And potential blog-comment nazis: please excuse my blog comment, as it’s being delivered via BlackBerry. And there is some peanut butter on the keys. Gerry would have warned me to stick to fruit loops¤

I wasn’t under the impression that a comment box was the place for a judgment on a work you’ve never seen, Basil. I think you may have been a little unfair with your generalization of my work. I’m not mad. What I am is saddened by your lack of optimism. I understand you may be a little cynical considering your trade, so I forgive your assumption that my story would be best served lining the bottom of a birdcage. Which is too bad, because I don’t have a bird–but my origami is excellent. Maybe I’ll make little paper swans and dinosaurs out of my novels and hand them out to the neighborhood kids.

I already have an idea what your thoughts will be on this next statement, but I feel like I’ve been graded on a paper that I never handed in for marking. Feel free to stop by Authonomy and check out Dropcloth Angels. If you still feel the same way after a chapter or two, come back here and blast the crap out of me. I’ll hold still for it, honest. And after you’re through destroying my ego I’ll mail you a nickel.

-Gerry J

I don’t know whether or not Jerzy actually wrote The Painted Bird, but heard rumors that he didn’t and yes, had suspicions. Never heard he bought the manuscript from starving gypsies, though, that’s a funny one. Could be.

I agree with everything you say about his subsequent work, except you didn’t mention Being There, a pretty good book and great film with Peter Sellers.

I knew him as a depressed and secretive guy who never seemed to enjoy himself or get what he wanted. Sad case.

-Alan

Ahem. “Once upon a heroin induced fever. . ..”

I’m gonna digest everything you have posted here. Thank you for this insight regarding the reality of being one of “Them”, and that editors and agents are not so cynical as I thought they were up until about twenty minutes ago. In the battle for a writer’s peace of mind, this blog is definitely worth its weight in enemy ears.
You’re new number 1 fan,
Gerry Johnston

Thank you for the kind words. I’m glad you’ve found some useful information in these pages.

I don’t have a flat rate based on a manuscript’s length, as each project has unique requirements. I generally first have a look at the whole manuscript to evaluate the complexity and level of developmental editing it might need. Feel free to contact me at alan@alanrinzler.com

-Alan

I read in one agents website that including that in your query letter gives the agent a biased opinion — they can’t determine if the writer is good or not. My editor adviced to include this in my query letter since she knows most of the agents personally. What’s your advice on this?

Thanks.

Regards,
Geraldine

But then we realised the importance of creating a platform like you say and we turned our attention to setting a website and blog. Sometime we hope to have many visitors to our blog in order to better be able to find a publisher. Or when the day come when we got a big address list and many readers we might just as well selfpublish. Your post inspired me to get back to the book writing though…

What is you opinion on that Alan? Is it not better to selfpublish if one has a big and good platform? To keep the money and control over ones own work instead of giving it away to a publisher…

If anybody want to check out or blog it is at http://www.extendedworldtravel.com

Thanks
Magnus

When I read a work that really resonates in my own life, it is because it has shown me something about myself. This is most powerful when it is something about myself that I’ve not seen before. In this sense, the written word becomes a mirror placed in front of me. Without that experience, I would not now see myself as I do now.

That’s a great publishing success story. Congratulations! You clearly had a winning idea and made the right connection. Yes, it’s a rare scenario but who said good things can’t happen in the book business?

To make the most of it, support your publisher in every way you can. Tell them in detail about everything you’ll be doing as an entrepreneurial author to drive sales through conventional and internet media and networking.

Communicate with them primarily by email since that’s the least demanding and intrusive. Remain upbeat and cooperative, and have realistic expectations about the amount of time they have to devote exclusively to you.

Enjoy yourself and best wishes for a great success.

-Alan

Malcolm

I have to say, Mark, this is hilarious. Just writers, editors, and agents? And most of those guys? You’re absolutely certain about that?

Because you should hear how disgruntled computer engineers talk about their “talentless” peers. Disgruntled marketing executives. Disgruntled loggers, used-car sales reps, gas station attendants.

Every industry has its share of deadwood, and every industry has its disgruntled complaining about them, too. I was certainly taken aback to hear a story recently on Twitter about a publisher’s editor who cavalierly altered a character’s dress and make-up to reflect her own tastes rather than the author’s. But that’s not a problem with being a writer or editor. That’s a problem with being a jerk.

How many of us reading Alan’s blog have been or still are magazine/newspaper editors? professional writers and book editors? dreamers, agents, and published authors? I’m guessing you’re going to get some push-back, Mark, on the idea that most of us are, basically, just losers. We kind of like being us. We kind of like each other!

We work hard, we study our craft, we love books. It’s what we do—we just love working with books.

Alan’s advice to write something that will “grab the reader by the throat, quicken their pulse, and resonate for their own lives” is no more formulaic, really, than saying, “Write in sentences.” The world is packed to the gills with potential stories along those lines. Not everyone sees them, and not everyone knows what to do with them when they do. But they’re there.

And you know what makes readers love them? The power of expressing something that truly matters about being alive with the written word.

best,
Victoria

Nice post. Thank you. If I had read it a year earlier the following probably wouldn’t have happened:

I am a first-time author with a business book coming out in January, 2010. This may sound strange, but to get the deal I simply sent an email inquiry directly to Wiley. Ten minutes later they requested a full proposal. A month later I had a signed contract with an advance check in the mail. All this without an agent. The very idea of writing a book hadn’t even entered my head until one year ago, and the finished product will hit stores less than three months from now.

I have a strong feeling that I am extremely fortunate, both in terms of the caliber of publisher and the quick timing. Further, I suspect that this good luck has far more to do with my book topic lining up well with current economic conditions, and less to do with my track record (non-existant), platform (still building it) or writing skills (workin’ on ‘em). Wiley is now talking about a second book contract for 2011, and I’m thinking this is pretty cool stuff.

So, I just have to know. How rare is this scenario? Any advice on how to make the most of it?

Books don’t have to start with murders, car crashes, or terrorist bombings to get my attention. Right now I’m reading “Chronic City” by Jonathan Lethem, and the opening sentence, “I first met Perkus Tooth in an office.” is hardly formulaic. Something about the funny name and ironic flat pacing, though, led me to the next sentence, and the next, until I was hooked. Just goes to show, everybody has a different reason for not putting a book down.

As for lazy editors, I can tell you that they won’t survive, and are quickly let go. Good editors work hard to find good books. And when it comes to lazy writers, OK, some lack talent to be sure, but others just need help.

I can’t agree that there’s a drop in quality these days or that there were any more great books published in the 1800’s than there are today. Great books are few and far between but I keep finding new stuff, like Lethem, that holds my attention and deserves respect.

I do confess to having a “glass half full” point of view, which I suppose some may consider naive.

-Alan

I also prefer books that don’t resonate with my own life, but show me something new. Just saying, like…

I’ve worked as a magazine editor, a book editor, a literary translator, and a writer. On the topic of fiction, my suspicion is that most of the best novels of the 18th and 19th century would never have got past today’s editors. I think that’s because writing novels in instalment form for magazines is a much better way of getting readers interested in a story than trying to sell them a complete packaged tale the same size as months of collected episodes from a Richardson or an Austen or an Eliot or a Hardy. Equally, writing a long story without that regular reader feedback is very very hard. So it seems to me that modern editors and writers of long-form fiction are both trying to do something near impossible – explaining the drop in quality since long-fiction magazines died out around 1900.

It’s also a bit dishonest to pretend that both sides don’t have other problems. All the would-be writers I’ve met care about “being writers” more than telling stories, and have little or nothing to say. On the other hand, all the editors I’ve met are shockingly lazy, but have found a better way of hiding the fact they also have nothing to say. Colleagues used to express frank astonishment that I – as an editor – actually read and answered all my mail each day, as if this was a weird thing to do. On one magazine I found I could work part-time and replace three full-timers – with a steep increase in quality I have to immodestly add.

Most writers and most editors {and most agents} have in common a desire to be involved with creativity and to see themselves as creative people. They also tend to share similar character problems, psychological difficulties, and lack of talent – albeit with different strategies for hiding these shortcomings from themselves and others.

Sorry – but this is just what I’ve seen working on both sides of the fence.

I like that publishing is changing and the internet is becoming a more valuable resource for marketing. A lot of aspiring authors use their websites as a means of gaining writing experience and finding a supportive audience, and it’s a shame not to take advantage of that if one gets published.