Why you don't get published.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Q & A 29 The Proof is in the Pudding
I took your revised critique and sent it out to five agents. I didn't change anything except an exclamation mark. We'll see if we get any results in the next few weeks (or months).
What better way to while away the weeks of waiting than by giving the book as thorough an editing as the query received?
Oh, and if these queries don't produce results, Evil Editor assumes you know what to do next. Change that exclamation mark back!
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22 comments:
Be rest assured the manuscript's been getting a proper workout. No need to lose sleep over it, that's my job.
Yes sir, sir! I'll put the exclamation mark back!!
You rock, EE. That's all there is to it. All shall bow down before the mighty Evil Editor, who gives writers a real shot at publication...
Hail to the Chief, baby!
Good luck, Chumplet. May you receive five requests for fulls and plenty of offers to choose from.
Good luck Chumplet, and Godspeed lil' doodle.
I don't know. I assume that there are agents out there who lurk on this blog, and I have to think that some of them might find the revised versions they get in the mail familiar enough to guess where they've read them before. If I were an agent, and suspected I was reading EE's work, I might swing by and give the original letter a once-over.
If--and its a big if, since I'm far too frail to withstand EE's acerbic brand of love--I ever submitted a letter and had it reworked here, I think I'd change it just enough to make it my own again.
I've heard in some places that bio paragraphs in the third person (that make it feel like someone else wrote your letter) are off-putting. I'm not sure if it's the impression you might consider yourself too busy and important to lower yourself to query-writing (which would not count against Chumplet in the least); or the notion that if you can't write a good letter, maybe the book is lame too.
Am I worrying for nothing? I do tend to obsess over teeny-tiny things. If there are any agents lurking, you ought to chime in now, and if Chumplet (and I'm assuming a few others) are on the wrong path, let them know. If everything's tickety-boo, nothing to worry about, don't be silly my dear, then maybe I will submit my query to EE. I'll just have to don my kevlar ego-armor first.
You know, I'm really interested in the results of this. Please keep us updated.
I'm pondering sending my original (think from 2+ years ago) - it mostly got me auto-rejects, but one reputable agent did make a request (and then passed, being the incredibly smart woman she is, because little did I know at the time, that book has HUGE issues - 'nother story.)
I haven't reworked it because I moved on to a new story, but I'm very curious as to what EE could do with it. Hmm.
Decisions, decisions...
Evil Editor hopes he's not converting the queries into "his work." His goal is to tidy them up so they sound more professional. If several sound like they were written by the same person, chances are they sounded that way before EE got his hands on them.
Dearest and most benevolent EE-
Don't get me wrong--I believe in what you're doing. The queries I have out right now were completely reworked after many visits to your blog, and I know they are a million times better for the benefit of your considerable wisdom. But some of the original versions of the letters here are--ahem--abominable. I just worry (obsess, consume copious quantities of my designated sleep time in the fruitless contemplation of doom, etc) that if an agent got your version, recognized it, and then read the original, she might think the original more indicative of the author's writing abilities.
Being chicken by nature, I'm unwilling to risk it until I know how some of the others did.
Please, Chumplet, tell us if this works! Please! I need sleep!
Edit the darn book again?
It grows every time I do that. This is bad.
Strange. Everything Evil Editor edits shrinks. I don't get it.
Shrinkage. Hmm. It's the water, of course.
Speaking on what anon said: I wrote two different people, one an agent, one an editor, just a simple email (okay, not so simple because I don't DO simple) but neither letter was by ANY stretch of the imagination "a formal query". In my emails where I'm just me talking to them like they're just another person vs. holding my future in their hands, they both LOVED my voice and wanted me to submit "formal queries". So I did.
They both passed on the work.
Granted, this was a couple of years ago. I know I have to find that magical middle-ground where it's a "formal query" but my voice resonates through it. There's just something about the formality that tends to suck my personality out of it, and it totally confuses me on WHY this happens. Sigh. Any ideas? Anyone? Bueller?
And I still think we need T-shirts. Dammit.
You guys are the best.
Of course Evil Editor can't be packaging up T-shirts all the time. I could use cafe press, but most of the t-shirts there are in the 15 - 20 dollar range, which seems steep. The mugs at cafe press tend to be 12 to 18 dollars plus shipping, so I was happy to find a manufacturer willing to ship individual orders. I'll look into whether a t-shirt manufacturer will do the same. Do you want shirts that say something along with the picture?
Yeah, I had always assumed editing involved making the book shorter, too.
Any tips? Apart from sticking my fingers in my ears when critiquers ask for 'more detail!' and going LA LA LA.
Not everyone needs their work cut. And detail is a good thing. It's vagueness and generality that should be cut. Also, explanations you added because you were afraid the reader wouldn't understand what you should simply make clear through actions and dialogue. And make sure your book starts at the beginning. Often the beginning is halfway through Chapter 1, or even in Chapter 2. And of course get rid of repetition. Remember that the right word can convey an image more vividly than a string of boring words. Oh, and delete the word "quite" wherever you use it.
Thanks for the tips, EE :). All the quite's have to go, huh? That should bring the wordcount down...
Even if I sell my next novel, I'll still offer a dedication to Mr. Evil because he's making me SMRT - I mean, SMART.
Yes, please t-shirts. In flattering lady shapes, with witty comments.
Many fine witticisms have already been suggested, but I can't remember any of them, and I'm sure that you don't want to trawl through the comments to find them.
Why not start a thread asking people to post what they would like on a t-shirt? Then we could have a democratic vote - otherwise known as EE tells us what he wants and we humbly concur.
I have the same problem as buffysquirrel. Although I did manage to cut lots of words by changing passive voice to active, and eliminating unnecessary qualifiers on dialogue tags--and often the tags themselves. Info dump was either dropped or reworked (you know in SFF you just CAN'T avoid it completely).
I suppose I could include a lot more detail as to architecture and what my characters look like, how they dress, etc. I tried to stick with just what's vital to convey the mood and plot. If I didn't, I'd end up with word counts like GRRM, and that's NOT what I want.
But Buffy, sometimes you just gotta accept that it's a big story. Some stories can't resolve themselves in 80-110k words. When that happens, you have to tighten up your writing as much as you can without sacrificing voice, and put out the best product possible.
Or just burn the whole friggin' thing and start over. Now, where are my matches?...
I already hacked the book in half because it was too long. Now each half thinks, "ooh, room to grow!".
me too, Buffy.
First it was two books, now it's three plus a prequel and a sequel. Oh, oh, oh, where will it freaking end?!!!
Two rejects based on the revised letter so far, but the other three had outlines and partials enclosed. I also have a few floating around from round one.
Pretty soon it'll be time for round three - pick a few more victims - I mean, potential saviours.
... and yes, the manuscript's been edited to smithereens. I'm into my third novel, and learning by leaps and bounds.
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