January 7, 2011
I know almost nothing about this blogging thing, so I've recently started reaching out to people who obviously do. One of them is Lia Keyes, founder of the The Steampunk Writers Guild. She suggested that I start out by telling people how I landed an agent. Sort of a 'set the hook' kind of approach. Makes sense. So I will let the cat out of the bag.
My agent is Sterling Lord, co-chairman of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. (www.sll.com). The agency is headquartered in New York City, in an historical building on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. According to those mysterious people in the know, he is a legend in literary circles. He was the agent to the stars of the 'Beat Generation' writers: Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He was also the agent of a favorite of mine, Dick Francis, who passed away recently. There are a host of other heavy hitters too - almost all of them what I call 'real writers', which I do not yet consider myself.
Sterling has been around for a long time. I think he's in his nineties, and he is still hard at it. I have no idea what he sees in me. After all, I am a first time writer and I know that I am not very good at it. Getting better maybe, but not good. It's all the more mysterious since I write fiction for younger audiences, and even more bizarre because Paleopeople, a fantasy novel, is what brought us together. It's not his usual cup of tea.
So let's go back to that fateful day - the day I sent out my first query letters.
October 21, 2009
I sent my query to everybody and their grandmothers through an internet service (www.publishersandagents.net). There, I said it. An internet service. No researching for me. I didn't have time for that crap. I had been in the middle of big business my whole career. I was an alumnus of Harvard Business School. I was not a patient man. By the way, I am learning patience.
I think it cost me $300. They sent the query letter out to a list of publishers and agents supposedly open to receiving them via email. Their list was supposed to target only those interested in fiction. Supposedly. I received my first rejection the same day. I received my first tire kicks the next day. I didn't know it at the time, but I had already found my agent. Here is the text from the email response that got the ball rolling.
Dear Mr. Lyons,
I find your email intriguing. I have retired. I have mentioned it to and am passing it on to Sterling Lord, one of the great literary agents in New York and he will get in touch with you.
With best wishes,
Sterling Lord called me for the first time that afternoon.
I think it is worth noting, and I will fill in the time in between as this blog progresses, that I signed the formal Sterling Lord representation agreement on May 18, 2010. Did I mention that I am learning patience?
Friday, January 7, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Swallowing the Bitter Pill of Brutal Opposition
October 23, 2009
[I have jump shifted nine months from the day I started to write. I will do this every now and then. First time readers of this blog - especially first time writers hoping to glean some lessons learned - should start with the first post as I've only just gotten started with the blog. The chronology of events is important.]
At this point I have finished the Paleopeople manuscript - at least that's what I thought at the time. Ha! My small cadre of Resonators and Opponents had helped me along and I had reached this point with a false sense of security, as it turns out. I thought it was a great story and I was full of confidence, that is until I boldly sent the manuscript to a reader that was not a part of my inner circle. Here are some snippets from her assessment of my book:
"This is going to sound brutal..." (it was, as you'll see)
"If I was a reader at a publishing house, I would have dumped this in the bin after the first thirty pages..." (as it happened, most of them did)
"The Prologue was too long and unnecessary..." (it was)
"The dialogue was flat..." (what there was of it)
"The characters were not fully fleshed..." (I was enthralled with the adventures, not the characters)
"The manuscript is far too long..." (only 400 pages, what the heck?)
"There is way too much exposition..." (first time I'd heard of the word, which meant she was right)
There was much, much more and most of it was bad. I owe her a great debt of gratitude as her criticism influenced me immensely. It only took me three days to get over it. There were some positives:
"Your writing style got much, much better as the book moved along, especially the during the action of the last half of the book..." (that's because I was learning how to write on the run)
"...and then I read this line "From the mouth of the tunnel came a low, agonizing sound, as if the wind carried with reluctant souls on the way to undesired ends." Fabulous." (so there was hope)
"What I was personally hoping for when I was finished with the Prologue and started into Beni's story was an intertwining of William and Big Bill and Hakim's story with Beni's story." (my agent made me do exactly this, many months later)
The criticism hurt. I was dashed, but I had come too far to turn back. I would go back to the manuscript and work on it with everything she said in mind. But there was one little problem and it compounded my feelings of angst. You see, I had already sent out the query letters for Paleopeople to about three hundred agents and publishers. Unless I did something pretty fast, some of those folks were going to ask for the first couple of chapters or even the whole manuscript, and what they would get would be exactly what my fiercest Opponent had read. They would all throw the manuscript in the waste paper basket after the first thirty pages.
Why, oh why, did I sent out those query letters so soon?
[I have jump shifted nine months from the day I started to write. I will do this every now and then. First time readers of this blog - especially first time writers hoping to glean some lessons learned - should start with the first post as I've only just gotten started with the blog. The chronology of events is important.]
At this point I have finished the Paleopeople manuscript - at least that's what I thought at the time. Ha! My small cadre of Resonators and Opponents had helped me along and I had reached this point with a false sense of security, as it turns out. I thought it was a great story and I was full of confidence, that is until I boldly sent the manuscript to a reader that was not a part of my inner circle. Here are some snippets from her assessment of my book:
"This is going to sound brutal..." (it was, as you'll see)
"If I was a reader at a publishing house, I would have dumped this in the bin after the first thirty pages..." (as it happened, most of them did)
"The Prologue was too long and unnecessary..." (it was)
"The dialogue was flat..." (what there was of it)
"The characters were not fully fleshed..." (I was enthralled with the adventures, not the characters)
"The manuscript is far too long..." (only 400 pages, what the heck?)
"There is way too much exposition..." (first time I'd heard of the word, which meant she was right)
There was much, much more and most of it was bad. I owe her a great debt of gratitude as her criticism influenced me immensely. It only took me three days to get over it. There were some positives:
"Your writing style got much, much better as the book moved along, especially the during the action of the last half of the book..." (that's because I was learning how to write on the run)
"...and then I read this line "From the mouth of the tunnel came a low, agonizing sound, as if the wind carried with reluctant souls on the way to undesired ends." Fabulous." (so there was hope)
"What I was personally hoping for when I was finished with the Prologue and started into Beni's story was an intertwining of William and Big Bill and Hakim's story with Beni's story." (my agent made me do exactly this, many months later)
The criticism hurt. I was dashed, but I had come too far to turn back. I would go back to the manuscript and work on it with everything she said in mind. But there was one little problem and it compounded my feelings of angst. You see, I had already sent out the query letters for Paleopeople to about three hundred agents and publishers. Unless I did something pretty fast, some of those folks were going to ask for the first couple of chapters or even the whole manuscript, and what they would get would be exactly what my fiercest Opponent had read. They would all throw the manuscript in the waste paper basket after the first thirty pages.
Why, oh why, did I sent out those query letters so soon?
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Maps, Drawings, Sketches and more Doodles
February 2009
Fiction writers go about it in different ways. Some work up detailed outlines first, then write. Others just let it flow. I draw things. It helps me better envision the characters and surroundings of my stories. I intended Paleopeople to be a Tolkienesque project. So the first thing I did after I completed the preface was draw a map. I had Tolkien's maps from his Lord of the Rings trilogy in mind when I drew them. The world of my Paleopeople came to life. The story came to life.
Before I knew it, the map had dotted lines showing where the heroes journeyed on their quests and adventures. I had created a universe of tunnels, caves, waterfalls, forests and villages. I showed where the good guys and bad guys lived, and where battles took place. And I did it all in pencil. In pencil so that I could change things as the story went along, and change it did.
It didn't stop there. I drew pictures of their buildings and even of them. I got my artist mother in on it. She is one of the best artists in know. She even worked for Disney Studios back in the day, so she was perfect for my purposes. She helped me by drawing my characters as I saw them. I will find some and post them later.
I was becoming more and more immersed in the project. With the maps and drawings and the written words, I was getting progressively pulled into the imaginary world, to the point that I could actually feel, smell, hear, taste and see it. I was writing from inside that world and not from behind a window looking in.
Fiction writers go about it in different ways. Some work up detailed outlines first, then write. Others just let it flow. I draw things. It helps me better envision the characters and surroundings of my stories. I intended Paleopeople to be a Tolkienesque project. So the first thing I did after I completed the preface was draw a map. I had Tolkien's maps from his Lord of the Rings trilogy in mind when I drew them. The world of my Paleopeople came to life. The story came to life.
Before I knew it, the map had dotted lines showing where the heroes journeyed on their quests and adventures. I had created a universe of tunnels, caves, waterfalls, forests and villages. I showed where the good guys and bad guys lived, and where battles took place. And I did it all in pencil. In pencil so that I could change things as the story went along, and change it did.
It didn't stop there. I drew pictures of their buildings and even of them. I got my artist mother in on it. She is one of the best artists in know. She even worked for Disney Studios back in the day, so she was perfect for my purposes. She helped me by drawing my characters as I saw them. I will find some and post them later.
I was becoming more and more immersed in the project. With the maps and drawings and the written words, I was getting progressively pulled into the imaginary world, to the point that I could actually feel, smell, hear, taste and see it. I was writing from inside that world and not from behind a window looking in.
I even took an oil painting I had done several years before and photoshopped it (with some help from Kieran) to make a cover for my eventual blockbuster. I will try to post it after I complete this post.
I am not sure this post qualifies as a lesson learned, but it should show how an author of fiction can become immersed in a project, and why they should. The more senses you tune into while writing, the more senses you will be able to get your readers to trigger. And the more senses you trigger, the more memorable the reading experience.
My First Opponent slash Resonator
January 14, 2009
I copied that first draft of the preface to Paleopeople to my son in college. He got it the same time Jeanie did, but his response was entirely different than hers. He had the audacity to be critical and, at the same, time encouraging. I had run in to my first Opponent.
Kieran was in his first year at Rice University and he didn't get in to that hallowed institution without having something on the ball. He was a National Merit Scholar and, happily for me, a talented writer in his own right. He started reading at a very young age and was reading Hemingway and Ayn Rand when his peers - if they read at all - were reading Dr. Seuss. Here is his email response to reading my early preface:
"I read what you sent me, and I'll go over it with a more critical eye soon. The writing style reminds me of what I know of Louis L'amour's own style-- a good thing, especially for you.
Right now, the best advice I have is to never tell the reader something when you can show it, and to cut out every unnecessary word-- since you're using a conversational style you can bend this rule a lot, but try to be purposeful about it.
You've done a good job of making the narrator's voice strong, which is especially important in the preface.
It's flattering that you'd value my advice so much. I'll get back to you with more soon.
Love,
Kieran"
I copied that first draft of the preface to Paleopeople to my son in college. He got it the same time Jeanie did, but his response was entirely different than hers. He had the audacity to be critical and, at the same, time encouraging. I had run in to my first Opponent.
Kieran was in his first year at Rice University and he didn't get in to that hallowed institution without having something on the ball. He was a National Merit Scholar and, happily for me, a talented writer in his own right. He started reading at a very young age and was reading Hemingway and Ayn Rand when his peers - if they read at all - were reading Dr. Seuss. Here is his email response to reading my early preface:
"I read what you sent me, and I'll go over it with a more critical eye soon. The writing style reminds me of what I know of Louis L'amour's own style-- a good thing, especially for you.
Right now, the best advice I have is to never tell the reader something when you can show it, and to cut out every unnecessary word-- since you're using a conversational style you can bend this rule a lot, but try to be purposeful about it.
You've done a good job of making the narrator's voice strong, which is especially important in the preface.
It's flattering that you'd value my advice so much. I'll get back to you with more soon.
Love,
Kieran"
Unnecessary words? Don't tell if you can show? Where does he get off? Those were my immediate reactions and, stupidly, I ignored his advice. I took away only the positives, which is all I wanted at the time. If I had listened and understood what he was saying sooner, I would likely have cut out about two full months of editing down the road. Lesson three is - and I will stop numbering them soon - listen carefully to all feed back. It doesn't matter if it comes from your wife or son or anyone else. They are all readers and they are all potential audiences for your work.
My Resonator, My Muse
January 14, 2009
The first real collection of words is complete - almost five hundred words! The book is underway and it is starting with a preface. I am so excited, but no one else has seen it yet. I don't want to hear that it is no good. If it is no good, then I'm done. Such was the fragile state of my psyche at the time. Remember that I had just failed miserably in the 'real' business world and I needed this to work. So of course I sent it to Jeanie, my wife and partner for over thirty years. If anyone could read it and cage a negative response, spin it in a positive way, it was her.
Her response was "I love it and I want to read more". I had found my muse.
It was around this time that I picked up and read another book entitled The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. This is a must read for first time writers. Three others that really helped me along: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, Elements of Style by Strunk, White and Angell, and Story by Robert McKee.
It was The Company They Keep that let me in on the need to surround myself with three different sets of people: Resonators, Opponents and Editors. The Resonators are the ones who support your efforts as you move along. The Opponents - as you may have already guessed - challenge your every move. The Editors fix all the things you did wrong. In the book, you get to see how it worked for some of the greatest fiction writers of all time. It helped me and I am one of the most obscure writers of all time.
Jeanie became my first Resonator and her positive influence cannot be quantified. Lesson number two is find a Resonator. A first time writer cannot do it alone. You simply won't get it done.
The first real collection of words is complete - almost five hundred words! The book is underway and it is starting with a preface. I am so excited, but no one else has seen it yet. I don't want to hear that it is no good. If it is no good, then I'm done. Such was the fragile state of my psyche at the time. Remember that I had just failed miserably in the 'real' business world and I needed this to work. So of course I sent it to Jeanie, my wife and partner for over thirty years. If anyone could read it and cage a negative response, spin it in a positive way, it was her.
Her response was "I love it and I want to read more". I had found my muse.
It was around this time that I picked up and read another book entitled The Company They Keep: C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien as Writers in Community. This is a must read for first time writers. Three others that really helped me along: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, Elements of Style by Strunk, White and Angell, and Story by Robert McKee.
It was The Company They Keep that let me in on the need to surround myself with three different sets of people: Resonators, Opponents and Editors. The Resonators are the ones who support your efforts as you move along. The Opponents - as you may have already guessed - challenge your every move. The Editors fix all the things you did wrong. In the book, you get to see how it worked for some of the greatest fiction writers of all time. It helped me and I am one of the most obscure writers of all time.
Jeanie became my first Resonator and her positive influence cannot be quantified. Lesson number two is find a Resonator. A first time writer cannot do it alone. You simply won't get it done.
I got the Title right
January 11, 2009
Of course I didn't get much done that first day. It was classic stuff. I typed "The" and I was stuck. I hadn't even come up with a title yet. I thought it would come out in the wash after I'd written a chapter or two.
So I went back to the doodles on my copy of Dinosaur in a Haystack. I poured over them, but I kept coming back to the first one - the one of a spirally shell with the "Shell People" caption - and then it came to me. At first I didn't like the word. It seemed too ambiguous and it looked weird, but it started to grow on me, so I typed Paleopeople at the top of the one word manuscript and scrolled down the page to type in the second word of my soon to be but didn't really give it a chance in hell to reach the bookshelves novel.
My agent in New York has just recently hit the streets with the finished script and, despite incredible amounts of editing over the last year or so, the title remains Paleopeople. At least I got that one right. That was lesson one. Make that title good. It is the first thing everybody sees: the agents, the editors and the readers.
Of course I didn't get much done that first day. It was classic stuff. I typed "The" and I was stuck. I hadn't even come up with a title yet. I thought it would come out in the wash after I'd written a chapter or two.
So I went back to the doodles on my copy of Dinosaur in a Haystack. I poured over them, but I kept coming back to the first one - the one of a spirally shell with the "Shell People" caption - and then it came to me. At first I didn't like the word. It seemed too ambiguous and it looked weird, but it started to grow on me, so I typed Paleopeople at the top of the one word manuscript and scrolled down the page to type in the second word of my soon to be but didn't really give it a chance in hell to reach the bookshelves novel.
My agent in New York has just recently hit the streets with the finished script and, despite incredible amounts of editing over the last year or so, the title remains Paleopeople. At least I got that one right. That was lesson one. Make that title good. It is the first thing everybody sees: the agents, the editors and the readers.
I Decide to Write a Book
January 11, 2009
Two years ago, almost exactly. My management consulting business was in the tank. The economy had gone south for the winter and my clients flew down there with them. I was depressed and alone and sitting in my office overlooking the marina. The dreams of making the business work turned into the reality of it never happening. I did what I usually do when I have little to do and I'm depressed. I picked up a book and started reading. The book was Dinosaur in a Haystack, by Stephen J. Gould. I had last read the book almost fifteen years before and it was one of my favorite non-fiction works and what the author had to say resonated deeply with me.
I opened the book to the first page, and what should I see? A doodle. A simple sketch of a spirally shell with a caption below it reading "Shell People". The doodle immediately brought back the memory of the plane flight. I sat in First Class on a 747 headed for Amsterdam. My final destination was Archangel, in the Arctic Circle part of Russia. I remember seeing the Aurora Borealis, not for the first time nor the last. I doodled for the duration of the flight and a story was born. I did not write the first word of the story until January 11, 2009, but when I did it the doodler became a writer.
Two years ago, almost exactly. My management consulting business was in the tank. The economy had gone south for the winter and my clients flew down there with them. I was depressed and alone and sitting in my office overlooking the marina. The dreams of making the business work turned into the reality of it never happening. I did what I usually do when I have little to do and I'm depressed. I picked up a book and started reading. The book was Dinosaur in a Haystack, by Stephen J. Gould. I had last read the book almost fifteen years before and it was one of my favorite non-fiction works and what the author had to say resonated deeply with me.
I opened the book to the first page, and what should I see? A doodle. A simple sketch of a spirally shell with a caption below it reading "Shell People". The doodle immediately brought back the memory of the plane flight. I sat in First Class on a 747 headed for Amsterdam. My final destination was Archangel, in the Arctic Circle part of Russia. I remember seeing the Aurora Borealis, not for the first time nor the last. I doodled for the duration of the flight and a story was born. I did not write the first word of the story until January 11, 2009, but when I did it the doodler became a writer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)