•Don’t be a bore: I am quickly worn down, for example, by plot synopses of novels; unimpressed by showing off; irritated by naive claims about marketing and sales; and turned off by pretentiousness.
•Remember that you are being judged as a writer: all the skills of your novel should be displayed in your brief covering letter. My hard heart can be melted by a well-expressed joke, a well-told anecdote or a well-turned phrase.
•Focus on your USPs (Unique Selling Points) – i.e. what is special about your book. Put your most important one at the beginning of the letter.
•Grab ‘em quick: the covering letter is your chance to catch the attention of the editor/agent. However, don’t confuse making an instant impression with vulgarity – and don’t pepper your presentation with exclamation marks.
The enclosures sent with your covering letter should include:
•a biographical note about yourself;
•a brief description of your book (what ‘kind of an animal it is’ – don’t indulge in dozens of named characters and acres of plot);
•a sample chapter.
Don’t submit bits and pieces from different chapters. Select either the first chapter or a representative section, preferably one which has a beginning, a middle and an end (i.e. a set piece) or one that finishes on a cliff-hanger. Make it clear that the completed novel is available, and that you will send it if the agent/editor requests.
Before submitting anything to anyone, do your homework:
•Never send a ‘Dear Madam/Dear Sir’ letter – always have the gumption to find out the name of an editor/agent who might be interested. Editorial categories in fiction are not as clear-cut as different kinds of non-fiction; but you can focus your submission according to such distinctions as literature/romance/children’s fiction/crime/thrillers/historical fiction.
•Get an idea of who publishes what. Consult a reference book (such as this one), visit bookshops and browse the internet. If, for example, you are working on a graphic novel, it would take you less than ten minutes to learn that a leading publisher in this field is Jonathan Cape, and not much longer to find out that Jonathan Cape – like Chatto & Windus – is part of Random House.
•Find out who publishes/acts for whom. If you admire certain writers and perhaps compare your work to theirs, then think of sending your book to the firms that represent them. Editors and agents are susceptible: they support their stables of authors and they understand the importance building on their existing strengths.
•Keep abreast – if you want to be a contemporary novelist you should read contemporary fiction.
If your novel is a ‘general’ book – ‘a work of fiction designed to appeal to everyone who likes reading’ – you might think of approaching literary agents who handle a diverse range of different kinds of writing. But if your novel fits snugly into a slot – science-fiction, fantasy or horror, say, or indeed graphic novels – I suggest you first try the publishers that specialize in your chosen genre. The more focused the imprint, the more likely it is to employ editors and readers who are mind-bogglingly well-informed in these areas. And the more focused the slush pile, the higher its successful hit-rate.
Making the Approach
Again, there are some general rules, whether you are approaching a literary agent or going to a publishing house direct:
•Don’t telephone, except to a main switchboard number to find out the name of the person you should write to. Editors and agents don’t have time for self-serving calls.
•Email is used increasingly. It is the principal method of communication once contact has been made; and it will doubtless be the method of submission of the future. it also has the advantage of going straight to the desk of the acquiring editor, without passing through the conduit of juniors or readers. But I find emailed unsolicited submissions shamefully easy to turn down. I read on screen the covering message and (unless it grabs me) am tempted to press the reply button and type ‘Not for me, thanks’ – without even opening any of the attachments, let alone printing them out.
•For a full-length novel the post is more appropriate. Many publishers and agents don’t accept submissions by email simply because of the enormous cost in paper of printing them out to take home and read in comfort.
•You can send your material to more than one editor/agent at a time, as long as you make it clear that it’s a multiple submission.
•Consider a chasing letter after six weeks and an email or telephone call after 12 weeks. The risk of chasing is that you ‘bounce’ the editor/agent into taking the easy route of saying ‘Thanks, but no’. But a long silence is not a good sign, and you might do well to cut your losses and submit elsewhere, anyway, after six weeks.
Demonstrate Your Commitment
You can’t expect an editor/agent to take the time to read your material if you don’t take the time to present yourself as a professional.
Don’t:
•Expect your novel to get published unless you are both passionate and serious about writing: you can get endless satisfaction from writing for your own delight – or for the pleasure of family and friends. But you can’t be self-indulgent if you want to be published.
•Expect to place your novel until it is finished: it is common practice for an editor to acquire the rights in a work of non-fiction on the basis of a proposal and a sample chapter; but it is only occasionally that a novel by a first-time writer is commissioned – that is, bought by a publishing house before it is written. Indeed, even many well-established and successful authors finish their novels before they are offered for publication and before terms are agreed.
•Expect to get away with sloppiness: remember that you are a writer – words are your tools, so use them well.
There is no such thing as a cynical novelist: whether you write bodice-rippers or philosophical novels of ideas, political thrillers or Aga-sagas, you must believe in yourself, and you must persuade publishers and agents to believe in you too.
But remember, there are as many different opinions as there are editors and literary agents. If one of them rejects your novel, try someone else. Editors and agents have no magic answers. Indeed they make appalling mistakes – taking on books that fail, turning down books that are huge successes elsewhere. Have faith in yourself.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
How to Ensure Your Submission Attracts Instant Attention
Hilary Johnson
‘My novel came back exactly as I sent it. I don’t think they even read it!’
How often have I heard these words from aspiring authors, the tone at once angry and disappointed. My immediate answer, I’m afraid, is harsh: ‘They probably didn’t need to.’
The Covering Letter
Where so many hopefuls appear to shoot themselves disastrously in the foot is with the covering letter. As a part of my service, I regularly assess these for clients, a job that is often time-consuming out of all proportion to the letter’s length.
It is astonishing how often these sample letters contain careless errors of the most basic kind: mistakes in the spelling of the author’s own name, address or title of his novel; typos, accidental omission of words; sloppy constructions and general evidence of a failure to proofread the letter before printing the final version. Errors of grammar, spelling and punctuation in a covering letter, especially when all three are present, do not inspire confidence in the author’s ability to write a novel of publishable standard. Neither does extensive use of cliché or the repetition of words, phrases or ideas.
For these letters it’s important to use the name of an individual rather than ‘Dear Sir or Madam’. Extreme as it may sound, there are those who would be minded to reject on that alone. The phrase ‘for your perusal’ virtually guarantees rejection.
Indulgence in irrelevancies, extended explanations of the plot – pointless when a synopsis is included – and talking up your own book are all bad signs. Agents and editors don’t want to be told how the n
ovel should be marketed; it’s amazing how often authors fail to credit these people with knowing their own business! Detailed CVs showing your personal history from primary school onwards are not a good idea, especially if they are so lengthy as to suggest a commensurate length of tooth. (Age is not necessarily a disadvantage, but, there’s no need to bring it to the fore at the outset.)
For example, ‘I was for a period PA to a Premier League football manager until he was sacked last year’ gives less away – and will attract swifter attention – than ‘I worked with the same company from leaving school until retirement five years ago.’
Unless anything different is specifically requested, stick to businesslike – but without business-speak, be it dated or modern jargon – courteous and correct. The aim is that the recipient will be keen to read the synopsis, and after that the actual novel, rather than becoming bogged down in a verbose and messy covering letter. A letter that indicates that you have a professional attitude and also shows true originality of thought and voice is, of course, one that instantly excites interest in a submission.
The Synopsis
Once the hurdle of the letter has been successfully surmounted, there then presents that most formidable of obstacles, the synopsis. The ability to write a strong synopsis is a vital part of the aspiring author’s armoury. It is no good lamenting the difficulty of the task – and anyway, if the novel has already been written, boiling it down to its essence shouldn’t be that hard!
Different agents and editors vary in their expectations of a synopsis, so it is always sensible to check these individually, but in the absence of specific guidelines, following these should result in a professional-looking synopsis:
For most adult fiction two A4 pages single spaced is the norm, but some editors ask for one page only. Begin with two or three sentences stating what kind of novel it is. Say what it is about, who it features and when and where it is set:
Girly Gang is a novel aimed at girls in their mid-teens. A contemporary story with a Tyneside setting, it shows how 15-year old Jess Curtis, seeking an exciting alternative to her drab and difficult home life, finds herself embroiled with a notorious girl gang. When her new friends’ activities lead her into a world far scarier than she could have imagined, she discovers that leaving the gang is a lot harder than joining it.
The remainder of the synopsis should encapsulate the whole story within the proverbial nutshell. There is nothing to be gained by including teasers or leaving the reader guessing as to the ending. The purpose of this piece of writing is to enable someone who is permanently inundated with stuff to read to absorb the gist of the story within a few minutes; it is not in any way the same as a jacket blurb, designed to whet the appetites of bookshop browsers.
Omit unimportant detail and minor subplots or characters. Make sure that the overall tone of your synopsis is lively, giving a sense of the narrative drive and resonating with your own individual voice. A flat retelling of the story will not help your cause. And crucially, avoid the temptation to include anything that may smack of personal opinion concerning the novel’s qualities. Allow the agent/editor to make up his/her own mind as to these.
A good synopsis should create in the reader a strong desire to read the novel itself, or at any rate the first three chapters, which nowadays usually comprise the initial submission. A reasonable one might prompt a decision just to have a look. Either way, if you have begun your novel with a brilliant opening sentence, a marvellous first paragraph and two or three pages that draw the professional reader into the story almost without noticing and compelling him or her to read on, even if ultimately this novel is for some reason turned down, you will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that your typescript was indeed read. And, who knows, maybe it won’t come back at all and you will be en route to publication, all because you took care to ensure a sequence of irresistible first impressions!
BEFORE YOU SEND ANYTHING
Basic Rules for Letters
•Include your name, address, phone number, email address and website, if you have one.
•Address a specific person, not ‘Dear Sir or Madam’, ‘Dear Commissioning Editor’ or anything else that suggests you haven’t bothered to do your research.
•Limit your letter to one single-spaced page.
•Include a stamped self-addressed envelope with postal submissions and make sure it is the right size and has the right amount of postage on it.
•Use a standard format and typeface, such as Times New Roman in 10- or 12-point: don’t use fancy fonts or ‘clever’ formatting. You’re a writer, not a designer.
•Use block paragraph format – that is, leave a line between paragraphs rather than indenting the first line of each one.
•Thank the recipient for considering your submission.
Email Considerations
•An email is not the same as a letter. This may sound obvious, but when you are writing to a potential agent or publisher for the first time by email you should think carefully about the information you need to provide, simply because we all tend to treat email as a more informal form of communication.
•So, in your first email, you should include your full name, just as you would in a letter. Don’t sign off simply with your given name, leaving the recipient with no idea what your family name is.
•In your first email, write as thoughtfully and formally as you would if it were a letter. Address the recipient as ‘Dear First Name Last Name,’ rather than using just the first name – and certainly don’t begin the first approach with ‘Hi’.
•One of the foibles of email writing is that many of us use many more exclamation marks than we would in a letter. Don’t do this – it won’t be read as amusing. And don’t litter your email with smiley faces.
•Make your subject line meaningful: no ‘Hi Caroline’ or ‘Here’s a Great Idea’. The recipient is likely to think it is spam and delete it without opening it. If what you are sending is a book proposal, why not say exactly that: ‘Book Proposal for your Consideration’?
•Supposedly funny or cryptic email addresses are off-putting and make you less likely to be taken seriously. Always go for the most straightforward option.
ALWAYS JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER
A Sales View
Dominic Brendon
The 64-million-dollar bookselling question is – what makes a bestseller or even a good seller? Over ten years of bookselling in various London locations followed by periods in the sales department of a small and then a large publishing house have, I hope, given me a little insight into this, which in turn might help you, the author or potential author, to understand what is going on in the minds of the people who are selling your book.
The terminology can be a bit confusing, because in this context the book buyer may also be the bookseller! For the purposes of this article, a book buyer is the person working in the book trade; when I’m talking about members of the public I’ll call them customers.
I am starting from the standpoint that the publisher has decided to publish your book, for whatever reason. Trying to get into the mind of a commissioning editor is not something any sensible salesperson would do, but sometimes we think along the same lines and you may find that your editor has asked you a number of these questions before taking your book on. What I am giving here is a purely sales point of view – and if it sounds cynical, please remember that publishing and book retailing are businesses and are rarely altruistic.
•The first and most crucial question, whatever the book is about, is does it have a good cover? (The title of this article is only partly tongue in cheek.) Obviously the answer to this is subjective but it helps if a cover is eye-catching and the important words can be read from a distance. If the author is well known, his or her name will be the most important selling point and may well appear larger than the title (look at books by John Grisham, Jodi Picoult or Bill Bryson next time you are in a bookshop). If the title is quirky and likely to tempt the
customer to pick the book up to find out more (Why Don’t Penguins Feet Freeze?), those will be the words that stand out.
•Is it obvious what type of book it is and will it appeal to people who read this kind of book? The pastel colours and informal ‘handwriting’ typography that work so well with chick lit would look ridiculous on a macho SAS adventure title, just as the chunky, no-nonsense type of a Chris Ryan cover would be completely off putting to readers of Sophie Kinsella.
•Does the title compare favourably to others in its genre and is it a genre that is doing well at the moment? Popularity of genres fluctuates over the years and sometimes book chains announce that they are cutting back on one and expanding another. This happens more frequently in non-fiction than in fiction but, whatever your subject area, it’s always a good idea to see what’s happening in the market at any given time.
•Is it well written? It may be shocking to see this question coming so far down my list, but I did say that this was a sales point of view. The good news is that I do believe that if a book is well written it will usually do well, even if it takes time to establish a reputation.
•Does the author have a track record? Obviously if you are a brand name, a celebrity or a recognized authority in your field, this helps enormously. But if you are less well known, whether the book is a novel or a yoga manual, if the first bombed it makes the second very hard to sell. It’s important for the publisher to repackage before trying again.
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