I remember many years ago being in a class for the Learning Annex. It was a class on getting your novel published. There would be a guest speaker from a literary agency.
Once the class began and the literary agent was introduced, the teacher asked him the following question. What do you need to do to get your novel published? This was his answer although it wasn’t word for word.
“Don’t ever send your manuscript to a literary agent until you get a short story published. We receive hundreds of manuscripts from writers who never had a short story published. You know what we do with those manuscripts. We sit around, order in Chinese food, send out rejection letters, and throw the manuscripts out.”
The rest of the class was a blur. I left after the first part of it, went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered Wonton Soup, an Egg Roll, and Chicken Lo Mein. Hey, I was in the mood for it. It’s my favorite lunch.
Years later, I remember being at a writers conference where I met several literary agents. I started talking to one of them and asked him this question. What if you received a manuscript from someone that had their short story published in Ellery Queen or Playboy?
His answer. Doesn’t matter. I know a good writer when I see one. Just send me a one page query letter. I can tell from that letter how good that writer is.
Maybe one can say that everyone is different and I would agree with that. After all, I can imagine that literary agents are overwhelmed with manuscripts and don’t know what to do.
With all that said, it seems amazing that I can read a story in the Houston Chronicle praising Indie Authors. The article mentions that many different publishers including Amazon produced nearly 400,000 self-published books last year, according to Publishers Weekly.
How about open mic night for Indie Authors in DC where dozens of people gathered for Politics and Prose just a few days ago. Several authors had a few minutes to read their work to the public. All you need to do is feed in a digital manuscript into a Espresso Book machine and you have a paperback book.
With all the success that the Fifty Shades of Grey is having, it seems that things are obviously changing in the publishing world. It may not be that easy to cast manuscripts aside anymore as the reviewer in the Houston Chronicle said, now that another novel, The Shack by Paul Young, spent 52 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Yes, there are stories on writers who are not happy about the indie author craze. I’m sure that many indie writers have faced the same obstacles as I have as well. In any case, I’ll bring up one more story in my experience for everyone.
Many years ago, I was at writers conference for the MWA, the Mystery Writers Association. I was part of their mentor program. I joined other writers and turned in the first 50 pages of my manuscript to a published author and they would give me their feedback.
Part of the mentor program included an event where two literary agents talked about how writers can get published. Here was their advice.
They said that you should try to talk to an author and see if he or she will read your book and give you a recommendation. If they do, then they will read the book.
At the end of the conference, I smiled and went up to that literary agent with the letter that my mentor had written and showed it to him. You see, my mentor said that he really enjoyed the first 50 pages of my book and thought the story had a lot of potential. He made some suggestions and finished by saying that he hoped to read the entire novel one day.
That literary agent said that he would like to read my novel. I sent it to him on a Thursday by Federal Express next day and I received his rejection letter on Tuesday. It was postmarked the next day, which was Friday.
Best of luck to my fellow indie writers. I wish you nothing but success in what you’re doing. Keep up the good work.
Rick Holman
*P.S. It goes without saying that the advise by the literary agent at the MWA mentor program was beyond outrageous. I cancelled my membership with the MWA after they published that in their newsletter.
Indie Author of 96 Rocks and A Hell Of A Woman under Ron Hummer. There may be a new book coming called Starting Over.
http://blog.chron.com/bookish/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/open-mike-night-for-self-published-authors/2013/01/29/f907370a-6736-11e2-9e1b-07db1d2ccd5b_story.html
Once the class began and the literary agent was introduced, the teacher asked him the following question. What do you need to do to get your novel published? This was his answer although it wasn’t word for word.
“Don’t ever send your manuscript to a literary agent until you get a short story published. We receive hundreds of manuscripts from writers who never had a short story published. You know what we do with those manuscripts. We sit around, order in Chinese food, send out rejection letters, and throw the manuscripts out.”
The rest of the class was a blur. I left after the first part of it, went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered Wonton Soup, an Egg Roll, and Chicken Lo Mein. Hey, I was in the mood for it. It’s my favorite lunch.
Years later, I remember being at a writers conference where I met several literary agents. I started talking to one of them and asked him this question. What if you received a manuscript from someone that had their short story published in Ellery Queen or Playboy?
His answer. Doesn’t matter. I know a good writer when I see one. Just send me a one page query letter. I can tell from that letter how good that writer is.
Maybe one can say that everyone is different and I would agree with that. After all, I can imagine that literary agents are overwhelmed with manuscripts and don’t know what to do.
With all that said, it seems amazing that I can read a story in the Houston Chronicle praising Indie Authors. The article mentions that many different publishers including Amazon produced nearly 400,000 self-published books last year, according to Publishers Weekly.
How about open mic night for Indie Authors in DC where dozens of people gathered for Politics and Prose just a few days ago. Several authors had a few minutes to read their work to the public. All you need to do is feed in a digital manuscript into a Espresso Book machine and you have a paperback book.
With all the success that the Fifty Shades of Grey is having, it seems that things are obviously changing in the publishing world. It may not be that easy to cast manuscripts aside anymore as the reviewer in the Houston Chronicle said, now that another novel, The Shack by Paul Young, spent 52 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Yes, there are stories on writers who are not happy about the indie author craze. I’m sure that many indie writers have faced the same obstacles as I have as well. In any case, I’ll bring up one more story in my experience for everyone.
Many years ago, I was at writers conference for the MWA, the Mystery Writers Association. I was part of their mentor program. I joined other writers and turned in the first 50 pages of my manuscript to a published author and they would give me their feedback.
Part of the mentor program included an event where two literary agents talked about how writers can get published. Here was their advice.
They said that you should try to talk to an author and see if he or she will read your book and give you a recommendation. If they do, then they will read the book.
At the end of the conference, I smiled and went up to that literary agent with the letter that my mentor had written and showed it to him. You see, my mentor said that he really enjoyed the first 50 pages of my book and thought the story had a lot of potential. He made some suggestions and finished by saying that he hoped to read the entire novel one day.
That literary agent said that he would like to read my novel. I sent it to him on a Thursday by Federal Express next day and I received his rejection letter on Tuesday. It was postmarked the next day, which was Friday.
Best of luck to my fellow indie writers. I wish you nothing but success in what you’re doing. Keep up the good work.
Rick Holman
*P.S. It goes without saying that the advise by the literary agent at the MWA mentor program was beyond outrageous. I cancelled my membership with the MWA after they published that in their newsletter.
Indie Author of 96 Rocks and A Hell Of A Woman under Ron Hummer. There may be a new book coming called Starting Over.
http://blog.chron.com/bookish/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/open-mike-night-for-self-published-authors/2013/01/29/f907370a-6736-11e2-9e1b-07db1d2ccd5b_story.html