And an Encouraging Note on the Food for Thought Post Below

From today's Publisher's Marketplace "Publisher's Lunch":

"The Guardian adds more on the UK's new fiction bestseller Kate Long, author of THE BAD MOTHER'S HANDBOOK. They note that, 'Her success has been portrayed as "northern lass hits literary jackpot overnight," but that ignores the fact that she has been writing for 10 years - short stories and an unpublished novel.' Her second book SKY MESSAGES is already written."

See? Every time you hear that someone had lottery-like overnight success, and feel terrible about it, if you dig into the reality, you'll find that they have been working hard too. A little writing every day for ten years. That's what wins the race.

Some Food for Thought

Interesting (well, interesting to me) tidbit from the 3/29 Publisher's Marketplace "Publisher's Lunch" daily email:

"Kate Long's The Bad Mother's Handbook has lived up to expectations after being sold to Picador for a "substantial" six-figures by Peter Straus at Rogers, Coleridge & White. After three weeks the novel has gone to the top of UK bestseller lists, and is still gaining strength. According to the Telegraph, the publisher now has four books under contract. The mother of two tells the newspaper, 'I can't believe what's happened - it's amazing. I'm just a table scribbler, really. I wrote most of it in eight weeks, between 7.30 and 9 at night, depending on whether there was anything good on the telly. And then I spent a year revising it.'"

I know, I know. There is a certain hype level to this little soundbyte. But that doesn't negate the kernel of good advice in it. Write a little every day. It will get you much farther being hard on yourself because you can't write for hours and hours at a stretch when you have a job, kids, etc.

I sometimes think that folks who don't start out with a serious, yearning need to be writers with a capital W often have a better attitude toward it than the rest of us, because they aren't so tense about it. The stakes don't feel so high to them. This allows them to loosen up, which is good for creativity, and for making progress in your work.

This is not to say there's anything wrong with you because you haven't managed to get a six-figure advance on a novel you wrote in a year and eight weeks at your kitchen table! There is not! The point of this little anecdote is to inspire you, not make you feel crappy about yourself. The point is do relax, and just do a little bit of writing when you can, regularly. It really, really helps.

A Glimmer Train Contest Deadline Approaches, Should You Be Interested

Don't forget, March 31 is the deadline for Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers - which I can't enter anymore, but you probably can! Go to Glimmer Train Press Online Submissions and follow the directions to submit. As I've mentioned before, I like submitting online to Glimmer Train because they make it so easy. It's a reputable, excellent literary mag.

Here's their spiel about the contest:

Competition: Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers.

Eligibility: Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared in any
publication with a circulation over 5,000. (Entries must be entirely
unpublished.) Open to all themes, all subjects. Stories should not exceed
8,000 words.

First-place winner receives $1,200, publication in Glimmer Train Stories,
and 20 copies of the issue in which it is published. Second- and
third-place winners receive $500/$300, respectively, and acknowledgement
in that issue.

To submit your story, go to our site, www.glimmertrainpress.com , log in,
and click on SHORT STORY AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS. Reading fee (payable by
visa or mc) is $12 per story.

Entries will be accepted through March 31st. Winners will be called by
July 1st. Top 25 list will be emailed to all participants by that date.

And a Reminder About My Little April 2 Gig

Don't forget I'll be signing at the Borders annual pre-Renaissance Faire event and Shakespeare Sonnet Contest on Friday, April 2, at 7:00 pm, at the Montclair Borders Books and Music (in Pasadena), 5055 S Montclair Plaza Lane, (909) 625-0424. Judith Merkle Riley will be there, too. Stop by and say hello!

Another Writing Tip: Show Things Through Dialog

To file away with the previous tip about showing things with senses other than sight (I would call these "craft" tips but there's so much emphasis on "craft" in the writing world nowadays it makes me crazy!): try to show a few things with dialog. The effect of showing nothing through dialog is sometimes a certain sense of distance from the characters, as though you (and your reader) are watching them through a window. The effect of showing something through dialog is often to bring the reader through that window, so to speak. Look over your work and see if there are one or two things that you have stated as a narrator (first or third person, whatever) and see if you can find a way to put the information into the mouth of a character. This works best with smaller chunks of info (although they may have big emotional importance); that is, you don't want that end-of-bad-movie effect where the entire plot is explained by one character at the end. But even if that's what you get when you first try this experiment, don't worry - you can cut it back later. The important thing is to relax and try.

Like showing things with senses other than sight, even a few instances of this technique in a piece can make it richer and more attention-grabbing.

Good luck!

Hmm . . . haven't put new flash fiction on here in a while . . . will have to write some tonight! (And why don't you try writing one page of what you're currently working on tonight? Just one!)

Tip and Inspiration: No One Can Stop You From Writing

Writing is fairly unique among the arts in that you don't need a lot of equipment or supplies. Of course a computer is nice, but honestly, a pen or pencil and sheet of paper will do the job. Painters need expensive paint and canvas, sculptors need materials, musicians need instruments. Filmmakers need thousands of dollars worth of equipment. But your writing can be just as good if it is in a dollar and fifty cent notebook as it is on a three thousand dollar computer.

Actors sometimes have to wait for the people who audition them to give them a part - or they can't play it. Ditto dancers. You don't have to wait for anyone's permission. You're allowed to write whatever you want, whenever you want.

So remember that. Even if you are discouraged, even if you are trying to get published and it's not going anywhere just now, you are already a writer. No one can stop you from writing. Ever.

Tip: Using Senses Other than Sight in Your Writing

This seems like a little thing but it is really effective. You know how you always hear, "Show, don't tell," as basic advice to beginning writers? (Actually I think that one's a bit of an oversimplification, but I won't go into that now.) Well, look at the work you have read where sensual details have really resonated with you, work that has really left a sense of itself with you, and I'll bet you anything that the writer didn't just "show" through visual details but also through sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings of tactile touch.

It's visual cues that most often show up in writing (and it's true we humans do get a gigantic proportion of our information through our eyes.) So it's all the more unusual, and striking, when something is communicated to the reader in the form, not of what was seen, but of what was heard, smelled, tasted, or touched. Think about how a smell will immediately take you back to a place or incident from your childhood.

Try it. If you substitute another sense than sight in even a few places, I promise your writing will be richer, and will grab more of the reader's attention.

For an example of this taken to the extreme, see Patrick Suskind's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. (That's the Amazon link, you can read the reviews there if you're interested.) This is the story of an eighteenth-century French murderer told, very effectively, entirely through the sense of smell. And not all of those smells are pleasant. Far from it. (Warning - not for the weak of stomach.)

Just got back from an hour with The Suspicious Room at the local Starbucks, have to go to work (at the day job at the publishing house) now. Write on!

I'm Signing at Borders in Montclair in SoCal in Early April

Come and say hi, don't be shy, I'd love to meet some fellow bloggers and blog readers! I'll be signing at the Borders annual pre-Renaissance Faire event and Shakespeare Sonnet Contest (now doesn't that sound fun?), which is scheduled for Friday, April 2, at 7:00 pm, at the Montclair Borders Books and Music, 5055 S Montclair Plaza Lane, (909) 625-0424. Also at the event will be author Judith Merkle Riley (Master of All Desires, The Oracle Glass, The Serpent Garden and more), and possibly my pal the talented and lovely Robin Maxwell (The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, The Wild Irish and more). There should be copies of both my books, Her Infinite Variety: Stories of Shakespeare and the Women He Loved and The Falling Nun there.

Tip: A Writing Minimum That Works for Me

It's hard for all of us to find time to write. But it can also be a trap to think that you need a huge chunk of time for writing, and that you can't get anything done if you don't have that. You can spend your whole life waiting to suddenly become independently wealthy so that you have "time to write."

If you've been reading this blog you know about my philosophy of doing a little at a time, according to what fits into your schedule. Here's something in particular that works for me:

Every day, write for one hour, and finish one page.

Now doesn't that sound manageable?

You can write one page in one hour. Sure you can.

A couple of caveats:

1. It can truly be a terrible page. That's okay. You can fix it later.
2. You can put in placeholders if you need to check a fact or decide on a name or something like that later.
3. If you are dry on one section of your project, you can skip ahead and write a page that you are energized about.

I am an "organic" writer, that is, I see where my writing takes me and work without an outline, at least at first, so I just write one page after another. If you work with an outline, you can still use this method: just write one page of your outline, or a one-page chapter outline for each chapter to being with. Then begin writing the body of the work.

This doesn't sound like much, but think about it. In 250 days, a little over 8 months, you can have the rough draft of a standard-length novel. Take almost 4 months to revise and pull together query letters and a synopsis. That means you could have a quite workable manuscript of a novel (or short story collection, or narrative nonfiction, or whatever) in one year. Many professional writers take one year to finish a novel. If you're a screenwriter, you only need 90 to 150 pages, so hey, you're done even sooner.

Add to this that sometimes you will find that you have written more than one page in your one-hour time page - a page and a half, two pages! Good for you, get yourself an extra latte.

Try it, see if it works for you, and keep writing!

Tip Recap: Getting Individual Short Stories Published

As promised:

Everything I Know About Getting Short Stories Published

First, as with agents (scroll down two posts to see the recap about those) get yourself a copy of the 2004 Writer's Market or 2004 Novel and Short Story Writer's Market. They are available on Amazon, most bookstores (in the reference section), and Writer's Digest. These contain the most complete lists currently available of places to which to send your work.

Also check the "Call for Manuscripts" in Poets and Writers, either at the back of the magazine or online at Poets & Writers, Inc.

Second, don’t sweat the simultaneous submission thing, and practice a don’t ask, don’t tell policy about it. I've heard that The North American Review in particular can get very nasty if they find out you've sent simultaneous submissions (like they might not ever take on anything of your again) but you know what? Tough. You could never get anything done if you send one-by-one. And the chances of getting two simultaneous offers, and having someone find out, are slim.

Don’t try to subscribe to every zine or literary review you want to submit to, although they recommend it. You never could. Subscribe only to ones that really resonate with you. Other than that, look over the listings, try to find out what you can about them online or at the bookstore, and using that info, do your best to winnow them down into groups of about ten. Send your story (or query, according to the guidelines listed) to the first ten. If it comes back, send to the next ten. Send another story to the first ten. Practice detachment and just keep it going.

One way to decide which places might be on your first priority "send to" list: If an author you resonate with, or whose work you think yours resembles, has published a book of short stories, go to the book store and look at the copyright page. Often at least some of these stories have already been published in literary reviews, and sometimes these are reasonably accessible reviews, that is, not just The New Yorker or Esquire. Write down the names of the magazines and reviews where the stories were published. Look online or in Writer's Market for their addresses and submission procedures. When you send them your submission, mention in your query letter that you are influenced by the work of said author and that you were so pleased to see that the magazine published that author's work.

It doesn't hurt to drop names of writers you've studied with, either. Use the same kind of format with this that I recommend for query letters to agents (again, scroll down two posts).

If you are also thinking one step beyond and trying to get together a collection of short stories for publishing together, it helps if there is some kind of unifying theme or if they are linked in some way. Just a marketing reality to keep in mind.

And as with agents, take heart if it takes some time - or lots of time - to get your short stories published. These places are literally swamped with submissions, and you are competing not only with those manuscripts, but also with published authors whose agents and publicists are also working on getting their stuff into these venues. (How unfair! I know.)
None of this means, however, that this is an impossible task. It is not.

Hang in there.

Hmm, Borders Into Self-Publishing?

It's all over some blogs and there's a mention on Publisher's Marketplace - Borders self-publishing services. Here's the quote from The International Herald Tribune article (IHT: New do-it-yourself chapter for authors):

Since September, the second-largest U.S. bookseller, Borders Group, has quietly been conducting an experiment in six Philadelphia-area stores, not as a retailer but as a publisher.

"It's easy to publish your own book!" the "Borders Personal Publishing" leaflets proclaim. Pay $4.99. Take home a kit. Send in your manuscript and $199. A month or so later, presto! Ten paperback copies of your novel, memoir or cookbook arrive.

Fork over $499, and you can get the upscale "Professional Publication" option. Your book will not only receive an International Standard Book Number, publishing's equivalent of club membership, but it will also be made available on Borders.com and the Philadelphia store will make space for five copies.

Struck me as something y'all might be interested in (for publishing is changing, and I believe that while it's not quite there yet, self-publishing will become a more integral part of the industry). But no one (including me) seems to be able to find any info on it on Borders sites. If you know any details, email me (link over at the right). I'll put any info I find out up here.

Coming tomorrow: another tip recap, this one on everything I know about getting individual short stories published.

Tip Recap: Everything I Know About Getting an Agent

Several people have asked me in the last few days about how to get an agent, and although all this info is sprinkled among the archives of this blog, I thought it would be a good time to cut-and-paste and tweak and draw it all together. (When I get a chance I might put this on Geocities and put a link to it over on the right - I'm a little swamped just now.) Anyway, here is:


Everything I Know About Getting an Agent

Get the Lists of Agents to Send Your Work to, and Send It

Get the book the 2004 Writer's Market or 2004 Novel and
Short Story Writer's Market (editions for the next year are typically out
in August). These both have listings of literary agents. They are available on
Amazon, most bookstores (in the reference section), and www.writersdigest.com.

The best book I've found on what agents really do, what to expect
from them, how the agent/client relationship actually works, how to assess an
agent's quality, how to tell if they are reputable or scamsters, etc., is Literary
Agents: A Writer's Guide by Debbie Mayer. It's a little older than some of
the stuff out there, so you might need to get it used, which you can do on
Amazon (here's the direct link: Amazon.com:
Books: Literary Agents: A Writer's Guide) or A Libris (here's that link: Alibris - Used, New and
Hard-to-find Books, Music and Movies).The book also has some agent listings
in the back.

These books also talk about what the query letter should look
like, etc. One agency, Jabberwocky, states that they will look at absolutely
nothing but a query, but in actual practice no one else minds if you send a
sample of up to fifteen pages (but not more).

I did a mass mailing to all the agents I could. I did NOT mention
that I was sending simultaneous submissions. The odds of that coming back to
bite you are very, very low, and they each keep the proposals so long that
you'd never get anything done if you really waited for each one to get back to
you in turn. And if you TELL them it's simultaneous, they tend to give them
less consideration. So don’t tell anyone I said this, but I say "don’t ask,
don’t tell" should prevail re: mass mailings and simultaneous submissions.

Do not be discouraged if it takes a while or you get a lot of
rejections. (I had 92 rejections, mostly from agents, a couple from small
publishers, for my first book.)

Tricks

A good trick is to zero in on a few known writers whose work you
feel yours resembles. Go to the bookstore and look at the Acknowledgments
pages of their books. Often, writers will thank their agents here. Write
down what you find. You can usually find the addresses of these agents and
agencies online or in Writer's Market.

Because these agents have had success (that is, sales) with these writers, they
are more likely to take on similar writing to represent -- also, it's a sign
that they simply like that type of writing. And, when you write your query
letter to the agent in question, you can mention that your work is influenced
by, or similar to, that of the writer in question. Agents find this flattering.

Drop names. Not in a crass way, but mention in your query
letters the names of published writers you may have taken a class, workshop, or
seminar with, along with the names of their work. (Like this: I’ve studied with
John Famousauthor [Literary Novel] and Jane Prizewinner [Big Bestseller].) If
you have any friendships or good connections with published writers, mention that you
think you could get endorsements from them. (Like this: I believe John
Famousauthor would be happy to blurb my work.) Nothing terrible will happen if
that doesn’t work out. Keep it true, don’t lie, but if you have some names, use
them.

Beware

You should NOT pay a "reading fee" to any literary agent. Period. Reputable literary agents do not charge fees to read uthors' work. They read it and they either take it on or they don't. If they don't, just keep sending out.

Misc.

In general, just stay involved, network as best you can according to your nature, and try to keep visible. Stage readings, get involved at book fairs or other book events, introduce yourself politely to authors at events, see if they wouldn't mind you emailing them for advice. It all helps.

Check on Publishers Marketplace. Even getting the free newsletter helps, but if you spring for the $15 per month membership, you can see all the deals made, what agent sold what to who, which agents represent which authors, search a lot of contact info, and get a lot of useful information.

I have never been to a writer's conference, although some people recommend making contacts with agents that way. The books I mention above talk about that in more detail. (I will say that the one writer's conference all agents seem to attend is the one in Maui!)



GOOD LUCK!