Bloggy bits: May 2008 Archives

Sitting in my hotel lobby grabbing some free wifi before I head out to a bunch of meetings, I came across these two websites which happen to mention a few kt literary projects. First, Under the Coversthinks Maureen Johnson's SCARLETT cover model looks like Scarlett Johanssen, while Jose Bloss' BAND GEEK LOVE seems to deliberately call to mind Alyson Hannigan's famous band geek character in American Pie. Hmmm...

Then, over on the blog Garish & Tweed, the author ponders the theme of YA protagonists without friends, or somehow separated from their friends for the course of the novel, mentioning SUITE SCARLETT again. I couldn't help but think also of CRUEL SUMMER by Alyson Noel, whose heroine Colby is an ocean away from her new group of friends, with other actions separating her from another good friend.

Does your WiP or novel fit this mold as well? Or, conversely, what examples can you give me of a YA novel protag with a strong group of friends, not a la Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, when all four friends share protagonist-ship, but a single central character with a realistic numbers of buddies?

As are so many of my publishing colleagues, I'm off to Los Angeles for BookExpo America, or BEA. I'm leaving lots of room in my suitcase for the galleys I hope to pick up while I'm there, as well as whatever cute tote bags, and giveaways I can get my little hands on! I'm most excited about meeting with three of my authors, though, including one with whom I've spoken for years, but never meet in person before. Should be a grand time. Expect posting to be sporadic until I return to the office next week, but if inspiration and opportunity strikes, I'll be around.

Intriguingly, I've recently received a number of queries sent in response to my strong stated interest in literary fiction, to which I say... huh? Sure, on my submissions page, I mention I'm looking for "brilliant, funny, original middle grade and young adult fiction, both literary and commercial" but this is all in one bullet point, and thus, I think it pretty clear that the word "literary" here refers to "middle grade and young adult fiction," and is not a separate interest. Does anyone still remember how to diagram sentences?

I'm sure I've read the book that would disprove my point, but my impression of contemporary adult literary fiction, as it's being submitted and sold in the publishing industry right now, are books that seem to emphasize the craft of writing rather than storytelling. That is to say, I think the term "literary fiction" as it's bandied about is slang for a book about words, not plot.

As I said, I'm sure there's lots of examples that would prove me wrong, but that's my general, personal impression. There are many great and wonderful agents out there looking for adult literary fiction (my former agency practically specialized it in!), but not me.

Now, if you want to trick me into looking at your literary masterpiece, write a killer query that hooks me into the story, and feel free to skip the fact you think it's literary. Confuzzle me!

Most agents, if you know them well enough (or get them drunk) can tell you about the "book that got away": the manuscript in their to-read pile they didn't read before another agent snapped it up, the project they passed on that was sold by a colleague for big bucks, the super-duper mega-bestseller they thought sounded like a retread of everything they'd ever read before with nothing original about it. And then, in a different category of books that got away, there's the one they maybe sold or worked on in a previous incarnation -- as an editor, perhaps, before they hung out their own shingle, or the Times bestseller whose royalties are all going straight to their former agency after they set out on their own. For me, one of those books that I think of fondly, and wish all the very best success in the world, is Trenton Lee Stewart's The Mysterious Benedict Society, and its just-released sequel, The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey. I was honored to sell the foreign rights to Trent's books when I was at Janklow, and got to know the author, who is sweet, and kind, and generous, and deserves all his success. If you haven't already read MBS, you're missing something wonderful. As Trent's editor Megan Tingly says in a recent PW article about the books' appeal, "These kids are gifted but they don't use a wand, or fly or have psychic ability. They rely on their ingenuity and force of will to solve problems and triumph over adversity. They have magical adventures without magic, which is really clever."

They are clever, and I think you'll love them. I'm putting in my order for The Perilous Journey right now.

kt literary will be off on a short vacation tomorrow through Tuesday, taking in some sun, some sand, some cervezas, and some beach reading. What's on the pile?

• The Rough Guide to Baja California
• I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
• Screwball by Keri Mikulski
• Little (Grrl) Lost by Charles De Lint
• Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust
• The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar
• Making Money by Terry Pratchett
• Two weeks' worth of Entertainment Weekly
• And two months' worth of House Beautiful

Combined with my Kindle reading, that ought to keep me busy for a few days. And if not, I can always download something new.

See you when I get back! And while I'm gone, feel free to send me your questions, and tell me what would be on your list of beach books, if you were packing today.

It's nice out now, though getting onto evening, but I was thinking about motivation this morning as I heard the rain pattering down on the deck, considered putting on shoes and a jacket to go rescue the plants I'd potted this weekend, and decided instead to stay in bed. It wasn't a very long stay, as Trixie Implausible needed to be dressed, groomed, fed, and sent off with Rexroth to day care, after which I got to work, but it got me thinking...

It's one thing when your writing is going well, and you're on a roll, tossing chapters off with the ease of Carrie Bradshaw-esque bon mots about shoes, but what do you do when it's not going well, when the thought of sitting down to your favored writing device is as uncomfortable to imagine as getting out of a warm, cosy bed on a chilly morning? What do you do?

Me, I avoid the work, so let's not talk about me. What do YOU do? How do you motivate yourself?

But Cory Doctorow (yes, him again) posits an interesting idea on publishing, and the value of giving stuff away for free.

Dandelions and artists have a lot in common in the age of the Internet. This is, of course, the age of unlimited, zero-marginal-cost copying. If you blow your works into the net like a dandelion clock on the breeze, the net itself will take care of the copying costs.

Now, I know I do agree with artists having a place on the web where their readers can find them, and that those sites should be frequently updated with new information, which should be shared widely. Do I believe in giving away copies of their books for free? All of them?

Ummm, no. But making them available to read in large chunks, and links to sites where you CAN get the book immediately? Yeah, I like that.

I'm looking forward to Doctorow's next article.

Rather than doling them out in drips and drabs, someone wise and wonderful suggested I compile a list of some of my querying "don't"s. Now, these are specifically mine, and other agents may have their own pet peeves, but there's some general advice I hope you can take from this list.

1. Send it on behalf of your wife/husband/child/sibling/gerbil. I don't want to represent any writer who isn't actively involved in their own submission process.
2. Write it from the point of view of your characters. I've said this before: while your creations may speak to you, they don't speak to me. Let your letter show that you're a professional writer, not a nutjob who thinks their characters come alive.
3. Tell me it'll be a huge bestseller, change the world, and win the Newbery/Printz/ManBooker/Pulitzer/Oscar. Tell me the story, and let me imagine the accolades.
4. Detail all the kids who've read it/that you've read it to who think it's the best book they're ever seen or heard (and you didn't even tell them you wrote it! How tricksy you are!). Children aren't critics, and they aren't editors.
5. Preach at me. Don't tell me the lesson I'll learn from the book. Readers, myself among them, don't want to be taught, we want to be entertained.
6. Include a proposed cover design, or suggest an artist, or link to an image that you feel captures the essence of the manuscript. There are people who do that for a living. They're called art directors, and they come into the publishing process well after I do.
7. Think your book is strong enough to vault over my stated preferences. If I ask for a letter and the first three pages, send me a letter and the first three pages: not pages somewhere in the middle, not the first third of the book, not a chapter listing.
8. Send a form letter, or worse, send to all of my agent colleagues on the same email, without even the benefit of a "bcc". Personalize each query. Know who you're writing to, and be able to say why you're approaching them. And "I'm going through a list of Agents and you were next alphabetically" is not a good reason.
9. Create a new category or genre for your book, and please Please PLEASE don't refer to it as a "fiction novel." I generally shouldn't need more words to describe your book's category or genre than are in your proper name. Urban fantasy, chick lit, romance, science fiction, mystery, magical realism, comedy: these all work, but not all together in some mashed up new phrase like urban-romance-sci-fi-mysterious-comedy. Too confusing.
10. Worry too much about the query letter. If the manuscript is strong enough, and you haven't broken too many of the above "rules", it'll be read, and someone, somewhere, is going to love it.

Did I forget anything important? What rules have you heard that everyone should know?

On my submissions page, I recommend that writers querying me include the first¹ three pages of their manuscript along with their letter. Why these three pages? Mostly because I recognize that the art of writing a good, strong query letter isn't the same as the art of writing a novel. (What to say or not say in a query letter is a WHOLE other topic to be tackled on another day.) Sometimes a writer's voice sings out from the letter alone, and just on the basis of that material, I know I want to read more. More often though, I need to actually see something from the text to make my best, informed decision.

And if I'm on the fence about something? Well, if all I have is the letter alone, and I'm not sure about the project, 9 out of 10 times I'll decline. But if I think "maybe" after reading the letter, and can then go on and read three pages -- well, you might just convince me to ask for more.

Nothing's a slam dunk, of course. The flip side of the above is that I might recognize in reading the first three pages that you have a killer idea, but I might see in the pages that you lack the expertise to write it well. That's a chance you have to take.

When I get together with writers over lunch, or chatting at conferences, and someone pitches me, I always tell them to check out my guidelines online and email me. Why? Because that's what I need to see to make my decision: a query letter and three pages.

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¹ Yes, the FIRST three pages. If your best sample pages aren't the opening ones, how do you expect to catch a reader's attention?

In writing, as in life, sometimes things happen that you don't expect. You can draft and draft and draft, and prepare an outline of your novel that has every tiny little bit of plot mapped out to the nth degree, but if you're not willing to toss all that aside, to let things go where they want to go, and let scenes play out as you never imagined they might, then I think you're crippling yourself as a writer.

I could throw a ton of metaphors out there for you on this. It's like when you've fully planned out your day, and each hour is carefully scheduled, but the real fun and adventure is in allowing yourself to disregard the calendar, and spend an extra hour playing at the park, or talking with an old friend, or even sleeping. Ah sleep.

You may hear other writers talking about their characters as if they're real people -- "I wanted to write him out of this scene, but Spencer insisted he remain in." -- and you may think they're crazy. But all they're doing is allowing the momentum of the writing to carry the day, not the outline.

So go ahead -- draft an outline and follow it, but let yourself have fun along the way, see where that takes you -- hopefully somewhere fun, and not the emergency room!