I just returned from the annual "Wrangling With Writing" Conference, sponsored by the Southwest Society of Authors, of which I'm a member. The conference is open to non-members, and I can recommend it to anyone within traveling distance of Tucson, Arizona. There were over 400 attendees this year, and 30 workshops in two days. It cost attendees $225 for up to 6 workshops and five meals. Published writers who are members of SSA get a free booksigning/selling table. Successful writers are speakers at each meal. J.A. Jance was the keynote speaker this year.
There were also more than 30 editors, agents, publishing company reps, book doctors, etc, available for private consultations/interviews (the fees for these were in addition to the workshop fees.)
I took the following notes during the workshops I attended.
SandraWHAT SHOULD I WRITE ABOUT?
We often live someone else's lives. Need to live our own life. Rather than write what you know, write about what you want to know or what you're curious about. Then had us make a list of five things we're interested in. These should not be things we should be interested in or what someone else expects us to be interested in.
She next discussed life themes. We all have life themes, even if we're unaware of them. She gave us a series of questions to answer that designed to help figure out life themes. These questions included:
She says it is essential to journal and very strongly recommends morning pages which are three uncensored pages each morning. Don't reread these pages until several weeks have passed.
All this helps us to find our authentic place from which to write.
She says to write only because you want to write, because no matter what you write, it will at some time in some way, touch another person. You must tell your own truth.
Don't worry about markets—there is a market for everything.
Don't let being buffeted by life stop you. Pain and/or suffering is what helps make you strong enough to write.
Physical exercise and breathing exercises essential for writers. They're good for you physically, but also clear mental cobwebs.
Every night before you go to bed, write down five things you're grateful for.
Make list of five people you resent and what it is that you resent about them. This is what you dislike about yourself!
The important thing is to write about what matters to you.
Make a list of what you want. Leave a space between each item. Keep listing items until you can't think of anything else you want. Don't worry if it seems silly or impossible.
When you're done with the list, then go back and write what obtaining each want would give to you. Look for the real purpose each want has for you, not superficial. You'll learn what's real for you.
Make a list of five persons you admire. Doesn't have to be someone you know personally, or someone presently alive. Then describe why you admire them.
The things you admire, i.e integrity, independence, will keep surfacing. This gives you clues as to what's important to you.
This is turn helps you to know your life's theme and what you want to write about.
Once you know your theme, then consider how to best amplify your theme through character, plot, etc. Don't be concerned if writing is character-driven or plot-driven.
Also don't worry if you can't put a name to your life's theme. If you get to your authentic self, your theme will reveal itself.
There are no bad events in your life—it is all grist for writing. Oysters don't make pearls without the irritating grit in their shells.
Creativity is an overused word—stories are born in adversity.
Creation has already been done— she read It's a Good Thing I'm Not In Charge Here,a poem by Evi Seidman to illustrate this.
All we are doing now is re-creating. We are all snowflakes—we're each unique.
Strongly recommended reading Fugitive Pieces by Ann Michaels.
Different settings require different writing. Need to give yourself permission to write what needs to be written, not what should be or is expected. Essential that you love yourself, and put yourself first.
You can lose your confidence, hit the wall, take a walk, whatever. What is required is that you continue to show up.
We are creative without trying. Everything we do as humans is creative, and we need to take off our blinders about creative.
We all have two languages—instinctual and personal. Understanding universal symbols enables us to communicate. Departure from universal symbols allows us to develop personal metaphors. Both are important.
EXERCISE: Make a list of 4–5 prepositions. Then write a sentence using the first preposition as the first word in the sentence. Start the next sentence with the next preposition, and so on, but the sentences must all be related – that is, tell something about the subject of the first sentence.
We are not used to starting sentences with prepositions, and doing so pushes us to write something different.
Provided a detailed outline of a contract, and explained what the various clauses meant.
Publishing has changed. It's now all driven by the bottom line. Publishers are much more stringent about terminating contracts if terms not met exactly. The Internet has also wrought massive changes.
Every publisher has a standard contract. It is essential for authors to have the contracts reviewed by someone who knows about the business of publishing.
When considering contract negotiations, you need to identify the issues that are most important to you—these are the issues that are deal breaking. The standard contract is meant to be a negotiating document. Some issues the publisher won't budge on, some issues the author won't budge on.
Contracts provide answers to what happens if....?
Contracts are meant to define the rights and obligations of each. Should always be written. He strongly recommends avoiding oral contracts.
Material terms are where one contract varies from another. Material terms are subject matter, payment terms, quantity and quality, duration, etc.
Most publishing contracts are assignment of rights contracts, which means author is assigning certain rights to a mss. A contract is second in importance only to the mss—it is the only protection of an author's rights.
Using a do-it-yourself contract is asking for trouble.
The grant of rights clause in a contract is second in importance to the financial considerations. It means what rights the author is assigning to the publisher. All means ALL that can come out of a mss. First time authors don't always have much negotiating power over grant of rights clause.
A mss is a bundle. The author has right to give all or part of that bundle to publisher(s).
It's the duty of the author to ascertain what rights publisher really needs. Reservation of rights is a specific list of rights the author retains. Reversion of rights are those to be returned to author after a specified time or under specified conditions. If publisher won't grant reserved rights or the reversion of rights is important to you, ask publisher how they plan to commercialize them. Only the individual author knows if these are deal busters.
Behind every contract clause is implied a covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Look at contract as a business proposition, not just as an opportunity to publish books.
Try to negotiate delivery terms, with a clause whereby the delivery date can be extended without the contract being terminated. Clauses covering failure to deliver at all are usually not negotiable. Not only is contract terminated, author must repay advance and any pre-publication costs incurred by publisher. Ensure that this clause does allow all rights to revert back to author.
There will be a clause covering publisher's statement to publish—attempt to have a specified time, usually 12–14 months, inserted in this clause.
First time authors may sometimes have consultation rights on price, design, cover art, etc, but are rarely granted any decision-making ability.
Publishers nearly always retain the right to make minor changes in mss without author's approval, but make sure the clause says they may not make substantive changes without your approval.
The publisher has a good faith obligation to tell author what is wrong with mss and provide guidance on how to fix it if the mss is not acceptable. Author is obligated to attempt to fix problems to publisher's satisfaction.
Generally, the publisher has an obligation to publish. In past, the publisher could refuse to publish an acceptable mss if there was good economic reasons not to publish (this generally had to do with market changes between contract date and date mss delivered.) Recent court case has potentially changed this. Contracts are now including a changing conditions clause.
The size of an advance is of less importance than what the publisher will do to help the book earn money. First time authors have significantly less ability to negotiate advance amounts.
Look carefully at royalty percentage clauses. Royalties used to be based on list price, now nearly all are on net price. This means the royalty is calculated after all discounts, returns, credits, etc. The contract should spell out how net is calculated.
Another key issue is the escalation clause. This means the author gets a lower royalty percentage of first books sold, and higher percentage the more books are sold. His example: 10% on first 5000 books; 12 ½ % on 5000–10,000 books; and 15% on 10,000 + books.
Try to have e-book royalties in a separate clause.
Sometimes high discounts (usually 60% or greater) also means the royalty percentage is cut. So not only is the amount the percent is calculated on lower amount, the percent itself is smaller.
Authors should always ask:
This gives author a realistic idea of expected income, and prevents unpleasant surprises.
Try also to avoid having subsidiary rights be a part of the escalating % of royalties. Subsidiary rights are often negotiable.
Author's warranties and representations, and indemnification and insurance clauses are generally not negotiable.
The key issue in the discontinuance of publication clause is that the rights revert to the author when books goes out of print. This used to be easy to determine. Electronic publishing has changed this—when is a POD book out of print. Often never. Contract needs to specify exactly what conditions constitute out of print.
The competing works clause is usually not negotiable, but author can try to reduce the scope of clause. This generally applies more to non-fiction than fiction authors.
Clause covering options for next work usually have room for negotiation.
In a work made for hire agreement, the publisher totally owns the author's work, and the author gives up all control. Generally, it should be avoided, except in very special cases.
Essential to have a written agreement if co-author. A co-author is anyone who contributes copyrightable material. If no written agreement, each co-author owns 50% of the entire mss, no matter how little one may have contributed. Each also owns an undivided share of the entire work. (Eg: the illustrator owns half of the text, the writer owns half of the artwork.)
E-rights should have own clauses. Who owns the e-rights generally should not be a deal-breaker, especially for the first-time author.
Revision clauses especially important for non-fiction authors. Need to cover frequency, compensation, royalties, etc.
(Presented by Jeff Kleinman, who has a master's degree and JD degree, and is a literary agent and attorney with Graybill & English in Washington, D.C.)
Narrative non-fiction (creative nonfiction) is now very popular. It is non-fiction written using fiction techniques. It is different than traditional prescriptive non-fiction, such as how-to, etc.
Generally don't use dialogue or quotation marks in narrative non-fiction. What is most important is the narrative arc, which is the throughline.
Narrative non-fiction is a way for the reader to learn something, without feeling like learning something. Criteria this agent looks for:
He says it is absolutely essential for writers to talk and interact with other writers–that helps develop writing muscle.
Non-fiction books are sold on basis of book proposal. Most publishers prefer that book not be written, so they can put their own spin on it. There's a lot of analysis and work to be done before the writer does the book proposal. Proposal includes a detailed outline.
Your proposal is a sales tool, and it has to be wonderful.
The first thing to do is to go to a bookstore and locate the physical shelf your book will be on. This is part of determining your market. To the question of what if the book contains many elements, like history, biography, suspense, etc, he said to be guided by the bigger message of the book. The other elements are to enhance the bigger message. The bigger message defines who the ideal reader is.
As part of the marketing part of the proposal, need to look at other books competing for same shelf space and why yours will be better.
Have to include why you're the best person to write that book. Might have to do a little digging to determine this.
The proposal must include a sample chapter. This does NOT have to be the first chapter. It should be your best chapter, and should be an easy-to-understand and exciting chapter. It should also be light if your book includes dark and light material.
If your book will be written in first person, then the outline has to be in first person also.
He prefers cover letters to query letters. He says send something that demonstrates your writing ability (maybe prior clips, etc.) along with a cover letter asking Do you want to see my book proposal about ..... It is okay to send this to more than one agent. When someone replies in the affirmative, send the proposal with another cover letter saying here it is.
If the agent has asked for exclusivity on the proposal, specify a time period in the cover letter. 4–6 weeks is reasonable for non-fiction.
If you don't get responses or get negative responses, revamp your letter, etc. You must always sound assured and be very clear. If you're desperate, etc, that shows in the letter, and the agent thinks it will show in your writing. They only want confident and assured people.
Popular books now are health, historical, and so on. But don't rely on trends or what's popular now, because it's two years from the time the book proposal is submitted until the book is on the shelves. Instead of looking at what's hot now and trying to write more of it, look instead for a subject that is new and fresh.
The kiss of death is a lack of professionalism. Don't grant exclusivity and then send to others, etc. Don't waste agent's time with trying to dialogue about mundane things. Always act professionally and present yourself as assured and professional. If you act unprofessionally, it will come back to you.
Just because an agent asks for exclusivity on your proposal doesn't mean he necessarily thinks its saleable. It only means he doesn't want to waste his time looking at it if someone else is also looking at it. (He gets 300 + queries a week.)
When your proposal is accepted, you should always be able to get a list from the agent of where he submitted it and copies of rejection letters.
Publishers want authors committed to promoting book. It's not necessarily a problem if you can't travel to do book signings, etc. There are other ways to promote, including getting endorsements from celebrities, experts, etc.
Mystery readers are addicted, especially to series mysteries. This helps protect mystery writers from mid-list cuts. The big publishers are dropping mystery writers, but the small publishers are taking them on.
A mystery writer may not make a lot of money, but will stay in print.
A strong narrative is essential. Many readers want a puzzle—they want clues and an opportunity to figure out whodunit. Others are more interested in character and setting.
The traditional form of mystery stories remains popular. Readers want intellectual fairness, and don't want writers to undermine the formula much.
Characters are becoming more important—readers want a real person. The genre has changed from male-dominated to female-dominated, both readers and writers.
Many readers want a cute situation—a hook of some kind, not stereotypical sleuths.
Cozies are very popular because they take reader away from everyday life—escapism. Cozies have no graphic violence, no graphic sex, no social agenda, the crime occurs offstage, and the victim of the crime usually deserves what happened to him/her.
Mysteries involving PI or police procedural need more authenticity. Especially with a police procedural, it's essential to get a sense of the police culture.
Use action to describe character, rather than description. Secondary characters are important. Must be developed enough to be suspects or are adjuncts to sleuth.
Setting is extremely important. Mysteries must have a strong sense of place. If a real place, it must be authentic and accurate. Readers notice all errors and get very upset.
Mystery writers think they're writing fiction. Mystery readers read it as reporting. That's why they're so adamant about having lots of details, and having them all be accurate. They also like details that tell them something new.
Mystery readers do not like to suspend disbelief to any great extent.
Readers and publishers like series mysteries. Readers especially like following the same character. Writers can get tired or bored with a series character and like stand-alone books. One solution is to have a large cast of characters, and focus on different ones in each novel. Another is to have a secondary character in Novel 1 be the primary character in Novel 2, and the secondary character in Novel 2 be the primary character in Novel 3, etc. These techniques satisfy the reader's need for series and feeling of connection, but keeps writing fresh.
Generally authors wishing to write stand alone mysteries will establish a series first, then broaden their writing into a stand-alone.
Others start a second series.
If writing a series, must plan in advance how the character will change over time.
Never kill an animal in a mystery, especially a cat. Mystery readers won't tolerate violence against animals.
Although overall there are more female mystery readers and writers than male, it's the males who generally are writing the more literary stand alone mysteries. Women tend more to write series mysteries.
Right now, readers are older. Desperate need for mystery writers who can appeal to a younger audience.
Mystery bookstores will do your marketing for you—cultivate them. Chains and non-mystery independents are usually not particularly helpful. Publishers don't give the average mystery writer much support. Mystery writers need to tap into the mystery network. Go to bookstores, conferences, etc.
Publicists aren't particularly effective—readers want to meet the writer.
Mysteries require a crime, but it doesn't have to be murder.
Your characters need to be a part of your life. She brought 51 characters to conference with her.
You need a physical representation of your character—she cuts pictures from magazines. She frames them and puts them on her desk at work, like any other member of the family.
If you get to know your characters, they will help you write. Start getting to know them with pictures, and a complete bio. Bio must be more than mere description. Must reveal enough to make them real. Ask questions like:
If you had an hour in which you could do anything you wanted, what would you do?
You need to know everything about the character, even if parts of what you know don't appear in the story. In fact, most of the stuff in the bio won't appear in direct form.
Real people, no matter how much you care about them, have at least one habit/fault that drives you nuts. So does your character.
Characterization traps to avoid:
Choose character names carefully, and make sure character has name exactly right for him/her.
Responding to her post :
It was interesting to learn that publishers don't prefer completed books...
Keep in mind this is for non-fiction only. It doesn't apply to fiction.
Also this is just what one agent says. This particular agent deals only with the big New York publishers. He sends the proposal out to 7–10, and that's it. He doesn't deal with anyone outside of New York, nor does he consider anyone other than the biggest of the big.
Other agents and other publishers may have other preferences. It always makes a difference whether it's your first book.