Tag: Editorial (Page 5 of 7)

Reason #21: You Don’t Have an Agent

/ Mike Nappa

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

I know I should be happy about this reason for rejection—after all, I’m a literary agent myself. The fact that most publishers won’t even look at your work unless it comes to them through someone like me should make me feel giddy with the joy of an undeserved monopoly. But the author in me just chafes as this universally-accepted discrimination against independent writers. It just seems wrong on a moral level—and it’s often ineffective on a practical level as well.

Some big names in publishing were once slush pile refugees, including people like Mary Cahill, Philip Roth, Judith Guest, and even Anne Frank. But those were the good old days, and now cost-cutting at publishing houses combined with the occasional terror threat (like the anthrax scare of 2002) means that times have changed..

So, do you really need an agent to publish books?

Yes. And that stinks.

Take, for instance, the recorded message that greets aspiring authors who call Simon & Schuster with a great new idea:

“Simon & Schuster requires submissions to come to us via a literary agent due to the large volume of submissions we receive each day.”

Honestly, in the great capitalist society of America, you ought to be able to approach any publisher directly with your book ideas and proposals, but that’s just not the way publishing works in the 21st century. So you need an agent whose primary job is to build relationships with the decision-makers at the different publishing houses, and then use those relationships to approach a publisher for you, knowing that your work will at least be considered for publication. Without that relationship, most publishers will either fire off a rejection without ever looking at your book, or even worse, ignore your submission and never respond to it.

Here are situations when you might not need an agent:

if you already have a relationship with a particular editor or publisher;
if you have a friend that publishes with a particular house already and who passes your manuscript to his or her editor; or
if you self-publish a book and it sells over 20,000 copies without the help of an established publishing company.

Otherwise, I’m sorry to report that you’ll most likely need an agent before most publishers will even look at your manuscript. Are there exceptions to this rule? Sure—and I hope you’re one of them. But you probably are not.

What You Can Do About It

1. Find an agent willing to take a chance on you.

This is a long, tedious effort that simply duplicates the process of pitching a book to publishers, only you pitch to people like me who may or may not be able to get you a publishing deal. The same rules apply, however, and if you find an agent willing to represent you, then your book has a much better chance of actually showing up in bookstores someday.

Best places to look for an agent are going to be in the following reference books:

Literary Marketplace (published annually by R.R. Bowker; this book is expensive, so just check it out at your local library)
Guide to Literary Agents (published annually by Writer’s Digest Books)

2. Be your own literary agent.

This is a complicated solution to your problem, but it can work. After all, my entire agency grew out of the fact that I was first representing my own work to publishers. But there are pitfalls when you are your own agent.

Sometimes a publisher will view you as illegitimate, thinking that you’re an agent in name only as a means to get your proposal past the “no unsolicited submissions” policy. I’ve been running Nappaland Literary Agency since 1995, and I still get this kind of treatment today. It’s unfair, but it happens.

Other times a publisher will clarify their policy to exclude you anyway—meaning they’ll only take submissions from New York City agents or something like that. And if you do get to the point of negotiating a contract, they’ll offer you less if you represent yourself because they assume you couldn’t get a “real” agent to negotiate your book.

Still, if you are interested in representing yourself, you may want to check out Martin Levin’s book, Be Your Own Literary Agent.

3. Network with agents and editors directly through writer’s conferences.

The real value of a writer’s conference is not in all the little workshops and keynote sessions. Sure, you might learn something at those, but those classes and lectures aren’t what will get you published.

The real value of a writer’s conference is that it gives you an opportunity to meet face to face with people who influence actual publishing decisions—editors and agents themselves. So check out Newpages.com/writing-conferences or the Shaw Guides to writer’s conferences and workshops (http://writing.shawguides.com), pick out one or two that have a strong faculty, and make plans to attend, to mingle, and to get some face time with your target editor and/or agent.

Be aware, though, that a strong faculty is not one that’s simply filled with successful authors—it’s one filled with editors from recognizable publishing houses and agents from established literary agencies.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

Reason #22: You Didn’t Give Me Enough Writing Samples

/ Mike Nappa

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

When I’m shooting for a sale of your book in my publishing board, I’ve really only got three bullets in my gun: 1) your marketing platform, 2) your sales history/potential, and 3) the strength of your writing.

If you are a newer author, you will be inherently weak on the first two items in that list. So, I’ve got to really build up item #3 to the point where it compensates for the weaknesses in the first two areas. That’s where you’re writing samples come in.

In my publishing board meeting, I will highlight the artistry of your prose. I’ll probably even read aloud powerful passages, and pick random snatches from several pages just to make my point: This author is AWESOME from beginning to end. Who cares if she doesn’t have a TV show on cable? Her writing—and your reaction to it right now—is proof by itself that people will buy this book.

Ah, but what if you only sent me an outline? Or maybe a summary with a sample introduction? What if you sent me the first 10,000 words of your novel, but nothing else to show that you can actually sustain a story for a full 100,000 words?

You may think you’re just saving time, making your job a little easier in the face of unrealistic expectations from publishers who demand too much. But what you’re really doing is sabotaging your own presentation in the publishing board meeting.

Let me ask you something: If you were playing baseball and you knew you had to hit without a bat, would you step up to the plate? Of course not. But that’s how you make me feel when you send me an idea without enough writing samples to demonstrate the superior strength of your skill as an author. And then you complain when I reject your book—even though you were the one who sabotaged both of us by submitting an incomplete proposal.

I know. It takes time—a lot of time—to write up samples for a book. And since I require you to write your samples on speculation (meaning, without any guarantee of payment or a contract), you could lose both time and money by writing extensive samples for me. But…

You must remember that I didn’t make the rules, and until you are successful enough to break the rules, there’s only one way to avoid a rejection for this reason. You’ve got give me enough stellar writing samples to accomplish what we both want to happen in publishing board: approval for your next book contract.

What You Can Do About It

1. Write enough to meet the expected requirements.

If you know that a certain amount of writing samples is required before an editor will seriously consider your book, then just buckle down and write. Don’t waste time trying to prove to me that you are a deserving exception to the rule, or demanding that I overlook the requirements because you’re just too busy to meet them.

Hey, nobody ever said it would be easy for you to get published. In fact, sometimes we like to make it a little hard, just to weed out the halfhearted and the weak. But you don’t have to fit in either of those categories—and besides, didn’t you say you wanted to be a writer?

Here’s what you’ll typically need to deliver:

• For a fiction book, you’ll have to write the whole thing. Will the editor actually read the whole thing? Maybe, maybe not. That’s irrelevant. What is relevant is that rarely any editor will consider a novel from a newer author unless the whole book is written.

• For nonfiction, it’s a little easier. You’ll need to write: 1) an annotated table of contents, 2) an introduction to your book, and 3) one sample chapter from your book (usually the first chapter, but can be any chapter you choose).

2. Become famous enough that your writing skill doesn’t matter.

We’ll talk more about this in Reason #54, but for now suffice it to say that one way to avoid writing is to be famous. Publishing companies are enamored by celebrities, so much so that celebrities often don’t even write their own life stories. So if you want to “be” a writer instead of doing the work of a writer, then put your writing career on hold. Pursue the life of a celebrity instead—become a rock star or a TV talk show host or a movie actor or whatever.

I know this sounds like cynical advice, and maybe it is a little bit…but I also I promised to always tell you the truth in this book, and I know this pathway to authorship works. So if celebrity is within your reach or ambition, go ahead and pursue it. Once you hit the national consciousness, you’ll have your pick of book publishing opportunities—and you may not even have to write a single word.

3. Review Reason for Rejection #14.

Don’t be lazy!

Do the work it takes to succeed, and (shocker!) you just might succeed.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

Reason #23: I Already Rejected This Book Before

/ Mike Nappa

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

A few years ago I got an email proposing a book about the life story of some remarkable woman who suffered through illness and poverty etc. before becoming a remarkable woman who still lives in illness and poverty today. Sure, somebody may be interested in reading that kind of tragic life story, but it’s not the kind of book I tend to represent. I sent a rejection.

A month later, I got an email—from a different address—about that same remarkable book about that same remarkable woman. Rejected.

Then, over the course of the next year or so, I got that same book proposal—from supposedly different names and several different email addresses—at least 20 times. Every time my response was an automated rejection. I have to wonder if, after the 13^th rejection, that author truly thought I would suddenly come to my senses and rejoice at the opportunity to represent that tired, unpublishable book. Did the author really think the 14^th rejection wouldn’t come? Or the 15^th? Or the 20^th?

Please.

Once a book is rejected, that’s pretty much it for that editor or agent. There are a few exceptions—which we’ll discuss below—but generally speaking, once rejected, always rejected. If you keep re-submitting a book after it’s been rejected, you’ve destroyed your credibility as an author with anyone who has seen your work before.

Additionally, it makes you seem desperate and dense. If you can’t sell this book to me, I don’t want to see it rehashed and re-sent to me again. I want to see if you can come up with something else, something completely new that’ll “wow” me out of complacency toward you. I want to see that you’ve grown since your last proposal, that your writing is getting better, that your market savvy is getting keener, that you really do deserve to be published.

Otherwise we’re just a broken record that plays only one word: Rejection…rejection…rejection…

What You Can Do About It

1. Learn to accept rejection as a natural part of your writing success.

Listen, rejection is nothing to be ashamed of in your writing career. Everybody gets rejected—and I mean everybody. Even J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury UK finally agreed to give it a chance.

One of my earliest royalty books was rejected a whopping 22 times before a tiny little publisher in Minnesota picked it up—and went on to sell over 100,000 copies of it. In fact, my books have been rejected a few thousand times…and yet I’ve still managed to sell over a million copies of books I authored or coauthored.

So if you get a rejection for a book, don’t waste time trying to change an editor’s mind or foolishly thinking you can “trick” an editor into accepting something he or she previously rejected. Life’s too short, and you’re too good, for that kind of self-defeating behavior. Accept the rejection as another step on your way to success, and move on.

2. Be aware of the exceptions to the “no re-submits” rule—but use them sparingly.

There are rare occasions when it is acceptable to re-submit a manuscript that’s been rejected. Generally speaking, you should never re-submit a rejected proposal. But, just in case the opportunity arises for you, here are the exceptions to this rule:

• The editor or agent suggests revisions and invites you to re-submit after changes have been made. One caveat, though: Never do more than one round of revisions for an editor in this situation. If the editor doesn’t like your book after you’ve tailored it to his or her tastes a first time, it’s unlikely to pass muster the next time.

• The editor or agent says her current load is full but she’d be open to taking another look in six months or something. This one’s easy. Wait six months and re-submit, reminding the editor that she requested the re-submission.

• There’s a change in the editorial staff and you know your book never made it to committee last time. Hey, if the rejecting editor leaves and no one else has seen your book, that means it’s a new proposal for the new editorial team. In this case, simply submit again as if for the first time.

3. Write something new.

So your book got rejected? So what? If you’re as talented and intelligent as I think you are, then simply shrug it off and start on something new. Take charge of your own success by giving yourself a brand new opportunity with a brand new book.

And if that gets rejected too…well, so what? As long as you’re willing to try again, you’re never without opportunities.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

Reason #24: You Are Clueless about Copyright Law

/ Mike Nappa

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

In 1951, J.D. Salinger published what has become a classic American novel, The Catcher in the Rye—a book that’s sold over 35 million copies to date. In early 2009, Swedish author Fredrik Colting (writing under the pen name “J.D. California”) self-published his first novel through his own small publishing house. It was titled 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye.

Colting’s book borrowed its lead character, Holden Caulfield, from Mr. Salinger’s original, imagining what might happen to this legendary antihero at age 76. (It was pretty similar to what happened to him at 16.) Colting even advertised his new book as “a marvelous sequel to one of our most beloved classics.”

The problem? J.D. Salinger alone owns the copyright to the character of Holden Caulfield, and only he has the sole and exclusive right to publish any sequels to The Catcher in the Rye. No one else. The only exceptions would be in the case of parody or distinct literary criticism on the original work. When Mr. Salinger heard of “J.D. California” and the unauthorized sequel to his book, he objected with great gusto.

It was not surprising, then, that in July 2009 a US District Court barred publication of Colting’s book in the United States on grounds of copyright infringement. What was surprising is that Fredrik Colting was surprised he lost in court. He appeared blissfully unaware that he was violating basic copyright law.

And that’s where you come in.

Unfortunately a great number of aspiring writers appear to share Mr. Colting’s disregard for copyright law and rights ownership. Intellectual property laws seem to be nothing more than a minor nuisance for lawyers to worry about. As a result, copyright issues are often ignored or misapplied in an effort to achieve quick success in publishing.

I know of authors who thought nothing of simply copying blocks of text off of Martha Stewart’s website and pasting it right into their own manuscripts. Another editor I know actually lost his job when he trusted that one of his authors had written what he’d said he’d written. Turned out that author had simply appropriated material from a Chicken Soup for the Soul book, blissfully unaware that he was violating copyright law by doing that. And the list goes on.

So here’s the deal: If you send me your next great idea, and it’s based on someone else’s original idea (a sequel to Star Wars anyone?) or if I see that you haven’t properly documented your sources, or if it’s apparent that you are mistake-prone when dealing with copyright issues … well, I’m going to reject your book. I can’t afford to face the legal liabilities that might be incurred because you are ignorant of the law.

What You Can Do About It

1. Become an expert on copyright law.

The simple fact is that if you intend to profit from intellectual property (your writing), you’d better know how the law governs your rights to that property.

For instance, did you know that your copyright benefits are actually a constitutional right (up there with freedom of speech and the abolition of slavery)? They are guaranteed by article 8, Section 8 of the US Constitution. And did you know that you don’t even have to publish or affix a copyright notice on your work for it to be copyrighted? In fact, putting a copyright notice on your book proposal immediately shows you are a rank amateur and someone I’ll have to educate if I sign you to a contract. As soon as you put your words into “fixed form” (such as on paper, in a computer file, on an audio recording, or even on the brim of a cowboy hat) they are solely and completely yours.

These are the simplest principles of copyright ownership. It’d be wise for you to become an expert on the rest. Here are a few resources to help you do that:

• Intellectual Property by Roger E. Schechter and John R. Thomas (Highly recommended.)

• Kirsch’s Handbook of Publishing Law by Jonathan Kirsch

• The Public Domain by Stephen Fishman

• US Copyright Office – http://www.copyright.gov

2. Create your own success.

Seriously, you don’t need to depend on someone else’s writing or ideas or characters or universes or whatever. You are certainly capable of creating success on your own, without having to rip off someone else’s material. So just do that.

Don’t waste your time trying to recreate what someone else has already created. Demand more of yourself. You’ll be pleased with the result.

3. Understand the nuances of parody and “unauthorized” publishing.

Yes, it’s true that there are certain instances when you can legally appropriate material from another author and use it to create something of your own. The issues typically deal with definitions of “parody,” “criticism and commentary,” and “transformative” results. These exceptions are why you see “unauthorized” books about your favorite TV shows, or even a goofy film like Family Guy Presents: Something Something Something Dark Side.

HOWEVER—and this is important—an attempt at parody or “unauthorized” publishing can easily cross the line into copyright infringement, so you must know what you are doing. What’s more, you must be able to clearly defend yourself in a court of law. If you intend to pursue parody or unauthorized publishing, make sure you understand the nuances of those exceptions in the law. And make sure you can satisfactorily explain for an editor how they apply to your manuscript.

This subject is too complex to deal with adequately here, so check out the copyright references listed in #1 above for more details.

Looking for more? Check out these links:

Reason #25: Your Book is Boring

/ Mike Nappa

An Editorial Team reason for rejection

There’s no law against writing a boring book … but there ought to be.

Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, a children’s picture book or a teen romance, a psychology textbook or a Mediterranean cookbook, if you bore me I will reject you.

Unfortunately for you, I have a very short attention span—and most agents and editors are just like me. We blame it on the fact that we’re very busy, our time always seems crunched, etc. etc. But the truth is just that our kind bores easily. Very little of what we read is new, and without even thinking we’re automatically dissecting your paragraph structure, the rhythm of your writing, and our emotional reaction to your words.

You’ve got to “wow” us, and keep wowing us from beginning to end. Otherwise you’ll never keep our attention.

No, that doesn’t mean you have to have explosions and death-defying stunts on every page. But it does mean there should be some kind of “wow” factor that engages the reader—and then keeps the reader going through the book. This can be in the way you create curiosity in the reader, or in the deft characterizations you deliver, or in the thoughtful and compelling reasoning of your ideas, and so on.

Remember, though, whatever you write, the “wow” should be easy to see. Otherwise, it’ll only take me about 60 seconds (or less) to get bored and reject your boring book.

What You Can Do About It

1. Start well.

Bestselling novelist Harlan Ellison says, “An otherwise excellent story can find itself being stuffed back into an SASE and being dropkicked into the mail chute because it had a slow, an obscure, a confusing, or redundant opening section.” And Mr. Ellison is right.

If you intend to avoid writing a boring book, the first step is to avoid writing a boring beginning to your book. Or, to look at it another way, if you wanted to write a boring book, you’d do the following:

Fill your opening pages with backstory and exposition. Spend a while making sure I get all the background on your characters and their setting. Tell me all about their hair color, the number of trees in their yards, where their cousins live and so on. Make me wade through all that irrelevant stuff before I can finally appreciate your plot.

Of course, I’ll reject you…but at least you can boast about how boring your writing is, right?

2. Show, don’t tell.

This is a basic writing instruction, especially for fiction authors. The point is this: Don’t spend time telling me something when you can engage me with a word picture or mental image of that thing instead.

For instance, you could tell me: “Martin smoked a lot every day.” Of course, that would be boo-oor-ring. Or you could show me Martin’s habit: “Perched on the corner of Martin’s desk was a faded ash tray, filled to the edges with spent cigarette butts and surrounded by crumpled, empty packs of Chesterfields.” The first description tells me about Martin, but the second delivers a visual image that shows me Martin’s habit without ever having to say, “Martin smokes a lot.”

The problem with telling in a manuscript is that it most often is an interruptive technique. It actually stops the story in order to lecture the reader on some fact or tidbit of information.

Think for a minute about what happens when you watch TV. Do you ever enjoy it when your favorite show stops completely to lecture you with a PSA about meth abuse, or when your football game grinds to a halt so some automotive company can tell you how tough their trucks are? As important as education about meth abuse is, and as true as it may be that some company makes tough trucks, no one likes being interrupted to hear about those things.

Likewise, telling interrupts the reader as he or she is enjoying your story. Do it too often, and your reader will eventually get bored and give up.

3. Avoid unnecessary repetition.

Veteran editors, Renni Browne and Dave King observe, “Most authors already know to edit out places where they have literally repeated a word or phrase. But the repetition of an effect can be just as problematic. Whether it’s two sentences that convey the same information, two paragraphs that establish the same personality trait, or two characters who fill the same role in the plot, repetition can dissipate your writing and rob it of its power.”

I am tempted to expand on this more, but after reading again the comments of the esteemed Browne and King, I realize that anything I say now will simply be a repeat of their excellent advice! So, suffice it to say that unnecessary repetition in a manuscript is boring. Don’t do it.

Looking for more? Check out these links: