Tip O'Day #413 - Three Bits of Advice

Guest blogger Lesley Ann Sharrock says you need to “be yourself, find your own voice, and write for yourself.”

What does it take to be published? Damned if I know, even though I have achieved that honor.

It seems to me that it’s a bit of a lottery.

When I finished my first novel, The Seventh Magpie, I tried going down the traditional route of finding an agent. No luck there, lots of “it’s not for us but another agent may feel differently.” They didn’t. We all know that the large publishers will only look at work that is submitted to them via an agent, so that door was firmly slammed in my face. I finally went directly to a smaller publishing house and they accepted it. Phew!

I have just finished my second novel, Truth Lies Buried, and am back on the old agent hunt because I feel that this one is far more commercial than the first as I have now shifted genres to crime thrillers. I may well be wrong, but only time will tell.

The advice I would give all writers is to be yourself, find your own voice, and write for yourself.

Not everyone will like your work, not even your nearest and dearest. Don’t be deterred. There will be lots of people out there who are just like you and who will tune in to your story, given half a chance. Have your final manuscript edited by a professional, experienced editor before submitting it. This is essential, no matter what route you decide to take, be it the traditional one of finding an agent for your work, submitting directly to small publishers or self-publishing. Make it as perfect as it can be.

You can view the book trailer for The Seventh Magpie here. Check out this author's website at http://lesleyannsharrock.com.

TipO'Day #403 - How to Pick a Book

Guest blogger Ellen Grogan on “So Many Books, So Little Time.”

With a collection of close to 4,000 books, the second question friends and neighbors always ask is, “How do you choose which book to read?”

“Well, that depends,” I respond.

When it comes to sampling books by authors who are new to me, cover design counts big time. If an author doesn’t care enough to invest the time and/or money in a professionally-designed cover, well, how much care could have been invested in the writing and editing of that manuscript? You see, we’re not in school any longer. We are offering a valuable work product (hopefully) in exchange for someone’s money and the time to read it. Value is expected in return! After that, all I want is to know what the story is about. If the description on the jacket of the book peaks my interest, I will read the first page of a sample. That’s it – one page. And price is always a consideration.

My first picks, however, are always from among the authors whom I consider to be some of the greatest living writers of our generation: Margaret George, Anne Rice, Stephanie Cowell, Michael Connelly, Ken Follett, Stephen Leather, James Patterson. Not only are they wonderful storytellers, but also there is much to be learned from the way they craft their stories.

I like true crime by Anne Rule if I want a really good scare. Nothing like a serial killer story to get my blood pumping. I like interesting detective stories: Harry Bosch by Michael Connelly; Alex Cross by James Patterson; Samuel Tay by Jake Needham; Inspector Zhang by Stephen Leather. I like everything non-vampire by Anne Rice. Her writing makes me feel like a little child curled up with a cup of hot chocolate listening to her as she tells me another magnificent story. (Of course I hear voices, silly – I’m a writer!) And Stephanie Cowell, well, all of her writing is so beautifully vivid that it just breaks my heart.

I must admit that I have not yet read any of the Dan “Spider” Shepherd novels by Stephen Leather but, those aside, I have never been disappointed by anything this amazing storyteller has written. Dreamer’s Cat and the Jack Nightingale series are beyond magnificent in story and in craftsmanship.

Oh, yes, and about that other question my friends and neighbors always ask me first: “Where do you find the time to do all this?”

Easy – I don’t do housework.

Tip O'Day #304 - Serious Authors Need Serious Help

Neil Marr, managing editor of BeWrite Books, on an editor’s role.

The breathtaking opening paragraph of Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude carried these words in English: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Aureliano Burendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

Magnificent. As brilliant as the opening lines to Rebecca or 1984. A full synopsis in a simple paragraph.

The original Spanish version was immensely outsold by its English translation version by Gregory Rabassa. The translation was so powerful that Márquez himself said it outshone his original. Rabassa in return wrote a book about his translation called If This Be Treason. That sums up where the editor stands in fiction: Every act of communication is translation of author intent. Is our editorial intervention an act of complicity and cooperation or of treason?

There are many examples where an editor turned a tepid manuscript into a work of art. Google ’em. I recall no record of an editor destroying an original work. You?

A manuscript arrives on my desk and shows promise. But it’s horrific in terms of typos and grammatical error (no problem), as well as continuity hiccups (fixable). The hitch is that the chapters are out of whack, and character presence should be lessened here, enhanced there. Story-lines are weak, loose or incomplete. Let’s fix ’em. Writing style isn’t consistent, dialogue is stiff and unreal. Let me have a go.

Then comes the gatekeeper’s decision … take it or leave it. And that’s largely down to how flexible and cooperative the author behaves in early contacts. In many cases, the editor actually becomes the author, taking (and desiring) no credit. So my pet peeve is authors who think they can go it alone and self-publish raw drafts through all the freebie channels now open to them that present a slush-pile for the reader to sift. All they do is try to sell the unadopted.

I’m a spoilsport? Sure I am. But my thoroughly professional editorial team and I (with an average of 40 pro years in the job) often spend as much time perfecting a promising work as its author did in writing it. And we don’t publish bum steers. We also do it free of charge, as any true publisher should. And produce professional cover art, text design, independent international distribution channels, and promotion.

Authors CANNOT go it alone if they want to be taken at all seriously. They need pro help, and all they must do is to come up with a presentable submission to crack that nut and save themselves thousands of wasted bucks or to save a book that’s dead in the water without sound input.

Learn more about Neil at his website.

Tip O'Day #36

Be Professional, say writers Stella Deleuze and Devyn Quinn.

First, Stella Deleuze from her blog http://synopsisandbookfactory.wordpress.com/ (used with permission):

If you decide to join an online forum for writers, Facebook, twitter or if you own a blog – any public forum, in fact - you should keep it professional. Agents and editors are scouting for new writers and if they see the author of this good and publishable book is behaving like an idiot, constantly arguing, posting all sorts of things that make them look bad, there’s a great chance of him or her walking away. Opportunity missed.

Nowadays, everything is trackable; Google yourself and you will find a lot of proof for that, especially if you are active in online communities. Agents/editors/potential employers who receive your e-mail and like what they see, might be put off as soon as they search your name in Google, if they are confronted with foul language and online-fights, you calling others names.

Publishing houses don’t want difficult. They want easy-to-get-on-with authors, employees. Yes, you can be a square-thinker, but be professional about it. One can have a good discussion without getting personal.

In the end, if you are invited to an author-interview you won’t start yelling at the interviewer just because he asked a question you don’t like, would you?
I have heard of authors who have been ‘released’ from their contracts before their book went into print, because they have shown a different side to them after signing.

Being a paid author has to be considered a job and therefore, to be taken as seriously as one. Your online presence is your personal reference, make the best of it.

Along the same line, here is author Devyn Quinn:

The thing is, there are no "tips" for getting published. It's a business and you approach as such. It's like showing up to an interview in shorts and sandals when business attire is expected. Agents and editors expect to work with authors who know what they are doing, not simply guessing how the business works.