This may be cheating, but I found this absolute wonderful post by Alan Rinzler, thanks to a tweet from Wordhustler. Basically, it espouses on the many opportunities out there for short story writers. Check it out:
http://www.alanrinzler.com/blog/2009/10/12/why-book-publishers-love-short-stories/
Showing posts with label writing difficulty publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing difficulty publishing. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Magic Number Theory of Querying
One more post about queries and then, I promise, I'll move on. I stole this from someone and can no longer remember who, but if someone wants to take credit, I'll gladly give it. Any if someone else can state it better, that would be good, too. This is a little long winded.
First, I'm assuming your project is as good as you can make it. It's as good or better than what's on the market and it's ready to be published. I'm also assuming you want to be published by a major house and, to do that, you need an agent. And you're sending out queries and collecting rejections and wondering if you'll EVER reach your goal.
As a querying writer you have your own, individual magic number. You don't know what it is, but it is written in stone somewhere. It's the number of queries you must send out before you land that elusive agent, the one who "falls in love" with your work and then manages to get it sold for you. An agent who can't sell your work, necessitating getting another agent, is a pre-agent, and doesn't count. Only your "real" agent, the one who sells for you. When you send out the query with the magic number on it, you're set, done, reached your goal. (Until you go on to the rest of the stuff, which is just as hard, only different.)
The beauty of this theory is that you can regard each rejection as a step closer to your magic number. Another rejection? Okay, the magic number wasn't 17. A few more? Okay, it wasn't 28, or 52, or 77, or maybe not even 110. Each rejection is PROGRESS. You're getting closer to your magic number.
You may lose patience and try other routes. It may even help to get the big agent and the big publishing house if you publish something with a good small press. (Publishing with a vanity press won't help unless that's your final goal.)
Another writer, Lina Zeldovich, has a similar theory she calls Stairway to Heaven. Every rejection letter builds her stairway and gets her closer.
Either way, don't view rejection letters as marks of failure, but rather as marks of success.
I just hope my magic number isn't ten thousand.
First, I'm assuming your project is as good as you can make it. It's as good or better than what's on the market and it's ready to be published. I'm also assuming you want to be published by a major house and, to do that, you need an agent. And you're sending out queries and collecting rejections and wondering if you'll EVER reach your goal.
As a querying writer you have your own, individual magic number. You don't know what it is, but it is written in stone somewhere. It's the number of queries you must send out before you land that elusive agent, the one who "falls in love" with your work and then manages to get it sold for you. An agent who can't sell your work, necessitating getting another agent, is a pre-agent, and doesn't count. Only your "real" agent, the one who sells for you. When you send out the query with the magic number on it, you're set, done, reached your goal. (Until you go on to the rest of the stuff, which is just as hard, only different.)
The beauty of this theory is that you can regard each rejection as a step closer to your magic number. Another rejection? Okay, the magic number wasn't 17. A few more? Okay, it wasn't 28, or 52, or 77, or maybe not even 110. Each rejection is PROGRESS. You're getting closer to your magic number.
You may lose patience and try other routes. It may even help to get the big agent and the big publishing house if you publish something with a good small press. (Publishing with a vanity press won't help unless that's your final goal.)
Another writer, Lina Zeldovich, has a similar theory she calls Stairway to Heaven. Every rejection letter builds her stairway and gets her closer.
Either way, don't view rejection letters as marks of failure, but rather as marks of success.
I just hope my magic number isn't ten thousand.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The Real Story
I was asked recently for some help. The woman who asked, I'll call her Hildegarde, wants to write a book. She's decided she needs to tell the story of her brother, who, she suspects was connected with some sort of mafia and was probably killed by them. From what Hildy said, he did die of poison and might have been murdered. She only has sketchy ideas of what happened, though.
I asked her what she considered doing with the book after she'd written it, thinking I could steer her to self-publication and that would make her happy. The woman is in her 70s and has never written anything!
Hildegarde said she wants to get her brother's story out there, but doesn't want to give it to just any publisher, to someone who might twist her words around. There was also an offer to split the profits fifty-fifty.
Much as I hated to do it, I had to let her know that publishers were not going to line up to publish the biography. That it would be a difficult and lengthy process to find anyone to do it. And those profits? I let her know that a typical mystery author who gets a three book deal with a major NY publishing house will receive a whopping $5000 or so right off the bat. A little more a year or so later. Royalties if the stars align and you market the heck out of it.
Two facts that so many non-writers are so unaware of: (1) It's not easy to get a book published. (2) You won't get rich even if you should succeed, unless some very rare and unusual things happen for you.
She still wants to go ahead with it. I asked her how much she had done. She has 3 or 4 pages written. We'll see!
I asked her what she considered doing with the book after she'd written it, thinking I could steer her to self-publication and that would make her happy. The woman is in her 70s and has never written anything!
Hildegarde said she wants to get her brother's story out there, but doesn't want to give it to just any publisher, to someone who might twist her words around. There was also an offer to split the profits fifty-fifty.
Much as I hated to do it, I had to let her know that publishers were not going to line up to publish the biography. That it would be a difficult and lengthy process to find anyone to do it. And those profits? I let her know that a typical mystery author who gets a three book deal with a major NY publishing house will receive a whopping $5000 or so right off the bat. A little more a year or so later. Royalties if the stars align and you market the heck out of it.
Two facts that so many non-writers are so unaware of: (1) It's not easy to get a book published. (2) You won't get rich even if you should succeed, unless some very rare and unusual things happen for you.
She still wants to go ahead with it. I asked her how much she had done. She has 3 or 4 pages written. We'll see!
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