Slush Pile Reader the blog

L. Anne Carrington: You Have a Publisher/Agent! Now What?

Guest blogger — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:29:48 +0000

After months–maybe years–of writing and polishing your manuscript, there were the dreaded rounds of finding a publisher who would express an interest in your hard work. Every writer’s gone down the road of receiving stacks of rejection letters (yes, even the most famous best-selling authors had their share at one time), and experienced the dark feelings of hopelessness, wondering if all their efforts were worth it.

Then it happened.

When we least expected it, or contemplated to just give up and burn that manuscript (or delete the file, as it were, since most modern authors use computers), an offer arrived. Something in your query letter sparked an agent’s interest or your manuscript caught a publisher’s attention to the point they thought, “We need to get this in book stores or at least on Amazon!”

Sometimes, it’s a huge contract with all the bells and whistles, or–in more common cases– we received a general, yet solid, offer. There was something in your book they saw and took a chance. It’s happened; how do you think the Twilight phenomenon started?
The feeling that someone noticed our hard work–whether it’s a major publisher or big-name agent, or a small, independent company or new agent–gives us a sense of euphoria that a first-time author can only experience. It’s difficult to explain, but let’s just say the initial reaction is you’ll want to shout the good news from as many rooftops as possible, especially to the naysayer crowd, “I told you it could be done!”

However, getting an agent and/or publisher doesn’t guarantee best-seller success. Though that can happen, it’s a small percentage, so don’t think about quitting your regular job or put a rush on how you’re going to spend potential royalty checks just yet.

For those of you who are about to be published, it’s not the time to sit back and rest on your laurels. An author’s work isn’t done the moment they obtain an agent or get a publishing deal. Don’t expect these people to do the work for you.

Authors need to continue promoting. Whether it’s setting up your own website (and keeping it updated on a regular basis), having a social network account such as Twitter, being a guest blogger on literary sites, granting interviews on book sites and related radio programs, making public appearances, or even join discussions on other authors’ books, the more effort you put into generating interest in your upcoming book, the more likely the agent/publisher will take notice Give them plenty of reasons to be both enthusiastic about having you as a client and willing to invest both valuable time and money.

Promoting is fine, but spamming isn’t. If you participate in a group or site on a regular basis, an occasional plug or updated news on your book should work well; however, if you discuss it in every other post, whatever potential reading audience you could’ve received will be driven away. Also, don’t just join sites to promote your own work. It’s just gauche and poor taste. You’re likely to be better received if you take an equal interest in the work and news of other authors. Author-based websites are also excellent places to trade valuable resources, so keep your eyes and ears open for other opportunities.

Another aspect to consider (even if you don’t have an agent or publisher yet) is to have a professional public demeanor at all times. Beginning or participating in petty arguments (though a good, mature literary-related debate is fine), putting down colleagues and/or their work (other than constructive criticism, of course), being openly biased for/against someone because of your personal feelings, speaking on controversial subjects, incessant cursing, and starting/spreading unsubstantiated rumors and gossip are among some examples of unprofessional decorum.

Your online activities should also have the same considerations. We have no idea who’s reading our social network pages, and the wrong Facebook status, Twitter post, etc. could break a promising writing career before it begins. After all the effort of finding an agent and obtaining a publisher, would you want to sabotage your dream within two seconds by tweeting something that could be looked upon with disfavor by certain parties?

You may be one of the most splendid new writers to cross an agent or publisher’s desk to date, but if you develop a reputation of being “difficult,” chances are good your contract won’t last very long. As the old adage goes, “Think before you act/speak.”

Should you share your book online? Until you’re officially published, I don’t see the problem of posting some sample chapters on free sites such as BookBzzr or even Slush Pile Reader. On the other hand, do not put up the entire manuscript on such sites–a set amount of chapters to give readers an idea about your book is enough. Otherwise, where’s the motivation to buy your book when it’s published? Both you and the publisher lose money, and neither is a good thing.

Once you go into publication (even electronically, such as Smashwords or even Kindle), all free online samples should be removed. It sounds callous, but such a move will direct more people to the actual location of your work, and wouldn’t you rather be seen on a site (or in a book store) such as Barnes & Noble, rather than a free reader site? We all know the answer to that question.

If you’re reading this and just received an offer of representation or a publishing deal, congratulations on your latest achievement. If not, don’t be discouraged. Keep working, keep sending queries, keep learning new ideas. You never know when the payoff day will happen!

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L. Anne Carrington is the author of The Cruiserweight. More by L. Anne Carrington can be found on her blog.

Coffee. Publishing. Stealth. Guest blog by Malcolm Thomson

Guest blogger — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 20:45:49 +0000

My interest in the developments in the arena of self-publishing involves research. And research often throws up unexpected byways which invite exploration.

Mick Rooney is a knowlegable observer of on-demand and independent publishing and has quite recently had a lot to say about the other self-publishing site.

“…somewhere in there is the germ of a great idea, but I have found it an incestuous and self-sustained platform for would-be authors clamouring at any cost for a peer review to reach the top of the pile and be top-dog for a week or two. All this happens without the assurance of balance or any real proof that the hundreds of adoring readers who claimed to have read your book actually gave it, and your author profile, any more than a cursory glance.”

So be it, and there’s more here. But further Googling, specifically with regard to on-demand publishing, brought me to coffee.

Coffee?

Brew up! It’s time for a fikarast (as our Swedish friends call the Java break. I shall be corrected if I err).

Tchibo is to Germany what Folgers is to the United States, the leading coffee brand. And Tchibo has a good thousand retail outlets in prime locations, all with a very heavy footfall. In comparison Germany’s largest branded bookstore chain, Thalia, has only 55 branches.

Coffee and publishing? On-demand self-publishing!

In winter 2008-2009 Tchibo offered their customers a EUR 39,90 gift token allowing them to submit a manuscript which would then be processed by a German on-demand specialist and entitling them to pick up their own bound copy when popping in for their favourite roast. ISBN and all, thoroughly German.

I have no idea what the take-up was of this intriguing offer. But it brought to mind my own experience as a publisher twenty years earlier. Our speciality was books of photography, not unlike what Benedikt Taschen did so much better in the years which followed. At that time Tchibo was already known as an innovative distribution channel for photo books. The girl I married worked for a Munich publisher whose output wasexclusively available in the Tchibo retail coffee outlets. The cover prices were very modest, since no middle-men were involved, the print runs were enormous and there was widespread gnashing of teeth among the highly regulated bookselling establishment.

Which brings us to stealth. Tchibo (they did not, alas, take any of the titles I offered) cannily exploited gaps in the market, demonstrated out-of-the-box thinking, and even twenty years ago found books a promising side-line. Their recent on-demand project seems to confirm their continued interest.

Stealth. It can work for us or against us, and I mean for or against Slush Pile Reader. Mick Rooney is highly critical of the way the other self-publishing site seems to be pushing its would-be published authors into the arms of CreateSpace. In the old days the term was ‘vanity publishing’. If your vanity demanded, you could respond to the small adverts at the back of Esquire Magazine in which the Vantage Press (still a thriving enterprise) simply announced ‘Authors wanted’. I remember giving their offer some thought when I was still in university; the vanity I had, but not the cash.

But this stealthy attempt to profit from a writer’s burning desire to see his work in print is, of course, not what I would expect to find emulated by SPR.

I discovered Cathy Dobson in the course of my wanderings through the web. She has turned her experience of fifteen years as an ex-pat into an amusing book titled Planet Germany. It is, I think, an amusing read for other ex-pats such as myself who will recognize some of the stereotypes and enjoy the occasional smirk or smothered guffaw.

Be that as it may. But in a blog post Cathy writes about the predicament of the unpublished author. She has the usual well-meant advice but she also mentions the options represented by sites where manuscripts can be submitted by authors, that site in particular.

“It’s not a bad place to showcase yourself, but you will need to do plenty of reciprocal reading/commenting/arselicking in order to get your book up the rankings and into prominence.”

My own manuscript is buried under 2,300 others on that site but it is also on Slush Pile Reader, where I am minded to believe that osculation of other writers’ posteriors has a lesser role to play in the scheme of things.

But…

My feeling is that Slush Pile Reader has its loyal core of ‘heavy users’ who respond to new submissions, finding some which please them and thereby generating some initial positive feedback. Quickly, however, the focus of these assiduous users is on newer submissions and one’s own manuscript is… more or less lost. Lost, in the sense that the casual visitor to the site faces a huge challenge when seeking a read corresponding to his or her tastes.

The issue is ‘discoverability’. And it is one faced in many sectors of the internet. Certainly metadata tagging is a help… But it in no way relates to the learned habits of people who love reading and most often select their books still in ‘dead trees’ format in a bricks-and-mortar store. In my favourite bookshop I do not have to wade through stacks of volumes falling into self-help, teenage vampire schlock, New Age, political obscurantist or other genres before finding the books published in the category I seek!

I wonder if the answer lies perhaps in the approach taken by the music service Last.fm. On this site I need only enter two or three of the bands or singers I already enjoy and the algorithms will get to work and will pull up not only tracks by my favourites but also other artists who I might enjoy.To me this is a cooler solution than the Amazon recommendation engine and I am constantly surprised by the discoveries this cyber-serendipity facilitates.

Surely there is a step to made in the direction of ‘genre-specific discoverability’ on a site like Slush Pile Reader if authors are required at the submission stage to list established writers as affinity guidance.

I admit that when I start looking under the hood of collaborative filtering I am quickly baffled. That much of a geek I am not.

My thinking with regard to computer-based solutions is very simply structured: If this is possible, then that must be possible, too.

The eye-opener for me was my discovery of Last.fm. I entered only four artistes to set the parameters for my own ‘radio’ stream…

“Crosby Stills Nash, Beach Boys, Françoise Hardy, Serge Gainsbourg.”

The consequence of my choices never fails to delight me with audio discoveries which I otherwise probably would not have made. It’s as simple as that. It amazes me even more that my four artiste choices are not, at first glance, easy to reconcile one with the other. But in spite of the disparity, the breadth of my taste has been precisely identified and is being catered to, day in, day out, in a wonderful audio stream.

Thus I imagine that looking for something I might enjoy reading could benefit from a similar, user-friendly approach.

“If you enjoy reading X and Y and Z you might find my book to your liking!”

The above simple and direct statement presumes, of course, that sufficient metadata exists in the system for Author X, for Author Y and for Author Z, in order for the cumulative metadata to add up to a distinctive profile specific to the manuscript submitted by an author.

Then at the other end of the transactional path the website visitor must make only a simple determination.

“I like reading A and B and C. What can you suggest I should consider?”

The system response to this query would be to list manuscripts which best correspond to the implied cumulative metadata, in order of compatibility with the would-be reader’s declared taste.

To what extent is such an approach relevant to the mission of Slush Pile Reader, which has as its goal the finding of manuscripts which merit words-on-paper and/or electronic publication and commercialization?

I wonder if it is time for some stealth!

At present Slush Pile Reader reaches out primarily to authors. Unless you’re one of the legion of frustrated writers who believe their narrative deserves an audience, you’re not going to bother visiting the site, or any other site ostensibly addressing the same need.

For me stealth might be the launch of a portal reaching out primarily to readers. This site would ultimately call upon the exisisting and evolving content resources of SPR, the wealth of submitted manuscripts. But for the reader looking merely for alternatives to the stock on the shelves of his local bookstore, the career of an author is of little import; what the reader seeks is just a good read.

Such a portal would absolutely not use the term ‘slush pile’ with its implication of impending rejection! For readers the claim would be that they are being afforded pre-publication access to tomorrow’s best-sellers. Cory Doctorow has this perfected this kind of pitch to a fine art.

Would such a schism, a parallel reader-oriented site, amount to heresy?

Possibly. SPR places worth on the peer evaluation of manuscripts by fellow writers, on the generation of metrics which do not totally rule out the ‘gaming’ of results using social networking jiggery-pokery. A portal, inevitably also an iPad app, for readers, generating metrics purely reflecting quantitative and qualitative (satisfaction feedback) criteria, might deliver very different results.

A combination of the peer evaluation scores and the response of mere readers could, however, make it easier in the end to decide what manuscripts should be rewarded with main-stream publication.

Again I must think back to Last.fm. My enthusiasm for the service is that of a listener. I do not care if the singer-songwriter whose track I discover can pay the rent or not. My wishes are satisfied!

But for indie bands and unknown musicians Last.fm is something more. It is where their work can be showcased for discovery, even monetized. It is where my affinity for Serge Gainsbourg can lead to my discovery of an obscure Korea-Pop balladeer, previously more or less unknown beyond suburban Seoul.

I do recognize a couple of snags with the stealth approach, putting the cart before the horse. One is the question whether the submitted manuscripts archived by SPR are a content resource rich enough to satisfy users of a new portal claiming to offer a wide choice of worthwhile alternative reading. However a solution could be to aggregate ‘slush piles’ which have accumulated elsewhere, even those of the over-stretched conventional publishers.

Another difficulty is the deficit in terms of visual communication. Not for nothing do the established publishers agonize over suitable book cover designs. They are an important factor when we are shopping in a bricks-and-mortar outlet, pulling us to certain volumes on display by triggering responses to what we see. Most of us who call ourselves storytellers are not gifted designers. I have seen home-baked cover art using Comic Sans as the title font! Here the solution would be, I think, to eschew visuals completely and emphasize typographical presentation. We are, after all, talking about words.

Some of Mick Rooney’s words are intended to remind us that not a single manuscript submitted to Slush Pile Reader has ever been selected for publication. The question implicit in his comments, which are in general those of a well-wisher, is how eventual publication might take place. Is cooperation with a mainstream publishing house envisaged, given that access to the key book retail chains is an obstacle difficult for an independent to surmount?

Which brings me back to coffee. And I find my self musing upon the notion of the Slush Pile imprint being exclusively available at Starbucks outlets in the English-speaking world…

Ah, the fevered imaginations of those of us who call ourselves storytellers! Do we still have some Gevalia left?

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Malcolm James Thomson is the author of Golden Dawn and blogs from, of all the interesting places out there, Abu Dhabi, on Sandlander.

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If you too want to be a guest blogger – send us a message:johanna@slushpilereader.com

Guest blog by Louise Wise & an hilarious take on agent proposals

Guest blogger — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 16:57:51 +0000

I started writing long before the Internet, and before you think I’m an old codger the ‘net has only been around fifteen odd years! If writing is a lonely occupation now, back then there were no forums where I could discuss my word count, or grumble about slow-to-reply agents. There was nothing, and I was stumbling about with my little Amstrad computer (good old Alan Sugar), writing novels with the word count something in the region of 300,000.

I’m glad to say my word count is under control now, and when the Internet arrived it was easier to find information on my chosen profession. And with Facebook and Twitter agents and publishers were no longer faceless, and there were other writers like me!

Indie presses, eBooks, and POD soon followed and the writing forum I was a member of offered to POD Eden. I had previously found an agent for Eden, but because of its originality the agent failed to place it with a publishing house, and so instead I thought I’d experiment with POD. It meant I’d have to do all my own marketing, and a few years ago this would have frightened me ridged, but honestly it’s been great. The entire process has been a learning curve.

I started blogging for the first time in 2008 on the launch of Eden, and looked for ways to get myself “seen”. I wrote articles, short stories for magazines and offered an editing service on my blog. Word soon got round and people began to contact me for support/articles.

I now offer to feature new writers and their books on my blog. It works both ways. I get my name “out there” and writers can use my audience to their advantage.

I am still open to submissions. Send me a short bio, blurb of your book, include links to blog/website that you want published and I’ll get back to you. Sometimes I will send out questions, this just gives a bit of variety to my posts. I am trying to do two features a week and it will help me enormously if you send things via email rather than attachment.

Blog: http://louisewise.blogspot.com/

Email: louisewise3@ntlworld.com

Eden on Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/c2Lh45 or Amazon.com:http://amzn.to/9lowsQ

Louise Wise: Proposals by Email

Dear Agent,
Please find attached my idea for a novel called: Twinned. It’s in PDF because I don’t want you to steal my idea!!!
My mum says it’s brilliant! It is a thriller about a woman who falls for a man who has a twin who is a wanted man. To spice things up the woman also discovers she is a twin (separated at birth), and the sister traces her and falls in love with the criminal twin!!!!
Let me know what you think,
Regards, Sarah

Dear Agent,
Just to let you know I’ve thought of a sequel to Twinned. It’s about the twins marrying one another and going on a life of crime with their twin children. View the attached and let me know what you think ASAP.
Regards, Sarah

Dear Agent,
Forgot to add, the sequel is called Twinned Again.
Sarah.

Dear Agent,
I’m concerned you haven’t contacted me about my ideas for Twinned and Twinned Again that I emailed the other day. I’m sure you can’t be that busy that you can’t press the reply button!!!
Regards, Sarah

Dear Agent,
Why haven’t you replied? It’s very rude. Mum thinks it’s a conspiracy or new authorism or something. Is it?
Regards, Sarah

Dear Agey,
I am getting very worried now. Maybe you haven’t received my novel and it went into spam? I know this can happen because it happens a lot to me . Please check your spam box. BTW I’ve changed the genre to romance.
Sarah

Dear Age,
Just in case you have lost Twinned and Twinned Again here is another attachment !!!!
The opening is a little slow because I have to introduce two sets of twins and their twin off-spring (the criminal twin and his wife have triplets!!!!), but on page ten it’s really good!! Oh, I’ve made the characters older so the children have more to do in the story. Mum thinks it’ll defo be a bestseller now!!!
Best, Sarah

A,
The genre is now a YA. Think I’ll focus on the kids of the story rather than the parents.
Sar.
Yo!
Just to let you know my friends on facebook said they will buy my book once you publish it. Can you tell me when that will be please?
S xx

Hi A,
I’ve wrote the second chapter now and have sent that as attached. It’s copywrited so don’t get any ideas!!!!! This chapter focuses on the triplets. They have taken on their dad’s life of crime, so this one is more thriller than romance. Not sure how it will pan out tbh. Will you get back to me this week? I really, really REALLY need to know what you think before I continue further.
Sxxxxxxxx

A,
Have you replied? If you have I haven’t received it. Can you forward your reply again?
Thanks
S

A,
Disregard the previous email and chapter two. The triplets Jan, Fran and Ann are now boys called Jack, Zach and Mac!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love Sar xx.

AGENT
NOT HEARD FROM YOU AS YET!!!! STILL WAITING!!!
SARAH

Dear Mr Agent,
I am thinking about reporting you. This wait (four days and five hours) is outrageous. May I remain you that if it wasn’t for writers like me you’d be out of a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sarah Higgenbottom

Agent,
You aren’t going to reply are you?
People are SO rude!!!!!!!!!!!! I am taking my novel ideas to another agency. This is YOUR loss.
Goodbye
Ms Higgenbottom

Guest Blogger L. Anne Carrington: “Just write!”

Guest blogger — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 00:42:53 +0000

Famed author Anne Rice once gave this advice to new writers: “There are no rules in this profession. Do what is good for you. Read books and watch films that stimulate your writing. In your writing, go where the pain is; go where the pleasure is; go where the excitement is. Believe in your own original approach, voice, characters, story. Ignore critics. Have nerve. Be stubborn.”

In most cases, these words couldn’t ring more true. A few writer colleagues discussed their ideas of developing their respective novels with me, and confused by the conflicted feedback she’d received on her manuscript, one had shelved her own project for some time She’s once again dusting off the respective manuscript, encouraged by telling her story first, and working on the editing details later. “Just write,” I told her.

We all read the books, the blogs, attend the conferences, frequent the message boards and websites, attend the writer’s groups and conferences, yet we’re still left scratching our heads in bemusement as to if we’re creating our work the “right” way.

Maybe that’s the problem—we’re so focused on turning out the perfect manuscript and getting published that we’ve lost focus of the true purpose of potential books: to tell our stories.

Some writers tend to think in order to “sell” their work, they must dash out something that’s the current “trend,” but once the market is saturated with a specific genre, your work will remain on the slush pile for an undetermined amount of time.

Write what you know, not what’s “in style.” There’s a story that’s run through your subconscious for months (or years, if you will), characters yearning to be created and developed. Why not share them with the world? Who cares if they aren’t the “current trend?” It’s your work in progress; make it your creation!

There’s no guarantee that your work will get noticed by a publishing house sooner, but it won’t be competing with thousands of other stories with the same theme. Sometimes, it’s good to write a novel about a subject that isn’t trendy or cool, but at the same time, can grab a reader’s attention and tell an amazing story from the first chapter to the final sentence of the last page.

Pay attention to advice and feedback, but don’t take all of it literally. Otherwise, you’ll drive yourself into a frenzy and just become frustrated. Try incorporating a few of those suggestions into your work. If the ideas improve your manuscript, by all means, use them. If not, it’s fine in some cases to skip suggestions.

Yes, novels are written for readers to enjoy and take them away from the world’s woes, but at the same time, it’s also good to bring something to the market that is original and exciting. Who knows, your book could begin the next big trend, but not if you don’t take risks and bring your own voice and excitement into the mix. I’ll see you soon on the book shelves and Kindle!

L. Anne Carrington is the author of The Cruiserweight. More by L. Anne Carrington can be found on her blog.

Guest Blog: The DNA of Writers by Janice Ivy

Guest blogger — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 21:02:16 +0000

The other night my daughter and I were watching a movie. Another daughter came in and stood in front of us, pointing at her side, she said, “Where exactly could a person be shot in this area without it hitting any vital organs?” Daughter number one and I gave this some consideration and then we all discussed the placement of organs and the best place for a person to be shot and not suffer any permanent damage. Daughter number two went back to her room and number one and I continued watching the movie. It wasn’t until later that it occurred to me how this conversation would have been viewed by most people. It would have seemed a little odd for sure.

We’re not a family of psychopaths, just a family of writers. Three out of four of my daughters are writers. They learned from a young age that a bad grade in science or math could be quickly forgotten if they made a good grade on a paper that they had written. Should I have done that? No! Not at all. Science and math are important. But writing, writing is life! What can I say? I’ve always loved to write.

I sometimes feel a little disconnected from the real world because I am watching people and listening to them, not because I’m interested in them, but because I am seeing them as possible characters in a book. I lose track of conversations because I’m trying to think of exactly how you would spell a word to give it the exact inflection that the person speaking does.

When I’m looking at a beautiful sunset, I’m enjoying it, but I’m also describing it in my head. Is the purple more violet or lavender? Is the sun the color of an orange Popsicle or more like the yolk of a sunny side up egg?

I think maybe there’s a gene that makes people want to write. I think that same gene also makes them just a little bit crazy. I’ve never met a writer who wasn’t just a tad bit off. They don’t just march to a different drummer—they have a whole orchestra made up of dozens of wild characters playing a tune that leads them merrily along.

The next time you’re standing in a line, look at the people around you. Is there someone standing there with a far-a-way look in their eyes? Do they look just a little perplexed, like they’re trying to figure out the meaning of life? It’s probably just a writer writing the scene into his book, maybe trying to decide how to write the dialogue that he’s listening to. Watch out if he focuses on you…you could become a serial killer or a worse yet a victim in his next book.

Janice Ivy is the author of ‘Taking out the Trailer Trash‘ and a excellent Writer’s Tag contributor.

Guest Blog by Robert Dean: If I can’t keep my head out of the water, the sharks will get me

Guest blogger — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:21:08 +0000

July 4th 2K10

It’s my best friend’s birthday and I’m using my girlfriend’s laptop.

Even though it’s still a mac, it doesn’t feel like mine. It’s not mine. The keys are different, the something, is different. Something is wrong. Something feels odd. Lately, everything has felt odd in my life. Lately, every night is spent tossing and turning with wonderment and a side of regret. I think in a lot of ways it’s my emotional state. Something always comes back to something.

The other day I felt so sure of myself, so, on top of my game that I felt I had nailed it, I had finally made a statement in life and someone on my dream list of agents would come to me with that phone call we’ve all been waiting for and say, “let’s do it. Me and you, we’re a team and we’re going to change the world with this motherfucker.” and what? I get rejected, again. Again. I get it, I understand that rejection makes you work harder and humble. Rejection makes you a better you and no one will be able to touch you after you know heartache some kind of twisted Bob Dylan logic. Ok, it makes sense.

Trust me, I get it. But, where do we go from here? I’m not asking for Twilight’s money, I’m asking for a shot. A legitimate shot at the people. I want to see my words in bold face print with someone’s blurb adding to the idea that is my art.

Where I am now? I’m sitting in the dark post best friend drinking session with a small blow up with my girlfriend and that idea that I want so bad isn’t happening. I’m miserable. I’m all kinds of miserable in all colors, shapes and sizes. Is it my job that makes me feel like I do? Absolutely not.

I have a great job with two of the best bosses a person could ask for.

It’s my drive as person.

It’s my living coffin. I write these posts with one thing in mind: exorcism. I want to clear my head and I want someone to see me with the goalie mask off and see how bad I want it vs the idea I project.

I scour my mind to explain myself. Some who read my blogs agree, most decide to twitter elsewhere or care about a Lohan dress malfunction but, whatever, I gotta keep the hustle alive.

What else can I do? Every day I wake up and wonder what’s the difference between being terminally ill, knowing you’re a a failure or being a perfectly living person and working their ass off to be the guy on top but to no result? Where do you go? You could blow your brains out ala O’toole and hope someone realizes your version of “Confederacy of dunces” is as good as his was or you wake up and toil in the real world and hope, letter after fucking letter or email, that someone with pull, anyone, will see you for person you are, the person will not die. The person who gives the finger back to its own reflection.

If I can’t keep my head out of the water, the sharks will get me.

Robert Dean is a freelance writer, author and poet from New Orleans, LA. He is the author of In the arms of nightmares on Slush Pile Reader.

Guest Blog by Malcolm Thomson: Writing, reading, publishing, …

Guest blogger — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:16:12 +0000

Ian Roberts’ Guest Blog titled The Difficulties Of Becoming Published made grim reading.

Not that he fails to quote some words of encouragement…

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone can assure success. Press on!”.

But I wonder in what direction we should press on?

Could it be that we lovers of words-on-paper must find the courage to come out of our comfort zones and ask some questions… about publishing… and about storytelling.

Roberts invites us implicitly to do so. He points out that “these big [publishing] organisations have many established writers on their books and do not need to rely on fresh talent or first-time authors.”

How true. And it is not entirely a bad thing. As a reader of on average two trade paperbacks per week I am happy that there are the established writers I can count on to craft a good yarn. Many of these are authors who have developed a franchise over the years, with their series of novels becoming almost a form of episodic entertainment, cleverly promoted as such. I do look forward to ‘the next Ian Rankin’ or a new title from Kate Mosse, Lee Child or Diana (we all have our weaknesses) Gabaldon.

None of the big publishing houses are waiting for Ian’s manuscript or mine! In the United Kingdom over fifty percent of revenues are generated by just five concerns: Harper Collins, Pan Macmillan, Penguin, Hachette and Random House. They are satisfying both their shareholders and their readers.

So the answer to the question about the publishers might well be… let them be! In many ways they have enough on their plates, given their need to adapt to the world of e-Readers and iPad apps.

The other question which could be posed concerns our understanding of storytelling.

Under the heading Publish For What Reason? Johanna Denize reminded us on this blog that “change is slow, especially when it comes to an existing giant of an industry that has been run the same way basically since Gutenberg came along.”

But it could be argued that the Internet and a range of digital tools now provide a totally new toolset, in itself as revolutionary as Gutenberg’s press was in its time and as likely to bring about as radical and irreversible change as the advent of printing did. The scriptoria emptied! My comment to the blog post was as follows…

“I am wondering whether we are overlooking one of the most significant points with regard to narrative fiction and electronic interface devices. What I spy on the horizon is a move towards transmediality. I look forward to storytelling as compelling as any successful novel, but delivered not just as written prose, but in multiple forms on multiple platforms.”

I made a tentative step in this direction about four years ago. I had thirty-nine chapters of a manuscript and the vague notion that a website-based hybrid form of self-publishing was… thinkable. Sex&Drugs&Profiteroles… The idea was to release a chapter per week as an audio podcast hosted on what seemed at the time to be the most promising platform. The first thirteen chapters were to be free, but a one-time payment would be asked for from those wishing to carry on to the end.

Each audio chapter, however, was preceded by a short video clip, a vlog in which the novel’s heroine looks back on the events that the story relates.

Each weekly clip then closes with a call to action inciting the user to click through to the audio. The additional effort involved was far from onerous nor was it particularly demanding in terms of video skills which, in this day and age, are no longer exotic or unduly challenging. Basic editing is now possible on the latest iPhone.

In the case of my own project we didn’t get further than Chapter Seven. But this was not on account of any basic flaw in the operational model. There was a hiccup when a particular software suite, permitting videoblogging with virtual green-screen backgrounds, was suddenly withdrawn from the market when Adobe bought the company. When the product (Visual Communicator, US$ 399) was re-launched it was too late for us.

The main problem at the time was that I was working in Abu Dhabi and my ‘heroine’ was at university in England; our only direct collaboration was for the sixth and seventh chapters which were coveniently locationed in Dubai. And our realization was that a venture of this nature is totally not made easier when thousands of kilometres lie between the participating creatives.

I remain convinced that the video component enhanced the potential discoverability of Sex&Drugs&Profiteroles. And in 2006 YouTube was by no means as powerful a force as it is today. A story that is difficult to find is a story which will never be read; this being a problem that few of the self-publishing enablers have adequately solved.

Today the transmediality can go further than video. An interactive game, features akin to the ‘bonus content’ we know from DVDs, social network community involvement, virtual presence in a metaverse like SecondLife…

Ian Roberts recalls a writing course which “taught me to ‘throw away’ every word that was not essential and to focus on the story and the characters, not my self-indulgent descriptions and unnecessary narrative.” Many writers follow this brutal and soulless rule and even get their work published. My feeling is that their readers are the kind who mistake Fox News for journalism!

At the risk of provoking I would suggest that Ian’s self-indulgent descriptions and unnecessary narrative constitute, for a sophisticated audience open to the enrichment of a Gesamtkunstwerk, exactly the kind of resource which can be further developed as cross-platform extensions of storytelling. The motion picture Artificial Intelligence and the television series Alias and, more recently, Lost show the way. In these cases the total entertainment experience went far beyond the flickering imagery on the screen with immersive websites which attracted the active engagement of a participating audience.

None of the platform extensions a novelist might be tempted (I hope) to try imply any huge hardware or software investment, none demand skills which cannot be quickly learned. And all of these and more can move storytelling from mere words-on-paper to a new level, and one on which the independents and newcomers are probably better positioned than the publishing behemoths of old.

The thinking behind the trend in the direction of transmediality is far better expressed by others far more qualified than I. Might I recommend particularly Henry Jenkins, Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. In Convergence Culture Jenkins cites the Matrix as an example of transmedia storytelling. Jenkins explains that “…key bits of information are conveyed through three live action films, a series of animated shorts, two collections of comic book stories, and several video games. There is no one single source or ur-text where one can turn to gain all of the information needed to comprehend the Matrix universe.”

A Wiki page lists further links which will prove useful to those wishing to dip a toe into these fascinating waters.

Slush Pile Reader is, of course, for storytellers who are first and foremost writers. But as we authors, chastened as we must be by Ian Roberts’ well-intentioned

reflections, look ahead and realize that the chances of our tale being published between hard covers is truly remote, I think that the consideration of alternatives is probably a damn good idea.

Malcolm James Thomson is the author of Golden Dawn and blogs from, of all the interesting places out there, Abu Dhabi, on Sandlander.

If you too want to be a guest blogger – send us a message: johanna@slushpilereader.com

Guest blog by L. Anne Carrington: Why do we write?

Guest blogger — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:06:50 +0000

Why do we write? Is there a story that needs to be told, but yet not put down on paper? Do some of us aim to produce the next Great American Novel? Maybe we have a message that writing is an effective way to reach large groups of people, or perhaps it’s our own form of therapy (why do you think some psychotherapists encourage their patients to journal on a regular basis?)

Some love to write for fun, yet get paid at the same time, others only write one book just to say they’ve done it (maybe as part of a lifetime goal), and then there’s a handful of people who write for the sole purpose of earning income—they despise writing in general.

There’s a book in our heads waiting to be written, characters brought to life and shared with the world. Like painting, sketching, and sculpture, writing’s an art that creates a story with words rather than pencil, charcoal, paint, or clay.

When we’ve completed a book or story, a feeling of accomplishment and elation often felt, especially if months—and in many cases, years— were invested in writing, editing, and developing a book previously stored in our subconscious before coming to life, whether on pages or electronic readers.

There are authors exploring new subjects not previously tapped, others jumping on the latest trend, and yet more trying something original on their own. All the aforementioned may be instant hits or may fail on the market (given if the works get published), but one isn’t a writer if risks aren’t taken once in awhile.

Writing can be a hobby, a job, or something else altogether. During my early years, I wasn’t a person who could communicate feelings and thoughts well in the verbal sense, but hand me a notebook and pen (followed in later years by a typewriter, and then a PC with a word processing program), and I could express myself without thinking. At the age of eighteen, while I worked on my high school’s newspaper, I became enamored with writing on the journalistic level, and was the first staff member to be published in a major paper after, on a whim, I submitted a music review to one of the city’s newspapers.

Encouraged, I began producing other written work over the next several years, many published in both print and various websites, working my way up to The Wrestling Babe internet column in 2003, and a two-year stint as a music reviewer for Indie Music Stop. In between, I did “fun” writing, such as fan fiction, as a stress reliever, and in July 2008, I decided to push the envelope further by starting my first full-length novel, The Cruiserweight.

Like any other vocation or interest in the world, writing has its down side. We experience things such as writer’s block, rejection letters, naysayers who say that we can’t do it and are wasting our time, endless hours of editing, thinking of new ways to come up with marketing our works, and finding honest, yet constructive, critiques.

Still, we continue to write…but why? Because we can, and despite the drawbacks of our hobby (or vocation, whatever the case), we enjoy the challenges and the creative aspects writing brings, and the feelings of fulfillment and elation once a project’s completed and in print makes the entire journey of being a writer worthwhile…then we start all over again.

–L. Anne Carrington

L. Anne Carrington is the author of The Cruiserweight cc she also has her own excellent blog.

Guest Blog by Ian Roberts: The Difficulties of Becoming Published

Guest blogger — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:39:11 +0000

A long time ago, I wrote a novel. It took me a year to write it, and I then sent it off expecting a quick reply, a fat cheque and early retirement. What I got instead was a stream of rejection slips, other than two letters, which showed interest and offered encouragement. One was from an agent, who showed great interest, the other from the fiction editor of a large publisher, which has now been swallowed up by a multinational conglomerate. I was invited to rewrite the novel, making specified changes, and resubmit it. I did this. It took me another year, in between renovating a house, teaching English, playing rugby and getting married. I sent off the rewritten version, expecting more speedy replies and an even fatter check. Instead, after quite some time, I received two polite letters. The first one informed me that the agent had died a month earlier and that the agency was dealing with her affairs and unable to take on new clients. The second letter told me that the editor in question had left publishing. I was just a little disappointed and said things such as ‘Oh gosh’ and ‘Dearie me’, as I flung the unread, returned typescripts across the room. I then rushed out of the house and assaulted a man who happened to be walking his dog. For good measure, I kicked the dog too. Ten years later, in between playing rugby, renovating another house, being married, teaching and becoming a father, I rewrote the book, again with no success. Sadly, I couldn’t find an old man or a dog to assault, so I shot the neighbour’s cat instead.

This book would not let go of me, so I decided to have another go, this time with a difference. To try and make a little extra money, I had tried my hand at short stories, after trying a writing course. I won’t go into all the details, but the course taught me to ‘throw away’ every word that was not essential and to focus on the story and the characters, not my self-indulgent descriptions and unnecessary narrative. As a result, my novel was completed at half the original length. It was self-published (paid for by a friend, who had faith in it), in 2006, and sold quite well with family and friends (I made the huge amount of approx £200.00). I have also had five short stories accepted for publication. So, there you go: to get this far, it has taken a couple of decades (on and off), a badly-beaten man and his dog and a dead cat. I thought I would tell you this just to cheer you up and fill you with optimism from the outset.

The first thing you should know is that becoming published is extremely difficult. And that is an understatement, even for those who are talented enough and have a potential best seller to offer. If you are not prepared for a very long ride and to accept one rejection after another, forget the idea. You might become one of the lucky few and quickly find a publisher or agent to take you on. But, for most aspiring writers, it is a very long and rocky road. Becoming published demands talent, accepting good advice, working on the craft of story-telling, a lot of patience, hard work and determination. It also demands a willingness to accept the letters of rejection time and again then pick yourself up and start all over. It’s not easy. Consider this. You have put in a great deal of work. You have slaved over your typescript and you believe it is going to happen for you. You really believe that your hopes and dreams will soon be a reality. You have sweated over that typescript for months or years. You believe in it. You ache to be recognised as a writer. You think it is a worthy piece of writing. Then, the postman delivers that first rejection letter, and many more follow. You receive one letter after another telling you that your work is not wanted or good enough. It is heart breaking, a terrible feeling of disbelief and hurt. How can they say that you ask. I’ve worked so hard. They can’t do this to me. And the rejection letters rarely offer worthwhile encouragement or advice. I have been there, and it hurts. It knocks the wind from your sails, and you really have to want writing success to face these slings and arrows and keep on going. If you think you might not be able to face that then forget about being published right now. Have I cheered you up even more or do you feel like shooting a cat?

There are too many examples to quote of successful authors who were initially rejected by numerous publishers and agents. There are thousands of them. You may be aware of James Patterson, currently a very popular author of a string of best crime and mystery novels, several of which have been made into films. His first book, The Thomas Berryman Number, was rejected twenty-four times before being published, but it went on to win the prestigious Edgar Award for a first mystery novel. Another author, John Kennedy Toole, provides a very poignant, example. Toole killed himself in 1969, because he could not get his book published. His mother persisted with the typescript, which was eventually published as A Confederacy of Dunces, a wonderful book, which subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize and was translated into ten languages. I imagine few people have not heard of a certain JK Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was not her first novel. She had written and put aside two novels before beginning the Harry Potter series. The Philosopher’s Stone itself took years to write and was rejected numerous times before publication. These are just a few examples, and I will provide some more, later. There are many successful authors, past and present, who have had frequent experience of rejection. The keyword is ‘perseverance’: if you are good enough and want it enough, you may succeed, but it is not easy. Or, hard as it may be to accept, you may not have what it takes and must face that reality. But if you are good enough and want it enough and persevere you could get there.

On Persistence: “Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded Genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone can assure success. Press on!”

(Anonymous)

Publishers and authors’ agents receive hundreds of typescripts or manuscripts each week and are inundated with work from unknown writers as well as work from established authors or writing that has been specially commissioned. The competition is very fierce, and even established authors can be rejected. An editorial assistant or professional ‘reader’ may determine how far your work gets, and it may depend on personal preference or simply a whim. Even if your work reaches the desk of an editor who thinks you have potential, it may not be his decision to accept or reject your work. You may have produced writing of merit, brilliance, even, but that does not guarantee publication. In days gone by, publishing houses might well accept work of merit and publish it for little or no profit, in the knowledge that the work was good and may possibly lead to bigger things. However, the days of ‘gentleman publishing’ are gone, and accountants now rule the roost. Many of the old publishing houses have disappeared, replaced by conglomerates and multinationals whose sole motivation is profit. These big organisations have many established writers on their books and do not need to rely on fresh talent or first-time authors. The criteria for publication are ‘will it sell and to whom and how many copies’. It does not matter if you have talent or potential worth nurturing. If you can not turn an immediate profit you will probably face rejection, unless you are lucky, for luck as well as talent and perseverance play a big part in becoming published unless, of course, you ‘know’ someone, and even then there are no guarantees. It is, in a way, comparable to The X-Factor, on TV. There are thousands of applicants, a great deal of talent on display, more than a few sad people with little self-knowledge or ability, many broken hearts and only a small number who actually make it. Such is life, but remember that every winner of the Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize or even Nobel Prize was once an unpublished writer. Writers write and keep on going. So, do you still want to be a writer?

Dealing with rejection: remember that both past and currently successful authors, many of them now household names, once faced rejection. John Braine, one of the literary ‘names’ of the last century, had Room at the Top rejected thirty-eight times. It is now regarded as a classic of that genre. Jack Higgins, who wrote The Eagle Has Landed and a stream of best sellers, struggled for years to become published. Wilbur Smith, Stephen King, even Charles Dickens: the list is endless, and rejection is the norm, not the exception. A rather scary piece of information is that there are probably more writers than readers out there.

However, although a rejection letter or slip will hurt you, it is not the end unless you allow it to be. Think back to the earlier examples of rejected writers who achieved success and fame. Here are some more: “You’re welcome to Le Carre. He hasn’t got any future.” This was said about John Le Carre’s book The Spy Who Came In From the Cold. I wonder how many million books John Le Carre has now sold. “A long, dull novel about an artist.” This was a comment on Irving Stone’s biographical novel of the life of Van Gogh, which sold a million and was made into a film. So, it’s not all gloom and doom, but keep that word ‘perseverance’ firmly in your head and accept that you are most probably in for a long haul if you really want to be a successful and paid writer. No one ever achieved writing success by throwing away a typescript when rejected and angry and bitter and hurt by a publisher’s adverse reaction. Keep your typescript, shoot a cat then start again. Mao Tse Tung, the father of modern China, said: “A thousand-mile journey begins with the first step…” And most aspiring writers face that metaphorical ‘thousand-mile’ journey. You have to start somewhere, but it will probably be a long walk, so be prepared or pack it in, now.

Publishers and agents will, for the most part, if rejecting you, provide a polite letter in a standardised format. They do not exist to edit or criticise your work and will refuse to do so. They are very busy with those whose work has been accepted. However, if you are lucky enough to receive a reply with more than a brief, perfunctory comment you are honoured, as publishers do not waste time with those whose work shows no merit at all. If this happens to you, despite the rejection, be encouraged, but if you receive a stream of offhand rejections you might consider whether your work is worth the effort or that writing is not for you at all. So, do you still want to be a writer?

The rewards of writing: I’m sure there are many people who would and will continue to write for no material reward, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to get paid huge amounts for a labour of love? But, I’m afraid there is more bad news for you. For most, the financial rewards are few. I’ll bet you’re glad you’re reading this, aren’t you? We sometimes read of astronomic sums paid to novelists, the sale of film rights and writers who become tax exiles. It is no wonder some people think writing is an easy way to become rich. In reality, the average author’s earnings are very small. Few can afford to make it a full time career unless they have other means of financial support. Even one successful book does not guarantee a second, and earnings may vary from year to year. You would probably need a string of best sellers to guarantee automatic acceptance of your next book or a large and steady income from writing novels. Or, you could become a glamour model, with an expensive boob job, display your goods to all and sundry in the tabloids and, after a short career of boob displays, write an utterly fascinating biography of life as a ‘celebrity’.

So, you write your novel and are fortunate enough to find a publisher. What can you expect to earn? Well, there is no hard and fast answer. Perhaps you might make that fortune or maybe you will hardly cover your expenses. You may receive an advance from your publisher, but the amount will depend on the number of future sales your publisher envisages. The greater the sales potential of your book, the larger the advance you will be paid. If sales of your book produce an amount exceeding the advance, you will then receive royalties as well, according to the contract previously negotiated. For example, if your book costs £15.00, you will have to sell one thousand copies at a royalty of 10% to earn £1,500.00, and there is no guarantee you will sell that many. Perhaps you might then receive upwards of £1000.00 for the paperback rights. This will be shared with your hardback publisher, in keeping with your contract. Foreign translation rights and public lending rights (libraries, etc) could increase the amount your book earns, as could the foreign rights, if sold. Multiply this by ten and you might have made £30,000.00 but may take several years to achieve this. And you must balance this against all the time and sweat and hopes ploughed into your book.

My own view is that it’s not about money (I won’t refuse any donations, however): it’s about the love of words and language; it’s about the excitement of creating; it’s about the freedom and fun of being able to do what the hell you want to, with characters and situations, people and places – it’s about writing.

Do you still want to be a writer? I do.

Ian Roberts loves rugby, reading and writing, as well as wine, music and film. He’s a smallholder who lives in North Wales and the author of ‘Catch the Sun‘ on Slush Pile Reader.

If you too want to be a guest blogger – send us a message: johanna@slushpilereader.com

Slush Pile Reader, the blog, is open for contributions

Johanna — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:24:00 +0000

It just dawned on us here at Slush Pile Reader HQ that we have a site comprised of amazing writers from all walks of live and from all over the world. Basically we are sitting on a goldmine of talent. We have a teacher from Virginia, a journalist from India, homemaker from England and a college student from Alabama. We have doctors, a policeman, full time writers ad even a massage therapist, all of whom, regardless of background, share one thing – their love of reading and writing.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am curious about the Slush Pile Reader members. What brought you to our community, what got you started writing, what are your dreams and ambitions. Who are you?

I know many of our members have specific knowledge Some are particularly experienced and talented at editing and have an abundance of information on the subject. Others are great at developing plots, whereas some excel at typecasting or scenery. Others are English teachers with an astounding knowledge of literature. Some are experts at crime writing others at Sci Fi. All of you have some particular talent.

So here’s my thought – wouldn’t it be great to know more about your fellow Slushers? Wouldn’t you love to share their knowledge and benefit from their experience? I know I would.

This is an invitation to all Slush Pile Reader members to share your story and your expertise with the Slush Pile Reader community. The Slush Pile Reader blog is open for contributions. The subject matter is free – write what you know, what you are passionate about and want to share.

Do you want to tell us about yourself, and why you write? Do you have the chops to write a tutorial on editing, we would love to read it. Do you want to talk about the development of crime plots in the Internet era, or the Elizabethan novel, or the future of Manga, or whatever it is you love, please do! If you have a blog entry in you, write it down and email it to me. I will post them in the order they arrive. I can’t wait to see what you got.

A few weeks back Karen Bessey Peace, one of the most prolific members of the site and longtime contributor to the Writers’ Tag wrote an excellent and much appreciated piece. When the official Writers’ Tag was launched, Eugene Saint, Writers’ Tag instigator and pro extra ordinaire, contributed with a detailed background and explanation of the Tag. So following in their footsteps, who wants to have a first go as Slush Pile Reader guest blogger?