On Agents...

Just how important it is to have an agent when you’re trying to get published? There seem to be several schools of thought on this topic. Some say it is essential, others, not so much. Some people have sold their first book without an agent, and then get an agent before they sell their second. Some people sell more than one book without an agent and are perfectly happy dealing with the contract negotiations themselves. One published author I know has had many agents but has never sold a book through an agent – all of her sales have come when she’s been between agents!

I’m not sure where I stand on this issue. Don’t get me wrong, if an agent approached me tomorrow and said, “I love your book and know just where we can sell it,” I’d jump on that with both feet. However, I know several published authors who have agents and love them, others who have agents and tolerate them, and still a few more who have agents and are looking for new agents!

In a recent panel discussion with several published authors, this very question arose. An unpublished author said, “I always hear about the questions you should ask an agent before accepting their representation, but what ARE those questions?” The answers were as varied as the published authors, but the one that stuck with me is this one: ask the agent, “why do you love my story?”

As a writer, you must LOVE your story. Hopefully, you’ll find an editor who feels the same and will BUY your story. An agent must also LOVE your story. If they love your voice and they love your characters and they love your plotting and they love your conflict and they love everything about your story, you can bet your bottom dollar they’re going to do their best to sell that story to an editor.

I recently perused one of those “guide” books in the library regarding agents. Do you KNOW how many agents there are out there? HUNDREDS of them. Surely, somewhere out there in the great big publishing world, there is ONE agent who will feel the same way about our characters/stories that we do…now we just have to find that agent…or not.

A'contesting we shall go

Well it's late in the 2006 contest season for us, but we are just getting started. We missed the January and February contests for a variety of reasons. If you are an aspiring author of Romance, then you are probably already familiar with Donna Carrabeaux's terrific Contest Deadlines Yahoo list.

Cai and I have been steadily buffing and polishing two separate pieces. We did have four pieces ready to go, but had to make a decision as to which two we wanted to go! Instead of sending in two brand new mss, we sent in one that is brand-new. The other we sent round the contest gauntlet in 2004 and got the same answers across the board. Our heroine was TSTL. Ouch! Never what you want to hear!

I ripped apart the first 25 pages of that ms! I put her on a motorcycle and had her chase the bad guys. Cai gently took her back off the motorcycle. I went back to the original scene and began tightening. The way Cai and I work well together is in write/edit/write/. One of us starts by writing. The second one then reads and edits that portion and then writes past as much as she can. The first one gets it all back and proceeds forward with editing her own bit, then the other's, then writing forward.

At some point we have to decide to stop going back over the beginning and just push forward. This ms was FINIS at about 45k. It needs to be 90k to equal its counterpart which has done extremely well on the contest rounds. It is in the hands of two editors as well as an agent at this point. We have all our fingers crossed to hear something from one of the three.

I am also a judge for several contests. One is a major one in our industry. I just sent my scores in. Here are a few things I want to share with those whose entries I judged even though I have NO CLUE who they are.

1. Ten pages of backstory is too much. No really! I do not need or WANT to know why her grandmother lost her left pinky.
2. If I can make a formula and someone else can fill in the blanks, you need to get something fresher.
3. I discovered that injured animals and bloody wedding dresses are far more intriguing than I ever thought possible.
4. Please assume I am stupid and have never seen something. SHOW it to me with your words. Create a picture for me please.

And most of all, no matter what I or any other judge puts on your work, don't toss the baby out with the bathwater. Hang on to that ms even if you have to put it under your bed for a year or ten. Grin! Then reread the judges comments. See where they mesh. Ok, so your heroine is Too Stupid To Live. She made your first choice editor hurl the ms across the room and then hurl her cookies. Yeah, that hurts, but you can fix that!

As an author, you can fix whatever problem there is. But remember this as well. If only one judge says something, don't go on their opinion only. Judging is incredibly subjective. In fact romance contests may have just surpassed Figure Skating as the most subjective judging around.

As the saying goes, have an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.

Fear...

Fear can be a great motivator for an author. It can also be the greatest foe one can face.

It can motivate one because once you have that first sale under your belt, you may fear never having another, so you work twice as hard at your craft.

On the other hand, it can also be the greatest foe one will face:
Fear of putting your work out there for your peers to critique.
Fear of entering a contest because judging is so subjective.
Fear of never finding the right agent/editor.
Fear that once you’ve written one really good book you’ll never be able to duplicate that feat.
Fear that you’ll never be good enough.

Where do these fears come from and why do we, as writers, give in to them?

Even if all we do is tell our story our way, haven’t we accomplished something? Aren’t we then worthy of praise and admiration – even if we never sell a book?

When I tell people I’m a writer, they usually respond with, “I’ve always wanted to write a book.” My response is always, “so what’s stopping you?”

ANYONE can write a book – not everyone can write a GOOD book. Not everyone can write a book well enough to get it published. Some people will always write for their own pleasure, others will write for the pleasure of the rest of us…and we ALL face our fears every time we sit down in front of the computer and put our hands on the keyboard.