I’ve read conflicting information on what to do when an agent has a copy of your ms but since sending you’ve made changes to it. Is it okay to notify them of the changes? Does this irk agents? I’m sure I’m not the only writer to have experienced this.

Before you yell at me for sending an ms to an agent in the first place. Know that the ms is complete, was complete at the time. Because an unpublished manuscript is something that can always be improved upon, I did another round of revisions.

I think it depends on the timing. If you’ve *just* sent a manuscript to an agent, I wouldn’t send notice of a new version anytime soon. However, say you sent a partial a couple of months ago, and maybe haven’t heard back yet. In the meantime, you did your revisions. In that case, I think you could take the opportunity to check in on the status of the material with the agent reading, and let her know that, btw, you have a revised version, if she hasn’t yet gotten to the other version, should you send this instead? I think that certainly works for fulls, too.

I will add, however, that revisions while you’re in the process of querying and submitting make me wonder if you did the revisions at another agent’s request. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, since it shows some interest, but if you’re offering the revised manuscript to other agents, it makes me think about other agents saying no. Now, that may be all in my head, and not worth mentioning, but hey — you asked!

In other news, if you haven’t already, swing by Wednesday’s post about the blurbs for Bad Taste in Boys by Carrie Harris to share your brand of nerdity for a chance to win a super-duper kt literary bookbag prize pack! I’ve got galleys of XVI by Julia Karr, bookmarks for Bad Taste in Boys, copies of Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, and more!

So instead of playing a pure biotic-powered human, getting through fights using mental powers and the occasional gun, this time I made an Inflitrator, or the game’s version of a sniper. I get through fights by finding some good cover, putting on my cloaking device so the bad guys can’t see me, and taking them out one by one. I have a couple of powers, but I hardly ever use them. This Shepard is a different kind of soldier.

But what makes Mass Effect different from a lot of other first person shooters, and the point I’m getting to in terms of your writing, is that I’m also playing her differently in terms of emotions and interaction with others (yes, despite the image at the top of the post, you can make a female Shepard as well as a male. There’s lots of different options for customizing the look of your character). My first character through the game stuck almost completely to the Paragon option — always doing what was right, what was caring, or might save lives.

This time? I’m letting myself go a little Renegade. The Renegade option lets you shoot first when the conversation gets a little boring, to bully and threaten when asking nicely and persuading just won’t work.

And as a participant in the story (see, I told you I’d get to the point!), like a writer, I get to see where different options and different paths take me and the other members of my squad to different places.

When you’re revising a novel, you have the option of tweaking your characters’ responses to situations. What happens if you let your MC cut class with the brooding guy she has a crush on, instead of watching him walk across the parking lot to his car while she’s stuck in Algebra? What if your protagonist gets behind the wheel of his car after one drink too many, instead of letting his best friend drive him home again? What if they kiss in front of her ex-boyfriend, instead of behind the deck by the pool?

Your manuscript is full of these moments that can reveal something new about your characters, if you let it. And hey — they don’t even need to stick around! When Mass Effect 3 comes out, the first character I want to bring through it will be my Paragon main, not my Renegade. So maybe you let your MC get a ticket for drunk driving, and cut that whole scene on the next draft. You’ve already thought through what could happen, and your manuscript will be the stronger for it.

How about it? Have you explored the could-have-beens in your draft? And did you find they stuck around, or just informed the next version?

And a “no”, once given, is pretty much going to stay a no. Sure, “maybe”s have a chance of changing their minds, but “no”s? Not so much.

The cold hard fact is you have ONE CHANCE to make a first impression. ONE CHANCE with your manuscript. ONE CHANCE with the agent of your dreams. And once that chance goes back to you as a no, well, you have to either put that manuscript aside or find new agents to submit to. You’ve burned your bridges. That ship has sailed. (And other metaphors you shouldn’t include in your WIP.)

Are there exceptions? Sure, there always are. But if I’ve left a door open for a resubmission of material, you’re going to know about it. My rejection letter will spell it out pretty clearly — “This doesn’t work for me right now, but if you’re willing to make some changes, I’d be happy to take another look.” Without that offer of a second look, my “no” is a no for all time.

So get it right the first time, and if you think it’s not ready, don’t submit it. I doubt any agents are sitting around waiting for new queries to come in. We’re already got a lot to look at, and if you take another month with your manuscript before you send it, chances are you’ll still have a shot — a better shot than if you send something that isn’t ready.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments? Cookies?

Congratulations, you’ve finished your novel!

Now for the hard parts: final revision, synopsis, and a query letter. Even if you’re going to submit directly to the publisher instead of looking for an agent (which I doubt, because you’re reading this blog) you need to do these things. Here are some of the techniques I use.

First, CTRL-A your entire document. Then go up to where it lets you choose the font, and change it to Comic Sans. No, I’m not kidding. See, you’ve spend a lot of time with this novel, probably using some sensible readable font like Times New Roman or Courier. Good for you. But now you need to look at it with a fresh, objective eye. Changing the font is like altering the lighting. You need to be your manuscript’s brutally honest friend and full-length mirror.

You’re going to read it again, only this time, you’re going to read it out loud. This will help you catch if, for example, you used the word “flighty” twice in the novel, and both times were in the same paragraph. It will also let you catch unintentional alliteration, or if one of your characters sounds like a spaceman in an Ed Wood film. (Unless that’s what you’re going for.)

Okay, you read it. It sounds good. Now change it to Courier New, double spaced, and print it out. You’re going to read it again. This time, you’re looking for typos, missed periods, commas, etc. Use red or blue ink and mark the document, then go through the digital version and add your changes. If you made a lot of revisions during the reading-out-loud stage, you’re going to have some polishing to do. I always assume that it will never be perfect, but I can make it a little bit better with every error I correct. Did that? Good. Save a copy of that with a date or a draft number.

Now for the synopsis. A lot of authors find this difficult. How can they sum up their whole novel in just a page or two? Einstein said “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” So you’re going to get to know your novel until you can tweet it. Really.

Take chapter one of the manuscript you printed out. Read it as a chapter, or just skim it (I’m sure you have it memorized by now.) Now write down what happens in that chapter.

Eg. “Alicia meets the mysterious boy. The police find the missing girl’s body by the lake.”

You should be able to do this in two paragraphs or less. If it’s taking you four or five paragraphs to explain the general plot of the first chapter, you might have too long of a chapter, or you might be confusing character-building with plot. We don’t need the fact that Alicia is a vegetarian, or that she drives an Isuzu, or that her best friend is hospitalized for Anorexia. We just need to know what happens in the main plot of the story, and perhaps one or two of the subplots.

Good. Got it? Now do it for the rest of the chapters, one at a time. (This is where I invariably find out that I have two chapter fifteens, or that chapter twenty two is missing). You might learn some interesting things about your novel at this point. For example, if you have a chapter that’s seventy pages long, and nothing happens, maybe that chapter needs to be cut. Or if you have another chapter where several very important things happen, maybe it needs to be separated into more than one. But for the sake of this exercise, we’ll assume that your earlier revisions are sound, and your manuscript really is ready to go.

When you’re done, you’ll have a few hundred words of disjointed sentences. Now you’re going to rewrite these stories into a several-page synopsis. Write them in third person, present tense. Like this:

“Alicia has decided that her sophomore year at high school is going to be different. The first week at school, she gets her wish when she meets Blake, a mysterious boy with a dark past, who seems to have some connection with a missing girl whose body turned up at the lake.”

It might come out to ten or twenty pages, which is longer than many agents want, but don’t worry. You’ll fix that later. Once you’re done with the rough draft of your synopsis, you’re going to go through and see if you can cut it by half. The easiest way to do this is by cutting sub-plots and secondary characters. Your synopsis needs to concern itself with the main plot, and at most one or two subplots. (If you’ve found that your sub-plots have taken over the main plot, you might need to go back a draft and revise.) Only mention the names of the main characters. Too many names will confuse the reader.

Once you’ve gotten it down to 5-8 pages, save this as a separate draft. You might need it later; some agents and publishers want longer synopses. Now take the draft and winnow it down to half its length. You might have to cut some really fun scenes that build character but don’t contribute to the main plot. You might have to cut one of the subplots. Be brutal. When you’re done, re-read it and tweak it so that it sounds like the back flap of a paperback (except with an ending.)

At this point, you should be so familiar with the story that you can tweet the gist of the novel. “High school detective finds out the cute boy she’s dating is murdering her classmates in dark rituals for his demon lord.”* You’re not going to use this anywhere, but being able to tweet the gist of your novel is like being able to snatch the pebble from the master’s hand—you’re ready.

There are plenty of blog entries here to help you with a query, but here’s a hint: it’s a business letter.

Dear Mr. Thompson:

My name is Ellen Cruz, and I am a restaurateur.(1) Our friend Heidi Goh mentioned that you were looking for kitchen equipment for your bistro. (2) I recently closed one of my restaurants, and have two deep fryers for sale. The fryers are GE, 8 liter capacity, and are in new condition. (3) Would you be interested in purchasing these? I can send you photos if you like.

Thank you for your time. (4)

Sincerely,
Ellen Cruz
Full name and address
Phone number also good.
Working email.(5)

1. Here you would say your name. The agent will assume you’re a writer. If you have pertinent writing credits, you can list them here, but keep it short. Having no writing credits will not hurt you as much as you think it will. Every novelist has a first novel.

2. Here you can mention how you know the agent. Eg. if you met the agent at a convention, or are friends with a client, read her blog, etc. Agents are people, and people don’t like form letters. Ellen also shows that she knows what Mr. Thompson is looking for (restaurant equipment for his bistro).

3. Ellen Cruz mentions what she has to offer. Here you’d give a very brief synopsis of your story, paying special attention to what’s different about yours from all the others in the market. To be fair, Ellen should have mentioned price, but you’ve already read the agent’s website or listing and know the percentage that he/she takes, so we’ll pretend that Ellen knows what Mr. Thompson is offering too.

4. Offer sample chapters/synopsis, or mention that they’re included, if that’s what the agent likes in a query. Also, it never hurts to be polite.

5. Accurate contact information is crucial.

Notice what’s not there? Ellen doesn’t mention her two adorable dachshunds and that she likes to knit. She doesn’t mention that these are the best deep fryers ever, and that her mother loves them. She doesn’t mention that she has sold cars on autotrader (Non-pertinent writing credit). She’s not offering deep fryers to a man who has a carpet-cleaning business (because she’s done some homework.)

The agent wants to know if your manuscript is one she would like to represent. If you can quickly and clearly help her make a “yes, send more” or “no” decision, your query letter has done its job. Most of the time the answer will be “no,” and that’s hard, but don’t worry, there’s always your next novel.

You are writing another novel, aren’t you?

* This is not my novel. I just made this up. Sounds pretty fun to me though, so if you want to steal it, please do.

I have a finished paranormal romance and want to begin shopping it around. However, I’m frustrated with the “when is it cooked” syndrome. Meaning, when do I stop mucking around with the story? I’ve heard other authors say – when it’s done. That’s my problem. When is it done? Just as I think it is, I’ll let it sit then go back and think I need to rework the whole beginning. Not that the other beginning was bad, but, hmm, by moving this scene, adding that paragraph and so on, I can make it better.

Aarrghh! When does it stop? So, my question, is as an agent, with your clients, how do you tell them their story is finished? Do you have to pull a manuscript from protesting hands? How do you advise your clients as to when a manuscript is “cooked?”

Dear Word Chef – It’s never done, silly. Most authors could pick up one of their books on the 50th printing and STILL feel like tweaking it.

But that’s not particularly helpful, is it? Let’s concentrate on the import word in your question, then: “story.” When is the STORY done? Now that’s a different question than when is the manuscript ready to be sent.

Does your protagonist have a full story arc? Does he triumph against all odds and does his plot come to a conclusion? Is there trouble on her journey that she can overcome? Are your loose ends tied in neat little bows?

That’s not tweaking, that’s writing. If that’s what you’re still doing, then no, your manuscript’s not done, and not ready to send out. But if you’re futzing with word placement, with having a scene that moves the plot along happen at chapter 5 instead of chapter 6 – that’s tweaking.

And you know who’s super good at tweaking? Editors. Yup. They are STARS at it.

So polish your stories, and get your manuscript in shape for company, then send it out. It’s like housecleaning, I suppose. (If I did that, and didn’t just hope that dust would magically disappear.) If you’re hosting a dinner party, you want to make sure your dining room and living room are fit for guests, that your powder room is spic and span, and that you have enough space in the kitchen to whip up a fantastic dinner. But you might let your bedroom be a little untidy, or the kids’ playroom stay in a state of disarray. What I’m saying is make an effort, of course, but recognize that you’re not going to refinish the dining room floor or repaint all the kitchen cabinets just because you’re having people over for dinner. Do what you can with what you have.

Happy cooking!
Cheers,
Daphne

I love that sneak peak of something that’s going to be great — something that I know the author’s fans are going to utterly fall for in a year or two when it’s published.

But I hope that my early read isn’t just a source of pleasure. I aim to provide comments and feedback that the author can use to make the material even stronger.

And that’s what your early readers need to do, even if you haven’t yet signed with an agent. I always mention how vital it is for an author to have a critique group, but even if that’s not possible, you really need to have a couple of early readers you can trust for an honest opinion of your work.

So here are my questions to you: who are your early readers? Where did you find them? When do you use them? (First draft, third draft, to work out the missing bits, etc.) Any hints or tips in working with them? To the comments!

Hi! I’ve sent out a several queries for my novel and have received quite a few requests for partials but never, after sending these sample pages, do I get a request for a full. I’m reading between the lines and realize something needs to change in my pages. I’m taking a break from querying my next batch of agents to completely rework my novel, as there’s something clearly missing. I have not received any direct feedback from the agents who have read my pages, just polite rejections, but I wonder if, after revising, it makes sense to re-query those who passed on the pages before? How would I go about doing that? Should I mention in the new query that they have read the pages before but now they are revised? I wouldn’t do this over and over again. A one time thing and many months down the road from the original query.

Lisa, unless an agent you submitted to specifically asked to see a revision, I wouldn’t re-query. Especially if, as in your case, they didn’t provide any specific reasons for passing.

I know it’s tempting after you’ve fixed something to show it again to the people who thought it was broken before, but if I were you, I would try to avoid the temptation, and focus your agent search on people who haven’t already made a decision about this specific project.

Now, if you made revisions and then maybe set that book aside to work on a separate novel, and wanted to query that second book to the same agents who declined the first, that’s totally ok. In that case, personally, I even ask that you remind me I looked at chapters of one novel when querying me on a second. It reminds me that I saw something I liked in your writing at one time, and — hopefully — will nudge me to take a closer look at your next work.

Hope that helps!

Do you work as an editor on in-progress stories? I understand that proposed non-fiction does not necessarily have to be complete. Memoir, however, is to be dealt with as though it were fiction. Write the thing, polish it till there’s a hole in the cloth, then query. How would you distinguish between memoir and narrative non-fiction? For something that’s incomplete, do you work with the author in order to make something better able to sell? Or is that a publishing house’s editor’s position?

I do, though the level of how much editing I do varies wildly. With most of my clients, part of the signing process includes asking them to make some level of revisions to their manuscript. Very few things come to me in perfect form for submission to editors, so I like to help authors tweak things as part of the process. That may be big picture edits — can this character be more active throughout? Can you bring the conclusion together more tightly? Can they kiss sooner? — or line and continuity edits. In a manuscript I’m working on with an author right now, the timing of a clock tower chime is important, and was represented in two different manners. Together, we went through the manuscript and fixed that.

In most of these cases though, we’re talking about finished manuscripts that I have basically already agreed to represent, or nearly so. In memoir, which, as you note, is usually sold on a complete manuscript, the steps would be the same — though I don’t represent memoirs myself. In narrative non-fiction, I think the concept and the writing play equally important roles, but a manuscript does not need to be complete to sell. The difference is that memoir, to me, is a particular life story, while narrative non-fiction need not be that personal. But that may be simplfying things too much.

In many cases with narrative non-fiction, depending on the subject, that initial advance payment for a deal is the financing that makes the book possible — think of something like Around the World in 80 Dates or just about any of A.J. Jacobs’ books. Most authors can’t undertake to follow through on the trips or ideas their books are based on without funding — whether that comes from the advance on a proposal, or previous success.

I have worked on editing nonfiction proposals before, which can be a difficult line to trend between style and substance. You want to make sure you have enough of both.

Hope that helps! And if anyone else has a better sense of the difference between memoir and narrative non-fiction, please leave it in the comments. Otherwise, I’m stuck with “I know it when I see it!”

For the first-time author, the path to publication can feel like you’ve been sucked into a black hole of unknowns after you write the words ‘The End’. You’ve written a novel, now what? There are certain milestones of which most writers are aware as they attempt to get their book prominently positioned on the local bookstore shelves: write your novel, find an agent, sell your book – that part we all know about. But there is a crucial next step that may not be as familiar: Editorial Revisions. *revisions – revisions – yes, that’s an echo you hear….and there’s probably a reason for it….*

Editorial revisions are the step where the editor (who loves your book so much that they’ve paid good green cash for it – never forget this part) goes through the manuscript and provides the author with his or her suggestions, (usually on every page) on how to improve the writing to make the book publishable. Then you rinse and repeat. Several times.

At first glance, when you receive your marked-up manuscript and notice that all available white space on the pages are filled with bubbles of editing comments – it might seem a little daunting. *cough cough* But fear not – the tales of heads exploding from editorial revisions are grossly exaggerated. … I think.

But joking aside, I am finding these revisions to be a fantastic learning opportunity. I view them as having a personal master class in writing. A class where you’re the only student, and the teacher is totally focused on giving comments to your work and specifically to the areas on which you need to focus .

I count myself especially lucky because my editor leaves the door open for discussion on any of her suggested changes. And though I’m only about a third of the way through my novel, already we’ve had some fantastic conversations about character motivations, plot development, story arcs and proportion.

What about you? How do you view the revision process? Necessary evil or fascinating insight?

Kiki Hamilton’s debut novel, The Faerie Ring, will be published by Tor Books in Spring 2011. She is currently working on editorial revisions with her fabulous editor, Susan Chang. Learn more about her and other kt literary clients here.

I write middle grade novels and also have written and illustrated a picture book. I have sent queries out to agents for both projects at different times and had some interest. I have a few fulls and partials out for my middle grade right now. Recently, I’ve had some serious interest in my picture book, and an agent is working with me on non-contractual revisions and has asked for an exclusive. I told her that the older version was still out with a couple of agents and that my middle grade novel was out with other agents, too. I told her that, of course, I would give her a first look at the picture book revisions (especially since we are working together on them and I love her ideas). I have sent her my novels, also, so that she can see my entire body of work.

My question is: Do I let the other agents who have my middle grade novel know that I am working on revisions for a DIFFERENT project on an exclusive basis? And, as an agent, wouldn’t this make you less likely to want to waste your time looking at my work (knowing that someone else has first dibs)?

I want to do the right and ethical thing, and I’m just not sure what that is!

So far as I can tell, so far you’ve absolutely done the right and ethical thing. Moving forward, I have a few questions for you. Does the agent who has an exclusive look at your picture book do a lot of middle grade novels as well? To be more clear, if you signed with her for your picture book, would you expect that she would also rep your MG novels? Is that what you want to do, or would you prefer that your novels are with a different agent than your picture book(s)?

At this point, with no offers as yet made, I don’t think you have any obligation to the other agents considering your work. When should you tell them something? When the agent exclusively considering your PB makes you an offer of representation, then I would contact all of the other agents who currently have your work, let them know you have an offer, and ask for their decision within a fair amount of time — a week or two, usually.

You’ll be asking them to make a decision based on the material they have — the revised picture book is still the PB agent’s exclusive, so they’d need to see the germ of what that agent saw, and be willing to offer first, and know that there’s a tighter, more polished version that would be available, if they took a chance and offered representation.

I can see another possibility as well — someone might love your middle grade novel, and want to represent you on that. Then you do the same thing — inform all the other agents that you have an offer, including the one looking at the PB exclusively (although I would be sure and let her know that the offer is based on a review of your novel, not PB), and give them time to respond.

It’s complicated — which is why I usually recommend that you focus on one project at a time, at least in terms of querying. You should absolutely be writing something else while you query — I mean, you need something to do to take your mind off waiting from response emails from agents — but having a lot out there at once makes things complicated.

Does that help? Readers, have you ever been in a similar situation? Do you want one agent to handle all your work, or multiple agents to handle different projects in different genres or age ranges?