Submission Ready
30/08/10 07:34 Filed in: Writing
I finished printing the elements of my novel
submission last night. All that's left is to address
the envelope, affix the stamps and mail it.
I feel a great sense of accomplishment, with a wash of fear lending interesting highlights.
It's an interesting process. The website for the publisher gives you instructions on what they expect you to send. You read books and articles that help you to understand what the website actually means. And friends who have done it before offer their insights as well.
The first step is the cover letter. In that, you include the name of the novel, its length in words, a brief, jacket-blurb-style description, the tiniest bit of information about yourself (to convince the publisher that you are the right person to write the book) and a dignified request that the publisher take your book on for publication. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it's not. It's one of the toughest things you'll ever have to write. You feel like all your hopes for that novel rest on that single page.
Then you have to write a longer synopsis of the novel. But how long? The guides say one page of synopsis for every 25 pages of novel. But the whispers say no publisher wants it that long. Make it short, make it snappy. So you sweat over every word and die a small death every time your word processor moves onto a new page. You want to keep it short but you worry that you have to make it as thorough a summary of the events in the novel as possible. So you suffer.
And last but not least, there's the sample of writing: in this case, 15 to 25 pages from the novel. Some publishers want the first 25 pages of the book, which might be easier. All you'd have to do then is work and rework every word in those 25 pages, recognising that you have to grab this particular reader and convince him or her that your novel will sell better than any other. In my case, however, the website does not ask for the first 25 pages: it asks for any section of the novel, so long as it's between 15 and 25 pages.
That makes it, in my opinion, much, much tougher. The question is: which 25 pages? Do I simply go with the first 25? Do I look for the section that I feel is best written? most exciting? most indicative of my style and approach? What if I choose the wrong section? What if I choose action and the publisher really wants to see character development? What if I choose a section in which I've tried something inventive and the publisher wants to see plain ol' solid writing?
Two different people told me the trial scenes in The Silent Goodbye are excellent and advised me to use one of those. So I quickly narrowed it down to two different parts of the trial. But which one to use? I weighed the pros and cons, carefully reviewed and revised each. Sweated the decision. I went so far as cutting and pasting each into its own file and then formatting both, just to see how they looked. I had hoped that I would find one to be too long or too short and the decision would be made for me. No such luck. They both turned out to be around 20 pages. Perfect.
So I let my gut choose. I picked the one with the stronger opening. Get the publisher interested early. The decision as to whether he or she wants to see more will be made in the first couple of pages, I thought. So, I went with my gut, printed the section and got the rest of the submission package ready.
Today I mail it. Then wait. Worried. Hopeful at times, fearful at others. For how long, I don't know. We'll see.
I feel a great sense of accomplishment, with a wash of fear lending interesting highlights.
It's an interesting process. The website for the publisher gives you instructions on what they expect you to send. You read books and articles that help you to understand what the website actually means. And friends who have done it before offer their insights as well.
The first step is the cover letter. In that, you include the name of the novel, its length in words, a brief, jacket-blurb-style description, the tiniest bit of information about yourself (to convince the publisher that you are the right person to write the book) and a dignified request that the publisher take your book on for publication. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, it's not. It's one of the toughest things you'll ever have to write. You feel like all your hopes for that novel rest on that single page.
Then you have to write a longer synopsis of the novel. But how long? The guides say one page of synopsis for every 25 pages of novel. But the whispers say no publisher wants it that long. Make it short, make it snappy. So you sweat over every word and die a small death every time your word processor moves onto a new page. You want to keep it short but you worry that you have to make it as thorough a summary of the events in the novel as possible. So you suffer.
And last but not least, there's the sample of writing: in this case, 15 to 25 pages from the novel. Some publishers want the first 25 pages of the book, which might be easier. All you'd have to do then is work and rework every word in those 25 pages, recognising that you have to grab this particular reader and convince him or her that your novel will sell better than any other. In my case, however, the website does not ask for the first 25 pages: it asks for any section of the novel, so long as it's between 15 and 25 pages.
That makes it, in my opinion, much, much tougher. The question is: which 25 pages? Do I simply go with the first 25? Do I look for the section that I feel is best written? most exciting? most indicative of my style and approach? What if I choose the wrong section? What if I choose action and the publisher really wants to see character development? What if I choose a section in which I've tried something inventive and the publisher wants to see plain ol' solid writing?
Two different people told me the trial scenes in The Silent Goodbye are excellent and advised me to use one of those. So I quickly narrowed it down to two different parts of the trial. But which one to use? I weighed the pros and cons, carefully reviewed and revised each. Sweated the decision. I went so far as cutting and pasting each into its own file and then formatting both, just to see how they looked. I had hoped that I would find one to be too long or too short and the decision would be made for me. No such luck. They both turned out to be around 20 pages. Perfect.
So I let my gut choose. I picked the one with the stronger opening. Get the publisher interested early. The decision as to whether he or she wants to see more will be made in the first couple of pages, I thought. So, I went with my gut, printed the section and got the rest of the submission package ready.
Today I mail it. Then wait. Worried. Hopeful at times, fearful at others. For how long, I don't know. We'll see.