Dystopia: The New Utopia

There has been a lot of discussion about trends in the writing market recently. It seems that one can't really jump right into the current trend, because when one finally finishes the manuscript, agents/publishers are no longer accepting trend novels because the market is "filling up".

The YA trend has been vampires since Hurricane Twilight sent teenage girls racing to the bookstores. Everybody wanted to catch the gust and wrote vampire YA (books that I still greedily seek out). There is now an overflow of unpublished manuscripts and agents are rejecting all queries that have the word "vampire" in them.

The current and near-future trend seems to be YA Dystopia. I actually had to look up that word (anti-utopia), and I get it; I like watching movies where the world is inside-out after some catastrophe, and I should be able to enjoy such books as well. Of course, a dash of paranormal wouldn't ruin it for me.

When I read about the dystopia trend, I immediately thought that maybe I should try to write one, but by the time I'd get it done, everyone and their cousin will have sent out query letters and agents will be rejecting all queries containing the word "dystopia".

One might say that unpublished writers live in a dystopian world and are desperately trying to reach utopia. I think that the only chance writers have to ride the wave of trends is by either having manuscripts ready before the tide hits to be able to ship them out immediately when their genre is prophesied to be the next big thing, or to be abnormally fast at creating manuscripts, and risking the manuscript being rushed.

If you want to break into the market, you'll have to write what sells; and what sells is the current and next trend. Kristin Nelson recently talked about how most queries she's receiving today are about ghosts telling their stories, psychics solving a mystery, vampires (still, as she puts it), and people seeing things in dreams that lead them on an adventure. Apparently writers are expected to think outside the box and try to invent the next hype, but at the same time it is difficult to sell the manuscript because it involves a great risk to publishers.

I have tried to be innovative in my manuscript and created paranormal beings that I haven't seen before. Now the big, hairy and nasty question is: are they too innovative for the publishers to take the risk?

Literary Agent Resources

The tough, rough, and ever so frightening agents.

I have finished reading the manuscript and make the minor corrections -- finally. I realize that I'll have to read the first 40 pages again, just to see if the deletion of the first chapter and minor changes to the second chapter has gone smoothly. I don't want to miss a significant detail from the deleted first chapter.

What's next? After I've read those 40 pages, I will personalize query letters to each agent on my list. I currently have 22 agents listed. I know that there are loads more, and I will look for them after I have sent out to those 22. These are also only agents who accept e-queries. I know that e-queries are easier to discard than paper queries, but I still think e-queries are the easier choice.

--> Compile a list of desirable agents.

I wonder if it's better to send directly to the agents, or to their assistants. Will the agents be quicker to discard a query? I know that it was an assistant to fished out Stephenie Meyer's query letter, so perhaps they are the better choice. Some seem to have assistants while others don't. Regardless, I'll have to choose an agent within the agency, one that represents my genre.

--> Decide whom to query within the agency.

The agencies only allow people to query one agent, so querying all won't work. Janet Reid, however, suggests querying the others if the first one rejects. She says that if you don't hear back from the agents within 30 days, one should re-query. She also says that one shouldn't assume that silence = no, even if it's written on the agency's query page.

--> Decide a strategy for querying.

I have downloaded Sonar, a little program that'll keep track of my queries. I haven't tested it yet, but it looks neat and useful.

--> Keep track of when you send out the queries.

I have found useful sites to find agents. There's Query Tracker, Publishers Marketplace, and Agent Query. I've briefly looked through them and listed some agents. I'll take a better look at them later. Then, of course, there's Google and links on various blogs. I also always check the acknowledgements in the books I read to see who represents the author.

Then I research the agent a little; see what books he/she has had published in your genre, and which of those books were a hit. I read that advice a long time ago, and I always check published books on the agency pages. I also run a search through Google with the agent/agency name + scam, to see if there's any negative discussion about the agent/agency. This can be done if the agent requests a partial or full, but I like to do it beforehand.

--> Research your agent; see what books he/she's had published and check for scams.

Task for the day: Read the first 40 pages.

Stumped by the Story Question

Which Way?

Randy answered my question about placing the story question in the novel. My question was:

I followed the Writing Fiction for Dummies book to the letter after I wrote my novel, all except the part about a scene list. I thought it would take too much effort. I realized yesterday that I need to shift the scenes around, and I so regret not writing that list.

I’m going mad with trying to figure out how it all connects if I move two of my scenes earlier (so that the REAL story question of the book is in the first quarter, and not closer to the middle). There’s ton of things happening in the first 1/3 to keep the reader occupied, and I’ve been dropping clues left and right, all carefully concealed to the best of my ability.

The real story question is basically if the kids should choose between good or evil, but up until then the reader will have thought that the story question is how to get home, since that’s what the kids have been doing up until about 1/3 of the story.

How to get home is the ultimate goal, and the story question of the whole trilogy (this is book one).

How important is it to have the true story question of the book in the first quarter as opposed to nearer to 1/3 of the book?

Thanks in advance. I’ll appreciate help with this.

He gave me a very long, elaborate answer with examples of the five pillars of fiction; Storyworld, Characters, Plot, Theme, and Style.

Basically he said that if the story is plot-driven, as mine is, the story question should be clear very early in the manuscript. This had me sighing a little, but then I figured that I'm introducing a whole new world, and I felt that I couldn't go right into the story question (good or evil) until after I'd done some fair introduction. One of Randy's readers, Timothy R. Greene, commented and said that he likes to push the story question back for as long as he can. He thinks that it makes the story more of a mystery and keeps the reader interested.

I checked my manuscript and the story question is literally spelled out on page 112 of a 254 paged story. That's more than 1/3'd way through; it's closer to the middle. I honestly don't think that moving it forward will improve the story, since the ultimate goal is to get home and that's clearly obvious in the first 30 pages, but in order to get home they have to choose a path. They only get that information after having traveled the land, seen the evil race, and discovered and trained their different abilities. I tried moving the question closer to the beginning, but it just didn't work and didn't feel right, so I think I'm going to listen to my gut on this one.

I think that if I were to try again, I'd have to rewrite the whole thing from start. I'll have that as a backup plan if I only get rejections from both agents and publishers.

Task for the day: Read two chapters and fix in the document.

When to Query

Querying

I was reading old blog posts from agents and came across an old post by Janet Reid. It has to be the most helpful post on how to keep on querying. I feel all perky and excited now, ready to take 'em on!

Ok, so I haven't actually sent out the query letters yet, but I'm going to...next Wednesday. I chose Wednesday for a strategic reason. After an hour of searching, I finally found theGatekeeper blog again. It basically says that an agent's inbox fills with queries over the weekend and on Monday they have loads to sort through. On Fridays they're too occupied with Friday-glee, that they're more likely to reject. The blog advises middle of the week. There are also lots of helpful advices in this post.

The Gatekeeper's The Middle Way: A new method of timing your queries suggests making a list of most desirable agents, medium ones, and the ones who just wound up on the paper. She also suggests to query first the medium desirable ones and see if you get any feedbacks. If you get only rejections or a few personalized feedbacks, you can work on your query letter before you query the ones who are truly desirable.

I like this approach; it's safe and you learn from it. What would worry me, however, is if some would want to sign me up and I wouldn't have queried the more desirable ones yet (a luxury problem, I suppose). Janet Reid suggest querying all, and not go by such a list. I haven't yet decided which method to choose; it's something I'll have to think about before Wednesday.

Gatekeeper is an excellent site with loads of information on querying. You can pick up on many hints on what not-to-do. This post has a pie chart on why she chose to say "yes" to a query, and another with a "no". I also love this post called Typical Day.

KT Literary made a really fun post where Daphne opens her query letters live and writes why they don't work. Lots of tips there.

I have studied these sites carefully, both for research on the market and agenting, and then for the dreadful querying.

Task for the day: Read a chapter and fix in the document.

Instincts

Smile!

This morning I continued making the adjustments, but the whole time I didn't feel very good about it. It just felt wrong. So I decided to listen to my instincts and checked out the beginning of the original chapter two and then it came to me; I could make chapter two into chapter one and drop tiny little details here and there to make it work. And it did work! The chapter starts with action and I'm able to introduce all character fluently and the story just begins without any long musings or backstory. This way I also get to keep that extra plot that I intended to delete. I just felt that the story wasn't interesting enough after taking it out. It just wasn't the story I wrote and loved.

--> Listen to your gut on how you want your story to be.

--> If the first chapter is not very interesting, see if you can make the second chapter into your first and adjust it a little.

Fortunately I'd saved the manuscript under a different name before making yesterdays changes. If I hadn't, the whole two chapters would be gone.

--> Always save your manuscript under a different name before making major changes.

I'm feeling so much better now that I'm actually smiling. I'm looking forward to the querying process again, knowing that the examples I'll send will be more captivating than they were.

Task for today: Continue reading the original manuscript to check for minor mistakes. Send the full profile to have it proofread.

Have a great day!

Chapter Completed

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

I finished the revised chapters this morning, and I managed to chop the two 15,000 worded chapters (combined) down to a single 2,500 worded one. But that was the easy part; now I have to adjust the rest to the changes. I have already shortened the former chapter three into chapters two (3,600) and three (3,700). The first chapter is a lot shorter, but it'll just have to be. I could add backstory or some musings, but I don't think it'll make the chapter better.

I was beginning to doubt myself again over the weekend. There's just so much competition out there and I kept thinking why should they choose my manuscript? But then I reminded myself of some advices I've seen on the internet:

--> Why not your work?

and

--> You don't know until you've queried.

I suppose that I was so relieved when I thought I was ready to query that I feel like I've taken a humongous step backwards. Not only do I have to adjust the chapters, but I also have to adjust my query letter a little and the proposal as well (character sketches and two-page synopsis). Okay, now that I think about it, it's not really that much. It's only a paragraph in the synopsis and minor changes in the sketches. I just have to give myself this week to do this and then hopefully be able to query next week. Hopefully.

--> Give yourself time to perfect your manuscript. Don't rush.

Well, I think I'll rest a little now. I was woken up early this morning by the chipmunks. They're at the kindergarten now, but will be home soon.

Have a nice day!

Preparing for a Change

IKEA Princess Cake

Before rewriting the first chapter, I've decided to look through the first three chapters and see what I need to keep in order to make it work. I need to make sure that the readers care for the characters as much by the end of that one chapter, as much as at the end of the first two chapters. That means that I need to drop a little backstory in the first chapter (nothing extensive, just a little), and then drop the rest of it throughout the book. It shouldn't be hard since I know of places which are perfect for it. Still, I'll need to shorten the backstory a lot.

--> Don't use a lot of backstory/reflecting in the first chapter.

I've decided to start the story from a complete different angle. As it is now, the story begins with Eva (the PoV protagonist), at school, mostly thinking about the guy she likes, the school bully, and her life at home. This is a lot of reflecting, and something online agents/editors don't recommend. The second chapter is more action where Eva leaves home to meet up with the rest of the characters. This chapter is more interesting and there's action in it, but since I've decided to remove the minor-plot that starts in this chapter (that was supposed to continue throughout the three books), the chapter doesn't really work. The third chapter is where the four teens face the main problem, that they'll work on solving throughout the trilogy, but I'm hoping that I can shorten it to make the journey go faster. The fun part really starts in the beginning of 2/3'd, and that's much too late in the story, I think.

--> Don't make the story start off too slowly. Get to the fun part fast.

My chapters are also around 8,000 words long, and I'm going to see if I can shorten them. That doesn't mean deleting 3,000 words from each, it just means that I'm going to see if I can split a chapter into two. Currently, the book is 118,000 words long with 15 chapters. If it works, it'll be 102,000 long (by replacing the first three chapters with one) with 26 chapters. 100,000 words is a lot more sell-able than 120,000. I read somewhere that, although tastes differ, the majority of YA teenagers prefer many short chapters as opposed to a few long chapters. Randy suggests 2,500 words per chapter, but I think that's too short.

--> If writing YA, don't keep the chapters too long.

Well, it's still weekend, and I'm taking my twins to IKEA today. Because the Princess of Sweden is getting married (and taking over the reign), IKEA is giving all kids that show up in prince or princess outfits sweets and cakes. They also have an offer on princess-cakes (which are just yummy), and other Swedish food products. Then we're going to the movies (for their third time) to see Toy Story 3 (not 3D, one of the twins refused to wear the glasses last time).

Have a nice day!

Staying Focused

I just finished reading the 50 pages, and found that the changes I made really work. The story is more to the point now and even has more action in it. I've only read through about 1/3 of my book, I'll read the rest over the weekend. At least I won't have to do any more serious changes to the manuscript.

--> Read carefully through your manuscript before querying. Then read carefully through it again.

After I finish correcting the little changes, I'll read through the manuscript yet again (for possibly the 15th time - as I said, perfectionism can be a curse). Then, hopefully it'll be ready. I had a freelance editor read over the old manuscript, but I don't think I'll have her read over it again, since I only changed one chapter, because it costs a lot of money (especially since the Icelandic Krona plummeted in 2007 and hasn't recovered much since).

--> Have someone read over the manuscript for mistakes (grammar or structure-vise).

--> Have the manuscript polished and ready before querying.

Last night I was feeling a bit pessimistic about ever getting this book published, because I keep working on it, over and over, and I never seem satisfied. The story, writing and everything is great, and much, much better than a lot of what I've read, but I see this difficult task ahead of getting an agent, and reading about all the trials and horrors of trying to get one. One starts to wonder why one would be the exception. I think that ALL new authors must be intimidated by the process, so I don’t think I’m alone here.

In my agony, I visited Publishers Marketplace and very easily found 10 possible agencies, in case my chosen one refuses. I'll look for more (already have some bookmarked that I haven't written on my list yet), because I expect to have to query a lot, just like everyone else.

--> Compile a list of agencies to query - a lot of agencies.

Reading comments on the agencies’ pages kind of lifted my spirits and encouraged me to just stay focused on my project, finish polishing the manuscript (and I won't - I repeat - won't read over it again after I've finished reading through all of it as a whole after my changes), finish writing the full proposal and polish my query letter to the chosen one.

--> Keep focused on one thing at a time and try not to be overwhelmed by what's ahead.

Then, since my book is the first in a series of three, with the possibility of more if the publisher would be interested, I'll have to make a synopsis for the other two books, which should be easy since I know exactly what's going to happen and have most of it noted.

I read somewhere last night, that publishers were going for single books now, instead of series, and I was disheartened by that. But then this morning I read on Randy's blog that publishers often want to sign new authors who have series, because the marketing cost will stretch over a series of books instead of all of it on a single book. That made me feel better. Whichever is true, I'll have to stick to my project, which could by no means fit into one book, and stay positive.

--> Make a synopsis for the next book(s) in the series. Include this in your full proposal.

The one thing I'm dreading a lot (if I allow myself to think of the things ahead) is comparing my book to other books. Most of the books I like to read are vampire books, and my book isn't vampire-based, although it's paranormal. I know that many writers probably say this, but I don't think there's another book quite like mine. The magical creatures are unique - I haven't heard of or read about any that are similar, and the world, I suppose, is a bit Lords of the Ring'ish - and yet not at all the same. I can hardly compare my book to the masterpiece of J.R.R. Tolkien - I've read warnings about comparing your book to anything hugely popular (I think it was Randy that advised against it in his book).

--> Find books in the same genre, make short synopsis for them and compare them to your books in a few words. Include this in your full proposal.

I thought I could use Eragon, Twilight maybe (although it's vampire based, and hugely popular), The Mortal Instruments series (definitely) and ehm... Any ideas anyone? I could hardly go for Harry Potter, since that was beyond huge. Still, I suppose I could compare it - it is another world, and although my series is for teens a bit older than the first Harry Potter book was written for, the later books were for older teens, I thought. I suppose these books are the most commonly chosen to compare ones YA fantasy with.

Task for the day: Type in the little changes into the three chapters I read this morning, pick up my twins form the kindergarten and go to my parents for the weekend!

Task for the weekend: Read the rest of the chapters and check for any mistakes and try to put the book out of my mind for just enough time to enjoy the celebrations.

Have a nice day!

Tessa Quin

First-Time Author

Hello,

I'm Tessa Quin (32), a first-time author of a YA fantasy/adventure novel. The novel is complete at around 120,000 words, and is the first in a series. I'm getting ready for the process of finding a literary agent.

The main purpose of this blog is to follow the process of getting an agent, in hope that it can be of use to others in the future. I will mention no names of agents in any of my blogs – with the possible exception of the agent I’ll sign up with.

I have one particular agent in mind, and I plan to query him exclusively and see if he will request the manuscript. If not, I'll start sending queries to various agents.

Right now I'm going over the manuscript yet again (perfectionist here - it's a curse), and I deleted a chapter (roughly 6,000 words) and wrote a shorter scene to deliver the same results. I did this because I thought the old scene was too much of a sidetrack, and now the manuscript is more linear with the story goal.

--> Stick to the plot and try not to sidetrack too much.

Plus, the manuscript is around 120,000 words, instead of 125,000, which might be a bit too much when it comes to publishing a first time author. Apparently, 80,000-100,000 words is what publishers look for in a YA novel, but fortunately, some have been known to bend that rule.

--> A YA novel should usually be no more than 100,000 words.

This is not the first time I delete such a chunk, I deleted the whole second chapter and rewrote it to make it more interesting. The result was a much better, more to-the-point chapter that I think my future readers will appreciate.

I'm also working on my proposal. I'm the type of person who likes to have everything ready upon request, and that's why I haven't sent out queries yet. I think it’s a good idea, and I think the agents will appreciate it.

--> Have a full proposal at the ready, or at least most of it done before querying.

I think that my main obstacle is that I don't live in America, and so it'll be difficult to find a literary agent in the USA. I live in Iceland, and as far as I know, I have no foreign traces in my blood. Needless to say, Tessa Quin is my pen-name, because my real name is a bit of a mouthful for foreigners.

I chose to publish in the United States because the market in Iceland is very small (it's a nation of roughly 300,000 people). That means that my possible readership would be maybe 60-70,000, minus the fact that many Icelandic teens don't like to read, so in the end, I'd be faced with a very small readership.

Do I believe that more teenagers in America would buy my book? Absolutely! The book is fresh, fun and filled with plots and interesting characters. I get inspired by Iceland, the scenery, the people, the folklore and history. I also believe that the book will sell well in other foreign markets. Plus, my English is excellent, and I’m not too modest to say so ;)

When I’m writing (and I always write in English), I’m in my element. That’s why I chose to take the leap and dedicate myself to the craft. I’m determined to see this brilliant book get published.

Thanks for reading and have a good day,

Tessa Quin