Dystopia: The New Utopia

There has been a lot of discussion about trends in the writing market recently. It seems that one can't really jump right into the current trend, because when one finally finishes the manuscript, agents/publishers are no longer accepting trend novels because the market is "filling up".

The YA trend has been vampires since Hurricane Twilight sent teenage girls racing to the bookstores. Everybody wanted to catch the gust and wrote vampire YA (books that I still greedily seek out). There is now an overflow of unpublished manuscripts and agents are rejecting all queries that have the word "vampire" in them.

The current and near-future trend seems to be YA Dystopia. I actually had to look up that word (anti-utopia), and I get it; I like watching movies where the world is inside-out after some catastrophe, and I should be able to enjoy such books as well. Of course, a dash of paranormal wouldn't ruin it for me.

When I read about the dystopia trend, I immediately thought that maybe I should try to write one, but by the time I'd get it done, everyone and their cousin will have sent out query letters and agents will be rejecting all queries containing the word "dystopia".

One might say that unpublished writers live in a dystopian world and are desperately trying to reach utopia. I think that the only chance writers have to ride the wave of trends is by either having manuscripts ready before the tide hits to be able to ship them out immediately when their genre is prophesied to be the next big thing, or to be abnormally fast at creating manuscripts, and risking the manuscript being rushed.

If you want to break into the market, you'll have to write what sells; and what sells is the current and next trend. Kristin Nelson recently talked about how most queries she's receiving today are about ghosts telling their stories, psychics solving a mystery, vampires (still, as she puts it), and people seeing things in dreams that lead them on an adventure. Apparently writers are expected to think outside the box and try to invent the next hype, but at the same time it is difficult to sell the manuscript because it involves a great risk to publishers.

I have tried to be innovative in my manuscript and created paranormal beings that I haven't seen before. Now the big, hairy and nasty question is: are they too innovative for the publishers to take the risk?

Literary Agent Resources

The tough, rough, and ever so frightening agents.

I have finished reading the manuscript and make the minor corrections -- finally. I realize that I'll have to read the first 40 pages again, just to see if the deletion of the first chapter and minor changes to the second chapter has gone smoothly. I don't want to miss a significant detail from the deleted first chapter.

What's next? After I've read those 40 pages, I will personalize query letters to each agent on my list. I currently have 22 agents listed. I know that there are loads more, and I will look for them after I have sent out to those 22. These are also only agents who accept e-queries. I know that e-queries are easier to discard than paper queries, but I still think e-queries are the easier choice.

--> Compile a list of desirable agents.

I wonder if it's better to send directly to the agents, or to their assistants. Will the agents be quicker to discard a query? I know that it was an assistant to fished out Stephenie Meyer's query letter, so perhaps they are the better choice. Some seem to have assistants while others don't. Regardless, I'll have to choose an agent within the agency, one that represents my genre.

--> Decide whom to query within the agency.

The agencies only allow people to query one agent, so querying all won't work. Janet Reid, however, suggests querying the others if the first one rejects. She says that if you don't hear back from the agents within 30 days, one should re-query. She also says that one shouldn't assume that silence = no, even if it's written on the agency's query page.

--> Decide a strategy for querying.

I have downloaded Sonar, a little program that'll keep track of my queries. I haven't tested it yet, but it looks neat and useful.

--> Keep track of when you send out the queries.

I have found useful sites to find agents. There's Query Tracker, Publishers Marketplace, and Agent Query. I've briefly looked through them and listed some agents. I'll take a better look at them later. Then, of course, there's Google and links on various blogs. I also always check the acknowledgements in the books I read to see who represents the author.

Then I research the agent a little; see what books he/she has had published in your genre, and which of those books were a hit. I read that advice a long time ago, and I always check published books on the agency pages. I also run a search through Google with the agent/agency name + scam, to see if there's any negative discussion about the agent/agency. This can be done if the agent requests a partial or full, but I like to do it beforehand.

--> Research your agent; see what books he/she's had published and check for scams.

Task for the day: Read the first 40 pages.

Stumped by the Story Question

Which Way?

Randy answered my question about placing the story question in the novel. My question was:

I followed the Writing Fiction for Dummies book to the letter after I wrote my novel, all except the part about a scene list. I thought it would take too much effort. I realized yesterday that I need to shift the scenes around, and I so regret not writing that list.

I’m going mad with trying to figure out how it all connects if I move two of my scenes earlier (so that the REAL story question of the book is in the first quarter, and not closer to the middle). There’s ton of things happening in the first 1/3 to keep the reader occupied, and I’ve been dropping clues left and right, all carefully concealed to the best of my ability.

The real story question is basically if the kids should choose between good or evil, but up until then the reader will have thought that the story question is how to get home, since that’s what the kids have been doing up until about 1/3 of the story.

How to get home is the ultimate goal, and the story question of the whole trilogy (this is book one).

How important is it to have the true story question of the book in the first quarter as opposed to nearer to 1/3 of the book?

Thanks in advance. I’ll appreciate help with this.

He gave me a very long, elaborate answer with examples of the five pillars of fiction; Storyworld, Characters, Plot, Theme, and Style.

Basically he said that if the story is plot-driven, as mine is, the story question should be clear very early in the manuscript. This had me sighing a little, but then I figured that I'm introducing a whole new world, and I felt that I couldn't go right into the story question (good or evil) until after I'd done some fair introduction. One of Randy's readers, Timothy R. Greene, commented and said that he likes to push the story question back for as long as he can. He thinks that it makes the story more of a mystery and keeps the reader interested.

I checked my manuscript and the story question is literally spelled out on page 112 of a 254 paged story. That's more than 1/3'd way through; it's closer to the middle. I honestly don't think that moving it forward will improve the story, since the ultimate goal is to get home and that's clearly obvious in the first 30 pages, but in order to get home they have to choose a path. They only get that information after having traveled the land, seen the evil race, and discovered and trained their different abilities. I tried moving the question closer to the beginning, but it just didn't work and didn't feel right, so I think I'm going to listen to my gut on this one.

I think that if I were to try again, I'd have to rewrite the whole thing from start. I'll have that as a backup plan if I only get rejections from both agents and publishers.

Task for the day: Read two chapters and fix in the document.

Rejected!

Picture from Audojungle.

I received an email yesterday; I got rejected. It took the agent less than 24 hours to respond and I appreciate that. I'm also very proud that I didn't cry. Of course it was hard and I had to take a few deep breaths, but I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have time to wallow in it. The very first rejection is probably the hardest (that, or the very first rude rejection). The letter was very polite, thanking me for the query, saying that unfortunately the manuscript didn't sound like something that's right for them, and wishing me the best of success on placing my work elsewhere.

--> Be strong and proud of yourself when you receive your very first rejection.

So I did some thinking. I read Jody Hedlund's advice on first chapter mistakes, and it confirmed my suspicion that my chapter starts off too slowly, with way too much backstory. She also advices to make the manuscript the very best it can be before querying. As I've reflected before, I think that mine could do with some work on the first chapters. So I've decided that before querying more agents, I'm going to delete the first three chapters and see if I can make the story go a lot faster. I'm also going to delete one of the minor plots that doesn't weight much anymore since I deleted the fifth chapter some weeks ago and rewrote it. This will both shorten the word count and make it more fast-paced.

--> Make the story the very best it can be before querying.

I started brainstorming yesterday, and continued when I woke up this morning. I now know how I'm going to start the chapter, and the rest should come easily after that (since I know my characters so well). I'm going to do what Jody suggests: throw the characters into the whirlpool and see what happens. I don't think I'll change the later chapters, only adjust them a little.

But today I'm going to take a breather. I'm going to finish reading the book I've been putting on hold, then I'm going to the library, and play with my kids over the weekend. I'll start writing on Monday, bright and early, so that I'll have the whole week to concentrate.

Task for the day: Relax.

Have a nice day!

Agent Querying

Inspired by Iceland

I just sent my very first query letter, and I actually feel a little queasy. My finger hovered for about a minute before I pressed the send button. I pressed it when my husband threatened to press it for me.

--> Be the one to press the very first send to your very first query!

I suppose that the reason I feel a bit queasy is a) nerves, b) excitement, c) the fact that I still haven't finished reading the final read of my manuscript. But it'll only take the next two days to finish reading it and I'm sure it'll take more than two days for the agent to pick out my query letter to read. They say I can expect a month. So I'll get busy reading today to make sure that there were no little mistakes last time I made corrections.

I also offered the agent to request the full proposal. I felt it was ready last night, but now I'm bit nervous since I feel I must shorten the character sketch part and maybe the author bio. Again, I should be able to do that over the weekend.

--> Be completely happy with your full profile before querying...if you don't want nerves to pain you the next day.

This is why you shouldn't query when you're too tired.

--> Be wide awake and fresh when querying.

Despite of all that, I'm very excited. I know my chances are slim, but I'm curious to see what happens. I thought the query letter turned out well and I included the first five pages of the manuscript.

What I was unhappy with was that I chose to write in plain format, which means that there were no italics and the whole thing looked just like a string of letters. I fixed it so that there were white spaces between paragraphs, but if the agent copies it to Word, there'll be double spaces. I chose to write in plain because then I'd be sure that there would be no funny letters in between (which sometimes happens in rich formatting). I've read multiple posts on how agents don't like fancy formats and such, so I made it as simple as I could. I have no idea if plain format is the right choice, but here's for hoping.

--> Don't use fancy fonts and decoration in your query letters.

I also kept to the point, but kept my voice, as many blog editors/agents recommend.

--> Keep your voice in the letter, but be professional.

I promise to post my query letter if I get published (if the publisher won't mind it). If you've been reading my blog, you'll see that I've complained about the lack of actual successful queries posted on the internet.

Well, it's independence day here in Iceland, 17th of June, and it's time to focus on my twins now. The celebration should be fun (even though I'll probably sneak in an hour or three of work).

Task for the day: Read 50 pages and then take a breather to enjoy the day.

Have a nice day!

Fantasy Forever

By bkharmaw on photobucket.com

Wow. I completed my query letter yesterday and sent it off to have it proofread. It'll take 1-2 days and it's already been one, and I'm oh-so-tired of waiting. How will I be when I actually send it and have to wait for a response? At least I feel that I'm ready to send it, and that's a good sign.

Since yesterday, I've been reading the manuscript yet again, and I'm so glad I did. Last time I read it, I made so many changes, so I've already found five places half way through where I forgot to delete a word. Naturally, I used the opportunity to change other little things as well.

--> Read the manuscript again if you've made a lot of changes.

I don't think I'll read it again though. I think I must have read all of the 250 word pages at least twenty times, and I so want to get the novel out there and try my luck. Honestly, I've read the manuscript so many times that I think I can tell the story blindfolded. At least I'll be able to tell the agent/publisher how changes would affect the rest of the chapters.

The query letter turned out nicely, I think. I've been poring over different hooks and then suddenly a good one came to me. I hope it'll catch the attention of the agent, if not, then I'll have other query letters ready, just in case.

--> If you're exclusively querying an agent, have other queries ready in case he/she turns you down.

As I've said before, I'm only going to query this one exclusively, and then I'll send a bunch if he declines.

I read an interesting interview with Stephenie Meyer. She said that she sent out 15 queries. Five didn't answer back and eight turned her down. She then got an agent deal and a huge book deal, and shortly after she received the ninth rejection letter that was terribly rude, saying that she'd never get published etc.

I find myself asking, why would agents send such rude letters? I can understand it if the writer querying is rude in his/her letter, but why be so mean?

I don't know. Yes, it's nice to get a critique, even if they break your heart, but downright rude critiques? I just don't see the point in them. At least this example shows how different agents are in their tastes.

I'm still bracing myself for the whole process of agent questing. As I've said before, I'm going to view the rejection letters as a part of the process and nothing personal (even if I'll get a rude letter like Meyer got). I'm kind of looking at it as a challenge, and I'm actually kind of looking forward to it.

And I'm so determined to get my book published. If it won't, I think I'll even re-write it, because the story idea and characters are good, and it's different and fresh. I wrote it before I knew anything of the market (the requirements, structure etc.), and then edited it afterwards. I've also been reading a lot of books in my genre recently and noticed that my novel doesn't start as quickly as they do. I think that if I'll get turned down by everyone, I might rewrite the first half of the novel (ugh, but it would be a challenge, and as I said: it's going to get published).

--> Be positive and keep rooting for your book!

I've also been worried about the trend of fantasy dieing down, but then I read somewhere that even though the agents are turning down all queries containing the word "vampire"; my novel doesn't have vampires in it. The beings I have created are different (and aren't remotely related to vampires), and might be just what the agents are looking for.

Fantasy will never die. It's been alive since our ancestors were telling stories about elves, trolls, Odin, Thor, and the rest in Valhalla. Even the ancient Egyptians told fantasies. It's in our blood, and it will continue to fascinate future generations.

So, I'll let myself believe that although vampires may be getting old, other kind of fantasy will take its place for now.

Task for the day: Read the next chapter.

Have a nice day!

P.S. Vampires may be fading, but I'm still heavily sucked in. I'm currently reading the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast.

Full Proposal Completed!

Inspired by Iceland

I finished my full proposal yesterday, and I feel incredibly accomplished! This means that all I need to do now is take a second look at the query synopsis before I send it out. I'm uncertain if I should send the Hollywood-action-blurp one, or the sedate-'stating what happens'-professional one. It seems that Query Shark would prefer the sedate one, but Heather Brewer has this nice action one that gave her nine out of eleven responses. But Heather's book is rated for kids of ages 9-12 on Amazon, and my book is for 14-22, or thereabouts. I wish I knew how Stephenie Meyer, Christopher Paolini and Cassandra Clare queried. Honestly, there should be a site with examples of the successful YA writers' query letters.

--> Have your query letter read for mistakes before sending it.

I have a problem. My fingers are itching to rewrite the whole first chapter and delete a chunk of the second chapter. I'm not sure if it's just an excuse not to send out the query yet (because the act of sending a query is terrifying to me), or if I'm truly unhappy with the first chapter. I suppose that if I look deep, I am happy with the first chapter, but it has a lot of backstory and doesn't "dive in" like many people suggest that first chapters should do. Still, I think it's beautifully written and it explains so much that needs explaining before the "point at which the action starts" (as Query Shark calls it). That point doesn't happen until the end of the second chapter/beginning of the third. And my chapters are loooong, I realized after I wrote the book. They're 7,000-8,000 words.

Kristin at Pub Rants says that the point of action should be within the first 30 pages. Mine is at page 33. I hope it doesn't make too much of a difference, but I'm now thinking that I could change the first chapter and delete a big part of the second to make that happen.

...Or maybe I'm just having a hard time letting go...

--> Learn to let go!

I asked Randy of how to do it and hope that he'll reply.

Task for the day: Look at nice queries and see if I can apply my novel to the recipe. Look at my already existing queries and see if I can make changes. Have my queries read to check spelling/punctuation.

Have a nice day!

Final Polishing

Well, it took a little longer than I thought, but I've finished my final polish at last. I ended up spending all of my time during the weekend with my sons, and I greatly enjoyed it. I suppose even writers need a break from their work. I've spent all days and evenings since reading the second half of the manuscript and typing it into the computer. I suppose it differs between writers, but I enjoy the reading and editing more than typing it all in.

I managed to get the manuscript down to 118,000 words, but I added an emotional chunk in the last chapter which took the manuscript up to 118,600 words. Still, it's better than 126.600, and it is true what they say; less is more. This first book of mine has gone through major changes since the original manuscript, but it being my first, I've been learning as I go and I'm very pleased with the results. What I've chopped off this round are things like "Meg said sardonically" and such, because the reader can already see that her remark was sarcastic.

--> The reader isn't stupid and can read between the lines.

I've wondered if I'd have to do such serious changes through the next manuscript, but I highly doubt it since I know a lot more now and I should be able to apply it as I write. My fingers are itching to write the next book, I already have some scenes written, but I've read some blogs and articles that recommend holding off writing the second book in a series until the first book is ready for publication, since the manuscript will go through serious editing first and that might change the whole second manuscript. I suppose I'll just write some scenes while querying agents, since the process supposedly takes so long.

Now that the manuscript is ready for querying, it's time to work on my full proposal again. I've found many articles and blogs on how to do it, and I'll also read Randy's book, which is just wonderful and easy to follow. I'll save the comparison to other books in the same genre for last, I think, since it's going to take some pondering. I know that it'll fly off my fingers once I get into it though. I have already finished the two-page synopsis, which wasn't difficult to write at all! All I did was follow Randy's formula and voila! Randy is my Wikipedia of getting published.

--> Write a two-page synopsis.

I submitted my one-sentence summary to Rachelle Gardner's blog, but I learned that it was much to vague. I'll have to spend some time on it to make it better. Rachelle made long posts on what made the winning entries win and what made the bad one bad. I think I need to introduce more conflict into the sentence. There's a lot of conflict in the book, but to make it so that it's conveyed in 25 words or less is a bit difficult. Apparently, according to some, this one-sentence summary (storyline) is a big deal for publishers. I like Randy's reasons for writing one, and that is to be able to tell people and agents/publishers you're meeting what the book is about in one, short sentence. I tried following his instructions on how to write one, but as I said, mine is too vague and could apply to a number of books.

Currently it goes: Stuck in a mystical world, Eva is forced to pick a side in a deadly battle between good and evil to get home.

I also had: Eva and the boy of her dreams are stuck in a mystical world, and are forced to pick a side in a deadly battle between good and evil to get home.

What I was trying to point out here is that they'd consider choosing evil. Clearly their stake is to get back home and the conflict was supposed to be to choose.

The problem, I think, is that the stakes of the series is to get home, while the stakes of this one book is to choose between helping the good or evil. The storyline for the second book is easy, but that's not going to sell this book.

I think I'll have to re-think the whole sentence and maybe approach it from different angle.

--> Write a one-sentence summary (storyline).

Maybe I could have it: Eva loves Richard and they’re stuck in a mystical world together, but when Eva meets the dark and dangerous enemy, she finds it hard to fight the attraction.

That's Eva's conflict, and she's the only PoV character in the book. The choice between good and evil is more the conflict for the group (of four) as a whole.

Any thoughts?

Today's task: Print out two copies of the book and have two obliging friends read it over one last time. Work on the full proposal - Executive Summary, to be exact - and finalize my character profiles (have most if it done already).

Take care!