Writers Are Readers

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

I’ve been making regular trips to my local library since I was a young reader. As a child, I read stacks of biographies from the local library on different well-known people. My bent toward reading such stories, has influenced my own writing and partially explains how I’ve written a number of biographies on people like Billy Graham, Luis Palau, Chuck Colson, Billy Sunday, Samuel Morris, John Perkins, Sojourner Truth and others. Throughout the US, there are thousands of libraries. Do you use them on a regular basis?

When I speak with writers about their manuscripts, I will often ask if they read books in their particular area of expertise. Years ago I met an older author who had written a romance novel. Romance is the largest genre of fiction and a popular area. When I asked if he read romance novels. He said, “No, but I write romance.” His weak response did not help his pitch for his romance manuscript.

As a general rule, writers are readers. To support other writers, as I read a book or even hear an audio book, I will write a short review and post it on Goodreads (almost 900 reviews) and Amazon (over 1,000 reviews). No one pays me for these reviews and I do them outside of my work time and in my free time. Publicity expert Brian Feinblum has written about how to support books and authors. Some people estimate over 11,000 new books are published every day (including the self-published books). Each of these authors need people to read their books and write a review. To help people in this area, I created a free teleseminar (follow the link). 

Do you have a To Be Read (TBR) pile of books? I know some people have several stacks of TBR books. On a regular basis, authors and publishers will send books to me. Here’s a couple of books which arrived last week. Bob Tiede offered to mail six books and knowing my volume of books TBR, I encouraged him to only send a couple. One of the books he sent was Leading With Questions. He asked me to take a photo of myself with the book and send it to him (which I did). Then he also asked me to post my photo on social media (which I also did). At this point, I’m still working on whether I’m going to read and review this book or not. Even if I were reading full-time and getting paid for it, I would not be able to read and review all of the books which come into my home. It is simply impossible. 

I opened a package of books and it included a hardcover copy of The Dragon’s Prophecy: Israel, the Dark Resurrection, and the End of Days wrapped in this package. Notice this book does not release in the bookstores until September 3rd. I’m unsure if I will read it or not since in general I do not read or write about books on Biblical prophecy. I do applaud the creativity of the publicity people sending this package. It definitely caught my attention. 

Sometimes a publisher will send me an Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) of a forthcoming book. Scholastic Press sent me an ARC of When We Flew Away, A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman which releases September 17th. This 8 to 12 year old book from a bestselling novelist looks intriguing and like something I “might” read. As of this writing, I’m uncertain. These books are just a few of the ones which came into my mailbox this past week and show the variety of books.

Do you read in the area where you are writing? What is on your To Be Read pile? Do you support other authors and write reviews? In the comments, let me know and I look forward to reading your experiences.

Tweetable:

This prolific author and editor explains how writers are readers. He gives the details about why this simple habit is important for every writer.  (ClickToTweet)

Much of the publishing process is outside of the writer’s control. 10 Publishing Myths helps writers have a realistic perspective and take action. Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

Critical Editorial Decisions

 

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As an acquisitions editor at a New York publisher, I’ve read many submissions from potential authors. It’s one of my main tasks to read these submissions and speak with the author to see if they are the right fit for the publishing house. Often these authors have received little feedback about their submission. 

From my decades of experience in this business and writing for many different publishers, I know firsthand how submissions are handled. The editor or literary agent is reading the submission for their own needs. If it looks like something they could use in their bsuiness, then they will reach out to the author. If not, they will not respond and instead press on to the next submission. The author is left with little to zero feedback about what can be done to improve the submission so it could fit the needs of the publishing house.

Understanding these foundational details is a critical part of the publishing process. It’s like the concrete in the image above in this article. The concrete mixture has to be correct or the foundation of the building will not be a strong one. It's the same process in publishing. Every writer must have the right mixture in their submission to hit the right target. From my experience, I will see something different from another person. There is definitely a process and the author needs to enter this submission process.

As an editor, I’ve watched writers make critical editorial choices which affect the results of their work. Because they are new to the business, often they will not understand these critical junctures until months or even years after the fact. In this article I want to give some detailed examples in hopes it will help you become more aware and sensitive to the importance of these decisions.

The book writing process begins with a well-designed foundation. Bestselling novelist James Scott Bell talking about this element in this article, The Art of the Outline. It’s worth studying the patterns and habits of other writers to see how you can improve your own creation process. Notice the creativity that is poured into this storytelling and how it is the foundation of their manuscript. Just look at the detailed planning that J.K. Rowling poured into her Harry Potter books.

Some of the basics why your submission is getting rejected or no response:

--Your word count is too large. For a nonfiction book, the ideal length is 50,000 to 60,000 words. For a fiction submission, it is around 60,000 to 80,000. If your novel is 100,000 words (a common length), you are going to get rejected with no idea why. The published book will be too large and require a high retail price (affecting sales). The word count details are important.

--Is the submission poorly written or not appropriate for the publishing house? If so, you are asking for silence or rejection.

--The editor or literary agent doesn’t understand the title or the overview or the pitch. This situation happens and can why you are getting rejected.

Recently a novelist sent a submission to Morgan James Publishing. He had worked on this novel for years. It was a good length and had an interesting pitch and storyline. The story was something we would possibly publish. I put the submission through our system. The internal feedback was a pass (for now). This author needed a developmental editor to improve his manuscript and change the pass to a contract offer. We recommended an excellent developmental editor who this author hired to help him. He got the feedback from the editor and the path to get his revised work was steep and required a lot of changes and revision. He set everything aside and self-published. 

I understood what this author did but his choice greatly limited the reach of his novel. He has some other writing possibilities so we are still exploring them. My key point is achieving excellence and good storytelling is hard and sometimes as authors we have to choose the hard path. I’ve watched this process happen with many authors through the years.

If you are in this situation, here’s some actions to take:

--join a critique group with some honest feedback

--use some honest beta readers and get their feedback

--hire an experienced developmental editor and follow their suggestions and feedback. There are many different editors and potential costs for this process. I encourage you to ask around and choose carefully. A novelist told me that he had hired some well-known editor and was paying $500 a chapter for editing (excessive in my view). Each author should make careful editing choices.

The publishing process is filled with critical decisions. During each stage, you need to make wise choices to have a solid foundation and find the right publisher. What critical editorial decisions did I miss? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

This prolific author and editor details some critical editorial decisions made in publishing. Learn the insights here.  (ClickToTweet)

Much of the publishing process is outside of the writer’s control. 10 Publishing Myths helps writers have a realistic perspective and take action. Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

Pitching Failures

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

While I’ve been reading pitches and making pitches for decades, sometimes I miss the mark. A pitch are some carefully selected words targeted to a decisionmaker to get a specific result. There are many different types of pitches because you have a variety of possible results. You pitch a magazine article to an editor. Or you pitch a book idea in a proposal or a query letter. 

When you pitch, it is not about you. Readers don’t care about you. They care about themselves--so focus on the reader and what they want--their needs, the benefit to them and these sorts of details. The focus of your pitch is a critical aspect so you make the right presentation and aim at the right target.

Each week I get an email from an author who has a large email list. In this email, she encouraged people to pitch her something that she will include in a future email. I crafted a pitch and sent it to her. 

Here’s my pitch to her:

I launched a weekly blog in 2008 and have been consistently writing each week with over 1700 entries. I found this article which listed my name as one of the top 27 content producers:  https://izea.com/resources/top-blog-content-writers/ Here’s the link where you (and others) can receive the entries in their email: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA  

My pitch caught her attention (good) and she responded (also good). My pitch failed because I neglected to focus on her readers and her audience. In her response, she called me on it and pointed out my pitching failure. I understood and rewrote my pitch with the right focus. 

Here’s my second pitch:

Millions of book ideas are circulating in publishing offices. The majority are ghosted without even a form rejection letter. New York publisher acquisitions editor Terry Whalin is one of the top content producers with his weekly blog, The Writing Life. You can gain his insights and teaching on email. Subscribe at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Notice my second pitch has the right focus on her readers and only includeds a single focus point or website link. My first pitch did not have this proper focus. What happened with my revised second pitch? Nothing. I was ghosted and she didn’t respond a second time. I didn’t get another opportunity.

My commitment to you in these articles about The Writing Life is to tell you about these experiences and what I’ve learned--for myself but also to help you. Here’s some of those lessons from my pitching failures:

1. First impressions count. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. You can’t redo that first pitch. Sometimes you get grace from the decisionmaker and a second opportunity, but you should not expect to receive it. The other person has no obligation or responsibility to tell you why your first pitch didn’t work. I recognized that I was given a gift of a response. The same sort of expectation should be involved with a submission to an editor or literary agent. If you get a response, it is likely a generic pass letter. That professional is not responsible to tell you what was missing and why they made their decision (nor do they have time for such answers). If you get the information (and occasionally you do) then recognize those words as a valuable gift from that person.

2. Haste makes waste. I cranked out my pitch and fired it off on email--and it failed. It would have been better if I drafted the pitch and then held it for a day or two. I could have reviewed and edited that pitch to refine it and make sure it was focused on the reader. 

3. There is value in a thoughtful pitch. If you draft the material and hold it for several days, it gives you an opportunity to make sure it is complete and not missing some element. For example, for my work with Morgan James Publishing, authors will often send me their book proposal. It is common to find their proposal is missing a critical section or is incomplete in a section. If the author had held it for a few days, then he could have filled in those missing pieces and presented a thorough proposal instead of a partial proposal. 

How do you find a missing section in your proposal? The most difficult thing to see is something that is not there. It’s why checklists have value because they point out missing sections. I have a free book proposal checklist (just follow this link). 

4. Keep pitching. The only way you can permanently fail in your pitching is to quit or stop. It takes work for you to find the right fit and the right place for your pitches. I encourage you to continue forming new relationships and connections at writers’ conferences, online and through LinkedIN. As you make these connections look for new opportunities. I suspect these opportunities are all around you but you aren’t aware of them and not pitching or making the right pitch.

As I’ve said before in these entries, if I can help you, let me know. My personal email address is in the top of my X/Twitter profile. What steps do you take with a pitching failure? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

When your pitching fails, what actions do you take? This prolific author and editor gives the details about his pitching failure and what he learned for the next time. Get the details here.  (ClickToTweet)

Much of the publishing process is outside of the writer’s control. 10 Publishing Myths helps writers have a realistic perspective and take action. Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.

Like Herding Cats

  

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

In my work as an acquisitions editor, I speak with many first-time authors. These authors have little concept of the steps to get published and likely do not understand the limited time editors and agents will take with their pitch. These professionals receive many email pitches and are looking for reasons to click delete and press on to the next one. If you pitch the wrong book, wrong length, and other wrongs, you will never know the reason. Instead of a response, you will not receive anything (ghosted) or you will receive a form rejection letter which is more and more rare.

In this article, I compare this editorial process to herding cats. There is almost nothing you can do to control the process but continue forward. From my seasoned experience, it is frustrating but all I can do is look for the people open to my insights and willing to do the necessary work to refine their pitch and find the right connection. It’s not easy but possible if the details line up.

For example, a recent author submitted a Christian nonfiction book with a word count of over 115,000 words. As an editor, I speak with the author as a part of our submission process. I planned to tell this author he was pitching a book with a printed page count of over 400 pages. As I was preparing to speak with this author, he looked at the Morgan James Publishing website and decided not to meet with me and instead to press on to other publishing options. I had a scheduled conference phone call with this author and shortly before our call, he emailed and cancelled. I attempted to encourage him to continue but he would not change his mind.

Another author with a devotional book submission withdrew her submission because she had signed with a literary agent. For decades, I have worked with literary agents. I have numerous friends who are agents and believe in their work and the importance of it. I have a free list of over 400 agents that I give away (just follow this link to get it). 

Here’s a little publishing detail that agents will not tell you because it doesn’t help them: they don’t sell all their books which they are pitching. In fact, agents get rejected more than anyone else in this business because they hear “no” many times when they simultaneously send a single submission to multiple places. Here’s another detail to factor into the process of working with an agent. If your agent does locate a publisher and get you a book contract, it is likely to be at least 18 to 24 months before that publisher will get the book into the bookstores. Many authors are in a rush to get their book into the marketplace. With a traditional publishing model, it would be unusual for them to get your book out any quicker because of how books are sold into the bookstores. I was prepared to possibly tell this information to the author who signed with an agent but she withdrew her submission and dismissed me. 

For each of these two author situations, I encouraged the author to reach out to me down the road and hope we can work together in the future. If potential authors are treated with respect and kindness, I often find these authors will reach out to me at a later point in time. As an editor I was frustrated with each of these situations because the author failed to explore their possibilities which I could see but they could not. At times I find the acquisition process like herding cats--not possible. 

How can authors avoid these missteps and possibly get the attention of an acquisitions editor or literary agent? No matter how the professional responds to your pitch, each of us are actively looking for another bestselling author. We are reading online. We are listening to our phone conversations and most importantly reading our email (the major way people pitch these days). 

My straight forward advice about finding the right publisher:

--explore all your options without limitations or preconceived ideas. You are looking for the best way to get published and the answer may surprise you if you are open to it.

--get publishing insights from anyone who offers it--in person on the phone or at a writers’ conference or reading their how-to books

--knock on many different doors and listen to see what opens

Am I missing something that you have experienced in the submission process? Let me know in the comments below. 

Tweetable:

According to this prolific editor and writer, at times, the process of working with authors on their submissions is like herding cats. Get the specifics here.  (ClickToTweet)

Much of the publishing process is outside of the writer’s control. 10 Publishing Myths helps writers have a realistic perspective and take action. Get 10 Publishing Myths for only $10 +FREE shipping + over $200 of free bonuses.