You’ve heard a lot from me this week, and tbh I don’t actually aim to send more newsletters. (We all have enough newsletters.) But we have a lot of new people here (hi!!) and we haven’t had an open thread in a while, so let’s do it!
The rules are simple: No pitching your book. But otherwise, got a question I or the rest of this lovely community can answer? Want to talk about something you’ve been thinking about recently? Read any good books lately? Have at it!
I've made simple but fundamental changes to my novel that have the effect of slightly altering its genre, changing its main character and will require a rewrite of the pitch/blurb. I had already queried five agents before I realised what I had to do.
Is there any problem with withdrawing my queries on query manager (or via the method I'd originally queried), and then resubmitting a day or two later with a new query letter, new first 10 pages etc.?
****Readers here might be interested in my recent post showing two personal agent rejections. Kind of revealing and I think helpful for people submitting right now:
Not sure if it's too late for a question. I am working on a memoir and looking to read TONS of great ones. Any recommendations from the gallery and if you are recommending, can you share why you think it's great? Thank you!
Hi Kate! Would love to hear your thoughts/suggestions on how authors should pitch their projects that aren't in vogue/on trend in the market. (Urban Fantasy for example, which I've heard agents say is dead/not selling and so they don't want to Urban Fantasy Projects).
TBH I never want to be pitched anything that is ON trend, because if it's on trend now (i.e. in stores already) then we're two years behind the curve. Just pitch me your book the best way you know how and don't worry about trends. (If you are super worried about trends regardless you can also just call your Urban Fantasy and regular Fantasy and go forth unperturbed. :) )
Whoa, this is an amazing thread - I need an afternoon off to sit down with a cup of tea and read it all. I'm an author, a non-fiction book coach, and right now I'm working on sample pages of a memoir, at the request of a publisher - the catch is that memoir is not mine, but helping the subject tell her story is a personal passion project, so it's an interesting writing relationship. Thanks for this substack Kate, lots of helpful info to be gleaned.
In normal, informal speech, I hear this a lot: "She's been in there a while" instead of "She has been in there a while " If I use the former, will agents assume I'm illiterate? If I use the latter, will they fault the dialogue as not sounding "real" enough? By the way, the ms is literary fiction.
"She's" is just a contraction of "she has." It's perfectly correct. It would sound more awkward if you never used contractions! (Don't overthink this.)
Thank you for doing this, Kate! I've wanted to write a personal essay collection/reflections about some key transitions in my life, and just started. I need help with (1) settling on the format other than I like to see things in print (inner voice says you should just do a blog. Why a book?) (2) pitching help because it's not fiction and I have zero connections to this field.
I was actually asking for a friend, but the way I'd do it is to add the m&p info to the bio paragraph. For example, to make something up:
"I'm a veteran journalist who worked at The LA Times and who's also written for Salon, Slate and New York Magazine, to name a few, which has earned me 96K followers on Twitter. I will leverage those followers and my many media contacts to support the book, including XX, YY and ZZ who've already offered to blurb it and tout it to their own, more substantial social media followings. In addition, AA will write a foreword."
To extend this example, if you have one big m&p element, I'd lead the query with it. So: "My 'Modern Love' piece for the NY Times was one of their most popular, getting [engagement stats], and the many questions people asked in the comments inspired me to turn the piece into a memoir. It will tell the full story of [experience] and appeal to readers off BB, CC, and DD."
If you want to be really tricky, make BB and DD recent popular titles for the same target reader and CC a book repd by the agent your querying.
Granted this example is a person will a lot of things going for them, but the template should get most people started.
Most people start writing when they’re about 5! 😉 But there’s no age you have to be to publish a book. Just be sure you’re READING READING READING because that’s how you learn to write. Don’t focus ONLY on publication and be patient.
Any advice for if you're querying a nonfiction book proposal on a super-saturated/politically hot topic? I report on abortion policy and am sending out a book proposal on that subject, but it turns out so are 1 million other writers right now, and I've gotten positive feedback from agents who are responsive to my writing, but concerned they can't sell a book on this topic with so much competition. Should I keep querying? Wait until the deluge slows down? Scrap it and query a proposal on something else? I'm a beat reporter on this subject so it's not like I'm in a huge rush to secure a book deal—I have space for this work already—but I do want to write a book!
Do you want to write A book or THIS book? I have been in the "I just want to write a book/get a book deal!!!!" camp a few times and it's very beguiling. You see something that's low hanging fruit, you do the work and then....... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. You absolutely can try to do this book. It might continue to be an uphill battle (it's always an uphill battle) if the field is crowded and you don't have something to set you apart: exclusive reporting, unique insight, personal connection, etc. Waiting will just mean the other books out there and in the pipeline will come out before yours and the market might get even more fatigued. Will you be heartbroken (and not just because you did work on this one already) if this specific book does not see the light of day? But instead maybe another idea you haven't had yet? If so, maybe give this one a pass. If not, keep going!
Thank you! This is so helpful. This is actually the second book proposal I’ve done work on (I never queried the other one but it was about something totally different). “Heartbroken” is difficult to gage in advance but your advice gives me a lot to think about and more options than I expected!
Hi Kate from Ho Chi Minh City! I'm a new subscriber and have a question that has stopped me working on my first book (a memoir) for way too long now.
I started writing last year with an approach I thought was good and finished two-thirds of the book. But then I read some advice books about writing memoirs which made me see the flaws in my approach, and now I want to try a new one.
Question: there are so many different approaches we can use to write a book (memoir in my case). How does one proceed when trying one approach over another involves starting over from scratch? Do we just keep starting new drafts until we're happy? Is there a way of landing on the right approach for the book without rewriting it several times over?
Thank you and looking forward to diving into the content in this newsletter!
I don’t think there’s a way to get out rewriting and revision. ☺️ That doesn’t mean you have to rewrite your book a dozen times. I would read more memoirs and study their structure and see what you like and don’t like about them and see how they might work with your story. The right structure is the one that works best for you, not one some one tells you you should use.
Hello Kate and all! I’m looking for advice on becoming a copy/line editor. I’m a teen who will start work on an English associates degree next semester and may or may not continue to a bachelor’s. What are some good steps to take now? What do agents and publishers look for?
Hi Everyone! I'd love to know if you have any favorite resources for outlining. I've used the Snowflake Method before, but I'm curious what else everyone likes. I'm starting a new project (dual timeline, dual POV), so I'm in desperate need of an outline to keep myself straight.
Is it too simple to say I like color-coded timelines, index cards, and spreadsheets? Colors for characters and for timeline, one with the beats in order for each section (MC 1 Time 1, MC 1 Time 2, MC 2 Time 1, MC 2 Time 2) and one with the beats as they’ll unfold in the novel. When I do dual POV I want the turning points for each character to hit at the same points in the narrative, and when I do dual timeline I want the turning points to line up together, too, (midpoint meets midpoint, climax leads to climax, etc.) so I think I’d approach the matrix of timeline + pov the same way. I do this with index cards on my living room floor, rearranging until I have something set enough to transcribe onto a giant piece of butcher paper so that I can see the whole novel at once. But I realize this is very analog and maybe not that helpful! Lots of people like the beat sheets in Save the Cat or Michael Hauge’s Six Stage Plot Structure, if that’s kind if what you’re looking for?
Agree with others here who appreciate how funny you are. This question might not fit, but I am curious about how folks get into the audio book field (the folks other than the author who do the audible version). Thanks!
Oops, one more question! If I were to comp my book to something huge like I'm Glad My Mom Died along with two regular books, would an agent automatically assume I didn't do my comp research? Specifically, I'd like to say the mother-daughter relationship dynamic is similar to that of my story (not just comp the entire book), but I worry too many people use I'm Glad My Mom Died as a comp and it'll make my query more likely to be rejected.
FWIW I think this is extra ok in your situation because you’re framing WHY you’re using it and how it fits (plus including other titles) so it won’t seem like you just picked a big seller because it’s big -- and it illuminates something about your book, too. (Which sounds super good!)
My short story collection is under consideration by an editor at a publishing house and I still have a few stories in submission to lit mags, including one that was solicited by the magazine editor. If a story gets accepted, I'm wondering what are the issues with publishing it there? Thank you!
As long as you do not give the lit mag copyright to your work (not that you would) and as long as the lit mag has the NON-EXCLUSIVE right to publish the story (most do it this way) you’re fine.
Hi Kate! Thanks so much for doing this. Another agent told me to add MORE information to the bio of my query because it's nonfiction/memoir. She said nonfiction writers need to demonstrate their platform and credentials, especially since I'm querying with a manuscript rather than a proposal. So I've included a large paragraph about my career (related to the book), past speaking engagements, articles I've been interviewed for and ones that I've written, podcasts I've guested on, who's offered to blurb, where I studied writing, and where I attended grad school and undergrad. It feels quite long, even though the agent said to include all these things. I'm not sure if I should keep it this way or if not, what to cut. Thanks for any advice!
Is switching pen names to switch genres still the way to go? No massive online following to leverage, but thinking about putting down the indie romance and trying something new!
Right, I'd like to talk about Audiobooks. Now that we have AI apps that can morph my voice into another, (a speech sample of less than 10 seconds will work fine), there is technically nothing to stop me narrating a whole novel and then using AI to morph the voice of each character (in dialogue) to another voice. For instance in a crime novel I could voice the main criminal as Al Capone.
I'd guess that narrators won't be too happy, but authors will be.
Look at this from the economics point of view.
It's an unfortunate fact that, unless you're a famous author or can show substantial sales, you won't find a great narrator to voice your book on a shared royalty basis. No, the narrator will ask you for, say, $1500 in fees. Are you ever going to earn that back? Doubtful. So what would be the point of publishing a loss-making version of the book?
I've been investigating the legality of using a famous voice. I can't find any kind of protection for a voice. In theory I could have (EG) Barack Obama narrate it.
Oh, by the way, before you comment "but AI voices are recognisably AI and banned on Audible", the method I have described is a morphed original, not an AI generated voice, the output is completely natural-sounding.
I would not do this! Why would you want to con readers into thinking someone famous read your audiobook? This sounds like a very bad idea, outside of any legal ramifications. Moreover, 99% of audiobooks are read by professional audiobook narrators, not famous people. This sounds like more trouble than it's worth.
One more question, please: If you get an offer of rep from agent, you should tell the other agents you subd to that you got an offer. If you get a full ms request, should you tell the other agents that? Or only those agents you also request a full ms?
I have a picture book manuscript that I'm preparing to send out. It's science-y and I imagine this text having end matter. Is that something I should write ahead of time and send with the manuscript or something I should wait to do in coordination with the publisher?
Question re pitching agents memoirs, which I think of as real-life novels (just as true crime is real-life horror):
Does a memoir need a full proposal if the ms is complete, or would an agent be OK with getting just a query letter, provided it spells out any marketing and publicity aspects, along with a sample?
Hi Kate! Thank you so much for the newsletter! I love reading it and have learned so much about writing and publishing over the past few years from it and I love your book recommendations.
I have a question about querying. I’ve been querying for about a year and a half now and I’ve received 19 rejections so far (counting no response after 3 mos. as a rejection as well). I know that if you aren’t even getting requests for fulls, that usually means there’s something wrong with your query, but I’ve spent months poring over query examples from QueryShark and I’ve had multiple people look at it and give me feedback and I just don’t know if there’s something wrong with my query or if I just haven’t sent it to the right person yet. How can I tell if it’s my query that’s the issue?
Thank you again for everything you do and hope you have a gorgeous day!
It could be the query... or the opening pages... but I agree with Kate that 19 isn't enough rejections to tell you very much yet! How many queries have you sent? I used to think 20 queries was a baseline for testing whether the pitch + opening pages are working, but I think the number is closer to 50. Keep going!! :)
Thank you! I’ve sent 24, still waiting on 5, but I really appreciate that. So if I get to 50 and still haven’t had a single request for a full, that means it’s the query? Because what’s concerning to me is that people can request the full and still reject it but no one’s even requested the full yet.
Ahhh, it's so hard to know! I feel your pain. I definitely think keep querying (and start your next book!!), but it also can't hurt to look over your materials again. You mentioned people have looked at your query -- have you had other writers give you feedback? Agented writers? (Not that agented writers necessarily know more, but if they've had to tackle this particular hurdle before, they sometimes have a better sense of what works.) Also it can be good to have a mix of people who've read your manuscript (so know the heart of it) and people who haven't (so can tell you what it's like to read it cold). And people you trust to be brutally honest! (Not that they should be brutal about it. But truly, deeply honest about how it reads.) Same thing for the opening pages -- how do you feel about those, and the feedback you've gotten on the ms itself? Also, have any of the rejections been personalized? Not that you have to answer all these questions haha, it's just some ways to think through all this. There's been talk elsewhere in this thread about hiring editors, and it's not something you have to do (especially with QueryShark and beta readers) but it could be an option if you send more queries and don't get any nibbles. I feel like this is a place for an infamous Kate McKean shrug!
This is so helpful too! I’ve had other writers read my query, but not necessarily agented writers. I also sent it to QueryShark and mine hasn’t ended up on there yet. How would you go about finding agented people to read it? Beta reading sounds useful but I’m also not quite sure how to go about it. I finished my book and sent it to a few different friends who had offered to read it and then ended up with 3 people who read through the entire thing and gave me feedback (which is still very helpful). And then I let it sit for several months, edited some more, started a new job, let it keep incubating, edited out a few more drafts, and decided to start querying at the 2ish year mark after manuscript completion.
I know there are some Facebook and Discord groups where people post query letters for critique, if you're on either of those platforms. Sometimes they aren't that useful, because people's opinions are just their opinions! But I was trying to think about if you could use some more feedback from other sources. My email is in my profile if you want to shoot me a note and I'll do some thinking about other resources!
Keep going! And I'm sorry to say there's no way to know if it's the query or the pages or the book or the market or if Jupiter is in the wrong house. Sometimes it's two of those things for one agent and five for the next. Have faith in your work and keep going. And write your next book.
Thank you! This has all been so encouraging, and I think I just need to put half my brain toward querying and half my brain toward my new project (which I’m also excited about hehe). And I mean, if it’s not my first book, maybe it’s my second (though I will keep querying). At the end of the day, we all do this because we love it, and I have to just keep reminding myself that.
Sometimes you can't tell why you're getting rejections, and it's easy to look to the query because that's something you can more easily (ha) change! But how may queries have you sent out? 19 is not a whole lot of rejections! Keep going!
Is there a "space" in between picture books and early reader? Something that is essentially a picture book, but with text between 1500-2500?
I recall seeing longer stories, with more advanced vocabulary, but illustrated. (An illustrated fable perhaps? For example, an adaptation of the Brementown Musicians comes to mind. )
If there is a place for such work, what's the proper way to frame this if one were to query it?
Or is it as Apollo Creed shouts when training Rocky in Rocky IV, "There is no in-between, Balboa, there is no IN-BETWEEN!*"
Thanks for being so awesome, Kate.
* I don't think that is really what Apollo Creed shouted, but that was the voice I heard in my head.
Im mum to an 8 year old and we’re now into Roald Dahl and David Walliams and I’m desperate to be back in picture books or books that don’t make me so sleepy to read 😆 📚
Kate's the agent expert here, but as a homeschooling parent / heavy library user I would say there IS a book that fits what you're describing. I'd call it an "illustrated book" rather than a "picture book." One of my local libraries has a whole section devoted to books of this type. They fit the description of what you're talking about: richer vocabulary that suggests an adult is still reading the book aloud but with more text than a standard picture book. In my experience, it's an uncommon beast, but it does exist.
(Waves!!!) I think these are just early readers and they most often are created in-house by the publisher and usually fit pretty specific standards according to curriculum/reading levels. They also often feature brands/characters/etc. There isn't a lot of original work in this space.
I am in the Early Reader stage with my 6 & 7 yr old & we did just find a piece of original work (I think) Fly Guy. But it’s the first I’ve seen amongst hundreds of Peppa Pigs.
I have a novella (45k words) that feels very "small independent genre publisher" in spirit, and most of those accept direct submissions. Should I send it to these publishers and to agents simultaneously? Or try to exhaust one pool first? Or not bother agents at all with this one -- but then when I send out my novel later this year (fingers crossed), hope that the cover letter can say "My novella X was recently accepted by X and is due out soon, ergo I'm already quite a big star."
The only draw back to sending to publishers and agents at the same time is that if the agent has great feedback for you but you've already send to X and they reject it, you can't go back to X and say WAIT WAIT IT'S BETTER NOW!!!! Also, if it's a bigger publisher that takes open submissions, and they reject you, your agent can't necessarily send it to them again. You can do both of these things at the same time but just think about the downside and see if you're ok with it.
Thank you, Kate!! I would love to ask how common it is for authors to sign with an agent and then not be able to sell the first book. Does the first book ever go into the compost, but then get resurrected later in a second book deal? (Is there any bright side to having failed to launch on the first go?) Thank you again for any perspective you can provide!
Happens all the time! My agent didn't sell the first book I wrote (or second or...but that is NOT his fault lol) he sent out and he's still my agent. <3 I have had VERY VERY VERY few instances where someone comes back and buys a book that didn't sell the first time around, but it's not impossible. SO MANY PEOPLE do not sell their first books. You are in GREAT company.
Hi :) Been following this newsletter for a while and really enjoy it. I'm an indie author hoping to also break into trad publishing, and was curious how sensitivity reading happens on the trad side. Is the author still responsible for finding sensitivity readers, or does the agent or publisher do that? Who pays for it? At what point in the editing process does it happen? Thanks!
Like most things, it varies. The ones I've been privy to happened after the book was sold and the publisher paid for it. But that's not the rule or the exception to it. If you personally want to do it before you query (to genuinely improve the manuscript, not to just check a box and say you did it, like some kind of seal of approval) I would do it after you've fully edited the book yourself. If you don't want to or can't pay for it, it's ok to send it out as is and see how it goes.
Hi Kate! Thank you for this open thread. I have a querying question. Almost all of the agents on my list specify what they want, like first 12 pages, first chapter etc. But one of the agents just says “send queries and manuscript proposals for NF to (email address).” In this case, do they really just want a query with no pages from the manuscript? Would it be presumptuous to query them with the first chapter/12 pages? Should I do it anyway:)?
Any thoughts on writing/publishing under a pseudonym for those of us in public/licensed professions? Im starting to write again but am now in a profession where I don’t want my work to be immediately associated with my name.
You can use a pseudonym for any reason you want! Just think about how you will handle it once the book is out. Will it be an open secret? Will you have twitter acct just for your pen name? Will you say Jane Smith aka Clementine Asgaard? No author photo? Pick the route which will be the least pain in the ass.
Last year my Literary agent only sent my book info to 5 editors at publishers. Two wrote back saying they liked the concept but because I don't have a platform they were not sure it would sell. It's a Guided memoir course for grandparents to write their family history, and life stories for their grandchildren. It goes deeper than that, but that's the basic purpose of the book. I teach the program that the book is based on, and am working on getting better known locally. Shouldn't she be reaching out to more editors? Can I suggest some more editors? Instead, she wants to pitch it as a movie and promote another book I wrote. I don't want her to so easily stop trying. Any suggestions or advice?
I really like this idea. I wish more grandparents wrote down their stories. When I tried to interview my grandpa, he omitted everything he preferred not to discuss… like his entire first marriage.
I have been writing for a living / doing marketing for about 8 years (copywriting, blogging, newsletter, etc.). But now I’m looking to shift my focus to fiction writing, which I’m fairly new to as I dropped out of college and have never taken a formal writing class.
I’ve read lots of great books on writing novel structure, great general creative/fiction writing advice books, and more, BUT when I sit down to write I feel a bit blocked. Like I totally have the “big picture” map for my book/story but when it comes to the nitty-gritty details of how to actually write a scene, I don’t know really how or where to start or how to actually write it. It seems so simple and so complex at the same time! I know this will come with more time spent reading/writing, but in the meantime... Any advice? Or classes/books I can take to help me approach/structure/write scenes?
(Maybe more so with a focus on how to make the scene flow and how to decide what goes in it, as I already have the “big picture” scenes and just need to stop feeling stuck because I don’t know the details yet.)
You don't necessarily need to read a book or take a class to learn how to do this. The thing to remember is that you're not going to sit down and write it all out in one go with everything in the right place. You're going to start somewhere and keep going. Then you're going to edit at some point and be like *oh wait, it's winter in this story and everyone needs coats.* Actually, maybe read Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird first and embrace the Shitty First Draft, and then just get something down on the page. And then you go back and make it better.
Thing I'm thinking about: what might make someone who has either never been religious or stepped away from a religious home be interested in reading a book where a character has a religious influence in her life?
I think one of the things I find most interesting about this is when I'm reading reviews of characters who are Jewish or Buddhist, their spiritual practice is rarely mentioned while many are put off by Christian characters. While I understand that a plot built around faith and miracles can come across as a certain kind of thing, I'm wondering if people who read either The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall or Women Talking by Miriam Toews also find the presence of religion there enough to dissuade from reading.
I feel like religious themes play a role in so much literature! Not in a dogmatic way, of course, but just as a part of life. Because books reflect life, yes? I imagine there were lots of non-Christians who read and loved Gilead, for example.
But I mostly read literary fiction and I imagine this could be a bigger issue in genre fiction. There it might feel out of place in anything other than with religious publishers. So much depends on how it is treated though. If a goal is to subtly proselytize, you'd lose me.
My understanding is, although we only hear about novels that simmer into the mainstream (like "Left Behind"), the Christian market is absolutely HUGE and the "spritual" aspect of the story is really the whole point. So a book focusing on that might find fertile ground. In fact, Harper Collins even has a division devoted to it: https://www.harpercollinschristian.com
I am new to this so please bear with me. I have submitted my nonfiction manuscript to several literary agents and book publishers but none have responded positively. I am thinking of self-publishing. There are so many self-publishing companies and I have heard horror stories about them. Can anyone suggest a reliable self-publishing company? Appreciate your help.
Hi Mansoor. Are you on Facebook? There is a spectacular group there called "20BooksTo50k" that is 100% free and offers a WEALTH of info about indie publishing. You can ask any question you want and you'll get really great answers, and they can steer you away from scams. They also hold a great convention in Las Vegas every year devoted JUST to indie publishing. You should def. check them out!
After wrestling with the whole “indie” vs. “trad” thing for a couple years, I thought I’d finally settled on “trad.” A good friend of mine (herself an agent) suggests this would be a mixed blessing. While trad publishers offer obvious benefits, she suggests they are somewhat behind the curve in my genre, the MG/YA graphic novel, where they still use the “print book” model (her words.) So at her suggestion I started showing proofs only to publishers who specialize in comics and graphic novels (there are quite a few.) Now I’m getting offers! Yikes! I am not competent to negotiate! My friend suggests finding an agent who’s knowledgable about OGN’s (she is not and doesn’t know any.) How do I figure out which one? I’ve only just started my search. After reading your post about “how to find an agent” I bought a subscription to PM, but although it lists agents who’ve done deals for OGN’s it offers no way to discern one from another. Should I just use a shotgun approach and query everyone who’s ever done an OGN deal? How long a process might this be? Must I come in through the “slush pile?” And how do I politely put publishers who’ve expressed interest “on hold” without pissing them off? Do you know anyone great who’s open? (I know you are not.) Just for the record, I have gotten offers of representation (three) over the years, but they were from agents I pitched for “practice” at local writer’s conferences (I have a prose novel, too, still not ready yet.) And although they were lovely people they were MG/YA generalists, not specialists in the OGN. Thanks.
Start at PM, make a list of those agents who do GNs, then read their websites and twitter feeds and etc and go from there. There are plenty of agents who do OGNs but not a million so this won't be a huge lift.
Put in your query you have an offer on the table and name the publisher(s). It's going to take a minute, but it might happen a little faster b/c you have the offer in hand. If the publishers get itchy about waiting, then that tells you a lot about how they do business and you might not want to work with them if they are not willing to wait for you to get an agent. The offers will not evaporate. You are in the driver's seat. Good luck!
Curious what you/others know about releasing a book or audiobook serially. I'm about to do this and would love to learn from others. Also wondering how/where best to share what I learn from the process with others—let's democratize publishing!
Kate McKean, thank you so much for doing this open thread today. The comments and replies are quite helpful. I always am happy to find your newsletter in my email inbox (who says we're
tired of newsletters), but today has been a special treat. Thanks!
I love your newsletter & insights; thanks for everything 😊How much longer do you think Sci-Fi will be dead? I’ve heard several agents say that can’t sell Sci-Fi right now (seems like there’s a deluge of it ATM). What’s a good indicator of how long these cycles last?
Uhhhhhhhhh, it's dead? Coulda fooled me! I don't thinks any rhyme or reason to how long any of these cycles last but I didn't know we were in one with SF lol.
Could my opening lines to romance novel be dialogue? I was under the impression I needed a first line (First Line Frenzy). I'd love to get opinions from anyone out there, published or not.
Hi Margaret- fellow writer chiming in, but I have a strong preference (and have also heard this advice from others) against opening with dialogue. The banter is lost on the reader, because we have no context for who is speaking the words, to whom, and why. HTH!
Another quick question! One of my memoir coaching clients is a 92-year-old retired attorney who worked on a number of high-profile cases in his day, including the O.J. Simpson trial, the Menendez brothers' trial, and others. He's an accomplished musician, Masters' Track and Field champ, and 5x published author of legal mysteries. He's currently battling Parkinson's and has a fascinating story exploring the roots of his relentless drive. The clock is ticking for this lovely man, and I'm trying to identify who best to help him get his book to the finish line. Thanks for any suggestions!
Christine this sounds fascinating! What do you mean by "help him get his book to the finish line"? Does he need a ghost writer? A co-author? An editor? Help researching and querying agents? Something else?
Not a question, but just a general thank you, Kate, for doing what you do! I’ve been publishing for a decade now, but of course you never stop learning in a field like this. Appreciate all the insights and advice you share on your SS! 🖤
Also curious—how do you manage working in publishing and also being a writer? I also work in publishing sometimes and at times find my "writer-identity" in conflict with my "work-identity," for instance sometimes wishing the business side didn't matter (though obviously it does matter! and in particular, it matters for me to continue having a job ha), or having been rejected from things that people I'm working with have been accepted into etc. Do you find yourself ever being challenged in juggling these roles and identities?
I think if I had been trying to get a book published when I was younger I would have been much more bitter about all the editors who've rejected me, lol. But I've seen so many things that are just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that I can more easily take that stance myself. It still stings! And I ABSOLUTELY pretend it never happened when I'm talking to editors who passed on my stuff about other things. But I just try to keep my writer hat on when I'm writing (and both when I'm agenting because I think it helps me relate to my clients more). :)
Thank you for this! I agree that writer hat is very helpful at times—I'm really appreciative of having been edited because it helps me better respond to authors and so on, because I've been on their side! Thank you so much for this newsletter :)
Thanks for the info, Kate. He's selling books due to some international TV exposure. Just looking to get into film and TV rights to his intellectual property. Any good sources for that kind of information?
Hello Kate,
I have another question.
I've made simple but fundamental changes to my novel that have the effect of slightly altering its genre, changing its main character and will require a rewrite of the pitch/blurb. I had already queried five agents before I realised what I had to do.
Is there any problem with withdrawing my queries on query manager (or via the method I'd originally queried), and then resubmitting a day or two later with a new query letter, new first 10 pages etc.?
Or have I burned those bridges?
Cheers, Bill
Thanks so much for having this open thread. I've enjoyed and learned from the discussion.
****Readers here might be interested in my recent post showing two personal agent rejections. Kind of revealing and I think helpful for people submitting right now:
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/literary-agent-rejections
Not sure if it's too late for a question. I am working on a memoir and looking to read TONS of great ones. Any recommendations from the gallery and if you are recommending, can you share why you think it's great? Thank you!
Twelve Moons because it’s honest, gripping and incredibly beautiful and if it’s moment!
Hi Kate! Would love to hear your thoughts/suggestions on how authors should pitch their projects that aren't in vogue/on trend in the market. (Urban Fantasy for example, which I've heard agents say is dead/not selling and so they don't want to Urban Fantasy Projects).
TBH I never want to be pitched anything that is ON trend, because if it's on trend now (i.e. in stores already) then we're two years behind the curve. Just pitch me your book the best way you know how and don't worry about trends. (If you are super worried about trends regardless you can also just call your Urban Fantasy and regular Fantasy and go forth unperturbed. :) )
🙌🙌🙌❤️👌
Whoa, this is an amazing thread - I need an afternoon off to sit down with a cup of tea and read it all. I'm an author, a non-fiction book coach, and right now I'm working on sample pages of a memoir, at the request of a publisher - the catch is that memoir is not mine, but helping the subject tell her story is a personal passion project, so it's an interesting writing relationship. Thanks for this substack Kate, lots of helpful info to be gleaned.
Hi Kate,
Question re: dialogue
In normal, informal speech, I hear this a lot: "She's been in there a while" instead of "She has been in there a while " If I use the former, will agents assume I'm illiterate? If I use the latter, will they fault the dialogue as not sounding "real" enough? By the way, the ms is literary fiction.
Thank you for the open forum.
"She's" is just a contraction of "she has." It's perfectly correct. It would sound more awkward if you never used contractions! (Don't overthink this.)
Thank you for doing this, Kate! I've wanted to write a personal essay collection/reflections about some key transitions in my life, and just started. I need help with (1) settling on the format other than I like to see things in print (inner voice says you should just do a blog. Why a book?) (2) pitching help because it's not fiction and I have zero connections to this field.
❤️👌
This might help! https://katemckean.substack.com/p/how-to-do-an-essay-collection
Of course you've written about this..so much love for your effort and contributions. Thank you so very much.
Thanks for the interesting and helpful info on books, agents and the publishing world 🌎
I was actually asking for a friend, but the way I'd do it is to add the m&p info to the bio paragraph. For example, to make something up:
"I'm a veteran journalist who worked at The LA Times and who's also written for Salon, Slate and New York Magazine, to name a few, which has earned me 96K followers on Twitter. I will leverage those followers and my many media contacts to support the book, including XX, YY and ZZ who've already offered to blurb it and tout it to their own, more substantial social media followings. In addition, AA will write a foreword."
To extend this example, if you have one big m&p element, I'd lead the query with it. So: "My 'Modern Love' piece for the NY Times was one of their most popular, getting [engagement stats], and the many questions people asked in the comments inspired me to turn the piece into a memoir. It will tell the full story of [experience] and appeal to readers off BB, CC, and DD."
If you want to be really tricky, make BB and DD recent popular titles for the same target reader and CC a book repd by the agent your querying.
Granted this example is a person will a lot of things going for them, but the template should get most people started.
do you think there is an age when you can start writing?
Most people start writing when they’re about 5! 😉 But there’s no age you have to be to publish a book. Just be sure you’re READING READING READING because that’s how you learn to write. Don’t focus ONLY on publication and be patient.
Any advice for if you're querying a nonfiction book proposal on a super-saturated/politically hot topic? I report on abortion policy and am sending out a book proposal on that subject, but it turns out so are 1 million other writers right now, and I've gotten positive feedback from agents who are responsive to my writing, but concerned they can't sell a book on this topic with so much competition. Should I keep querying? Wait until the deluge slows down? Scrap it and query a proposal on something else? I'm a beat reporter on this subject so it's not like I'm in a huge rush to secure a book deal—I have space for this work already—but I do want to write a book!
Do you want to write A book or THIS book? I have been in the "I just want to write a book/get a book deal!!!!" camp a few times and it's very beguiling. You see something that's low hanging fruit, you do the work and then....... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. You absolutely can try to do this book. It might continue to be an uphill battle (it's always an uphill battle) if the field is crowded and you don't have something to set you apart: exclusive reporting, unique insight, personal connection, etc. Waiting will just mean the other books out there and in the pipeline will come out before yours and the market might get even more fatigued. Will you be heartbroken (and not just because you did work on this one already) if this specific book does not see the light of day? But instead maybe another idea you haven't had yet? If so, maybe give this one a pass. If not, keep going!
Thank you! This is so helpful. This is actually the second book proposal I’ve done work on (I never queried the other one but it was about something totally different). “Heartbroken” is difficult to gage in advance but your advice gives me a lot to think about and more options than I expected!
Hi Kate from Ho Chi Minh City! I'm a new subscriber and have a question that has stopped me working on my first book (a memoir) for way too long now.
I started writing last year with an approach I thought was good and finished two-thirds of the book. But then I read some advice books about writing memoirs which made me see the flaws in my approach, and now I want to try a new one.
Question: there are so many different approaches we can use to write a book (memoir in my case). How does one proceed when trying one approach over another involves starting over from scratch? Do we just keep starting new drafts until we're happy? Is there a way of landing on the right approach for the book without rewriting it several times over?
Thank you and looking forward to diving into the content in this newsletter!
I don’t think there’s a way to get out rewriting and revision. ☺️ That doesn’t mean you have to rewrite your book a dozen times. I would read more memoirs and study their structure and see what you like and don’t like about them and see how they might work with your story. The right structure is the one that works best for you, not one some one tells you you should use.
Thanks Kate, that's really helpful!
Thanks for answering, as I know it was random. Have a great weekend!
Hello Kate and all! I’m looking for advice on becoming a copy/line editor. I’m a teen who will start work on an English associates degree next semester and may or may not continue to a bachelor’s. What are some good steps to take now? What do agents and publishers look for?
Excellent! For now, read, read, read! Finish school (you don’t need a specific degree to be an editor) and keep reading!
Hi Everyone! I'd love to know if you have any favorite resources for outlining. I've used the Snowflake Method before, but I'm curious what else everyone likes. I'm starting a new project (dual timeline, dual POV), so I'm in desperate need of an outline to keep myself straight.
Is it too simple to say I like color-coded timelines, index cards, and spreadsheets? Colors for characters and for timeline, one with the beats in order for each section (MC 1 Time 1, MC 1 Time 2, MC 2 Time 1, MC 2 Time 2) and one with the beats as they’ll unfold in the novel. When I do dual POV I want the turning points for each character to hit at the same points in the narrative, and when I do dual timeline I want the turning points to line up together, too, (midpoint meets midpoint, climax leads to climax, etc.) so I think I’d approach the matrix of timeline + pov the same way. I do this with index cards on my living room floor, rearranging until I have something set enough to transcribe onto a giant piece of butcher paper so that I can see the whole novel at once. But I realize this is very analog and maybe not that helpful! Lots of people like the beat sheets in Save the Cat or Michael Hauge’s Six Stage Plot Structure, if that’s kind if what you’re looking for?
Thank you! Definitely helpful.
Hi Kate:
Agree with others here who appreciate how funny you are. This question might not fit, but I am curious about how folks get into the audio book field (the folks other than the author who do the audible version). Thanks!
Do you mean those who work at audio publishers? Or narrators? Or something else?
Sorry, I mean the actual narrators, when it isn't the author or an actor/actress. Sorry if this out of left field!
You know, I don’t know how people become audio narrators! The ones I know were former actors (not necessarily famous). 😆😆
Oops, one more question! If I were to comp my book to something huge like I'm Glad My Mom Died along with two regular books, would an agent automatically assume I didn't do my comp research? Specifically, I'd like to say the mother-daughter relationship dynamic is similar to that of my story (not just comp the entire book), but I worry too many people use I'm Glad My Mom Died as a comp and it'll make my query more likely to be rejected.
FWIW I think this is extra ok in your situation because you’re framing WHY you’re using it and how it fits (plus including other titles) so it won’t seem like you just picked a big seller because it’s big -- and it illuminates something about your book, too. (Which sounds super good!)
Using a big comp won’t get you automatically rejected. Use it if it fits!
Hi Kate,
My short story collection is under consideration by an editor at a publishing house and I still have a few stories in submission to lit mags, including one that was solicited by the magazine editor. If a story gets accepted, I'm wondering what are the issues with publishing it there? Thank you!
As long as you do not give the lit mag copyright to your work (not that you would) and as long as the lit mag has the NON-EXCLUSIVE right to publish the story (most do it this way) you’re fine.
Great to know, thank you!
Hi Kate! Thanks so much for doing this. Another agent told me to add MORE information to the bio of my query because it's nonfiction/memoir. She said nonfiction writers need to demonstrate their platform and credentials, especially since I'm querying with a manuscript rather than a proposal. So I've included a large paragraph about my career (related to the book), past speaking engagements, articles I've been interviewed for and ones that I've written, podcasts I've guested on, who's offered to blurb, where I studied writing, and where I attended grad school and undergrad. It feels quite long, even though the agent said to include all these things. I'm not sure if I should keep it this way or if not, what to cut. Thanks for any advice!
Honestly that all sounds fine to me!! Go for it!
Thank you!!!
Is switching pen names to switch genres still the way to go? No massive online following to leverage, but thinking about putting down the indie romance and trying something new!
You can but you don’t have to!
Right, I'd like to talk about Audiobooks. Now that we have AI apps that can morph my voice into another, (a speech sample of less than 10 seconds will work fine), there is technically nothing to stop me narrating a whole novel and then using AI to morph the voice of each character (in dialogue) to another voice. For instance in a crime novel I could voice the main criminal as Al Capone.
I'd guess that narrators won't be too happy, but authors will be.
Look at this from the economics point of view.
It's an unfortunate fact that, unless you're a famous author or can show substantial sales, you won't find a great narrator to voice your book on a shared royalty basis. No, the narrator will ask you for, say, $1500 in fees. Are you ever going to earn that back? Doubtful. So what would be the point of publishing a loss-making version of the book?
I've been investigating the legality of using a famous voice. I can't find any kind of protection for a voice. In theory I could have (EG) Barack Obama narrate it.
Oh, by the way, before you comment "but AI voices are recognisably AI and banned on Audible", the method I have described is a morphed original, not an AI generated voice, the output is completely natural-sounding.
I would not do this! Why would you want to con readers into thinking someone famous read your audiobook? This sounds like a very bad idea, outside of any legal ramifications. Moreover, 99% of audiobooks are read by professional audiobook narrators, not famous people. This sounds like more trouble than it's worth.
One more question, please: If you get an offer of rep from agent, you should tell the other agents you subd to that you got an offer. If you get a full ms request, should you tell the other agents that? Or only those agents you also request a full ms?
Nah. It's tempting because it's NEWS and EXCITING but save it for the big news, like offers of rep.
I have a picture book manuscript that I'm preparing to send out. It's science-y and I imagine this text having end matter. Is that something I should write ahead of time and send with the manuscript or something I should wait to do in coordination with the publisher?
I don't think you need to write it now. You can do that later with the publisher.
Question re pitching agents memoirs, which I think of as real-life novels (just as true crime is real-life horror):
Does a memoir need a full proposal if the ms is complete, or would an agent be OK with getting just a query letter, provided it spells out any marketing and publicity aspects, along with a sample?
I appreciate this question! Stephen, how are you explaining your marketing and publicity in your query? What are you mentioning?
You can query with a full memoir ms just like you would a novel, plus the marketing etc etc stuff!
Hi Kate! Thank you so much for the newsletter! I love reading it and have learned so much about writing and publishing over the past few years from it and I love your book recommendations.
I have a question about querying. I’ve been querying for about a year and a half now and I’ve received 19 rejections so far (counting no response after 3 mos. as a rejection as well). I know that if you aren’t even getting requests for fulls, that usually means there’s something wrong with your query, but I’ve spent months poring over query examples from QueryShark and I’ve had multiple people look at it and give me feedback and I just don’t know if there’s something wrong with my query or if I just haven’t sent it to the right person yet. How can I tell if it’s my query that’s the issue?
Thank you again for everything you do and hope you have a gorgeous day!
It could be the query... or the opening pages... but I agree with Kate that 19 isn't enough rejections to tell you very much yet! How many queries have you sent? I used to think 20 queries was a baseline for testing whether the pitch + opening pages are working, but I think the number is closer to 50. Keep going!! :)
Thank you! I’ve sent 24, still waiting on 5, but I really appreciate that. So if I get to 50 and still haven’t had a single request for a full, that means it’s the query? Because what’s concerning to me is that people can request the full and still reject it but no one’s even requested the full yet.
Ahhh, it's so hard to know! I feel your pain. I definitely think keep querying (and start your next book!!), but it also can't hurt to look over your materials again. You mentioned people have looked at your query -- have you had other writers give you feedback? Agented writers? (Not that agented writers necessarily know more, but if they've had to tackle this particular hurdle before, they sometimes have a better sense of what works.) Also it can be good to have a mix of people who've read your manuscript (so know the heart of it) and people who haven't (so can tell you what it's like to read it cold). And people you trust to be brutally honest! (Not that they should be brutal about it. But truly, deeply honest about how it reads.) Same thing for the opening pages -- how do you feel about those, and the feedback you've gotten on the ms itself? Also, have any of the rejections been personalized? Not that you have to answer all these questions haha, it's just some ways to think through all this. There's been talk elsewhere in this thread about hiring editors, and it's not something you have to do (especially with QueryShark and beta readers) but it could be an option if you send more queries and don't get any nibbles. I feel like this is a place for an infamous Kate McKean shrug!
This is so helpful too! I’ve had other writers read my query, but not necessarily agented writers. I also sent it to QueryShark and mine hasn’t ended up on there yet. How would you go about finding agented people to read it? Beta reading sounds useful but I’m also not quite sure how to go about it. I finished my book and sent it to a few different friends who had offered to read it and then ended up with 3 people who read through the entire thing and gave me feedback (which is still very helpful). And then I let it sit for several months, edited some more, started a new job, let it keep incubating, edited out a few more drafts, and decided to start querying at the 2ish year mark after manuscript completion.
I know there are some Facebook and Discord groups where people post query letters for critique, if you're on either of those platforms. Sometimes they aren't that useful, because people's opinions are just their opinions! But I was trying to think about if you could use some more feedback from other sources. My email is in my profile if you want to shoot me a note and I'll do some thinking about other resources!
Keep going! And I'm sorry to say there's no way to know if it's the query or the pages or the book or the market or if Jupiter is in the wrong house. Sometimes it's two of those things for one agent and five for the next. Have faith in your work and keep going. And write your next book.
Thank you! This has all been so encouraging, and I think I just need to put half my brain toward querying and half my brain toward my new project (which I’m also excited about hehe). And I mean, if it’s not my first book, maybe it’s my second (though I will keep querying). At the end of the day, we all do this because we love it, and I have to just keep reminding myself that.
Sometimes you can't tell why you're getting rejections, and it's easy to look to the query because that's something you can more easily (ha) change! But how may queries have you sent out? 19 is not a whole lot of rejections! Keep going!
I’ve sent 24 so maybe I’m just psyching myself out because it feels like a bad rate that I haven’t had one request for a full.
Kyrie, thanks for sharing this. I thought 3/3 rejections was awful and was about to pause querying, but now I realize I should keep trying!
Yay, I’m so glad this was encouraging! It’s tough getting rejections :)
Hi Kate, (or anyone who is savvy at kid lit)
Is there a "space" in between picture books and early reader? Something that is essentially a picture book, but with text between 1500-2500?
I recall seeing longer stories, with more advanced vocabulary, but illustrated. (An illustrated fable perhaps? For example, an adaptation of the Brementown Musicians comes to mind. )
If there is a place for such work, what's the proper way to frame this if one were to query it?
Or is it as Apollo Creed shouts when training Rocky in Rocky IV, "There is no in-between, Balboa, there is no IN-BETWEEN!*"
Thanks for being so awesome, Kate.
* I don't think that is really what Apollo Creed shouted, but that was the voice I heard in my head.
Im mum to an 8 year old and we’re now into Roald Dahl and David Walliams and I’m desperate to be back in picture books or books that don’t make me so sleepy to read 😆 📚
Kate's the agent expert here, but as a homeschooling parent / heavy library user I would say there IS a book that fits what you're describing. I'd call it an "illustrated book" rather than a "picture book." One of my local libraries has a whole section devoted to books of this type. They fit the description of what you're talking about: richer vocabulary that suggests an adult is still reading the book aloud but with more text than a standard picture book. In my experience, it's an uncommon beast, but it does exist.
(Waves!!!) I think these are just early readers and they most often are created in-house by the publisher and usually fit pretty specific standards according to curriculum/reading levels. They also often feature brands/characters/etc. There isn't a lot of original work in this space.
I am in the Early Reader stage with my 6 & 7 yr old & we did just find a piece of original work (I think) Fly Guy. But it’s the first I’ve seen amongst hundreds of Peppa Pigs.
What is the best way to convert a novel to a screenplay? Thanks~~
I don't know! I don't do screenplays. Anyone got tips?
I have a novella (45k words) that feels very "small independent genre publisher" in spirit, and most of those accept direct submissions. Should I send it to these publishers and to agents simultaneously? Or try to exhaust one pool first? Or not bother agents at all with this one -- but then when I send out my novel later this year (fingers crossed), hope that the cover letter can say "My novella X was recently accepted by X and is due out soon, ergo I'm already quite a big star."
The only draw back to sending to publishers and agents at the same time is that if the agent has great feedback for you but you've already send to X and they reject it, you can't go back to X and say WAIT WAIT IT'S BETTER NOW!!!! Also, if it's a bigger publisher that takes open submissions, and they reject you, your agent can't necessarily send it to them again. You can do both of these things at the same time but just think about the downside and see if you're ok with it.
Hi, thank you Kate. I have two recurring questions as I enter the home stretch of my action novel.
1. How important is it to have maximum one POV per chapter?
2. If it is essential, then in separating out POVs from existing chapters, what is the _minimum_ length for a chapter?
For example I separated one character's POV into a stand-alone chapter, but it is only three standard pages long.
I would appreciate any advice.
Cheers, Bill
1. I have no idea! I think it depends on how your novel is structured and if switching POVs makes sense to your story.
2. There is no minimum!
Do what makes sense for your story!
Thank you for this, Kate!
Thank you, Kate!! I would love to ask how common it is for authors to sign with an agent and then not be able to sell the first book. Does the first book ever go into the compost, but then get resurrected later in a second book deal? (Is there any bright side to having failed to launch on the first go?) Thank you again for any perspective you can provide!
Happens all the time! My agent didn't sell the first book I wrote (or second or...but that is NOT his fault lol) he sent out and he's still my agent. <3 I have had VERY VERY VERY few instances where someone comes back and buys a book that didn't sell the first time around, but it's not impossible. SO MANY PEOPLE do not sell their first books. You are in GREAT company.
Thank you so much, Kate. I appreciate this!!
Hi :) Been following this newsletter for a while and really enjoy it. I'm an indie author hoping to also break into trad publishing, and was curious how sensitivity reading happens on the trad side. Is the author still responsible for finding sensitivity readers, or does the agent or publisher do that? Who pays for it? At what point in the editing process does it happen? Thanks!
Like most things, it varies. The ones I've been privy to happened after the book was sold and the publisher paid for it. But that's not the rule or the exception to it. If you personally want to do it before you query (to genuinely improve the manuscript, not to just check a box and say you did it, like some kind of seal of approval) I would do it after you've fully edited the book yourself. If you don't want to or can't pay for it, it's ok to send it out as is and see how it goes.
Hi Kate! Thank you for this open thread. I have a querying question. Almost all of the agents on my list specify what they want, like first 12 pages, first chapter etc. But one of the agents just says “send queries and manuscript proposals for NF to (email address).” In this case, do they really just want a query with no pages from the manuscript? Would it be presumptuous to query them with the first chapter/12 pages? Should I do it anyway:)?
Give them what they ask for and just that!
Thank you so much for replying. Will do!
Any thoughts on writing/publishing under a pseudonym for those of us in public/licensed professions? Im starting to write again but am now in a profession where I don’t want my work to be immediately associated with my name.
You can use a pseudonym for any reason you want! Just think about how you will handle it once the book is out. Will it be an open secret? Will you have twitter acct just for your pen name? Will you say Jane Smith aka Clementine Asgaard? No author photo? Pick the route which will be the least pain in the ass.
Last year my Literary agent only sent my book info to 5 editors at publishers. Two wrote back saying they liked the concept but because I don't have a platform they were not sure it would sell. It's a Guided memoir course for grandparents to write their family history, and life stories for their grandchildren. It goes deeper than that, but that's the basic purpose of the book. I teach the program that the book is based on, and am working on getting better known locally. Shouldn't she be reaching out to more editors? Can I suggest some more editors? Instead, she wants to pitch it as a movie and promote another book I wrote. I don't want her to so easily stop trying. Any suggestions or advice?
I really like this idea. I wish more grandparents wrote down their stories. When I tried to interview my grandpa, he omitted everything he preferred not to discuss… like his entire first marriage.
Talk to your agent! Tell her all this! Yes you can suggest more editors! Ask her why she wants to pitch it as a movie!
Hi! Happy to be part of this community. :)
I have been writing for a living / doing marketing for about 8 years (copywriting, blogging, newsletter, etc.). But now I’m looking to shift my focus to fiction writing, which I’m fairly new to as I dropped out of college and have never taken a formal writing class.
I’ve read lots of great books on writing novel structure, great general creative/fiction writing advice books, and more, BUT when I sit down to write I feel a bit blocked. Like I totally have the “big picture” map for my book/story but when it comes to the nitty-gritty details of how to actually write a scene, I don’t know really how or where to start or how to actually write it. It seems so simple and so complex at the same time! I know this will come with more time spent reading/writing, but in the meantime... Any advice? Or classes/books I can take to help me approach/structure/write scenes?
(Maybe more so with a focus on how to make the scene flow and how to decide what goes in it, as I already have the “big picture” scenes and just need to stop feeling stuck because I don’t know the details yet.)
You don't necessarily need to read a book or take a class to learn how to do this. The thing to remember is that you're not going to sit down and write it all out in one go with everything in the right place. You're going to start somewhere and keep going. Then you're going to edit at some point and be like *oh wait, it's winter in this story and everyone needs coats.* Actually, maybe read Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird first and embrace the Shitty First Draft, and then just get something down on the page. And then you go back and make it better.
100% read Bird by Bird for advice on this!
Thing I'm thinking about: what might make someone who has either never been religious or stepped away from a religious home be interested in reading a book where a character has a religious influence in her life?
I think one of the things I find most interesting about this is when I'm reading reviews of characters who are Jewish or Buddhist, their spiritual practice is rarely mentioned while many are put off by Christian characters. While I understand that a plot built around faith and miracles can come across as a certain kind of thing, I'm wondering if people who read either The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall or Women Talking by Miriam Toews also find the presence of religion there enough to dissuade from reading.
I feel like religious themes play a role in so much literature! Not in a dogmatic way, of course, but just as a part of life. Because books reflect life, yes? I imagine there were lots of non-Christians who read and loved Gilead, for example.
But I mostly read literary fiction and I imagine this could be a bigger issue in genre fiction. There it might feel out of place in anything other than with religious publishers. So much depends on how it is treated though. If a goal is to subtly proselytize, you'd lose me.
Ohhhhh interesting. What do you think, team?
My understanding is, although we only hear about novels that simmer into the mainstream (like "Left Behind"), the Christian market is absolutely HUGE and the "spritual" aspect of the story is really the whole point. So a book focusing on that might find fertile ground. In fact, Harper Collins even has a division devoted to it: https://www.harpercollinschristian.com
I am new to this so please bear with me. I have submitted my nonfiction manuscript to several literary agents and book publishers but none have responded positively. I am thinking of self-publishing. There are so many self-publishing companies and I have heard horror stories about them. Can anyone suggest a reliable self-publishing company? Appreciate your help.
Hi Mansoor. Are you on Facebook? There is a spectacular group there called "20BooksTo50k" that is 100% free and offers a WEALTH of info about indie publishing. You can ask any question you want and you'll get really great answers, and they can steer you away from scams. They also hold a great convention in Las Vegas every year devoted JUST to indie publishing. You should def. check them out!
Thank you very much Hal. I'll check it out.
After wrestling with the whole “indie” vs. “trad” thing for a couple years, I thought I’d finally settled on “trad.” A good friend of mine (herself an agent) suggests this would be a mixed blessing. While trad publishers offer obvious benefits, she suggests they are somewhat behind the curve in my genre, the MG/YA graphic novel, where they still use the “print book” model (her words.) So at her suggestion I started showing proofs only to publishers who specialize in comics and graphic novels (there are quite a few.) Now I’m getting offers! Yikes! I am not competent to negotiate! My friend suggests finding an agent who’s knowledgable about OGN’s (she is not and doesn’t know any.) How do I figure out which one? I’ve only just started my search. After reading your post about “how to find an agent” I bought a subscription to PM, but although it lists agents who’ve done deals for OGN’s it offers no way to discern one from another. Should I just use a shotgun approach and query everyone who’s ever done an OGN deal? How long a process might this be? Must I come in through the “slush pile?” And how do I politely put publishers who’ve expressed interest “on hold” without pissing them off? Do you know anyone great who’s open? (I know you are not.) Just for the record, I have gotten offers of representation (three) over the years, but they were from agents I pitched for “practice” at local writer’s conferences (I have a prose novel, too, still not ready yet.) And although they were lovely people they were MG/YA generalists, not specialists in the OGN. Thanks.
Start at PM, make a list of those agents who do GNs, then read their websites and twitter feeds and etc and go from there. There are plenty of agents who do OGNs but not a million so this won't be a huge lift.
Put in your query you have an offer on the table and name the publisher(s). It's going to take a minute, but it might happen a little faster b/c you have the offer in hand. If the publishers get itchy about waiting, then that tells you a lot about how they do business and you might not want to work with them if they are not willing to wait for you to get an agent. The offers will not evaporate. You are in the driver's seat. Good luck!
Curious what you/others know about releasing a book or audiobook serially. I'm about to do this and would love to learn from others. Also wondering how/where best to share what I learn from the process with others—let's democratize publishing!
This is ALSO very interesting. What do you think team?
Kate McKean, thank you so much for doing this open thread today. The comments and replies are quite helpful. I always am happy to find your newsletter in my email inbox (who says we're
tired of newsletters), but today has been a special treat. Thanks!
I love your newsletter & insights; thanks for everything 😊How much longer do you think Sci-Fi will be dead? I’ve heard several agents say that can’t sell Sci-Fi right now (seems like there’s a deluge of it ATM). What’s a good indicator of how long these cycles last?
Uhhhhhhhhh, it's dead? Coulda fooled me! I don't thinks any rhyme or reason to how long any of these cycles last but I didn't know we were in one with SF lol.
😂Yes, I guess it depends who you talk to. Thanks for the hope. Maybe some people are just have a harder time with certain types of it right now.
Thanks, kate! :) :) :)
Could my opening lines to romance novel be dialogue? I was under the impression I needed a first line (First Line Frenzy). I'd love to get opinions from anyone out there, published or not.
Hi Margaret- fellow writer chiming in, but I have a strong preference (and have also heard this advice from others) against opening with dialogue. The banter is lost on the reader, because we have no context for who is speaking the words, to whom, and why. HTH!
Thanks, Jill. I appreciate your feedback! It makes a lot of sense.
What's "first line frenzy"? I don't see why it can't be dialogue.
They can be! Just make sure the reader knows who's speaking asap.
Another quick question! One of my memoir coaching clients is a 92-year-old retired attorney who worked on a number of high-profile cases in his day, including the O.J. Simpson trial, the Menendez brothers' trial, and others. He's an accomplished musician, Masters' Track and Field champ, and 5x published author of legal mysteries. He's currently battling Parkinson's and has a fascinating story exploring the roots of his relentless drive. The clock is ticking for this lovely man, and I'm trying to identify who best to help him get his book to the finish line. Thanks for any suggestions!
Christine this sounds fascinating! What do you mean by "help him get his book to the finish line"? Does he need a ghost writer? A co-author? An editor? Help researching and querying agents? Something else?
D’oh, sorry I wasn’t clear. He needs a literary agent. The manuscript and proposal are complete!
Oh wonderful, I hope he finds someone! 😍
Oh I don't know if I could give any specific names without more info but community, what do you think??
Not a question, but just a general thank you, Kate, for doing what you do! I’ve been publishing for a decade now, but of course you never stop learning in a field like this. Appreciate all the insights and advice you share on your SS! 🖤
I agree - love it here 🥰
echoing the thanks, absolutely
Thank you for reading!
Also curious—how do you manage working in publishing and also being a writer? I also work in publishing sometimes and at times find my "writer-identity" in conflict with my "work-identity," for instance sometimes wishing the business side didn't matter (though obviously it does matter! and in particular, it matters for me to continue having a job ha), or having been rejected from things that people I'm working with have been accepted into etc. Do you find yourself ever being challenged in juggling these roles and identities?
I think if I had been trying to get a book published when I was younger I would have been much more bitter about all the editors who've rejected me, lol. But I've seen so many things that are just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that I can more easily take that stance myself. It still stings! And I ABSOLUTELY pretend it never happened when I'm talking to editors who passed on my stuff about other things. But I just try to keep my writer hat on when I'm writing (and both when I'm agenting because I think it helps me relate to my clients more). :)
Thank you for this! I agree that writer hat is very helpful at times—I'm really appreciative of having been edited because it helps me better respond to authors and so on, because I've been on their side! Thank you so much for this newsletter :)
Thanks for the info, Kate. He's selling books due to some international TV exposure. Just looking to get into film and TV rights to his intellectual property. Any good sources for that kind of information?
I don't have any links, unfortunately. Team??
Thank you this column is so helpful!
Thanks!