Plus a little content for you today. First, the promotional deal:
My publisher (Turner Publishing) is running a little lottery to give away a few dozen copies of my latest release, “The Seventh Thunder” (click to learn more about the book). There are no strings, though I’ll add that if you’d like to post a review I’m be most grateful.
Click HERE to enter. Your odds are good on this one. (Click HERE for the Amazon page.)
If you run blog and would like a review copy – and you don’t win this time – let me know, I’ll make it happen.
Here’s something to think about in the meantime.
Selling a story is like a job interview.
Maybe you’ve never thought of it like this. Maybe you should, because the parallels are… disturbingly accurate.
Employers have expectations and criteria when they post a job opening. Or even when they consider walk-ins. Applicants need to not only qualify for the job according to those criteria, they need to stand out from the other applications.
Writers tend to miss this perspective. Instead they “write from the heart,” and throw it out there, hoping that their heart is something others will want to read about. The truth is, readers want more from us, they have expectations and standards when they choose what to read.
So, if your story is a job application, the employer is an agent, an editor or simply a reader shopping for a good book… what are you offering them?
Most importantly, how will your book stand out from the crowd?
The crowd itself is genre-dependent. If you write sci-fi you aren’t competing with literary fiction or mysteries, the stage is already set for what you must present upon it.
Ask yourself: what sets your story apart? What makes it worthwhile? What constitutes an edge, something new and fresh and unexpected and – most importantly – compelling?
As in an interview, you get points for presentation, as well. How tight is your pitch (query)? How perfect is your manuscript on the page? How do you introduce the story using a logline that grabs attention, that differentiates, at a first glance?
From my own database of over 600 analyzed stories in the past three years, I can tell you this with certainty: most writers don’t think this way. Most of the stories I receive – and have to assume, represent most of the stories circulating out there – are generic, as if they are actually trying to join the crowd (even imitating it), rather than rising above it.
If it sounds like this: “the story is about two brother growing up in rural Iowa during the depression”… good luck with that. The waiting room is full of applicants with a better story to tell, and you may want to buff up on those criteria before your name is called.
If you want to land the job, make sure you can compete for it. The criteria is available, and when you compare your story to those principles and benchmarks, you may be surprised at the outcome.
Here’s hoping that outcome gets you hired.
But if you have more work to do… I can help.
I’m redesigning my story coaching programs, effective January 1, 2015.
Check back for details, but here’s a hint: you can get your concept evaluated for under fifty bucks, and the Questionnaires I’ve used are now beefed up to the extent they are more tutorials and interactive exercises you can apply immediately to your story, rather than just a pop quiz that accesses where you are (that’s important and useful, but now you’ll have a strategy).
More information will be posted soon on this, stay tuned.
*****
PRICE REDUCTION on my ebook, “Warm Hugs for Writers.” Now available for $2.95.
The book was a finalist in the crowed ebook category of the Next Generation Indie Awards, and delivers a combination of craft and comfort, along with a few laughs and shivers. Hoping you’ll check it out.
5 Responses
And even when we do all Mike says, just to get a foot in the door, it soon becomes obvious that not all efforts–or even good writing–works equally for all. Sometimes an agent’s decisions are good, other times quite opinionated. As applies equally to a lot of editors. Most, when being honest, will tell you things like, “I don’t really know good writing, it’s more of a feeling I get from a story,” or, “I like what I like and follow my instincts because it’s gotten me this far.”
You could go a hundred extra miles to get everything right on paper and still need to submit to a hundred different agents until your work is actually read, or sparks that certain something. Maybe a gut feeling, or possibly the kind of story they would like to write themselves.
In the end, this is what it really boils down to in most cases. That’s why everyone preaches persistence. If you don’t have thick skin and seek traditional publishing, you’ll get more bruises than an over-ripe banana. And more than that, most agents won’t even read your query before having some underling stuff a form rejection letter into an envelope or an email form sent back to you. Even most who say they are looking aren’t looking very hard, at least in the way most people might think they should. They make decisions within seconds. Query letters need to be crafted with the same sort of intrigue Larry teaches in nailing concept. If it’s not well crafted and as broadly interesting as possible, it isn’t going to nail that gut feeling these guys and gals are looking for.
Hence, one reason self-publishing is becoming so popular. It may be that in light of this, some folks are looking a little more closely and reading more queries with greater scrutiny. But by the same token, they are looking all the harder for what they feel will be worth their time because publishers aren’t throwing the same kind of money around that they used to.
On the other hand, if you allow this to stop you, and you don’t find a way to get your name in front of these people until they feel they need to take you seriously, then you’re in the wrong trade. Because as they say, folks–“That’s entertainment!”
I think that it always bears repeating that “commercial publishing is a business proposition, and it’s one that’s based on razor-thin margins and very improbable odds.” There are plenty of books in this world, plenty of good ones. Not much space on store shelves. And, despite the rise of “self publishing,” realistically only one way to do it: you have to excite the interest of an agent, who can excite the interest of a publisher, to take a gamble(!) on “little old you.”
Which means, especially, that … not only must your product(!) be good, it must also be salable. It must be SO “salable” that a publisher is willing to allocate an advertising budget to it. (And, fair warning: he’s playing the odds here. Yours is not the only horse he’s gambling on.)
And yet – every year – people DO succeed. We go to the bookstores that we love (and the bookstore-websites that we tolerate), and we DO find books that we love. When we read those books, they seem both fresh and familiar. Thanks to @Larry, we have a better idea why.
Hey Larry,
Glad to know about this. I always pay for what I receive – so if I win it, I’ll review it on Goodreads, FB, Amazon.com & Amazon.ca, and my blog.
Cheers!
Larry – winning is fun, but buying is better. If I don’t win a copy, I’ll rattle the billfold and buy. Many thanks.
I signed up for the free book. I take it that Turner uses this as a way of guaging which of their choices offered might get the most attention???
Either way, looking forward to reading it whether I win a copy or not 🙂