Are Your Future Goals Realistic

When I talk to prospective authors one of the questions I always ask them (or variations of it) is where they see their career going? It is a basic question that we hear asked at most job interviews. But what is the real purpose of the question? 

Employers are actually listening for several different things. For jobs outside of publishing, they are looking to see if you are planning to stay at the company for a long time, how you see yourself becoming a team player and really integrating yourself into the company atmosphere. Obviously a company doesn't want you to come in, and then the following year, ditch on them and move on. 

Education and learning is also something employers and now editors and agents want to hear. We want to see how much of a growth mindset you have. We want to know that you are open to change. The market is always going to be changing and we want to know that you, as an author can flex with the time. We also want to know that if we make suggestions, or if your editor gives you revisions, you can take care of those without fighting and arguing. We listen and are always open to ideas, but remember, those editors do tend to know the market and trends a bit better. 

We also really want to see if you have a realistic sense of your future. When an author believe that he or she is planning on making writing a career after their first book, it immediately tells me they have no sense of the business. When they believe that once they have an agent, their book immediately sells, this tells me they are not quite there yet. 

What about your goals for how many books you can write in a year? Telling me it took you 3 years to write a 70,000 word manuscript could be a sign you are not ready for this business. Of course the reverse is true. I actually had a person tell me in a query letter that she writes a 70-100 K manuscript every month. Quality? Hmmmm? ChatGpt? Maybe? 

As you look at your goals, also take the time to consider that you likely have a life going on around you. You probably have a job. You might have a spouse or significant other. You will get sick every now and then. Things will come up. If you do get a contract from an editor, you will get revisions in the middle of writing another book. You will have to market while writing. 

Always be realistic with your goals. Always be honest with yourself. 

Quit Making Up Genres - A Small Rant

I am keeping this one short today because I have a full day of mindless meetings but I have to get this off my chest.

This last weekend, I answered a ton of submissions and there were many who just hit a nerve with me. In an attempt to "not categorize themselves" they made up their own genres. 

Oh, that's right! The created their own genre names. I guess they figured that if the publishers could do it, then an unpublished author could do it as well. OK, maybe they can, but it isn't going to really get you any brownie points with those editors and agents. 

I am going to return to the same thing I say over and over again about knowing the genre of your story. Booksellers, whether brick and mortar or online need to know what shelf you book belongs on. Agents need to know which publisher and which editor we need to send your book to. When you make up a genre in an attempt to prove that your story some how "crosses genres" (when in reality is really a hot mess) gives us no direction. 

So telling me your story is a Dystopian Narrative Non-Fiction Memoir Collection of Romantasy Essays.... I think you get the idea.

Why Duel Timelines Are Difficult

Oh I get it. You as an author see it perfectly in your head. You see the parallel storylines. You see how the two storylines are connected together so perfectly. You have a contemporary heroine finding a journal during a home reno project of her grandmother's house telling a story of a distant relative that is mirroring the things going on in her life and voila, a parallel storyline novel!

Unfortunately, what often happens is that what we often read are two small stories and the only thing that connects them is a single line of "Juliet sat the journal down and returned to her daily life in Springfield, Colorado." 

The theory behind this approach is that the present day character is lost and is truly gaining knowledge from the prior world. The mistakes that person made in the past and how they overcame those errors are the life lessons the modern day person uses to overcome their issues. In some cases, they see what the past did, think that was ridiculous and then find themself in the same situation and only after getting into an even worse situation, do they realize they should have listened to the past. 

Where authors fall down on the job here is that they don't bridge the gap for the readers. The author sees is all too well and they only assume the reader gets it. They know they don't want to spell it out too much, but in the effort to not give too much away, they give nothing away.

I would also add, if you didn't figure it out already from the way I started it, the story approach is a bit trope heavy. We find a journal. We find a box of letters. We find some newspaper article... blah, blah, blah.

Seen it. Done it.

For You On Query Manager - Quit Changing Your Genre!

I get it... The whole click your genre thing on query manager is not that effective, BUT, get as close as you can, please.

I just spent the morning answering query letters and so many of you said your genre was one thing on the summary information I see before reading the actual "query letter" and then, when I start reading, I find that I am now reading something completely different. And honestly, when I say completely different, I mean completely different. 

Chick let became a dystopian dark murder thriller.

A category romance designed for something such as Harlequin or Entangled romance became a 180,000 word single title legal crime novel. 

I am hoping that some of you just did the best you could.

But, I also know that there are a lot of authors out there who will do anything to get your manuscript in front of an editor or agent even if it means maybe twisting the information a bit. Remember, this is not going to help you. Query manager does allow us to ARCHIVE your submissions. A lot of other agents, like myself take that information and put it into an external spreadsheet so I know I know if I have seen you before on or off of query manager. 

As I have always said, this is part of the reason I am not a big fan of Query Manager. You are limited as an author as to what you can click. As agents, we are limited as to how we can shape what we put in our form. And finally, we have to hope you as authors will actually LEAVE Query Manager and do what we tell you which is to go and visit our website first to see exactly what we want. And guess what, while you are there, you could just simply write that query letter and submit it to us directly telling us just what your story is without having to navigate the whole Query Manager mess.

Just a thought....