A winning solution for sharpening your marketing tools
I recently submitted my women’s novel to The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest (ABNA) and this week I entered the Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest. If I win I’ll receive accolades, exposure, and money. But submitting to contests is time consuming, a lot of work, and the odds of winning are slim. Some might say, why bother? What I’ve discovered is that the true benefits of a contest do not come from winning, but from the process of entering the contest.
If you take the time to submit your work to a writing contest, you’ll accomplish five goals:
1) A fine-tuning of your opening pages. In contests, it’s usually the quality of your writing that’s being judged, not the overall story and character arcs. Submit the first pages of your manuscript and use this opportunity to carefully edit your work. Check the rhythm and flow of sentences. Make every verb powerful and every metaphor enhance the imagery of your story. These are the pages you’ll be using to attract an agent’s or editor’s attention and now you’ve made them even stronger.
2) A streamlined draft. Contests generally have a page limit, yet you want to give readers enough to see where your story is headed. It’s also important to end your submission at a critical point where the reader is left wanting more. So maybe it’s time to jump into the story sooner and leave the flashback and character descriptions for later. The process forces you to do a major cut, eliminating unnecessary words, reducing back story and even secondary characters. The result of this trimming is a tighter, honed manuscript.
3) A succinct synopsis. Contest submissions are one more opportunity to look at your synopsis with fresh eyes. The synopsis is an important tool for marketing your work to an agent or editor.
4) A stronger query letter and pitch. Writing my pitch for ABNA took it to a whole new level thanks to input from critique partners and colleagues. My pitch became my new query letter, one that is far more descriptive of the characters and plot and uses fewer words.
5) Motivation. If you’re like me, the greatest benefit of all is having a deadline. That contest ending date is the motivation I need to get my butt in the chair and stay focused.
I hope this inspires you to enter a contest. Poet and Writers is a great place to find writing contests, grants, awards and fellowships. Good luck!
Five Writing Resolutions for the New Year
A new year offers a fresh start with infinite possibilities
Before moving full-steam through the year ahead, I want to pause and reflect on the past year. Did I achieve my writing goals? And if not, why? What do I need to change to be more productive in the New Year? My pondering led to five writing resolutions.
1) Spend more time doing what I love – writing.
Here's the simple truth: to meet my writing goals for 2011, I need to write more. And the only way to produce more writing is to spend more time with my butt in the chair. (Unless of course I buy a standing desk.) So how do I create more writing time? The answer is in my next resolution:
2) Make writing my first priority.
I find that if I don’t write within an hour or two of waking, I often don’t write at all. The day fills with so many other tasks. There’s emails to return; listservs, e-zines and emails to read; facebook to scan; tweets to write; calls to make; bills to pay, emails to return, errands to run. Suddenly the sun is setting and I haven’t written a word on any of my writing projects.
From this day forward, writing comes first – right after coffee, a quick glance at my emails and twenty minutes of meditation. When it’s writing time, I shut off the cell phone, close my email program, and don’t answer the door. Avoiding distractions is part of my next resolution:
3) Stop the distractions and focus only on projects and tasks that serve my higher purpose.
If you’re like me and have a lot of interests and enjoy writing everything from greeting cards to plays, it can be easy to lose focus. This can lead to a wasted afternoon down a bunny trail on some topic of writing I’m not currently doing.
From now on, if the information doesn’t forward the course of my top goals for the year, I’ll bookmark it, file it, or delete it. Every email subscription, listserv, and blog I follow must serve my main goals for the year or I’m unsubscribing.
BTW: I sure hope this blog is serving you. If so, please join the mailing list (see the subscribe form in upper right of this page).
4) Set achievable short- and long-term goals.
I love to set writing goals – lots of them. I believe in dreaming big. But along with the goal of being a best-selling author, this year I’ll set more short-term, achievable goals that will lead me to my ultimate goal. Such as, I’ll spend four hours a day working on my novel; I’ll send out ten queries a month. I will also make my goals realistic and compatible with all the other personal and professional demands in my life. Putting too much on my plate at one time only leads to frustration.
Reaching a short-term goal makes me feel productive and gives me a sense of accomplishment. This year I’m going to throw in a little reward for each significant short-term goal I achieve, such as a Friday afternoon at the movies or a hot bubble-bath with a good book.
As writers it’s up to us to give ourselves the strokes and that’s what my final resolution is all about:
5) Be good to myself no matter what.
I will remember that there are only twenty four hours in a day and in addition to writing there is invoicing, bill paying, marketing, researching, blogging, tweeting, querying, emailing, reading, reading, and more reading. And did I mention that there are only twenty four hours in each day?
My best-laid writing plans can go awry when a friend needs a shoulder to cry on, I catch the flu, or the toilet backs up. Shit happens, sometimes literally. I will not beat myself up about not achieving a goal when an unexpected emergency arises or when a more important deadline has taken precedence.
No matter how many rejection letters and emails I receive, no matter how few pages I’ve written – no matter what – I will be good to myself. I will treat myself with the same love and compassion I give to others. I will take good care of my mind, body, and spirit by eating well, exercising, going for a walk, meditating every day, and making time for friends and family.
If I may sneak one more resolution in, it is this: To feel grateful every day that I get to do something I love and which brings me joy. BTW -- I'm talking about writing, not eating chocolate.
Whatever your goals and aspirations are in the New Year, I wish you good health, good writing, and good tidings – from agents and editors, of course.
Love and light,
Lori
Before moving full-steam through the year ahead, I want to pause and reflect on the past year. Did I achieve my writing goals? And if not, why? What do I need to change to be more productive in the New Year? My pondering led to five writing resolutions.
1) Spend more time doing what I love – writing.
Here's the simple truth: to meet my writing goals for 2011, I need to write more. And the only way to produce more writing is to spend more time with my butt in the chair. (Unless of course I buy a standing desk.) So how do I create more writing time? The answer is in my next resolution:
2) Make writing my first priority.
I find that if I don’t write within an hour or two of waking, I often don’t write at all. The day fills with so many other tasks. There’s emails to return; listservs, e-zines and emails to read; facebook to scan; tweets to write; calls to make; bills to pay, emails to return, errands to run. Suddenly the sun is setting and I haven’t written a word on any of my writing projects.
From this day forward, writing comes first – right after coffee, a quick glance at my emails and twenty minutes of meditation. When it’s writing time, I shut off the cell phone, close my email program, and don’t answer the door. Avoiding distractions is part of my next resolution:
3) Stop the distractions and focus only on projects and tasks that serve my higher purpose.
If you’re like me and have a lot of interests and enjoy writing everything from greeting cards to plays, it can be easy to lose focus. This can lead to a wasted afternoon down a bunny trail on some topic of writing I’m not currently doing.
From now on, if the information doesn’t forward the course of my top goals for the year, I’ll bookmark it, file it, or delete it. Every email subscription, listserv, and blog I follow must serve my main goals for the year or I’m unsubscribing.
BTW: I sure hope this blog is serving you. If so, please join the mailing list (see the subscribe form in upper right of this page).
4) Set achievable short- and long-term goals.
I love to set writing goals – lots of them. I believe in dreaming big. But along with the goal of being a best-selling author, this year I’ll set more short-term, achievable goals that will lead me to my ultimate goal. Such as, I’ll spend four hours a day working on my novel; I’ll send out ten queries a month. I will also make my goals realistic and compatible with all the other personal and professional demands in my life. Putting too much on my plate at one time only leads to frustration.
Reaching a short-term goal makes me feel productive and gives me a sense of accomplishment. This year I’m going to throw in a little reward for each significant short-term goal I achieve, such as a Friday afternoon at the movies or a hot bubble-bath with a good book.
As writers it’s up to us to give ourselves the strokes and that’s what my final resolution is all about:
5) Be good to myself no matter what.
I will remember that there are only twenty four hours in a day and in addition to writing there is invoicing, bill paying, marketing, researching, blogging, tweeting, querying, emailing, reading, reading, and more reading. And did I mention that there are only twenty four hours in each day?
My best-laid writing plans can go awry when a friend needs a shoulder to cry on, I catch the flu, or the toilet backs up. Shit happens, sometimes literally. I will not beat myself up about not achieving a goal when an unexpected emergency arises or when a more important deadline has taken precedence.
No matter how many rejection letters and emails I receive, no matter how few pages I’ve written – no matter what – I will be good to myself. I will treat myself with the same love and compassion I give to others. I will take good care of my mind, body, and spirit by eating well, exercising, going for a walk, meditating every day, and making time for friends and family.
If I may sneak one more resolution in, it is this: To feel grateful every day that I get to do something I love and which brings me joy. BTW -- I'm talking about writing, not eating chocolate.
Whatever your goals and aspirations are in the New Year, I wish you good health, good writing, and good tidings – from agents and editors, of course.
Love and light,
Lori
Six Steps for Submitting Your Work to Agents
An easy and professional game plan for finding literary representation
1) Do your research. Agents specialize, which means they have more experience and publishing connections in specific areas of fiction. Researching agents, before you submit to them, will significantly increase your chances of finding the right agent for your novel. Start by making a list of agents who represent and are looking for your genre of writing. There is a wealth of information on literary agents both on the Internet and in print. You’ll find some of these sites under my resources list. In future postings I’ll cover the agent research process in more depth and review several of these sites and resources.
See previous posts for how to write an attention-getting query letter that will stand out from the pile.
3) Follow the agent’s submission guidelines. This should be a no brainer, but I often hear agents cite this as one of their major pet peeves. Would you want to work with someone who doesn’t listen to your needs and can’t follow basic instructions? Most agents’ websites tell you exactly what they want to see for an initial query. It’s important to know, for example, if they want only a query letter, or a synopsis or the first five pages of the manuscript. Many agents accept only email queries. Some will delete your email if it contains attachments. So follow those guidelines to the letter.
4) Submit in multiples. You can send your query letter to one agent at a time and wait to hear back from each agent. But you may be 106 before your book is published. Writing a novel can take years. Publishing a book takes a year and a half to two. So when you have your manuscript polished and ready to send out to the world, I suspect you’re ready to find an agent and get your book published now.
Set a reasonable goal for yourself. Maybe you want to send 10 queries a month. Personally, I like to send out seven queries on each new moon. Some agents like to know if they are receiving a multiple submission. If an agent states this in her guidelines, then tell her you are submitting to other agents. However, agents can assume they are not the only one receiving your query, so why waste precious space in your letter or email telling them something they already know?
5) Keep track of your submissions. There are great online tools, like www.querytracker.net for keeping a record of your submissions, or you can build your own database in a program like Excel. The main information you want to keep track of includes: agent name, date queried, email or snail mail, manuscript name (if you are querying more than one manuscript), any attachments or enclosures, agent’s stated turnaround time, and other pertinent information about the agent.
When you receive an agent’s request to see pages or the entire manuscript, note this in your database. After you send the material, pencil a follow-up date in your calendar. Agents typically note their turnaround time on their website, anywhere from three weeks to three months. If you haven’t heard from the agent in this time, send a reminder via email. If you submitted the pages/manuscript by email, simply forward your original email with the attachments and state that you are following up on the agent’s request. This way the agent doesn’t have to search for your original email. I’ve found that agents appreciate the reminder. But don’t call. Most agents are too busy to accept calls and without your manuscript and query in front of them, there won’t be much to talk about.
6) Don’t sit around waiting. Follow up and keep querying. Accept the fact that you’ll never hear from some agents and focus on the others. Keep track of rejections and requests for pages in your database. Hang the encouraging, positive rejections by your computer. Dust off your query letter each month, keep researching agents and keep submitting. The next agent you query could be the one!
Coming soon: “How to Find the Right Agent for Your book – and Your Career”
The Secret Ingredient in Query Letters
Personalize your pitch
You’ve written a winning query letter with “the hook, the book, and the cook.” Then, you’ve researched agents who are looking for your type of novel. Don’t worry if you haven’t done this yet; I’ll show you how to find the right agents in a future post.
The final step in writing your query letter is to personalize it with a line or two that speaks directly to the agent. Here are a few ways to personalize the opening of your query:
Mention how you found the agent. E.g., “I learned about you and your agency on agentquery.com and researched your recent deals on Publishers Marketplace.”
Reference how you learned that the agent represents your genre. E.g. “I understand from your website you are interested in upmarket commercial women’s fiction.”
Gush about how impressed you are with a novel the agent represents. But only if it’s similar to yours. E.g., “Since you represent Jane Coltron’s Leave Her to Heaven, one of my favorite novels, I thought you would be the perfect agent to represent my historical romance, Love’s Last Goodbye.”
If you were referred by a friend or fellow writer – definitely open with this. Just be sure you mention the writer, preferably someone the writer represents. And be certain your writer friend is cool with you approaching his agent.
If you pitched the agent at a conference – of course start with this. Remind her of the name of the conference. At the end of the letter, when you mention your enclosure(s), remind her that these were materials she requested.
Okay, it’s is a little ego stroking, but what agent doesn’t like the strokes. Sure beats receiving a letter that starts with “Dear Agent” and looks like it was photocopied and sent off to the first thirty agents listed in a phone book.
By opening with something specific about the agent, you’re showing that agent four things:
1) You’re a professional who does his homework.
2) You know what genres the agent represents and/or is currently looking for.
3) You have targeted the agent specifically as one you’d like to represent you.
4) You are someone who cares about the writer/agent relationship and not an egocentric writer only concern with yourself.
At the end of your letter, after the bio, list anything you have enclosed or attached. Follow the agent’s submission guidelines to the letter and do not include more or less then requested unless you have met the agent personally and she asked you to send additional pages or synopsis. Submission guidelines are generally found on the agency’s website. Don’t try to impress the agent with your creativity by varying from the agent’s guidelines. This only tells the agent you’re a writer who is not going to pay attention and can’t follow direction. Always remember, in addition to good writers, agents want to work with professionals.
End your query with a line thanking the agent for considering your work. E.g., “Thank you for your consideration of Susan’s Strange Summer.”
Learn from those who have succeeded. The www.GuidetoLiteraryAgents.com shows you more than forty successful query letters and comments by agents on why they worked. Check it out at: http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Successful%20Queries.aspx
You’ve written a winning query letter with “the hook, the book, and the cook.” Then, you’ve researched agents who are looking for your type of novel. Don’t worry if you haven’t done this yet; I’ll show you how to find the right agents in a future post.
The final step in writing your query letter is to personalize it with a line or two that speaks directly to the agent. Here are a few ways to personalize the opening of your query:
Mention how you found the agent. E.g., “I learned about you and your agency on agentquery.com and researched your recent deals on Publishers Marketplace.”
Reference how you learned that the agent represents your genre. E.g. “I understand from your website you are interested in upmarket commercial women’s fiction.”
Gush about how impressed you are with a novel the agent represents. But only if it’s similar to yours. E.g., “Since you represent Jane Coltron’s Leave Her to Heaven, one of my favorite novels, I thought you would be the perfect agent to represent my historical romance, Love’s Last Goodbye.”
If you were referred by a friend or fellow writer – definitely open with this. Just be sure you mention the writer, preferably someone the writer represents. And be certain your writer friend is cool with you approaching his agent.
If you pitched the agent at a conference – of course start with this. Remind her of the name of the conference. At the end of the letter, when you mention your enclosure(s), remind her that these were materials she requested.
Okay, it’s is a little ego stroking, but what agent doesn’t like the strokes. Sure beats receiving a letter that starts with “Dear Agent” and looks like it was photocopied and sent off to the first thirty agents listed in a phone book.
By opening with something specific about the agent, you’re showing that agent four things:
1) You’re a professional who does his homework.
2) You know what genres the agent represents and/or is currently looking for.
3) You have targeted the agent specifically as one you’d like to represent you.
4) You are someone who cares about the writer/agent relationship and not an egocentric writer only concern with yourself.
At the end of your letter, after the bio, list anything you have enclosed or attached. Follow the agent’s submission guidelines to the letter and do not include more or less then requested unless you have met the agent personally and she asked you to send additional pages or synopsis. Submission guidelines are generally found on the agency’s website. Don’t try to impress the agent with your creativity by varying from the agent’s guidelines. This only tells the agent you’re a writer who is not going to pay attention and can’t follow direction. Always remember, in addition to good writers, agents want to work with professionals.
End your query with a line thanking the agent for considering your work. E.g., “Thank you for your consideration of Susan’s Strange Summer.”
Learn from those who have succeeded. The www.GuidetoLiteraryAgents.com shows you more than forty successful query letters and comments by agents on why they worked. Check it out at: http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/CategoryView,category,Successful%20Queries.aspx
The “cook,” your mini-biography
Present yourself as a career writer
Hopefully, you are following the industry standard format for query letters, often known as “the hook, the book, and the cook.” You’ve started with a great “hook” to capture an agent’s attention. Then you’ve summarized your “book” in two or three paragraphs. Now, tell them about you – the “cook” – in the biography (bio) paragraph.
Don’t be nervous. It’s only a couple of lines, and you don’t need an MFA or to be published to have a writer’s bio. The purpose of the bio is show agents you are a professional who’s serious about a career as an author – that’s all.
Education and experience demonstrate your commitment to writing, so include:
Publishing credits. Nonfiction counts, so do trade journals. If you were paid for it, it shows you’re a professional writer.
Work experience related to writing. E.g., editor of your company newsletter, newspaper reporter, columnist for the local paper, your regular blog.
Education. Include it if you have an MFA, certificate in writing, or a degree in English, communications, or journalism.
Writing awards, residencies. Preferably these are related to fiction, rather than nonfiction. Even better if you won them for an excerpt from the novel you are querying the agent about.
What if you have no previous writing experience or credits?
Remember, the purpose of the bio is to show an agent you are serious about a career as an author. I’ve heard agents say many times that the only reason they want to know something about the writer is to weed out the crazies (I am referring to the slang definition: an unpredictable, nonconforming person; oddball). If an agent is going to invest significant time in developing your career, he or she wants to know you’re a professional who's serious about your craft and willing to promote your book at school visits, author signings, etc. Agents are looking for a long-term relationship with a career author, not a one-book wonder.
Tell them you’re serious about your writing by mentioning:
Writing classes. E.g. “For the last five years I’ve attended writing workshops at The New School in New York City.”
Critique groups. E.g., “I am a long-standing member of a critique group focused on middle-grade novels.”
How long you’ve been writing. Five, ten, fifteen years; this speaks to your commitment to make this your career.
The number of novels you have written. It doesn’t matter if they are unpublished; again, it speaks to your diligence to make it as a writer.
When the “cook” becomes the “hook”
If you recently received your MFA from a prestigious college, or your manuscript (or excerpt from it) won a significant award, you might want to start your query letter talking about that. These are the kind of achievements that get an agent salivating, because you’ve established yourself as a professional writer right up front. The agent has to read on.
Here’s my bio from a recent query letter:
I am a graduate of the UCLA Writers Program in Creative Writing. As a marketing/communications writer and editor for eighteen years, I have produced nonfiction articles for numerous corporate and trade publications. I recently launched a marketing services business and blog (http://WritingThatInspires.blogspot.com) to inspire and empower writers on their journey to publication.
Next post: The Secret Ingredient in Query Letters
Hopefully, you are following the industry standard format for query letters, often known as “the hook, the book, and the cook.” You’ve started with a great “hook” to capture an agent’s attention. Then you’ve summarized your “book” in two or three paragraphs. Now, tell them about you – the “cook” – in the biography (bio) paragraph.
Don’t be nervous. It’s only a couple of lines, and you don’t need an MFA or to be published to have a writer’s bio. The purpose of the bio is show agents you are a professional who’s serious about a career as an author – that’s all.
Education and experience demonstrate your commitment to writing, so include:
Publishing credits. Nonfiction counts, so do trade journals. If you were paid for it, it shows you’re a professional writer.
Work experience related to writing. E.g., editor of your company newsletter, newspaper reporter, columnist for the local paper, your regular blog.
Education. Include it if you have an MFA, certificate in writing, or a degree in English, communications, or journalism.
Writing awards, residencies. Preferably these are related to fiction, rather than nonfiction. Even better if you won them for an excerpt from the novel you are querying the agent about.
What if you have no previous writing experience or credits?
Remember, the purpose of the bio is to show an agent you are serious about a career as an author. I’ve heard agents say many times that the only reason they want to know something about the writer is to weed out the crazies (I am referring to the slang definition: an unpredictable, nonconforming person; oddball). If an agent is going to invest significant time in developing your career, he or she wants to know you’re a professional who's serious about your craft and willing to promote your book at school visits, author signings, etc. Agents are looking for a long-term relationship with a career author, not a one-book wonder.
Tell them you’re serious about your writing by mentioning:
Writing classes. E.g. “For the last five years I’ve attended writing workshops at The New School in New York City.”
Critique groups. E.g., “I am a long-standing member of a critique group focused on middle-grade novels.”
How long you’ve been writing. Five, ten, fifteen years; this speaks to your commitment to make this your career.
The number of novels you have written. It doesn’t matter if they are unpublished; again, it speaks to your diligence to make it as a writer.
When the “cook” becomes the “hook”
If you recently received your MFA from a prestigious college, or your manuscript (or excerpt from it) won a significant award, you might want to start your query letter talking about that. These are the kind of achievements that get an agent salivating, because you’ve established yourself as a professional writer right up front. The agent has to read on.
Here’s my bio from a recent query letter:
I am a graduate of the UCLA Writers Program in Creative Writing. As a marketing/communications writer and editor for eighteen years, I have produced nonfiction articles for numerous corporate and trade publications. I recently launched a marketing services business and blog (http://WritingThatInspires.blogspot.com) to inspire and empower writers on their journey to publication.
Next post: The Secret Ingredient in Query Letters
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)