Submitting my Manuscript

As I described in my previous blog entry – Writing My First Book – after actually getting the sucker written, the real challenge begins. It starts with the Query Letter. But I soon learned that none of it was quite good enough yet before submitting my manuscript.

In late August, I attended the Writers’ Digest national conference in New York. There I attended Pitch Slam. This is the event I described in my Query Letter post, where you get ushered into a great, big room with a bunch of agents lining the perimeter and sitting at tables. You get 90 seconds to pitch your work and 90 seconds to discuss. Unless you are super experienced or a veteran author (in which case you’re probably not going to Pitch Slam anyway), those 90 seconds require 100 times, 200 times that in preparation. You’ve got to

• hook the agent immediately;
• tell them the genre, word count, stage of completion;
• give them enough of the plot so they know if it might be for them;
• give them a brief bio so they know who you are and why you are writing this work;
• provide good comps, say two or three that have something in common;
• give them a relatible context for the story (often referred to as X meets Y);
• end with a flourish.

Easy right?

The relatable context is interesting. Here’s an example. I’ve heard that George RR Marin pitched GOT as “Lord of the Rings Meets the War of the Roses”. I did a little research on this topic and there’s a lot of hate-on for the technique, but I find it useful. It’s not the sell point, but it does put your work into a context that most people can relate to.

So I did my thing and was pretty pleased that I got 5.5 expressions of interest for submitting my manuscript. 5.5? Yeah, well that one-half wasn’t really committed and didn’t see the driving point in my story as being strong enough. But in the end, he did suggest that I send him an email with the materials, so I’ll count that a point 5.

The other 5 were literally enthusiastic. The idea resonated.

One thing all agents look for in a concept is “fresh and familiar”. It sounds contradictory, but it’s really not. They want a fresh take on something that people can relate to. It’s hard to sell an entirely new concept because publishers will be too wary to take a chance on something radically different. Unless of course, you are a famous, established author. I’m not.

Of course when I went into my pitch, I thought I had a complete, finished, ready-to-go manuscript. I recommend that everyone have that mindset. Don’t blow your face-to-face time with agents when you don’t have anything to give them. What’s the point?

But then I attended a dozen seminars and discussions. I also paid for a 3^rd party critique of my synopsis and first 5 pages, the results of which I received just a day before the conference. Needless to say, there were plenty of comments. Not all of them positive. I wasn’t ready.

So, determined only to provide my very best work, I wrote to each of those agents who liked what they heard and told them that I would get my materials to them on the week of September 9. Then, I buried myself in the revision. The previous one, Rev 7, was what I thought was the last one prior to submitting my manuscript. But I took scores of notes at the conference. Notes about

• plot twists;
• world building;
• character development;
• building suspense and tension;
• openings that hook;
• pace.

The huge benefit I gain from having a manuscript (MS) in advanced draft form while attending a conference about the craft was that my notes specifically related to elements of my story, i.e. they were not conceptual, they were direct on point. So that was helpful.

In the next 2 weeks, I spent 120 hours revising, cutting middle scenes that dragged, adding a couple of twists in the middle, eliminating lengthy back story and putting it directly into the story arc, giving my lead character more depth, extending her back story even more. I did a major copy edit to ensure that the spelling (no, spell check alone doesn’t cut it), grammar and word usage were perfect. Overall, I cut 4 scenes, added 4 scenes and reduced the overall length from 101,000 to 99,000. I can honestly say that I left nothing on the table. I did everything I know how to do and put it into that MS.

It’s a WAY better book.

And then on 9/11, I submitted my manuscript to my 6 agents (well, 5 agents and 1 publisher).

Was it enough?

So what’s next? I’ve completed draft 4 of Book 2 (which I actually think is a better story because the characters are already introduced and I can get on with a fast-paced adventure).

I have a lot of new ideas now too. In particular, 3 characters from Prometheus Blue were a lot of fun to do. I’m going to work something up with them and see what kind of trouble they can get into.

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