nerves about whether it got there. That $15 is a write-off anyway. If you feel like throwing more money around, send it Fedex.


• When a query comes with a request for a full ms. with an exclusive--go ahead and give the agent an exclusive--with a time limit! 60 to 90 days is reasonable. If they're that excited, they should be reading it quickly anyway, and we're all aging.


• When an agent calls you to offer you a contract, be careful. Ask to look over the contract before you make any promises or sign anything. (Feel free to jump up and down and scream in excitement as well.)

5. Pitches at conferences

• You get six to ten minutes to pitch your book at a typical agent appointment. A pitch is your verbal query letter.


• Don't waste any time! Hone your pitch to a few sentences.


• Print those few sentences on a notecard (with the title and your name and contact info), and give it to the agent when you're done. You can give him a nice business card too, but it's not mandatory. (Or you can give him a business card with the name of your book and a sentence about it on the back.)


• Don't use the entire pitch time to pitch. Pitch fast, then ask the agent if he/she has any questions about the book.


• Ask the agent questions. After all, she will be working for you! Some suggested questions: Why did he/she become an agent? What authors does she represent? (If she represents big names, she'll be proud to tell you.) What kind of things does he read for pleasure? What book has he sold that he's excited about?


• When the agent asks for a partial or full, follow the steps under query letter above.

TAKE A CHANCE

An agent has called you to say that he loves your four-book magical turtles fantasy series, and wants to represent you. What now?

1. Look over the contract carefully. What kind of fees is your agent expecting? I reiterate that 15% is standard. They might charge 20% for foreign rights sales, which is ok. Ok also if they charge small office fees like copying and mailing. (My agent does this, and so far it's been a negligible sum, which I take as a tax deduction anyway.)

2. Sign the contract and see what happens.

Unfortunately the last part is what you have to do. If you found an agent that's a good fit for you, he/she will be out there pitching your manuscript to the editors he knows are looking for what you write.

Note that the agent selling you might take a while!!! I hear authors complain that they finally found an agent, but he hasn't sold anything. I ask them how long they've had said agent and they say: "Two weeks."

And I politely try not to laugh (or sometimes I just laugh anyway, depending on who it is).

It might take your agent a year to sell the book. That's ok--if they are genuinely trying.

What you DON'T want is an agent who sits on your book and never sends it out. If they have an editor in mind that it's perfect for, and he/she knows that editor is closed to submissions for six months, she might wait for something like that. And that's fine.

But an agent with no strategy and no enthusiasm for your work is worse than no agent at all.

How do you know before you sign with them?

• You talk to their clients. Most authors are willing to say whether they like their agent or not. Talk to a range, though, so you don't just get that one sour grapes author who couldn't get along with the agent. Hear tales of good and bad.


• Sometimes you just don't know, and you have to take a chance. It's like marriage.

When do you know when you should break up with your agent?

• If your agent has not been sending out your work, or sending it out half-heartedly and making noises that she doesn't think it will sell at all.


• If your agent doesn't sell the first ms. and makes no indication she wants another, or won't work with you to make your mss. more sellable.


• If your agent won't return your phone calls for a month or more. (A few days is ok if it's not an emergency. When I have an emergency, my agent is back to me within hours.)


• If the agent has sold some things for you, but is unwilling to help you grow or unwiling to help you change direction.

How do you break up with an agent?

• In writing. Write a formal, professional letter (no venting), telling your agent you need to terminate your agreement and find other representation. You can give a time limit (e.g., "our agreement is terminated thirty days from the date of this letter.")


• Depending on your contract, it's common for your agent to retain the selling rights to everything you've given her up to this point. Even if you move to another agent, your first agent still gets to try to sell what she has and take her 15% from your sales. Plus she retains 15% from what mss. she's already sold.


• Pitch a new book to the new agent you have in mind. The new agent will not want anything that another agent can dispute is hers to sell.

Breaking up is hard to do.

This business, unfortunately is a lot about learning to let go. You will have to fight many battles as a published author--pick ones that are most important.

We love our work and are emotionally attached to it. Leaving a precious book with an agent who didn't do much for it is hard, but it's the way it is.

Write something even better and pitch to an agent more enthusiastic about you.

Please don't think it's always bad news. The majority of authors I know, and the most successful ones, have agents they have been with for years, agents who have seen them grow from midlist nobodies to mega-stars.

Your agent can be your best friend in a business that is hard and often unfair. Again see my earlier post (Why You Need an Agent), and also my list of what a good agent does.

One last thing. When I looked up Jeff Herman's book, I saw a post by an author who basically said that there is no chance an agent will read anything by an unknown and unproven author.

That is simply not true.

As I've said elsewhere, I was an unpublished nobody when I started, and I knew no one. I found an agent who took a chance on me, and sold the book I pitched to him nine months later. He got me a three-book contract with that ms., and the next month got me a second three-book contract in a different genre.

I was lucky, true. But I also made my luck.

I had been burned by a beginning agent who really didn't know how to sell mss., and I had to write the termination letter. I researched more carefully the second time around! Also, I worked very hard on the books I pitched to my second agent, and made them as well crafted and marketable as I possibly could. No, I didn't leap to instant stardom with them, but they pushed my career off to a good start and I never looked back. (They were, if interested The Hanover Square Affair and The Pirate Next Door.)

One truly final thing to leave you with. I decided to sign with the second agent because he was:

1. looking for books in my genre (in this case, mystery).


2. a fairly new agent looking to build a client list.


3. an editor for about 20 years at top publishers (HarperCollins, Crown, and others).


4. based in New York City (this isn't strictly necessary for everyone, but that's what I wanted).


5. showed genuine interest in the Hanover Square Affair and had ideas about where it might sell and to whom.


6. didn't charge a reading fee and had a reasonable contract.


7. responded to me within a reasonable amount of time (I pitched in December, we had a signed contract by April).

I hope this is helpful! This is as always, what worked best for me, plus what I've gleaned talking to editors and agents and authors.