“There are three rules for
writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”
And no one knows for sure who said
that—could have been Somerset Maugham, Oscar Wilde, Bret Hart, Mark Twain, or
that prolific writer, Anonymous. Whoever it was, most days I agree with him. Getting
published is another story. There are definitely some rules about that, and they
have to do with polishing your manuscript and securing a literary agent. (Yes,
even in these days of self-publishing, you’re still better off with an agent.) I
was successful in not only getting an agent but also in having my manuscript
acquired by HarperCollins. Here’s how it happened:
In May of 2009, my last assignment in
grad school was to write a short story. I turned in The Silence of Bonaventure Arrow; it was thirteen pages long. I graduated
and got on with my life. I also got on with the story. New characters came
along and brought new situations, and when I had about eighty-five pages I
thought I was on my way to Noveldom. When I thought I had actually produced a
real live book, I set to work on a query letter—a letter in which you have a
single page to convince an agent to read your manuscript. I knew I would only
get one chance at an agency actually reading my query, so I spent a lot of time
on it. In February of 2010, I began to submit to literary agencies and didn’t
stop until I’d sent out seventy-one.
Responses began to arrive—some rejections,
some wanting to see more. I’d heard that an author will receive seventy-five
rejections before the first acceptance, so I saw each one as bringing me closer
to my goal. I’m lucky anyone wanted to look at my submission, since in the
query letter I had proudly stated: “Complete at 47,000 words…” Little did I
know there’s a rule of thumb in publishing that a novel should be at least 65,000
words to merit attention. Luckily, some of those agencies I’d submitted to read
the included excerpt anyway. Six of them asked to see the entire manuscript.
During the first week in May, I got
a phone call from a literary agent. She asked for an exclusive for one week,
which means an agent wants time to review the manuscript before the author
submits it to other agents. At the end of that week, I signed with her agency. My
agent’s first words: it needs to be longer. So over the next several months we workshopped
the manuscript through phone calls and emails. By November, it was about 68,000
words and ready to be shopped around to publishers. There was enthusiasm for it
but no takers. The consensus was that it lacked a good dramatic through-line. Back
to the drawing board. I secured the services of a well-respected professional
editor to perform a conceptual edit, and she gave me wonderful advice. Onward.
I came up with that dramatic
through-line, but then I had to weave it through the story from beginning to
end—painstaking, to say the least. My agent started to shop the book again
after the Christmas holidays.
In March of 2011 (ten months after
signing with the literary agency), an editor at HarperCollins contacted my
agent, who set up a phone call. When we spoke, the editor said she would
"get with her team” and that she looked forward to working with me. At
Harper (and perhaps at all publishing houses), a book must be approved unanimously
for acceptance by a team. There were three people on my potential team who had
doubts. They insisted that I address such things as characterization, plot
points, plot resolutions, and how I would strengthen that dramatic
through-line. They wanted more suspense. I put my nose to the grindstone and gave
them what they asked for. It was finally accepted. On April 11, 2011 (four
weeks after that initial call from the interested editor), Harper officially
acquired my work for release in 2013. Imagine my dismay at the thought
of such a long wait. Little did I know that the real work was about to begin. I
got through another conceptual edit and several revisions, always improving the
work. It took months.
By November of 2012, the book had
grown to over 97,000 words and was nearly in its final state. But the editing
continued: another conceptual edit; grammar, punctuation and usage edits;
concision and cohesion edits; a copy edit; an edit by a person well-versed in
all things southern (the story takes place in and around New Orleans); as well
as a proofread and another edit, this one conducted by someone well-versed in
Catholicism (a key element in the story). My work got the fine-tooth-comb
treatment. Here’s an example: In the story, I have a character referencing a
Bible quote. I’m Catholic and used my own Bible to obtain the quote, which
ended in “said the Lord.” The editor wrote in the margin: “Author—the character
referencing this quote is a Southern Evangelical and would have used a King
James Bible. The quote should end in ‘saith the Lord.’” Yes, ma’am.
The revising continued. After the
final proofread, I was told there would be what's known as a P.S. Section added
to the book, which required me to provide acknowledgments, a piece about how I,
a northerner, came to write a story that takes place in the South, and
recommendations for further reading. I was also asked to supply an author
photo.
The
Silence of Bonaventure Arrow was
released on February 26, 2013, nearly two years after it had been acquired by
HarperCollins. Can I get an Amen?
If you ever decide you need your
own agent, here are the steps you need to take:
1. Identify
your genre.
2. Write
a concise synopsis of your novel—something appropriate for the book jacket. If
it's literary fiction, you should point out its theme or message. Find a plot
point in your own work and describe it. Here’s an example:
Atticus Finch's appointment to
defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl, was a mere
formality; the verdict had been reached before the trial even began. However,
Atticus chose to give his client the best defense he could—an act of courage in
1930s Alabama.
3. The
query letter may be the most important document you’ll ever write, so make it
your best effort. (I’m happy to share mine with anyone who is interested.)
4. Agents
accept submissions electronically. The next step is to consult a publication
that lists them. Subscribe to www.writersmarket.com
(there's a fee but it's very reasonable). It's the on-line version of what used
to be a hard copy book. There are definite advantages to it: the site is
constantly updated (the book was obsolete before you left the store with it), you can sort through the site to get to agencies that represent your genre, and you
can easily track your submissions. The site is very user friendly. First, you
give the parameters of your search; then, clicking on a name will take you to
an agency's entry. After that, it's a matter of going to their individual
websites (a link is provided in the entry) and finding out exactly how to
submit to them. Some of them ask for the query and a synopsis, some for the
query + 10 pages, some for the query + a chapter, etc. DO NOT SEND THEM MORE
THAN THEY ASK FOR. I always tailored my query to address specifics the agency
gave in its listing. I sent out multiple submissions without waiting to hear
back from one agency before sending to another. That would take forever. In my
opinion, if an agency refuses to be part of multiple submissions, skip it.
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