Getting Serious About Getting Published - #2
Sorry to be off the radar for so long. Things got a smidge busy, ya know?
So, Merry Ho-Ho and a Happy New Year and all that cheerful stuff. Santa was good to me, despite the crappy economy. Hope he (or whomever or whatever) did the same for you. Personally, I think my dogs got more goodies than anyone in the city combined but that's only partially my fault.
All right. That agent I was telling you about? Speedy Gonzales? Well, she did indeed get back to me in two weeks with or without that pesky food gorging holiday being stuck in there. Of course it was a rejection, but it was personal, she was very nice and it was dang fast. Sigh.
Having gone through this before (ahem, perhaps more than once), I was prepared - sort of. I whined for a few minutes then popped her back an e-mail asking if, since that historical didn't pop her cork, she'd be willing to look at one of my contemporaries.
Zap - next day (a Saturday, even!) she sent me the green light to submit again. Are you taking notes? If you have a toe in the door, you should be ready to wiggle another one in there. Yes, you risk having the door slammed and loosing a couple digits versus one but you also build on the opportunity to have a whole appendage wedged in there. (Why do my feet suddenly hurt?)
I been told by many publishing savvy professionals that the best thing you can do for yourself when you start submitting is to have something else ready to send out if you get a "that's nice but not for me" type rejection. So, that's exactly what I did.
First, I realized that the strongest piece I had to offer was not yet finished. Normally a BIG NO-NO to submit a work not finished and previously I would not have even considered it. But since I had the advantage of knowing I could complete a manuscript in a relatively short period of time, and had done so numerous times, I decided to contemplate it. Next, I contacted one of her published clients and asked for her thoughts. Did she think her agent would be potentially receptive or was this a total shut-down issue to her? Each agent and editor operates differently. Some refuse to even waste a moment on an incomplete work (fiction, that is - non-fiction can sell based solely upon a proposal or premise) while I personally know of a few new fiction authors who sold based on a partial work. Once you are established in fiction, have shown editors you produce by deadline, can handle copy edits in a timely fashion and without too much foot stomping, and can complete more than the one-book-of-your-heart type thing, then the field opens a bit and you can sell on premise - sometimes.
I then also contacted several experienced writer friends to ask their thoughts and received some well thought out advice to go for it since the premise was the most marketable piece I currently had. And after they did a critique of the proposal (synopsis and first three chapters), they concurred that it was a commercially viable product and very polished.
Whew!
So, after waiting for several days, I sent the proposal off to her. And it's now been two weeks but that includes the little jingle-bell holiday and since tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I'm really not expecting to hear anything back until mid-January, if that soon. The woman deserves a break - not to mention the entire publishing industry pretty much shuts down for the Holidays.
Have a cup of grog (whatever that is - I just hope there's alcohol in it with that name), burn a yule tide log if you got a humongous fireplace (think Windsor Palace), set off some fireworks and have a Happy New Year.
Cheers!
So, Merry Ho-Ho and a Happy New Year and all that cheerful stuff. Santa was good to me, despite the crappy economy. Hope he (or whomever or whatever) did the same for you. Personally, I think my dogs got more goodies than anyone in the city combined but that's only partially my fault.
All right. That agent I was telling you about? Speedy Gonzales? Well, she did indeed get back to me in two weeks with or without that pesky food gorging holiday being stuck in there. Of course it was a rejection, but it was personal, she was very nice and it was dang fast. Sigh.
Having gone through this before (ahem, perhaps more than once), I was prepared - sort of. I whined for a few minutes then popped her back an e-mail asking if, since that historical didn't pop her cork, she'd be willing to look at one of my contemporaries.
Zap - next day (a Saturday, even!) she sent me the green light to submit again. Are you taking notes? If you have a toe in the door, you should be ready to wiggle another one in there. Yes, you risk having the door slammed and loosing a couple digits versus one but you also build on the opportunity to have a whole appendage wedged in there. (Why do my feet suddenly hurt?)
I been told by many publishing savvy professionals that the best thing you can do for yourself when you start submitting is to have something else ready to send out if you get a "that's nice but not for me" type rejection. So, that's exactly what I did.
First, I realized that the strongest piece I had to offer was not yet finished. Normally a BIG NO-NO to submit a work not finished and previously I would not have even considered it. But since I had the advantage of knowing I could complete a manuscript in a relatively short period of time, and had done so numerous times, I decided to contemplate it. Next, I contacted one of her published clients and asked for her thoughts. Did she think her agent would be potentially receptive or was this a total shut-down issue to her? Each agent and editor operates differently. Some refuse to even waste a moment on an incomplete work (fiction, that is - non-fiction can sell based solely upon a proposal or premise) while I personally know of a few new fiction authors who sold based on a partial work. Once you are established in fiction, have shown editors you produce by deadline, can handle copy edits in a timely fashion and without too much foot stomping, and can complete more than the one-book-of-your-heart type thing, then the field opens a bit and you can sell on premise - sometimes.
I then also contacted several experienced writer friends to ask their thoughts and received some well thought out advice to go for it since the premise was the most marketable piece I currently had. And after they did a critique of the proposal (synopsis and first three chapters), they concurred that it was a commercially viable product and very polished.
Whew!
So, after waiting for several days, I sent the proposal off to her. And it's now been two weeks but that includes the little jingle-bell holiday and since tomorrow is New Year's Eve, I'm really not expecting to hear anything back until mid-January, if that soon. The woman deserves a break - not to mention the entire publishing industry pretty much shuts down for the Holidays.
Have a cup of grog (whatever that is - I just hope there's alcohol in it with that name), burn a yule tide log if you got a humongous fireplace (think Windsor Palace), set off some fireworks and have a Happy New Year.
Cheers!
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