Check it out! Terry and I received a few more opening pages. Listen to hear our feedback and learn how to create a fantastic first page.
Top 10 Mistakes Authors Make in Submissions, continued…
See #10 and #9 here.
#8—Spending time on the set up in the query.
Think of the Query as a sales document for your novel. If you spend any of your precious (really) plot paragraph on set up, then you are not selling the actual novel. If you’ve done your job as a writer well, the reader doesn’t need the set up to understand. Trust me.
#7—Using Themes instead of Plot in the query.
Don’t get me wrong, themes are important, and your novel should definitely have them! However, when an agent or editor is reading your pitch, they want to know if the story “has legs,” which basically means they think they can sell it. Themes don’t sell, the fact that you have a plot with narrative drive does. Even literary, for real.
#6—a word count that is wildly off of genre expectations or current realities in publishing.
I wrote about this a little when I discussed reading the submission guidelines. However, I have received so many submissions that had inappropriate word counts that it is worth mentioning again. If you are writing in historical fiction, it is true that you may have a higher word count (like speculative fiction) due to world building. However, it is also true that with the price of paper getting higher, tariffs looming, and other business-related considerations, most publishers are not going to take a chance on a debut that is over 100,000 words. Yes, you might be an outlier, but let’s be realistic. The purpose of querying is to sell your book. Do you want to go into the process with an aspect of your novel that will make you an AUTOMATIC no for some agents and editors? Put another way—would you go into a fist fight with Rocky with one hand tied behind your back? Save your doorstop for your second novel. Chances are pretty good that you can get it down to 100,000 words without damaging the story. Editing is a good thing!
On the opposite end—anything between 50,000 and 70,000 is no man’s land. 40-50k is a novella, and over 70k is a novel. In between there really isn’t much of a shot. It would not be impossible, but you are trying to give yourself the BEST chance of success. Save your experimental fiction that clocks in at 60,000 for your second novel, because yes, there are some out there in this word count range, but probably not many debuts.
Book Review: The Antidote by Karen Russell
Despite rave reviews from writers at NPR and the NY Times, I found myself agreeing more with the writer of this Slate Review. There was beautiful language (check), there were experimental elements (check), there was an attempt to engage with society at large and ask tough questions (check).
Problem for me was that it just didn’t hang together. It was super slow until it was super fast (kind of annoying), there were too many threads to pull—in fact as the writer of the Slate review notes, some plot points were dropped. It was as if they didn’t matter anymore once we got to the climax chapters. The characters were kind of one dimensional. It seemed to me that she was trying to address everything that the United States has gotten wrong in the last 200+ years, rather than focusing on letting the story lead me to ask relevant questions. It was didactic and preachy with nuance dropped like an inconvenient plot point.
Having said all of this, it is worth reading, if only for the language use and the Scarecrow bits, which were my favorites. Russell has been hailed as a literary giant, so reading this allows one to be conversant with current modes of literariness. Also, it is a novel of the Great Depression, which serves as a proxy in many ways for our current climate problems. There is plenty to discuss, and it would make a great book club choice.
Just be prepared not to have the plot make total sense or all the loose ends to meet up. If that is what you want, try The Anomaly or Station Eleven, both literary and both superior to this one, in my opinion.
Are you making these submission mistakes?
I have been working with History Through Fiction as an Acquisitions Editor for over a year now, and I love it! HTF is a small press publishing well researched and immersive historical fiction. You can see more about the press, its mission, and see whether we might be a good fit for you here.
This post marks the beginning of a series in which I will share with you, dear readers, the biggest mistakes I see writers making when they query us with their manuscripts. What is interesting to note, and please take this in, rejection does not mean that your writing is bad or that we don’t like your story. It honestly sometimes means we are not a good fit and that if you found the right fit, you would get a different answer. However, there are some things you can do to help up your odds of us requesting the full and even offering a contract.
#10—Not reading the submission guidelines.
The guidelines are there to help you decide if we are a good match for your work. Even though we are a historical fiction press, I have received queries for books that do not in any way fit into the historical fiction category. Even though a novel length project should be between 60 and 100k words, I have received queries for projects that were 17k words. It was pitched as a novel. Help yourself have a higher chance of success by reading the guidelines and following them.
#9—Formatting the manuscript incorrectly.
There is a standard manuscript formatting, and you should follow it. Times New Roman, double spaced, with page numbers and 1-inch margins. It is standard because it makes your work easier to read when a person is looking at manuscripts all day. That cute font isn’t so cute when my eyes are tired. Using tiny letters is likewise just difficult to read. Single spacing is not your friend.
These first two are pretty low hanging fruit; they are just ways to make sure you don’t get an automatic pass when someone is tired or when your manuscript doesn’t actually fit into the press’s mission. As we move up the chain, the mistakes get harder and take more time to fix. Stay tuned.
New Podcast Episode: Author Interview!
Take a listen to my conversation with Patsy Robertson. She is awesome!
Don’t Cheap Out on Your Renovation or Your Novel Revision
Home Improvement is on my mind lately. I have an old house and it needs some work—I can do some of it myself, but I will have to pay professionals to do the things I cannot do. Looking at what the previous owners did, I have these words of advice: don’t cheap out when you do a home improvement project OR when you revise your novel.
I love to watch Reality TV where they flip houses, decorate houses, or renovate older homes. I basically love home improvement and gardening shows. There used to be a show called Trading Spaces where the owners of one house would trade spaces with another set of owners. (The original was a British show called Trading Rooms.) Each team had a decorator and a weekend to redo a specific space in their neighbor’s house. True confession, I watched this sometimes because the likelihood of spectacular failure was pretty high. Sometimes the finished product was sort of okay, but everything was done on the cheap, with only a couple of days, so the paint sometimes looked crummy, because they didn’t have time to sand and prime the cabinets. Sometimes they chose finishes that they could do in the time they had, not because they looked good. The furniture was always cheap and they used stuff that they would try to recover themselves, which might be okay for a bit, but it probably isn’t going to hold up. Watching this show, I learned how not to do home improvement.
Contrast this with a show like Restoring Galveston, where a professional team renovate a whole house with an eye toward quality work, historical accuracy (sometimes), and a finished product that will stand the test of time. They never finish in a weekend. The timeline is usually weeks or occasionally months. They aren’t rushing it. If something doesn’t work, they go back and fix it. The home improvement isn’t a hastily applied bandaid, it is a job well done.
Is your revision strategy more like Trading Spaces or Restoring Galveston? Would you be willing to consider taking your time and getting professional help?
Book Review: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
This novel is the first entry in a new series by the author of the wildly successful Thursday Murder Club. Osman’s characteristic wit and humor are on display, and the plot was great! This is one of those books, you will compulsively finish.
We begin with a murder, of course. Someone is murdering B-list social media stars and leaving bags of cash at the scenes. Enter our bodyguard and the lead investigator for this tale, Amy Wheeler. She is currently protecting a big name author who is wealthy and eccentric—her last book named a Russian criminal and he has threatened to get even. Amy calls in Steve, her father-in-law and a retired homicide detective to round out the team as they go on the run to find the killer before he manages to complete the job on Amy.
Like I said, the plotting is A+. By the end all the loose ends are tied up, you’ve laughed, you’ve read some skewering social commentary, and you’ve unraveled a plot that is slightly Byzantine. All of this while becoming more enamored of the fabulous cast of characters Osman brings to the book.
Great fun and a Great read. Try it out…
Want to get Book Reviews, Writing Tips, and more in your inbox?
What Painting has to do with writing…
You may remember, dear reader, that I recently moved into a house built in 1900, in a little Railroad town in Texas. If you have ever owned an old home, dare I say historic, then you know there is a lot to love, and a few things which are considerably less lovable.
Full disclosure, I am a frequent painter. Sherwin Williams employees in my previous hometown greeted me by name, and with enthusiasm, whenever I walked in. Paint is one of the least expensive ways to transform a space and it is one of my favorites!
But what does painting have to do with writing?
A lot, as it happens. I have been working since before Christmas on a dining room project, which has now extended into the entryway. Just like you, dear writer, I did my research. I wanted a color that was period appropriate, and that I could use as a backdrop for period antiques. (Okay, most of them are the correct period, a few are older.) I read books, looked at old fabrics, and reproductions of William Morris textiles. I settled on a nice olive green.
In a previous note, I wrote about preparing to paint. ICYMI, here it is. Today, I want to focus on taking the time to finish strong. After I primed and painted the first coat, my daughter, who BTW does not mince words, said it looked like snot. I agreed it was only the first coat, and pressed on undeterred. After the second coat, it looked better, but my husband, who is equally frank, said it was uneven and needed another coat—I had to agree. After the third coat, most of the room looked good, but whether it was a trick of the light, my eyes, or indeed a deficiency in my painting, one wall needed another pass. I was tired! But, I put on my painting clothes (yes, I have painting clothes) once again and hoisted myself up the ladder to roll and brush a fourth coat. At last, it looked great!
Here’s the point:
Sometimes, even if the paint is good paint, it needs several coats. This color is a 3-4 coat color. Your novel will need more than one, or probably even two, passes. Revision is hard! You will be tired. However, if you want to be happy with the final product, it is worth hoisting yourself back into your writing chair and doing the work. Nobody wants a wall, or a novel, that looks like snot.
Outlining is a valuable tool at any point in the writing process: just getting started, revising your novel, or writing your summary to query.
Get your free copy of the Beats of the Heroine’s Journey with examples here.
New Podcast Episode: Empty Theatre
Take a listen as Yelda and I discuss this interesting take on Sisi…
The Nine by Gwen Strauss
This month I took a break from fiction and read a little nonfiction. This book I picked up because it was about women who escaped from the Death March in 1945.
If you enjoy nitty gritty historical detail, you will probably like this. It was full of interesting facts. However, I was not a fan of the structure. The author separated the women and told more details about each of their backstories in chapters that then went on to give some detail about the flight. There was also a lot of personal stuff included, because one of the women was her aunt.
Honestly, I could have lived without the personal stuff. I didn’t come to this book to find out about a personal quest for family history. [yawn]. I also found the structure where she spotlit one woman and then mixed in the flight story difficult to follow at times and disjointed.
The research was fantastic! And if you are writing on a topic related to this and need some historical information, this book was great for that. However, as an engaging nonfiction read, not so much. Let your purpose for reading be your guide. 🙂