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Chapter summary:
2011 - Chapter I. PB truck story finally gets written. (Aug. 11th post)
Chapter II. PB truck story goes to a conference. PB truck story appeals to an editor and she takes it with her. (Sept. 28th post)
Chapter III - PB truck story is revised twice (based on editorial suggestions) and resubmitted in November. Email from editor saying "looking forward to reading it over the long weekend." (Thanksgiving)
2012 - Chapter III, con't. Email from editor on 1/20, "looking over it now . . . more thorough response soon." (Feb. 16th post)
Last Thursday, tired of waiting for a response, I called the editor and left a message. Two hours later, I received an email
REJECTION . . "most likely not going to work . . . the plot has become too complex . . . the sweetness and charm of the first draft has been obscured. One thing I regret about our earlier revision talks is that I think I may have been too forthcoming with my own ideas. I would be happy to see another draft, but you know what my hesitations are so it's up to you whether you want to put in more work." She wrote a long and thoughtful rejection letter and I agree with some of her comments.
For months I felt disassociated from this story. It belonged to the editor and she controlled its fate. The worst part about a rejection? Now the story's mine again. I'm forced to face the fact that my first draft needed work, but the changes I made last November damaged the tone of the story.
Revision is a tricky! But that won't stop me.
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By: Julie Whelan,
on 2/24/2012
Blog:
The Paper Wait
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Writing conferences stimulate my creativity, so I try get to at least one every year. But in recent years, market reviews were so discouraging -- fewer publishers acquiring fewer books for fewer bookstores -- I left wondering about my choice of profession.
The SCBWI Winter Conference in January was different. The air bubbled with fresh optimism and renewed enthusiasm (amid familiar cautions, of course).
GOOD NEWS
- The children’s market is ‘very robust’ (Ken Wright, Agent, Writers House). Kids are still reading real books (Chris Richman, Agent, Upstart Crow Literary).
- Imprints for YA have increased in the last three years (Regina Brooks, Founder and President, Serendipity Litereary Agency, LLC)
- MG is the new YA (Regina Brooks) with rising popularity and market potential. YA and MG will continue to grow.
- Picture Books are ‘alive and well’ (Nancy Paulsen, Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin). Digital books, so far, seem to be an incremental purchase rather than a cannibalistic one. Parents like a book which is already on their bookshelf, and buy a digital copy for travel purposes.
- Non-fiction is underestimated (Ken Wright). National Geographic and Discover are doing more, and make NF commercial enough for Barnes & Noble. A number of NF titles have appeared in the National Book Award lists.
TRENDS- The Best Seller Mentality: traditional publisher’s lists are narrower and more focused. They want the books they publish to do very well, theoretically translating to more support for those titles and authors.
- Differences between genres will blur as writers seek new and fresh material. (Ginger Knowlton, Agent, Curtis Brown LTD)
WORRIES - Amazon: Is it a big bully? ‘Discoverability’ is a problem here.
- Transmedia: How will digital evolution continue to change and impact books? Again, ‘discoverability’ can be difficult in the digital world. New devices generate a need for new content, but beware smaller margins and fierce competition. As kids inherit digital devices from their parents, what effect will this have?
- Continued consolidation of the traditional bookstore. Where will it end?
The landscape is becoming more defined, and more certainty enables the market to move forward. Publishers have mostly stopped merging and wringing their hands. E-books, digital devices and self-publishing are part of the future, but are now more tangible and predictable. Personally, I write MG fiction (as well as PBs), so I was pleased to hear MG is ‘the new YA’, and note that many editors list it as one of their needs. Now I have to use my conference-inspired enthusiasm to follow up with those agents and editors who said it. What’s your feel about the children’s market? Do you agree or disagree? Any good news to share?
(Chapters I and II appeared on August 11th and September 28th of last year.)
LAST YEAR - PB truck story finally gets written and goes to a conference, PB truck story appeals to an editor and she takes it with her, PB truck story is revised twice (based on editorial suggestions) and resubmitted in November. Email from editor saying "looking forward to reading it over the long weekend." (Thanksgiving)
THIS YEAR - Email from editor on January 20th, "looking over it now . . . more thorough response soon."
Okay, so what explains nearly a month of silence?
I figure there are three possibilities:
1. My story is circulating among the editors.
2. It's sitting at the bottom of a pile, buried by more urgent business.
3. I didn't hit the mark with revisions and the editor is putting off writing a rejection letter.
QUANDARY - Do I email her now, or do I wait, wait, wait some more?
Chapter two of my August 16th post "Inspiration . . . Frustration." I struggled with my idea until one day, while vacationing in Maine, inspiration trumped frustration. I was off on a writing binge. In three days (and fairly sleepless nights) I had a first draft. In six days I had a story. The next week, things took a surprising turn.
Back story: a few months ago, I signed up for a writing conference and submitted a manuscript for critique with an editor. Conference day arrived and on a whim, I slipped a copy of the new truck story into my folder to take with me.
The critique session was cordial and useful. The editor said the manuscript I had submitted had a "fun, bouncy text perfect for toddlers," but was "a little slight" (that hated word) and needed more tension and depth. I agreed with her suggestions.
Five minutes left. I asked if she would be willing to scan my newest work and handed it over. Her expression changed as she read. Then she asked if she could take the story with her because she would like to take it to an acquisition meeting!
Have no idea when I will hear, but when I do, I'll write chapter three of "Inspiration . . . Frustration."
Sometimes a piece gets stuck. I see it one way. I've always seen it that way. And I can't see it any other way.
But then an editor writes back and says she'd like to see it a different way.
First Reaction: Excitement!!! She'd like to see it!
Second Reaction: Terror! How can I change it??? It's been the first way so long, I just can't see how.
That's when a great critique group comes in handy!
They read my stuck words and see where action is needed. What scenes are critical? What scenes aren't? Where is the tension good? Where is the tension missing? Where do I need to shake things up?
After a round of feedback like that, I admit I can sometimes feel overwhelmed. But then the possibilities begin to percolate in my brain. What if I cut that character? What if I changed that ending?
And suddenly I'm scribbling away and I can't stop. I revise once. Then again and again. I'm unstuck and I can't stop! Hurray!
Thanks, guys!
So, how does your critique / revision process work?
Last year I submitted one of my retold noodlehead folktales to an editor at a magazine I've been published in before. I've had good luck with my retellings of stories about fools - young readers love to say, "I know better than that!"
The editor, who was about to retire, sent back a cordial note saying it was "a funny idea," but the plot lost suspense early on because the reader could guess this fool would never find the possessions he was looking for. She also couldn't believe the fool could be SO clueless he wouldn't recognize his lost property when he saw it. She offered to have me resubmit.
I set about revising the plot to fix the suspense problem. When I resubmitted to a different editor, I got back a nice note saying she found the story "interesting . . . but a bit depressing." The fool in this revision still searched all day for his missing property and never found it, and I had belabored his long walks in the hot sun. As often happens in revising, you fix one thing and ruin another. I hadn't paid attention to the tone of the story. The light, foolish touch had disappeared and at the end the fool is resigned to his loss, which leaves the reader feeling gloomy. The editor was right. It was a downer. I e-mailed and asked whether she would be willing to see a revision. Lucky for me, she said yes.
In my second revision, I carefully balanced plot and tone - the fool still faces some hardship searching for the lost property he never finds - but I shortened and lightened the descriptions. Most importantly, the ending now has a humorous twist. The fool, rather than being resigned to his loss, is hopeful. He has a plan to solve his problem. This plan elicits smiles, for even the youngest reader will see his foolish plan won't work.
And how does this blog tale end? I sold the story and have renewed respect for the tricky mechanics of revision. Now that's not foolish!
As I sit down to write this post, my first post of last year feels fresh in my mind. Last year, as the entire writing world seemed to be making wonderful productivity resolutions, I was just a few weeks away from giving birth. With expectations of sleep-deprived nights in the months ahead, increased productivity seemed an impossible goal. So I resolved to lower my expectations for a bit and appreciate the wonderful roller coaster my life was about to turn into.
So now as I look back on 2009, I can appreciate:
*the birth of my beautiful baby boy!!!
*my oh so grown-up 3-year-old who is now all potty trained and helps me pick out baby food and bibs for his baby brother
*the many doctors, therapists and generous family members who have helped our baby to make some wonderful progress through a very tough year
* and the WONDEFUL AGENT I just signed with--
Wait! Did I just say agent?
Yes I did!
Somehow in the middle of this crazy year, I managed to revise some old manuscripts, create some new ones and sign with the incredibly awesome...
Teresa Kietlinski of Prospect Agency!
With all her experience designing picture books, Teresa is the perfect agent for me. And for those of you who read about my submission indecision malady,well, needless to say, a smart, energetic agent like Teresa isn't going to let my manuscripts just sit on my hard drive. We're going to revise them and get them out onto editors' desks. Hurray!
Here's hoping next year's New Year's news is even more exciting! (I won't say it out loud, but you all know what I'm hoping for. :o) )
It’s Agent Appreciation Day! This tribute to hard-working, word-loving, plot-scrubbing, contract-scouring, career-building literary-matchmakers is the brainchild of writer Kody Keplinger. So today, I’m joining other writers in offering a great, big thank-you to my agent, who happens to be Steven Chudney. Here’s why:
1) He loves my work, and his input makes it even better. His encouragement to dig deeper and pull the heart out of each character shaped my submission and now influences my WIPs.
2) He makes me “Blink.” Every conversation leads to an ah-ha moment. Steven just makes sense – about my writing, about submissions, and about the state of the industry.
3) He is amazingly quick, responsive and decisive.
4) He’s also calm, patient and understanding.
5) He loves his dogs and much as I love mine.
So, thanks for a great beginning, Steven. I look forward to a long and happy partnership navigating through this publishing maze!
If you would like to see other postings for Agent Appreciation Day, check out Lisa and Laura Write
A wonderful agent from a top New York agency called me the other day.
Nope, it wasn’t “the call.” I’ve never queried this agent. He doesn’t even know I’m shopping a manuscript. In fact, his phone call had absolutely nothing to do with publishing. So why the call?
His young son and mine happen to be budding bff’s and we were simply setting up their next playdate. (Got you to take the jump, though, didn’t I? Heheh.)
This brings me to my quandary. Should I spill the beans? Tell him I’m in the hunt for an agent? Ask him if he’d be willing to take a look at my unbelievably [insert hyperbolic adjective here] manuscript? What if he said, “Sure, send me the full,” then passed? Um, can you spell “awkward”?
Fearing this, should he be off-limits, a Query Don’t? You know, just my kid's friend’s dad; someone to talk Little League with; filed under: Don’t mix business with parenting?
I confess, I tend to shy away from using my industry contacts, this one included. I’m just a whole lot more comfortable cold querying editors and agents—-whatever the outcome. This is why I was heartened to read agent Nathan Bransford’s recent post saying that 62 percent of the first-time authors he polled landed their agents through cold querying. On the other hand, I also know how contacts can open doors in any industry.
So I ask you, gentle readers, am I crazy? Is any potential contact fair game, no matter the relationship? And do you take full advantage of your contacts—-or prefer going cold like me?
If you’ve ever had the same manuscript critiqued by multiple agents and editors at conferences and received wildly different feedback from each one, raise your hand. (Wow. I see lots of virtual hands going up.)
Now, if you’ve ever had the same manuscript accidentally critiqued twice by the same agent or editor and received wildly different feedback from him or her, raise your hand. (Mine just went up.)
Here’s the gist of what happened:
Critique session 1: I sat down with Editor X for my conference critique. Editor X first apologized. She got sidetracked and wasn’t able to read my manuscript before we met. Would I mind if she read it now? Um, no. After some deft speed reading, she gave the manuscript a mixed review. She had problems with the plot. The characters could be stronger. Maybe it would work better as two books instead of one. Oh brother.
Critique session 2: A few conferences later, I was accidentally paired with Editor X again for a critique of the exact same manuscript (with a few minor changes). Of all the dirty, rotten luck. I braced for round 2.
To my surprise, Editor X gave the same manuscript--she’d read it in advance this time—a completely different critique. A glowing critique. Heck, one of the best darn critiques I ever got. This time, Editor X said the plot was intriguing. The characters were strong. The book worked. If I cut 50 manuscript pages, it would probably get published. Yahoo!
Why was Editor X’s second critique so different from the first? Was it because she was better prepared? Less rushed? Had she just downed a triple latte?
Who knows? But it reminded me of something I tend to forget. Editors and agents are people too. They have good days and bad days. Rushed days and slow days. Sometimes, the difference between a good critique and a bad one is beyond your control. All you can do is keep believing in yourself and keep writing.
And it probably wouldn’t hurt to bring an extra cup of Starbucks to your next critique either.
Much is written in the children's literature blogosphere about how to handle rejection, how to slough off bad news and go on, how to tackle all the negativity that writers get heaped on them year after year. But not much is written about how one handles good news, for obvious reason. Good news, generally, is like Haley's comet - it is ridiculously infrequent and if you blink, you might miss the blaze across the sky.
I actually got good news recently. I signed with an agent, she loves my manuscript, she gave me a few reasonable notes for changes, and she subsequently loved the changes I made. She plans to go out with the book this week. This is all good news, no doubt about it. Of course, I'm happy. But I'm also full of suspicion and disbelief. I've spent lots of time recently crafting the most catastrophic ending to this happy tale. It's kind of embarrassing, to be honest. Why can't I simply enjoy my good fortune? That's where all the bad news comes in. I'm trained to assume the worst at this point, and it's a hard habit to shake. Anybody else out there do the same thing?
Last Sunday I attended a NJ-SCBWI Mentoring Workshop at which there was a First Page Session. In preparation for this I submitted a first page to my critique group. It was a revised first page of a WIP that has been IP for years. It's a project that, for one reason or another, has been difficult for me. I've stopped and started, abandoned and returned to it many times. In the current return I have decided to pretty much chuck all that I'd written previously and take on a new direction with a new main character, new POV, and essentially new everything.
My critique group trashed it.
Yes, this group of writers who I consider among my best friends literally ripped my first page apart. A first page! Quite honestly, I didn't know one could find so much wrong with a single page. Don't worry, they all did it in a nice way and started and ended their eviscerations with positive comments, but Gale still had to call me the next morning to make sure I wasn't planning on doing a Sylvia Plath. (I wasn't, just so you know).
I went off to the Workshop on Sunday with two first pages. The first from my contemporary YA which has been critiqued in so many First Page Sessions I felt confident it would not be torn to shreds in public - it was safe. The second first page in my writer's bag was the ripped-to-shreds first page of my current WIP with a few minor changes (the ones that could be managed without a complete rewrite). Standing at the desk where I was instructed to leave my first page, I couldn't decide which one to leave. My hand was on the ripped-to-shreds one, but my ego wouldn't let me pull it out. I chickened out and put the safe first page on the pile. My skin was not thick enough to weather a second shredding in less than 48 hours.
Something you should know about me is that I love First Page Sessions, often finding them the most valuable part of a conference. It doesn't matter if the first pages are accomplished pieces of writing simply waiting to find the right editor or a newbie written page that makes you cringe just to listen to it (and admit it, there's always at least one in a first page session that makes your hair stand on end). I learn something from every page that's read.
What I learned on Sunday when the editors read my safe first page was that I had some dialogue that wouldn't really happen, but conveniently allowed me to bring up a point of tension between two characters. That's a valuable criticism and something easily fixed.
But what I REALLY learned on Sunday came from other people's first pages -- To recognize the thin line that exists between starting with action, which is something we always hear, to dropping the reader into a scene without them having the slightest notion of what is going on. A Thin Line. And I understood immediately what my critique group was trying to tell me.
Now one could argue that my beloved critique group could have lightened up a little bit. On the other hand, our group has never been known to blow hot air up anyone's skirt. We all call it as we see it, which is one of the things I value most about the group.
It's another thin line, one we balance on at every meeting.
I'm not sure if I regret playing it safe on Sunday. Given that the rest of the Workshop went so well, maybe I could have weathered a second evisceration if I'd been brave enough to submit my WIP first page. It's a thin line.
I recently heard back from an agent I had submitted a manuscript to, and even though he passed, he wants to send it on to a colleague. That's the good news. The bad news is that he included a few suggestions in his email of ways the work could be improved. I'm not one to ignore a good piece of criticism, especially from an agent, but one tiny line in an email can mean weeks and weeks of work on a manuscript. The manuscript is out to other agents as well, who may have notes of their own. My critique group has also had their shot at it. And, a few friends have read it. They all have notes too.
So...whose notes do I follow? If I followed them all, I'd not only be writing for years, I would rewrite my book into a whiplashed piece of drivel without a heart and soul. If all the notes were consistent, then of course I'd honor them, but they're not. Some are directly opposed to others. Some fall in between. Some are extreme, some are subtle.
Of course, the real danger here is that I will give in to the temptation to ignore them all, since they kind of cancel each other out. Or, conversely, there's the risk of attaching myself too much to an outsider's idea in the hopes that it will miraculously "fix" my work, clean and simple. Every writer has to learn how to take notes and open themselves up to new ways of looking at their work, but knowing which ideas will improve the work while preserving its essence can be a challenge. I'm not always up to it.
How frustrating. I recently read a blurb where an agent described the pace of publishing as 'glacial.' And to be rejected after all that time. I can relate to what you're going through- so many maybes - and so much waiting for a maybe to turn into a yes. (somebody wave her magic wand already!)I hope you find a way back to making this pb your own and finding a great publisher for it.
Oh, Gale! I was so hoping for a "happy ending" when I reached your "Read More!" link. I hope you can get your piece back to feeling like your own again and have fun polishing it up till it shines. Then it can find the super home it's meant to have!
Gale
I too was hoping for a happy ending for your great story. But you do have it back and you now go back to your original feel and plot. Good luck with it.
Gale,
I'm sorry this has been a long wait and that the outcome didn't result in a "Yes." My question is, would you be able to revise once again and resubmit to this editor? It sounds like the door is still open to me. I realize I didn't read the entire letter and of course the decision is yours.
Constance, Brianna, Eileen and Linda,
Thanks for commenting. The day or two of bitter frustration and sadness have passed and I'm beginning to work on revisions (again!)
Don't think I will submit to the same editor again. Her offer, I think, was just a polite gesture. But we'll see.
Sounds like it will be a hit when you find the right target. :)
Ah Gale,
I've been shaking my head all day about this -- what a frustrating situation. Glad to hear your back at it again. As the editor said, it is a 'sweet and charming' ms, so take it from there, and we're all rooting for you to help it find the right home.
Gah!!!!!!!
Bummer, Gale.
But at least you see value in the editor's comments. I am totally confident that all will come together and we'll read a brand new Chapter 5 sometime soon!
Oh, rats. (Please insert much stronger word not appropriate for a family blog) Was hoping for a happy ending too, but hey, maybe this is just the "dark moment" of Inspiration, Frustration!! Keep at it, Gale!! It sounds as though you've found some new inspiration and you know what they say...one door closes...Hope this finds the right home soon!!