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1. Where do you get your ideas?
2. How do I get my book published?
3. Do I need an agent? How
do I get one?
4. Do I need to copyright my
work before I send it out?
5. How do I know how many pages
or how many chapters my book should have?
6. What's the difference between
manuscript pages and book pages?
1. Where do you get your ideas?
Ideas can come from anywhere.
I don't think anyone can explain the way writers' brains work! Some
mixture of curiosity and imagination goes to work on a "spark",
but what strikes that spark in the first place? I really believe that
God gives us the creative urge, the talent, and the "sparks"
that strike us, and it is up to us to deliver something in return for
all those gifts! My ideas sometimes come from research I'm doing for
an existing story, but sometimes they come from dreams. I've noticed
that a story idea often evolves out of two separate "sparks"
when I pair them together. Most of my books have developed from characters
first, but some have come from situations or settings that attracted
me.
2. How do
I get my book published?
(Also see my articles "Top 5 Mistakes in Marketing Your Book"
and "How to Write the Perfect Query Letter" on the Eclectics
Writer Pages)
A. Write the very best book
you are capable of creating. Give it as much time as it takes --if you
get published, you will never again have as much time to spend on this
process as with your first book.
B. Study the market. Where
does your book fit in? Research in bookstores to find out which publishers
would be likely to want your book. Publishers are conservative --they
prefer books that fit into existing lines or are somewhat similar to
other books they have published and found an audience for. Make a "likely
target" list of publishers you think would be interested in your
book.
C. Find out all you can about
each one, using the Internet, latest Writer's Market, networking. Write
to request their "tip sheet" or writer's guidelines (always
include an SASE). You may be able to get their catalogue, or at least
study the offerings on their website. Then, get the name of an editor
to contact. Sometimes an author will credit their editor in a book's
forward or acknowledgment or dedication. It is also possible to call
a publishing house and ask which editor handled a specific book they've
published (that's somewhat like yours). Be sure to ask if that editor
is still with the company and still handling that type of book! Editors
switch around frequently.
Make sure you have the correct spelling of the editor's name, the correct
address, and have learned each company's submission preferences.
D. Write a great, professional
query letter and marketing synopsis. Follow submission preferences --i.e.
if they accept "partials" (synopsis & first three chapters)
with the query, include them, but if they say "query first",
send only a fabulous query letter they won't be able to resist.
E. Always include a SASE
with appropriate postage for a reply and to return whatever you want
returned. If your full manuscript is requested, you may wish to include
a SAS postcard for the editor to acknowledge receiving it.
F. Do not bind your manuscript
or staple chapters together --all pages should be loose, held together
with two large rubber bands, one lengthwise and one cross-wise. Make
sure your header contains your name, the book's title, and the page
number on every page! (imagine if the editor drops it on the subway.)
Use a manuscript sized box or else a padded shipping envelope to mail
your manuscript. Be sure to include a cover letter anytime you send
anything other than a query letter.
G. Only follow up on your
submission after an appropriate length of time has passed. If you know
the publisher's average "report time" and it has passed that,
it is permissible to call an editor to ask the status of your submission.
3. Do I
need an agent? How do I get one?
The answer depends a lot
on what type of novel you have written and what sort of writing credentials
you have, your own preferences, what publisher you are targeting, etc.
Research the publishers you think would be interested in your book.
While some only accept agented submissions, others are willing to look
at a query and/or partial without that requirement. Agents act as a
sort of "pre-screen" that assures the publishing house it
will only receive quality material to consider. Agented material usually
will be looked at sooner than work that comes in "over the transom"
or without any prior contact with that editor. However, it can be almost
as hard to get an agent as it is to get a publisher --that's one of
the biggest "catch-22's" in this field! The way I broke in
was to enter my work in contests that led to a reading by an editor.
Once your work is already on an editor's desk, it becomes MUCH easier
to attract an agent's interest!
Remember that an agent will take 15% of your pay. Is it worth it? All
agents are not created equal --some have no credentials or experience,
so be sure to research agents very carefully. The internet makes doing
that much easier these days!
4.
Do I need to copyright my work before I send it out?
No. Technically, you are
protected under the current copyright laws as soon as you have put your
idea onto paper and someone else has seen it. Formal registration of
copyright only expands certain protections built into the law. Putting
a copyright notice and mark on your unsold manuscript may tip off a
publisher that you are an amateur who doesn't trust the very people
you are trying to sell to --not a good working relationship! It could
also suggest that you value your own brilliance so much that you assume
others need to steal from you --as if they don't already have a million
other projects or ideas of their own. If a publisher buys your book,
usually they will register the copyright for you (in your name) as part
of the contracted book deal. Remember that ideas cannot be copyrighted,
only the actual words you have written to express those ideas in your
own way. It is very common for similar ideas for stories to occur to
different writers, and sometimes even to be published at about the same
time!
5. How do
I know how many pages or how many chapters my book should have?
The answer to this question
is a bit different for every writer and also varies depending on the
type of book, but there still is a "range" that is appropriate.
You need to know what sort of book it is going to be, and where you
intend to try to sell it --that is, where it fits into the publishing
market. Short contemporary romances published by Harlequin or Silhouette
can be quite short --50,000 words or so. This would be a manuscript
of approximately 200 pages in standard format (double-spaced, 25 lines
per page, in Courier New 12, one inch margins), probably 12-15 chapters.
The formula uses an estimated 250 words per page. The Signet Regencies
I write are 75,000 words, about 300 ms. pages, usually about 20 chapters.
The long historical romances can be 85,000-100,000 words --well, do
the math, and you get the idea!
I generally tell my students
that any chapter longer than 25-27 (ms.) pages is too long for ANY genre.
In mysteries, 25-27 pages is okay. In romance, we tend to go shorter
than that, sometimes -much- shorter. It is okay to have your chapters
vary in length within the same book. I happen to like fairly short first
chapters --I feel it gets the reader into the book faster. They're reading
and then --next thing they know --they're already into Chapter Two.
They usually won't give up on reading after that! What I think of as
"fairly short" could be as little as 8-10 pages. But not all
stories lend themselves to that plan. There's a lot the first chapter
has to accomplish (an entire workshop topic in itself).
It's actually better to consider
how many "scenes" you'll include in a chapter, and most authors
have 2 or 3 scenes. There's a nifty trick called the "two and a
half" rule, which is where an author has two complete scenes and
the first half of the next scene in a chapter, then breaks off in the
middle of that third scene --often resulting in the cliff-hanger chapter
ending. New chapter picks up with the second half of that spilt scene....
I think an average length
for most authors' scenes is 5-7 pages, but that may be after several
rewrites. So given that (which is about my own average), 3 scenes would
give you that good range of 15-21 ms. pages per chapter. But it is flexible.
Sometimes there's a scene that's so important, or pivotal to the plot,
that you want it to stand by itself as one whole chapter alone. You're
the writer --to a point, you can do what you want!
I think the way to approach
writing a book is not to worry about the mechanics so much as the story
and the characters first. But I realize it does help if you have a rough
idea that an entire book might need 40 or 60 scenes. The thing is, if
you think you have to come up with what they are all going to be before
you can write, you may get discouraged or blank out from anxiety!!!
Lots of authors get started knowing only the beginning scene, a couple
of scenes from somewhere along the way, and maybe (not even always)
the ending. Some just start out knowing the beginning and see what happens
as they write!
6. What's
the difference between manuscript pages and book pages?
Manuscript pages are double
spaced, and formatted as in the old days when writers use to use typewriters
--25-26 lines per page, using Courier New 12 (preferred over a proportional
font like Times New Roman). The pages as they come out in a published
book are formatted very differently, are not double spaced, and so they
hold more words, sentences, and paragraphs per page than manuscript
pages do. The publishers use formulas that tell them almost at a glance
how many pages a properly formatted manuscript would be as a printed
book (that's why they want a standard format in the first place). I
think it works out to something like 1 & 1/4 manuscript pages equals
one printed book page, but that also depends on what size type they'll
use for the book, margin allowances, etc. My 300-310 page Signet Regency
manuscripts always yield a published (paperback) book that's about 220-224
pages long.
TIPS:
Be sure to research any agent,
publisher, or writing-related business before you jump in. (This is much
easier since we gained the Internet!) There are a lot of people out there
who will take advantage of a writer's heartfelt dream to be published.
Go cautiously; respect the time and hard work you've invested in your
writing. It will be worth it in the long run.
Writing is a gift --I think
we are born with it. It's up to you to nurture it, practice it, stubbornly
stick with it and learn all you can to develop it. Only other writers
really understand it, so seek them out when things get tough. The Internet
has been the best thing that ever happened to writers --it gives us all
a place to come together. Good luck to you!
© (c) 2002 Gail Eastwood
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