Writing: Getting Serious by Louise Marley

I've always liked the idea of New Year's Resolutions. That chance to reinvent yourself every year, like the kind of books I read as a teenager: neglected female completely transforms into the belle of the ball with the help of a few mice, a pumpkin and - oh yes, a fairy godmother. Funny how these kind of stories always involve someone else coming to the rescue. I'm a proactive kind of person myself. If I'd been Cinderella, it would have been more a case of "B***** the Fairy Godmother, get me a pumpkin and I'll do it myself."

You see, as much as I love watching TV shows like The X Factor, there's always one thing guaranteed to infuriate me: whenever a contestant says something like, "I really want this, I've wanted it my whole life." OK, so they've really 'wanted' a singing career but they've never done anything about it? Never had singing lessons, or written a song, or formed a band, or tried to set up a few gigs? Basically, they've been sitting around waiting for a fairy godmother (Simon Cowell?) to come to the rescue.

Can you see where I'm going with this?

If your New Year's Resolution was to write a book, or maybe you've already written a book and you want to get it published, what have you done about it? Anything? Anything at all? Scribbled a few notes? Fantasised about the hot actor you'd like to play your hero in the movie adaptation? Stuck a pin in the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook and queried a few random agents? Enjoyed a few daydreams about the glamorous life you're going to lead as a full-time author? (And that's a whole other blog post, trust me.) If you want to be a writer badly enough, I'm afraid you're going to have to get serious about it.

Understand that you'll to have to make sacrifices. Not the dancing-naked-in-the-moonlight-and-endangering-defenceless-chickens sacrifice, but the kind that involves the most precious thing of all: your time. For example, if you know you only have an hour a day to write, then write - don't waste that time faffing about on social media.

Perfect your craft. There are hundreds of books about writing (my favourite is Stephen King's On Writing). Or take a creative writing course and, once you've written your novel, pay to have it professionally critiqued before sending it out to an agent/publisher. Although I still feel the best, easiest and most fun way to learn how to write fiction is to read lots of it. It's not expensive. You can borrow books for free from your local library and there are always deals to be had on ebooks. If you feel you don't have the time to read, think about how you spend the time you do have. Sacrifices, remember? No one lies on their death bed wishing they'd spent more time on social media.

Having said that, social media is an effective tool for writers, but only when used in the right way. Unless you are already published, forget about all the things you've heard about creating a 'brand' and setting up a 'platform'. The most important thing is to be social; you'll get far more out of it. Make friends with fellow writers, new and established. Follow people in the industry, such as agents and publishers - but don't expect them to follow you back, and definitely don't pitch your novel unless invited to do so. Most publishers are great at posting about deals on books and will have competitions to win signed copies from your favourite authors. Some publishers have blogs where they post writing tips from their editors, tell you when they are open for submissions and what they are looking for, as well as running writing competitions to win a book contract.

Talking of which, don't overlook those writing competitions - that's how I got my first book deal - and I didn't even win. And, if you can afford it, attend writers' conferences and literary festivals. Editors and agents are less likely to ignore a submission if it's come from someone they remember (in a good way!) from a workshop or a one-to-one meeting at a writers' conference. But if you're not lucky enough to bag a one-to-one, don't despair. Sometimes you can learn more from attending an industry panel event, and listening to writers and editors talking about the current market - what's popular and what's out of fashion. You'll have the opportunity to ask relevant questions and learn more than if you had pinned all your hopes on a one-to-one where you might have either targeted the wrong agent/editor, belatedly realised your submission is not polished enough, or had plain nerves just get the better of you. Early on in my career I found myself sitting on a sunny bench at a writers' conference, drinking coffee and chatting about trends in fiction with a commissioning editor. I got far more out of that than if I'd tried to pitch her my book.

With fellow Novelista
Trisha Ashley

No one understands a writer like another writer. Try joining a writers' group, club or society. The Romantic Novelists' Association accepts unpublished authors under its New Writers' Scheme. Alternatively, find out if there are any writers' groups meeting in your area and, if not, why not start one? The Novelistas came about because Trisha Ashley moved to North Wales and put out a request asking if other local writers would like to meet up. Our group has now been going for almost fifteen years.

Compared to when I first started out, there are now so many great opportunities for writers. Don't waste time waiting for that fairy godmother or daydreaming about success. If you want to be taken seriously as a writer, you have to start taking your writing seriously.

And no one can do that but you.

Louise Marley writes romantic comedy and romantic suspense, and is a creative writing tutor with Writing Magazine. 

Her most recent book is Something Wicked.

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Related Posts:

W is for Writing Groups by Annie Burrows
T is for Time Management by Annie Burrows
The RNA Conference & Industry Day (2015) by Sophie Claire
Pitching to Agents & Publishers at the RNA Conference (2014) by Sophie Claire
How NOT to Submit to a Literary Agent (York LitFest 2016) by Sophie Claire


All pictures, copyright: Louise Marley
Except for girl in party dress, copyright: Fotolia 

More Good News! by Johanna Grassick

You may remember that in July I pitched my work to three agents and publishers at the Romantic Novelists’ Association conference. I’m thrilled to report that one of those – Accent Press – made an offer to publish my book! 

Her Forget-Me-Not Ex is a contemporary romance set on a vineyard in Provence and it will be out in June 2015.

What about the other two appointments I had? Well, one publisher invited me to submit the same novel, but warned me they had a 6 month response time, so when Accent’s offer came through within the fortnight I decided not to pursue that one (I was very impressed by Accent’s speedy response! As far as I know, this is unusual in the publishing industry). And the other appointment was for a book I haven’t finished yet, so I’m working hard on that right now and hoping to have it finished in the new year.

And in the meantime, I have a shiny new website here. Do stop by and take a look!

www.johannagrassick.com 

Pitching to Agents and Publishers at the RNA Conference 2014 by Sophie Claire

This wasn’t my first conference, but it was definitely the scariest! 

This year I had three appointments with publishers and agents to pitch my work: one finished novel and one which still needs a bit of work. I was asked to send in my work beforehand – most wanted a chapter and synopsis – and I must confess that, waiting for the first appointment, I was a bag of nerves.

What if they asked me to give an elevator pitch (when you condense the premise of your book into one line, exciting enough to intrigue a jaded publisher)? Or asked me a question I couldn’t answer and I made a fool of myself? It felt like I was preparing for a job interview. However, I know it’s invaluable to get feedback from industry professionals, and these ten-minute appointments are like gold dust.

In the end I wasn’t asked to give an elevator pitch, and in fact we had some really interesting discussions. One publisher asked what I knew about them, which was fine because I’d done my research on the company, listened to an online interview with the company’s Managing Director, and a very kind friend who is published with them had spent 30 minutes on the phone telling me about her experience of working with them. In another appointment I was asked what had inspired the idea for my novel because it was unusual, and we discussed my characters in more depth. One editor had gone through my sample chapter with a red pen and asked me to check some finer points, like the legalities of a quick divorce in the UK. 

In all my appointments I could see the agents/publishers assessing not only my writing, but how it would fit in the market – they were looking for themes and topics which are current, or a setting which is a little different from the ordinary. This is the business side of writing, which we authors don’t always consider, but it can’t be ignored and perhaps it’s of particular interest to me because I used to work in Marketing.

Another important subject – it came up twice! – was the importance of writing novels which are consistent in terms of genre or style. Readers want to know what they’re buying when they pick up a book, and they don’t like nasty surprises! So there’s a fine line to be observed between not churning out the same story over and over again, but not writing wildly different books with no unifying element either.

Sophie Claire and Sophie King

If authors do write across genres, and I believe this is happening more and more as self-publishing allows authors the freedom to experiment, one solution is to use a pseudonym. Or, in the case of Sophie King (aka Janey Fraser and Jane Bidder), several pseudonyms!

You might remember that one of my short stories came 3^rd in the Sophie King Prize earlier this year, and another highlight of the conference for me was to meet Sophie King in person for the first time. 

It’s always exciting to be in the company of established writers like Katie Fforde, and there were some interesting panel discussions at the conference this year, including this one about The Future for Romantic Fiction. 

Katie Fforde (left) in panel discussion

I was really sorry to have to leave the conference early for a family holiday. But before I vanished, there was time for an evening of glamour:



Dressed up for the gala dinner