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What Do You Wish You Had Known Before You Sent Your First Ms. to An Editor?
I’m going to be giving a panel discussion in a week on “The Business of Romance.” The challenge here is that none of the panelists know who the audience will be for this. It could run the gamut of already published authors to curious bystanders to wanna-be-published authors. So I need to keep it basic.
What did you want to know before you got published and what did you need to know? I’m thinking back to the Dark Ages, when I wrote with a quill pen on parchment, and I recall that once I thought about writing a story I looked up what you did need. I checked out:
-- What markets were out there
-- What the heck a query, synopsis and partial were
I had a partial (maybe even a full story along with the partial -- it’s been awhile but I think I was still the three chapter wonder back then) which I sent off with my S.A.S.E. I dutifully sent my submission package out one at a time and waited until a rejection came before sending the next one. Since, alas, I was new, I didn't have to wait very long. I was through with all the potential markets I could find within three or four months. The rejection slips moved briskly.
Because I hadn't really done the first thing I needed to do.
-- Find out what sells in the market I wanted to sell to
I don't mean the latest trends or what agent is looking for what. I mean basic things like creating a romance plot that would hold up for at least 75,000 -- 100,000 words (though -- face it -- I don't do that now, either. I just write for a different market.) I had written a historical, too, one in a time period no one wanted to buy. Hey, I didn't know. I didn't even know I didn't know.
What did you want to know before you got published and what did you need to know? I’m thinking back to the Dark Ages, when I wrote with a quill pen on parchment, and I recall that once I thought about writing a story I looked up what you did need. I checked out:
-- What markets were out there
-- What the heck a query, synopsis and partial were
I had a partial (maybe even a full story along with the partial -- it’s been awhile but I think I was still the three chapter wonder back then) which I sent off with my S.A.S.E. I dutifully sent my submission package out one at a time and waited until a rejection came before sending the next one. Since, alas, I was new, I didn't have to wait very long. I was through with all the potential markets I could find within three or four months. The rejection slips moved briskly.
Because I hadn't really done the first thing I needed to do.
-- Find out what sells in the market I wanted to sell to
I don't mean the latest trends or what agent is looking for what. I mean basic things like creating a romance plot that would hold up for at least 75,000 -- 100,000 words (though -- face it -- I don't do that now, either. I just write for a different market.) I had written a historical, too, one in a time period no one wanted to buy. Hey, I didn't know. I didn't even know I didn't know.
M adds: One of the best ways to find out what's selling is to check with your local bookstore. Ask for the best sellers shelf. You can do the same thing at BN.com, AllRomanceEbooks.com, and Fictionwise.com. The good news is, these days, with e-books, even if you're interested in writing for a genre that's not in the top 10, or even the top 100, there's sure to be a publisher who specializes in what you want to write. You just need to do a little more research.
Which leads us to the most important part of pre-marketing yourself -- do your homework. Know your target market. Find out who publishes what, read their books, and read their submissions guidelines. The process of submissions is, in large part, a sales job. And nothing says "I don't know what I'm doing" better than sending the wrong book to the right publisher.
Treva Harte
Margaret Riley
