Wednesday 29 July 2015

All about Literary Agents Part 2. How to get an agent

So this is the second post regarding Literary Agents, my first being why you need one and now this, how to get one.

Start off by getting yourself a copy of the Writers' & Artists' yearbook. Go through and highlight all the agencies who handle your genre. Do not approach an agency who don't touch your genre. It'll be a waste of time for everyone involved and three months longer you need to wait to get on the agency ladder.

Once you've drawn up a list of agencies, go through the list again and circle those who represent authors you adore and/or that you feel are representative of your style of writing.

Armed with this narrowed down list, check out their web sites and make sure that they are accepting submissions. If they are, make sure you understand their submission process. Some only accept by post, others might accept by email.

Make sure your typesetting is exactly as requested. Agents are busy people. They put in place rules specifically to make their hectic lives a little easier. If you break any of their submission rules, they will not bother with your submission or give it the time it deserves.

When it comes to your manuscript, yes get it as good as you can, but just polish the chapters they request in their submission rules. Don't bother polishing the entire thing because a) it might be a dead duck and you'll be wasting your time on something which never will quack and b) your manuscript will almost certainly change from the one you put under your agent's nose once they get involved with it. The agent wants to see from your manuscript if you can write, write with purpose, conviction and panache. And if your story idea contains something different.

Which leads me to the most controversial part of my advice.

Spend as long on your synopsis as you do your submitted manuscript. Your synopsis has to shimmer, startle, shine, surprise and excite. Agents get a lot of submissions every single day. They need to quickly see if your manuscript has got what it takes to lift above the masses and fly off the shelves. They'll do this by reading your synopsis first. If your synopsis is old hat, flat, or just plain boring, you've had it.

I'll let you into a secret. My agent rejected my submission on first approach but gave me a second crack of the nut because of the strength of my synopsis. What I'd failed to do was write what was documented in my synopsis (I know, go figure). His advice was to go away and rewrite what was in my synopsis and, when I had done that, go back to them. I did and the rest, as they say, is history. If my synopsis had been weak, I suspect I'd never have had a second chance.

So armed with your killer unique novel, perfectly encapsulated in a short startling synopsis and your opening three chapters, get sending.

I only ever sent to two agencies. The first rejected me because they didn't touch the genre of my work (I know, do as I say, not as I do) and the second accepted me second time around, so I never approached lots of agents simultaneously. This meant I never had to do the long dispiriting search for an agent. There's one camp who say send to all and sundry and go with the first, or the best, offer to come back to you. There's another who say out of courtesy approach one agency at a time, otherwise it'll cause conflicts and complications down the line when several sign you up at once.

I'll leave that one up to you to decide how you want to go about things.

Good luck and when you find your agent, I hope it's a match made in literary heaven. If it is, between you and your agent, nothing can get in your way.

For information, my agency is LAW in London. They are a very busy agency but they are accepting submissions. They are also fantastic.

Tuesday 28 July 2015

All about Literary Agents Part 1. Why you need an agent.

I write this blog entry from a position of ignorance, which is often how I like to live my life. I was lucky enough to get my literary agent very quickly and I struck gold when I did (I know I'm bound to say that, but in this case it is true). As a result, I don't have a huge list of hints and tips to impart regarding the long road traveled to finding an agent and how to keep positive and enthusiastic as to do so. However, I did attract the second agency I approached, as it turned out, so I suppose there is something in that to share.

The bottom line is that if you want to become a published author in the traditional sense of having a publisher publish your own work on your behalf, you will need to get an agent. Publishers very occasionally announce they are taking open submissions directly from writers, but the usual state of affairs is that they will only accept those submitted by a literary agent. The reason is simple. The agent will (on the whole) have filtered out the dross.

Publishers are busy, understaffed, overwhelmed places. They simply don't have the resources to read and review every single submission from every single source. So literary agencies will give them the assurance that what they are being made to read is probably worth reading.

So, primarily, your agent will get your work published. This is, of course, the most important aspect of their work for the author at the beginning, but it's certainly not the only one and, once you're secured with a publisher, your agent becomes an essential part of your armoury - your right hand man.

It's hard enough to write a book, let alone understand all the legal ramifications behind the contracts which go with it. The agent will, on your behalf, fight for the best deal they can for you, including the size of your advance, your royalties, when you'll be paid and the size of your deal in terms of the number of books you have to write for the publisher.

When you first win the publishing deal, you tend to slip into a dimwitted ether sniffing manner. Nothing quite makes sense anymore, everything sounds wonderful and any deadline is achievable with your all conquering pen and imagination. Agents will help agree exactly what's required of you and make sure that what you put your name to is fair you, as well as the publisher.

Once all the nasty paperwork is done, your agent will often become your own editor. I say 'often' because I've heard of agents who do not get involved with this side of things. I hope you get an agent who rolls their sleeves up and does help with editing because writing books is a lonely business and having someone who is, in many ways, your number one fan but without the sycophantic leanings, is such a godsend. My agent is my own editor and will review, correct and comment on everything I send them - and I send them a lot, much of which never sees the light of day! They are the safety net before you send further work to your publisher and you will hopefully come to appreciate their input immensely. I certainly do.

Agents will also look out for other deals for you and your work; foreign rights, audio books, TV deals, film deals. After all, selling your work is how they make their money - usually 15%. They know who's who in the market. They know them well enough to pick up the phone and talk to them candidly about your work, or go out for a beer with them and insist that they sign you up. They are your sales team, your editorial team and your baton twirling, pom pom waving team, rolled into one.

Trust me - you need an agent, if only to keep you sane down this long lonely road all writers travel.

So, now you know why you need an agent, how do you go about getting one? I'll discuss this in my next blog entry.

By the way, my agent is LAW and if you've got a book in you, they're well worth contacting.

Monday 27 July 2015

How to offend an author

I know what you're thinking, but surprisingly it's not "Your book is shit". That at least generates some debate.

"And why did you think it was shit?"
"Your plot line was as transparent as glass, your characters as believable as the Yeti and your grammar as bad as gout."

"Hmm, you may have a point there. Or three."

In my experience, every author will tell you what offends them the most is when someone comes up to them and says, "Well, I'd like to write a book but I just don't have the time."

What, and we do?

By saying this the person is in some way inferring that their time is somehow more precious than the writer's, when really what they are meaning is that they can't be arsed to sit down and dedicate thousands of hours to writing. There's much more exciting things they'd rather be doing.

The depressing fact is that just 10% of all authors make enough money to allow them to dedicate their entire working life to writing. This means that the vast majority of us have two, sometimes even three, jobs (including the writing) to keep ourselves alive. It means we must find or make the time to write outside of work.

For me I write for one hour before I go to work, each morning, every morning. I write almost every evening, at least 8pm until 10pm. I don't watch TV. I don't sit down and relax. I write every weekend, always up at 8am, at the latest regardless of what I had been up to the night before, and write for as long as I am able to during these 'precious family hours'.

Don't get me wrong. I am not complaining. I write because I love to write and I write because I feel this need to. I've learned to be selfish, as all serious writers need to be, and put myself and my writing first. But I don't find I have the time to write because I've got a direct line to CERN and have got them to bend time for me. I have no more time than anyone else. I make sacrifices, as do my family, so that I can write and keep the momentum of my writing up.

The problem is people aren't buying as many books as they used to, so writers aren't getting the sales to earn them the money to allow them to write full time. Therefore they need to write whenever they are able, not when they would like to. But I promise you you'll never hear a writer complain about having to find the time to write, at least not one who believes in their work and why they are writing.

So the next time to engage in conversation with a writer, don't say that you don't have enough time to write your masterpiece. Tell them you've not got round to it yet, you don't know how to start the novel, or that you just can't be arsed. You'll win the author's favour and perhaps generate even more debate than by saying that their novel is 'shit'. Although it's a start, I suppose.

Friday 24 July 2015

"Published? Wow! Now you're really living! Aren't you?"

My agent has a wiser and cooler head than me. When he told me I had interest in my debut novel The Damned from the publisher Duckworth Overlook, he slipped the news into an email, the fourth item down, as a hidden rather understated line.

It was probably the best way to tell me. Otherwise I might have done something stupid like run naked through the village screaming the news from the top of my voice. Well, after you've wanted something for 20 odd years, you'll celebrate in whatever way you can when your plans finally come to fruition.

The publishing world is a very cool, understated place, in every sense. From my experience to date, books attract good-hearted, considerate, methodical individuals, who are most usually a pleasure to be around.

Literary professionals dress understated and cool, probably entirely unintentionally but that's because they don't need to try to be cool. They are just intrinsically chilled, laid back, and have a natural penchant for style and verve in all its many guises.

(Don't worry, this blog does have teeth - it's not a diatribe for how wonderful the world of publishing is.)

So it's easy sometimes to forget that publishing is a business, just like any other. You have budgets, and you have timescales, targets and expectations. For a debut author, with your dreams of setting the world on fire with your explosive new work, you quickly realise that if you're going to turn this crackling flame into a raging inferno, you need to pour a lot of kerosene onto the flames yourself - kerosene that you have bought. Because unless you are literary royalty, you're not going to get any special treatment. And if you are literary royalty, you probably don't need special treatment because your armies of fans will buy your book anyway. Go figure - and see 'Go Set of Watchmen'.

After I secured a deal with my publisher, I was warned by friends who had friends who'd been published to prepare to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty. I was told that when you get published, the hard work really begins. I knew they were probably right, but I didn't know how right they were.

The backing of a recognised and highly regarded publisher certainly helps a debut author (helps any author), but it's not a clincher. It helps to get your book into the hands of some reviewers, gets your phone number onto the contact list of a few interviewers, gives your book an initial boost and a certain gravitas - which lasts precisely two weeks. After that, get ready to get dirty.

It's you and your name which makes the waves, and if you're a first time author, you're usually in a tiny boat making very small ones. And to fashion yourself a bigger boat to make bigger waves which shake the buying public, it falls to you to market yourself beyond what the publisher has budgeted to do. As I said, publishing is a business and there's only so much in the pot to spend on each author - and how much the publisher is willing to pay to market the author comes down to a myriad of different things, but mainly if they think the book will sell and sell well.

After all, it's a business and you invest in something if you expect a return.

This means that if you want your book to fly off the shelves, or turn Amazon's servers hot with the number of ebooks being downloaded, you have to do everything you can to get your book seen and bought.

I've treated the entire process as if I am self-publishing, going after interviews (hard), speaking to influential people who are the opinion formers (harder still), talking to the press (impossible), and staying very active online - Facebook, Twitter, this blog, my own web site. You have to wine and dine, luxuriate and charm, you have seek people out, use your contacts, put together social media campaigns, all of which means PAYING for things yourself. It really helps having a well recognised and respected publisher like Duckworth backing you, but it's still a difficult and costly business to promote a book, which is why publishers can only do so much.

There's currently a campaign running in social media I myself have put together and paid for out of my own pocket. I'm happy to do so. It's something that needs to be done. I need to get my book's cover in front of people. I need to get people to recognise its name (The Damned). I also know that I will lose money with this campaign. I can see how much each click through to Amazon is costing me and even if every person buys the book when they click through to it (unlikely), I'm still losing money! But it's about getting your book out there in front of people. It's about visibility, jumping up and down and making people aware you exist. You have to do what you can, where you can, to give you and your book half a chance of becoming a hit and the only way to do that is to make people sit up and take note.

Perhaps running naked through the village is not such a bad idea after all?

Tuesday 21 July 2015

When's your witching hour?

So when do you write? Or, rather, when do you find the daily planets align and the words slip more easily from your imagination and onto the page?

Writing book two of The Darkest Hand trilogy has been a slog. I've not hidden the fact that it's been hard work. Previous novels have seemed to have flown much easier from out of me, their birth less painful, even if their conception perhaps took longer. So far it's taken ten months to write The Fallen and every month has presented its own difficulties and set backs.

I've now finished the first draft and am going back and editing the thing. I feel I'm on the final lap - of this stage of the journey - even though there's an awful long way still to go with agents and editors still to have their say. I'm pleased with the overall structure. It's a better book than The Damned. And thank goodness I think it is, because it's been hellish to get to this point!

During the writing of the book, I tried every technique in the book to avoid writer's block and give my writing and inspiration a new edge. And I found that writing at different times of the day, when the brain was functioning at a different level, produced different effects.

Here's a breakdown of the different hours in the day I tried writing The Fallen, and what worked for me.

3am to 5am - The most inspirational time of the day to write, I discovered. Your mind and imagination works on a completely different level, even if your body doesn't. Complete silence assures you that you're not going to be interrupted and the fact that you've risen from your bed at ungodly-o'clock to write seems to propel you on to attack the writing with gusto. Not so great when you have a day job to manage as well. This approached worked for me, but almost killed me as well.

8am to 9am - The sneaky hour before 'proper work' is usually my most profitable of writing sessions and the one I use the most. The ideas from your dreams are still vivid and fresh, the coffee has just kicked in, the opportunity of a new day lies before you and knowing you have just one hour to write helps focus the mind tremendously.

The Lunchtime Hour - Unlike the 'sneaky hour' before work, the lunchtime hour proved unworkable. Too many interruptions from work, too much of my mind on the day job, meant that this session was almost aways spent pushing paper around my desk and daydreaming rather than being put to good use on good prose.

5pm to 6pm - aka 'the part-timer'. Leaving work early to write seemed to give me a drive and a determination to make the most of my allotted hour, buoyed by the energy of the day jut gone and the fact I was leaving it behind to focus on my second even more inspiring job. Could never get a lot done in the hour, but what I did was often insightful and helped shape the book.

8pm - 10pm - There are some days when work has drained you and you simply cannot face writing. Sadly, you must and, on such occasions, I go for the shorter writing session, usually two hours long, ending in time for me to shut down and off and recharge for the next day. This is the workhorse of writing sessions, where you add bulk to your story, even if the words aren't usually the most inspirational.

8pm till late - These sessions come along once in a while, when everything aligns, everything flows and you feel you can write till dawn - and sometimes you do. They're rare treasures, diamonds in the rough, where your normal world is shut out as you shut yourself into your fantasy world and nothing can intrude. A slap in the face for your loved ones, who are banished from going near you, but a squeeze on the bottom for your novel which leaps, forward after such joyous sessions.

So when do you write? What works for you?

Thursday 16 July 2015

Just write the damned thing!

Last night, at the monthly writing group I attend, we discussed the opening page of a book and how to start novels. We looked at different examples of first pages of published novels, how they set the mood of the book instantly and introduce the central character effortlessly.

We talked about how all the opening pages of the books centered around one single idea and, from there, extrapolated it out into the first chapter, the early scenes, the whole book.

With the first draft of the second book in The Darkest Hand trilogy (The Fallen) now written (finished last night after ten long long months), I've found myself sitting in front of a blank piece of paper which I've turned into a completed novel three times. (Yes, there is another book I've written that's nothing to do with The Damned or The Fallen - watch this space). It's an exciting and intimidating place to be, thinking about where the book is going to take you, how it's going to take you there and whether you will get there at all.

Having that unique nugget of an idea which tightens the guts and quickens the pulse is, of course, essential to conjure a fantastic story from inside of you, but it wont write the book for you. To do that you need belief in the idea, determination and faith in your own abilities.

And you also need to leap.

Leaping into a book, setting your finger to the key or the nib of your pen to the paper, and writing is not easy. It's an action poisoned with self-doubt and pessimism. 'Will it be any good?' 'Can I write it?' 'Can I write?!' 'Who will read it?' 'Will I ever finish it?' 'What's on TV at the moment?'

In my experience a brilliant idea is all very well, a natural feeling of joy when you write essential, but a carefree ballsy attitude that you're just going to get on and write the damned thing and to hell with what the first draft is like is the most important thing.

Procrastination is the number one killer of books. Silence the doubts, opening up your pads and just let the words flow out of you, regardless of what they're like. You can go back and tidy them up later.

I read a brilliant quote once. "Write your first draft like no one will read it. Write your last draft like the world will read it."

As my agent has said to me several times during the writing of The Fallen, 'just write the damned thing!'

Tuesday 14 July 2015

"Lower your expectations. The happiest authors are the ones that don't expect much."

The title of this, my first ever blog entry, is a quote from Seth Godin, author, entrepreneur, marketer, and public speaker. 

I love it. It's fitting for this blog, for the journey I am undertaking, and for the little I have experienced of the literary world so far. And, boy, did it make me laugh when I first discovered it. (I'll tell you why another time).

I have just finished the first draft of The Fallen, the second book of The Darkest Hand trilogy, The Damned being the first, and I am exhausted, shot, broken, shattered. (add a few more in here, if you feel so inclined). 

I've given it my all for nine long months; early starts, late nights, pre-dawn writing sessions, all night sessions, sessions in coffee shops, sessions on trains, in an art gallery, in a caravan, on a cliff top.

I've written sober, half starved, drunk, very drunk, tripping on caffeine, exhausted and wired. I've written with utter silence and a house full of noise, to classical music and black metal raging. I've written until my knuckles have shrieked and my eyes have burned in my skull. I've written 300,000 words distilled down to 100,000 and gone through over a 1000 sheets of paper and three cartridges of black ink.

I've written as I've eaten and I've eaten as I've read. I've left my wife and kids alone for days too many to count, whilst I've tried to tell a story which has, at times too many, been as elusive as I've been in my own household .

Has it been worth it? I suppose time, my agent, my publisher and eventually the general public will let me know. I know I've written the very best story I'm capable of in this moment and time. It's not perfect, but I hope we'll polish it well enough over the coming months to get it somewhere approaching that. What I do know is it's something I've written because I've felt feel impelled to - and that I really want people to love it, as much as *most* people to date have loved The Damned. 

But, as Seth says, you need to lower your expectations to be a happy author. And perhaps I should lower mine. But, for the moment, I feel immense pride and mostly relief to have reached this far!