Creative Nonfiction Blog by Brenda Gaines Hunter

Is Self-publishing the Future?

Interesting article in at MSNBC @ Newsweek. Tell me what you think.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/30/who-needs-a-publisher.html

Creating the Pitch

The most difficult thing I've had to do recently, besides move to a new city, is write the query letter and the synopsis. How do you condense a complicated memoir into two pages--not to mention sum it up in a paragraph in the query letter? It took at least seven rewrites to do so. Each time I chopped a little more off.

It may seem silly to worry so much, but the query letter and synopsis is likely all that most agents will ever read about my manuscript. Marketing is everything. Agents work hard to find material they can sell.  Many receive hundreds of queries each month and have to dismiss quickly those they feel they cannot sell. Therefore, it is so important to not only write a timely and interesting book, but to also be able to pitch it well and quickly.

I'm beginning to realize that agent rejections only mark me as a true writer. Agents reject manuscripts for many reasons that have nothing to do with the story or quality of the writing. I just have to remember that the agent has to believe that s/he can sell the book. If you've truly written an interesting book (have it critiqued by other serious writers), if the writing is very good, if the voice is fresh--a rejection is not an indictment of the book. Keep writing and pitching.

The Business Side

I know I haven't been writing much. The business side of writing is a little mysterious. I guess everyone would like a magic formula for approaching editors and agents. So I'm not alone.

I have spent about the past month looking up publishers in the 2008 Writer's Market. The book is a compendium of markets, and I'm a little overwhelmed by it. What I realize is that no book can tell me who is looking for what right now, this week. I keep hoping that excellent,engaging writing will prevail in the end.

But that's just it. No one can tell me where the "end" is located, either.

The reason why I'm being so secretive about my agent search is because I don't want to piss anyone off. However, like I said earlier, the agents have been very thoughtful. My personalize rejection rate is about 25%, and it's still early in my search.

The truth of the matter is that I really don't want to tell too much. This is a public blog. I don't think it's in my best interests to tell how many queries I have sent out or how many rejections there have been. While rejections are to be expected, I don't want agents to think the book is not strong,to take the attitude of "Why should I care about your manuscript when X, Y, and Z have rejected it.

So here, on the business side, I need to be discreet.

Marketing

Typepad's changed the composition space. Now I'm lost!

Haven't been very talkative lately. That's because I'm doing marketing--the business side of writing and don't want to offend anyone.

I have sent out eighteen queries and, overall, the response has been very good. I received four personal responses, and the last response came with a challenge--the full content of which I'm not ready to divulge, except to say that the challenge includes excellent advice.

What I've been trying to do is excerpt a couple of parts of my manuscript. Since my manuscript isn't divided into chapters, I'm finding it a little difficult to find appropriate parts. Plus, I'm just blind when it comes to the manuscript at this point. It's been difficult for me to read it, since the first draft.

The point of excerpting is to find one or two appropriate parts to send to magazines. The one thing I don't like about excerpting is that it is difficult to capture the major theme in an excerpt.

One thing's for sure, though: If I'm going to be a working writer at some point, I better learn to market.

I'm reminded of a friend I used to have many years ago who made a living making paintings. Yes, she was a fine artist. She told me that, outside of talent, two things were important to her success: (1) her MFA and (2) her willingness to approach galleries. Having an MFA, or an advanced degree serves as a type of screening device for many galleries. It shows that your skill has been screened and that you have at least a basic talent. There are a lot of wanna-be "American Idols" trying to get into the world of art, and many can't "sing." A degree assures galleries that you can. Having the degree was paramount to her getting her work into galleries and marketing her work to paying clients.

Writing is no different. I'm banking on success not being the crapshoot that many books make it out to be. Yes, luck plays a role in everything. But being in the game, coupled with talent can help to create luck. I've gotten enough feedback from English professors, to lay readers, to agents to believe that I actually write very well, and I'm not just wasting my time. I don't write for me. I write for an audience. I write because I'm lonely. Therefore, it's of paramount importance for my writing to appear to be the work of a talented writer.

Local TV Appearance

I was invited to appear on a local TV show which airs out of the University of Chicago to hawk my book. At first I didn't know if I wanted to do it, because I did not have a book contract. After reading about marketing my book, I decided I better jump at that chance, any chance to build an audience. More later...

Readying Myself for My First Rejections

Well, I finished editing This is How it Ends right before I moved to Chicago at the end of November. I had the start of a query letter, but I didn't have the time to write the synopsis. I wrote and had the synopsis and query letter edited and rewrote them after I settled into my apartment here in Chicago.