Authors' Thread (New! Improved! Now With 10% More Questions!)

Re: Authors' Thread

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'm going to follow the suggestions and put together a proposal. I'll post again when I make some progress.

 

Re: Authors' Thread

Anybody at Book Expo America in New York on the weekend? How was it?

 

Re: Authors' Thread


Sorry nobody piped up with an answer, Double J. I guess none among us made it to the expo this year. Having gone in years past, however, I can almost guarantee that there were free canvas tote bags of poor manufacture, and well-dressed desperate booksellers, in very great abundance. And that the writers downstairs signing books in that series of literary cattle chutes are all sneaking looks left and right to see whose line is longest. Invariably, it's that woman with the elaborate children's pop-up book. Or Tom Wolfe. One of the two.

Expo Update: I guess something unusual did happen this year. http://valleywag.com/tech/piracy/google-gets-a-taste-of-its-own-medicine-267273.php

I had a very pleasant book experience today that I wanted to share.

My friend Will Allison has written a new novel, his first. The title is What You Have Left. It's getting terrific reviews, everywhere from Booklist to Entertainment Weekly.

I've already ordered a couple of copies from Amazon, but went out today to buy a couple more from Barnes and Noble. Your sales numbers from those two places are disproportionately important, so I wanted to do what I could to help Will and his book out.

He and I were MFA candidates in the Ohio State writers' workshop 10 years ago; later he edited some of my short fiction for Story magazine.

As I stood in the Barnes and Noble on Union Square, holding a good novel written by a good friend, I was overtaken by a surge not just of affection, or of pride, but of fellowship. I was struck, I guess, by the sometimes deep interconnectedness of this incredibly solitary thing we do, and by the realization that all the books themselves and the writers behind them are not only part of a contemporary community of individuals, but part of a continuum back into history. I can't quite explain it, but the thought was reassuring - that the work, and your life in the work, has purpose.

It felt good.

 

Re: Authors' Thread

I understand having an agent is crucial, but how does one go about finding a good, solid agent? I've searched the Web, but I'm skeptical when it comes to making choices based on random Web searches. Any suggestions?

 

Andy -

Finding a good agent is always tough. I'll sound the conch to see if we can get some of the other represented writers in here, but everyone's story about agent-finding tends to be absolutely idiosyncratic.

Mine, for example, found me.

I had been publishing a lot in my little hometown paper, and had had a few stories published in some magazines. One of which was throwing some sort of party. I was there, and so was she. She represented a friend of mine - also in attendance - who introduced us. We talked for a while, and she asked if she could represent me. She seemed nice, so I said yes.

So my experience is absolutely useless to you in this case.

I'll try to turn up some sort of reliable directory that we can post here. Used to be there was a fair one in the annual edition of Writers' Market. Also Poets and Writers. I think the sort of undifferentiated results you're going to get from the internet won't be of much use.

Couple of things to consider:

- Are you looking to be agented for fiction, nonfiction, or both?

- Do you know anyone who has an agent that you could use as a starting point? If so, do.

- If you have writers whose work you admire, and whose work you emulate, try to get a query and samples of your work to their agents.

- Consider where you live and work and what sort of clips you have to show when considering which agencies you might try to query. Places like ICM or Andrew Wylie are inundated with submissions, just like The New Yorker, and their slush piles are just as swollen and unforgiving. You might try a local or regional agency outside New York depending on your situation.

- Why do you need an agent now? Do you have a specific project to propose? If so, and the project is sufficiently attractive, you might get more love from the big agencies than you expect. Agents, trust me, are always on the lookout for marketable talent.

- Don't bother with an agent just for magazine work. They're only going to smother you with love for the books you have stewing in your head.

I'll try to round up the rest of the Justice League for better information, but I hope that helps a little. Thanks for posting.

 

1. Work your contacts. Who reps your friends/colleagues? Who do you know? Who's willing to make a call or send an email for you? If we have a mutual friend, 99% chance I'll be interested in hearing what you're working on.

2. Writer's Market is big and thorough, but outdated very very fast. Take a look a publishersmarketplace.com, which has become the industry's best source for finding out who's where and who's doing what. (Maybe who's doing who, I never thought to look for that.) You can search for agents and editors and authors, by category, by book titles, by a lot of things. Great resource....most agents and editors have their own pages with recent titles, projects, etc. Worth a look.

3. Go to the store, find books like yours, and read the acknowledgement pages. Seriously. Smart and happy authors remember to thank their agents.

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As for the BookExpo (more later, I must get to a Little League game), #1 Buzz: What about the Paris From Prison book? Gotta love publishers, always looking for something original.

 

As Tony S said, "'Remember when' is the lamest form of conversation" but I'm gonna chip in anyway.

BookExpo America was formerly the annual convention of the American Booksellers Association.

I went to my first one in 1972 at the old Shoreham hotel in Washington. I guess I've attended about 20 over the years. Washington, NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, Las Vegas, Atlanta--they've all had their moments.

Whether you're an author, bookseller or publisher, one thing is true: the book community is flat-out wonderful and surprisingly enough there are very few assholes because everyone who gets into the biz does so because of their love of books, ideas and reading.

I've had dozens of memorable experiences at Bookexpo: meeting first time authors who have turned out to be household names (John Irving, Elmore Leonard); chatting with legends such as Roger Strauss about this new book by Scott Turow; being in Anaheim at the greatest party ever when The Rock Bottom Remainders made their debut; getting up on stage with other drunken Canadians to sing "Delta Dawn" at the close of the Anahaeim convention; going to a baseball game with Roger Kahn. Moments I'll never forget.

Greatest industry in the world.

 

I thought I'd add this link to the Dark Side of the Book Deal thread, which has some terrific insight into the making of books.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/42727/

 

jgmacg and swenk,
Thanks for your valuable insight. As a young writer who is just starting out, I covet advice like gold.

 

Big -

I took a little time to think about your post, and the nature of fiction writing generally - especially by non-fiction writers. I hope some of the other Publishing Venerables, like JR and Swenk, will weigh in likewise.

I'll preface this by saying that I've managed to publish both. On the fiction side, however, my output so far has been entirely in the short form. For the last 15 years or so, while earning my living writing non-fiction, I've continued to write short stories. I work on them mostly in the margins of my non-fiction calendar, when time allows. But work on them I do. Some I try to have published, others I work on just to keep my hand in. I have a novel on the boards that I'll begin writing next year, too, but I have a nonfiction book to deliver first, this December. By 2009 or so, whether or not I've finished the novel, and in addition to the non-fiction magazine work that pays the rent, I expect to have a sufficient number of stories of sufficient quality to publish a collection. Most of these goals exist primarily in my own imagination.

I mention all this only to point out that it's really important to have a plan for your writing when you're trying to write across both fields. Or even if you're simply trying to shoehorn your fiction writing into an already full schedule.

Placing short stories is different than selling a novel, of course, but the process for the writing is largely the same. Since fiction, both as an art and as a business, is utterly non-linear, you've got to make your own structure and discipline. No one gives you a deadline and then goads you to meet it. No one outlines what the story needs to be or who needs to be interviewed. No one even knows your project exists until you reveal it to them. Thus, in more ways than you might imagine, fiction writing is the opposite of non-fiction.

From what I've seen on other threads you're a person of sufficient discipline to make the time to do your novel writing - whether hour by hour or in chunks of a month or two. And it sounds like you have a good plan for reworking the material you have already. Now you just need to commit to the idea that it's important enough to suffer doing.

Because writing fiction is entirely a work of faith.

If you're convinced that the novel is a thing you must do, then you'll do it. That simple.

As to more practical matters, I'd offer a couple pieces of advice:

- Don't worry just yet about an agent or a publisher. Unlike non-fiction, which one can sell on the strength of a reputation and a book proposal, most literary fiction gets sold only after it's finished. Or at least partly finished. In the near future, when you've written a chapter or two or five you feel good about, we'll get you started talking to agents. The most likely first candidate being your colleague's agent from the book you co-wrote.

- Once you have about half of a first novel - and if it's really terrific - you might be able to get a small advance, or win a grant, to finish it. Never speak the words 'fiction' and 'money' in the same sentence. Again, writing a novel is an act of love and determination and perversity and faith. It's not to be confused with earning a living.

- More than an agent or publisher, what you need right now might be to immerse yourself in the work. In that spirit, I'd suggest a brief stint at an actual writers' workshop or retreat. Yaddo, Breadloaf, the NY State Summer Writers' Institute up at Saratoga. There are hundreds of them. Even a week at a summer program can reinvigorate your commitment to the material; can get you some close readings and helpful suggestions by authors you respect; can help you sort out what it is you're trying to do. I'm the product of several programs like this, and am very fond of them. A thing to consider.

- Make an outline.

- Keep your ass in the chair. Write every day.

- Don't worry about a daily wordcount. Better 250 good ones than 1,100 bad ones.

- If I can do it, anyone can.

I hope this answered a few of your questions, and makes a reasonable start on what will become an ongoing discussion. I await better advice from our other members. Good luck.

 

Has anyone here ever picked up a book they'd tabled for, uhh, an indeterminate period of time? How difficult was it to get back in the groove? Were you able to finish it and were you satisfied with the final product?

And has abject panic caused by chronic procrastination (please see the post total above the beautiful Ms. Bush) ever inspired a man to greatness? Can it now?

Thank you in advance for your comments.