A Success Post is Good News for Everyone

By Stacy S. Jensen 

Responses to good news post in the form of a Wordle.net cloud.

I’ve seen many writers heralding good news lately on Facebook, social media, and here in the form of Sweet Success posts.

Good news is everywhere.

By sharing good news, other writers remind me of the reality of the traditional publishing process. It involves many layers of requests (and rejections) with agents, editors, and publishers.

I’ve found writers to be genuine cheerleaders. The congratulatory messages aren’t part of a Facebook Happy world. They are sincere “Awesome!” and “Can’t wait to buy your book” messages.

We should be happy, because every writer, who gets a deal or a break before us, leaves a trail of information breadcrumbs for our own publishing quest. If we are lucky, he or she blogs about “how I got my agent” blog or shares the details in a private Facebook group conversation. These stories are filled with tales of hard work, revisions, and seized opportunities like conferences, membership groups, and social media pitch contests.

One day, I hope to have a “good news” post to share about a manuscript. Until then, I’ll continue to applaud the good news I hear from others and remember to acknowledge my own personal victories. After attending the Big Sur in the Rockies, I have a manuscript where I think it needs to be. Yay me!

Do you have good news to share today?

About the Author: Stacy S. Jensen worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for two decades. Today, she writes picture books and revises a memoir manuscript. She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband and toddler. 

Blog: http://stacysjensen.blogspot.com Twitter: @StacySJensen

The Secret to Querying

By Aaron Michael Ritchey

In my next life, I'm going to start off as a used car salesman, then switch careers to write romance novels. Think Nicholas Sparks in a bad suit.

Oh, the fear and gnashing I went through to find a publisher for my first novel. This is what I had to do to query agents, editors, and publishers, so I could get my book in print. Okay, this is the big freakin’ secret.

I stopped writing and I used my writing time to write query letters and ship them out. That is what I had to do. It takes about half an hour to research an agent, write the first few lines saying how you heard about them and what you like about them, and then you copy in your pitch and bio and hit send.

Thirty simple minutes.

Easy.

And yet I had to drop everything and focus on only doing query letters because it wasn’t the time commitment that made it so hard. It was the emotional work involved that left me burning into ashes and exhausted beyond belief.

Oh, the agony, the angst, the mortal terror. It’s like finding a parent for my little baby, and going door to door in a Calcutta slum to do it. Most of the time, when I knocked, no one answered. Sometimes they opened the door, said a few nice things, and slammed it shut. And sometimes they sent a robot to answer the door. They didn’t want my baby. Thank you and good luck with finding a home for your human infant.

Like most things in life, querying agents is simple. It’s the emotional baggage that makes it hard for me. That’s why, if someone wants to be a writer, they should start by going into cold call sales, door-to-door. Because querying is a numbers game.

I talked with Catharine Ryan Hyde, who is a hardcore, stone-hearted warrior, and she tried to help me overcome my fear. I asked how many agents I should query before I gave up. She said ALL OF THEM. And you know what, she’s right.

Now, let me say this. Having no agent is better than having a bad agent. Don’t go with someone who isn’t selling, who smells mildly of corruption, or with one who actually hates what you write. More and more, literary agents are becoming unnecessary, and yet, I still believe in the old system. If you wanna’ play with the big dogs, you gotta’ find a handler for your work—a home for your baby. Or did I just mix metaphors?

But it’s hard. You know what's harder? Looking a reader in the eye and trying to get them to buy your book. Same basic process, but at least with an agent, I can hide behind email. In the end, sales is a part of the game.

Now go out there and sell big!

About the Writer:  YA Paranormal author Aaron Michael Ritchey has penned a dozen manuscripts in his 20 years as a writer. When he isn’t slapping around his muse, Aaron cycles to look fabulous, works in medical technologies, and keeps his family in silks and furs. His first novel, The Never Prayer, hit the streets on March 29, 2012.

The Number One Reason Writers Get Rejected

By Linda Rohrbough

I’m going to tell you a secret. The number one reason writers get rejected by agents and editors is genre. I’ve heard this from a number of literary agents, including Noah Lukeman, author of The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile. Writers tend to mislabel their genre, or they misunderstand what genre an agent or editor is looking for. And these days, due to electronic submissions, you usually don’t even get the favor of a form letter returned in your self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE). So many authors may never know they’ve made this mistake.

Most writers I know without much experience in publishing think what I just said is nonsense. It simply can’t be genre. Doesn’t everyone know you just go down to the bookstore, find the books similar to yours, copy down the genre written on the edge of the shelf and voila – you’ve got it? How hard can this be?

Evidently, it’s harder than it looks. What continues to surprise me is that “experienced” writers, who crank out how-to articles aimed at educating those who want to be authors, tell people that bookstore nonsense. If that strategy worked, everyone would know and understand their genre. But they don’t and they may never figure it out. Once in a while, some editor or agent takes the time to simply tell them, but that doesn’t happen very often.

So let me tell you why the bookstore idea doesn’t work. Bookstores use a labeling system aimed at readers. It’s not the same system that agents and editors use, even though it uses many of the same words – kind of like American English and the Queen’s English. (A British editor of mine said he and I were “two people separated by a common language.” You should have seen his face when I recommended he order a quesadilla at a Mexican restaurant. Or when I called the small zipper bag around my waist a “fanny pack.” He’s no prude, but his face turned all kinds of red as he whispered that I’d said a very bad word - and it wasn’t ‘pack.’)

Authors start as readers, speaking that language learned mostly in high school English class or bookstores. And what do bookstores do? They attempt to sell books to readers, not buy books from authors. Bookstores develop categories based on marketing, even though the terms sound familiar and literary. When a bookstore says “mainstream,” they mean books that sell a lot of copies, not books that are really in the mainstream genre, which has an entirely different meaning to an editor or agent.

What makes this more confusing is the best-selling books that mix genres. Remember, authors started as readers, so they think they can get away with doing that, too, because it’s interesting. They say things like, “I’ll just write a Romeo and Juliet story where a Zombie falls for the daughter of the most important leader of the humans and set it in a post-apocalyptic world where the Zombies have the edge on the humans.” And some new authors do get away with it, like Isaac Marion, who wrote Warm Bodies, which was recently released as a feature film and which further reinforces the idea of genre blending.

Marion calls the book a “Zombie romance,” which appeals to readers. (Notice he figured out a way to talk about his book in a way that interests readers. Warm Bodies is his first published book, after three failed self-published novels.) There are no hard and fast lines here, but I’d say Warm Bodies is a speculative fiction sci-fi romance. So if Marion came to me for advice on looking for representation or a publisher, I’d say first approach agents and editors who represent speculative fiction since that’s the strongest element of this work. Stay away from agents and editors who represent romance, because they’re not going to buy this book, even though romance has a large readership. (Most new authors know a large readership means the odds are better for new writers to break in to the genre.)

As an aside, I think genre blending is a lot like the lottery. When people buy that ticket, they believe they can beat the odds. Heck, if they knew they’d be better off financially using that bill to clean their teeth instead of buying dental floss, the lotto folks would go broke.

So what’s a new author to do? As a new author, not only do you want to write in a genre that’s selling, which means there’s demand, but you want to write something that stays inside the boundaries of the genre. Debbie Macomber can introduce speculative fiction elements (angels) into her romance novels and get away with it because she has a track record. But she didn’t do that when she started. She started writing category romance, which has very stringent guidelines. But you can’t just do what everyone else has done either. You’ve got to find a way to stay in the lines, only with a twist of your own.

Having said that, writing in a genre that no one wants to buy is a different problem. And one that’s fairly simple to solve (despite the fact that some authors like to get into a lot of creative angst over it). You either commit to writing what you write, and hope tastes change or you get a break. Or you write what you think you can sell - which is no guarantee either, but it definitely increases the odds of being published.

So is there a way to learn about genre so you can speak the language of agents and editors? Sure. Chris Mandeville is doing a workshop on genre for the March Write Brain. I know, because she’s using materials I developed some time back, along with input from other experienced authors. That’s one of the cool things about PPW. You can either work up your courage to ask for help, or just go listen to learn what you don’t know.

If you want a leg up sooner, you can go to my website (www.LindaRohrbough.com) and in the articles section near the bottom there’s an article I wrote about genre for PPW called “The Genre Hurdle.” Then go to Chris’ workshop to get the latest on genre, which is always a moving target.

Also, keep this in mind: increasing your knowledge about genre is the best way to increase your odds of acceptance.

About the Author: Linda Rohrbough has been writing since 1989, and has more than 5,000 articles and seven books to her credit along with national awards for her fiction and non-fiction. New York Times #1 bestselling author Debbie Macomber said about Linda’s new novel: "This is fast-paced, thrilling, edge-of-the-seat reading. The Prophetess One: At Risk had me flipping the pages and holding my breath." The Prophetess One: At Risk has garnered three national awards: the 2012 International Book Award, the 2011 Global eBook Award, and the 2011 Millennium Star Publishing Award. An iPhone App of her popular “Pitch Your Book” workshop is available in the Apple iTunes store. Visit her website: www.LindaRohrbough.com.

Countdown to Conference: How to Prepare

By MB Partlow

To properly prepare for conference, you need to take a page from the Santa Claus playbook.

Namely, you need to make a list and check it twice.

What am I blathering about? Come with me while I walk you through the thought process.

For beginning writers, start with the keynote speakers. Have you heard of them? Read anything they've written? If the answer is no, read their books. This is the easiest and fastest way to find out why these particular writers are considered our keynote speakers.  If you want more background than we have on the PPW website, go to the authors' websites. See if they're on Twitter, if that floats your boat. If you don't go to YouTube and see Libba Bray in the cow costume to promote Going Bovine, you're really missing out.

Look at the agents and editors next. Find out who works in the genres you write in, and make a note so you can attend their sessions at conference. Then take a look at all the other authors and specialists. You probably can't read all of everyone's work, but you can familiarize yourself with which ones are doing something you're interested in.

For those of you at a more intermediate level, start at the same place with the keynotes. But when you get to the agents and editors, pay a little more attention. You might decide to sign up for a Read and Critique (R&C) session, and we divide those up by genre. Wait, you don't know what R&C is?

R&C Author is a closed-door session where a few aspiring writers sit down with a published author and read their first page aloud. The author then gives immediate feedback, and with this smaller session, there's time for some back-and-forth between the newbie and the pro. The other two flavors of R&C are open for any conference goers to attend. In R&C X, you stand at the front of the room and read the first page of your work aloud. The agent or editor in that session will give you immediate, first-impression feedback.  In R&C 123, a designated reader will read each first page aloud, giving the author anonymity. Then the panel of one author, one agent and one editor will each give brief feedback.

One note: you need to sign up for R&C when you register for conference. These are highly organized and meticulously timed sessions, run by skilled moderators. I repeat: sign up in advance. Play nicely. Follow the rules you'll receive when you sign up--the moderator isn't going to let you read a first page that's got 1/4-inch margins and is single-spaced with 6-point type.

More experienced writers, with completed manuscripts, have the option of signing up to pitch to an agent or editor. This means more research, because the last thing we want to do is waste the time of you or the agent/editor. When you visit their website, go further than the bio. Look at what authors they work with, what books they've had published recently. This pays a double dividend. First, it pays to be aware of what others in your genre are doing, what flavor of vampire is "it" this month. Second, it shows you exactly what type of books your targeted agent/editor likes to work on.

Are they on Twitter? Follow them. Run their names through your favorite search engine to turn up interviews they've done or industry news items. Remind yourself that you're a writer, not a stalker. Read their blog, and not just the most recent one. Not familiar with their authors? Go back to the library (or book store, your choice) and see for yourself what kind of work they like. One of the best pitch sessions I ever had resulted because I found out (ahead of time) that the agent and I had a favorite book in common, and it gave us something to talk about.

Oh, yeah, you read that right. A pitch session isn't you sitting across the table from an agent or editor and begging them to publish your masterpiece, this heart's blood that you've committed to paper. It's a small slice of time where you get to know each other. You're much more likely to be remembered (favorably) if you ask them a coherent question or two about their work.

The last suggestion I have for conference is this: practice. The question you will be asked, repeatedly, is "What do you write?" Have an answer. Practice saying it out loud. Say it to your mirror, your cat, your spouse or your neighbors.  If you're signing up for R&C, read your first page out loud. Not just in your head, cheaterpants. Really, out loud. Get the cringing out of the way in the privacy of your own home. Bonus: you'll discover in a hurry if something isn't right. If you're going to pitch, practice talking about your work. You should be able to cover the basic essence of the story, the log line, in a single sentence.

Now get out of my head. You've been here long enough, and you're leaving muddy footprints on my brain.


MB Partlow, 2013 Programming Director for the Pikes Peak Writers Conference, is hard at work getting fantastic speakers and participants for the conference.  You can reach her at programming@pikespeakwriters.com or find more information on the 2013 Pikes Peak Writers Conference at pikespeakwriters.com.

Rocking the 2013 Pikes Peak Writers Conference

By MB Partlow

Who is going to rock it, April 19-21, 2013?

Everyone who attends.

Our keynotes? Oh, yeah. We've got Libba Bray, Barry Eisler, David Liss and Amber Benson. Rock stars in their fields, one and all.

Editors? Only the best, from the likes of Del Ray, Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, Sourcebooks and Bell Bridge Books. These are the people who know the industry inside and out.

What about agents? We've got half a dozen coming. You know what they want? They want pitches! When do they want them? At our Conference!

This year's theme is Writing From the Ashes: Never Lose Sight of Your Dreams. Everybody hits a bump in the road. Or two. Or twelve. Every. Body. Some bumps are the size of pebbles, and some look more like a mountain range, but we all hit them. We want our conference to inspire you to pick yourself up after one of these bumps and keep on writing.

You can pitch your completed manuscript to an agent or editor at no additional cost! This is one-on-one face time, and we fill the slots on a first-come, first-served basis. This means that the earlier you register, the better your chance of getting one of the agents or editors you want.

You can participate in one of our Read and Critique sessions. Unfamiliar with R&C? No problem. With R&C Author, you get a small setting, where you read your first page to a published author. With R&C X, you read your first page to an agent or editor. In R&C 123, our designated reader will read your first page to a panel consisting of one agent, one editor and one published author. Every single one is an opportunity for immediate feedback.

Back by popular demand is Thursday Add-on Programming. The topics this year cover writing personal nonfiction, writing historical fiction, pitching, the query letter lab, publicity and more. You'll get two 3-hour workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, plus a box lunch. That is a bargain!

Have I mentioned that registration is now officially open?  It is!  For all the juicy details, updates and a link to the registration page, please visit http://pikespeakwriters.com/html/ppwc.html.

And don't forget to stay tuned to this space. We'll have a Conference Countdown every third Friday of the month, plus in-depth interviews with as many of the faculty as we can fit in!

Make plans now to join us for the 2013 PPW Conference. We'll have something for writers at every stage of their career, and you get to spend an entire weekend rubbing elbows with the best kind of people we know--other writers.

(And could someone please loan me an exclamation point or two? I've used up at least three months' allotment here.)

MB Partlow

2013 PPWC Programming Director

Programming@pikespeakwriters.com