The Path To Publication

This post was inspired by publishing myths over on Writer Beware ( a great resource for writers!) where she was talking about the myth that you have to know ’someone’ to get into the biz.

So I wanted to talk a little bit about my journey from slush to shelf, and all of the stops in between.

You hear, especially on vanity press websites, that you need to *know* someone to have a chance. While that might be helpful (I wouldn’t know) it’s not a necessity. I didn’t know anyone when I started out. NO ONE. I have no connections with ‘the industry’ (well, I do now…) but I started my journey to publication by clicking on the writing guidelines at eharlequin and looking at the guidelines for the different categories. Which one did I want to do?? Presents made sense. It was my favorite line to read and I knew I would have a lot of fun writing them.

I had already entered the Instant Seduction contest and was waiting on feedback when I started my first MS that ended up completed, (now titled HIS VIRGIN ACQUISITION and available in the UK in August and November in North America. )

So after studying submission guidelines, and reading the editor pet peeves and finding out the format that was expected, the appropriate person to address the query letter to, and all of those other things that are essential to do before you submit, I began working on my MS.

Somewhere in there the contest results were announced and I was not even among the fortunate few who received feedback, but I was committed. Halfway done with the MS and bound and determined to submit it, even though I though my odds weren’t all that great since I couldn’t get feedback from the contest.

So I submitted, extremely careful to follow all of the requests for how to put a submission together (double spaced, rubber-banded, not stapled, name, book title and page number on every page, etc.) This is where the right brained part of the writing process comes into play, it’s the part creative types don’t really like, but it’s a necessity.

Writing is a business. Publishing is a business. A writer, both published and unpublished, should conduct themselves with professionalism and pay attention to those details! Know what a publisher publishes, and only send them appropriate materials (eg, don’t send your erotic zombie romance to the Harlequin Romance line…mmkay?) and send it in the format they’ve requested. (they do those handy e-submissions these days…much less scary!!)

So after that…I got published. Not. After that there were revisions on my partial. I read somewhere that 80% of revision letters are never responded to. The writer either doesn’t do the the revisions and never submits to the publisher again, or they don’t do the revisions and resubmit it to another editor in hopes the first editor was an idiot who failed to see the genius in the work, and that another editor who is not an idiot will see it.

Don’t do that. Do the revisions. Advice from an editor is gold. Even if you do the work and it’s ultimately rejected, it wasn’t time wasted. It’s time investing in your craft and learning to make yourself a better writer. I went through revisions on the partial, revisions on the full and a rewrite of the last half of the full. And I’m so glad I did. I learned more reading revision letters from my editor and applying it practically than I did in three terms of creative writing in college. It’s an education for the price of postage.  I kind of think that there’s no room for false modesty in writing, you have to have some confidence, but there’s no room for a massive ego either. You have to be able to take critique, and apply it, knowing that, if an editor offers feedback, they see potential and they want to help you be better.

That work that I put into revisions paid off exponentially. After that last round of revisions, HIS VIRGIN ACQUISITION was accepted and I was offered a contract. (I have had revisions on every submission, the first, and the two since getting a contract.)

So it’s possible. Extremely possible to know no one, to do the research, do the writing, do the work, and get yourself published.

As a side note, a vanity press wants your money, a real publisher will pay you for the work that you’ve done. As it should be. A vanity press appeals to your vanity, they play on the fact that you have *dreams*, that you can use your self-published book as a way to get ‘in’.  (as a rule, publishers will not look at a previously published work, so whatever you get ‘published’ with the vanity press will likely earn an immediate, form R from a real publisher) They throw around things like ‘you can be a published author, like you’ve always wanted. It’s in your reach!’

Yes, it is in your reach. But you don’t have to shell out bucks for it, you have to do the work. There’s a lot of ground between writing a manuscript and seeing it published, but it’s possible to get there. If you’re writing isn’t ‘there’ yet, work on getting it there, submit, submit, submit.  Revise. Submit. Revise.

Love Scenes

This is a discussion that came up in my crit group a little while back, and Jackie also discussed it on her blog recently. So I wanted to continue on the topic, because, let’s face it, in romance, this is kind of important.

Of course we know that romance isn’t about sex. It’s not one sex scene after another with no character and no meaning, rather, the consummation of the h and H’s relationship is an important, character building, relationship building, conflict bringing, story advancing moment.

It should say something about them, who they are, what they’re feeling. For example, a love scene between an h and H who think they’re indulging in a one night stand would be different than a love scene between an h and H who have years of pent up desire. It would different if the heroine had been in love with the hero and she has expectations, hopes, dreams tied up in the two of them making love, vs if she wanted to keep her emotions disengaged because she doesn’t want a real romantic entanglement.

When I finished writing and dusting up book #2 for Presents, I had a mild panic attack when I realized that I had written FOUR love scenes. Yeah, cue breathing into the paper bag again. It seemed like too much to me for a book that size, and I was concerned it would read like one love scene after another without any real conflict, resolution or story advancement. So I decided to edit one out. But the trouble was, I felt like losing any of those scenes was to lose a huge chunk of story. In the end I really didn’t want to lose those moments because in my mind they were the most intimate, revealing parts, especially for my hero, who’s completely undone in those moments.

So I left them in with the thought that if my editor asked me to take one out, I would. So it was immensely gratifying when she sent me my small revision letter a week or so back that she said the lovemaking between them furthered their emotional connection and confirmed their deep attraction, in addition to setting of a chain of rollercoaster emotions that brought them closer together.

And that to me sums up what the love scenes are for. Yeah, they’re fun to write and fun to read. They allow us to glimpse the most intimate moments in a developing romance. They allow us to experience every aspect of love and falling in love. But more than that, they can become an integral part of the storytelling, not just a scene you could lift out because it was nothing more than a series of purple prose and graphic description.

Oh, and now, for Maya and myself, we must partake in Mark Valley…Snaps.

Why I Dearly Love Revisions

Yes, I know, isn’t it easy to say when after the fact? Well, yes, it is. Hindsight, after all, is a brilliant and wonderful thing.

Ahem. My lovely, gorgeous, lovely editor who I LOVE emailed me today, and yay, she liked what I did with my partial.

And here I was, only a few weeks ago, righteously bummed over the massive amount of work those revisions represented. Yet again though, my editor was so right and she brought out the best in me by challenging me. So I’ll say it again, revisions are a beautiful thing. When you really have to sit and question what you did, why you did it, and why things don’t work, it forces you to find ways around your normal way of thinking and that just opens all kinds of possibilities up. I’ve learned that I limit myself in a way, and when I get new insight from my editor I have to find a way to break through those self-imposed barriers.

An editor points out your weaknesses, but whether they point them out to you or not, they exist. And you may not be able to see them, but, oh, your readers would SO be able to. I am thankful for this because, yet again, my editor really forced me to dig deeper. She not only pointed out my weaknesses, she made me dig deeper and find some new strengths. The result is a much better MS that I am much prouder of, and that I think readers will connect with on a deeper level.

So, hats off to my editor, and yay for revisions.

Merry Christmas To Me! (Revisions!)

So funny that I happened to do a post on revisions right before receiving a fresh new set of my own! I felt immediately compelled to come to my own web site for a reminder of why revisions are good.

Christmas Eve morning the revisions for my second submission to M&B landed in my inbox. Thankfully, my lovely editor is more than willing to talk with me, either through email or on the phone after the Christmas Holiday, so that was a major relief.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s definitely a good thing to let the revisions settle in for a bit before diving into them, but for me, that’s easier said than done. So, with my husband and kids still in bed, I drove across the street (head hanging out the window so I could see since I didn’t wait for my windows to defrost!) and went to my parent’s house for coffee.

And they, kindly, let me bounce inane idea after crazier idea off of them for the next hour or so. Then my mom and I baked pies and did the bulk of our Christmas prep work while I ran back and forth from the stove to my laptop taking down notes (if you can call my half-formed ramblings anything so sophisticated as ‘notes’)

I admit, I was feeling a bit panicky. Again, I agreed with the revisions and reservations my editor had, but there’s that moment where you have no idea how to fix it that feels a little bit like it might if you jumped out of plane and realized you weren’t quite sure where the ripcord for your shoot was. Yeah, a little bit like that.

But after a couple hours of baking, frantic emails to my crit group, more baking, and more general nail biting, I did start to have some ideas. And with ideas came a return of my sanity!

Christmas I really did manage to let it all go and just enjoy my kids opening their gifts (and I enjoyed the heck out of my gifts!) and today I was back to work. That old excitement is starting to return, along with all the second guessing and insecurity that seems to be so common to us author types!

It is exciting though to be going on this journey with a new MS. I know in the end it’s going to be better and those moments of panic as I rolled out pie crust will seem silly.

So I shall humbly continue to be your revision expert and commiserater.

More On Revisions (Since I’ve Done My Share)

I’ve been reading on blogs that a lot of people have gotten revision letters lately, or rejections with revision suggestions, and since the topic is so near and dear to me, I thought I’d offer up some more thoughts on the subject.

Yes, it can be daunting to stare down the barrel of a revision letter. And my natural tendency is to want to jump straight in and tackle the bad boy head on. When I received my letters though, my crit group advised me to read the letter and give the points a day or two to really set in, and I think that’s good advice. It allows you to get some emotional distance and gives you the chance to analyze it a bit.

My next step, after really going over that letter, is to line out what points in the revision letter need to be applied to what things in the MS. I make a list of what things I think need changing based on the letter.

Example: if my revision letters says I need to make sure I don’t let my hero slip back into the ‘all-American guy’ character I had established him as in an earlier draft, I write myself a note that’s somewhat nonsensical but gets the point across to me, something like: Check Marco’s dialogue, watch out for slips out of character. Cut diner scene?

You get the idea. Anyway, anything to do with either character would probably get grouped together, and anything to do with plot, pacing, etc, would each get their own group.

Then I would pick one thing at a time to work on, like Marco’s character. It helped me to break it up so it didn’t seem seem so huge. Once I was satisfied I had taken care of the character issues I could then move on to pacing or whatever else it was I needed to work on.

As for the emotional aspect of the revisions, my best advice on that is to take a deep breath and realize that they don’t give revisions if they don’t see huge potential. The ed didn’t look at your MS and see a disaster, she saw the places you were capable of taking it. She saw that it could go from good to great, and editors are trained to really wring the great out of you!

I was just thinking I’m actually kind of excited to get my revisions for the new MS I submitted. Working through the revisions for HVA made it a million times better and I can’t wait to see what wonderful thoughts my editor has for making the next one even better.

So there’s a positive spin to revisions, you just have to look to see it. It isn’t about what they didn’t like, it’s about what they DID like. It’s about elevating every aspect of the manuscript so that it matches your strengths.

Do you have a special system for tackling revisions?

Character and Building it

There’s been a lot of discussion over at http://jackieashenden.blogspot.com/ about characterization. One of the commenters suggested using astrology to help nail down a character, and that got me thinking of all kind of fun things a person might try…

The Myers-Briggs personality test…taken as your hero or heroine of course! Here’s a link: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp After you score it, make sure you click on the link that will break down what the personality type means. (I’m ESFJ, for those who wanna know!!)

Also there’s the ‘temperament test’ http://www.oneishy.com/personality/personality_test.php (I’m Sanguine Choleric)
And a little Chinese Zodiac (I’d be the tiger!)http://www.chiff.com/home_life/holiday/chinese-zodiac.htm

Have fun!

Professionalism

I’ve often joked that the process of submission, rejection, revision, submission, revision…so forth…is like the world’s longest job interview. Your submission is your resume and the ensuing revisions and contact with the editor are like your interview.

Can you take direction? Do you meet deadlines? Are you easy to work with? Or are you a whiny, petulant artist who believes their work is perfect on arrival? The editor is going to get a sense for all of this via revisions and other contact.

Writing is a competitive business. And it is a business. We, the writer, need to make a product that the distributor can sell. That’s our job. Not only do we have to write something great, we need to do it their specifications, and, I believe, we need to be easy to work with.

Because talent is only a piece of it. It matters, trust me, but it isn’t the only thing.

Get Published Quick! Write a Romance! (or…hahahahahahaha!)

We had an interesting discussion in my crit group yesterday about loving your genre. Because if you don’t, your reader will notice. If you’re cynical about romance, or find the genre to be beneath you, the reader will notice.

Now, I think the majority of romance writers really love the genre, but I do think there are some who are sort of ‘winking’ at the reader. Or sneering, as the case may be. They have an attitude about it being a stepping stone on their way to the bigger and better. Well, I have news for you. Romance is about the biggest thing there is. As it’s been pointed out, just about every genre has romance as a part of it.

What really burns my biscuits is when people act like they’re going to get published quick by writing one of those romance novels. Like it’s the pyramid scheme of fiction, or something.

But thinking that way does a big disservice to the writers of romance and the readers. And those of us who have been trying to get published for any length of time know it’s not just a matter of ‘boy meets girl, boy gets girl, writer sends to publisher, writer gets the contract.’

Like any other writer, we practice the craft. We learn about it. We refine it. We take it seriously. Not too seriously, which is something I love about the romance community. We know we’re writing entertainment, but it’s entertainment we love.

As I’ve said before, I love romance. I love to read it. I love to write it. And writing it is not a quick, simple way to get your name on a book cover. No matter your genre, I don’t think there is a quick, simple way to do that that doesn’t cost you a decent amount out of pocket.

Amen my fellow writers?

The Internal Conflict, and How it conflicts Me Internally

I’ve done a post on internal conflict before, but it bears repeating. I give the whole subject a lot of thought, after all. As we all should, since getting it wrong seems to earn a lot of very talented writers some very fast rejection letters! I was fortunate that my own conflict issue has only gotten me revisions at this point.

I was reading a post on Waiting For the Call http://waitingforthecall.wordpress.com, and it got me to thinking about why internal conflict is so much more effective than external conflict. Then it hit me, it’s about character development.

If the conflict is external it doesn’t require the characters to confront anything more serious than a moustache twirling villain or a scheming maiden aunt. Internal conflict forces characters to confront the demons inside of themselves and really change in order to get to that place of Happily Ever After.

Because if the conflict was caused in the first place by Scheming Maiden Aunt, who told the hero the heroine didn’t want to marry him because she couldn’t stand the thought of being tied down to one man (hussy that she is!), well then, what’s the say Moustache Twirling Villain won’t enter the scene after the HEA and break them apart again?

But if the HEA is reached only after the hero or heroine is forced the confront the internal issues keeping them apart, and they have to change these parts of themselves that are the most damaged, or the most staunchly set in its way in order to find happiness with each other, well that’s an HEA I can believe in. They had to bleed for their love and because of that it’s all that more precious and real.

It isn’t just about the hero slaying the dragons, he’s got to slay the ones inside of himself. Because that is what makes a lasting relationship in life. Changing yourself and getting over old hurts…not easy things for us to do. So seeing a character face all of that in the name of love, changing and becoming better…well, that’s much more satisfying than, “Sorry, darling, it’s just that from my position in the bushes it looked like you were encouraging him to take liberties, not biting him and pushing him away. Now that I know we can get married!”

So, what’s your take on the whole conflict thing?

Maisey

Building Character

So, I’m starting a new MS and of course, this means I’m creating a new set of characters. Ideas always come to me a little bit differently, sometimes the characters come first, sometimes a scenario comes first. When the scenario comes first I tend to think ‘well, okay…what characters would have the most conflict with this!’

In this instance, the plot came before the characters. I knew I needed a prince, and I knew I needed a commoner. Beyond that, I had nothing in mind. So I had some free rein in creating the people that wanted to inhabit my new little world.

First order of business was to figure out who the hero was. He had to be commanding, of course, and sexy, and powerful. He’s a prince after all. And as I’m partial to dark haired, dark skinned men, he was lucky enough to be blessed with hose attributes. But that isn’t who he is. So I had to dig deeper and figure out what his internal conflict was. What would hold this man, with wealth, power, everything he could want at his fingertips, back from falling straight into love with the heroine?

So as the picture of my hero began to form, the heroine started taking shape. I knew the hero was going to be all about duty and honor, a very straight laced, traditional kind of guy. And I knew that with that, I wanted a woman who didn’t back down from a challenge, who had wit to spare and who knew how to hold her own. Her personality was formed as a foil to his, so that she was someone who would both compliment and challenge the hero that I had created. Even her looks were designed to be in opposition to something: the woman my hero is *gasp* engaged to.

Then I started going deeper into her, figuring out where she came from, and what things are hang-ups for her, what sorts of things would bother her and which things would roll off her back, and ultimately, what would be the breaking point for her in a relationship.

From the character histories that I created came all kinds of things about them, the way they move, the way they talk and the way they react in certain situations.

Caitlin, my heroine, for example, is from the Midwest and has a much more casual speech pattern than Renzo, the hero, who speaks English as a second language and grew up in a much more formal environment.

Character building, for me, is never the same thing twice. With my last MS I created two people with a fairly complete history and then though: What would be about the most difficult situation for them to deal with? Then I threw it at them. As far as internal conflict went, this made writing that MS pretty straightforward.

How do you do it? How do you build characters and bring them to life? What comes first, the characters or the plot?