The Proper Care and Feeding of a Trunk Novel

There’s an important follow-up to my posts about retiring a novel/book to the trunk.  If you didn’t read those, they are here and here. We’ll wait.

Okay, are we all on the same page?  Great!

There are two kinds of trunk novels:

1) the kind that should never, ever see the light of day again

2) the kind that could be salvaged down the road and the only reason it didn’t sell this time is because it just wasn’t quite right for the current market

I have a great example of the 1st kind.  It’s locked away in my parents’ basement and it will never be read by anyone ever again.  If I decide to explore some of the ideas again, it’ll be in the form of a totally brand new, written from scratch novel.  There is nothing to be saved.  I wrote the manuscript in high school, after all, when I was still just beginning to learn the craft.  It’s full of neat ideas and bad writing.

But I also have several examples of the 2nd kind, including the novel my agent couldn’t quite sell this year.  There is nothing inherently wrong with these manuscripts.  Yes, a year from now, if I read them again I’ll find little things to tweak here and there, but two of them got editors excited enough to take the manuscript to the people higher up the food chain, who eventually said no.

I haven’t sold a book like this yet, and the market is as tough to break into now as it has ever been, so while the manuscripts were really good, they weren’t quite exciting enough to open a publisher’s wallet.

It happens all the time in this business.

So where does that leave me?

Well, my new book is in the same vein as those other two, only I’ve definitely learned from the experiences of the last couple of years.  This one is a little more steamlined, for example, and it has a great logline.  These days that seems to be the key to selling anything in this new “no attention span” era.

(A logline is the cheap, easy, and lazy way to summarize your book.  It’s used all of the time in the movie business.  I addressed this topic back in The Perfect Title and the Perfect Sales Pitch.)

So if my agent sells this new book, the first thing she’ll do is say, “You should check out these other two manuscripts he already has completed.”

There’s no guarantee the editor will read them and say, “These are great!  Let’s make it a three book deal and get cracking!” but if the editor loves the new one, I think he or she is really going to be quite pleased with the other two.  The three of them kind of feel like brothers, which is the right way to grow a readership.  Give the reader something he likes, and then follow it up with something similar but a little different.  Familiar but new enough to be interesting.

It’s also possible that an opportunity will arise before then to take one of these manuscripts out of the trunk, give it the old spit and shine treatment, and submit it to a new and exciting market.  As long as it’s actually a good trunk novel and not the other kind, the kind that makes you wonder what you were thinking when you were 14 (or 24 or 34 or 44…) and writing it.

Ultimately, as much as rejection sucks (especially when you know it’s a good book, just not the right book for the current market), it doesn’t hurt to have a couple of GOOD trunk novels sitting around.  You never know when they might come in handy!

So how do you properly care and feed for a trunk novel? It’s easy!  The three simple steps are:

1) Determine if it’s a GOOD trunk novel or the bad kind

1a) If it’s the bad kind, lock it in a box and never look at it again.  Maybe sprinkle some holy water on the cover page to be safe.

1b) if it’s the GOOD kind, proceed to step number 2

2) Leave your good trunk novel in a safe, dark place for at least six months.  Trunk novels require this cooling off time to settle into their new environment and properly age like a fine wine.  Some trunk novels can be consumed after just the six months, but some take years.  A few years ago, Stephen King published a trunk novel called Blaze that he originally wrote in 1973.  It was a really good one, too.

3) Continue to watch for new opportunities to sell the book, and when the time is right, take the manuscript out of the trunk and give it a good read with fresh eyes, changing whatever needs changed to make it an even better novel.

If you reach step #3 and discover the manuscript has spoiled in the dark (or maybe it wasn’t really a good trunk novel in the first place), return to step #1 and act accordingly.

Best of luck in all of your writing.  Rejection is a frustrating part of the business, but you always want to be publishing your best work and who knows where you might find it.

Are you a real writer? Am I a real writer? What *IS* a real writer anyway?

The “are you a real writer” debate is one I’ve witnessed more times that I can count in my sixteen or so years in this business.  For the most part, I think it’s people letting their egos talk a little too loudly.

If you write every day, and what you write is unpublishable, are you a real writer?

If you write a couple days each month, and what you write is pure gold, are you a real writer?

If you write once a year, and never show anyone what you’ve done, are you a real writer?

Does it even matter?  If you sit down with the intention of writing, doesn’t that make you someone who writes, ie, a writer?

What’s the point in trying to define what a “real” writer is other than stroking your own ego (“I write *every* day!”; “I write when the spirit moves me and what I write are beautifully crafted tales!”) while getting into an Internet pissing match, to be blunt about.

I think the better question is: as a real writer, wouldn’t you be better off spending your time and energy on your new book instead of debating an existential question on a message board? 

Upon retiring a manuscript to the trunk #2

In the comments for my post Upon Retiring A Manuscript to the Trunk, Cat Hellisen wrote: “Ah that’s kinda depressing, but at least you seem to have a good attitude towards it.”

“Failure” is the nature of the business.  When you’re first starting out, you might write 50 stories before you sell one for professional rates.  You might write 10 novels before selling one for a real advance.  Very few people are lucky enough to launch a career with their first attempt at publishing something.  For every novel that is published, thousands are rejected.  It’s just the way it is.

Write because you love writing, but approach the publishing side of things as the business it is.  Everyone you deal with — agents, publishers, editors — are in the game to make a living.  When it comes time to publish your work, you should be, too.  And if you can’t sell a book right now, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good book.  But it isn’t right for the publishers right now, and you have to consider what that means to you and what you’re going to do about it.

For example: I was just talking to an author who is much more established than I am and he shared a story with me that I had never heard from him before.

Once he wrote a book that his agent — who is one of the BIGGEST agents in the game — thought was easily going to fetch a seven figure advance.  She was super excited, something she rarely is, and she took the book out to auction that very same week, convinced it was going to make her author rich and famous and push his career into the stratosphere.

Six months later, every editor had passed.

So here was a great author with an established career, and here was an agent who is one of the best in the business because she always finds “big books”, and they couldn’t sell the manuscript.

I can’t tell you what my friend did after publishing broke his heart because that would betray his privacy, but I know what I’m going to do: keep writing the next one.

It’s all you can do if you’re serious about making a living in this crazy business.

Upon retiring a manuscript to the trunk

My post last month, The Place Where Literary And Commercial Fiction Meet, generated just a couple of comments, but a ton of emails.  In fact, it seems really odd that so many people would email but not post a comment.  I asked someone about this and she said she didn’t want her agent or editor to see what she was saying. 

Anyway, today is a difficult day.  I’ve come to accept that the new novel is going to be a trunk novel. This is really sad and unfortunate because we had at least two different editors at major publishers who wanted to make offers, but they were vetoed by the marketing department or someone higher up the food chain.

In the end, this is a tough decision to make because my agent and I both think this is a much better book than the ones I’ve already sold, but we don’t think it’s going to be a good fit in the current marketplace.  The story isn’t what editors are looking for, especially with their jobs on the line.

And unfortunately, although there are editors left we could try, they’re not editors who could really shepherd the book through the publication process in a positive and effective manner.  You need a really strong advocate for your book, someone who can defend it at every twist and turn, someone who will kick the marketing department in the butt when needed, someone who will fight for an extra $2,000 in advertising money to get your book advertised in the right places, etc.

Essentially we had reached the point of diminishing returns with our publication options.  They were still places that could publish the book, and editors who might love the book, but would the end result be a career killer?  Probably.

These things happen.  All you can do is move onto the next manuscript and try again, applying the lessons you’ve learned…

…except I probably haven’t learned the right lessons because, if you refer back to The Place Where Literary And Commercial Fiction Meet, my new manuscript blurs those same lines.

I had an idea for a straight-up thriller and, from a career standpoint, I probably should have gone with that, but the idea just seemed so common and so “been there, done that.”  I bet it would be an easier sale than the book I decided to dive into, though.

Maybe I’m a masochist or something, but the book I’m trying to work on right now just feels more like the type of book I’d like to read — and I think that should be your primary deciding factor with the limited time and resources we writers usually have.

So tonight I’ll be taking this manuscript down to the basement — where I don’t have a trunk, but I do have a closet full of old manuscripts — and maybe I’ll look at it again some day.

Actually, I know I will… I rarely let a manuscript languish down there too long.  I hate the idea of all of that work going to waste.  So this will see the light of day again, one way or another.

But for now, it’ll sit and it’ll wait.  That’s the nature of the biz, after all.

Starting to Run Again: Challenging the Problematic Nike+ Challenges

Now that I’ve started running again on a semi-regular basis, I know it’ll be at least 6 months before I could possibly be in marathon shape.  I need to lose a good amount of weight that has snuck back on over the last two years, and I’m basically starting from scratch with my running.  If I could run 1 or 2 miles every day this month, it would be a huge accomplishment and put me back on track to be where I want to be in the fall.  (I logged a couple of 20 mile runs in the fall of 2007 and want to do it again this year.)

So all of this said, I decided to give the “challenges” section of the Nike+ website a try.  It’s a great concept.  Basically, you can enter into competition or “virtual races” against other runners all over the world via the website and your Nike+ stats.  You don’t need to be in the same place or even run at the same time of day.  There is a start date and an end date for the competition and joining is free.

Here are some common competitions:

“Run 40 Miles in July!” = try to run a total of at least 40 miles

“4th of July 5K” = go out and run your own 5K on 7/4/09

“Run Every Day and Lose Weight” = a group of people trying to get in better shape

I believe, if you win, you get a virtual trophy for your Nike+ account.  You can even create your own competition if you don’t see one you like.  For example, if you wanted, you could create a “Run 40 Miles in 40 Days (Must Have Been Born Before 1940)”.  So your group should only have people over the age of 69.

Here’s the problem:

I joined several challenges for low milage runners (those who are overweight, starting out, older, etc) since it’s going to be a while until I can log more than 1 or 2 miles a day at the most.  I figured some kind of challenge — actually running “against” and “with” other people — would be a great motivator.

Sounds simple, right?

Except that every challenge I joined was “over” before it started.  Every single challenge had at least one person who was logging 10 or more miles a day.  No matter what the requirements to join were (old, slow, fat, no more than 10 miles per week currently, etc), there are people joining just for the “easy win”, which is pretty crappy if you ask me.

One challenge has a GREAT leader who is kicking those “cheaters” out left and right, but none of the other groups do, so it kind of defeats the purpose.  If there’s no chance of winning, doesn’t that yank away the virtual carrot we were chasing?

This is something the creators of the challenges should definitely take more seriously, especially in the beginner and low milage groups where people need every motivation they can get.

(For those who liked the Nike commercials I posted last year, here’s one featuring “All These Things I’ve Done” by The Killers…)

The Place Where Literary And Commercial Fiction Meet

When I wrote my new novel, I knew it was unlike anything I had read or seen reviewed.  If you’ve been around the publishing business, you know that was the biggest mistake I could make.

Publishers these days don’t want something unique or different.  They want “The Da Vinci Code meets CSI” or “My Sister’s Keeper… only with BROTHERS!” or “The Catcher in the Rye… only set in INDIA!”

Basically, if the story hasn’t already been a big successful book, they don’t know how to sell it, so they can’t buy it.

I’m sure, at this very moment, you’re already writing email to ask if I didn’t notice Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or some other very cool, very unique book.  But they are the exceptions that prove the rule, I’m afraid, and many of the examples you’re thinking of were a hit BEFORE a big New York Publisher grabbed them.  Maybe they were self-published or published by a small press.  Or maybe the author already had an established fan base, which allowed the publisher to “take a chance” on something different.

By the way, I’m not a literary snob by any means.  Most of what I read would be called commercial or even genre fiction.  Most of the television and movies I watch are definitely popcorn fare.  So this isn’t about New York publishing “ruining” literature or any of that crap.  I read to be entertained, and trust me, I am not entertained by page after page of nothing happening, other than someone showing off all the neat little tricks of description they learned in their MFA classes.  I want STORY.

So it’s definitely interesting to see the responses from editors to my new novel.  My agent has been passing them along at a regular clip.  Here are the two basic responses we’re getting:

1) “I absolutely love the writing and the characters, but there’s too much story! My publisher would kill me for buying something like this.”

2) “The story had me on the edge of my seat, but the writing is way too literary and refined for our line.  My publisher would think I’m selling out to the literati!”

The funny thing is, though, none of the emails are that short.  We’ve had editors write well over a page about all of the things he or she loved, but regretfully having to pass because it’s too commercial or too literary for the line.  These aren’t standard “being polite because I have to work with this agent on other things” responses.  These editors really loved the book, but were afraid they’d lose their jobs if they bought it and it wasn’t a huge hit (because they can’t “prove” in advance it’ll be a big hit).

See, if they could go to their publisher and say, “It’s Twilight with wizards instead of vampires”, the publisher would say, “Great!  Let’s do it!  Everyone loved Twilight and everyone loves wizards!”  And then, if the book bombed, the publisher would say, “Who knew the readers didn’t want ‘Twilight with Wizards’!  Oh well!”

But because there isn’t an easy way to compare this book to previous successful titles, it’s that much harder for the editor to take the chance.  If the publisher has to be “talked into” buying the book against his or her “better judgment” and the book fails to be a hit, then the editor has just put his or her job on the line.  There isn’t a lot of room for error these days, especially if you’re a young editor without a serious track record of success.  Publishers only want bestsellers.  So I don’t blame the editors one bit for being afraid of this book.  It could kill their career, after all.  I know it, and so do they.

As an author, your best bet of launching a successful career is to look at the popular books you love and ask yourself, “How can I combine two of these, or how can I take that story and make it a little different while retaining what made it popular?”  Do that, and do it well, and you’re in a great position.  You’ll make your agent and editor’s lives much easier.

But in case you’re wondering, I strongly believe the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  That’s why my new novel, which I’ve making some headway on right now, is unlike anything else I’ve ever read or seen before.

It’s really the only way I know to write.  It may not be the successful approach, but it works for me.

Not Writing or Running (And, Appearently, Not Posting!)

Well, it’s been a long time since I posted here.  I’m still alive, but there just haven’t been any topics I’ve felt compelled to blog about.  There’s also been a lack of motivation.  I barely have any time for my “real” writing at the moment due to some family obligations and long days at work, so I haven’t made the time to post on here.

I also haven’t been running on a regular basis and I’ve, unfortunately, gained some weight and “reverted” to my worst running condition.  Basically, I can run one mile every day if I want.  I might be able to get myself back to 2 miles by next week.  But after that, it’s going to be a long haul to get into marathon shape, which is still the ultimate goal.

Who knows, this could be my last post, but I doubt it.  Every now and then, I’ll realize I want to post about a bunch of different topics, and I’ll make the time.

One of those posts, which I started but haven’t finished, is called “What I’m Doing Right (And Wrong) With This Blog.”

If you guessed that “not posting often enough” is #1 on the WRONG list, you’re today’s lucky winner.

See you all again real soon, hopefully!

Padding Your Story is Like Padding Your Bra: When Someone Gets Close to the Goods, You’re Going to Be Embarrassed

Some authors seem to get really hung up on word counts.  No great novel has ever been rejected because it was 89,000 words instead of 90,000.  If your story is complete as it is, I would just go with it.  And if that means you’ve written a novella instead of a novel, so be it.  The important thing is that the story be the story you wanted to tell.

Don’t add additional layers unless those layers actually add something to the reading experience.  Readers (and more importantly, agents and editors) are going to realize that you’ve packed words in there just to hit an artificial goal.  They may not actually know WHY the book is slow and dragging, but that doesn’t matter.  All that matters is the pacing is all wrong and not enough is happening.  Or stuff is happening that adds nothing.  Or the characters are acting out of character for some reason all of a sudden.

Please note: I receive a review copy of at least one “adult” literary or commercial novel each week that is barely 50K.  These are from major New York publishers.  So don’t let anyone tell you that your book HAS to be 90,000 words to get published.  You know what’s more important?  A good hook and a great sales pitch.  If you can’t get your manuscript read, you can’t sell it, right?

So if you think your manuscript is polished enough and the story is what you want it to be, take it out there.  There are publishers for every kind of book you can imagine.

My first published novel was 80K, the one my agent is shopping is 85K, but I’ve written two novellas in the 25K range, too, which both sold and did very well for me.  It takes all kinds of stories for all kinds of readers.

Maybe don’t mention the length in your query letter, though.  I know a lot of the template examples suggest saying, “I’ve written a 90,000 word thriller” or whatever, but if your HOOK and SALES PITCH are exciting enough to get the agent to request the MS, no agent is going to write you back when the manuscript arrives and say, “Never mind, I don’t want an ‘almost novel’.  This is 5,000 words too short to be a great book.”  He or she will still look at the first page and see if the opening GRABS his/her attention. And if your book is awesome and rocks the agent’s world, trust me, you’re going to get offers.

Plus, publishers do love shorter books when it comes to their printer bills.

Good luck with your writing, whatever the length may be!

Finding your right length: short stories, novellas, novels, and young adult books

I find writing a novel to be the toughest thing I have to do as a writer.  I also think I would be excelled at the form 50 years ago when most novels were just 40,000 words.  I’m certain I would have been doomed a little further back in time, when 150,000 words was the average length of a novel.

Short stories come easiest to me and I enjoy them quite a bit.  I’ve written three this year, which is more than last year when I was devoting all of my writing time to other miscellaneous projects.  Yet I hear from some friends that writing a short story is the hardest thing for them to do.  Too little space to spread their wings and create a world.

If I could devote all of my writing time to short fiction, I believe I could build a pretty good (if small) collection each year without repeating myself too much.  Many authors, when dealing with the short form, tread the same ground — themes, ideas, concepts, and most importantly structure — a lot.  It’s not as obvious in their novels, especially with genre or commercial work, due to the bigger scale, but in a short story collection, it all starts to taste the same very quickly if you’re not careful.  So if someone uses the same formula for their novels, book after book, their publisher will probably love them, assuming the books sell well.  If you use the same formula or structure for a bunch of short stories and then collect them together, it can get very boring very quickly.

My favorite form, by far, is the novella.  Lately I’ve been reading a lot of them again, and last year I wrote a new one, which I sold to an independent publishing for $3000.

20,000 to 50,000 words just feels like the right length for a good story to me.  Enough room to develop real, living, breathing characters and give the reader a tale with a nice arc, but not a lot of filler.  Just character and story.

My novels often have a very slow build to them, with the first third developing the characters and “worlds” very fully — and then the last two-thirds have been described as a “wonderful rollercoaster” and an “express elevator to the surprising, wonderful conclusion.”

I think this is because it takes me those first 30,000 words to really get into a groove and find the characters and their world when I’m trying to tell a bigger story.  Maybe I need to get better at going back and cutting from that first 1/3 because my slow build is rarely described as an asset by people in the New York publishing business.  If it’s going to sell well, it has to start with a bang and speed up from there — or so they seem to think.

I have a friend who once said he writes 50,000 words before he finds the beginning of the story — and then he cuts everything before that point.  I’m such a slow, deliberate writer that I can’t imagine “throwing” that much text away.  It boggles my mind.  Yet he’s very successful with his approach and he writes very enjoyable books.

Several people along the way have suggested I should try my hand at young adult books because of the length.  I’ve considered it, but I don’t feel like I know that field very well at all.  Yet, when I’m at the bookstore, I look around that section and I think, “Wow, these books have really changed since I was a kid.”  Especially the growing hardcover selection of new releases.  A lot of those look like books I would have read when I was a kid.  Dark and mysterious.

Anyone else here dabble in young adult fiction?  Do you enjoy it?  How’s it different from the other things you write?

Obsessing About Distance and Time

As I’ve mentioned before, I love the Nike Plus system for my iPod Nano.  Even when I was just running around the block in high school (1/2 mile loop), I kept track of the time and distance.  It didn’t feel right not knowing how far or how long I had run.

So when my wife bought me an iPod Nano and the Nike+ kit for my 28th birthday, it was quite a revelation.  The year before I had started using an iPod Shuffle, but before that I was still running to mix tapes in my Walkman.

My first couple of runs before I calibrated the distance on the iPod’s settings were WAY off.  Luckily, we have a good track just down the road, so I was able to get the iPod calibrated to my running stride, and it’s been fairly accurate since then. If you run a lot faster or a lot slower than normal, it’s definitely going to be off, so I still tend to run the routes I measured before I had the iPod, just to have a better idea of how accurate it is.

I’m not “hardcore” about running exactly the “right” distance, but I am very obsessive about knowing how far I ran and how long it took. I cannot imagine going out for a run with no way to judge the time and the distance!

For those who don’t know, you have to attach a little white receiver to your iPod Nano for the system to work properly.  I’ve heard the new iPod Touch has this receiver built right into the system, which means you’re not limited in your select of cases and armbands to hold the iPod.  (Because the receiver sticked out of the bottom of the Nano, several very cool cases are not an option.)  If the next generation of Nano has the receiver built right in, I’ll upgrade in a heartbeat.

Actually, I’m kind of surprised Apple and Nike haven’t produced a “special edition” iPod Nano exclusively for Nike+ that has a receiver built into it and maybe a special color scheme.  They could charge $30 more, since that’s what the receiver costs separately right now, and I bet they’d sell a ton of them.

Anyone know someone who works in Nike or Apple’s product development offices?