If there were just one thing that I could teach all aspiring writers, it would be that despite lofty ideas of creating art or the firm belief that you “just write and let someone else worry about the rest,” the truth of the matter is that publishing is a business. Writing by itself can be a hobby or a lark, but once you cross the line into the realm of publishing, where you put your work out there in the hopes of selling it and seeing it on the shelves, you are talking bottom line, down and dirty business, with emotions and personalities put way back on that rear burner. And when you’re dealing with business, that means you need to learn to be a professional, even down to the simplest correspondence.
The knee-jerk response is one that agents see with surprising frequency. In this day and age of electronic everything, when many writer/agent relationships begin with a simple e-mail query or an online introduction by a mutual friend, it has become all too easy to dash off a quick message or reply before taking the time to really think it through. The most classic example of this is the writer who does not like a rejection letter they have received and shoots off an immediate response to let you know what was wrong with it. Sometimes I hear that my letters are too short, or too long, or that I should have told them how to fix their manuscript based on the three chapters that failed to capture my interest. My favorites are the persona insults, the ones that inform me I clearly have no taste or knowledge about the industry and that I’m in no position to judge their brilliance, talent, art, etc. Recently I was told to go play in heavy traffic.
It is easy for me to warn people that they should not respond in the heat of the moment. Rejection hurts, I understand that. It can be frustrating, particularly when you’ve heard the same thing over and over again. However, I have also noticed that the people who succumb to their emotions and respond off the cuff in such a negative, insulting manner, are also the people who cannot maintain a proper business attitude in any other aspect of their writing careers. These are the same people who don’t make the effort to read agency guidelines and learn the proper way to submit a query to the agent of their choice. Or they don’t take the time to note what genres an agent represents, and therefore waste both their own time and the agent’s by submitting queries for projects the agent will never sign on. And so the person who queries me on their hot new thriller idea appears far more likely to shoot back an insulting remark to my response that I don’t represent thrillers, than a romance writer whose work didn’t quite click for me and received a standard rejection. But regardless of your goals, it is best to keep to professional behavior, even when your emotions try to get the best of you. Behavior in one area seems to set the tone for many other interactions.
Quick-on-the-draw responses can cause trouble in other areas of your career as well. I have met with a fair number of writers who query both agents and editors in an effort to sell their books, hoping that if they have a book deal in hand, it might make them more attractive to a prospective agent. And it is true that this can happen, but you must be very careful in how you handle your negotiations. If an editor calls you up and offers to buy your book, it can be very difficult to keep your cool in the midst of all that excitement. Too many writers accept the deal as is in a fit of elation, whether they are concerned that the offer might be taken off the table or they are simply too elated to do anything else. However, that acceptance becomes hard and fast, making it very difficult for any agent you sign with after the fact to come in and help you improve on your deal. If you agree to the publisher’s standard boilerplate, you not only lose out on potential money for that book, but you set a precedent in your own contract history with that publisher, making it very difficult for the agent to change certain aspects of the contract even on future deals. So, no matter how excited you are if that offer comes along, remember to keep your business hat on and do not commit to any deal if you intend to bring an agent in to negotiate. Sometimes being professional means knowing when to call in someone else to do the job.
Discretion should be another key word in the writer’s business lexicon. It is very easy to become chatty about the ins and outs of your writing career, particularly when you’re involved in writers’ groups and organizations and have critique partners with whom you share both your successes and your failures. Blogs also create another source of conversation of sorts, where writers trade the details of their careers with other writers and readers. But certain things should be kept under wraps — sometimes for a set time period and in other cases for good. If your agent is shopping your manuscript, don’t discuss its progress online, and certainly do not mention which editors are reading it in your daily blog update. Editors read blogs too, and by sharing your submissions process, you are giving those editors ammunition in the negotiations process that they should never have, such as how many other editors they’re up against or if anyone has rejected your manuscript already.
Money is another hot topic. Yes, writers like to know what kind of advances are coming down so that they can judge where they themselves stand in the publishing hierarchy, but the truth is that no matter what you find out, the comparisons are still completely unequal. There is no instance where you can accurately judge whether another person’s effort is worth more or less than your own. Instead, comparing advances is more likely to lead to hurt feelings for one or more people. Also, do not quit your day job after publishing four books simply because your favorite author chose to do so. She may think you’re ready, but she has no idea if your sales and expenses match hers precisely, and so again the comparison is meaningless. It’s wonderful to help other writers, or to seek out information from writers more experienced than yourself, but always keep in mind that publishing is a business, and no two writer’s business dealings will ever be precisely the same.
Writing is a creative endeavor, and at times it can also be surprisingly social, with writers’ groups and meetings and lunches with agents and editors. Particularly thanks to the internet, it is easier than ever to create a writing community that helps support you emotionally and intellectually. But writing for profit is still a business, and as with any business, it is important that you remember to keep a professional attitude and always put your best face forward.
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Hate form rejections? Try the agently equivalent of the “I love you, but I’m not IN love with you” phone call. You’ll be begging for that form letter, baby.
I have never understood the goal of responding viciously to a rejection. Is the agent supposed to say, “Hm, I hated your writing and don’t represent that genre, but your charming personality has won me over!”? I just cannot wrap my head around the reasoning there.
That is SO funny.
I was just talking about this last night,
how writing may be an art
but publishing is a business.
What a great and timely post!
My sales have all been work-for-hire media tie-in writing. In this market I don’t write until I have a contract in hand, and then I receive a fee to write a novel of x-length on y-deadline. The first time an editor called to say she liked my proposal and would pay a certain amount for delivery of a 90k ms in 120 days, I stalled while I did the math in my head and then told her I couldn’t afford to take the time I would need off from work at that price. She immediately offered me 10% more. I figured I could afford that, so I said yes (and delivered a 93k ms they accepted in 91 days). The second time around she just sent me the same contract I’d agreed to the first time. I’d locked myself in — and I have no doubt for quite a bit less than I could have gotten with a little savvy negotiation.
At the time I was under the impression that agent never represented work-for-hire novels. The rights do not belong to the writer, so there’s no potential for future income. It’s a straight words=money writing gig. However, when I since attended a workshop for professional writers (conducted by Gardner Dozois, Dean Wesley Smith, and Kris Rusch) and told this story, it was explained to me that I had been an idiot. Agents invest in writers not individual projects. Though I have not sold an original novel yet, and I do write original and have no intention of writing media-tie-in exclusively. If an agent believes in a writer’s career potential (arrived at through some arcane calculation of talent, work ethic, and stamina) and if write-for-hire is part of that writer’s overall body of work — a body that includes original fiction — an agent will negotiate for money or other perks the writer might not think are available.
Their advice was to develop a short list of agents who represent work similar to the original fiction I write. That way, when an editor calls with an offer to buy — whether original or work for hire — I’ll be in a position to say: “Wow. Great. Thanks. I’m afraid I don’t have an agent at the moment, but I will be signing with one soon. Is there a number where they can reach you to discuss the particulars of the contract?”
Then I’ll work my way through the short list until I find a good match, turn the business negotiations over to the pro, and get back to work writing my next novel.
I regularly watch the TV show “Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares” where chef Ramsey tries to turn a failing restaurant around in one week. The message I get from the show is that the restaurant owners treat their business as a hobby or extension of their family, Ramsey comes in and demonstrates that the way to be successful is to treat it as a “business”
I think the same thing happens in writing. People start writing, are told by their own head or their friends-group that they are wonderful, that they can do no wrong, that they are so talented they don’t need to worry about the rules. They submit and finally meet the crushing reality of the business, and for many this may be the first time they have ever had an honest appraisal of their work, and it hurts.
KeVin,
That’s an excellent way to handle stalling an offer in the future. Editors actually prefer dealing with agents when it comes to negotiations because they know what to request and what parts of the contract are most malleable. A writer can learn this too, but the question becomes whether you want to take the time to handle that aspect of your career as well. Asking an editor to hold off a few days until you can sign with an agent is perfectly reasonable, and they will understand your refusal to commit to them until then.
~Nephele
Lots of great advice today. I’m glad I took a break to visit. I make it a habit to never respond to an email that aggravates me without taking a day to think of exactly how I want to answer. I have received rejections where I wondered if the editor or agent had even read my work as their comments were off base, but I accepted it was still their decision. Whatever their reasons for rejection, the fact was they didn’t want it. I can’t decide if spewing angry responses to rejection is supreme arrogance or the opposite. A lack of confidence so extreme, one is devastated by rejection.
Nephele, it shocks me to think that people would behave that way. I know that they do, but man oh man…
So, I’m curious, do you file away the really good ‘rejection rebuttles” for future laugh fests with other agents?
This is some of the most down to earth advice I’ve yet come across about this business. I’m going to bookmark and read it every now and then.
Ah, Candice. That is always the danger, isn’t it? That a writer ticks off an agent enough that they share the story with their friends? After all, if you’re happy to have dodged the bullet of a writer who seems a little unbalanced or unreasonable, wouldn’t you want to save your friends from the potential headache as well? Agents have friends who are agents, and editors too. We do talk, and we do occasionally trade horror stories, though to be fair, we try to keep them generic and anonymous. But there are certainly exceptions.
~Nephele