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This week JJ and Kelly talk subrights, or the pocket change of the publishing world! Also, our call for query submissions to be critiqued on our future query critique podcast is still open, so please send them in! Plus, more horror podcast recommendations.
Subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, or use this feed to subscribe through your podcast service of choice! If you like us, please, please, please leave a rating or review, as it helps other listeners find the podcast. We cherish each and every one of you who have taken the time to leave us feedback; you’re the stars in our sky!
IF THE PODCAST IS NOT UPDATING FOR YOU ON ITUNES: Unsubscribe from us and then delete the show from your podcast app. Then search for “Pub(lishing) Crawl” in the Podcast store. Download the most recent episode, and then re-subscribe. This should refresh the feed, and you should be getting episodes as they update going forward!
Show Notes
A subsidiary right is the right to produce or publish a product in different formats based on the original material.
Primary subrights include:
First and second serial
Translation
Audio
Film/TV
Dramatic
Merchandising/Commercial
Graphic Novels
Secondary subrights include:
Library binding
Large print
Book club
Anthologies
Reach for the sky rights!
Theme park
Video games
Granting vs. retaining subrights
Retaining subrights:
If you retain a subright, you (or your agent) are responsible for the sale/licensing (“exploiting”) of the subright
The advantage is that you would receive money from the sale/licensing directly (minus your agent and co-agent’s commission).
Granting subrights:
If you grant a subright to the publisher, the publisher is responsible for exploiting those rights.
You and the publisher will split the proceeds from the sale/licensing (generally 50/50, but these splits can be negotiated)
The advantage of granting subrights is that money from the sale/licensing go against your advance, so you would earn out your advance faster and receive royalties on your book sooner
Real Life Example of Retaining Subrights
During the process of negotiation, your agent sells North American rights only for an advance of $10,000.
You make a foreign sale to a German publisher for $10,000.
The foreign co-agent takes 10%, your agent takes 10%, leaving you with $8000 to paid to you directly.
Advantage: You get $18,000 in hand.
Real Life Example of Granting Subrights
Let’s say during the process of negotiation, you granted more subrights to the publisher for more advance money, so you sold World rights for an advance of $15,000.
The publisher makes a foreign sale to a German publisher for $10,000.
Because the split is 50/50, your publisher makes $5000, and you make $5000. The publisher applies this money against your advance, so now you need to sell $10,000 worth of royalties in order to start seeing royalty checks.
Advantage: You get $15,000 in hand, but will earn out faster.
PRO TIP: If you do grant subrights to the publisher, make sure there is language in your contract to ensure that these rights would revert back to you within a certain timeframe, should they go unexploited.
PRO TIP: Make sure you also have language that only grants explicitly listed rights to the publisher, e.g. “Any right not explicitly granted herein is retained by the author.” Also, make sure you excise “whether now known or hereafter devised”.
Kelly is still working on her YA, and is also co-writing a MG with her friend.
JJ has seen cover concepts for Wintersong and is excited to share them with you in the future! She is still working on mental health, and is working on her Beauty and the Beast retelling VERY SLOWLY. She is also trying to write short fiction, to put more writing tools in her arsenal.
This week Kelly and JJ go into a little more detail about how to write a query: what works, what doesn’t work, the who, the what, the where, and the whys. Also, have a query you want to have critiqued? Email us!
Unfortunately, it appears as though our iTunes link is broken due to us moving the podcast to Soundcloud to deal with server issues. We are looking to see if we can’t maintain the feed at its current place, but we may need to delete the podcast and y’all who listen through iTunes to resubscribe. Our apologies in advance!
Emotional distance from your work is best (we know this is hard!)
Don’t go too broad; the more specific the better
You don’t need to include absolutely everything about your book in your query—just enough to entice the agent into wanting more
The shorter, the better: sweet spot is 250 to 400 words
Let your story speak for itself; don’t talk about your book (show, don’t tell!)
Try to limit the number of characters you’re naming in your query (they generally say no more than 3): the protagonist, the antagonist, major ancillary character
Also, you may write a flawless query, but the agent may still pass because it’s simply not their taste
The “Formula”
SETUP: A brief “laying of the scene”: setting, premise, etc. The “status quo”, as it were. INCITING INCIDENT: A disruption of the status quo (e.g. a stranger comes to town) CONSEQUENCES OF INCITING INCIDENT: How the world has changed after the Inciting Incident THE MOMENT THE PROTAGONIST BECOMES PERSONALLY INVOLVED: What it says on the tin
The SETUPbut whenINCITING INCIDENT happens CONSEQUENCES OF INCITING INCIDENT occur,so thenTHE PROTAGONIST BECOMES PERSONALLY INVOLVED.
All of this together gets across what the stakes are, and that’s what generates tension and interest in a story.
ALSO: If you need troubleshooting with your query, Kelly and JJ will be doing QUERY CRITIQUES in a future podcast. If you have a query you would like us to critique, email us at [email protected] with the subject line PUBCRAWL PODCAST QUERY CRITIQUE. We will we critiquing 5 queries with all identifying information removed. All genres and categories welcome! We will leave the query critique submission open for 4 weeks, so polish up and send it in!
Hi friends, Stacey here, with my critique partner and fellow pub-crawler, Stephanie Garber! Today we are chatting about something we imagine most of you are all too familiar with..
Rejection. We’ve all been there, starting with the threesome of friends that decided to become a twosome without you, or the unrequited love you slathered on that skinny basketball player in sixth grade. Writing is not for the faint of heart. It often feels like the bad days outnumber the good, that the days of utter dejection and rejection will stop the ship from sailing all together. Many days, I feel like the luckiest person alive to be doing the one thing I’d always wanted to do — make a living as a writer. Some days, I feel like I might chuck it all. Go catch up on those movies I’d been wanting to watch, those travel adventures I’d wanted to take. I wouldn’t read, because reading would only remind me of my giving up. But it would be an easier life, wouldn’t it?
Statistics show that the average number of rejections writers receive before selling a manuscript is about 3,967, based on absolutely no evidence at all. Once you do make that sale, there may be and probably will be dark days ahead. There is the pain of being rejected for blurbs. The torment of not feeling cool enough on social media. The agony of reviews, both professional and bloggers. There is the consternation of not being included on ‘lists,’ or not being invited to conferences, and the heartache of being passed up for awards. There is the distress of having an agent fail you, or an editor leave, or your publisher not buying your next book.
Stacey: Speaking as someone who has a book out and two on the way, When I feel down about publishing, I distance myself. I surround myself with Stacey-supporters and avoid that thing that brings me pain. I get busy doing other stuff, cleaning out the coupon drawer (I know, I have a coupon drawer) finding stuff to giveaway to the Salvation Army, I research my next vacation spot.
Then, when I’m ready, I talk to other people who have ‘been there’ and can validate my experiences. One of my favorite quotes is, “misery shared is misery halved, and joy shared is joy doubled.”
Stephanie: As someone who has shared both misery and joy with Stacey Lee, I can say that the above quote is so true!
One thing that helps me deal with feelings of rejection is to think of books as if they are birthdays.
When it’s getting close to my sister’s birthday and my family starts talking about how we are going to celebrate, I don’t start feeling sorry for myself. I never wonder, Why isn’t anyone talking about my birthday? Isn’t anyone excited for me? Same for her presents. I’m not going to count how many presents my sister receives and then compare the number of gifts I’m given for my birthday—that would be ridiculous.
And I believe the same type of comparing can be said for books.
So, let’s say, your book is slated to come out in summer or fall of 2016, avoid the temptation of feeling bad because the winter and spring books seem to be receiving most of the attention right now—those books have birthdays coming up, they should be getting the buzz.
Stacey: It’s important to remember that there is more to you than your writing. We are not in a race. What can screw us up is the image in our head of how things are supposed to be. As nobody ever said, the flower does not compare itself to the beauty of the flower growing beside it, it just blooms. We each proceed at the pace we’re meant to proceed, taking the losses as they come, but also the wins. There is the joy of connecting with a reader who needed your book. The hug from your critique partners, whose love and support goes way beyond books. There are the emails from your publishing team calling you ‘awesome.’ There is the simple joy of losing yourself in your storytelling. These things must be remembered.
*Cue a rainbow.*
Stephanie: During the holidays I spent sometime cleaning out my closet and I found a journal from when I was in high school. I was nervous about looking inside it—I was a pretty depressed high school student—so, afraid of what I might find, I told myself I would only peek for a second. The page I opened to was a list, written in brightly colored markers, full of all the things I wanted. I listed things like clear skin, perfect SAT scores, to be able to dance, and to someday write a novel. And while I still don’t have clear skin, my SAT scores were far from perfect—and sadly so are my dance skills—I did write that novel.
And I know I’ve said it here before, but just writing a book is a huge accomplishment, whether it sells or not. I meet so many people who tell me they want to write a book, but hardly any of them actually sit down and do it. So if you have written a book that is awesome. If it’s being published, or if it’s about to be published, that is even more incredible!
Stacey: Remember the speeder chase scene through the redwood forest in Return of the Jedi? It’s exhilarating to watch that scene because the camera shows it from the perspective of the rider, Luke. You don’t get a sense of exactly where he’s going, but you feel all the bumps and jolts and swoops and loops that he experiences. As we enter this new year, take a moment to rise above the chase scene, and view it from the top, where unlike that scene in Star Wars, you will not see all the bumps and dips, but the one thing you will see is your progress.
Now it’s your turn. We know all of our readers are in different places with their publishing journeys—we’ve shared a bit about our experiences, so now we’d love to hear from some of you.
This week JJ and Kelly are back to their regular format and discuss X Meets Y, or The High Concept Pitch: what it is, what it entails, and whether or not you need it. Also, the difference between “commercial” and “literary” (if any), and as always, what we’re reading and enjoying this week!
Subscribe to us on iTunes, or use this feed to subscribe through your podcast service of choice! If you like us, please, please, please leave a rating or review, as it helps other listeners find the podcast. We know you’re listening! You tell us you do! So why not do us a favor and let other people know? Thanks in advance!
Show Notes
“High concept” is really just the ability to distill your premise down to one or two sentences. It can encompass the “X meets Y” pitch, but a high concept pitch is really the kernel of a story—the handle, as JJ’s old boss used to say—you can pick up and hand to someone else (i.e. sell).
“Commercial” vs. “literary” is a false dichotomy; they are writing styles, not concepts. You can have the exact same idea and write it in a commercial way, or write it in a more literary manner.
Arkham Horror (not Arkham Asylum as JJ mentions, although she has played that too)
That’s all for this week! Next week we’ll talk about CRITIQUE GROUPS! If you have any questions you would like us to answer, send us an ask or leave a comment!
A question I used to see a lot from aspiring writers when I was still working in publishing was Do I need a website? Do I need to get on Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr/Instagram/[insert social media platform]?What do agents and editors mean when they say “online presence”?
I won’t lie; whenever I received a submission from an agent, the first thing I did was Google that author. I wasn’t necessarily looking to see if the author had an enormous platform or following; I just wanted to get a sense of the person behind the words. For me, it was always the most helpful if the author had a personal website where I could go, read their bios, find their social media links, etc. Not having a professional website isn’t a deal-breaker, but these days, it would strike me as a little odd.
I’ve been coding and designing websites since I was in high school (does anyone else remember Geocities? No? Bueller? Bueller? Okay, I’m just old then.), so I’m pretty comfortable with this sort of thing, but I know this entire process bewilders a lot of people, so I thought I would write a tutorial for our readers (and some of our members!) to help them out.
Full disclosure: Here at PubCrawl, we use Bluehost, so the screenshots used in the tutorial will be of their website. We’ve been pretty happy with Bluehost in the five years we’ve been with them and would never endorse something we ourselves did not use or wholeheartedly support. There are a myriad other hosting options out there, but if you choose to go with Bluehost, we would appreciate it if you would click on the link we’ve provided, as it generates a little revenue for us at PubCrawl. We do what we love here for love and not money, but a little kickback would help us fund our giveaways and keep the lights on!
This is a bit of a long post with a lot of images, so the rest is under the cut!
1. Pick a domain name.
A domain name is your address on the internet, as it were. Ours is publishingcrawl.com, but as an writer, it’s best to have a domain under the name you’re writing under. (For example: Mine is sjaejones.com because I am writing as S. Jae-Jones.) The first thing I would do is check to see if your name is available. The easiest way to do that is simply type yourname.com into your browser and see if anything turns up.
If your name is already taken, then you can add -writer or -books to the end of your name, or else try .net or .biz, although .com is probably best for search purposes.
2. Select a web hosting plan and register your domain.
Most web hosting services will register your first domain for free, and for the sake of simplicity, I would recommend you do it all at once.1 Select your plan of choice. (For most writers who don’t expect heavy blog traffic, the most basic plans are sufficient. You can always upgrade later.) Register your new domain name with your host provider.
Okay, now here’s where things get a bit complicated. Think of a website as a piece of property: the host is the land itself and the domain is the address. If you want to live on that piece of land, you need to build a house.
If you know HTML, you could code that house yourself. (I’ve done so; it’s incredibly time-consuming and exhausting.) Or you could download and install a CMS, or Content Management System, like WordPress, Joomla, or similar. We at PubCrawl use WordPress (and I do for my own website as well).
Once you’ve set up your domain, you will prompted to set up a username and password for your host. Once you’ve done that, log in to access your Control Panel (usually called cPanel by most hosting services).
Once you’ve been logged in, at the top navigation bar, you will see cpanel. Clicking on that will lead you to your Control Panel, which will look something like this:
Bluehost and other providers will often provide a 1-step installation for WordPress and other CMS builders. Under Website Builders, click on the WordPress logo and you’ll be brought to a page that looks like this:
Start a brand new install, select your domain name, and Bluehost will do the work for you.2 Set up your WordPress login with a username and password.
Once everything’s been installed, in order to access the backend of your website, type www.yourname.com/wp-admin/ and you’ll see this:
Fill in your username and password and that will take you to your Dashboard, which looks like this:
Ta-da! Now your website has been set up. Time to make it look pretty.
4. Select a theme to install on your website.
The default WordPress theme is actually pretty decent, but if you want to put your own personal stamp on your website, I would recommend browsing the WordPress themes gallery. There are a lot of themes you can choose, many of them for free. You can also hire a designer to make your website more personal at this point, but to be honest, a lot of the free themes at WordPress are clean and professional, so there isn’t a huge need to break your bank account.
5. Fill your website with content.
In your WordPress Dashboard, you’ll see an option on the lefthand navigation bar titled Pages. This is where you can create different pages for your website: an about page, information about your books, a blog, a contact page, etc. As an editor, I didn’t need all that much, just a place to contact you. Readers may like a lot more extra content, so include as much information about your book as you please!
That’s all for this post. Hope this was helpful for everyone who’s looking to set up a website and didn’t know where to start. If you have any further questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll try my best to answer, although each case will be different, of course.
If only to avoid the headache of having to go into your domain registration page and point the DNS servers to a different host, etc. ↩
As opposed to having to set up an FTP login, finding an FTP client, access MySQL databases, fiddling with wp-config.php files, etc. I’m an old hat at this, you guys. ↩
Hey all, Hannah here! Last week, I spoke in depth about how to summarize your novel for a query. The month before, I gave some tips on little ways to take yours to the next level. Today, I’m going to go into a bit more depth about some of the larger mistakes I often see that might give agents a reason to reject a query.
This is a hard truth: many agents receive hundreds of queries a week, and yours will, someday, be among them. When an agent reads so many queries every day (if they are lucky enough to find the time among all of their other responsibilities), it sometimes becomes easier to find reasons to reject a query, rather than reasons not to.
The number biggest reason a query gets rejected, aside from simply not fitting an agent’s list or tastes? A query that betrays poor to no research. So without further ado, here are some mistakes I regularly see that tell me a querier has jumped the gun.
Mistake: Telling instead of showing.
Yes, this is true in queries as well as fiction. Every so often I’ll see a query that has a very short summary, often even more like a logline, detailing the very broad plot points of the story, followed by many paragraphs explaining character motivation and themes.
For example:
When a girl and a boy are thrust into an emotional situation, they are forced to confront the realities of friendship and go on a search for the meaning of life.
I wanted to write this book because the themes of lost love and identity speak to me, and, as someone who has experienced a terrible breakup, I felt I was the best person to tell this story. Michelle and Tony are best friends but I wanted to drive an emotional wedge between them in the form of a third love interest.
Etc.
This tendency comes from not knowing how to summarize your story. Rather than over-explaining to the point of confusion, the story is under-explained to the point of being too broad. Anyone who still doubts their ability to summarize their novel well should check out last week’s post for guidance. Because an agent should be able to tell quite clearly from the stakes you outline in the summary what your character’s motivations are.
Mistake: Explaining this is the first book you’ve written/that it’s recently completed OR calling this your debut/yourself a debut writer
This is a mistake because it highlights you as possibly inexperienced whether you are or want to be framed that way. It isn’t pertinent information – it changes nothing about your story, how you summarize your story, or anything within your bio. The only thing it does is tell me that there’s a possibility you haven’t done your research.
There is no need to point out if this is your first book or your fiftieth. Let the work speak for itself.
Mistake: Confusing “personalizing your query” for “restating the submission page on the website”
This actually a very easy mistake to make. We often see advice that suggests personalizing a query by telling the agent why you chose him or her. This shows the agent that you didn’t just mass email your query – you took time and put thought into who you contacted.
But what I often see instead of “I noticed quirky, adventurous middle grade on your #MSWL, and felt my manuscript fit the bill”, is: “I went to your website and saw that you are looking for thrillers and upmarket fiction and romance and that you enjoy working with new authors. Therefore I am emailing you.”
Here’s the thing: the agent knows what’s on the website. Don’t waste valuable query space repeating it. That space should be for you and your story. And if you don’t have something more specific to personalize with, that’s okay! If you chose the agent based on what the website says he or she wants, just start with your hook and go from there.
Mistake: Naming more than three characters.
A long, confusing summary often gets that way when too many characters are named in a query. The moment you name a character is the moment you tell a reader that character is important. Perhaps you have more than one main character – maybe you have five, or seven! It doesn’t matter. Pick your most important character, the one whose struggle your book is ultimately about, and focus your query on him or her. After that, only name those who absolutely must be named in relation to the summary. If you can help it, try not to name more than three characters. The person reading your query will (hopefully) be far less confused.
One of the things I struggled with when querying was exactly this problem – knowing who to name and who to leave out. But trust me: it can be done.
Mistake: Using bad comp titles.
This one is actually really hard to get right, in my opinion, and if you aren’t entirely certain, just don’t use them. Do they help? Only if they’re spot on.
Using books that are huge sellers/extremely well-loved is generally a no-no. Why? Because comparing yourself to J.K. Rowling or Suzanne Collins or Stephen King goes back to the haughty or poorly researched issue. It’s much safer to use titles that do/have done well enough and are known, but not so huge that you look arrogant or ignorant of other good books. It’s also generally best to use something more current – more than a couple years old and they begin to lose relevance.
See? Told you it was tough.
Another question I sometimes get: can a querier use TV shows or films as comp titles? The answer is…yes and no. Tread lightly here. I wouldn’t use more than one TV/film comp title, and if you do, it’s often helpful to balance it with a book title. Lots of agents feel differently in this category – some hate when queriers use TV/film titles, and some really like it. If you aren’t sure, do your research. Check out an agent’s twitter, interviews they have done, etc. If there are no answers to be found and you aren’t 110% certain of the titles you’ve chosen? Skip them. This is another area where it’s best to err on the side of caution.
It’s true that there are writers who make mistakes like these and still get agents. All of publishing is subjective – what bothers one agent may not bother another. The format one agent loves, another might hate. But being informed and well-researched shows in a query, no matter who you’re querying. And that is far more valuable than you realize.
Once again, I hope this has been useful. Good luck to everyone in their querying endeavors!
Hey guys! Hannah here. Last month, I posted some tips on little ways to take your query out of the blah zone. JJ and Kelly also posted an awesome podcast on the query process.
When giving query advice, a lot of us take for granted that you’ll know what we mean when we tell you a query must have a short synopsis of your story. We also take for granted that you’ll figure out how to do this in 300 words or fewer. I’d like to talk a bit more about what goes into creating a good, cohesive summary that will entice an agent to read more in just a few paragraphs.
You’ve probably seen a lot of advice that tells you a good query is comprised of a hook followed by a summary of your story, ending with a bio and a few sentences on why you chose the agent you are querying. Structurally, this is sound. But when you have a sprawling epic with many perspectives, or even a quietly complex contemporary, it can be tough to know how best to distill your story into a summary that makes sense.
What I usually see in the slush is this: a summary that goes over many of the big points in the plot but rushes through due to lack of page space and direction. The agent reading might miss key plot points, or have no idea what that made-up word is. Maybe the summary began too deep into the story, and the agent is confused by the list of events. These questions are distracting for a query reader, and can bring them out of a query quick.
So how do you summarize your novel and do it well? We have a tendency to think we must somehow shove the entire plot into this tiny space. But that isn’t actually the case. The best summaries (even the sprawling, epic ones) contain these: your inciting incident, your main conflict, the plan, and the stakes.
Before we get into the summary, let’s talk about the hook. There are two reasons why your hook is so important. Number one: It’s the hook! Okay, that one is obvious. It’s designed to give agents a peak into your character that entices them into reading more. Number two: if done well, it should help you cut huge swaths of fluff from your summary.
A good hook tells us about the character and the conflict in one go. I’m taking this example of a hook from Erin Bowman’s post Querying: The Do’s and Don’ts (thanks, Erin!), to show you what I mean:
Gray Weathersby is counting down the days until his eighteenth birthday with dread, for in the primitive and isolated town of Claysoot, a boy’s eighteenth is marked not by celebration, but by his disappearance.
We know who the main character is, we know something personal about him when the book opens, and we know what his conflict is going to be. I’m intrigued to keep reading.
Next: What is an inciting incident? This is that moment when the status quo is no more, and the character is forced to take action. This is a step I often see skipped in queries, resulting in a strangely disjointed summary.
Figure out what the inciting moment is for your character, and tell us about it. For example, a precious jewel is stolen from a museum—this is the catalyst for the Private Eye to enter the picture and solve the mystery. Or, your protagonists loses her job and instead of applying elsewhere, chooses to fulfill a dream and travel the world. Tell me about the moment when everything your character thought she knew is turned on its head.
Now that your character has been called to action, tell us what needs to be accomplished. This is where you flesh out your conflict. We don’t need each and every detail; just enough to show us what the protagonist must overcome. The P.I. must now solve the mystery of the stolen diamond—but a nefarious gang will stop at nothing, including murder, to prevent it from happening. And, the more the P.I. digs, the more he unearths about a political conspiracy (give some detail on that conspiracy) attached to the diamond theft. The World Traveler has all of her money stolen in a foreign country. The hostel where she was staying burns down with all of her worldly possessions. Maybe she, too, stumbles into a political conflict she knows nothing about.
So what are your characters going to do about it? They have decisions to make. These decisions are informed by the stakes. For a lowly P.I., getting in the middle of a nefarious gang AND a political conspiracy might not be worth it. So tell me why he gets involved anyway. Is he blackmailed? Does he have a personal tie to a person or plan within the gang or the conspiracy? Tell us why he MUST solve the murder, and what is at stake for him if he doesn’t. For the World Traveler who has lost everything, tell us how she plans to get home, what she must sacrifice to do it, and what happens if she fails. Is her father dying back home? Is her sister getting married? Is her house set for demolition? Why is it important for her to overcome this conflict?
A note on fantasy: it’s very tempting to try and give all the backstory about the world, its magical systems, its government, or its religion. These are things you’ve worked hard on – your story is not the same without these elements. But if character IS story (and it is), then the most important thing is to make us understand your character’s struggle at the most basic level. Leave the made-up words and the complicated hierarchies out of the query.
When you look at the summary in this way, you can see that even sprawling epics can be broken down into short summaries. These components make up the heart of the story, and that’s what an agent wants to see in a query.
I hope this has been useful! If anyone is interested in a Part Three, let me know below!
This week JJ and Kelly discuss submission and acquisition, and give a little insight into the reasons behind why an editor might reject a manuscript. Also, Hamilton. We’ll explain that later.
This week both Kelly and JJ have the same recommendation: HAMILTON.
For those who aren’t plugged into musical theatre buzz, Hamilton is a hip-hop musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.
Wait, what?
YES. The score, lyrics, and book are by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award-winning composer of In the Heights, based on a biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow. The story goes that when Miranda was on vacation from In the Heights, he picked up Chernow’s book at the airport and was so inspired by the life of Hamilton as “the ultimate hip-hop/immigrant story”,1 he started writing the musical.
In 2009, he performed the opening number (then a workshopped piece of poetry/rap/spoken word) at the White House for President Obama:
Words can’t describe how transformative and (not to be punny) revolutionary this musical is. The majority of the cast is made up of people of color, and in fact, all the principal characters are not white (except, appropriately, King George III). Miranda has said it’s the story of America, and it looks like America now.
The album is available for digital download (and is currently streaming on Spotify), but if you’d like the physical album with booklet, it will be available on October 16. Rumor has it that it will also be released on vinyl, and JJ may need to buy herself a record player now.
We’re not shills for the musical, we promise. But if the creators see our enthusiasm and want to fund our respective trips back to NYC as well as tickets, we would certainly not turn that down.
That’s it for this week! Next week, we’ll be discussing CONTRACTS. As always, if you have any questions or comments, sound off in the comments, or ask us on Tumblr!
Hamilton was an orphaned, illegitimate child born in the Caribbean who immigrated to New York City and worked his way up from poverty by working his butt off. He had fiery, tempestuous personality, and his cutting words were the death of him, much like Tupac Shakur. ↩
This week JJ and Kelly discuss submission and acquisition, and give a little insight into the reasons behind why an editor might reject a manuscript. Also, Hamilton. We’ll explain that later.
This week both Kelly and JJ have the same recommendation: HAMILTON.
For those who aren’t plugged into musical theatre buzz, Hamilton is a hip-hop musical about Founding Father Alexander Hamilton.
Wait, what?
YES. The score, lyrics, and book are by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award-winning composer of In the Heights, based on a biography of Alexander Hamilton written by Ron Chernow. The story goes that when Miranda was on vacation from In the Heights, he picked up Chernow’s book at the airport and was so inspired by the life of Hamilton as “the ultimate hip-hop/immigrant story”,1 he started writing the musical.
In 2009, he performed the opening number (then a workshopped piece of poetry/rap/spoken word) at the White House for President Obama:
Words can’t describe how transformative and (not to be punny) revolutionary this musical is. The majority of the cast is made up of people of color, and in fact, all the principal characters are not white (except, appropriately, King George III). Miranda has said it’s the story of America, and it looks like America now.
The album is available for digital download (and is currently streaming on Spotify), but if you’d like the physical album with booklet, it will be available on October 16. Rumor has it that it will also be released on vinyl, and JJ may need to buy herself a record player now.
We’re not shills for the musical, we promise. But if the creators see our enthusiasm and want to fund our respective trips back to NYC as well as tickets, we would certainly not turn that down.
That’s it for this week! Next week, we’ll be discussing CONTRACTS. As always, if you have any questions or comments, sound off in the comments, or ask us on Tumblr!
Hamilton was an orphaned, illegitimate child born in the Caribbean who immigrated to New York City and worked his way up from poverty by working his butt off. He had fiery, tempestuous personality, and his cutting words were the death of him, much like Tupac Shakur. ↩
Hey all! JJ here. Here at PubCrawl we’re super excited to introduce some new and awesome developments that have been brewing for a while, the chiefest of which is a PODCAST. That’s right, we are getting to the podcasting game, mostly because Kelly and I are podcast junkies with Lots of Opinions. Anyway, enjoy our inaugural episode and please don’t judge too harshly!
Apologies for some audio issues. Apparently JJ needs to wear tight-fitting clothes so the sound of cloth rubbing against the desk doesn’t get picked up by her fancy-schmancy mic. This is a work in progress.
It’s TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART sung by Vicomte de Chagny and an ingenue named Sarah as a VAMPIRE LOVE DUET. I mean, c’mon.
It’s All Coming Back to Me Now (as performed by Jeremy Jordan)
That’s it for this week! Next week, we’ll be discussing SUBMISSIONS AND ACQUISITIONS. As always, if you have any questions or comments, sound off in the comments, or ask us on Tumblr!
We are working on getting a feed up to iTunes, so bear with us! We promise we’re on it; it’s just that the technical aspects of all this is somewhat new to us. :)
DO NOT LOOK UP THE BROADWAY VERSION. Despite having Michael Crawford and Rene Auberjonois, it was…terrible. ↩
Happy Friday, everyone! To go along with Stacey’s post about submissions, this is a repost from my blog, a silly little song filk I hope some of you—especially those submerged in the submission swamp—might enjoy.
Last summer, when I was on submission with my novel to publishers, I remember being in complete and utter agony with the not knowing and not being in control. There’s a lot written about the query trenches throughout the blogosphere, but not a lot of space is given over to being on submission.
Part of that is because unlike querying, the experience of being on submission varies widely from individual to individual, so it’s hard to generalize. Another part is that being of sub is pretty much entirely out of your hands. Once your manuscript is on the desk of an editor, there is literally NOTHING you can do to influence the outcome. It doesn’t make for easy, digestible blog posts. Query tips are relatively easy to give, but there is no advice you can give to someone on sub, save Patience, young Skywalker.
And that advice sucks.
Being on sub is a bit like being the awkward middle schooler at a junior high school dance. Pick me, pick me! Sometimes you’re the first on the dance floor. Sometimes you’re left the self-conscious wallflower. Junior high—and publishing—can sometimes be cold and capricious.
I find the best thing to do in these sorts of situations is laugh them off. It’s either laugh, or cry, right? I’d rather a good chuckle than anguished sobs, so in order to distract myself, I rewrote the lyrics to “Agony” from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.1
If you aren’t familiar with the song:
DELUSIONAL WRITER
Did I confuse them
With my rabid, insane,
Genius profundity?
Don’t I amuse them
With my witty, urbane,
Pretentious absurdity?
Agony!
Beyond power of speech!
When the contract you want
Is the only thing out of your reach.
DESPERATE WRITER
Here in my tower,
I sit by the hour
Awaiting the Call.
The one that will save me
And soon validate me
In the eyes of them all:
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
Agony!
All those agents are jerks!
Low esteem, insecurity
Are affecting my work!
BOTH
Agony!
Oh the torment, the stress!
DELUSIONAL WRITER
Why can’t they just buy me—
DESPERATE WRITER
How could they deny me—
BOTH
They don’t know what is best!
DELUSIONAL WRITER
Am I not lyrical,
Luminous,
Radiant,
Brilliant,
Passionate,
Observant,
Upmarket commercial,
Ahead of my time?
DESPERATE WRITER
I am everything agents could wish for!
DELUSIONAL WRITER
Then why no—
DESPERATE WRITER
Then why no—
DELUSIONAL WRITER
They all must be mad!
DESPERATE WRITER
You know nothing of madness
Till you’re tearing your hair.
As you open email,
Yes, refreshing it,
Always refreshing it,
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah—
BOTH
Agony!
DELUSIONAL WRITER
Misery!
DESPERATE WRITER
Woe!
BOTH
Though it’s different for each.
DELUSIONAL WRITER
Always ten trends behind—
DESPERATE WRITER
Always telling you no—
BOTH
And the dream is just out of your reach.
Agony!
Publishing’s appeal!
I must have a book deal!
Okay, so I went ahead and decide to record the cover for funsies. Apologies for inflicting my voice on y’all. This song is not in my range.
At the point I had written this, the Disney movie version hadn’t come out yet. I have…Thoughts about it, but the “Agony” scene with Billy Magnussen and Chris Pine is definitely the best—and maybe the only worthwhile—scene in the entire film. ↩
Hi everyone! Stacey here today, with fellow pub-crawler, Stephanie Garber, talking about the most painful exciting part of publishing, submission!
With the arrival of fall, and the end of summer Friday’s in publishing, it’s time to talk about submissions.
You can tell a writer who is on “sub” by the long face they wear, the nails chewed to the quick, the scuffled toes of their shoes where they’ve tripped as they’ve paced waiting for a response from editors. We know how it feels, and we’re here to tell you that you will survive. Let’s stop refreshing our inbox for a moment, and take a deep, cleansing breath. Yikes, what have you been eating? Cookies? Okay, good for you. But you know what’s even better for you while you’re on sub? Take a walk.
We’re serious. It’ll clear some brain space. And when you come back, you can read on, and we’ll all be in a better place.
Hi again, now read on for our tips on how to survive SUBMISSION.
1. Recognize it might happen tomorrow, or it might happen a year from now.
We’ve all heard stories about books that sell lightning fast. But if you’re going on submission for the first time, for the sake of your sanity, be aware that selling a book in less than two weeks is the expectation, not the standard.
Stephanie: I’ve been on submission twice. When Hearts Made of Black sold, it actually happened on the quick side of things. But before that I went on submission with another book, a sci-fi about space pirates. My first agent warned me that this book would not be a fast or easy sell. And she was right. We were on submission for a year and a half, and it didn’t sell. The closest we came was an R&R from an editor who ended up leaving her publisher shortly after I finished the revisions.
Stacey: It took nine months for Under a Painted Sky to sell. My agent told me historical fiction is a tough sell in YA, but at the same time, it is one of the staples that never quite goes out of trend. We were rejected by 26 publishers before the last one asked me for a revision. It took three months to revise, and it was a major revision. Those of you who have read my book will know it is about a friendship. Well, it used to be a torrid bodice-ripper! (Sort of kidding.)
For both of us, going on submission that first time was far from easy, but it helped that we both had agents who set realistic expectations.
2. Recognize it might not happen, ever.
This one is important, because the sooner you accept this, the more prepared you will be when it doesn’t happen (and we’re not saying it won’t happen!!!). Bear with us. The statistics are depressing. It’s a proven fact that the odds of being published are less than being eaten by a polar bear wearing moon boots.
Take another walk if you need it and meet us back here.
Chubby Hubby has a buddy, American Dream. Is there irony in this ice creaming pairing?
Prepared people know it is not the end of the world if it doesn’t sell. Prepared people keep their survival kits close at hand (Chubby Hubby, family, Nordstrom gift cards, friends, not necessarily in that order) in case disaster strikes (e.g., my manuscript doesn’t sell).
PLENTY of authors who you think are big deals have had to shelve manuscripts that didn’t sell (like PubCrawl distinguished faculty Marie Lu and Jodi Meadows). Prepared people are already thinking about their next stories—and writing them. It’s like dating, the quickest way to get over one guy/gal is to meet someone new.
3.We’d like to point out that Submission rhymes with Suspicion
Why is this important? This is important because NOT EVERY GOOD BOOK GETS PUBLISHED, and here’s the kicker, NOT EVERY BOOK THAT GETS PUBLISHED IS GOOD. We know this isn’t how the world should be. There should be a little bell that goes ding! every time a great book (e.g., yours) arrives in an editor’s inbox so the editors know which ones should be published. Unfortunately, the rules of “what is publishable” remain rather opaque. It is a hazy box that sometimes is not even a box but more shaped like a big iron shoe. In other words, if you get a rejection, it is not necessarily because your book is unworthy.
4. If you can find a trend in your rejections, rewrite to fix it.
Agents have different methods for submission, and not every agent uses the same approach with each submission. They might sub to a smaller set of editors for something more “controversial” where feedback would be helpful, or in the case where they’ve pinpointed editors who would just love your book.
Stacey: In the case of my first book, my agent subbed to a big list all at once, as she considered my manuscript tight and clean (this is where all that vetting you do with agents comes in handy; if you’ve picked a good one, you can probably trust their advice on this). The rejections confirmed that she had taken the right approach. There was no consistency to the rejections. We got everything from “we don’t think there’s a market for westerns” to “we don’t like cross-dressing girls.”
I didn’t rewrite anything in the middle of submission, but I did take the one R&R offered to me; I felt like I owed it to my book. And once I got over the shock of having to do MORE work, I threw myself into feet first. For me, I felt I had nothing to lose except a bit of time, and everything to gain.
Stephanie: But remember, just because you revise or receive an R&R doesn’t mean your book will sell. When I went on submission with my first book, I also received an R&R, which did not end in an offer. But, I don’t regret taking the time do it. I learned a lot, and I think my writing became stronger as a result. But, for the sake of your heart and your sanity (see a theme emerging), if you do an R&R, do it because you owe it to your book, not because you believe that if you do this, a publisher will owe you a contract.
5) Do not compare yourself to others.
Seriously, this is as bad as checking reviews on Goodreads.
Learn from other people, but don’t compare your submission experience with someone else’s. Nothing good comes from comparing—either you imagine you are better than everyone else and get a grossly inflated ego, or you imagine the opposite and feel like crap, or you come out neither feeling nor worse, but have just sunk a lot of time that you could’ve spent writing something new.
We don’t know who said it first, but there’s a great quote that goes like this:
Yes, sometimes other people’s grass is greener, but you don’t know how much manure that had to go through to get it there.
6. Remind yourself, no matter what, the fact that you are on submission means you have done two things that most people have not.
You have written a book and you have found an agent, neither of which should be easy things, so pat yourself on the back and take another walk (or eat another cookie, we approve of both).
In the comments, tell us how long you’ve been “on sub.” What do you do to stay sane?
Guys. Queries are hard. This is an undisputed fact of the agent-acquiring process. These days a lot of agents ask for the first 5-30 pages of your manuscript when you query, because it’s so much easier to tell if a story is good by reading, well, the actual story. But the query is the hook—the bait that gets the agent past that first page and into your story.
I read queries on the daily. A lot of them. As a literary assistant, it’s one of my many responsibilities. I need to be able to tell, just from that one page, if your book is something the agent and I will want to read. I need to see just how I would pitch it to an editor. And I need to see that you know your stuff. Have you done your research? Or did you scribble off a quick note and hit SEND ALL?
The queries that stand out are either very good, or very bad. But there are a lot of queries that get stuck in the middle—that strange wasteland of almost-there, but just not quite. Chances are, a lot of you are in that boat. Most of us, even those who have agents, have written blah query letters. And I know PubCrawlers are smart. You have done your research, much of it on this very website. I don’t need to tell you not to send attachments, or not to write your bio in the third person. I don’t need to tell you not to call your manuscript a future bestseller, the most unique piece of fiction ever written, a story that will apply to all of the audiences that ever existed!
So I’m not going to talk about the basics. You guys KNOW the basics. I’m going to talk about those little things that maybe don’t seem problematic at first glance. But fixing these can go a long way toward helping the viability of your query overall
1. Don’t start your letter with all the details about how you came to write this book.
Writing is exciting. How you came to be a writer is exciting. The fact that it’s your first, or second, or millionth novel ever is exciting. But they are most exciting to you—in a query, these things clog up your first paragraph and waste valuable space. Before he or she has ever met you or read your work, an agent doesn’t care how you got started writing. As much as it matters to you (and it does matter!), it’s best to leave it out. It will not change how he or she feels about your story.
2. Be careful creating “atmosphere” before launching into your hook.
It can feel gimmicky. Unless your setting is basically a character itself, it’s best to stay away from this method. For example:
Castle Pelimere is deep and dark, inhabited by angry spirits and on the verge of certain doom. For a hundred years it has stood, and now, thanks to the Everlasting Nothing that has circled its walls for centuries, it is all about to come crashing down.
Jody Brody is a teenage pickpocket with no other skills and no other prospects. When Castle Pelimere needs a hero, Jody steps up to the plate.
I know, I know—this is a very obvious example. But it serves the point—character is story, and when I’m scanning through queries, I’m more interested in Jody Brody the pickpocket than the plight of Castle Pelimere.
3. Don’t relate two unrelated ideas in your hook.
You would be shocked how often I see this. Shocked, I tell you. An example:
Marty Schmarty is not your typical jock—he’s been taking ballet since before he could walk, and he’s better than half the girls in his class. But when he’s offered a football scholarship to his dream school, he learns what it really means to be part of a team.
Again, another extreme example. But writing a good hook is a huge part of the battle when it comes to queries. A good hook can make me perk up and pay attention. In this case, the writer has written something that “sounds hooky” and “adds character”. It makes me pay attention—then has no pay-off. Marty’s a pro at ballet, and this is set up as a key quality—then is not mentioned again.
4. Be confident…to a point.
There is nothing wrong with being proud of the story you wrote. It takes a huge amount of confidence to query a book (we’re all writers here, we can admit this). But it’s not up to you to decide whether your writing is of the same caliber as authors you have emulated or been inspired by, or if it’s beautifully lyrical or powerful and gritty—that is for your readers, and that includes any agents you are querying, to decide.
5. Be wary of the false choice.
Technically, a false choice refers to a situation where two choices are given as the only possible option—even though more choices may be viable. In this case, I’m using to describe it as a situation given in a query, wherein a character has what appear to be two choices—but only one of those choices is actually viable. Still with me?
Okay, so you’ve laid out your hook, given a short synopsis, and now it’s time to present the dramatic question. Your character must do x or y. But when you present a false choice, it becomes clear right away which path your character will and must choose. At first glance, it isn’t always clear you’ve presented a false choice. For example:
Jake must choose between saving the woman he loves from the mob and escaping to the Bahamas, or turning himself in and confessing to his crimes, even if it means her death.
Maybe turning himself in might be the right thing to do, but unless this is a morality play, the choice here is not actually black and white. When questions like this are presented at the end of a query, I can’t help but roll my eyes—I know what Jake is going to do. He’s going to choose the Bahamas. And if he doesn’t, then you need to do a fantastic job of setting up the why within your query. Again, the above is extreme example, but I encourage you to take a look at the stakes in your own query and find out whether what you’ve presented is a real dilemma, or a false choice. I want the questions you present to make me go, “MUST READ AND FIND OUT THE ANSWER!”
So the gist of these suggestions comes out to: Make me want to read your book. Seriously, give me no other option. You wrote a whole book. You know how to put words together on a page—this is just a different kind of writing. One that forces you to think about how to condense what you’ve written, and lay it out in a way that is tight and enticing. I promise you—it is doable. It’s hard, it’s often confusing, and sometimes it can take multiple drafts to get right. But it can be done!
I hope this is useful, and I wish everyone who is currently writing their query, Good Luck!
When it comes to finding a literary agent, the most important step (yes, even more important than a snappy query letter) is researching which agents you intend to approach.
Think about it: your wonderful query and kick-butt manuscript will all be for naught if you’re reaching out to the wrong agents. And remember that the fastest way to get a rejection is to query an agent who doesn’t represent your genre or isn’t even open to new submissions. And those are such easy mistakes to avoid!
So let’s lay out the important things to find out about an agent before you query:
The genre the agent represents (e.g. cozy mysteries, science fictions, spy thrillers, etc.)
The reading level the agent represents (e.g. young adult, adult, picture book, etc.)
The submission guidelines (e.g. how to send the query letter, how many pages to attach, etc.)
What the agent is currently seeking (e.g. “I want a futuristic thriller featuring clones”)
Editorial input (i.e. the agent offers lots of editorial feedback on your manuscript or perhaps offers none)
Agency size (i.e. is the agent alone? Part of a small boutique agency? In a large agency with tons of clients?)
Experience (i.e. how long the agent has been in the biz?)
Query response time (e.g. days to respond, weeks to respond, possibly no response at all)
That seems like a lot to find out, right? And in all likelihood, there are other things you might want to find out about a literary agent before you query–but this list is a good start for your researching endeavors. You always want to find out AS MUCH AS YOU CAN before you send out your query letters.
Now where do you even find all this information? Well, you’re best friend will always be Google. Once you have an agent’s name, doing a basic search on the agent can yield all sorts of valuable information. But then where do you even find agents’ names? Many people swear by Query Tracker or AgentQuery, and one amazing resource I swear by is Casey McCormick’s super helpful Agent Spotlight. This is an amazing tool and saved me hours of scouring the internet (Thanks, Casey!).
I suggest, as you uncover new info, that you keep track of it and stay organized. I personally kept a list of agents in an excel spreadsheet, and every time I heard of an agent who repped YA, I opened an excel spreadsheet and popped in the name, submission guidelines, and links to relevant info.
Okay, Sooz, you say. I have have a lot of agents listed and all the information I want on each one, so what comes next? Well, now you need to figure out which agents are the ones you really-really-REALLY want to query. So for example, before I sent my queries, I spent a few days going through all the agents on my list and evaluating who I felt I would best jive with. I picked 10 agents to be the first queries I would send, 10 to be my second round, and 10 to be my third round. And keep in mind–these 30 agents were my top 30, so everyone I queried was someone I really wanted to work with.
For every single agent I contacted, I organized all the interviews/articles/bios/etc. I had already found, and then I tailored my query letter to each specific agent. I mean, think about it: if you know what an agent is looking for and it fits what you HAVE, then that will make your query letter much easier to fine-tune.
Here–I’ll give you an example. This is the opening paragraph in the query I sent to the agent I ultimately signed with (our very own Joanna Volpe!):
I read in an interview that you seek strong female leads as well as steampunk. As such, I thought you might enjoy my 90,000 word young adult novel, THE SPIRIT-HUNTERS.
Notice that I opened with reference to an interview that was relevant to my own story, and I suggest YOU do something similar–because:
It shows you’ve done your research — instantly making you shine in the slush pile.
It shows you are approaching this query in a professional manner.
It shows that what you’ve written is actually something the agent is looking for! Right off the bat, the agent knows it’s something he/she’ll be interested in.
Of course, some agents prefer you to start with the hook, so be sure to read interviews/articles/blogs to find out! If an agent I contacted preferred a hook, then you can bet I started with a hook.
All in all, though, the key to a finding the right agent and making a stellar query letter is to do your research and to start researching early in the game. That way, by the time you reach the query stage, you’ll have a big list of potential agents and you’ll be ready to dive into the querying fray right away.
You tell me: How do YOU research agents or suggest other people go about it?
When it comes to finding a literary agent, the most important step (yes, even more important than a snappy query letter) is researching which agents you intend to approach.