Perfect Pitch

The best novel in the world isn’t going to capture the attention of an agent or editor if you don’t know how to pitch it. And the “pitch” is just exactly that. When constructing your queries, responding to calls for submissions, or looking for representation for your work, it’s easy for the uninitiated to make some fatal mistakes. Keep in mind that most agents and editors are powering through at least 200 queries a week, usually many more. More importantly, they have one and only one burning question in their minds as they do: Can I sell it? So for better or worse, your queries need to somehow address that single question. You are not selling yourself, your background, the astonishing intricacies of your plot or the compelling details of the character development. You are not pleading, coaxing or begging to have your genius recognized. You job is to intrigue them enough to make them want to see more. That is the essence of a perfect pitch. Step One: The Hook With so many queries running through the average agent’s or editor’s mailbox on any given day, if you don’t capture their attention in the first line or so, chances are they won’t read much past it. Thus, your hook can pose a compelling question relevant to your novel’s premise; you can compare your work to other bestsellers in the genre, or you can insist that your novel goes where no novel has every gone before. Your choice, but don’t be cute, don’t try to be funny and don’t try to otherwise divert their attention from the business at hand. Regardless of how you frame it though, hook them you must. Do NOT begin by telling them how long it took you to write it, who recommended that you write them, or how frustrating it is to find good help these days. Neither should you introduce yourself by telling them their business, i.e, “Paranormal fiction is flying off the shelves.” Everybody knows that. Step Two: The Jist Two short paragraphs at most, and hard as hell to write. More specifically, the body of your letter should address the three principle elements of your story—the protagonist, the setting and the plot. Period. Paragraph number two is all about the plot development. “After joining forces, X and Y struggle against the forces of evil embodied by A,B and C in their quest for the Grail. ” You do not need to let them know the detail of how the plot is resolved, only that is it resolved. Which should then be followed by a memorable sort of summary: “Their lives will be forever changed with the revelation that not every Prophecy is fated to come true.” That’s it, that’s all. No mas. That your characters take a side trip to Atlanta, or attend their 20th high school reunion may be all very well and good, but it doesn’t mean a thing who somebody who hasn’t read your book. So skip it. Step Three: Your Bio Here’s where too many authors make the mistake of trying to oversell themselves, rather than relying on their pitch to do the work for them. Many will include all their publication credits, how they’ve been writing for 19 years while the kids were asleep, and even their “day jobs”. If you blog as financial editor but your novel has nothing to do with finance, skip it. The key to imparting information about yourself is to only impart the information that is relevant to your novel. You can get friendly once they accept your manuscript. Close your query with the offer to send sample chapters or a complete manuscript. Let them know how long the manuscript is, and thank them for their time. Sign it, include your contact information and voila! Perfect pitch. Need help? See our sponsor page http://www.villagegreenpressLLC.com is offering a new AGENT LINK service. Special pricing for a limited time only!

The Editorial Bloopers Hall of Fame: Part One by Teresa Kennedy

Okay writers, let’s face it. We all have our little quirks, idiosyncrasies and those weird, entirely individual conventions in our style of personal expression that have a way of working themselves into our prose.
Sometimes, those can manifest on the page as what is politely called “authorial intrusion”. Other times, they are celebrated as the true essence of the author’s emergent “voice”. Most times, however, they provide unfortunate evidence that the overworked and underappreciated writer maybe should have gotten up from the computer and gone outside for more fresh air and sunshine until they stopped writing long enough to figure out what they were actually trying to say.
Remember folks, it’s not the number of words you write, but the quality and precision of those words that count. So to honor some of the most prevalent, and in some cases, downright spectacular crimes ever committed in the name of literature, we present the following examples, each in its own weird way, worthy of a mention in our Editorial Bloopers Hall of Fame:
The Directionally Challenged: “She looked up at the ceiling, as she sat down in her chair.” Here’s the thing: Ceilings are always UP and readers tend to know this. So are stars, the sky and indeed the firmament. Similarly, it is very difficult for a character to sit anywhere but down. Any and all chairs, sofas, settees tend to be constructed for that convenience. The only possible exception is when a character sits up from a prone position, at which time it is almost never necessary to specify what they are sitting up on. Surprisingly, readers are also never interested when characters “walk across the floor”. If they are indoors, there’s always a floor and everybody knows that.
Nouns are Not Verbs: Sure, you may insist upon poetic license, you might call it stylistically experimental, but the fact is, if your readers share a common language, we’re all fairly familiar with the basics of how it’s supposed to work. In much the same way that you can flavor tofu to taste like steak, but everybody still knows it’s tofu, dressing a noun up in verb’s clothing just doesn’t cut it. Therefore, sentences such as “Myrna fisted her hand.” Or “Gregory lipped a smile,” are enough to give the average reader serious pause. And guess what? When a reader pauses, they’ve stopped reading.
Body Parts: It is an unwritten rule of editorial thumb that unless you’ve authored some sort of zombie apocalypse, body parts should not react independently of the characters they’re attached to. “Her head swiveled at Alfonse’s entrance, as her chest heaved” might mean anything from torrid attraction to something out of The Exorcist, but unless we know the parts are indeed attached to the character in question, we have no way of discerning just what Milady’s reaction to Alfonse might consist of. Too often, a writer will zone in on the part in question thinking to clue us in, (her head is moving so she must be thinking) rather than specifying what’s actually going on, saying things such as, ”Her hand made a little gesture,” instead of actually coming out and saying if she was doing the royal wave or flipping somebody off. It never, ever works.
Winkin’, Blinkin’ and Nods. Truly the bane of a line editor’s existence, if we had the proverbial nickel for every time we blue-lined one of these, we probably wouldn’t be blogging. “He nodded his head,” “She blinked her eyes rapidly. “ “Ferdinand couldn’t resist another wink of his eye.” If you don’t find this device redundant, just try nodding something besides your head, or winking or blinking some bit of anatomy that isn’t your eye. See what we mean? Wink, wink.

Tune in again for Part Two of The Bloopers Hall of Fame!

Are Ghosts the New Vampire?

Teresa and I noticed a trend in horror novels lately: ghosts have become core characters in lieu of vampires. I find this very interesting because many have had experiences with what they would call a ghost or spirit whereas the vampire universe is relatively closed, or at least seems to be. I suppose enough people watch the Halloween specials on Discovery or A&E featuring real-life practitioners of vampirism, but I would bet if you approached 25 people on a dark street in, say, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and asked whether they had ever seen a ghost or experienced "spirit" activity, you would receive many affirmative responses.

So we're going to put it out to our readers: are ghosts the new vampire? And do you have a ripping yarn to tell about ghosts, vampires or both? Whatever your answer, as Halloween is fast approaching, we would love to post some good tales and get your opinion.

Why Rejection Letters Aren't Necessarily a Bad Thing

Face it, we have all received the dreaded rejection letter. I don't know but there is something about receiving a paper letter that makes it more "real" than an e-mail - perhaps it is the fact you can physically tear paper into bits - but whatever form the letter takes, the sting can hurt. It can also make you do one of two things: step up and figure out whether there is a flaw in your product that you can fix; or pout and blame it on the ineptitude of the author of said rejection. Clearly the second option feels better for about five minutes. Then most professionals would move back to option one.

Some rejection letters give clues regarding what might have gone south for you. Perhaps the agent or publishing house doesn't represent or print the type of story you have. That goes back to your research and not their lack of ability to see the next bestseller. If that is your problem, then perhaps it would behoove you to actually pay attention to the statement of what a given agent/publisher says they will accept.

Often the letter will tell you specific details about why your work was not accepted. Perhaps it was too long; or the writing good but not salable. It happens. And it can help you write better.

The question is how will you handle it? Because how you decide to cope with this business of rejection is important. It is also critical to your ability to enter the publishing fray for the long haul. Expect rejection, but do not court it by submitting things too quickly and without forethought for the recipient. If the entity asks for 5 pages, don't send the whole manuscript. If they say they only publish e-books, don't ask for print copies. These seem silly, but as much as these points beg the obvious, you would be surprised how many people do not read details regarding submissions. And, bottom line, not everyone can be an author published traditionally. Sometimes enough rejections despite your best efforts to make a work salable is a clue that being an author is not your forte.

Regardless, it is important to accept receiving rejections as part of the business of writing professionally.

Recommended Reading Corner

Sometimes an aspiring author needs a little humor and advice all in one wonderful package to reference:


How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs If You Ever Want to Get Published by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman
Penguin, 272pp

Available on amazon.com

Here is a marvelous excerpt.:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article5530183.ece

The Difference Between a Good Book and a Great One

In the course of my checkered history in publishing I’ve dealt with a whopping number of egos, personalities, talents and not so talented types and I can tell you for certain that if there’s anything all publishing folks have in common, be they writer, agent, editor or publisher—it’s the quintessential search for The Holy Grail of the industry, a REALLY GREAT BOOK, hereinafter referred to as an RGB.

Now because of the various egos involved, all the agents, editors, writers and publishers will go through a perfectly enormous of amount of chest- thumping, posturing, bean- counting and opinion-mongering about just what constitutes an RGB. Any number of experienced and not-so-experienced people are only too happy to pipe up and offer advice about producing that hottest of properties. They will tell you that it’s a matter of capturing the “bestseller formula”, of plot, luck, timing, subject matter, category, perfecting your craft, finding your audience, establishing a social platform, adequate editing, exquisite marketing, a picture perfect format; who you know, not what you know; and last but not least, a great cover design.

In point of fact, all of the above contribute to, but do not necessarily constitute ,the RGB. A really fine fictional craftsman can find fans and sell copies without ever getting credit for having written an RGB. A brilliant marketer can make hay while the proverbial sun shines, hold live internet chats and willing authors will be enthralled with tales of his or her success. But it doesn’t mean they have written an RGB.

In my younger days, I devoted no end of effort into discovering the secret to producing the RGB: What IS that elusive thing that makes the publisher buy it, makes the public hanker for it, and makes your agent rich enough to retire to the Hamptons simply because he or she “discovered “it?

The only answer I ever managed, after millions of hours of research and countless hours of writing, paying my publishing dues and so forth was, hmmm--perhaps all these experts spend their off hours reading tarot cards and entrails? I mean, who knew?

Many years later, I’m beginning to discover that I might have gotten closer to the truth than I’d imagined. Because if there’s anything that RGB’s have in common with the business of publishing it is, that like tarot cards and entrails, there is always something about them that depends to a large extent on intuition.

The psychologist Carl Jung defined intuition as "perception via the unconscious" while Thomas Merton said the artist has a subjective identification with an object that is intensified and so can "see" the object's spiritual reality.

Any writer makes a host of essentially intuitive choices in the course of writing a book, of course. But it’s not so much the ability to “write what you know” that defines a great book, it’s the ability to tap your intuition and write what we ALL know that really counts. What readers respond to without always knowing why, is that spiritual reality that goes beyond the specifics of plot or formula or character and enters the realm of our common experience as human beings.

For a writer, the real key to what we call the creative process lies in that moment when those characters stop doing and saying what you want them to do and start moving through your story on their own. It lies not so much in your ability to write from a well constructed outline, but to depart from it. That takes courage, a certain amount of skill and a fair command of your craft, but it also takes the ability to really listen to that inner voice.

So the next time you find yourself obsessing over how many words you’ve written today, or whether Marcie’s eyes are the same color on page 230 as they were on page 12; or what the next wave in paranormal fashion might consist of, take a step back and read between those lines. What you find there is almost more important than the words on the page.

It isn’t magic—but it’s close.

The photo

If anyone is wondering, Lisa took the photo from the top of a butte in Nebraska. Nice sunset, eh?