Publishing Advice

[Richelle Mead]

tagnizkur asked about this over in another thread, so I figured I'd address it over here in the Author Craft section.

Note, of course, that this is just my opinion; everyone has a different take on getting published!  The first thing is to write the book and get it in the absolute best shape you can.  Agents and editors are flooded with books all the time, and if something's been turned out quickly and not honed, they'll pass on it very quickly.

When you're ready to submit, I heartily recommend an agent--especially for fiction.  Some people balk at the 15% agents get, but they often get you better deals than you'd get on your own--so it works out.  Plus, a lot of editors won't even look at unagented works, so you'll get more attention that way.  As far as actually getting an agent, do your research.  There are books and books on how to query.  Forums like Absolute Write and Backspace are also good resources. Most importantly, research the agents you're submitting to.  Make sure they represent what you write, and follow their submission guidelines exactly.

A key thing to remember is that this a business where you have to jump through many tedious hoops.  A lot of "old school" authors--Terry Brooks comes to mind--have stories about lucky breaks and how they knew someone who knew someone.  That is not the case nowadays.  I have a dozen other author friends with 1-2 books out like me, and we all came up through the slush pile.  The system really does work, but a lot of people are too impatient to go through it.  But you've got to.  Send your queries.  Be diligent.  Brace yourself for rejection.  Above all, keep doing it, and while you're submitting that first book, start writing another.

Good luck!

[tagnizkur]

what would you consider the hottest genre right now...  my book is fantasy - urban fantasy as well.  I was told by a friend who edits that this book could easily be broken into two if i could just get all of my ideas written down in whole.  The overall story indeed does have a way to be broken apart quite easily...

[Josh]

Asking what the "hottest" genre is, or the biggest publishing trend of the moment is kind of a futile chase. Sure, it's good to know what's selling, but the fact is you should just keep writing what you like to write. If you try to write to trends, first off you aren't going to be as original as you could be, and second, you are likely not going to reap any benefits of said trends. Publishing cycles and genre popularity all dip and swell, sometimes without any logic to them, so trying to squeeze a fantasy book into Harry Potter hysteria (aside from not wanting to get squelched by Rowling sales competition) isn't the best way to focus your career path. Just write what you love, and if it's good, usually it will find its place.

That being said, I'm seeing a lot of paranormal romance being "hot" right now. But maybe by the time I tried to write one, it'll be ghostly tragedies spanning multigenerational family epics. Meh.

[tagnizkur]

Yeah, I hear you.  More question was more of a general one though.  When I do write its always about what im into...  LOL.. I have never been a follower.. ask any teacher...  friend or my wife.. they will all say the same thing. "he is who he is...."

[RMatthewWare]

As to hottest genres right now.  I see a lot of paranormal/spec fic romance as well.  Young adult, with any genre (spec fic or otherwise) seems to be really hot.

According to Miss Snark, however, what is hot now is what they were selling two years ago.  When you talk to an agent, they're trying to get you sold for a 2009 book release.  So, yes, pay attention to what's selling, but don't be afraid to write what's on your mind.  It it's hot now, it might not be hot when your book is done.

As to publishing.  My WIP is finished, now I'm going to do my research on how to write a query letter.  This is something I kept on the back burner.  I knew it needed doing, but why bother with the query letter if you haven't written the book.  Seems like you're getting things out of order.  I googled 'query letter' and just bookmarked the first ten results so I can review them later.  I'm sure I'll get a lot of good results.

Once the query letter is written, I'll hit the agents.  Miss Snark says to query widely, or in other words, send your query letter to anyone who could possibly sell it.  If you have written a young adult vampire romance set on a spaceship, you should query young adult agents, fantasy agents, romance agents, and scifi agents.  The wider your audience, the more likely you are to sell.  The worst you could do is waste the 41 cents for postage (wretched postal increase  !!!)

If all the agents reject you, you can either search again, submit on your own, rewrite your story, or work on the next story.  I read that Jim Butcher wrote his Codex Alera books before Dresden Files.  He had to sell Dresden Files, though, to get the Codex Alera books out.  That happens.

Matt

[black roses]

Yeah. The genre that I write is... well, not that popular. That is: paranormal homoerotic urban fantasy. Yay.

[Richelle Mead]

Eek...sorry I've been so MIA on my own topic.

Pretty much I agree with what's been said.  As far as hot genres go, there's no predicting it.  With the backlog in publishing, what's hot is indeed what was selling 2 years ago.  Succubi were very cutting edge when I sold the book, and while there still aren't a lot on the market, it took *18 months* for the book to see print.  Write what you want to write.  If the story is solid and well-done, it won't matter what's hot or not.  Seriously.  Good stories triumph over all.

And as for queries, yes!  Research away and query as many as you can.  Also research each agent you query.  They all have little quirks, and as I said earlier, make sure you know what they want in a query.

[Cosmos]

Thanks for the great advice Richelle!  I have a question - something I saw Jim mention in his "How I Got Published" section on the site - conventions?  That's something I hadn't heard recommended in the past, but I'm starting to see it mentioned in more and more writers' groups.  What kind of conventions should an author attend - I mean, are there conventions specifically for authors, or just scifi/fantasy conventions where authors/editors may be attending as a guest?  And how do you approach someone at a convention about your own writing eloquently?  Thanks for any advice any of you can give me.

[Yeratel]

Thanks for the great advice Richelle!  I have a question - something I saw Jim mention in his "How I Got Published" section on the site - conventions?  That's something I hadn't heard recommended in the past, but I'm starting to see it mentioned in more and more writers' groups.  What kind of conventions should an author attend - I mean, are there conventions specifically for authors, or just scifi/fantasy conventions where authors/editors may be attending as a guest?  And how do you approach someone at a convention about your own writing eloquently?  Thanks for any advice any of you can give me.

The Friends of the Library (I'm one of them) here puts on an annual event called Much Ado About Books, http://www.muchadoaboutbooks.com/home.cfm , which brings in published authors for panel discussions and workshops in all sorts of book genres -- scifi, thrillers, romance, memoirs, biographys, children's books, etc. For the price of a ticket, you can pick out the discussions that appeal to you and participate in question and answer sessions with published authors in your field of interest. Maybe there's something like that going on in your area?

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Thanks for the great advice Richelle!  I have a question - something I saw Jim mention in his "How I Got Published" section on the site - conventions?  That's something I hadn't heard recommended in the past, but I'm starting to see it mentioned in more and more writers' groups.  What kind of conventions should an author attend - I mean, are there conventions specifically for authors, or just scifi/fantasy conventions where authors/editors may be attending as a guest?  And how do you approach someone at a convention about your own writing eloquently?  Thanks for any advice any of you can give me.

This has kind of been covered in the Novelist's Social Life thread, but basically; authors and editors are people too. There are conventions that are very business-oriented, like World Fantasy Con, which has a reputation for being swarmed with annoying wannabes, and then there are ones like Minicon which is in my experience [ 2000-2003, I'm not going into the US again until there's a regime change ] full of authors and editors going to have fun and relax and be with their friends, and being around and being interesting and civilised and decent works there as well as it works with any other bunch of human beings.  If you are interesting enough editors will ask you about your fiction, I can think of two examples off the top of my head.  Also as with any other bunch of human beings, the response you'll get for hard-selling someone who is trying to relax and have fun is unlikely to be positive.

[InkSlinger]

tagnizkur asked about this over in another thread, so I figured I'd address it over here in the Author Craft section.

Note, of course, that this is just my opinion; everyone has a different take on getting published!  The first thing is to write the book and get it in the absolute best shape you can.  Agents and editors are flooded with books all the time, and if something's been turned out quickly and not honed, they'll pass on it very quickly.

When you're ready to submit, I heartily recommend an agent--especially for fiction.  Some people balk at the 15% agents get, but they often get you better deals than you'd get on your own--so it works out.  Plus, a lot of editors won't even look at unagented works, so you'll get more attention that way.  As far as actually getting an agent, do your research.  There are books and books on how to query.  Forums like Absolute Write and Backspace are also good resources. Most importantly, research the agents you're submitting to.  Make sure they represent what you write, and follow their submission guidelines exactly.

A key thing to remember is that this a business where you have to jump through many tedious hoops.  A lot of "old school" authors--Terry Brooks comes to mind--have stories about lucky breaks and how they knew someone who knew someone.  That is not the case nowadays.  I have a dozen other author friends with 1-2 books out like me, and we all came up through the slush pile.  The system really does work, but a lot of people are too impatient to go through it.  But you've got to.  Send your queries.  Be diligent.  Brace yourself for rejection.  Above all, keep doing it, and while you're submitting that first book, start writing another.

Good luck!

Good advice in this post. Are you an AW regular?

[Richelle Mead]

Once again, I'm behind.

Re: conventions.  If you're serious about getting published, you want to go to a writer's conference, not a sci-fi/fantasy one.  On the west coast, the ones I go to are the Surrey International Writers Conference and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association's conference.  (Google them if you want more info).  But there are others just like them all over.

These are great--particularly if you find a big, legitimate one--because industry professionals are there.  You can actually ask questions about publishing in workshops, which can be a lot easier for some people than trying to sift through internet and book sources.  You can also pitch your novels directly to an agent or editor.  That's partially how I got my agent.  I pitched to Jane Dystel at PNWA.  She liked my idea, but it wasn't her genre.  She gave me the name of another agent at her agency, and I contacted her, and she picked up the book.  This isn't to say you still shouldn't be sending out your letter queries, but it's another avenue to augment the querying process.

Sci-fi/fantasy cons are super fun but less useful if your goal is to get published.  They become more relevant once you're published and want publicity because you can be on panels/workshops, and the vednors will usually have your books for sale.

And no, I'm not a regular on AW.  I used to be on Backspace, but I'm pretty out of the loop on that one too lately, alas.