Question: (I Have 20 Projects!)
26 Mar
A reader writes:
Help! I have ten paper children and a series of WIP’s that seem to be multiplying behind my back. I can’t stop writing, it’s like crack. I only know writing. I would like to know a literary agent, a publisher, a marketing genius, and perhaps even an author who could steer me in the right direction….oh wait…might that…be you?
If so… Should I have an authors website? It seems a bit presumptuous. I have a blog, I’m not sure anyone reads this blog but it does exist. I write literary fiction and women’s fiction (let’s call a spade a spade, it’s chick lit). I have three partials out and one outstanding query. This past summer I sent (no joke) near 100 query’s. I attended last years BEA and met amazing literary agents all of who requested and rejected partials.
Oddly enough, I’m still not convinced I’m a bad writer. Perhaps I can send you the first page of say, three or four of my novels and maybe you can tell me whether or not I should be watching more TV?
Any help is invaluable as you are the only person (sans a Deity) I am looking to for advice.
First, some light scolding.
If I were still a literary agent, I probably would’ve stopped reading after the first sentence. I have no idea what “ten paper children and a series of WIP’s” means. In the cold, cruel world of publishing, if you can’t be clear in your first sentence, you’re done.
Fortunately, I’m here to help and not to keep gates.
I had an e-mail exchange with the author in which I learned that she has written ten books. Four aren’t marketable. Four are stand-alone novels. The remaining two are part of a “chick lit” series.
Much better. But there is still way too much going on here.
Think of your first book as a small business. You want to start up this little company called Someday I’ll Be Great, Inc. or Everything I’ ve Ever Hoped For, LLC.
Now imagine going to the bank for a loan. You’re not going to tell them you want money for a car wash . . . or maybe a hair salon . . . on second thought, make that a children’s photography studio . . . no, that’s not it . . . how about an organic apple orchard?
Agents are the same way. You may end up getting a multi-book deal, but generally it’s the one book that gets you in the door.
Furthermore, that one book (or any book for that matter) has a very long life cycle. It takes time to sell, time to edit, time to promote in hardcover, time to promote in paperback, time to continue to promote in paperback. (They are, indeed, paper children.)
What is that one book for you? I do not know, my friend. But it is one book. Make your choice, hunker down and get ready to work it to death. (At least, until you write the next one.)
