Agent panel at Colorado Gold – agent tips and secrets

by Janet Lane

RMFW (Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers) annual conference offers a wealth of educational workshops and editor/agent panels to help aspiring writers get published. Go to rmfw.org and click on 'conference' to learn more about next September's conference.

Agents at the RMFW conference this year gave us insight and tips that may change the way you target agents, and when and how you query.

Agents on the panel:

Rachelle Gardner, Wordserve Literary Group

Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency

Rebecca Strauss of the McIntosh & Otis, Inc. Literary Agency

Sandra Bond of the Sandra Bond Literary Agency

Here’s a peek into the Q&A session.

 Don’t get caught doing this!

When asked what not to do when sending a query, Rachelle Gardner advised that you don’t start with a rhetorical question, or try to be cute. Follow the submission guidelines for that particular agent.

Sara Megibow suggested that you don’t sub in a genre she doesn’t represent.  Write a blurb that will make her want to read the book.  “I want your query letter to sound like the back cover of the novel,” Sara said.

When trying to suggest an audience for your work, Rebecca Strauss suggested you avoid saying, “I’m the next Faulker.”  Instead, try some content comparison with a known author.  Example:  “My work is along the lines of  X Author.” She said it helps to research what the agents represent. Her example:  “I enjoyed Tempest Rising, and my book is similar to that.”  That, Rebecca said, will make her love you.  “Our books are like our children.  If you compliment them you compliment us.”

Does location matter?

Located in New York, Rebecca is in contact by email and phone, but enjoys the convenience of meeting with editors.  “It’s fun to get drinks with them.”  With personal meetings, she feels they open up more about their editorial needs.  She meets with editors once or twice a week.

Sara’s son loves the New York taxicabs. She travels there for business but “I don’t wine and dine editors in New York.  You can live in the North Pole, but what you want to ask, if you are offered representation, is, ‘Will you represent my book and get it sold?’ Not, ‘Do you buy editors beer?’”

Rachelle loves being able to live here and do her job. She sells mainstream fiction to general markets and to Christian publishers. There are four major Christian  publishers in Denver and in Nashville.  She attends conferences and meets editors there. “When I pitch a book, the main thing is will it get read?” she said. “I don’t have any editors ignoring me.  It won’t be based on where I live.  If I were having trouble getting an editor to pay attention to me that would be a problem, but it’s not.”

Sandra noted that agents live all over the place, and editors know that. “Your job is to target the appropriate agent who is right for your book and our job is to target the right editor for your book,” she said.  “It doesn’t matter where we live.  We do also attend many conferences and meet editors, and go to New York and meet with the editors when we need to.  I have specific editors with whom I want to meet.  But I’m also very good at phone relationships.  Authors, too, are all over the place.  I have authors I haven’t met before.”

 E-publishing – panacea, or the death of publishing?

E-publishing is, they agreed, another format of a book, like an audio book.

We may have fewer printed books, but they’ll never ever go away. Yes, there’ll be lots of e-books, but it’s still a book.

Rachelle noted that everyone in the industry is trying to discover how all who are involved in publishing are going to continue to make money from the written word. We can try to re-invent the wheel every day but we still don’t know the answer to that question.  How much readers will pay for the written word is the new question.

Sara agreed.  “The question is: an author may have 25 rejections and ask, ‘Shall I self-publish?’”  Avoid making an emotionally based decision (To heck with you, I can publish and make my millions without you). Don’t e-publish because you don’t like New York, or don’t like not having control of your career.  “Be careful.”

Rebecca observed that we’re all trying to figure it out every day, trying to guess how we’re going to stay in business, all working hard to get negotiating language in contracts which limits time, where standing royalty rates are in effect and re-evaluate in two years.

Coming next:  bidding wars, age discrimination and surprising insights

Colo Gold Conference: Editor panel reveals submissions process

by Janet Lane

RMFW’s conference burst at the seams this year with informative workshops and panels.

For those of you who couldn’t attend, here’s an update.  Enjoy and employ these tips!  –Janet

The editor panel this year featured–

Moshe Feder, Consulting Editor for Tor Books

Latoya Smith, Assistant Editor for Grand Central Publishing

Angela James, Executive Editor of Carina Press (Harlequin digital)

Brian Farrey, Acquiring Editor for Flux, Llewellyn’s Young Adult (YA)

Lindsey Faber, Managing Editor for Samhain Publishing.

Where does your genre fit?

If you write Young Adult (YA), your work will be welcome with Brian Farrey.  He’s looking for YA stories that feature urban fantasy, straight up fantasy, teen romance, and sci fi, but no space opera or high fantasy. He would like to see more realistic books with no fantasy, just teens trying to relate to each other & themselves.

If you write mystery, Carina Press does digital imprints of all genres of adult fiction, so consider querying Angela James when your book is ready to market.  They’re big on mystery among other genres.  Latoya Smith is interested in all adult, commercial fiction.

If your pen produces romance or women’s fiction, your work may find a home with Latoya Smith at Grand Central Publishing.  She’s acquiring romance (mainly paranormal and romantic suspense), women’s fiction, and erotica and African romance, across the board.  Angela James’ Carina Press is also big on romance, as is Lindsey Faber of Samhain.

If Sci Fi’s your genre, do not pass ‘go’ and run directly to the post office (or computer) and send your ready-to-market query to Tom Dougherty of Tor in hard-copy or Angela James at Carina Press, where you can launch your career in digital format.

At the panel, Moshe pointed out that Tor publishes more Sci Fi per year–150 new titles per year—than anyone else.  Their stories run the gamut: epic, high, sociological SF, space opera, military adventure, paranormal romance.  Each of Forge’s three seasons includes 50 sci fi titles and 20 of all other titles.

Have a thriller to market?  Try Carina Press or Grand Central Publishing.

 What they can offer you

As authors, we’re concerned about being lost in the cracks, especially with a debut novel.  Are the publishers too small to afford any promotion?  Will we have to do it all ourselves?  If the publisher is large, are all their promotion dollars used on established authors?  The editors addressed these concerns during the panel.

Latoya Smith mentioned promotional themes and making good use of the online department at Grand Central. “Who are your contacts? How can we combine efforts to make a strong promo effort?”  The author will pay for some of it. “We usually focus efforts on bookmarks, postcards. Most all books get galleys and ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies printed at no cost to the author) to send for blurbs. Some authors go on tour. We offer all of our authors  an on-line blog tour and Twitter parties.” Grand Central also hosts a Forever Fan Page where authors can speak to readers during hour-long book club sessions.

Moshe Feder mentioned Tor’s large PR department.  “Every book has someone in PR who’s associated with it, arranging reviews, interviews, book stores placement.  Tor encourages our authors to participate in the website activities.  They do tour their authors extensively.”  Tor is large, but small, Moshe said.  “We are a family run company who happens to be part of a large corporation.  We work on an informal, friendly basis; no editorial board that has to be run through.  We have strong personal relationships with our authors.”

Lindsey Faber noted they use print, advertising, media, blogs, horror magazines and conference sponsorships to promote their authors.  They do banners and giveaways at Comic Con,  “And we’ve had lots of success with giveaways.” She explained how Samhain offered the first book of a series free for a week which was “hugely successful with many downloads.  Book giveaways are very successful. In a post giveaway week we sold over 2,000 copies.  The second book in the series hit the USA Today best seller list.”

There are advantages to being small.  Flux’s Brian Farrey said they work closely wth authors, doing lots of social media on-line—video streams, Facebook and Twitter.  “We’re a company of 110 years. We target the library market.  We’re all doing the same thing, just with different resources.  Flux prints targeted ARC copy runs of 2,000—more modest runs but more targeted.”  Further, Brian said Flux helps authors understand what they can do so they can have their own voice.  “We educate our authors on proper on-line etiquette.”

“We’re a small press within a larger company,” Angela James said. “We have tools to help you learn how to (promote) yourself because no one’s more passionate about your book than you are. We teach you how to do social media, how to build a web site, and you can take that wherever you may go in your career.  We utilize Net Galley – online digital ARC reviewers, librarians, bookstores – over 30,000 users for review copies.”  Through these resources they are able to reach many people. “Every release gets a release tour.”

Next:  How submissions rise out of the slush pile and how to query.

Self-pub or traditional? Hit a home run either way!

Batter up! Catch up with the quickly changing traditional and e-pub market so you can hit a home run with your novel!

Making sense of it all

By Janet Lane

As the Rockies prepare to send out their first pitch of the season, I, too, prepare for my time at bat in the literary field.  I peer from the bull pen, alarmed at the massive market changes.  After a decade of plying my writing wares, I thought I had it down pat:  continue marketing my novels through my publisher, Five Star/Thomson Gale.  Perfect my craft. Gather fans and work my way up to the New York publishers.  But now the game rules have changed.

Strike one: Five Star Publishing discontinued their Expressions line under which my historical romance novels were published.

Strike two: E-books make significant inroads in the publishing industry much faster than predicted, creating a threat to traditional publishers.

Strike three: Tried and true publishers announce bankruptcy and/or continue to trim releases, shrinking to survive. Agents tighten their acquisition process even more.

Am I three strikes and out?  Are you?  Are all of us?  Like a splintered bat, marketing strategies hang useless in our hands and we wonder how best to react as we face the competition’s star pitcher.

While on a project this winter in North Dakota (in a town with a population of 16,000), I was shocked to learn that their mall – indeed, the entire town — had no new-book bookstore.  This revelation left me close to speechless. Then I found myself strolling through the dying remains of a Borders store, shopping with throngs of other guilt-ridden bargain-hunters as Borders closes over 200 stores.

And e-book sales are growing faster than our cell phone bills.  From March 17  Publisher’s Weekly come this stat:  e-book sales rose 115% in January beating out both paperback and hardcover sales in the same month.

Personal stories abound on the exponential sales of e-books.  Authors can cash in on this bonanza, many say.  For example, author Barry Eisler (Best Thriller of the Year award from Gumshoe) recently made the switch from traditional publishing to self-publishing e-books.  His short story is on track to make $30,000 this year and unlike print books, it will stay on the virtual “shelf” (earning royalties) forever.  And for pre-pubs, it’s also good news:  now pre-pub writers can snub the editors and agents and market their novels to instant success.

Once a novel has been written, it can be produced into an e-book in as quickly as one day and sold at any price you wish, right down to 99 cents.  But alas, whole novels can also be copied and pirated in hours.  As RMFW’s Kenn Amdahl points out, print pirates can change the title and/or author name spelling, making it difficult for the authors to monitor piracy through such tools as Google search.

What’s a striving pre-pub writer or a modestly selling pubbed author to do?

Sometimes historical perspective helps.  An enlightening glimpse-back was offered in a Slate news article, What Are Independent Book Stores Really Good For? By Tyler Cowen, the story reminds us that the bookstore “field” is constantly evolving.  In the 1920s and 30s, we bought our mass market books at drugstores.  Then came the Book-of-the-Month Club and, in the 70’s chain bookstores took to the plate, making home runs at area shopping malls.  Every inning brought a more commercialized alternative to bookselling.  And in spite of all the changes, literacy continued to rise.

Now we see books in grocery chains and super discounters like Sam’s and Wal-mart, and 99-cent books on the Internet.

So all this “change” is really just “more of the same” and one fact is constant: we can’t win the game if we don’t play.

Get to spring practice. To thrive in these new outlets, let’s learn how the game has changed. Sort through the hysteria to find facts. Learn what we can do to compete in the new climate.

Watch other batters. We need to visit sites like the creativepenn.com by Joanna Penn, author and business consultant. In a recent article, she writes about creative destruction and how to survive the e-book apocalypse.  In this article, she discusses the strategy of writing e-books at the same time you’re writing for the New York houses.  To learn more, go to: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2010/10/22/creative-destruction-or-how-to-survive-the-ebook-apocalypse/ And definitely read about Amanda hocking, the 26-year-old phenom who self-published with such fabulous success, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tonya-plank/meet-mega-bestselling-ind_b_804685.html

Here’s an excellent March 30, 2011 overview of the indie vs. traditional publishing options available to both pre-pub and pubbed authors.  In it, Kris Rusch succinctly explains how an author can and should make different decisions about this based on the changing status of his or her career.  http://kriswrites.com/2011/03/30/the-business-rusch-smackdown/

And Google for similar sites. We need to learn so our decisions will be informed.

Go out there swinging. After careful consideration, we need to approach home base with confidence, ready to build our fan base. This will help us through the challenges of a changing market.

Batter, batter, batter! Let’s not allow naysayers to distract us from our course.  Our spring mantra is, “Learn, focus and pick up the bat.”  We can hit a home run!

What are your strategies to get published? Please share them with us!

Are you a Survivor?

What does it take to be a Survivor in publishing? What traits do you think are most important?

I’m working with my critique partners on a panel presentation for the upcoming Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers conference, aka Colorado Gold Conference, scheduled this year for September 10, 11, 12 at Denver’s Renaissance Hotel. Actually, Kay Bergstrom is doing all the initial planning, and the rest of us are offering small suggestions.

The panel will be based on one of my favorite television shows, “Survivor.” “Where Do You Get Your Ideas?” will cover beginnings, middles and ends, and contestants (my fellow critique partners and I) will try to outwit and outlast each other and make it to the end without getting voted off. Should be great fun!

When I first heard the concept of “Survivor” (from Kay Bergstrom, actually, years ago, so this is coming full circle for me), I thought the idea of voting people off an island was repugnant – ill-spirited and insensitive. Watching the show, I learned quickly that it’s a game. And what can be more of a game, more of a competition than writing to get published?

What does it take to be a Survivor in publishing? What traits do you think are most important?

4 secrets to improve luck, get published

Change Your Luck by R. Wiseman

… continued from previous post

In his book, Change Your Luck, the Scientific Way to Improve Your Life, Dr. Richard Wiseman’s research took several years and involved interviews with hundreds of exceptionally lucky and unlucky people.

In one study, Wiseman used television to announce that he would track the success rate of lucky and unlucky people who played the Canadian Lottery.  Questionnaires were completed and Wiseman had his list of Have- and Have-No-Luck People.  They picked their numbers, and the results were compiled: out of 700 participants, only 36 won any money at all.  These were evenly split between lucky and unlucky people.  Just two people matched four numbers, winning £58 each.  One had been previously classified as “lucky.”  The other one was “unlucky.”

This is great news for us!  It means we can improve our luck in life by focusing on these four areas:
1.  Maximize your chance opportunities.
2.  Listen to your lucky hunches.
3.  Expect good fortune.
4.  Turn bad luck into good.

Space does not allow me to go into more detail here, but I highly recommend the book.  It takes principles we’re all familiar with and presents them in a new, enlightening order that makes complete sense.
Did reading this book change my luck?  I don’t think so.  Did it improve it?  I think so.  The gem I gleaned from this book is that luck doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  Through our actions we can boost the good-luck factor in our lives.
So, good luck to you in your writing.  Take it, fortify it with hard work, magnify it with good instincts and a positive attitude, and keep following your dreams.  It will happen!

Get lucky to get published

Precious Heart by Lorelei

Part two
… continued from yesterday’s post

In his book, Change Your Luck, the Scientific Way to Improve Your Life, Wiseman’s research took several years and involved interviews with hundreds of exceptionally lucky and unlucky people.

He discovered a significantly new way of looking at luck and the role it plays in our lives.

People are not “born” lucky.  Without realizing it, “lucky” people employ four powerful principles to create good fortune in their lives.  In the book, Wiseman asks us to complete a Luck Profile, which addresses some of our habits in life – do we socialize or keep to ourselves; do we worry about new experiences or welcome them in our lives; do we have and/or trust our intuition.  The author has us examine significant past experiences in our lives – how we met our life partner, how we came to know our closest friend(s), how we chose our career, and one very positive event in our lives.  Then he asks that we think about those events, and how good luck played a part in them, how good luck changed our lives.

If you think you’re unlucky, it will be illuminating for you to read about some of the truly unlucky people Wiseman interviews during his research.  You would not want to play “Ain’t It Awful?” with these guys!  One woman, as a child, split her head open on a rock while picking daisies and later was hit on the head by a board that fell from a building.  As an adult her blind date didn’t show up because he broke both legs in a motorcycle accident while driving to meet her.  Her next date broke his nose when he walked into a glass door.

The church where she was to be married was burned down by arsonists two days before her wedding.  In a separate incident she broke her arm.  In another, she broke a leg.  In another disaster, she crashed through a brick wall during her driving test.  And her car wasn’t insured.

On the flip side, he offers some good-luck stories that make you want to stomp your foot at the inequities, or wish to hang out with that person and hope some of the good luck rubs off on you.
Wiseman discovered four basic differences between lucky and unlucky people:
* Lucky people constantly encounter chance opportunities, bumping into people accidentally who drastically improve their luck or even lives.
* Lucky people make good decisions without really knowing why.  They have good instincts.
* Lucky people’s dreams come true.
* Lucky people can turn bad luck into good.

Up next:
- how we can improve our luck in life.

Get Lucky! Improve your odds, get published

Courtesy zwani.com

There’s nothing worse than being surrounded by success when you’re not there yet.  Not so long ago I was at that point, trying desperately to get published and not succeeding.  The term “ambivalent” so fits struggling writers who just heard their best friend was offered her first contract.  How else can you experience such happiness (for her) and such melancholy (for you)?

The words whisper then scream in our heads:  “When will it be my turn?”  And, “How did she finally get lucky?”

In April of 2001, I devoted my column to the topic of luck in getting published.  Since St. Patrick’s Day and the Luck ‘o the Irish is almost upon us — the topic merits re-visiting.

First, a quick review of my earlier column.  I outlined some outrageous “good luck” stories, one about a couple of guys who gathered over thirty rejections for their collection of upbeat stories, then contacted a small publisher who thought their book was just what America needed, and Chicken Soup for the Soul launched a new era in publishing history.

Included in my list was Diana Gabaldon’s story of how she posted incomplete chapters of her work in progress in an on-line chat room and caught the eye of an agent who secured a lucrative contract for Outlander, which became a New York Times best-seller.  Then there’s J. K. Rowling with her Harry Potter series, who graduated from writing on paper napkins to becoming richer than the Queen of England!

It’s no small wonder I wanted to study the concept of luck back then.  At the time, I’d received a string of rejections, hadn’t finaled in a contest for over a year, and my last contest score before writing that column was one point shy of making it to the second round.  I needed to learn about luck!

The newly published RMFW authors I interviewed held widely divergent views of how large a part luck played in their receiving “the call.”
* 30% said, “Luck played a large part.”
* 50% said, “Luck played a small part.”
* 20% said, “Luck played no part at all.”

Since writing that column I discovered a fascinating book, Change Your Luck, The Scientific Way to Improve Your Life, by Dr. Richard Wiseman.  Wiseman’s research took several years and involved interviews with hundreds of exceptionally lucky and unlucky people.
He discovered a significantly new way of looking at luck and the role it plays in our lives.

Tomorrow: de-bunking the myths about luck.

How to find an agent

How to Find the Perfect Mate               
…I mean, Agent
by Janet Lane

Over the years I’ve met over a hundred agents in person at conferences.  These person-to-person exchanges have a lot in common with speed dating (or at least what I’ve gleaned about it from first-hand accounts from friends).

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Picture me in a sea with hundreds of other writers, seated in chairs mysteriously too narrow for our hips, where we all project our authorly best in dress, demeanor and posture.  Above us, seated in a formation reminiscent of the medieval High Table, the agents chat and laugh among themselves, preparing to answer our industry questions.

ASSESSING OUTWARD APPEARANCES
From my narrow chair I balance my coffee and conference program and consider external clues.  Hmm, agent number one looks as young as my daughter.  Cashmere sweater, Steve Madden heels–from Bryn Mawr, or one of the other Seven Sisters colleges?  MFA?  Would that give her more literary than commercial contacts? The second agent is dressed in a sleek suit and wears her hair severely swept back – is she as clever and sophisticated with her client list and editor contacts as she is with her appearance?  Agent three’s shoulders are stooped and she wears thick glasses, poking at her Blackberry non-stop.  Could she be one of those dedicated, over-worked agents who relishes months and months of editing before she subs a manuscript to an editor?  And, OMG, agent four looks as old as I am.  Will she fall in love with my stories, or is she so jaded from having considered thousands of manuscripts over the years that she’s seen everything, and the stories all run together in her mind?  A question and answer session follows, and we hear the quality of their voices, listening for confidence, arrogance, indifference, enthusiasm, optimism and reassurance that he or she really wants to consider new stories.

AVAILABILITY
As in our search for a mate, we want to avoid wasting time pursuing someone who may be unavailable.  What does their website say about “currently seeking?”  What is not mentioned that might be significant?  Do they even have a website?  Are they really in Denver looking for new clients, or did they just want to visit with the attending editors?  Have they been in business long enough to sell books and do a good job of representing authors?  If they pass my test and I deem them desirable, is my work good enough for them?

THE DATE
It’s finally time for the agent appointment.  Ten minutes in a busy room with hopeful writers buzzing the tables like bees in a botanical garden.  All those other writers look good–smartly dressed, tall, composed, their faces filled with self-confident smiles, their hands with note cards and their voices animated with enthusiasm about their stories.  I settle in the chair, trying to plant my feet on the floor, and fumble with my conference bag, purse, and bookmarks (realizing suddenly that it would be tacky to share bookmarks right now).  The old high school feelings return with a vengeance, and I’m not talking about the pretty ones.  Sweating pits, hands that can’t seem to find a comfortable place to rest, eyelashess that flutter against my will, lungs that lock and a heavy tongue twisted into three of the most reliable Girl Scout knots.  Yeah, this is fun.

THE DING
Time’s up, and I forgot to mention what makes my story unique. Heck, I would have forgotten the title had she not asked.  And OMG, I gave her the bookmark, after all.  She returns it with an indulgent smile and hands me her card.  But what does it all mean?  I get up to leave, manage to shake her hand, and leave with a major case of ping-pong brain.

THE CHANGING FACE OF DATING
Don’t like speed-dating?  Just as the old-fashioned ways of dating – double-dates, blind-dates, group-dates – have given way to such practices as Internet dating and speed-dating, there are also new ways to find the perfect agent.  Ed Hickok wrote about Query Tracker in last month’s issue of the Rocky Mountain Writer in his excellent article, Netting an Agent.  I agree with his assessment that it’s a great tool.  Other on-line resources include publishersmarketplace.com where current sales are recorded, along with the editor and agent involved in each transaction.

NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK
Another resource is networking within our own organization.  One powerhouse networker I know is RMFW’s own Karen Duvall, who frequently lists interesting marketing articles on our RMFW yahoogroup loop.  One such tip she listed recently was an article from the Poets and Writers website, an interview with Julie Barer (Barer Lit), Jeff Kleinman (Folio Lit), Renee Zuckerbrot , and Daniel Lazar (Writer’s House).   The link, which has proven to be about 50% reliable, is http://www.pw.org/content/agents_and_editors_qampa_four_young_literary_agents
The article is long, but fascinating.  I’ve condensed some of the more interesting points for you below, but a verbatim read is worth your time.  With thanks to Karen, here are some pertinent gems gleaned from that interview that may help when launching your own “dating rituals.”

What agents are looking for
Barer: The book that makes me miss my subway stop.
Zuckerbrot: It’s their voice … how they use words … how they slow things down … build up to a scene.
Lazar: show me new worlds or re-create the ones I already know.
Kleinman: Oh my God. … So-and-so would love this.  (A specific editor comes to mind.)
Agents also shop for clients in literary magazines, conference publications, Friendster, asking for recommendations from professors of MFA programs, from reading short stories and–yes, the slush pile.

Queries shouldn’t be on pink paper, shouldn’t mention all the characters in the book, shouldn’t begin with “Dear Agent” and shouldn’t mention who the writer would cast in the movie version.  Query letters shouldn’t promise millions of copies in sales or be laced with desperation.

Problems with beginning writers
* wandering, unfocused story, or one that doesn’t start until page 5 (or 20 or 40).
* submitting a story before it’s ready (polish, polish, polish).
* they write a generic-sounding query and don’t list their credentials.
* don’t understand that the first 20 pages count more than anything.

Their ideal client
* In addition to being gifted, participates in the marketing process
* Writes about a subject matter that appeals to a specific audience (makes marketing easier).

Adjust your expectations (fantasies)
In-house support means an editor who’s passionate about the book, and a publicist who’s willing to put his or her reputation on the line for the book.  A book needs entire team support to succeed, and that’s very hard to get.  A publishing house gives substantial support to just a few books every season.  In reality, it’s a lottery.  That said, agents can help with suggestions, and some agencies even have marketing support teams in-house to help a book along.  (A good question to ask during the courtship period.)

The editor’s role
The agents talked at length about the degree to which editors edit these days.  In the past, a book might have been a “three” and the editor would buy it and bring it up to a “ten” for publication.  These days, the book needs to be at least a six or seven before they’ll make an offer.

What beginning writers should avoid
* speaking or writing negatively about an editor or agent.
* telephoning excessively.  Make it one organized, thoughtful communication.
* inadequately communicating about your future projects.
* blogging indiscriminately before you’re published – stuff floats around interminably on the Internet.

Don’t be desperate

You may have heard the saying, “There’s nothing worse than a desperate woman.”  Pretty embarrassing to see this in action, a woman so insecure and needy that she becomes a doormat for men who have no intention of wedding her.  There is something worse: a writer, so desperate to find an agent that they don’t care who represents them, as long as they have a pulse and it says, “Literary Agent” on their business card.

There is something worse than not being represented, too, and that’s being represented by the wrong agent.  As writers serious about our careers and committed to our success, we need a good match. To get that, we need to be active, not passive little puppies who roll over and say, “Help me, help me.”  Be an active consumer with this important decision in your writing life.  What happens if you’re passive?  Ask C. J. Box, whose agent was dead for several months before he finally called him and found out why he wasn’t contact him with a deal.  Ask any of the multi-published founding members of RMFW – Kay Bergstrom, Sharon Mignerey, Jasmine Cresswell, Chris Jorgensen – what can happen if you get the wrong agent.  Be a smart consumer.

And how to find the perfect agent for you? The Internet’s wealth of information has been demonstrated, but the old courtship methods have their strengths, as well.  Information, more easily obtained than in the past, gives us a chance to build an expansive file about an agent’s preferences, track record, and even a candid glimpse of their responses in such casual interviews as this one.  But the human connection –  voice inflections, eye contact, that gut-feeling derived only from in-person communication – helps us determine if we like the person, and if we can trust sharing the future of our stories with them.  Use every tool available to you, and good luck in your search for that special agent or editor!