How to Write a Novel

 

But really, it felt saying like this:

via GIPHY

I gave them two weeks, which was the longest amount of time I’d ever read that agents would need to read their fulls.

I was a little nervous, as I thought, I may be narrowing down my options too soon, if some agents bowed out for lack of time to read.  But, on the other hand, I had about a dozen queries out.  If the writers’ blog advice I’d been reading panned out, at least two-thirds of them should get back to me, and among those, maybe I’d get …3… offers? ???

Over the next few weeks, the grim reality hit.  No, agents don’t necessarily swarm in competitively, to claim a chance to read (even a contest-winning) manuscript, and see what the buzz is about.  2 got back to me to politely pass on the manuscript, 1 more offer came in (YAY!), but 6 did not even respond.

The hard truth was, I still haven’t gotten a response from most of them.  Right then, it was beginning to seem to me like they just didn’t care. ??.

Or, more soberly put: The hard truth that is that most literary agents have hundreds of queries coming into their inbox everyday — one agent who posted her query stats on Twitter said that, although she was participating in a Twitter pitch event, she already had 900 in her inbox.  I can’t imagine what sorting through all those must be like.  My private opinion?  It’s got to all blur together after a while.

Which leads me to my next point: I was picked up by a very new agent, who probably had not been subjected to that deluge.  My point is, in nutshell:  For frustrated, querying authors, who say, might be sorting through Jericho Writer’s Agent Match (although that is not how I found my agent), we might find better success working with agents who are, as the British-based writing mentorship org’s categorization terms it, “keen to list-build“.

This means these agents are wanting to build their client list, and aren’t too overwhelmed to ignore your manuscript just because it doesn’t track with the current market trends.

Hallelujah! (An important note to querying authors, however: AgentMatch does not frequently update listings, so it’s important to Google every agent before you query, in case they are no longer accepting submissions, or have been let go from their agencies, and WHY.)

…But I’m skipping something: one other place I’d queried did reply almost immediately when I sent out my nudge-letters saying I’d gotten an offer, an offer in response to this query I’d sent approx. 2 weeks before:

MY 2nd ACCEPTED QUERY [linked]

A small publisher got back to me THE VERY NEXT DAY, seemed intrigued by my original storyline, but had some editorial suggestions to put forth, if I wanted to schedule a call.

I, at the time, was 90% set on an agent, and so I wasn’t sure whether to go ahead with it.

[Partially because the internet had recently scared me with this gem: Unagented authors about to enter into an agreement with a publisher should not do the contract-analysis themselves; they’ll need to pay an expert. ?????!

But more on how I handled this phase in my next Post, all about publishing contracts.  Stay tuned]

But, I got an inkling to schedule the talk anyway — why close myself off from a good perspective on my work’s chances in the market, as well as find out more about how publishers actually conduct business?

So I scheduled it to coincide with when all the other agents would hopefully get back to me, as I set a new deadline.

Speaking of which, let’s talk *NUDGE DEADLINES*.  Every single writer’s blog I read up ’til then, said, once you’ve got an offer, it’s impolite and unorthodox to keep the offering agent waiting for more than 2 weeks.  Sometimes even one week to field responses from other agents is enough.

Only thing, by sheer luck, I had more leeway: the offering agent was scheduled out for a number of weeks, so I had more than 2 weeks to give the other agents to look over it.

I should have run with it.

I didn’t.

I said to myself, “There’s going to think this is just odd that they’re being given so much time, they may even doubt I’ve had a real agent offer, so I’ll stick to 2 weeks.”

It was mid-April, so I happily sent out nudge letters saying, if they could get back to me by May 1st, that would be terrific.

Expectation: The agents would respond quickly, to either offer or decline, because they would be gauging the time they’d need to read the manuscript.

Reality: ?

…

The call I’d scheduled with the offering agent was in late April, so there was arguably two more weeks I could give them, ending on May 9th.

So, just before the call, I wrote and sent out a second wave of nudges, letting them know there was a little more time, and offering them my agent’s contact info in case they wanted validation. (In the ensuing weeks, all of 4 more got back to me to politely pass on the manuscript, so this added time did, indeed, help.)

And so now, to “the Call”:

So I was all tense, right?  This was the first time in a looong while (since Up North’s quarterfinalist placement in Coverfly’s Cinematic Book Competition, or Chanticleer Reviewer’s 5-star rating and review), that I would be getting feedback on my *entire* novel.

via GIPHY

What editorial advice would a literary agent have?

It was a really great interview: She immediately made me feel at ease, and in answer to that first question — she actually hadn’t finished the book! Lit agents have to read and draw conclusions fairly fast oftentimes, but from what she had read, my prose had a really good flow, with “punchy dialogue” that she did not often see in debut author’s work.

I was thrilled! ?

And no, she didn’t have any editorial advice, nothing to cut, nothing to replace.  And to be honest, as a debut author, I found that the fact that she was now to her field as well, only made her more relatable.

But, for later on in the process, she made it clear that when it came to contracts and such, other experts might have to be brought in, because that was not one of her areas of expertise.

I left the call feeling like that could possibly be handled.

The very next day, the call with the publisher was scheduled.

I went in, very prepared to ward off all major editorial suggestions surrounding cutting or replacing.

 

via GIPHY

Having honed the same story over 10, going 11 years, I just couldn’t imagine what those could be.

The call began like this: First of all, I got to speak to an editor at Winding Road Stories, and was asked what was the vision for my book.  It was such an important question, and the conversation that developed from there was about how to further that vision.

For one, I was internally cringing to hear about any recommended changes (coming off the previous call which had left me confident there didn’t need to be any).  But when I heard them, they blew my expectations out of the water!

• First off what was great: the things he loved about the saga (the strong heroine MC, dialogue that hit all the notes for the time period) were the things that I loved about it – and what’s more, everything his company was looking for in terms of historical fiction, 100% aligned with the kind of things I like to watch & write.  That was *huge*.

• For the second thing, in terms of the editorial side, he was highlighting things I’d already always had vague dissatisfaction/doubts about – for one, when exactly should I reveal the antagonist’s back-story?

I had done well enough to get good reviews on the book, but had been left with a lingering feeling that I still wanted feedback on how the flow of the book would go over with audiences.  But without even asking, now I had it: and I felt the suggestions offered would indeed make it better! ?

I was totally confident in the honing and delivery of my characters and their dialogue, the kind of “coming-of-age” arc of the novel, but tbh, mysteries have always been pretty opaque to me – how are they built from the inside out?  To do both had been a challenge I’d accepted a long time back.  And I had taken that about as far as I could outside of mentorship.

The advice he gave surrounded strategically dotting more clues throughout (to say more would be full of spoilers, but it definitely clicked for me)!

UPSHOT: Just when I thought I knew what to expect, my expectations were blown out of the water — the first call left me feeling like, if I had to choose, rapport with the person guiding me through to publishing would outweigh the experience factor.

The second call left me overcome with excitement that I didn’t have to to choose — you can have BOTH on your side!

My mind was pretty much made up after the call, but I gave myself time (2 weeks of time!) to field any remaining agent-replies while reflecting, reviewing, and comparing all sides of both options.

 

*But there is the matter of the marketing engine — larger publishers always seem to have the advantage on that one.  Why not allow a literary agent to take my manuscript “on submission” (pitching my books to multiple publishers), and try could score an acceptance by one of the Big 5? 

This was the ultimate tie-breaker: If I went “on submission”, there was every chance in 100 that my book would eventually end up being accepted by a publisher whose editor whose vision didn’t align with mine, and would force my story into the mold of whatever was trending.  This can happen all too easily, as seen in the experience of author Sarah Ainslee, which she so honestly shares on her blog, SarahAinslee.com.  That had been the reason I’d initially even consider self-publishing, but broke off that line of research due to the staggering up-front costs.  The opportunity to have my book’s style and substance preserved by an editor who “got it”, in a company that didn’t charge authors up-front (like the dreaded vanity publishers), was a piece of rare luck. 

Whereas, if I went “on submission” (pitching my books to multiple publishers), there was every chance in 100 that my book would eventually end up being accepted by a publisher whose editor didn’t have as aligned a vision for my book as the one I’d already interviewed. 

Why take that risk? 

By now, you probably guessed I chose Winding Roads, and you’d be right!  ?

But how would I tackle the contract-deciphering part myself?

Well, I should say, first of all, that the company was very much open to answering all my questions, and gave me ample time to research what those would be — no added pressure.

But how did I find out what questions to ask?  Everything about that in the next post:

“My First Publishing Contract” >>

As always,

— Love, Abena.