These days, it's not the first 50 pages or the first chapter of a book that must wow an agent or editor, it's the first two pages. Let's face it, everyone thinks they can write and has a story to tell, so there's more competition out there. Whether the writing is good or bad or dreadful, with more of it to wade through, agents and editors have less time and patience for reading manuscripts. You must grab their attention right away. So let's break it down and send your readers into orbit! Or at least stay up way past their bedtime because they can't put your book down.
What Pulls Agents In
action mystery/intrigue unusual point of view great writing compelling character or setting a promise to be fulfilled conflict to be resolved
What Pushes Agents Away
poor writing clichés POV/verb tense problems lots of backstory not enough conflict telling not showing confusing structure too many points of view too many people/names in first chapter
First Sentence....
To find out what your first sentence, paragraph, and chapter should contain and accomplish, read the rest here: Chris Stewart's: MFA My Way
Now that I have your attention, bookmark/favorite this list of local, regional, and state arts councils. Many of them have individual artist awards (grants) for writers. Check out the ones in your state and get some recognition (and some cash) for your great work!
Prizes can range in the thousands. Use to attend a conference, self-publish your book, finance a book tour, take a class.
A pair of academics, Mary Margolies DeForest and Eric Johnson at Dakota State University, wrote a computer program to analyze the frequency of Latinate words in Jane Austen's novels.
Let's just pause here to admire how these two think and have chosen to spend their time.
They discovered that Austen used more Latin-based words - classified as Latinate, the language of Ancient Rome. As opposed to Germanic, from which the English language is derived (technically Anglo Saxon.)
Latinate - relinquish, pain, fidelity, rage, inquire, signal
You can see a chart of the words compared here. Usually the longer the word - Latinate; the shorter - Germanic. But you can see in the chart that isn't always true.
"English has two main sources for words: German and Latin. Distinct from each other, they have polarized our language into high diction and low (‘diglossia’). Latinate words denote the intellectual world; Germanic words, the physical. Latinate words are indicators of status and education. Austen painted and delineated her characters by giving their speeches different densities of Latinate words. Higher densities of Latinate words sometimes indicate intelligence and moral seriousness, at other times, they expose a character's formality or hypocrisy. Lower densities indicate lesser intelligence or, in the case of sailors, humble birth. The characters whose densities are very close to the narrator are Austen's four great heroines, Elinor Dashwood, Elizabeth Bennet, Emma Woodhouse, and Anne Elliot."
So Darcy and Sir Thomas Bertram, for example, use a higher percentage of Latinate words, 28% and 29% respectively - to give a sense of their arrogance and how pompous they are.
The lower classes or people in emotional distress use less complicated sentences and smaller, often monosyllabic words. More Germanic. For example, when Lizzy receives Jane's letter informing her of Lydia's 'elopement' with Wickham, Lizzy's percentage drops from 25% to 9%.
Marianne, during her time with Willoughby, slips almost seven percentage points. She's also at about 25%.
That's also an interesting note - Austen's narrators usually have the same percentage as the main character. In Sense and Sensibility, for example, the narrator is at 26% and so is Elinor. Lizzy Bennet is at 25% and so is the narrator. Same for Anne Elliot - 24.4%, narrator 24.3%. This was a very clever way of making the character sympathetic to the reader.
It's a fascinating project and I'm sure we all wish we'd thought of it.
Though, we didn't really need more proof that Austen was a genius.
Last time we talked about two main types of sentences: loose (or running) and periodic. To catch up on that post, go here.
Today I’d like to share some fun types of sentences you can try that have Greek rhetorical devices with tongue twisting names and challenging elements.
When trying these out (when writing a sentence, period), things to consider are its length, it’s rhythm, its balance (if you have a sentence with clauses and phrases, are they balanced or not – equal length? Parallel form – meaning similarly constructed?), and its sound (correspondence of sound between words for example, repetition, alliteration. Pleasing to the ear? Dissonant?).
Warning: if using some of these devices as you write slows you down and clogs the flow of writing, wait until the revision process to see how some of these might be employed. And then, have fun and take risks.
You poets might recognize some of these. Extra points for you!
(Image Credit: Kirstyn Leuner for her Women's Studies class in rhetoric - great post for further reading there.)
Anaphora – use of the same word to begin a succession of clauses. Thought to add grace, rigor, and amplification.
"I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun." (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely, 1940)
Asyndeton – a series of clauses piled up without connectives.
"He was a bag of bones, a floppy doll, a broken stick, a maniac." (Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957)
Homeoteleuton – helps achieve a kind of rhythm through use of succession of like ending words. A form of amplification.
"My mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid howling, our cat wringing her hands." (Launce in Act II, scene three of The Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare)
Paralepsis- a strategy to emphasize a point by seeming to pass over it, resolving to avoid mentioning something while doing exactly that.
Prenthesis/Digressio – an interruption of thought which heightens anticipation or scores a point arising from, but not directly relevant to, the subject in hand.
Also known as digression, going off topic to explain or expound.
"Digression is the soul of wit. Take the philosophic asides away from Dante, Milton, or Hamlet's father's ghost and what stays is dry bones." (Ray Bradbury)
Zeugma – (This is one of my favorites.) When a word modifies two or more words although its use may be grammatically or logically correct with only one.
"You are free to execute your laws, and your citizens, as you see fit." (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Similar to:
Syllepsis – (My other favorite!) One word, usually a verb, is understood differently in relation to the two or more other words it modifies.
One of my students gave me a great example I still use:
“She was pink with sweat and taffeta.”
In this case, the word that makes this device possible is pink, pink taffeta, and flushed skin. So there you have an example of it used with an adjective instead of a verb.
"A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handyman with a sense of humus." (E.B. White, "The Practical Farmer")
You can always count on E.B. White. If you haven’t read his essays, you are so missing out.
Just one more. I have pages of these and I wish I could share them all with you. I am a total geek about this stuff. I giggle happily to myself when I manage a syllepsis. It’s embarrassing.
Tricolon/Triad – a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses.
"I require three things in a man. He must be handsome, ruthless, and stupid." (Dorothy Parker)
"You are talking to a man who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom, and chuckled at catastrophe." (The Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, 1939)
Kenning – Not Greek, Old English, but so fun. Something you must start using in your work from now on. It’s such rich territory and working with it will sharpen your skills with metaphor.
The word ‘kenning’ means ‘to know’. A kenning is a figurative expression, usually compound, used in place of a name or noun.
I give this assignment out to my students, to use this word, for both poetry and prose classes, and it’s amazing and inspiring to hear what they come up with. Try it. You’ll amaze and inspire yourself!
Examples: ‘whale-road’ for ‘sea’. ‘Sea-horse’ for ‘ship.’
See? Reading Beowulf paid off!
You are using something you never thought you would. Can’t do the same for algebra I’m afraid. Sorry.
Let’s move on to two sentences you can try: paraprosdokian and the American sentence.
The paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists.
Some paraprosdokians not only change the meaning of an early phrase, but also play on the double meaning of a particular word, creating a syllepsis. We’ve discussed that above. The trick is not to force it. Don't look like you spent longer than two seconds creating it.
Here are some examples of funny paraprosdokian sentences (if they're not your style, write mean or dark or wry ones. Go for it. Make it your own).
(By the way, I have no idea where these came from. They were forwarded to me in an email so if I'm infringing on somebody's copyright, just let me know and I'll pull them.)
“Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.”
“The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.”
“Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them “speak.
“If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.”
The American Sentence will appeal to both poets and prose writers. It was created by the poet Allen Ginsberg, whose favorite piece of writing advice was, “Condense!”
He thought the Japanese form of Haiku didn’t quite fit when it came to writing in English in a 5/7/5 syllable lines. That breaking them into this pattern made it an exercise in counting, not feeling.
And too arbitrary. His solution, which first appeared in his book Cosmopolitan Greetings, is the American Sentence. One sentence, 17 syllables. That's it.
Here are some of Ginsberg's American Sentences:
Four skinheads stand in the streetlight rain chatting under an umbrella. 1987
Rainy night on Union square, full moon. Want more poems? Wait till I'm dead. August 8, 1990, 3:30A.M.
The more you practice at the cellular level of writing – words and sentences and the devices that make them sing – the better a writer you’ll be. Eventually, you’ll employ devices like these without even knowing you’re doing it.
So when you’re reading your drafts afterward, you have every right to be suitably impressed.
You'll also be more beautiful, smarter, make more money, and lose ten pounds.
If you give these a try – any of the devices in this post – paste them into the comments. I’d love to see them.
My Write Your Pitch class at Johns Hopkins sold out this past spring so I was asked to do another in the fall. This got me thinking - why not offer a teleseminar so anyone, anywhere, can attend?
So I'll be offering a 2 hour session by phone on the following:
- the 5 parts of a pitch
- exercises to get you started and to the finish line
- tips on writing your log line (25 words or less pitch) and elevator pitch
- where the pitch fits into your query letter (and what the other query letter parts are)
- tips on giving the pitch
- info on conferences where you meet agents and editors (also an awesome new website)
I've limited this class to 15 because I will also take a look at the pitch you write as a result of this class and give some basic feedback (via email). My brain power will only hold out through 15 people.
In my article last fall, we discussed character and what yours needs to sustain a reader's interest and incite their passion. Whether that is hate or love. Both will keep a reader reading.
Let's take on conflict, as that's the next biggie when building a story or book.
Conflict is what drives your plot and should be set up immediately. Ideally in the first paragraph (using "show," not "tell") when you're also setting up your character(s) and setting. Your inciting incident (what changes the status quo of the story and starts the plot rolling forward) may also appear right away. This is called starting in medias res, Latin for "in the middle of things." Your inciting incident may also start a few pages later but, for a novel, it should begin in the first five to twelve pages (your average chapter length). The sooner the better!
Agents and editors read the first two pages max (sometimes just the first paragraph) to decide if it's worth their time to keep reading. Make it pop from the beginning.
For a short story, conflict would have to show up much sooner. This is where in medias res comes in handy. It's just plain efficient and more interesting. Without it, you're in danger of beginning with too much exposition and killing the reader's interest.
Some ideas for the inciting incident that demonstrates conflict...
I've been here at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts for four days, more than halfway through my allotted time, so I have a better sense of the place to share with you.
(Normally residencies are two weeks to a month, but I asked for a week (have a trip to the UK in the late summer and limited vacation time). So if a week is too short, in your mind, you can have longer.)
No place is perfect, so I'll tell you what I liked about VCCA, and what doesn't work for me. You decide for yourself whether you might want to apply.
I had a little trouble finding the place because there are about six different Route 29s out here, including a business route - they weave together in a very confusing manner and the signage doesn't quite do the trick. I went to Hollins University for my MA in creative writing, so the wiliness of Virginia backroads is not new to me (Maryland has them too). This and a couple of other directions issues (the turn for 6 East comes about 5 miles after the turn for 6 West - how that works is beyond me. I kept turning around thinking I'd missed it and stopped twice to check where it was) added an extra hour to my drive so I arrived about three p.m.
As I wound up the narrow drive, I met up the welcoming committee:
Six calves have been born recently, and on a trip out to WalMart (I needed a bit of civilization, for what's it' worth, and an electric teakettle - no kitchen in the cottage and I can't trek all the way out to the barn every time I want tea), I saw two of them. One a golden brown, the other very dark. Both playful, running along with my car as I crawled past. They then ran to press themselves against their mother.
It's very hard not to hug the cows.
I found the residence hall and picked up my packet at the mailboxes in the lobby. Inside were my keys, my room and studio assignment, a map of the campus, a handbook, and about six papers I had to fill out (could have been mailed or emailed to me to mail back prior to my visit - more efficient).
Using the map I found the cottage to the right of the residence hall and hauled my suitcase, etc. down. The building is quite charming:
My studio is on the left.
I let myself in and stood, a bit perplexed, in the foyer. To my right was a door marked A, in front of me a door marked B. Between the two a flight of stairs.
I had the B key so I unlocked that door, thinking it was my room. It wasn't. It was my studio. No bed. No bathroom. Hmm.
The source of my confusion was the room and studio assignment on my sheet. Both said "Cottage B." I thought this meant my room was also my studio. Odd, but okay. I could live with that, since the cottage seemed like it would be quiet. I thought there were two other rooms/studios upstairs (see the windows at the top in the picture), or that the cottage was divided in half, like a condo, with the studio on the bottom and the room on the top. It sounds simple, and I don't know why I didn't get it, but I didn't. I would have taken the stairs up to see if the bedroom and bath were up there, but I heard voices up there and thought maybe the whole top floor was a studio and didn't want to make a fool out of myself by walking into someone else's living/working space.
So I called the office. They told me my bedroom was indeed upstairs. I'm sure they thought I was an idiot, but not knowing the layout of the house, I didn't want to make the wrong choice. All would have been easily fixed by adding a brief description to the assignment sheet, explaining the studio and bedroom arrangement. So if you come here and get the cottage, now you know.
The studio is terrific - just big enough and I love the layout:
I went back to the car for a few more things and on my return met my cottage-mate, Barbara, who came over to say hello. She's in her mid-fifties, I'd say, with a short bi-level hair cut and a penchant for hats. I've seen her in several, from a canvas hiking hat to a broad-brimmed white number you might wear at Easter. I dig it. She has a very expressive face, with an an enthusiastic child-like quality and a great sense of humor. She did tell me, though, that her studio had the kitchen, that the cottage used to be the VCCA offices. I wish they'd found a way to keep the kitchen separate. Ah well.
I sat down to fill out the 6 pages of paperwork, which I then walked up to the office. Surprise: there's a $20 deposit for your keys and the handbook, which was merely a 5 page color copy of the PDF you can print online (I'd done that and had a copy in my bag), clasped into one of those clear folders with the plastic spine you slide on and off, like you used to use for book reports in school.
A bit of the campups as I walked back to get some work done. Here's the residence hall from the back, and the gazebo:
This is the view from the balcony of the cottage.
I spent the afternoon and evening after dinner writing up an outline of the end of the novel I'm working on from the pages and pages of notes I had. I came to VCCA with about 80 pages left to write.
Dinner is in the residence hall, where all the other fellows are (more about that later). The tables seat about 6 people. Dinner is buffet style and the food is excellent. The chef, Sarah, is a diminutive woman. Older, very pretty, with short white, flyaway hair. She carries out huge trays to replenish the buffet so she's strong. My first night there was salmon with a mild salsa made with plenty of avocado, sweet potatoes, swiss chard, candied carrots, and salad. Dessert was pecan pie.
I'm an old hand at the 'dinner with strangers' thing. At Bread Loaf, you're told on your first night that the best thing to do is sit at a different table for every meal. If you've been to BL, you know how huge the dining room is. So following this practice isn't a problem. I did this for lunch and dinner there, as breakfast was included in the price of the room at the Chapman Inn, where I stayed instead of in the Middlebury dorms (I had an adorable room at the top of the house for an amazing price; I think $50-60/night or something; highly recommend it).
So I chose a table and said, "Hello, may I join you?" (if you're not good at this or hate it, just say that and smile. If people don't respond or smile back, that's their problem. Most do, so don't worry.)
I sat next to Cheryl, a painter, who runs the VCCA residency in France (!) half of the year, and was in Virginia for a month off to work. She's very mellow and nice, and had an edgy haircut I liked a lot. She talked about how much work the France part takes and I offered to be her assistant for room and board but that didn't seem to amuse her. Perhaps too many have offered the same and she doesn't find it funny anymore. I can't imagine being sick of running a residency in France, but I suppose you can grow tired of anything.
On my right was Carrie Brown, a novelist, who teaches at Sweet Briar College, just down the road. She lived and wrote in Maryland for a number of years, and I'd seen her interviewed for the HoCoPoLitSovideo series. She is very friendly and asks lots of questions, which is what you need when you're first meeting people at a conference or residency. You need to be willing to ask questions and get to know people (even if you have to feign interest, do it!), and vice versa.
So the first half of the dinner was very pleasant. Many at the table already knew each other from previous residencies (most of the people I discovered, had been coming back for years, which I have to admit I found a little annoying. I'm all for putting a cap on the number of visits someone can have in a certain period so that more new people can have the opportunity. Maybe it's a money thing and they don't have enough applications for that, but I've always understood VCCA to be very well thought of and competitive, so...).
The conversation slipped into that sort of 'been there, done that' tone people have when they are over the bright and shiny newness of something. A catch up about past fellows and where they are now who I didn't know, then how most were there to revise a book for a publisher, who had published what recently, and I excused myself. I guess I'd been hoping for people to talk about their work, the process of it, the discoveries made, what they loved about their books or the poem they wrote that day, the experience of stepping outside of routine and how precious that is. Not New York City dinner party conversation.
After dinner Barbara and another woman, Ruth, gave a reading in the living room across the foyer from the dining room. Most of the fellows came so I got a look at those I hadn't sat with at dinner.
Ruth, a poet from Israel living in the U.S., wrote about place and had a very elegant and calm way of speaking and reading. I couldn't tell you anything substantive about the poems, it had just been too long of a day with too many things to adjust to, as any first day on a trip can be.
Barbara gave us a performance piece. It's a one woman show about her experience with a mentally disturbed sister who her mother clearly has always favored over her, no matter how well Barbara steps forward to help with her sister, and any time her parents need her. It's a great story, but the execution was so fragmented (she was trying out new writing and went from reading her pages to acting some out) I found it a little hard to follow. There was a lot of action on the phone, which I don't think is ever very engaging for an audience (unless you're Bob Newhart. Look him up if you're too young to know him. He's famous for his stand up about one way phone conversations. His most famous are the air traffic controller and the driving instructor. They are hilarious. Here's the air traffic controller on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour:
Granted, this was drama, not comedy, but if you're doing a phone convo, the dialogue/story has to be compelling and I'm afraid it wasn't.
Still, I respected her for getting up there and working it out in front of us! That takes courage.
Back to the studio for more work, then bed, where I killed the first of many stinkbugs. Sigh.
I made sure to step outside onto the balcony first, though, to reacquaint myself with all the stars I never see in Baltimore.
Tuesday I woke up really dizzy, fatigued, and nauseous. Don't you hate how, the minute you go on vacation you get sick? There's so much running around you have to do before you leave, anticipating every possible crisis that could happen in your absence, that you sort of collapse when you get somewhere and the body says, "Finally! A break! Now we can be sick."
Well, I wasn't having it. I got up and staggered to the bathroom to shower and dress, then went down to my studio. I turned on my computer, choked down a cup of tea. Eventually my head stopped spinning and my stomach settled.
I'd missed breakfast, which is at 7 a.m. Let me say that again: 7 a.m. Who eats that early? It's practically the middle of the night (you must know by now I don't rise early!), so by lunchtime, feeling better, I was hungry.
Lunch, the handbook said, is in the visual arts kitchen. I checked the map. No visual arts kitchen labeled. I called the office. "It's in the barn" I was told. "Where's the barn?" I asked (not on the map either). "On your map you'll see a block of buildings on the far right" I was told. "Yes," I said, "but they aren't labeled and there's no indication which of those buildings houses the visual arts kitchen." "When you walk up the hill, go straight ahead through a red door" I was told.
If I didn't think I'd lose part of my $20 deposit, I would label the map I have for the next person!
I found a back way from my cottage to the barn, a lovely road between hedges of boxwood, I believe:
Lunch is leftovers from the night before, sandwich makings, salad, fruit, and yogurt. Also all good. You'll eat well here!
A few people were sitting at the table, eating and not talking, which I didn't find inviting, and the few who came in while I made up a plate just smiled when I said hello, but didn't really talk either, so I took my plate back to the cottage.
I learned from some of the women I sat near at the reading the night before, that it's a very serious group here right now. The packet says not to be offended if people don't want to enter into a conversation and don't socialize much beyond meals, which I totally get, but how hard is it to say hello and talk for a few minutes? I'm not socializing much either - I'm here to work - but I'm making an effort to be friendly and ask people about their work while we're in the buffet line or stop a say a few words if I pass someone walking around. It's strange.
Of course, part of it is that I'm isolated in the cottage. I'm not in the residence hall so there's no casual interaction there, and I'm not in the barn, where everyone else's studios are. Barbara and I are the only ones separated at the other end of the campus. I wish I'd known this ahead of time. I would have asked for another assignment. I think you should be asked if you'd prefer that arrangement (if you come here, let them know your preference; they won't ask). Everyone else is running into each other in the hall and barn, having a chance to get to know one another. I can't sit in the visual arts kitchen in the barn hoping to run into someone to make conversation. Nor can I hover around in the living room or laundry room. So awkward!
Before you think I'm a loser or a wallflower, I'm also glad to have more quiet than those in the barn probably have (if you don't count the blaring radio from the nearby residence hall kitchen or the hundred and one pickup trucks coming and going as the staff and groundspeople do their work), so there isn't the distraction of other people to keep me from my work. And I do like the cottage itself, having my studio right here, not having to walk across a dark campus late at night back to my room.
I'm not here to leave with best friends, but I am used to meeting several people with whom I bond and keep in touch at these things, so it takes getting used to - how everyone is withdrawn into their spaces. I'm someone who needs regular breaks - for tea, for walks, for a quick chat, before I go back to work, but not everyone is like that.
And there is plenty of socializing at dinner. I've been lucky to pick tables where, aside from that first night, we've had light, fun, conversations and laughed a lot.
So, what about the work?
On Tuesday, feeling ill, and getting used to my surroundings, meant I only managed about 7 pages. A far cry from the 20 I'd planned on every day! What was I thinking? It had been a month since I'd worked on the novel and I felt like I didn't know the characters at all any more. I'd lost their voices. Well, not lost, but they were pretty far away. I had to wander around for a few hours before I caught a trace of them. Even so, it was slow going.
Wednesday I began 'the turning point' chapter, where one character tells another a serious event from his past that starts the momentum to the end of the novel. I dug through all my research and discovered that the one group of papers I needed wasn't in my bag. I'd left them home. I just sat on the couch and felt totally defeated. I always forget something, but that was the worst thing to forget.
Then I thought, trying to be optimistic, that perhaps it was for the best, and I'd find a better way of writing the chapter by doing some new research. And that is, in fact, what happened. In the end, the chapter I wrote yesterday - 17 pages, hurray! - is much richer and more complex than the one I'd had planned. It absolutely flowed without me having to do much but keep up. I wrote from 10 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. and fell into bed, exhausted, but very pleased with myself.
Late start today. I have three full days left, a couple of hours on Sunday before I head home, and all the chapters ahead are intense and crucial to the story. I now am not sure if I will finish the novel here, but if I get through the next three chapters and have only the denouement chapter to finish once home, I'll still feel great about my time here.
If you do a residency, know that it might take you a couple of days to adjust. If that happens, be patient with yourself and keep at it. Keep your butt in the chair and keep writing. Even if you throw it out the next day. It's rare to have time to just write, without having to take breaks to grocery shop, let the dog out, do the laundry, have dinner with your parents, spend time with kids and husbands and friends. For the week, weeks, or month you're in this special setting, your job is to write, which is both thrilling and terrifying. It works and it doesn't, like anything else.
If you only write 10 pages over a week, you've accomplished something. One woman, BJ, said to me at dinner the other night, "Enjoy it. Even if you don't get much done. It's important to get away and have time with your work."
I recently joined a website which I would categorize as a mix of online conference, peer critique, and matchmaking with agents and editors. Author Salon provides writers with the visibility and promotion necessary to get them “published by major players in the business.” It's a Literary Social Network.
Why a site like this has taken this long to come into being, I don’t know, but thank goodness it's here! It’s a terrific way to be part of a committed, talented group of writers, receive valuable critique, and make you and your book visible to the agents and editors looking for new work and new voices.
At present, membership is free because the site is in Beta testing, but only for a short time, then it’s $9.99 per month with a portion of the fee going to Smile Train, a charity created for children born with clefts.
Once you become a member, you fill out an extensive profile, which takes a couple of hours (so don’t start this on your lunch hour at work). The profile includes details about your book such as word count, genre, comparables, synopsis, hook, conflict, protagonist, unique world, and climax/denouement. You also provide the first two pages, about 20 lines of your best dialogue, and two short prose samples. There is also a section for your bio and background, your writing life, what inspired the book, and what you’re reading. In this way, you give an agent or editor a sense of who you are, your work, and your platform.
That said, you don’t have to be an accomplished writer to join the site, but you should be committed to becoming one, which includes honing your craft and building your platform.
And you have to be committed to the Author Salon process because it is rigorous.
There are three phases: In Production, Editor Suite, and Marquee Lounge.
During the In Production phase writers friend each other and ask five people in their genre to critique their profile. Once they receive a certain rating or above, the writer moves to the Editor Suite phase where the same process takes place, and 50 pages of one’s work is also exchanged with another set of five reviewers. Each writer reads the work of five others he or she has agreed to work with and critiques and ratings take place again.
In the third level, the Marquee Lounge, the writer’s profile is now open to the agents and editors looking for work to represent or publish.
This ensures that only those who are committed to the process, not just of Author Salon, but of writing a great, marketable book, make it to the final level because along the way writers are told by their peers and Author Salon staff what works, what doesn't work, and what needs to be developed further - while they can still do something about it - and before an agent or publisher shuts the door in their face.
There are several wonderful aspects of Author Salon.
First: The people. I’ve met friendly, creative, determined writers on this site. Their critique comments are well thought through and demonstrate how seriously they take the process and how much they have engaged with my work. Every genre is represented here: young adult, middle grade, fantasy, sci fi, narrative nonfiction, general nonfiction, fiction (women’s upscale, literary, historical), thriller, mystery, detective, romance, paranormal romance. I know I’m missing some. Whatever you write – it’s in here and there are plenty of other people in your genre ready to sign on to work with you.
Second: It’s professional. The structure, the content, the feedback. Weak and poorly filled out profiles are not approved for membership. You can’t be half-assed here. You have to mean it. You have to more than mean it actually! This site asks you to be ALL IN. So you have to ask yourself: How much do I want to be published? Then give it everything you’ve got because the site requires no less of you and you should require the same of yourself. Otherwise you're wasting your time and everyone else’s.
Third: The tech factor. There is a forum for chatting and for the critique process. There are audio and visual components so you can post a book trailer or a recorded reading you gave (video or audio). You can send email via a profile link within the system, but also start private conversations in the forum itself. You also have a personal blog tab on your profile.
Fourth: Expert bloggers. There’s a whole section where writers, editors, agents, anyone and everyone associated with the biz have been invited to blog. You can find anything you want to know in this section. Recently, Author Salon itself posted an article on how to write the six act novel.
Did I mention that the biggest and best agents and editors are there? They’ve sold books to or work for Random House, Viking, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Little Brown and more. Maybe they are looking for a book just like yours.
Convinced yet? Check it out yourself: Author Salon.
