Hey! You! Psst. I want to help you. Really, I do.
I REALLY want to help you.
You've written a book. Yay!
Some people have read it. Cool.
You've edited it maybe six times. Good work.
You've created what you think is a catchy query letter. OK then.
You say to yourself: 'I'm ready. Let's frigging do this!' *Trumpets blare!* 'I'm gonna submit, and I'm gonna query. And they're gonna love this work...and love me...and...and...' *hyperventilating ensues*
STOP. Breathe. (I mean, stop & breathe--don't stop breathing) Read this post.
I'm going to lay out, in a series of blog posts over the next week, what you need to think about and do before you query. I'm going to tell you what worked for me with my debut novel, "Everyone Leaves This Place." (secret: It's not the first novel I've written, but it's the first I'm getting published)
For the first time in 15 years, since I began writing novels, I feel like I handled the query/submission process properly! This led to my debut novel being offered a contract by three separate traditional, independent publishers. And, I'm delighted to say, this novel is currently under contract with Solstice Publishing.
What did I do different this time? Here's TWO key things:
1. I found a small circle of critical BETA READERS. If you haven't done this, you should. Reciprocate & Listen to them.
This could be the hardest part. I got lucky. I found a group of about six writers on a free site, and we began reading each other's stuff. Most important, they weren't afraid to tell me when something wasn't working in my story...or I used too much passive voice...or I needed to eliminate crutch words. I owe a LOT to them.
Beta readers aren't there to make your work perfect. But they will make it better. Find good ones.
Listen to them! Especially--though it may be awful to hear--if they say your work is not ready.
2. I treated the query & submission process as a SALES JOB - This may be the most important thing I ever tell you.
I'm lucky. I've succeeded in actual sales and business development positions, selling and delivering services to Fortune 50 companies. I know the critical components of a successful sales pitch; here are some:
a. You must have a polished, valuable, differentiated product: i.e., your work must be great and, in some way, different, and even better, than other work agents and publishers receive (and agents and independent publishers receive thousands of pitches a year).
b. Your pitch must be pithy, creative, and meaty (and professional). In the words of a former Director of Marketing of mine who now leads the pharmaceutical division for one of the world's largest healthcare companies: "In sales, you should be bright, be brief, be gone." My NEXT BLOG POST will give you the FORMULA I used for my query letter, which encouraged many agents/publishers to read my work. Need help beyond this, try: https://queryshark.blogspot.com/ . Or use #pitprac on Twitter prior to #pitmad; this will train you to pitch using very few words.
You say, "I'm not a Marketer! Why?" Well, newsflash: Promotion is part of the job of an author. And if you can write, you can learn to promote your work.
c. It's a numbers game. Hopefully, this point isn't seen as too controversial. My experience is that all sales is a numbers game. There isn't a sales manager alive who, once we've perfected our polished product and pithy pitch, hasn't driven frequency. My good friend, Joel, who was my sales manager for seven years in my first sales job, used to tell me: "Frequency drives the business!" I sent my query to 77 publishers and agents (44 independent publishers and 33 agents). I did this over the course of about 2-3 months, carefully crafting and proofing each query/submission, and only sending one or two queries each day. I tracked my submissions and their status in an Excel file that I managed daily. And, sorry-not-sorry, I avoided publishers who didn't allow multiple submissions. Some people would say 77 queries/submissions is not enough. Well, it worked for me.
d. Rejection is the norm. Hey, that's sales. As the rejections started rolling in, I noticed something very encouraging--about a third of the rejections extolled the virtues of the work. The vibe was: "Hey, we like a lot about your novel, but it's just not right for us. Some publishers went so far as to tell me they believed in my talent, and that rejecting my novel proved a difficult decision for their team. Publishers, in particular, really seemed to like what I was doing. This was so different from the responses I received on my previous queries for earlier works.
Then the offers came in. Three! Ecstacy! And I'm thrilled with the publisher I chose, Solstice Publishing, who is a great fit for me and for my work!
There's so much more to this process, and I'll outline different aspects of it in further posts. Like I said, next post will REVEAL my QUERY FORMULA. All I can tell you though, treating the submission process like a sales job WORKED for me. And I'm certain it can work for you.
Happy Writing!
R.B.