This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
We’re super excited that for the month of May Pippa Wright is here at Novelicious as our author in residence. Each Friday she will be answering a question about her life as a writer.
This week a Novelicious reader asks:
How did you get a book deal?
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Pippa says: Okay this one’s tough, because I think the question is really, ‘How can I get a book deal?’. So I’m going to tell you how I did it with extra pointers as to how you might do it.
I wrote about a third of Lizzy Harrison Loses Control and put it in a drawer for ages because I lost faith in it (I now understand that I always feel like this around 30k words, but this was all new to me then). I unearthed it months later and decided to send it to some agents for feedback. I wasn’t really expecting to get an agent at this stage, but I hoped that maybe one of the agents would say something encouraging like, ‘This has potential, why don’t you send me the full manuscript when it’s finished.’ If they’d all told me it was terrible I’d probably have given up.
I was very lucky that all the agents I sent it to were interested in representing me. This is not because I am some kind of genius but, I think, because I knew how to write a decent submission letter (it was part of my job in book publishing to pitch books to other publishers, so I’d had a lot of practice). My letter was short, professional and targeted at four specific agents that I knew were interested in women’s fiction. I made sure the sample pages ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so they might be interested in knowing what happened next. I also sent it anonymously, because I was worried I’d see these agents through work (some of them knew me, some of them didn’t) and it would be mortifying for all of us if they’d told me my writing was terrible.
So my tips are:
Send part of the manuscript, not the whole thing, even if you’ve written it all. 100 pages is about right.
Make sure you’re really happy with the first 30 pages or so – many agents aren’t going to read beyond this point if they’re not already hooked.
Keep your submission letter to one page only: your writing should speak for you in the sample pages, so a single paragraph of plot summary is plenty. If you think your writing needs several detailed paragraphs of explanatory comment a) it doesn’t b) it might be a sign that you need to do a bit more work on the manuscript.
Show an understanding of the market by positioning your submission – it’s women’s fiction, it’s literary fiction – but be wary of comparing yourself to other authors as it can come across as either showing-off or, worse, utter delusion. Allow the agent to make comparisons of their own, don’t invite them to say, ‘But this crazy crime caper is nothing like Jane Austen.’
Be professional – this is a business, and the agent is
reading your submission wondering if he/she can work with you on a long-term
basis. Wacky stunts and gags are the submission equivalent of the ‘You don’t
have to be mad to work here, but it helps!’ sign at the desk of a new
colleague: one walks rapidly in the opposite direction.
That’s how I got an agent. He made me finish the book before he submitted it to publishers. We had an argument about whether or not the love interest was ‘wet’. I found myself on a train shouting into my phone, ‘He is not wet, he is a GOOD MAN’ and got stared at by fellow travellers. Listen to your agent, they have your best interests at heart. I made the love interest less wet.
What happened next is that my book got rejected by a number of publishers. For me this was quite difficult because I knew some of these publishers personally – so I couldn’t say ‘well, I expect that editor is just an idiot’ when I knew that wasn’t the case. But again, from working in publishing, I understood that what publishers are after is the right book for the market as they see it at that moment, and it must fit into the list of titles they already have lined up. Publishing is a team effort and you really need to be with a team that not only believes in your book but has the time and space to dedicate to publishing it well. I found that with Pan Macmillan who have been brilliant to worth with; they’ve exceeded all my expectations and I feel very fortunate to have landed there.
Don’t get disheartened by rejection – it’s not personal, and it doesn’t necessarily mean your book is terrible. It just might not be a good fit with that particular editor or publisher. Remember all the famous authors who got rejected time and time again. Remember the books that got turned down by every publisher but one and went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Remember success as an author is often down to sheer luck, but the luck only comes to people who’ve worked for it first. Keep writing.