Guest Blogger: Jamie Wyman and What Have We Learned From This?

Today's guest blogger is the very talented Jamie Wyman. Her blog topic touches on something we all strive for as writers: getting an agent. But what happens when you get one and then things don't work out? Read on!

What Have We Learned From This?

When I was a kid, my parents let me make my own mistakes. If I fell or got hurt by people I'd chosen as friends or got a bad grade due to procrastination... they let me fail and helped me with the fallout. Each time, though, the question was asked, "What have you learned from this?" Even in college when I got my first speeding ticket, Dad asked me the same question. Last week, he asked me again when I told him of my latest foray into "failure".

First of all, I have to say a few things: This post will NOT name names and it will not be a bitch fest. Also, I have to thank Candace Ganger for posting about her own experience. Seeing someone else go public with such grace gave me some strength.

So, the story...

Back in October I queried some agents and a publisher. By the end of the month, I'd signed a contract with an interested agent. I'd done my research, I'd found a few entries in Writer Beware/Preditors and Editors about the agency, but those were for years ago and for people who'd been rejected. All of the first-hand info I got from other authors about the agent and agency said that I would be safe, that this was what I wanted. The high of getting the offer for representation was loud enough that I couldn't hear that Voice In My Head that says, "Dude, bad juju". My gut told me to wait, but I didn't. (Mistake #1.) I signed with her and she told me to keep quiet about it. Don't announce publicly until after we're on submission.

My gut tweaked on that.

Aren't you proud of me? Why can't I announce it? But, being new at this, I figured there was some publishing industry nuance I was missing, so I ignored the gut, complied and went about my merry revisions.

In December of last year, I asked the agent if we were ready to go on submission. She said we were and that I could announce. She sent me the list of our first round of submissions including one or two of my dream editors. I announced it on this blog and elsewhere.

With holidays approaching, I knew that I wouldn't hear anything for a while. So in early February, I contacted the agent and asked if there was news. Yeah, we'd gotten a cold call on the manuscript and a new publisher was looking. That same week, I got an email from the Publisher I Queried (PIQ) in October. They liked the book and wanted to shoot it up to higher editing staff for review, but they'd done their homework and saw that I was agented. So I hooked up my agent and PIQ and agent said the revised manuscript had been sent to them.

Then something happened. Communication completely broke down. She ignored my emails, my phone calls. Everything. She dropped off the face of the planet for more than a month. Just when I was starting to ponder terminating my contract, she called with some news and direction. She wanted a new revision to take into account some editors' notes and do a new submission round. She said she needed them in less than 7 days so she could have it for an event she was attending. I worked my fingers off and had them to her in 3. When I asked her for an update 2 weeks later, she said she was just getting through the revisions. *eyebrow quirk*

I started lining up my ducks and weighing the pros and cons of terminating a contract while on submission.

After another month of ignored emails and phone calls, the agent quit without notice. I found out because she changed her employment on her Facebook. That's right. Facebook. No notice. No nothing. I have since reached out to her to ask what happened but she hasn't responded. (Go figure.) Totally unprofessional. After being a bouncing ball of rage for a bit, I set to cleaning up the mess she'd left behind.

First, I terminated my contract. Done. Then, at the advice of a publishing professional (not within the agency), I began withdrawing my submissions. I also contacted the PIQ to see what my rights were since I'd initiated contact with them pre-agent. In that conversation, I discovered that my former agent never sent them the manuscript. In fact, they'd wondered why I'd just dropped off the radar. Other publishers began replying to my withdrawal notices saying they'd never heard of me, my manuscript or received anything from the agent. In fact, one of them had been closed to submissions for more than a year!

After more digging, it has become clear. My manuscript never went on submission at all. I don't know what she was doing with my work for 8 months, but it was not agenting. That scares me. What if my work is being stolen and there's nothing I can do to prevent it? I can react if I find plagiarism, but can't outright prevent it at this point. Guh...worrying won't help. It's not productive and it's a waste of good imagination.

The good news: In the past few days I've found out that I have several people willing to help and go to bat for me. Bad things happen to talented, good people, but there are people out there who will help you clean up the mess if you ASK. FOR. HELP. I've already got a future for this manuscript. A better one. Only good things can come from this experience.

So, what have we learned from this. Above all else: LISTEN TO YOUR GUT. I had reservations throughout the past 8 months and didn't listen. I made excuses for her...she's busy, I'm new, I just don't know how this really works...I rationalized those tweaks that said, "Something's wrong here." You can't do that. You have to be your own advocate and listen to that voice in your head. Also, put your pride aside and ask for help. Seriously, if I hadn't I'd just be flailing in the dark right now.

So yeah...I know I've been cryptic about this situation the past week. My agent lied and never submitted my manuscript. She left the agency without notice. Again, not naming names. However, I have written to Writer Beware on the matter.

Learn from my mistakes, kids.

Onward and upward into the bright future.

Ms. Wyman is a pre-published author back in the agent hunt. In May of 2011 eBookNewser included her in their list of "Best Online Fiction Authors" and featured one of her flash fiction pieces. You can learn more about this talented author at her blog: jamiewyman.blogspot.com

Kaye George Does It Again--Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel!

This is not Kaye George.
It's Agatha Christie.

Shhh....Do you hear that? It's a twinkly, sort of sparkle like sound...the sound of GREATNESS!

That's right. We are in the presence of pure genius in the form of Kaye George. Not only is she a proud contributor to All Things Writing, but she has one again achieved Bad Ass status by being nominated for another Agatha Award. Yes. Another one. But this time it's for Best First Novel 2011 for her fabulous book, Choke.

So what is an Agatha, you ask?

The Agatha Awards, named for British mystery novelist Agatha Christie, are given each year at the Malice Domestic® mystery convention. Five writers are nominated in each category: Best Novel, Best First Novel, Best Non-fiction (related to mystery), Best Short Story, Best Children's/Young Adult, and a new category this year, Best Historical Novel. The Award in each category is bestowed at the banquet during the convention, held this year April 27-29. To learn more about Malice Domestic click here: Malice Domestic Kaye was previously nominated in the Best Short Story category in 2010.

How cool is that?

If you haven't noticed, there is a link to the right of this page where you can purchase a copy of Choke or learn more about Kaye. Here's a brief blurb of the book:

Choke is set in a fictionalized Wichita Falls area. Twenty-two-year-old Imogene Duckworthy is waiting tables at Huey's Hash in tiny Saltlick, TX, itching to jump out of her rut and become a detective. When Uncle Huey is found murdered in the diner, a half-frozen package of mesquite-smoked sausage stuffed down his throat, Immy gets her chance. Immy's mother, Hortense is hauled in for the crime. Unclear of the exact duties of a PI, Immy starts a fire in the bathroom wastebasket to bust Mother out of jail. On the run from the law with her mother and her toddler daughter, Nancy Drew Duckworthy, Immy wonders, now what?

If you'd like to meet Kaye George or the rest of the gang from All Things Writing, we will be at the Book Spot in Round Rock from 2-4pm this Saturday, Feb. 25. You can purchase a copy of Choke, The Zombie Monologues or our anthology, All Things Dark and Dastardly! Or just drop by to hear us discuss all things writing and congratulate Kaye!

Washington's Birthday and the Book Spot

Happy Washington's Birthday! When I was a child, long, long ago, there were two presidential holidays in February. We celebrated Lincoln's birthday on the 12th (but didn't get a day off from school) and Washington's on the 22nd. Then things got complicated. A day was invented, between the two, that we called Presidents' Day. It was the third Monday in February. Somehow, that became officially known as Washington's Birthday, even though it's not, and Lincoln got lost in the shuffle. Now, neither Washington's nor Lincoln's actual birthday is celebrated. If there's ever a Kaye George Day, I would like it to be on March 3rd, no matter what day of the week it is, please.

The Book Spot! We writers at All Things Writing are celebrating an entirely different day, February 25th. It's Book Spot Day! All three of us will be presenting a panel and signing at  http://www.juliesbookspot.com/p/author-signings.html  from 2-4 pm. We'll talk about how we put the anthology together, and insights into our own writing. We're three writers with three distinctly different styles, so this should be be lively and interesting. If you're anywhere near the Austin, Round Rock area, please drop in. Our novels and our anthology will be available for purchase and signing. We love to meet readers!

Creative Commons--Guest Blogger James Hutchings

Welcome to this week's guest blogger, James Hutchings! This article is a must read for worried authors! 

Many writers, whether published or just starting out, are very nervous that someone else will steal their work, whether that be another writer using their ideas in their own stories, or someone making pirated copies of their books. When I put out a collection of my writing, I specifically gave permission for anyone at all to copy my ideas, or even to cut and paste whole stories. I also contacted the Pirate Party, a worldwide network that wants to lessen copyright, and told them that I was giving anyone permission to put my ebook on file-sharing sites. In this post I hope to show why I went against common wisdom.

Creative Commons

I used a free service called Creative Commons. Creative Commons is useful for people who want to give the general public permission to use their work, but with restrictions. In my case I didn't mind people using my work for non-profit purposes, such as posting on a blog, but I didn't want to allow anyone to make money off it. Similarly I wanted anyone who used it to give me credit. I could have just listed these things myself. However I'm not a lawyer, and perhaps I would have worded it wrong so that someone could twist what I said to do more than I meant. Also I could have been unclear about what I was allowing and what I wasn't allowing. Sure, someone could email me and ask, but the whole purpose of having a written statement is so that people don't have to ask.

Creative Commons has a series of different licenses, which give permission to do different things. They're all legally 'tight', and they're all summarized in plain language. So all you have to do is go to their site and answer a series of questions, to get to the license that does what you want. In my case I used the Attribution Non-Commercial License.

Why?

That's what I did. But why? Common sense would suggest that I'm giving something away for free that I could be selling. However I believe that, in the long run, I'll be better off. The main reason is that I've seen how many people are, like me, trying to get their writing out there. Go to Smashwords and have a look at the latest ebooks. Then refresh the page ten minutes later, and you'll probably see a whole new lot. The problem that new writers face isn't that people want to steal your work; it's getting anyone to show an interest in your work at all. If someone passes on a pirated copy of my work, it might get to someone who's prepared to buy it - and that someone would probably have never heard of me otherwise. Even if they don't want to pay for what they read, I might come out with something else in the future, and perhaps paying 99c for it will be easier than hunting it down on a file-sharing site.

Science fiction writer Andrew Burt tells the story of someone who disliked his book, and to get back at him decided to put a copy on a file-sharing site. The effect was that he got a small 'spike' in sales immediately afterwards.

I also have some less selfish motives. Many people would assume that the purpose of copyright is to protect authors and creators. Leaving aside the fact that someone else often ends up with the rights (how many Disney shareholders created any of the Disney characters? How many shareholders in Microsoft have ever written a line of code?), that doesn't seem to have been the intention in the past. The US Constitution says that Congress has the power "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Note that protecting 'intellectual property' isn't mentioned. The authors of the Constitution seemed to see the point as getting ideas out there where people can use them: almost the exact opposite of keeping them 'safe' and 'protected'.

The original idea of copyright seems to have been a sort of deal: you have an idea, and we want you to get it out into the world where it will do some good. To encourage you to do that, we'll give you a monopoly on its use for a limited time. After that, anybody can use it (it will enter the 'public domain').

A lot of people don't know that copyright used to give a lot less protection than it does now, especially in the United States. In the US, it used to be that works were copyrighted for a maximum of 56 years. Today copyright in the US can last for over 100 years. In fact Congress keeps extending the time. In practice, they're acting as if they never want ideas to go into the public domain.

This is great for the owners of 'intellectual property'. But it's hard to see how this "promotes the Progress of Science and useful Arts," or how forever is a "limited time." In a sense it's a theft from the public. Anyone who publishes work has accepted the deal that the law offers, of a limited monopoly in return for making their idea known. Congress has been giving them more and more extensions on that monopoly, but doesn't require them to do anything to earn it.

It probably doesn't matter that much that Disney still owns Mickey Mouse, or that Lord of the Rings is still under copyright. But remember that these laws don't just apply to the arts. Similar laws apply to science as well. So a life-saving invention could be going unused, because its owner wants too much money for it, or because it's tied up in court while two companies fight about who owns it.

Conclusion

I'm far from an expert on either the law or the publishing industry. However I hope that I've given you, especially those of you who might be thinking about publishing some writing, a different take on the whole issue of whether authors should worry about their ideas being stolen. At least I hope I've shown you that there's a different way of thinking about it, and that that way doesn't require you to just give up on making money; in fact that it might be more profitable as well as better for society.

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bio: James Hutchings lives in Melbourne, Australia. He fights crime as Poetic Justice, but his day job is acting. You might know him by his stage-name 'Brad Pitt.' He specializes in short fantasy fiction. His work has appeared in Daily Science Fiction, fiction365 and Enchanted Conversation among other markets. His ebook collection The New Death and others is now available from Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble. He blogs daily at Teleleli.

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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License

How Long Should You Query a Manuscript?

You've written the next great American novel.  You've edited, made it pretty, worked on your characters, and developed a stellar plot that no one has thought of. Okay. Now it's time to query the agents and editors.

What? You've been querying? No one's expressed interest? Bummer...

Does that sound familiar? Probably. Most writers go through the above process at least once, though I'd venture a guess that it happens more than that.  How do you know when it's time to stop querying a manuscript and move on?

First, consider a few things.

1. How long have you been at it? A month? Two? That's  it? Quit your whining and keep trying! Some agents take six months to respond to one query. I'm talking from personal experience here!

2. Six months go by and no one has requested a full, a partial, or the first 10 pages. It's time for you to look at your query letter again because it may be that it just isn't doing your novel any good. Query letters are tricky little beasts that are meant to entice the agent to want more. Maybe you aren't sending a letter that's very interesting or that captures the flavor of your novel. There are many articles on the web that will show you how to create a great query letter. A lot of agent websites will tell you exactly what they want, too. One of my favorites is Janet Reid. Talk about brutal! That lady tells it like it is and doesn't care who she crushes in the process. If you want feedback on your query, check out her webpage! I've included her link for those feeling brave: Janet Reid

3. You've queried, received requests for fulls or partial manuscripts, but you keep getting passes from agents. Okay, this one really isn't about your query. Obviously, that's getting the job done because agents want to see your work. The problem is your manuscript. Reread the rejections carefully and without emotion. Is there a common theme? Are you getting similar complaints? Then fix the problem and keep querying.

4. You've queried, been rejected, made changes, and still nothing. Oh, my friend...I've so been there and done that. You have a few options at this point. A.) Keep trying. B.) Look at small presses. Many of them would love to have your work! C.) Consider self publishing. D.) Move on to your next project.

Any of the above paths have the potential to get your work out to readers. Trust your gut and your heart when it comes to making the final decision on whether or not it's time to stop querying. While you're querying one novel, be writing the next. It's possible you may discover some flaws in the first manuscript as you work on the new project that will change your mind about its potential. Maybe it just isn't marketable as is.

These are tough things to contemplate, but no matter what, don't quit writing!