In your path is a solid cement wall, eight feet high and two feet across. If you can get over it, you are faced with an iron fence whose top is festooned with barbed wire. Beyond that is a swamp with quicksand and alligators. If you make it through the swamp you will face a mine field. [I thought about adding dragons but it might take you out of the reading moment.] Then, if you manage to get over, around, or through these obstacles, you come upon a huge and impressive portal. You ring the doorbell, but unbeknownst to you, the bell is not working.
Sound like a video game? Actually, it is a pretty accurate analogy of how easy it is to get a contract from a traditional book publisher for your first novel.
In the publishing field the "traditional publishers" are known as The Big Six. They consist of Penguin Group, Hachette Book Group, Harper Collins, MacMillan, Random House, Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster. Each of these may have smaller presses called imprints. For example, Penguin has fifty imprints, including Riverhead Books, Dutton, G.P. Putnam's Sons, and 47 others.
The "over the transom," sensational, writer's first manuscript--a publisher's dream found on the floor the next morning is--a myth. Before a writer can even talk to a publisher she has to have a literary agent. Three exceptions to this rule exist: (1) no matter your ability to write standard English, if you are a celebrity with 3.2 million Twitter followers or (2) if you have a friend who owns a publishing company or (3) if you know an author who is published and will recommend you to her agent.
Back to the cement wall.
A similar analogy about how easy it is to get published might be the biblical verse about how easy it is for the rich man to enter heaven. Camel? Eye of a needle? Sound familiar?
Here are some statistics gathered by Dan Poynter, a publisher, author and book consultant. 132 million manuscripts are submitted yearly. Of those, 1% will get published. For manuscripts that manage to get through the initial publisher's slush pile, 90% will be rejected after the first page is read. 98% will be rejected after the first chapter is read. 30-50 will get through the reading to become manuscripts that are seriously considered for publishing. 3,000 manuscripts are published daily by various means. Of those published, only 2% will sell more than 5,000 copies.
A more concrete example would be the book, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. More magazine published an article about her rejections. You can read the amazing story here. She wrote the novel over five years, was rejected 60 times over the next 3.5 years, and finally found a literary agent willing to go to bat for her. The rest, as they say, is history. Doesn't it make you wonder how many wonderful books go unpublished?
Just like those political ads prior to the elections, doesn't it seem like we might find a better way to do this, both in elections and publishing decisions?
If a writer wants a traditional publisher, she must first find an agent who will make pitches about her book to the traditional publishers. How does she get an agent? She does lots and lots of research. Most literary agencies have online websites and their websites make clear the various genres their agents are seeking. They also explain what the writer should submit if her book matches their interests. Each agent wants different emailed pieces of writing and some want only snail mail. The writer will send a query letter that is written in a specific format explaining her title, number of words, genre, VERY basic plot, publishing experience, and contact information. All of this should take up one page.
In addition, some agents want a one-page synopsis of the plot. Others want a 500-word synopsis. Still others want 3-5 pages, double-spaced. Some want attachments and others want copy and paste into the email. One chapter, three chapters, 30 pages, or 50 pages--each wants something a little different.
Most of their websites state very clearly that no matter how wonderful your manuscript may be, and no matter how many hours, months, or years of your life have gone into your baby, if you do not follow their instructions to the letter your baby will be deleted on sight. Some agents give you a window when you might expect a reply--anywhere from two weeks to six months--and others say you will only hear from them if they are interested. Do not call them. They might call you. Call me, maybe? [refer to statistics above for the answer to that one.]
People know that I've finished my first novel, had it edited, rewritten parts of it, re-edited, and it's ready to go. They have asked when they will be able to read it. I hope this post explains the answer to that question. Currently, I'm sending queries to agents. GPS would probably put me a few feet up the cement wall.
It has been two years since I finished writing and subsequently published The Education of a Teacher (Including Dirty Books and Pointed Looks.) At the time it seemed like a gargantuan effort, especially since I began it in 2004. But little by little, word by word, sentence by sentence, it trickled out of my head and onto the page.
Since that day wonderful things have happened because of the publication of my memoir. I have spoken at the national convention of the National Council of Teachers of English and the 2012 fall conference of the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. I've also presented at a number of colleges and universities to groups of students who are thinking about teaching. I envy them at the very beginning of their careers.
The book has brought former students and colleagues into my life again, some in person and other by email, mail, and phone. Not only did I speak with many of them as I wrote the book, but I also was contacted by others who heard about it and decided they wanted to read it.
Rarely are we offered a glimpse of what our lives have meant--unless we are Jimmy Stewart--but sometimes we do get to see through a tiny crack in the door back to the past. I am humbled and grateful for the many comments by those readers and also their reflective, interesting, funny stories that I didn't know.
To be able to recreate a time and place with people who shared them is a special blessing.
Two of my favorite authors, Emerson and Thoreau, often wrote that winter is a time of reflection, a time to let the smoke go up the chimney and sit down with a good book or even one's own thoughts. So as I head into this winter season I will take their advice and count my blessings, good friends, and the many times my life has been ordered and enriched with special people whom I called "students," and whose current friendship and trust I respect and cherish.
Blessings to all my blog and book readers during this special season.
One of my former students, who is an intelligent and voracious reader, asked me this question when I announced on Facebook that I'd like to hear questions about writing.
I have a couple of theories. My first would be that we love to figure out and solve problems. Often I read and read to get to the end of a mystery because I haven't figured it out and I'm dying to know how it ends. An effective writer can hide those clues so they are in plain sight, but we don't catch them because of the writer's craft. Actually it is important that the writer leave clues in plain sight because readers become very unhappy when the clues are left until the last ten pages of the book. It doesn't give them a fair chance.
I just finished an amazing book by Thomas H. Cook called The Chatham School Affair. His writing style is gorgeous and lyrical. His story is told first person by an elderly lawyer who, earlier in life, was the son of the school's head master and a student at the school. The tale is dark. It is about a terrible event at this private school, an event beyond imagining.
But Cook is clever in giving the reader pieces of the jigsaw puzzle here and there. He flawlessly combines past, present, and future in his narrative and he does it so seamlessly that the reader is constantly left guessing the details of this terrible event. Suspense is everywhere--the reader knows something terrible happened from the first pages, but she doesn't know what it was. Only when the reader comes to the end does she see how it all fits together. It is a perfect example of why we can't put mysteries down.
I believe a second reason we love mysteries is because they show us a darker side of human nature, a side that many believe we all have but keep in check--unless, perhaps, we are serial killers or sociopaths. The idea of a "good person" coming in contact with someone who has unleashed that darker side is an intriguing combination.
I was reading another blog today--"At First Glance" by Sandra Parshall at the blog, Poe's Deadly Daughters. It referred to a recent article in Psychology Today called "What's In a Face?" that discusses whether our first impressions of people are accurate. Can we spot criminals when we first see them? I believe our curiosity about these people and situations is one of the reasons we read mysteries. We could have brushed past a killer on the street and not have known it. But we can read about these killers in mysteries and we can do so in the safety of our arm chairs. Whew! That's a relief.
You may have noticed that recently I've been absent from this blog. The answer is easy to explain: I've had a lot of deadlines as well as editing for my work in progress (WIP). Those problems have taken up every nook and cranny of my brain. Seriously.
For the last three weeks I have been thinking about titles. I am terrible at figuring out titles. An author needs to have a title she can live with...forever. She also needs a title that could be the beginning of a series so it must have continuing possibilities.
This has been a terrible question in my mind, disturbing my sleep and interfering with my brain during every minute of my waking hours...and sleeping hours...for weeks.
I played bridge and thought of titles (I think it improved my bridge.) I paced the kitchen floor and thought about titles. I watched the presidential returns--and thought about titles. I talked to my children across the country and thought about titles. Nada.
I played word games and wrote down dozens of words that might remind me of possible phrases for titles. Nothing.
You get the picture.
When Daylight Savings Time occurred I couldn't quite adjust for the first time ever. At first I thought it was because I'm now officially a senior citizen. Now I wonder if it was simply my fixation on titles, even in my dreams.
Arghhh.
The working title for my book is A Silent Place to Die. It is a phrase I used in the prologue to the book. It's perfect, I thought. However, my traditional mystery isn't quite as gruesome as this title. Even one of my former students questioned why my title was so gruesome. It didn't sound like the Me he knew. That, of course, made that Me start thinking.
Other writers have titles in a series that have a theme. For example, Julia Spencer-Fleming uses titles that are religious in nature like I Shall Not Want or In the Bleak Midwinter. Her main character, Clare, is an Episcopal priest. Makes sense. Wow, what a great thing she has going. Since many writers use Christian symbolism in their stories figuring their readers will "get it," Spencer-Fleming has a whole layer of reader understanding working for her. She also has endless possibilities for titles.
So is there some kind of "teacher culture" that readers will know about that I could use since my Grace is a teacher?
No.
Sheila Connolly's Orchard series uses apples in every title. Her main character owns an apple orchard and all the stories revolve around the small town, her house, and the orchard. Julie Hyzy's manor house mysteries--with a main character named "Grace"--have "Grace" in every title. Grace Under Pressure or Grace Among Thieves. My main character is a Grace and it would be so easy to connect her name with various ideas for my titles. Too bad Hyzy got there first.
So I looked through many, many pieces of literature by American writers. After all, "my" Grace taught American Literature for twenty-five years and her story does have literary allusions. The books in her library are by her old favs: Fitzgerald, Poe, Thoreau, Emerson, Longfellow, and others.
And then I remembered.
Ben Franklin. He was an American original, discussed in many American Literature classes, and broadly taught across the country. Like Spencer-Fleming's layer of Christianity, Ben Franklin's aphorisms are part of American culture. Here, you finish his thoughts:
"A penny saved is..."
"God helps those..."
"Early to bed and early to rise..."
See, I'm still giving quizzes.
Of course people know these sayings. If I write the first part, readers can finish the second part.
Ah ha! I may be on to something.
How about one saying that's a little more obscure?
"Three May Keep a Secret..."?
Would you automatically finish that with "if two of them are dead?"
If so, I think I have a title.
A few weeks ago I asked some of my Facebook friends to send me questions about writing novels. I thought I would also use some of the answers for blog posts about writing.
One of the questions was about a novel's structure and its author's decisions about content.
I'm writing a mystery and it has a traditional structure. It begins with a "hook" that gets the reader to decide he likes the idea and wants to read on. Hooks consist of dialogue that makes the reader curious or an event (such as murder) that arouses the reader's interest. I do, however, have a hard time picturing readers as fish.
After the audience is "hooked," the first 25% of the book sets up the characters, setting, some complications, and ends with a major event that sends the main character off into disaster. That event might be a murder or a life-changing experience for the main character. No matter what it is, the major event propels that person down the path of brambles and pitfalls. By now the audience likes the main character (in a traditional mystery) and reads on to see how the author will torture her. The more the main character experiences and overcomes, the more the reader will be cheering her on.
The middle of the book--26% to 74%--extends subplots and adds suspense, hoping to trick the reader with events he didn't expect. (Personally I find this to be the most difficult part to write because I have to maintain suspense.) This is where I start asking "what ifs." In this middle part of the novel, writers try to pull rabbits out of hats. Just when that reader thinks the main character is out in the clear of whatever entanglements she has encountered, the author hits her again with more debris.
Throughout the middle of the novel the author adds subplots and develops them. She hides clues among other innocent items and tries to make them clever enough that the reader won't spot them. She also hides some "red herrings," false clues that seem to be the answer to the riddle--but they aren't. The author may end many of the subplots prior to the climax. This makes for a much cleaner ending.
Toward the end of this middle part, another major event will occur. It could be a murder. Often the very person the reader suspects is the villain ends up getting killed. Then the reader is left scrambling to figure out a new choice for the villain.
After the second major event, the climax begins. Here is where time slows down and several chapters may happen in a single period of time. Everything is speeding toward the end of the plot. The loose ends and subplots must be tied up. A satisfying ending that will make the reader feel the world has been set aright once again makes for a happy reader that might decide to buy the author's next book.
To add to all of this plot talk, I should mention that each scene also has a structure of its own. The author wants to end some chapters with "cliffhangers" so readers will want to start a new chapter, thereby keeping them up until 3 a.m. so they will curse the author in the morning and swear they will never read another one of her books. But by now they like the main character so much that they will forget their decision by the time the author writes another book. (Isn't that the way it works?)
The other consideration in plot writing is the idea of fair play. The clues must be there, not just for the sleuth but also for the readers. If the author waits to add the most important clues until the last ten pages of the book, her readers will not be happy. Unhappy readers make for lagging sales. Not a good idea. Give the reader a fair shot to solve the crime along the way.
