Getting Noticed

There are so many people writing these days and so few major publishers. Most large publishers use literary agents as a means of screening manuscripts; getting rid of the awful ones up front. Publishers who don't charge a fee to publish works, screen heavily to find the best bets before backing the project with company funds.

Writers use blogs, twitter, and facebook to get noticed. Writing samples are posted their websites and writing forums. Here is a new one: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/10/03/pubslush-launches-a-kickstarter-platform-for-book-publishing. If you read the article, you know as much as I know about it. I'm not endorsing it one way or the other; just tossing out this bit of information for you to check out.

I've seen bulk queries come through that obviously are a shotgun attempt born out of desperation to get past the first hurtle and have their full ms requested. To date, every query letter I've received that began, "Dear Sir" hasn't made it past me to the vetting committee.

One committee person asked to read my rejects before I wrote the rejection email, then sent a note that they agreed that the work was so substandard that it wasn't worth taking it to the full committee.

It is extremely important to put your best effort forward every time. You only get one shot at a first impressions and the competition is stiff.

Try not to query when you're tired, feeling low from a rejection letter, or hurried. It will make a difference if you're rested and feeling confident about your work.

If you've self published, you know that your book gets turned away from some sites and some reviewers. It isn't a level playing field. Take a look at this place: http://filedby.com/author/nadine_laman/2238025.

No matter what, write your best work and believe in yourself and your ms.

More stuff about querying ...

It might just be me, but when I see quotes from other works at the beginning of the manuscript or each chapter, my head starts talking, "No! No-no-nooooo. Don't even consider that ms!"

I suppose that any sensible writer would remove the quotes if the prospective publisher indicated that the headache of getting license for each of those gems was a barrier to getting a publishing contract.

There are provisions for short quotes in the US Copyright laws, however my legal advisor says that those do not include uses for profit. News flash: books are published with the hope of making a profit. Besides, I have a personal moral about lifting other people's works without permission. I wouldn't want it done to my stuff, so why do it?

This includes cover art and fonts. We pay for the licence for our cover art and fonts that aren't free use.

Another thing about making a profit. Just because your mother, best friend, lover, teacher, or writers group loves your ms doesn't mean there is a market for it. And just because your mother, best friend, lover, teacher, or writers group edited the ms, it really isn't "book edited" IMO. So if either of those statements are true, don't put them in a query letter to Cactus Rain - or probably anyone else.

I'm not interested in writing awards unless it is the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Pulitzer, or maybe the Man Booker. Actually, there are two others that might get my attention, but definitely not awards from writing groups. Those can be as much a popularity contest as a writing contest. How am I to know?

Don't pull a James Frey in reverse. Cactus Rain only publishes fiction. Changing the names of the people involved in a real event is not fiction. While I get lots of comments that I'm Kathryn in Kathryn's Beach, it isn't true. That isn't my story. A couple of people wanted in KB, so I let them write themselves into the story, mostly by naming a character -- but it is fiction.

Don't send memoirs, though I will consider a faux memoir. But honestly, memoirs usually don't sell unless they are celebrity memoirs, and if that is the case they won't be coming to Cactus Rain anyway.

I'm being pesky this week, but on the other hand, the query letter is asking me to love the ms enough to put money behind it, so I'm laying some of my cards on the table. It is important to know who you're querying and what they like.

Please don't send letters to Cactus Rain that begin, "Dear Sir." I'm many things, but Sir is not one of them.

The Next Step

Out of six recent submissions, two have made the next cut. I know you've heard this before, but let's look at some of the things that can be done to get through the next hurtle to get your york of fiction published.

The query, by some stroke of luck, got the reader to want to read the three chapter submission. Good job!

Here are some things that can get the chapter sample a favorable read. First off, submit exactly what is asked for in the guidelines. In the case of Cactus Rain, I like to see the first three chapters. Never send chapters that aren't the first and in sequential order - no skipping to the good part. The beginning has to be the good part.

Manuscript format counts more than you'd think. Double spacing the lines in an ms is not optional - ever. The people who did not set up their software before embarking on the adventure of writing, have work to do to fix that omission. Single spaced paragraphs with spaces between them is not correct. Manuscripts must be double spaced lines. Always.

One space between sentences is the mark of someone who's done their research. It is never okay to have two spaces between sentences in an ms.

At this point, if these two basic formatting errors are present, it is likely that the writer knows even less about writing. Before I became so busy, I would give a "pity read," but even I don't have the time for that now.

For writers who believe in the value of their story, but are not good with grammar - in the slightest, then it is worth paying for a professional line edit. Line edits are about grammar and punctuation, they are not the same as content editing. They are not ready for submission just because they were edited by your English teacher or grammar-geek friend.

It is not necessary to be able to recite the 48 prepositions, but the writer should have a basic knowledge of parts of speech (there are 8 in US English -- how hard is that to review?) and review the basic punctuation rules.

There are differences between UK English and American English punctuation rules. However, there are some things that I will never tolerate again. The number one offender is ellipsis marks. It is rare that ellipsis would fit correctly in a work of fiction; if you use them, don't send your ms to Cactus Rain Publishing.

In school we're taught there is a formula to paragraph writing where a certain number of sentences and types of sentences are required. That is not wholly true in fiction. The trick on fiction paragraphs [and dialogue] is easy.

This next bit isn't the technical way to explain this and if Nick Daws reads it, he is likely to comment - consider yourself warned.

Think of dialogue and scenes as a tennis game. Each time someone speaks, the ball is in their court and you look their direction - that equals a new paragraph. Every change in speaker in dialogue is the start of a new paragraph. Even if the speaker gets only one word said, they get their own line.

Basically the same is true for scenes. When you take the reader from one location or one "camera shot" to another in the same location, then make a new paragraph. For example, if the reader is facing the fountain as the setting behind the scene action, then the action comes from another direction, say from behind the reader, that is a new paragraph. Think of it as watching the ball in tennis and it has changed courts.

This post is getting furiously lengthy, so I'll take a break here. This would be a good time to save a master copy of your ms, then run searches for things like double spaces between sentences, and fix them in a new file doc.