Oops. The May and June Monthly Wrap-ups

Oops. It seems I forgot to post the May submissions wrap-up. So this one is a double-bagger:

In May, we received:

• 36 queries and rejected 25
• 10 requested sample chapters and rejected 4

In June, we received:

• 55 queries and rejected 26
• 13 requested sample chapters and rejected 2
• 1 proposal
• 2 manuscripts and rejected 1

We currently have 43 sample chapters, 4 proposals, and 2 manuscripts on-hand to read, not counting manuscripts and proposals for current clients.

Oh, and on top of all that, my wife is having a baby! And, she's having a baby this weekend! Yes, one way or another, that little critter is going to have to face the world this weekend. Needless to say, all of the getting-ready-for-baby chores have cut into the reading, working, sleeping, eating, etc. However, I'm fortunate enough to have two very bright editorial interns who are about to get two weeks off while I'm on paternity leave from July 4th through July 20th. And what are they going to do for those two weeks? Read! They will each be taking half of the sample chapters and reading them. Then they will meet and swap. Thus, by the time I get back, I should have two first reads on all of the sample chapters. Then I'll sort through their reader's reports and decide if they are worth reading myself or letting go.

It should be noted that we have read all sample chapters dated before March 12th. If you submitted a sample chapter before that date, we have already responded. If you did not receive a response—and you included an SASE or email address (email only if you live outside of the US)—then something has gone astray and you should contact us.

Additionally, we have requested but have not yet received 24 sample chapters, 2 proposals, and one self-published book, so if you haven't yet sent in your material, you may want to wait until after July 20th.

Z

Publishers who think "outside the box"?

I view articles published, author sites (authors I read), and visit a couple agent sites (this obviously being one). I do not visit on-line communities where writers publish their issues/stories. I am not interested in hearing rants of writers or hopefuls, however legitimate they may be. It is hard to judge truthfullness [sic] when one is reading a passioned [sic]statement made of a rejection or amidst a problem. Such rants may lose their heat once time has passed. Therefore, I do not wish to be colored by an opinion or two that may change once a writer has cooled down and realizes the merit or truthfullness [sic] in said rejection or a problem is corrected to satisfaction. That being said, I have read some articles on publishers offering deals outside the norm in the industry. One such publisher seems to invite only agent free author submissions. While the deals sound good, and some authors have made it without agents when they started, do you think it wise to submit to this type of publishing firm? And do you think it wise for anyone other than an author with publishing success to seek these type of deals with or without an agent? Thank you for any time/attention you can give this query.—Christine Staeven, Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Without knowing more about these deals made "outside the norm," it's hard for me to comment. That said, a publisher who actively seeks only authors without agents clearly is trying to avoid something. Otherwise, why fear agent involvement? My guess is that they know an agent will understand something the average author does not and call them on it.

I know of even some major publishing divisions interested in doing non-standard deals, such as a net share of each dollar earned, rather than a royalty based on MSRP. And these can be good deals for some authors, though likely better for most publishers.

Publishers do not come up with such "outside the box" deals to enrich authors. They devise them to enrich themselves. Thus, I would be wary.

Given that many an editor in the business has no idea what his or her publishing house's contract says or what it means, I think it always wise that authors use an agent who has several years' experience.

Z

Are you aware that the Google Ads on your blog sidebar are ads for, and links to, vanity presses and literary agents that have a “Not Recommended” listing in Preditor and Editor? My research on you indicates that you are a valid agent so it seems odd that you would have those kinds of ads on your blog. Then I thought maybe you weren’t aware of them.—Liz Wolfe, author of the Skye Donovan Photographic Mysteries

Dear Liz:

Thanks for your email and congrats on all of your success. Unfortunately, Google doesn't let me control who advertises with them, other than that I can ban "adult" sites, which I certainly do. While some advertisers may be vanity presses, in the end, those might be the right option for some authors.

As with any advertisement for any product, the editorial content and the ads are not necessarily connected. New York magazine is full of ads for escort services. Does that mean the editors of New York endorse those services? Of course not. Not any more than they promise you the guy who wrote the personal ad in the back of the magazine isn't a serial killer. Everyone answering an ad must due his or her own due diligence and look after his or her own interests.

If you answer a personal ad and your head ends up in a freezer, it's not New York magazine's fault. And if you answer a Google ad and it belongs to a scam artist, that's not my fault, either. Caveat emptor!

Z

Character versus Plot

What is more important for a successful novel -- a protagonist with a flawless character that everyone can empathise with, or an interesting, unusual storyline where a slightly flawed character transforms for the better?—Anita Saran, Bangalore City, India

I think that both will make for a great novel. Novels are not constructed out of Legos. It's not just a question of getting a bunch of pieces that will fit together. Novels, like paintings, quilts, or tapestries, are comprised of interwoven threads and cloth or layers of paint, built up carefully so that each sentence, paragraph, and chapter contributes to the bigger picture. Don't try to focus too hard on plot versus character. There is no "versus" or competition there. They must work together like the paint or the thread and cloth to make for a beautiful whole.

Or, to simplify. In a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich, once the bread is squished together, you cannot separate the peanut butter from the jelly. Your novel works the same way. :)

Z

Audits and Other Fun Activities

I am considering auditing my publisher for three books i have written, all of
which have blown by the respective advances. Give me some advice. I live in
Florida, my publisher is in Chicago. What is the best way to go about it?—Jeff
Snook

Short of getting on a plane and doing an audit yourself, probably the most cost-effective solution would be to find a CPA in Chicago to conduct the audit and report back to you. The costs of such an audit would be fairly high I expect. In fact, most authors never audit their publishers for this reason.

I've heard tell that Stephen King audits his publishers every year. And he should. With that many millions of copies in print, errors are certainly made. As an agent, I recommend that clients consider auditing just as regularly or certainly every three years, since most publishers' boilerplate contracts state that royalty statements are binding after three years. Yet I have never had a client audit a publisher.

One potential way to avoid the cost is to find a CPA to do an audit on a contingency basis. Just like an attorney working on contingency, the CPA only gets paid if he or she finds you money. Of course, the CPA is likely going to want to review all of your statements first. If he doesn't find anything noteworthy, he will stop there. A CPA working on contingency is unlikely to go into the publisher's royalty department if she doesn't think there's money to be made.

Also, keep in mind that your CPA can make money on a contingency deal, even though you do not. Imagine this scenario: You were paid a $50,000 advance and have earned out $20,000. You ask your CPA to look on contingency with the terms being that the CPA gets 1/3 of whatever he finds. He goes in and finds that you have actually earned out $30,000, not $20,000. So the CPA found you $10,000. But because you still haven't earned out your advance, you don't get any cash. But you now owe your CPA 1/3 of $10,000.

Most publishers will pay for the audit if you find discrepancies in the publisher's favor in excess of 5%. But 5% of what? For some publishers, it's 5% of whatever they should have paid you. So if they should have paid you $30,000 but only paid you $20,000 in royalties, well, $10,000 is clearly more than 5% of $30,000, so likely the publisher will pay for the audit. Other publishers require the error to be more than 5% or 10% of the total amount previously paid, including advances. So imagine you got an advance of $50,000 and earned royalties of $20,000, for a total of $70,000 earned. But you do an audit and find an $6,000 error. Well, $6,000/$70,000 is about 8.5%. The publisher will not pay and you will have to foot that bill. Fortunately, it is a business expense, right?

And some publishers actually try to put in their contracts that you cannot hire a CPA working on a contingency basis. Sneaky, huh? They figure if you can't do that, then you're less likely to audit. But how will they know, I've always wondered.

There are a few companies that do such audits. Search online for publisher or author audits and they should come up.

One firm that does them is Marcum & Kliegman, an accounting firm out of New York. Gail Gross, who has been doing audits for years, recently moved over to that firm. Find that firm online at http://www.mkllp.com/services/agency.asp.

Another expert in royalty reviews is Paul Rosenzweig of RRS, Inc. He is out of Walnut Creek, CA, and can be reached directly royaltyreview at sbcglobal.net.

A final thought, especially for Mr. Snook: Not all royalty records are kept where you might expect them to be. Wizards of the Coast is located in Washington State. The records are in Providence, RI, with parent company Hasbro. Simon & Schuster and Penguin both have their royalty offices in New Jersey, a long way away from any nosy New York City-based agents. Perseus keeps their records in Colorado. Your publisher may be in Chicago. Their royalty records may not be. Interesting, huh?

Z

Q&A with the Internet Writing Workshop's Writing list

I've been asked to take some time and answer some questions from the Internet Writing Workshop's Writing list. So here we go:

If an author self-publishes a book which attracts good reviews, is it worth
submitting the book to agents to see if it would interest a major publisher? How would such an approach compare with the traditional one of query -> sample if requested?—Clive Warner, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

Many a book that was first self-published went on to be published by a major publisher. THE CHRISTMAS BOX is one great example. So, sure, query agents. But recognize that you will probably have to then mail them the book itself. Alternatively, since you self-published, you should have a file of the published book. Why not just print out a chapter if they ask for a sample chapter?

If your agent doesn't seem to have the connections they presented to you when the relationship began, how do you leave, and what do you say when searching out a new agent?—Ann Hite, Atlanta, Georgia

What you describe may be a simple miscommunication or it may legally be fraud. In either event, you leave by reviewing your agency agreement's termination clause. If you don't have a written agreement, just send a Certified Letter, Return Receipt Requested, informing the agent that you are terminating your relationship effective immediately and to kindly return to you any and all materials on-hand, as well as a written report within 10 business days of each and every editor/house to which your work as submitted, as well as the date such submission was made, copies of any rejection letters or emails received, and a list of any outstanding submissions.

You may own the agent a commission if an outstanding submission results in an offer.

When you go searching for a new agent, you simply query them. You may wish to wait until you have something new to show. Frankly, if your old agent muddied the waters at several houses, I'm not sure another agent will be that interested. Still, if the book is great, your new agent may have some other ideas. You won't know until you try querying a few.

Is there a rule of thumb about writing in more than one genre? Maybe an author writes mysteries or romances as well as memoir or nonfiction -- is that a problem for marketing the author, undermine credibility or cause difficulties when selling books?—Dawn Goldsmith, Oviedo, FL

It's generally only a problem if an author expects his or her agent to be shopping multiple books in multiple genres at the same time. If you are Stephen King or John Grisham, this is likely not a problem, but for other authors it may be. For example, if you sell one book and the option clause gives the publisher the rights to your "next work," then you can't go sell anything new elsewhere, no matter what the genre. Your current publisher gets first dibs. Thus, an option clause should always be as narrow as possible, e.g., "next mystery in the series," "next fantasy featuring the Dwizzleworm character," etc.

Also keep in mind that an agent may love a new client, but dedicating hours and hours to one new client to submit three or four different projects to sixty or eighty editors might test the limits of that love. I like to start new clients out with their best book and try to get the career rolling. After that, I play it by ear.

What should a first noval writer do to get the attention of an agent?—Fern Phillips, Creston, British Columbia, Canada

Spell "novel" correctly? Okay, maybe that typo is not yours but Greg's, since Greg forwarded these questions. Just write a great query letter. There are tips on my website at www.zackcompany.com and other places.

Some years ago I wrote a mainstream novel. It found an agent, who sent it around to a number of publishers. For reasons, not relevant here, the book never found a home. In late 2004, the agent stopped sending the book around, and we agreed to part company.

Now I'm revamping the book and think it is much improved. When I send it out to agents again, should I mention it went around the block once before? If I do so, won't it ruin my chances to find an agent? Why would anyone want to take a chance on a book others have already rejected?—Kate Reynolds, Tucson, Arizona

If the book is truly revised, my advice would be to change the title and simply query agents as though the book is new. Once you find an agent who is interested, bring him or her up to speed, but emphasize that the book is completely revised and I think you will be fine.

Got a question of your own? Send it to us at our blogquestions email address.

Z

April's Monthly Wrap-Up

Oh, I am on fire with these monthly wrap-ups.

In April, we received...

• 53 queries and rejected 40;
• 10 requested sample chapters and rejected 10;
• 1 requested manuscript;

We currently have 26 requested sample chapters to read, 3 proposals, and 3 full manuscripts. on hand to read.

We have read all sample chapters dated before February 29th. If you submitted a sample chapter to us before that date, we have already responded. If you did not receive that response—and you included an SASE or an email address if you are out of the US—then something has likely gone astray.

Z

And I spent all that money on Adobe!

I make about 99% of my submissions via email and I've got the process down pretty well. I get my clients' manuscripts and proposals via email in Word, then I dump them into a template I created in Word, and I output the material as a PDF file using Adobe. I love this. You can secure the file much better than Word (you can hack the password out of a Word file in about two minutes) and the material shows up on others' screens just as it shows up on mine. This has not always been the case with Word. Use a font that someone else doesn't have and you could easily get something looking pretty funky on the other end. Back in the days before TrueType, the type of printer you had and the drivers you had loaded made a ton of difference. Granted, that is less of a problem if everyone is using Word and TrueType fonts, but I imagine it could still happen. Adobe makes that far less likely.

Lately, though, I have been getting emails from editors at HarperCollins's imprints saying, "I can no longer receive submissions in PDF format, as I now read them on my Sony Reader and so I need a Word file. Can you please resubmit in a Word file?" Wasn't PDF supposed to be the "universal" format? Well, interestingly enough, the Sony Reader will read a PDF if that PDF isn't encrypted, but it will size the pages down to fit, which may make it less of an easy reading experience.

Now most editors still print the PDF or part of it to read it. And I guess I should be happy that HarperCollins is saving all of that paper by using Sony Readers. Though that paper can be recycled. How much energy and toxic chemicals does producing the reader use, not to mention what is the cost of recycling the batteries it will use up? So, in the long run, which is really better for the environment?

For me, the attraction would be the ability to carry more materials around and read them at my leisure. No more going away for the weekend with a 600-page manuscript that weighs eight pounds. Now you can take ten with you on the Reader. Conceptually a great idea.

I do wonder, though, if editors' and agents' attention spans will be even worse than they already are if they are using a Reader? Can Sony build a special version for publishing with a reject button? Just hit the button and an email is sent off to the author telling them thanks but no thanks? I'd suggest an offer button, too, but given the hoops and jumps that must be overcome to buy a book in today's publishing world, I'm sure it would be like the reset button on my old Palm and you'd need a special tool just to access it and that tool would be locked in the Publisher's desk.

But think of the way we read email. You glance and digest as little as possible before hitting delete or next. I save the ones I want to concentrate on and often find them weeks later at the bottom of the list, still waiting to be read carefully.

Now imagine if you are an editor or agent with fifteen submissions on your reader. Or fifty! How much time will you spend on each one before hitting next? At least with paper, an editor can only schlep so many manuscripts home in a weekend. Now he or she can carry home a dozen! Is this really going to improve the odds of them buying a book, or simply spare them the backache of carrying home three manuscripts each weekend?

If I were a betting man, my money would be on editors using eBook Readers making it more difficult to get your book published, not easier.

Z

Holy eBook Editions!

I recently received a royalty statement for one of my client's titles from HarperCollins. It's seven pages long! This seemed a bit extreme to me, until I realized that pages 3-7 were all detail for eBook editions:

• 9 copies of the Adobe E-Book
• 8 copies of the Mobipocket edition
• 2 copies of the Microsoft Reader edition
• 6 copies of the Palm Reader edition
• 10 copies of the Sony Reader edition

Now, this tells me a couple of things:

1. Don't hold your breath waiting for the eBook revolution. Thousands of hardcovers were sold and only a handful of eBook copies.
2. Sony may have something going for it. Of course, Kindle, the Amazon reader may kick its butt next period, just on the basis that it's prominently featured on the Amazon home page and essentially has a captive audience, as doesn't everyone buy books from Amazon?

It somewhat amazes me, though, that a huge company like HarperCollins is creating all of these eBook editions and dealing with accounting for them. Think of the millions of dollars in extra paper and mailing costs for the royalty statements alone!

Honestly, after all of the hullabaloo, agita, mishigas, and general bloodshed over the royalties for eBooks, when I look at these statements, I have to shake my head in wonder. Was it really worth it? Did publishers really need to piss off authors and agents and maybe even lose deals over eBook royalties? Consider that most of the books published this year will be out of print before eBook readers are commonplace (are you dropping $300-$400 for one anytime soon?). So unless you happen upon the next Catcher in the Rye that will stay in print for decades and decades, was there really a risk in not getting eBook rights? I think not.

Then again, I'm not an MBA sitting high in an office building in New York. Perhaps some combination of the smog and the altitude lets them divine the future of eBooks more clearly. But until eBook readers come down to less than $100, it all seems a bit pie in the sky to me.

Z

The March Round-up

Well, for the first time in a while, I'm all over getting the monthly round-up posted.

In March, we received...

60 queries and rejected 35;
15 sample chapters and rejected 16;
We also received 2 requested proposals;

We requested 13 sample chapters and 5 proposals;
2 manuscripts, received 1, and rejected 1;

We currently have on hand 22 sample chapters, 3 proposals, and 4 full manuscripts or self-published books. We are also reading 2 recently completed manuscripts by clients and fine-tuning 1 proposal recently accepted for representation.

With regard to sample chapters and proposals, we have read and responded to all dated before February 8, 2008. If you submitted before that date and haven't heard from us, something may have gone astray in the mails.

Z

It Beats Doing the Taxes

I've been procrastinating a bit. All of the tax paperwork is on the kitchen table and we're due at the accountant's tomorrow. So why did I just kill half an hour finishing Richard Dansky's Firefly Rain. Well, because it counts as work.

Firefly Rain is one of Wizards of the Coasts' Discoveries titles. These titles are original fiction not set in one of Wizards' proprietary worlds.

It's always interesting to see a publisher try to break form. Will the publisher try to publish books that will appeal to their current audience, or seek an entirely new audience all together? If you take my client, Ed Greenwood, and look at his Forgotten Realms books and then at his original fiction, like Dark Lord or The Kingless Land, you'll find that he was clearly trying to appeal to his current fans with similarly themed material. But there's nothing remotely Dungeons & Dragons about Firefly Rain, leading me to believe that Wizards is trying to expand beyond the gaming fiction market and into the general horror, science fiction & fantasy markets. And reading this book did, as an agent, enlighten me quite a bit about the kinds of books they are buying. I might just have to look up an old client of mine and see what he's been working on and if he's between agents, because I think he might be someone they'd be interested in reading. Then again, he's never written for them and in these situations they often like to use writers they know and give them a chance to break out of the gaming-fiction pigeonhole and find a wider market. Still...where is that phone number?

Before I make the call, though, I confess I was surprised to see that this book got a starred review in Publishers Weekly. The writing wasn't as strong as I've seen in recent books that I've read and the plot was about as simplistic as you can imagine, with only one twist at the very end that I didn't see coming. Still, it was an engaging read and I was certainly curious to see where it would go. I'd recommend it if you are holed up during a gloomy day and looking for a light read.

Z

If Not You, Who?

I was looking up a client's book on Amazon.com today and noticed how screwed up the various links are and how many editions are missing covers and have incorrect information. Granted, you'd expect the publishers to check this stuff out and fix the listings, but the truth is a lot of the information comes from different publishers and sources and sellers, etc., and, in the end, only one person is likely to know the full story of what's happening with your books: You.

Amazon has a link to let you fix catalogue information and upload images and do other things to fix your listings. I presume BN does also, though I spend little time on that site. My opinion is that every author with a book on Amazon or BN.com should be reviewing their titles monthly. Click every link and see what happens. Be responsible for what's being published about you and your books.

As a published author, you no doubt recall that the publisher sent you page proofs to review. This is partially to make you responsible for any typos in your books. Sure, there's a proofreader going over it, but you have the final responsibility for reading your proofs as carefully as possible. The same goes for Amazon and BN and any other site on which you or your books are listed. Is this a pain? Yes. Is it something your publisher should be doing? Yes. But if you want it done right, this is definitely one situation in which you should do it yourself.

Z

Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan

It was a late night Wednesday night. Some time ago—I can't imagine when—I got a copy of Master of None, by N. Lee Wood (Aspect). It could be the editor, Jaime Levine, gave it to me, or perhaps I picked it up at BEA. I have no recollection. In any event, it has followed me around from house to house for a while now and I recently picked it up and started reading it. And I'm glad I did. This is a book from which many an author could learn a thing or two.

First, I should mention that it's science fiction, but it's socio-science fiction, so the spaceships are at a minimum, and even the science isn't too prominent.

What I liked about this book was how well the author controlled the viewpoint and how engaged I remained throughout the novel, despite very little action. The characterizations and setting descriptions held my attention. And, of course, I wanted to know what would happen to the protagonist.

Interestingly enough, the reviews on Amazon.com were mixed and the book is out-of-print only four years after it was published. The comparisons in the reviews to Margaret Atwood didn't really work for me, though. I was thinking of Octavia Butler's style when I read it, though it's been years and years since I read Octavia Butler, so perhaps I'm misremembering.

I was about half-way through this book on Wednesday, having been reading it in bits and pieces, when I picked it up about ten-thirty. I finished around two-forty in the morning. Yikes! So much for my beauty sleep. But it did hold my attention and I found the ending satisfactory, if not overwhelmingly satisfying.

One of the reviews on Amazon, I noticed, commented on some of the racial elements of the plot, which to me were very minor, but I found it interesting that he seemed to think the world was based on Arab society. Apparently he has never visited India or even been to an Indian wedding, because the world clearly seemed to me to be stealing from Indian culture and not Arab culture.

Regardless, I think it's well written and it thoroughly held my attention long into the night, which is generally impressive to me.

Generally speaking, I find it very hard to carve out the time to read published books. I have so many manuscripts and sample chapters around that I feel guilty reading published books. But it's important for any agent or editor to keep reading published books, for a couple of reasons:

1. If all you read is unpublished material, the slightly-less-than-drek starts to look really, really good next to the utter drek. You lose your perspective. There's a reason people eat sherbet to clear their palette between courses or crackers between glasses of wine. Reading a good, published book helps do that for editors and agents.

2. It gives you insight to the editor and/or the house. Whenever you go to lunch with an editor, she generally brings along a book or two she's worked on or that the house recently published. I remember going to lunch with Jason Kaufman, who handed me a galley of an unpublished book he was pretty pumped about: The Da Vinci Code. I wonder what happened to that one?

Authors sometimes ask what agents bring to the table. One thing is that, over the years, agents get to know editors' tastes. Ideally a good agent should be able to read a book and know that it might appeal more to editor A at Bantam than it will to editor B. They learn this partially by simply submitting over and over and seeing what sells, but they also know it by reading books that editor has published.

Before Master of None, the last book I'd finished was The Etched City, by K.J. Bishop. I believe I picked this up at Comic-Con in San Diego, from the Bantam booth. I can't say I enjoyed that one as much. The author has a great grasp of language, but the book, again, has little plot, and the society simply wasn't as interesting as that of Master of None. The characters were interesting and I particularly liked the part where a "wizard" turns the remains of a murdered woman into a battle axe for her husband to use in killing her killers. But the novel felt disjointed to me, and there was a major shift that I either was very, very tired when I read it and missed the shift, or there was a scene cut that shouldn't have been that took the reader from point A to point B. And that does happen. The author is under pressure to cut, or the editor thinks the book needs to be cut and an entire subplot or several scenes get removed, but there's something in the cut portion that needed to be retained. And if you move that element to another scene, it's no problem. But if you forget to move that element, you're screwed.

I remember a case of this in Nelson DeMille's The General's Daughter. I hope I'm not spoiling it for anyone, but when the murderer is revealed to be the general's aide, it's never quite clear how the main character reached that conclusion. It's an intellectual leap and the evidence is never quite clear on the page. I found it fairly annoying.

Such intellectual leaps are not uncommon. I remember questioning an author about something in his book once and he replied, "Well, that worked for me because I know that in the next book we're going to find out...." Um, yeah, I'm sure it did, but since the reader doesn't know what you plan to do in the next book, you need to put something on the page that makes the scene work for the reader. Or there's the case where the author starts talking about something that was supposed to happen earlier in the book, but had cut that scene and now the reference makes no sense.

Hence, we come to the importance of outlining, scene-by-scene what should be happening in your book. The index card method has the advantage of also being visual. Outline each scene on an index card and put it on a wall. If you cut a scene, put a big red X through the card. If scene 212 is dependent on action in scene 128, you can make a note cross-referencing them. That way, if you cut 128, you know you need to fix 212.

All of this is, obviously, a lot harder than sitting down at your desk and just hammering out a novel. But I'd bet money that the vast, vast number of authors who are getting published aren't just hammering it out. Sure, the outline may be in their head—and if you have a brain that can handle that, great—but it's there. When an author tells me that she "likes to see where the characters take me" or "see how the plot develops," I immediately know that this author's manuscript is more likely than not going to need quite a bit of work.

My grandfather had a plaque on his desk that said, "Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan." I have always loved that saying, even if I don't always follow it. But I should probably start selling one that says "Plan Your Novel, Then Write Your Novel." If you want to write for fun, knock yourself out. If you want to get published, you need to put in the work.

Z

The February Round-up

Again I'm a few days late getting to this, so I apologize.

In February, we...

...received 77 queries and rejected 59;
...received 23 sample chapters and rejected 2;
...requested 15 sample chapters or proposals;
...requested 2 manuscripts and received 3;

We offered representation to one nonfiction client in February.

We currently have on hand...

22 requested sample chapters;
3 requested manuscripts;

In addition to all that, we currently need to read and respond to two proposals we already represent and four client manuscripts.

The oldest "sample chapter" we have (actually, it's a self-published book, but we're treating it as a sample chapter) is dated January 19th. If your submission of a sample chapter was dated before that, then we should have already responded. If it is dated after that, then your patience is appreciated.

We have requested, but have not yet received...

11 sample chapters;
5 proposals;
2 manuscripts;

As always, our policy is to request material and, if not received within 30 days, to send a follow-up email. If not received within 30 days of the follow-up, we discard the query or sample chapter on-hand.

If you have submitted something to us but you have since accepted representation elsewhere, please let us know immediately so that we do not waste time reading material that is no longer available.

Thanks!

Z

Thank You for Not Smoking

Recently I received a manuscript from a client and I noticed, as I opened the box, that it stank of cigarette smoke. I was reminded immediately of a copy-editor I knew back in New York who chain-smoked while working. The manuscripts always came back stinking of cigarette smoke. When I met the guy, his fingertips were stained brown and he smelled like an ashtray. Great copy-editor, though. But the price of working with him was that you had to deal with the stink and sometimes some ash on the pages.

Now, beyond the fact that smoking is not healthy, no editor or agent wants to be stuck reading a manuscript that stinks of cigarette smoke. So if you are a smoker, figure out a way to get that manuscript printed, say by Staples's or Kinko's online services, and mailed without surrounding it with a cloud of cigarette smoke so that it won't end up with your agent or editor feeling like you just mailed him or her a full ashtray of butts.

Your agent, editor, and I thank you.

Z

How Long?

About how long should we expect to wait to hear from you regarding materials we have submitted at your request? I submitted my first chapter back on January 11 and have received neither a rejection or a request for the ms. Is it still too early? If so, sorry to trouble you.

I'm going to say, yes, it's too early. Generally speaking, what we try go do at the beginning of each month is look at the reading pile and figure out where we are and post online what the last thing we read was. For example, I'm fairly certainly I've covered all sample chapters up to those whose cover letters were dated January 18th. But not all have been dealt with yet. My intern, who processes responses, is only in two days a week (one day this week) and will be getting out responses on Wednesday. Sounds like yours should be getting a response one way or another later this week or early next week, though I can't say off the top of my head how I responded to your project.

Z

Did My Query Get There?

Often I will hear from writers who want to confirm that I got their query or submission. Since I don't log any of that and get so many a day I couldn't possibly remember them all, I generally wish authors would not call to confirm receipt. Besides, they don't have to, as there are plenty of ways to accomplish this without bothering the agent on the other end.

1. Use Delivery Confirmation. The US Postal Service offers different forms of this and one doesn't require a signature. Use this one for submissions of chapters or manuscripts and you can check online to see that your package was delivered. Granted, this likely means to the mailbox or front door and not the actual agent, but at least you know it got to the right location.

2. Use UPS or FedEx Ground, both of which let you track things online. Be sure your agent hasn't posted somewhere that they don't want you to use those services. I used to say online that I didn't want anyone sending me anything requiring a signature, especially Certified Mail. Not every agency is that large and sometimes everyone (or the one) is out to lunch when the delivery guy or mail carrier shows up. Nothing annoyed me more than those "Sorry We Missed You; Your Certified Mail is at the Post Office" slips. Schlepping to the PO and waiting in line to get a sample chapter is an annoying waste of time for any agent. Now I get my mail at one of those Postal Annex stores, so they sign for everything, rather than me. But I still think Certified Mail is a waste of money for a query or submission.

3. If you are doing a lot with the US Mail, you might want to consider a few things:

a. Do you know your actual address? I know, this seems like a bonehead question, but it's for real. Many, many publishers do not know their own addresses, at least the ones the US Postal Service uses. Go to USPS.com and the Find Zip Code page. Put in your street address and zip code. What will come back is the USPS-approved version of your address. Use that one as your address, always, to help ensure mail reaches you.

b. Are you mailing it to the right place? Many of these websites that steal info from agents' sites or guidebooks have outdated information. Many of the guidebooks may also have outdated information. It is a good idea to check addresses directly on the agent's website before mailing anything off. Then run that address through the USPS system also, as the agent may not know his or her correct USPS address.

c. If you are mailing A LOT, it may make sense to sign up for a service like Stamps.com, which checks each address to which you are mailing against the USPS system and corrects it. It also puts the correct USPS bar code on your mail, which results in your mail getting their faster, because the bar codes let it zip through the system.

d. Don't want to do any of that? TYPE YOUR LABELS OR ENVELOPES in all caps, in Arial or Courier typeface. The OCR software at the USPS will read the destination Zip Code more easily and your mail will get their faster.

Z

Sometimes It's the Admin Stuff That's Hard

My intern has spent the better part of her week working on the firm's website. Now she's only in two days a week, so today she emailed me that she forgot to link a bunch of author pages to their title pages. Oops. I guess I can't be too harsh, as her English is still way better than my Dutch. Oh, did I not mention she's from the Netherlands? Getting quite international here, we are.

So if you noticed a glitch or two on the site recently, rest assured that those will be fixed next week.

Every time I get a new intern, the hardest part of getting them up-to-speed is often the administrative stuff. How many college kids or grad students actually know how to use Outlook? And if they have used it, they've used it for email alone. They don't know about Tasks or Journal entries.

Most, surprisingly, know little about how Microsoft Word works and its many features. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised, since most authors don't seem to know it, and one presumes an author is working with it a lot! Add in Microsoft Access, Excel, FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver and Acrobat, and you have an internship that swiftly becomes a software usage boot camp. Now I'm thinking of adding in Act!, because I think it might do something Outlook doesn't when it comes to tracking submissions, and we purchased Dreamweaver to work on the website late last year, so now I'm the one who has to go to boot camp. On top of everything else I have to do.... Oy.

What many authors don't seem to realize is that agents aren't just pitching books all day, going to three-martini lunches, and reading. The administrative workload is huge. Frankly, I'm not sure how most small agencies do it. I know how I do it, though: by working long hours and leveraging software to streamline the process. But having helped three or four agents learn QuickBooks or other software programs, I can tell that I'm a bit ahead of the average agent in the software usage department.

And it's not just agencies. Publishers are software-challenged and admin-challenged also, though they may have more money to throw at some of these problems. Most editors I know have no idea how to do mail merge using Word. I once walked an editor I know through the process so she could move twenty rejections out of her office. She was stunned by how much easier it was.

A lot of what goes wrong in publishing is, of course, human error. UPS has called me more than once asking what my current address is because something was shipped to an old one. Now, I have moved twice in less than two years, once from New York to Solana Beach, CA, and then from Solana Beach to San Diego. And both times, letters went out to each publisher's Contracts and Royalties departments and emails to every editor in my contact list. And I had cross-over between the two California addresses for six months, so I could let folks know they still needed to update their records. So why are boxes of books still going to Solana Beach? It's simple human error.

A enormous part of what happens in any publishing house is accomplished by editorial assistants and assistant editors who, honestly, are not in my contact lists. So if their boss didn't update them on my address and Contracts didn't update the central database (if there is one!), then those assistants are probably just pulling out contracts and sending materials off to whatever address is on the contract. Heck, I wonder how much stuff has been sent to my old New York address?!

Good assistants are hard to find. They are even harder to keep, because the good ones have no interest in being assistants. They want to be editors. It takes about six months to learn everything you can learn as an assistant about the grunt part of the job: How to log submissions and rejections; how to transmit a manuscript to production; how to deal with a manuscript coming back from the author after he reviewed the copyediting job; how to request a check for acceptance of manuscript; where the cafeteria is; who the best agents submitting to your boss are; etc. After that first six months, the "This is what I went to Harvard/Yale/Columbia for?" dissatisfaction starts to settle in. At which point the assistant starts to lobby for a promotion or starts looking for a new job or starts applying to graduate school.

At Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Penguin Putnam, I'd hazard a guess that the average assistant has to stick it out for three years before getting promoted. (When I was at Penguin, there were three separate levels of editorial assistant.) Three years of being a glorified secretary and fighting the urge not to kill the CEO when you end up standing at the urinal next to his. After all, he has the power to make things better for the assistants, right? He has the power to pay them a living wage. He has the power to decide that editorial assistants from Ivy League schools are a waste of talent. Let's just hire secretaries, like I have and we have in Sales and Marketing and every other department, pay them a living wage, and keep them forever. Then, each year, let's bring in a half-dozen interns and work their tails off and let them know that the two that perform best will get hired as Assistant Editors at a living wage. Might this help stop the revolving door of assistants? Might this bring consistency and efficiency to the house? After all, the CEO has a secretary and he's had the same one for eighteen years. He drinks a soda and she burps. She's been doing the job for so long that she knows how to handle any contingency that comes across his desk. Why shouldn't editors have the same kind of assistant?

More than once, I have had to explain to editors and contracts people what their contract says and means. Why? Because I have read it more often than they have. Because I have negotiated it and discussed it more than they have.

Editors often never bother to read their contract. If you bring up something beyond basic deal points, they say, "Oh, that you'll have to discuss with Contracts." But how is an author or agent supposed to get to the point where they can accept the terms if one of the terms isn't up for discussion until there's actually a contract draft?

Contracts, by the way, will often tell you that they can't change something and if that was something of genuine concern, it should have been brought up in the original negotiation with the editor.

I once killed several entire afternoons exchanging emails and talking on the phone with an audio company over the question of whether or not the author would get his full royalty if the publisher chose to give his book away for free via download or if the publisher offered it as part of a "buy two, get one free" deal. This is not uncommon on Amazon.com. I suggested the easiest solution would be to not include the author in such promotions, if they didn't want to pay the royalty. Keep in mind that publishers create these programs and do not ask the author's permission. If, by chance, the net effect is that the publisher sells many more copies of various titles but the author gets little or no royalty for his or her copies, is that something in which the author really wants to be included?

Book-clubs used to offer the chance to get four books for a penny. Now it's five for a dollar. At one point, the authors whose books were included would get a royalty based on that book selling for twenty cents. Yes, twenty cents. And then they split that with the publisher. Obviously publishers wised up and told the clubs that they can offer it in that deal, but still have to pay a full royalty. So why shouldn't the publisher do the same now that they can offer books or audios as downloads for free as a part of various offers? Coming to a compromise took days, I kid you not, and the deal nearly died more than once because of it.

So why am I writing about all this today? Well, because I see so much online from authors complaining that agents aren't "responsive" and take too long to get back to prospective authors. I wanted to give you all a taste of why they might not be getting back so quickly. Not to mention letting you know what you may be in for if you ever decide to get a job as an editorial assistant!

Z

The Monthly Round-up...Better Late than Never

Okay, so I'm running a bit behind and I apologize to those who have been checking here, waiting to find out the status of their material.

Here's the round up for January:

• 47 queries received; 31 rejected
• 12 requested sample chapters received; 5 rejected
• 9 sample chapters requested
• 1 proposal requested
• 1 manuscript requested
• 1 requested manuscript received

Currently we are waiting on 7 requested sample chapters, 4 requested full manuscripts, and 2 requested proposals.

Our policy is to wait for 30 days after we requested material and then to follow-up once. After that, we discard your materials.

Please note that if you sent us material at any time in the last year and sent it to the Solana Beach address and have not heard from us, that is because we have moved. Please view our website for updated contact information.

Thanks.

Z

Is there a Lawyer in the House?

So, our friend in the UK is apparently upset with me for posting his emails to me on this site. He is claiming copyright infringement. I just received the following from my ISP:

-------- Original Message --------
Dear Sir / Madam,

I am contacting you regarding a breach of copyright law being hosted on a website for which you are the registered domain name owner.

The breach is occurring at http://www.zackcompany.com/_dropbox/firstwriter.pdf where private correspondence has been publicly reproduced without permission. The emails I sent are covered by copyright and to reproduce them in this way without my permission is illegal.

By publishing this material without consent your user has breached their agreement with you:

"If it comes to DBP's attention that You are using DBP's services for purposes of engaging in, participating in, sponsoring or hiding Your involvement in, illegal or morally objectionable activities, including but not limited to, activities which are designed, intended to or otherwise: ... (ii) defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, or harass third parties; (iii) violate state or federal laws of the United States and/or foreign territories;..."

This is a demand that the unauthorised publication of emails sent from editor@firstwriter.com to [deleted, but is a generic address used by TZC] be removed from the domain name registered to you immediately. Please ensure that this is done within 48 hours and that confirmation is sent when it has been done in order to avoid formal legal proceedings.

Kind regards,
J. Paul Dyson

--------------------------------------------------------------
J. Paul Dyson
Managing Editor, firstwriter.com
editor@firstwriter.com

Now, forgive me for being dense, but can a user sending email to a generic mailbox expect privacy? Or expect to retain copyright? More importantly, wouldn't you think this guy would find it easier to just respect my desire to not be listed on his site than complain to my ISP? And this guy wants you to pay him for his services?

Oy.

If there's a lawyer out there reading this who wants to chime in on whether or not he has a case, I'd love to hear from you.

Z

And the War of Words Goes On

After posting yesterday regarding my run-in with J. Paul Dyson, who runs firstwriter.com, I continued to receive emails from him, even after I asked him to cease and desist from writing me.

In one of his emails, Mr. Dyson claimed that I had committed copyright violation by publishing our email exchange on this website. However, he did not ask me to remove it, so I have not removed it. Further, Mr. Dyson has threatened to publish negative comments in his newsletter, stating that I put copyrighted material on my site, i.e., his letters. Oy. Can you believe this guy? All I asked was that he remove me from his website where he charges people for the same information I provide for free. Plus my information is up-to-date and current.

Some notes on what he had:

• His site said I was closed to new queries, but I have not been for months.
• His site listed a mailing address I have not used for a year.
• His site listed simplified categories where I have highly detailed categories.
• His site stated I was a member of the AAR. As of today, he was threatening to complain to the AAR because I stated I would reject every writer who came to me through his site. I have not been a member of the AAR for over two years and it has been in the FAQ on my site since I decided not to renew my membership in 2005.

And yet this site charges writers for this out-of-date and incorrect information.

Folks, if you want to spend some money trying to find an agent, I recommend you buy Jeff Herman's book on agents, editors, and publishers. Just click on this link: Jeff Herman's Guide.

Here why I like Jeff's book.

1. If you don't want to be in it, you don't have to be in it. It's "opt-in" not "opt-out."
2. You can answer as little or as much of his questionnaire as you choose.
3. You get to put your listing in your own words and he doesn't edit aggressively.

He's a publishing professional who respects other publishing professionals.