Time to Write

Writing a powerful query letter: learning by example what (not) to do

Authorbuzz is a service that promotes books for a fee (I don't have any personal knowledge of their service or how well it works). On their site they give their authors a chance to pitch their books directly to readers who sign up to the site. I thought it might be useful to you to read two pitches and compare them, to discover what works and what doesn't.

 

First up: HELPLESS, by Daniel Palmer. Here's what he wrote about his book:

 

"Nine years after he left Shilo, New Hampshire, former Navy Seal Tom Hawkins has returned to raise his teenage daughter, Jill, following the murder of his ex-wife, Kelly. Despite Tom’s efforts to stay close to Jill by coaching her high school soccer team, Kelly’s bitterness fractured their relationship. But life in Shilo is gradually shaping up into something approaching normal. Normal doesn’t last long. Shilo’s police sergeant makes it clear that Tom is his chief suspect in Kelly’s death. Then an anonymous blog post alleges that Coach Hawkins is sleeping with one of his players. Internet rumors escalate, and incriminating evidence surfaces on Tom’s own computer and cell phone. To prove his innocence, Tom must unravel a tangle of lies about his past. For deep amid the secrets he’s been keeping—from a troubled tour of duty to the reason for his ex-wife’s death—is the truth that someone will gladly kill to protect."

In my opinion that's a pretty good pitch. It sets up the relationships nicely--the father-daughter conflict suggests that this story isn't just a by-the-numbers crime thriller. It doesn't give away the ending, but the last sentence adds another element of conflict and danger, and suggests that the secrets might have several levels.

 

Let's look at the next one, BLUE MOON BAY, by Lisa Wingate. This is how she described her book:

 

"When Seattle architect, Heather Hampton returns to Moses Lake, Texas, family secrets and a small-town mystery blow her plans completely off course. Heather wants to sell the family farmland to giant Proxica Foods, so she can design Proxica's new flagship facility. But when local banker, Blaine Underhill, and Heather's crazy family get involved, all bets are off. Suddenly, Heather's quick trip to Texas leads to Valentine's Week in the family funeral home, and a revelation that could change Heather's life forever.

What do you think?

 To be fair, it's quite a bit shorter, which works against it, but I think there are other problems.

It refers to Heather Hampton's plans being blown off course. When, in the next sentence, I hear what those plans are (to sell the family farmland to a big food company), I don't care about that one way or another--there's not the kind of emotional appeal that you get from the store of a father trying to protect his daughter.

If Heather had an urgent need for the money, for something we can identify with, we might care.

And when the pitch mentions the deal, I think, Oh no, not another tale of the ordinary folks vs. the big bad company that wants to build on land and do terrible things, like provide jobs for the local young people.

Furthermore, phrases like "Heather's crazy family" remind me of sitcoms with stereotypical characters.  Phrases like "all bets are off" are so general that, again, I don't get a connection with the story.

Sorry, Lisa Wingate, for all I know the book is far better than the pitch. 

Writing this kind of blurb, whether in a query letter to an agent or publisher or for the back of tbe book, is very difficult. Looking at how others have done it, whether really well or not so well, is a great way to get better yourself. 

(Marketing what you write is an important section of the new edition of Your Writing Coach, just out from NIcholas Brealey Publishing and available from Amazon and other book sellers.)

 

What are publishers buying? (including a survey of UK editors' wants)

I get the Publisher's Lunch deal news report, which lists some of the publishing deals made recently. It gives a good peek at what traditional publishers are buying these days. Here are a few recent deals:

* Director and producer Chris Columbus's HOUSE OF SECRETS, co-authored by Ned Vizzini, about siblings who go to live in a creepy old house built by a troubled fantasy writer when their father loses his job;

* National Book Award finalist Ken Kalfus's EQUILATERAL, an intellectual comedy set in 1890s Egypt about an astronomer who sets out to communicate with life on Mars;

* Rosemary Sullivan's STALIN'S DAUGHTER, about Svetlana Stalina's journey from the beloved daughter of a fierce autocrat to her death in small-town Wisconsin;

* Claudia Hammond's TIME WARPED: Adventures in the New Psychology of Time, also to Harper;

* Jim Ziolkowski's WALK IN THEIR SHOES, written with Willie Mays, James Hirsch, recounting the author's life journey from risk-seeking backpacker to the leader of buildOn, helping inner-city kids transform their own neighborhoods and the world.

* An oral history of MTV by the four surviving original MTV veejays, written with contributing editor at Rolling Stone Gavin Edwards;

* Hip hop star Lil Wayne's GONE TILL NOVEMBER, based on diaries he kept during his eight months on Rikers Island;

* Astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell's thought experiment on the scientific knowledge survivors of a global catastrophe would need to rebuild a technological society from scratch;

* Emma Chapman's HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE, a novel following a woman who can barely remember life before her marriage -- until she begins to have eerie visions that make her question her past;

* NYT bestselling author Kate Carlisle's KILLER COOKBOOK and books 8 and 9 in the Bibliophile Mystery series;

* Leah Stewart's WHERE YOU'LL FIND ME, a novel about three adult siblings who return to their childhood home.

WHAT DO UK EDITORS WANT?

The Andrew Lownie Literary Agency website featured a survey of what UK book publishers are looking for. Here are some excerpts:

"What interests me, as always, are books which are focussed on alternative views of how we should live our lives and are also focussed on community and local identity." Hugh Andrew, Managing Editor, Birlinn (publisher based in Scotland).

"It is striking how stories that seem to have waned from people’s memories can have a massive resurgence – so perhaps new takes on old stories might be a vein to mine." Myles Archibald, Associate Editor, Harper Collins.

"We’re especially good at selling entertaining, accessible and informative true stories, and based on what did well for us last spring, these are the areas I’m looking in." - Jennifer Barclay, Commissioning Editor, Summersdale (She also mentions true crime, travel (especially British travel), quirky narrative books about gardening, pets, nature, and sport.)

"My focus is on commercial non-fiction, spanning a wide range of genres from true crime, sport and humour to biography and memoir. In terms of memoir, I’m always looking for original and compelling stories - whether the focus is inspirational, nostalgic, military or otherwise, and whether the subject is a celebrity or just an ordinary person with an extraordinary story to tell." - Dan Bunyard, Editor, Michael Joseph

I won't cover all 20, you can read them here: http://www.andrewlownie.co.uk/2012/01/10/what-editors-want-2012.

Some common elements are:

* more interest in non-fiction than fiction (this has always been true, partly because non-fiction titles are easier to promote)

* books whose title and subject matter will make them stand out

* authors who have a platform and are comfortable discussing their topic in the media

* popular science

* history, especially from a unique perspective, including nostalgia and historical true crime.

* celebrity and sports memoirs (even though there have been some huge flops in celebrity memoirs, a few every year take off and make a fortune)

* and (of course) terrific writing.

I wouldn't advise trying to write to order; rather, see whether a project you are working or would like write fits these needs. Go to each publisher's website to find out the submission process. Some will consider only material submitted by agents, so you may have to start with getting one of those. 

(Need a guidebook to take you through the confusing process of going from ideas through to publication? You're in luck--it's called "Your Writing Coach" and you'll find it at Amazon and other booksellers.)

Why the best-seller list is dead and what you can do about it

In his newsletter, Seth Godin points out that the advent of the internet and especially social media have killed the importance of the New York Times best-seller and similar lists. He writes:

"...the reason we care if something is a bestseller is because we want to know if our friends are reading it. We want to know this so we can stay in sync with them, not appear stupid, or, perhaps, because we trust their judgment. That’s why you don’t care a bit about what the bestsellers in New Zealand are.

The digital world opens a new window, something that was unknowable just five years ago. Tell me what other TED attendees are reading, please. Tell me what readers of Mother Jones or Newsmax are reading. Or what my Facebook friends bought last week. Or highlight for me what people who read what I read are finishing on their Kindles…"

This is why the Amazon "people who buy this also buy this" feature works, although it's imperfect. If you buy your aunt three books on how to crochet, suddenly you're getting lots of other crocheting books on your recommended list. I know you can remove specific books from being considered, but most people can't be bothered. 

So far, Godin says, "No one has built this list yet, it is sort of showing up around the edges of a variety of sites and services and industries. A great opportunity if you can figure out the best way to source the data and then distribute it."

If you belong to forums or groups on Facebook, Yahoo, or even if you have a reasonable size list of people to whom you send a newsletter or a blog with lots of followers, you can do a mini-version of this.

What are you reading?

Why and how is it useful to you?

What is there about it that might be useful to people who follow you? 

Hey, Jurgen, you may be saying, if that's such a great idea, why aren't you doing it consistently? After all, if people see that you're reading books that appeal to them, doesn't that make it more likely they'll buy your books as well?

Good questions, even if I had to make them up myself. Watch out for Saturday Reviews, starting next Saturday, right here on this blog. And as a little preview, here's one I made earlier...

 (Confused about how to market your product or service? Get a copy of "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," written in plain language and giving you all the steps to creating a practical marketing plan. It's written by me, published by Pearson, and available from Amazon and other book sellers.)

 

Want to get published but have no connections? Here's how to make some.

You've heard it before: in the writing game, it's who you know that counts! That's not entirely true, but it's not entirely false, either. It certainly helps to have an insider on your side. If you don't, however, all is not lost. 

On my scriptwriting blog (http://www.ScreenwritingSuccess.com) I posted about a group of recent USC film school grads and the artist's collective they have formed. Some are writers, some want to he directors, others producers, etc. The idea is that whenever one of them gets a job on a film or TV show, he or she will try to make an opportunity for others in the group as well. 

Doing this as prose writers is a bit different. It could be made up of writers anywhere, using the internet. It would be more about sharing information that can help you open doors. The kinds of information you could share could be about:

* writing contests

* writing conferences, especially ones where you can meet agents and publishers. If one of the members attends, he or she can send the others notes, or record the lectures if that's allowed, etc.

* new literary agencies being set up, or news about an agent moving to a different agency, which is the time when they are likely to be most receptive to taking on additional clients

* publishing opportunities

* publishers to avoid because they don't pay or are in danger of going bust

Members could decide to specialize in any of these, therefore dividing up work that would be difficult for any one writer to to. For instance, one might be the "Agent Information Officer," and do daily or weekly searches for news regarding agents and agencies. Another member might monitor the writing contest scene. The updates can be posted to a private joint blog or website.

Aren't writers competitors, though? In a way, yes, so perhaps I wouldn't have the whole group made up of writers who all work in the same genre. But if one of you writes sci-fi, another writes mysteries, another writes non-fiction, for instance, the overlap in the jobs or even the agencies you would be going for would be minimal. 

The connections can come when one member signs with an agent and after a time asks whether that agent would consider the work of another member. Or when one member finds a publisher for his science fiction novel and mentions to his editor that he knows of a terrific mystery writer and asks whether the editor would pass it along to the colleague in charge of mysteries.

Connections and opportunities--if nobody hands them to you, create them!

(For ideas on how to market yourself and your work without spending a fortune, take inspiration from my book, "Do Somethign Different," published by Virgin Books with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson. Also see the chapters on book marketing in "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey. Both are available from Amazon and other book sellers.)

A 15-minute prescription for writers who lack confidence

We writers have a lot to be insecure about: possible rejection by agents and publishers, harsh reviews, unpredictable income… It’s no wonder that when we have a chance to meet with people who might have a strong influence on our writing future we may be nervous. That behaviour can work against us.

A study reported in “Psychological Science” says that a simple procedure can help boost confidence almost instantly.

Here’s part of the Abstract of the study: 

“Chronically insecure individuals often behave in ways that result in the very social rejection that they most fear. We predicted that this typical self-fulfilling prophecy is not immutable...

In a longitudinal experiment, a 15-min self-affirmation improved both the relational security and experimenter-rated social behavior of insecure participants up to 4 weeks after the initial intervention.

Psyblog described the experiment in more down to earth language: the participants were measured for social confidence. Then half of them were given a list of 11 values like creativity, personal attractiveness, spontaneity, friends and family, etc. They ranked them in order of importance and wrote a short description of why the one they ranked as highest is so important.

This fifteen minute exercise boosted their self-confidence with results lasting for weeks afterward.

My guess is that we rank the highest the quality that we believe we have the most of and reminding ourselves that we exemplify it gives us great confidence.

If you’re nervous about a meeting, or even about sitting down to write something new, do try this at home. Make a list of the qualities you value, rank them, and write a couple of paragraphs about why your number one is important. 

(One way to gain confidence is to get the support of an expert and your peers. That's exactly what you get in my Writing Breakthrough Strategy program. The next session starts in mid-January, but the best time to sign up is now, because there are great bonuses for early birds. It will also help you to plan ahead and create the conditions under which you'll achievey your writing goal. For more information, go to www.WritingBreakthroughStrategy.com. If you have quesitons, email me at jurgenwolff@gmail.com.)

 

What writers should include in a query letter to publishers or agents

In the previous post I shared with you some things writers should not put into a query letter to an agent or publisher. Now let's look at what you should include:

1. An intriguing but not overly gimmicky first line or two that include the title of your book, its genre and something about the basic idea or plot. Example: "My thriller novel, Dead at Birth, is the story of how things go dangerously wrong when a adopted young woman goes in search of her birth mother."

2. A brief synoposis. Since you're going for a one page letter (or equivalent length email) there's no way you can tell the whole story in any detail. Try to let the tone of the synopsis match the tone of the book. If it's a comic novel, make your letter amusing. If it's a thriller, make it sound thrilling. However, don't use a lot of adjectives to just affirm the qualitites of the story (e.g., "in a hilarious confrontation," or "in a thrilling and suspenceful encounter").  

3. No more than one or two character names. For the example above, you might write, "The young woman, Caroline Maddux, begins her search the day after she turns 21." For the rest of the characters referenced, it would be best to stay with descriptors like "her birth mother," "her adoptive mother," and so on. If you give them all names it can be confusing to remember who's who.

4. The ending--although opinons on this differ. I think most agents want to know at least in a general sense how the story ends. For instance, you might write, "Caroline risks her life to get evidence of her half-brother's crimes by breaking into his house. Unknown to her, he's hiding there and they have a final showdown that ends in his death." 

5. Only the relevant information about your life. For example, if Caroline was raised in a Quaker family and one of the story elements is that she has to choose between her beliefs and the need to defend herself, then the fact that you grew up as a Quaker would be germane. 

6. Credits or awards if they're impressive enough. If your short story won first place in a national short story contest, mention it. If it got honorable mention from your writer's circle annual competition, probably not.

7. An offer to send either the full manuscript or the first few chapters.

It's not easy to fit all that into one page, but this could be the most important page you write. If it intrigues agents or publishers they will want to see more and the process continues.

(Do you want guidance for writing or marketing your book? The Writing Breakthrough Strategy program could be your answer. You'll get online lessons and resources, bi-weekly group coaching calls, and much more-plus you get a total guarantee. Get more details now at http://www.writingbreakthroughstrategy.com. 

 

(For more tips, see "Your Writing Coach," published by Nichoals Brealey and available from Amazon and other booksellers. 

 

How writers can have more luck

Richard Wiseman has made a career of studying what differentiates lucky people from unlucky ones. Or should that be people who consider themselves lucky vs. those who don’t? It would be interesting, if difficult, to have a neutral observer see if the number of fortunes and misfortunes are actually any different, or whether it’s all about attitude.

Anyway, in his book, “The Luck Factor,”  Wiseman identifies some of the differences and I thought it might be interesting to consider how taking on some of the habits of the lucky might apply to writing.

Lucky people are more relaxed and see what is there, rather than trying to find what they see.

This sounds especially important in the fast-changing world of publishing. One useful mental exercise might be to put aside what we know about this field and pretend we’re learning about it for the first time, based on what’s happening today.

Lucky people tend to be more extroverted so they have the more chance encounters and more possibilities of positive developments.

This could translate into attending writing conferences and other events that relate to the various aspects of writing. If you’re really shy, at least these days you can do a  fair amount of this online.

Lucky people treat failure as a chance to learn and then move on to other ways of solving the problem.

Boy, do we ever need this one! Rejection is a big part of the career of even a successful writer.

I’ve found two things helpful: always having more than one project on the go, and reframing a rejection as just one incident in a long series of things that happen around a project. It’s not the end of the line.

By the way, this latter point is why I’m reluctant now to get involved in projects where I don’t have the rights. Unless you’re being well paid upfront, doing something like writing a script based on a book to which the producer has the rights is risky. If the producer doesn’t like the script or gets absorbed in another project, you don’t have the right to keep trying to market the script.

Lucky people expect their interactions with others to be lucky and successful.

As many studies have shown, a big factor in whether people like you is whether or not they think you like them. If someone is too guarded and suspicious or negative that can keep others away. Fewer interactions = fewer opportunities for good luck (at this stage the pessimist may be saying, “and fewer opportunities for disappointment”…)

OR, AS YOUR GRANDMA PROBABLY PUT IT…

I suppose a lot of this boils down the old sayings*, “The harder I work, the luckier I get,” and “You see what you expect to see.” If you consider yourself unlucky it could be useful to check whether you fit the descriptions above—and what you might do about it if you don’t. Who knows—that could be your lucky day.

(Another lucky day is when you get your copy of "Your Writing Coach." It doesn't even require luck, just an order placed with Amazon or your other favorite book sellers.)

How writers and others can use mantras

The word “mantra” may remind you of the Maharishi and the smell of patchouli oil but they can be useful in a practical non-hippie way. One time to use them is when you are talking an agent or a publisher or anyone else who might be helpful to you in reaching one of your goals.

Referring to a workshop he attended, performance coach Angus McLeod wrote in Rapport: "We role-played a board presentation with four presenters. Each presenter was given a covert mantra [to repeat silently between sentences] and the board, subsequently, was asked to guess what the mantras might be."

The result: "It is clear that the taking up of a simple thought/mantra makes a very significant difference to our way of being and expression and interaction with others. It also demonstrated how phenomenally acute the human mind is at intuitively recognizing subliminal messages."

In other words, it worked.

HERE'S HOW TO DO IT

The next time you want to create a particular mental and physical state for a task, give yourself a mantra - something like "calm" if you're usually nervous during that task, or "love" or "understanding" when dealing with someone who normally exasperates you.

Repeat it silently and notice the difference it makes to you - and probably to any other people involved even though they will have no idea what you're doing.

(Now repeat after me: “I will buy Jurgen’s book, ‘Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done.'” Repeat until you have ordered it from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

 

Why your best novels or screenplays may face an uphill battle

You've written or are writing a novel or screenplay, and it's original. It's not a rehash of the hunt for a serial killer, it's not a rich boy woos poor girl (or vice versa) romantic comedy. It's not another sci-fi it came from the sky tale. It's fresh, it's different...and you may have a hard time selling it, as some recent experiments confirm.

I'm talking about two experiments done last year at the University of Pennsylvania. The report of the study is called "The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas." I found a write-up of it at www.TheNextBigFuture, and it summarized the key findings:

* Creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty can trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable.

* People dismiss creative ideas in favor of ideas that are purely practical -- tried and true.

* Objective evidence shoring up the validity of a creative proposal does not motivate people to accept it.

* Anti-creativity bias is so subtle that people are unaware of it, which can interfere with their ability to recognize a creative idea.

Actually, I didn't need a study to tell me this, my years in Hollywood made it plain. Then the mantra was "Bring us something different...but not TOO different." Judging by the number of sequels being made, that's changed to, "Bring us something that's the same." 

I have encountered something similar with a novel I wrote--as yet unpublished. One publisher wrote to my agent, "This is exactly the kind of edgy material we are looking for, but it's a bit TOO edgy."

This is not to suggest you should stop writing things that are different, just to help prepare you for the reactions you'll have to wade through until you find someone who desires and doesn't reject creative ideas.

One of the suggestions from the study applies here, too: "The field of creativity may need to shift its current focus from identifying how to generate more creative ideas to identify how to help innovative institutions recognize and accept creativity."

(For a creativity boost that includes how to make ideas real and how 25 creative people found acceptance for their new ideas and projects, see my book, "Creativity Now!", published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)

Creative Kryptonite - 1: Comparisons

I’m stealing, er, borrowing the term “creative Kryptonite” from blogger Jonathan Fields and identifying my own set of things that weaken us as creative people. To get back our superpowers…OK, just our powers…we have to stay away from these. Today’s Kryptonite:

 Comparing yourself to others.

You know the kind of thing: “I’ll never write anything as good as…” or “I can’t compete with somebody who has connections like…”

There will always be somebody better than you. There will always be somebody worse than you. Others will judge whether or not they like what you have done. Sometimes nobody likes something when it first comes out and later it becomes a cult thing or even hugely popular (Van Gogh, anybody?). Other times something is a big hit when it first comes out but is forgotten a few years later.

You have no control over these things. You just have to get on with your work. If you want to make comparisons, here are three that are useful:

1) Compared to what else I could be doing, is this the project for which I have the most passion?

2) Compared to what I've done in the past, am I applying to this project what I've learned?

3) Compared to my dreams, does this project reach high enough?

(You can also compare "Your Writing Coach" to other writing books...I think you'll like it better :-) You can find it at Amazon and other online and offline book stores.)

[Superman image copyright DC comics]