Scifi Watch » publishing industry

4 Other Ways to Get a Literary Agent

David Halpert — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:01:03 +0000

In today’s publishing industry the traditional methods of getting a literary agent is as follow: (1) aspiring writer submits manuscript to literary agent (2) agent either accepts manuscript or rejects it. It’s no real secret, that’s how it usually goes, and the publishing industry today is cutthroat for new authors. This is added to the fact that less authors are being signed on as new clients as a result of the recession. However, more often than not I keep hearing stories of authors getting published who found their agents by unusual methods. Here are four such methods:

1. Short Story Markets

This is how a lot of science fiction writers got their start before publishing novels, and for many aspiring writers out there this is the best route in terms of actually landing a literary agent. The common assumption by people is that just because short stories are shorter to write, they are easier to write. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The short story takes the breadth and depth of a novel and condenses it to maybe ten pages. If agents see that you’ve been published in several short story markets, this can only work in your favor if you have a manuscript ready to submit. Go to Ralan’s webstravaganza to see what markets are currently out there.

2. Start a Blog

Blogs aren’t the same as they were ten years ago, not even five years ago. Some websites like Shoemoney.com, entrepreneur’s-journey.com, and Problogger.com make thousands each month on their respective blogs. For prospective authors they are media platforms, plain and simple. First-time authors get very little funding in terms of marketing and publicity for their first novels, so if an agent sees that you can reach 10,000 unique visitors a month or more, this can only work in your favor. It’s also a good way to gain a little money on the side.

3. Visit Trade Conventions, Book Signings, and Various Industry Events

There’s something very impersonal about sending a manuscript to an agent. I make it a point to attend book conventions, book signings, and various industry events. Not only does this give you a chance to meet literary agents, authors, and editors face to face but it’s also the perfect opportunity to network amongst the hoi polloi of the publishing industry. Now there’s a right and a wrong way to pitch to a literary agent, a quick one-minute pitch (often referred to as an ‘elevator pitch’). Literary agents are busy people, you don’t want to talk their ears off. With publishing, a lot of the time, it’s not what you know but who you know. And this is a great way to meet those top level players in your industry.

4. Build a Reputation as a Writer and an Editor

This is probably the least likely method of getting a literary agent but for people in my situation it doesn’t hurt. I’m an editor for two automotive trade magazine,s I’ve had articles published in several trade and consumer magazines, I know the ins-and-out of the publishing process, and I have a very respectable portfolio under my hat. Now I’m not boasting here, but many agents want to know that when they sign up a new client that they have someone that will work with them, not against them. As a relationship between an agent and a client can last for years, they need to know that this person is a good fit, and what better way to do that then by having a person that already knows what to expect when they have a book published.

15 Ways Science Fiction Publishers Can Increase Sales, Save Money, and Promote Publicity

David Halpert — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:18:59 +0000

In these troubled times publishers can use every advantage to make them one step ahead of their competition. However, with a stressful ever-increasing workload sometimes it’s easy to become jaded into what your readers think about your imprint when you work from the inside of the publishing industry. Fortunately, I’m in the unique position of being outside the book publishing industry, but educated enough in publishing to offer a valid opinion. So here are 15 ways science fiction publishers can increase sales, save money, and promote publicity. With any luck spark some new ideas among science fiction and fantasy publishers.

1) Prepare Publicity Kits for First-Time Authors

Publishing can be daunting, not just as an aspiring author hoping to get published but also the publishing industry itself. If you’re a first-time author whose literary work is about to be published and you have little to no knowledge of how the industry operates or the process a book goes through from start to finish to get published, you will likely be marred by feelings of confusion, anxiety, and maybe even dread.

Authors are not public relations experts. Many times they are shy, introverted, solitary creatures (myself included) who have to have their hands held while on book tours. As you no doubt already know, the publicity budgets for first-time authors is relatively low in the place of authors who already have a media platform to work with. As a result, the first time author is largely his or her own publicity agent. Bottom line, if your clients/authors don’t know what the hell they’re doing in terms of publicity, you (the publisher) are going to lose sales. It’s that simple.

The solution, create a publicity guide or manual to give to your authors as a kind of stepping stone to promote their works. “What is in this guide?” you might ask. Anything you want: websites, resources, how to design a media kit, brochures, newsgroups, how to book an interview, the process of book publishing, trade publishing magazines, basically a one-stop shop for any new authors joining your ranks.

2) Forget Review Copies, Use Kindle

I read an interesting post a few weeks ago from someone in the book publishing industry who claimed that it was in fact cheaper for publishers to purchase a Kindle for their cornerstone reviewers (i.e. associate trade press, influential bloggers/websites, etc.) and simply offer them an electronic version of the book to review instead of its printed counterpart. Now these numbers would have to be viewed by someone with more authority in the publishing industry than myself to make sure the numbers are sound, but here are a few things that are true.

While a Kindle may costs US$400-500 as an initial purchase, it is a fixed cost that doesn’t have to be reinstated until the device has to be replaced. And how much do review copies (ARCs, bound galleys, costs of shipping, etc.) actually cost in terms of real dollars. While I will most likely prefer a tangible copy to an electronic one, wouldn’t it make sense to give the reviewer who has a stack of books on his/her desk the option to go electronic? While they may in the end choose to go for the book, most people won’t refuse a free gift, much less a Kindle. They’re also probably likely to review your books as a sign of gratitude.

3) Move Away From a Brand and Towards a Community

If you were to go to Tor.com for the first time, you’d never suspect it was a book publisher. At best you might think it’s a publisher’s blog but it would definitely take some digging before you realized that this was in fact the largest book publisher of science fiction and fantasy in North America. Let me make something clear, when I say move towards a community I don’t mean to simply add Facebook, Twitter, and Delicious icons to your website or to have a newsletter—these should be givens already.

If you were to go to the major science fiction imprints (i.e. Roc, Ace, Bantam Spectra, Dell, etc.) they would appear very similar—if not identical—to the website of the publishing house that represents it. Now once again I’m singling out Tor.com because of it’s boldness to take a chance on something different. It’s a website for the well-informed (and well-read) science fiction aficionados, with blog posts as well as original stories from its community of authors that are informative, enjoyable, and regularly updated.

Tor.com gives more than it takes and has become a vehicle to discuss issues of science fiction, literature, and the publishing industry in general. In addition to creating a loyal fanbase where people repeatedly visit on a daily basis, it has also become a unique platform for Tor to market its own works without coming off as preachy or desperate. Many book publisher websites give off the impression that publishing is this closed off industry in big Ivory Towers, but Tor’s website fosters an atmosphere of transparency, acceptance, and most importantly, inclusion, and hopefully some science-fiction publishers will soon follow suit.

4) Don’t Just Offer All of your Authors under One Publisher Username (Twitter)

While I applaud science fiction and fantasy houses for creating accounts on Twitter many are forgetting one simple fact, “We don’t read every author across your imprint!” Say, for example, that I’m a fan of Robert J. Sawyer (which I am) and only read Robert J. Sawyer under the Tor/Forge imprint line, then why would I join a group of thirty or more authors and receive tweets from authors I hadn’t even heard of, let alone like. Take note: if you’re going to cluster all of your authors into one Twitter username, make sure you highlight authors with individual accounts as well close by. By doing this, not only does it save your readers the hassle but each author’s individual account also acts as a yardstick to gauge which authors are more popular across your imprint.

5) Consider Freelancing Your Artwork

They say you should never judge a book by its cover. This is true. However, if you don’t have a firm grounding in literature and what’s out there on the market, chances are all you’re going to care about is the artwork. Case in point is the cover to the first edition hardcover for Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin released by Tor a few years ago. Personally I think this is one of the worst covers to be released by a science fiction publishing house.

It’s far too dark, ugly and quite frankly looks like it was put together by a junior high school student for an art school project. It’s hard to believe I was so close to not reading this book, because not only did it win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2007, it was also one of the best science fiction novels I’ve ever read period.

Now compare this to another classic like Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash which in my opinion is one of the best crafted covers in science fiction literature, no doubt helping push sales over the last fifteen years, despite some of the literary shortcomings of Stephenson’s novel.

6) Offer More Contest / Giveaways!

It’s true, people like free stuff, especially books, and readers tend to take note of a publishing house or book being promoted that would otherwise go unnoticed. I myself enter 100 contests a day, and while I keep up-to-date with a lot of things related to books, authors, events, and the publishing industry at large, much of the general public does not.

It’s very easy to stand out even among other contests. How? Offer a Kindle, or if you’re dealing with Canada, a Sony Reader (still don’t know why we can’t get them here) in lieu of books. What’s the advantage here? Let’s say you hold a contest and your prize is a fantasy novel, it’s very likely that the only people that will enter the contest are devouted fantasy readers. This pigeonholing will ultimately lead to a loss of publicity, however, appeal to every reader and you’re in like Flint. It’s also a good idea to offer free ebooks on sites like Suvudu as well.

7) Start a Newsletter

Without sounding as if I’m favoring one particular author, one of the reasons why I’m such a huge fan of Robert J. Sawyer is the way he markets himself. He’s a perfect balance between fantastic storytelling and author branding (but his books are fantastic nonetheless). One of the ways he does this is with a quarterly newsletter and I got to tell you, getting a newsletter every couple of months automatically sent to my inbox outlining some of the author’s accomplishment, events, and musings saves me the time of having to go online to search for it myself.

Now obviously a lot of publishers have done this already, and some might be rolling their eyes at this post saying stuff like, “Well, we have an RSS feed” or “We have Twitter account”. But those of us too lazy to subscribe or prefer our information given to us clumped together at successive intervals starting a newsletter only makes sense. If you’re a publisher sending out a newsletter to agents, publicists, and media outlets already, why not make some of that information available to the public as well. Email is not dead. It’s a solid medium to get the word out and provides another metric for analyzing your consumer base.

8 ) Offer Books for Free Under a Creative Commons License

Okay, I can already tell that a lot of you are cringing at this suggestion. You probably think I’m one of those Gen-Yers with a “Let’s Give Everything Away for Free” mentality. And maybe I am, but there are some sound reasons for doing so. Cory Doctorow and Peter Watts (both Canadian!) are just two authors that have claimed that offering their books online for free has only increased their sales counts.

Now as a publisher whose ultimate goal is to make money, I completely sympathize with your position. I understand most will probably not want to put a link towards a free downloadable PDF. But at the very least (for the love of God!) place a creative commons symbol notifying if your author’s works are already under a creative commons license and let the readers judge whether or not they want to download their works. The fact is if people like what they see online many will in fact go out and purchase the hard copy at the bookstore. It’s easy word-of-mouth advertising and will likely do more good than harm.

9) Branch into Other Subgenres

As near as I can tell there are approximately 10-12 different subgenres within science fiction. Cyberpunk, hard science fiction, alternate history, apocalyptic – these are some of the categories that make up the genre. Fantasy does this as well — epic fantasy, high fantasy, erotic fantasy, urban fantasy. Yet sometimes I find that some big name imprint publishers are very rigid and uncompromising when it comes to the subject matter across their entire line of books.

The last thing a publisher wants is to be pigeonholed into one subgenre by its audience or readers. Science fiction has always been a genre of inclusivity, not the other way around. If you feel that your imprint branding is seen as rigid it might be time to consider taking on one or two new authors whose works tend to drift along the edges as to what you consider ‘normal’. Baen Books recently did this by publising a few fantasy titles for a book publisher that has traditionally only published military science fiction with some space opera elements. A good move in my opinion.

10) Use Twitter (if you’re not doing so already)

By now this strategy is sort of self-explanatory and being utilized across many markets but there will always be some publishers that want to clinch to the traditional avenues for publicity and media rather than to get on board with the latest in social media. However, in this instance if you want to not only spread your network, increase your audience, and reach anyone then having an account on Twitter is absolutely crucial in today’s publishing market. More people are reading ebooks, less people are reading period. It takes literally five minutes to set it up and best of all it’s free. For more information as to why social media is important click here to read, “What the Fuck is Social Media?”

11) Highlight Editors Blogs

If there’s something I love more than reading the blogs of my favorite science fiction authors, it’s reading the blogs of their editors. Editors are largely the face of a publishing house, working hard behind the scenes to bring you the literature on the market today. They’re also very knowledgeable and at times candid about what goes on in their daily lives.

But they’re also interesting to read. Reading an editor’s blog humanizes editors rather than giving them the image of a gatekeeper whose sole responsibility it is to reject manuscripts. That’s not the idea! For me, reading editors blogs helps me to better understand not only what a particular editor is looking for but also how to gain an intimate first-hand knowledge of the publishing industry that you can’t get from reading books on publishing. If you don’t already highlight an editor’s blog on your publishing website, DO SO IMMEDIATELY! It will easily increase traffic to your publishing house, and with any luck increase sales as well.

12) Discover New Authors through the Blogosphere

Now this suggestion is not directed to one publishing house, and will likely not increase sales in the traditional sense but it always makes me hopeful. John Scalzi is a science fiction writer that for the past ten years has owned and operated his Whatever blog, which to date gets an estimated 50,000 viewers a day. While back in 2001 Tor editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden found some of Scalzi’s work and offered him a book contract that would become his first novel Old Man’s War. Now Scalzi’s example is very rare in the publishing industry and Scalzi deserves much credit for sticking with his blog for a decade as well as being an early adopter of blogging platforms.

Nevertheless, it makes you think of how the traditional routes for getting published have changed and just how hard it is for aspiring writers to get published today. But if you’re an editor consider some of the advantages to finding an author through their blog rather than through a literary agent. They’re obviously dedicated if they have a completed novel available (with possibly years of writing experience on their blogs). It’s also likely they have some kind of audience alrady and media platform to work from.

This is why I blog? While writing has always remained a passion of mine I feel that it is important to find other avenues of trying to get published other than simply sending out query letters. And for all of those literary agents and editors out there click here to view my novel “Second Death”.

13) Avoid Trends

Now at first this might sound counter-productive, and it probably is. A lot of publishers think they can piggyback on the success of other books when in fact this might be doing more harm than good in the long run. Two obvious trends today: vampires and zombies. Now unless you’ve got a completely original manuscript with a fresh take with these tropes, such as Mario Acevedo’s The Nymphos of Rocky Flats or Max Brook’s The Zombie Survival Guide it would probably be best to avoid trends.

Why? Well, for starters it usually takes a year or two to get a book from an editor’s desk to the bookshelves anyway, right? Is your trend going to be as popular a year or two from now as it is today? Similarly, if other publishers are already following these trends, the best thing you can probably due is back off and pool your resources for a different promising project. Readers are very savvy. If they see your publishing house is trying push more copies of a cookie-cutter vampire book (largely on the heels the Twilight series) they’re going to view your company’s image as clichéd, unoriginal, and will likely avoid your books across your entire imprint.

14) Put All of Your Authors on a Level Playing Field

Now I have really no empirical evidence to back this one up, if anything this rule relies solely on instinct rather than fact. In my opinion no two authors are created equal, a publisher’s website is proof of this. Granted some authors have been around for decades, have a strong devoted fan base, and sell in the thousands but should they be offered any more opportunity than any other writer on your current client list? Absolutely not.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying to pull down your most popular authors or books off the front homepage. What I’m saying is that if you offer an author profile, a photo, a bio, a bibliography, and sample chapters for one author, it would be a good idea to extend the same package to all of your authors across your list. If an author chooses not to have a photo up, say “no photo at the author’s request”. If some authors get upset over this, tell them to create their own website (if they haven’t done one already) and give them complete control to do whatever they wish with it.

Doing this gives your website a more consistent feel. If your readers see one author is given ten pages of content with all the bells and whistles to go along with it while another author just starting out is given the bare minimum, what does that say about your publishing line?

15) Make Your Social Media More Visible

I think it’s great at the number of book publishing websites that have embraced the various forms of social media out there that exist (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, etc.). What I hate is having to go to great lengths to locate the appropriate icons on the homepage in order to join or subscribe to these social mediums. This is the result of two things, either (1) the icons are too small or (2) the icons are not located in plain sight. This is the easiest thing a publisher’s website can change to increase their subscriber base. SF Signal is probably one of the best examples of this (Click Here to View). In recent months, the website’s owner enlarged their icons and placed them on the upper-left corner of the site, making it the first thing you see when you access the site, and over the last few weeks I’ve noticed the number of subscribers increase substantially as a result.

5 Ways SF/F Publishers Can Increase Sales, Save Money, and Promote Publicity I

David Halpert — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:26:08 +0000

While I applaud science fiction and fantasy houses for creating accounts on Twitter many are forgetting one simple fact. “We don’t read every author across your imprint!” Say, for example, I’m a fan of Robert J. Sawyer (which I am) and only read Robert J. Sawyer under the Tor/Forge imprint line, then why would I join a group of thirty or more authors and receive tweets from authors I hadn’t even heard of, let alone like. Take note: if you’re going to cluster all of your authors into one Twitter username, make sure you highlight authors with individual accounts as well close by. By doing this, not only does it save your readers some hassle but also acts as a yardstick to gauge which authors are more popular by the number of users applied individually rather than as an entire group.

5) Consider Freelancing Your Artwork

They say you should never judge a book by its cover. This is true. However, if you don’t have a firm grounding in literature and what’s out there on the market, chances are all you’re going to care about is the artwork. Case in point is the cover to the first edition hardcover for Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin released by Tor a few years ago. Personally I think this is one of the worst covers to be released by a science fiction publishing house.

It’s far too dark, ugly, difficult to read the title, and quite frankly looks like it was put together by a junior high school student for an art school project. It’s hard to believe I was so close to not reading this book, because not only did it win the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2007, it was also one of the best science fiction novels I’ve ever read period.

Now compare this to another classic like Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash which in my opinion is one of the best crafted covers in science fiction literature, no doubt helping push sales over the last fifteen years, despite some of the literary shortcomings of Stephenson’s novel.

My point is covers do count, and sometimes an art department handing twenty (maybe thirty novels) titles a year might be over-encumbered to pay particular attention to one novel. This is where freelance artists come in. If you don’t already have a bevy of artists outside of your company to handle artwork for your covers than it would be a good idea to hire some. If you have second thoughts about a particular cover, then these guys are your back-up. A great cover can sometimes make up for a lacklustre cover (as you no doubt already know), but it can also be a staple of your imprint if many of your covers are drawn in the same style or format across all author lines. Be aware of the message your covers are sending to your readers and whether or not that’s the message you want your imprint to be sending.

Rant: “If All the SF Magazines are Closing, How Am I Going to Get Published?”

David Halpert — Sat, 02 May 2009 23:57:59 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

Now this statement may be a bit of an exaggeration, but think about all of the changes that are happening in the world of publishing today; less books are being produced by publishing houses (and being purchased by customers), top level editors and agents are being firing in the midst of corporate restructuring, and then there’s the almost daily barrage of potential magazine closures that I read in my RSS feeds every week.

This week’s latest victim was Apex Magazine. Turns out the May issue will be its last, and while the magazine’s official statement on the matter claims that it is “on hiatus” frankly I’m not holding my breath.

Now most of the time (though there are a few exceptions) famous science fiction and fantasy authors took the traditional route for getting their novels published. Typically, this involved getting short story credentials ifirst n a number of SF/F magazines and building up their portfolio (maybe even a few award nominations along the way as well) at which point they would be recognized by either an agent or a publisher, as proof that they not only take the craft of writing seriously but also to show that they are willing to write books for them years and years down the road.

But with many of the magazines closing their doors as of late this year the question remains, “How are aspiring authors going to get noticed by agents and publishers if many of these fine publications are closing up shop?”

Now like I said there are exceptions to this rule. John Scalzi, author of Old Man’s War, was discovered through his Whatever blog by Tor editor Patrick Neilsen Hayden more than six years ago and offered a book contract more or less on the spot after chapters of his novel were read on his blog.

Others like myself have taken up jobs in the book and/or magazine publishing industry, opting to go the route of business networking to make connections with the hoi polloi in an effort to get noticed by major publishers. The obvious advantages here is that people who already work in the publishing industry not only have no illusions about what it means to be a full-time author but also know what to expect from agents and publishers in getting their book published (and vice versa).

If I had to sum up this rant with a few lines it is this. The traditional avenues for getting published in this day and age are either fading, dissolving, or have disappeared altogether. In a business that is already as competitive as ever, aspiring writers have to go the extra mile (or ten) in order to succeed in this business.

2009 Locus Awards Announced

David Halpert — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:26:10 +0000

: Cover of Saturn’s Children

For me Locus is the premiere trade magazine for the science fiction and fantasy publishing industry. So when they post their annual nominees for their Locus Award I tend to take notice and pay attention for what’s hot and any approaching trends. Here is the short list from all categories. Enjoy!

Science Fiction Novel

Matter, Iain M. Banks (Orbit UK)
City at the End of Time, Greg Bear (Gollancz, Del Rey)
Marsbound, Joe Haldeman (Ace)
Anathem, Neal Stephenson (Atlantic UK, Morrow)
Saturn’s Children, Charles Stross (Orbit, Ace)

Fantasy Novel

The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow)
Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harcourt)
The Bell at Sealey Head, Patricia A. McKillip (Ace)
The Dragons of Babel, Michael Swanwick (Tor)
An Evil Guest, Gene Wolfe (Tor)

First Novel

Thunderer, Felix Gilman (Bantam Spectra)
Black Ships, Jo Graham (Orbit US)
Pandemonium, Daryl Gregory (Ballantine Del Rey)
The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann, Knopf)
Singularity’s Ring, Paul Melko (Tor)

Young Adult Novel

Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins, Bloomsbury)
Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Knopf)
Nation, Terry Pratchett (Doubleday UK, HarperCollins)
Zoe’s Tale, John Scalzi (Tor)

Novella

“The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress (Asimov’s 10-11/08)
“Pretty Monsters”, Kelly Link (Pretty Monsters)
“The Tear”, Ian McDonald (Galactic Empires)
Once Upon a Time in the North, Philip Pullman (Knopf)
“True Names”, Benjamin Rosenbaum & Cory Doctorow (Fast Forward 2)

Novellette

“Pump Six”, Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six and Other Stories)
“The Ice War”, Stephen Baxter (Asimov’s 9/08)
“Shoggoths in Bloom”Elizabeth Bear (Asimov’s 3/08)
“The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away”, Cory Doctorow (Tor.com 8/08)
“Pride and Prometheus”, John Kessel (F&SF 1/08)

Short Story

“King Pelles the Sure”, Peter S. Beagle (Strange Roads)
“Boojum”, Elizabeth Bear & Sarah Monette (Fast Ships, Black Sails)
“Exhalation”, Ted Chiang (Eclipse Two)
“The Kindness of Strangers”, Nancy Kress (Fast Forward 2)
“After the Coup”, John Scalzi (Tor.com 7/08)

Magazine

Analog
Asimov’s
F&SF
Realms of Fantasy
Subterranean

Publisher

Ace
Baen
Night Shade Books
Subterranean Press
Tor

Anothology

The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror 2008: 21st Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link & Gavin Grant, eds. (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Galactic Empires, Gardner Dozois, ed. (SFBC)
The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, Gardner Dozois, ed. (St. Martin’s)
Eclipse Two, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Night Shade Books)
The Starry Rift, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Viking)

Collection

Pump Six and Other Stories, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade Books)
The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
Pretty Monsters, Kelly Link (Viking)
The Best of Lucius Shepard, Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press)
The Best of Michael Swanwick, Michael Swanwick (Subterranean Press)

Editor

Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
David G. Hartwell
Jonathan Strahan
Gordon Van Gelder

Artist

Bob Eggleton
John Picacio
Shaun Tan
Charles Vess
Michael Whelan

Non-fiction/Art book

Spectrum 15: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds. (Underwood Books)
What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction, Paul Kincaid (Beccon)
Rhetorics of Fantasy, Farah Mendlesohn (Wesleyan University Press) P. Craig Russell
Coraline: The Graphic Novel, Neil Gaiman, adapted and illustrated by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins)
Shaun Tan, Tales From Outer Suburbia (Allen & Unwin; Scholastic ‘09)

Five Misconceptions About Literary Agents

David Halpert — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:44:28 +0000

Click Here to View Books on How to Get A Literary Agent on Amazon

While I haven’t been published or found full-time representation for my novel Second Death (click here) I know enough about the publishing world and of manuscript submissions to know that there are a lot of preconceived notions and misconceptions when it comes to literary agents. It is these very methods of thinking that will often lead to a novel being rejected even before it is read, and to a literary agent shines clear as day through the cover letter. So in an effort to clear up some of those misconceptions here are five of them that are often assumed by aspiring writers.

5) If I Get a Literary Agent Today, I’ll Be Published Tomorrow

Now this is one of the biggest misconceptions I hear when talking to aspiring writers. Many are jaded with becoming the next Stephanie Meyers, J.K. Rowling or Stephen King that they lose sight of reality. This might come as a punch in the face to you (and if it does then I’ve done my job) but from the time a manuscript hits a publisher’s desk to the time it is placed on the shelf it can be as long as 2-3 years , and that’s not including the time it takes for the literary agent to find a prospective publisher. The best advice I can give you is if you do get accepted by a literary agent don’t quit your day job. It’s naïve and foolish. Not to add salt to the wound but if your novel sells at all you won’t see a royalty check until six months down the road. Sorry!

4) Once I Get a Literary Agent, My Book Will Be in Every Bookstore

Just because a literary agent decides to take you on as a client it doesn’t mean your novel will be published. The fact is less novels are being published today than ever before as a result of the economy and publishers are wary about taking on new clients. If it does go to publication most writers assume that their book will be in every bookstore across the continent. Now I’ve seen the sales meetings to bookstore first hand. It’s basically an hour long meeting where sales people from a publisher go through their front list of books for the season usually spending 30 seconds to a minute pitching a book to Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble or Chapters. And your book is one of them. With shelf space at a premium many bookstores (even big bookstores) are reluctant to take on first-time writers because they are unsure whether or not they will sell. A harsh truth to learn.

3) Once I Get a Literary Agent, I Don’t Have to do Anything Else

Most aspiring writers think that writing the novel itself (in addition to a few edited drafts) is the end once it is completed. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only will your publisher will make edits to your manuscript—which can include everything from removing a character, shortening the book altogether, or changing the ending—it’s also likely your literary agent will make significant changes to your book to make it more saleable to that particular publisher.

Now you’re probably thinking once it’s on the shelf it’s finally over right. Wrong! The publisher’s budget for publicity for a first-time writer is rather low when they can allot more funds to an established writer that they know will bring in sales. If an author isn’t making a daily effort to being noticed in the public sphere—whether it be having a blog, doing interviews, having review copies to media, and other related means of getting their book’s name out there—it’s likely they won’t last long.

2) I Know You Don’t Read Science Fiction, but my science fiction novel is so good You will Want me As Your Client

This is another thing I find with new authors trying to break into the literary field, that they’re arrogant enough to think that their novel is so amazingly brilliant that it will dazzle the prospective agent beyond belief. In reality, this will land your manuscript into a one-way ticket to the garbage bin. There’s a reason why one agent specializes in fantasy and another specializes in cooking books. It’s because they know the market, genre, and publishers to a T. There’s seems to be this assumption that just because a literary agent publishes one type of book they will read everything under the Tuscan Sun.

What’s even more disconcerting is when a writer seeking representation knows that the agent doesn’t represent their genre and sends it anything. Still unsure, here’s something to consider. Agents talk to each other and to publishers, word can easily spread of your lacklustre attempt to get published and have you disbarred from the publishing community altogether, since they know in their hearts that you, as an aspiring writer, will be impossible to work with. Avoid doing this at all costs.

1) A Literary Agent Sells My Book (And that’s all they do!)

A lot of people are confused about what a literary agent actually does in the course of handling your novel. Most think that the sole purpose of their job is to sell your novel to a publisher. This is true to a certain extent but their job goes far beyond that. In addition to getting your novel published they act as the intermediary between you and the publisher. This includes handling royalty payments, getting the most money for your books, dealing with subsidiary rights (which include translation rights, movie rights, television rights, merchandising rights, audio book rights, and others), creating buzz about your book through various media outlets, but if you want a general way of looking at it basically the literary agent is the champion behind your novel, someone who sees something original about your book that no other agent or publisher does, and will do whatever it takes to get your manuscript onto the shelves.

I’m sure by this point I’ve left you either completely hopeless or at least shattered about some of the myths you might have had regarding literary agents. If I did, good, then I did my job. Trust me, it’s better to know this stuff beforehand than to send your manuscript to onr of these literary agencies looking like a fool. I write this not to discourage you but to instead open your eyes to some of the realities of the publishing industry as they stand today. Take what I say with a grain of salt and hopefully you can take something from this article that will help you get published in the long run.

Audrey Niffenegger Auctions Second Book for $5 Million

David Halpert — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 19:40:13 +0000

Click Here to View The Time Traveler’s Wife at Amazon

: Cover of The Time Traveler’s Wife

Here’s a piece of news I picked up from the New York Times. It turns out Audrey Niffenegger, author of her debut novel ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife‘ has sold the manuscript to her second novel for a reported $5 million at auction. According to the American newspaper, the book was quickly sold to Scribner, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, titled “Her Fearful Symmetry” with the U.S. hardcover set to be released this fall.

It is also noted that this large sum comes at a time of economic turndown for the publishing industry. Nevertheless, to date ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ has sold 1.3 million paperback copies alone under the Harcourt imprint and the film adapation will soon be released by New Line Cinema staring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. Now I haven’t read her first novel but it’s been on my list for a long time now. Plus it’s always nice to see an author get such large sums of money. Here’s to you Ms. Niffenegger!

Reader Response: How to Get a Literary Agent

David Halpert — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:51:03 +0000

A few weeks ago I received a question from a lovely woman in Kentucky who was searching for a literary agent for her novel. Here are the contents of that letter:

Thank you so much for this article. I am going to follow the advice and will cross my fingers! Much appreciated.

One question. I started blogging because a literary agent told me a blog was necessary to prove you have a “following.” Nine months later, the blog gets about 1,000 hits per day and great reader response via posts and emails.

Was this agent correct, and if so, how do I tout this in my search for the right person to represent me?

Thanks,

Heidi Rafferty
Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Here was my response.

It’s true. A blog will help you establish a readership/following before your novel is published. However, like dandelions and B.A. degrees, everybody has one, a blog that is. Ask yourself the following questions about the literary agent who gave you the advice. Was the literary agent from a big agency or a small agency? How long have they been in the industry? Was their advice just a nice way to brush you off?

While the agent wasn’t technically wrong, I would suggest you establish more writing credentials with published short stories or freelance articles. Consider either taking some writing courses/seminars, or joining a writer’s association. Don’t take the advice of any one agent at face value, put yourself in their shoes. A blog shouldn’t be used to ‘prove’ you have a following, but should be used to make network connections and to promote yourself and your works.

In the meantime get to know the publishing market through trade journals like Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and, of course, the Writer’s Market. With the economy the way it is, the publishing industry is currently in a state of flux.

Also, consider getting some Google Adsense for your blog to make some money.

Hope this helped.

David Halpert

2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award Longlist Revealed

David Halpert — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 20:48:49 +0000

I personally love the Arthur C. Clarke Award both as a science fiction reader and as a Canadian. Indeed the first award given more than twenty years ago was to Maragret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘, and since then there has been no shortage of Canadian authors making the list over the years. The Arthur C. Clarke Award is given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. The book is chosen by a panel of judges from the British Science Fiction Asosciation. An honorarium is also awarded to the winner in pounds equal to the current year (2009 pounds for the year 2009), along with the increased book sales that come with winning the award.

This week the longlist for the 2009 Arthur C. Clarke Award was released with 46 novels in total. A couple of things to note on the list include the double nominations of Charles Stross, Eric Brown, and Stephen Baxter. Also, the nomination of author Paul Auster’s ‘Man in the Dark‘ whose novels are normally associated with contemporary literautre as opposed to science fiction. It is also noteworthy 13% of this year’s submissions are by women, and 17% are ‘mainstream’ in origin, both figures down slightly from the last few years.

Special thanks to Torque Control for providing the list.

Here you go, all forty-six books, in alphabetical order by author:

The Ashes of Worlds by Kevin J Anderson (Simon & Schuster)
The Line War by Neal Asher (Tor)
The Heritage by Will Ashon (Faber & Faber)
Man in the Dark by Paul Auster (Faber & Faber)
Neuropath by Scott Bakker (Gollancz)
Matter by Iain M Banks (Orbit)
Flood by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
Weaver by Stephen Baxter (Gollancz)
City at the End of Time by Greg Bear (Gollancz)
Kethani by Eric Brown (Solaris)
Necropath by Eric Brown (Solaris)
Sputnik Caledonia by Andrew Crumey (Picador)
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (HarperCollins)
Incandescence by Greg Egan (Gollancz)
Infoquake by David Louis Edelman (Solaris)
The Broken World by Tim Etchells (William Heinemann)
Omega by Christopher Evans (PS Publishing)
Blonde Roots by Bernadine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton)
Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn (Gollancz)
Eve: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzales (Gollancz)
The Temporal Void by Peter F Hamilton (Macmillan)
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway (William Heinemann)
Template by Matthew Hughes (PS Publishing)
The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt (Harvill Secker)
Song of Time by Ian R MacLeod (PS Publishing)
The Night Sessions by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
The Affinity Bridge by George Mann (Snowbooks)
The Quiet War by Paul McAuley (Gollancz)
Dark Blood by John Meaney (Gollancz)
The Steel Remains by Richard Morgan (Gollancz)
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker)
Debatable Space by Philip Palmer (Orbit)
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds (Gollancz)
Swiftly by Adam Roberts (Gollancz)
Going Under by Justina Robson (Gollancz)
The Last Colony by John Scalzi (Tor)
DogFellow’s Ghost by Gavin Smith (Macmillan)
Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Atlantic)
The Dog of the North by Tim Stretton (Macmillan)
Halting State by Charles Stross (Orbit)
Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Orbit)
The Margarets by Sheri S Tepper (Gollancz)
Blue War by Jeffrey Thomas (Solaris)
Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber (Tor)
Martin Martin’s on the Other Side by Mark Wernham (Jonathan Cape)
Winterstrike by Liz Williams (Tor)

Harper Undergoes Restructuring; Gallagher and Womack Gone

David Halpert — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:38:21 +0000

I just got this off the wire at Locus Magazine. As you may or may not know, publishing like any other industry has been hit hard by the recent economic turmoil in the U.S. Not only are less people buying books (not because they don’t like reading but because people are being especially frugal with their discretionary income) but less books overall are being published. As a result, big-name publishing houses, like that of HarperCollins, have been doing serious restructuring in order to stay afloat. The following is a direct excerpt from Locus Online:

HarperCollins announced it is undergoing restructuring, including layoffs and the folding of the Collins division under Harper. CEO Brian Murray wrote to employees that, “We need to take further action to align our cost bases with expected revenues. I have asked each division to evaluate their business…. implementing these plans will result in a reduction in workforce. These are difficult decisions…”

As of today, Locus knows of the following changes:

Jack Womack, associate director of publicity at Eos, has been let go. Womack, an author himself, has been with HarperCollins since 2001, and has promoted authors including Neal Stephenson, Chris Moore, etc. Emily Krump, assistant editor at Eos, has also apparently been laid off.

William Morrow, HarperEntertainment, and Eos publisher Lisa Gallagher, who has been at Morrow since 2000 and worked with many bestsellers including Neil Gaiman, is also leaving the company; Liate Stehlik, currently overseeing Avon and Harper mass market titles, will be taking over as publisher of Morrow/Eos/Avon.

The Collins imprint is being realigned under Harper, helmed by publisher Jonathan Burnham, and Collins president and publisher Steve Ross is leaving the company.

To read an article from the New York Observer click here.