Now that I have a Kindle I use it to read all of my partials and full manuscripts. This has completely changed my life because I can read for work anywhere without carrying around manuscript pages. I just e-mail the manuscripts to my dedicated Kindle e-mail address, they download wirelessly whenever I flip the switch on the Kindle, and voila, I can work anytime, anywhere!
But here’s the thing: I like to have a brief introduction to the manuscript before I start reading to refresh my memory, so I don’t, you know, mistake a YA comedy for a paranormal thriller for the first 10 pages because I misremembered the titles. (“Um… are these kids going to get eaten by a zombie any time soon??”).
So I came up with a solution: I ask everyone who sends me a partial to paste their query in the first page of their manuscript. Ah ha! That way I can refresh my memory by reading the query and then move on to the manuscript.
Here’s the standard e-mail I send:
“Thank you for your recent note. Would you mind sending me the first 30 pages in a Word attachment? Please paste your below e-mail in the first page of the Word document. I look forward to getting to know your work.”
Problem:
This only works about 75% of the time. The other 25% of the time people either send their query as a separate document or just re-paste it in the body of the e-mail instead of the manuscript or just don’t include the query entirely. This takes time, and it bothers my efficiency-obsessed self to take up extra time.
First off, I suppose I should ask: is a 25% error rate to be expected? Or is there a problem with my partial request e-mail?
I think it might be a combo, but I’m at a loss at how to rephrase it to make it clearer. So. Do you have any suggestions on the e-mail? Any technical writers who want to take a stab at it? Is it possible to reach a consensus on what this e-mail should be?
Thank you for your help!
Ruth says
People are idiots.
(Erm… this may not really help you with your question. But still. Just sayin'.)
It's clear. Although actually, maybe rather than saying "below email" you could say "query" as people who skim-read could be getting confused at that, hence pasting back into the email.
🙂
JeanAirey says
As others have said, 25% isn't bad. But as a former technical training developer I can guarantee you that some people cannot understand written directions. Doesn't mean they can't write, but I would be concerned that they might bring that into other written directions you might give them. I'd suggest:
Thank you for your query. I’m interested in seeing more of your work. Please send me the following as a single Word attachment: Your query, followed by the first 30 pages of your submission. I look forward to getting to know your work.
Anonymous says
I can´t believe people here are quibbling about having to do PR for their own books. I´ve just spent seven years on my novel and can´t WAIT to go out there and talk to lots of real people about it. It´ll be good for my head, and maybe even provide me with material for the next one. What are you folks expecting to write about if you just sit in an ivory tower. They don´t bite out there, you know. They´re all just trying to get by.
Josh Peterson says
Jen P. suggested a web form, and I think that's a good idea. Several e-zines have gone this route, and it makes the submission process more straightforward, less mistake-prone.
A web form forces the submitter to complete required items. Other approaches depend upon the recipient of your instructions understanding what you want them to do. I suspect you'll achieve a much higher rate of success with a form-based approach than with any mix of instructions, admonitions and warnings.
12stargazers says
Only 25%? You're lucky. I'm not an agent, but I do know that when it comes to job applications at my work, I usually reject 50% (at the minimum) right away for not reading and following directions.
I think your instructions are very clear, by the way.
Anonymous says
Marilyn,
If I remembered right, you have books published. It would be a wonderful blog topic if maybe you, Nathan, and a few other published authors could give us an idea what your life is like now, what kind of things you have to do to promote your book, if there is travel involved, etc.
John Darrin says
Consider the 25% error rate as the first cut in your vetting process. Cuts the work load by 25% with no effort at all. If you can't follow directions, then you shouldn't expect favorable results.
Sara Best says
Explain briefly why you want to see the query again (e.g., this will help me to remember which work is yours when I receive it). That might help people understand the purpose of your request and better follow it.
Reesha says
Many others have posted great ideas here. I don't have time to read them all, but thought I'd offer my two cents since I'm a technical writer. As far as I know, a %25er is great. But if you want to improve it at all, there's no way to do so without going into more detailed directions. Also I've found that people are more apt to follow directions if you congratulate them first. It makes them pay attention to what follows.
"Congratulations on writing an interesting manuscript. I would like to read more of it. Follow the steps below to ensure I am able to read your work in the proper context.
1. Copy and paste your query letter as the first page of your manuscript. This is just so I can refresh my memory about it before reading.
2. Send me the first 30 pages of your manuscript. (Your query letter doesn't need to count as a page but should be on page one.)
Thank you. I look forward to reading your work.
Hope that helps! Good luck with increasing the percentage of people who can correctly follow through.
Carpy says
I agree that I was thrown off by the "below e-mail." I understood it, but it just threw off the flow of the request. Maybe something like "copy and paste your original e-query…" I'm curious about the rate of other agents. Maybe they're going, "Wow, Nathan. How's he do it? 75 percent!" Have fun figuring it out.
Melanie Avila says
Now that you've explained WHY you want the query in the partial it makes complete sense. I admit I wondered about that. I figured it had something to do with the way you read partials and fulls — glad I followed the instructions!
Anonymous says
Dear God.
For all the people spazing out over what they think they are going to have to do to promote a book — step outside of your head for a moment.
You do realize you'll have to do the nearly impossible thing first? That is write a book that will sell?
It's a very large leap from dicking around on half of a first draft to getting an agent, and book deal. Forget bout the tour for now.
Debut authors usually get, what, a 7-10k advance? No tours. No reviews in the NYT. No Pulitzer Prizes.
Most writers reach out to their local newspaper, maybe do a few local signings. Sign stock in bookstores in their town. Give ARCs to book bloggers. Of course you can have a website, maybe have a blog (which I think are WAY overrated — I've stopped reading Barry Eisler's books completely because of his political rants. Yes, we get it, you hate Bush, so do I. Can we move on now?)
Writing a sellable book — therein is where the struggle lies.
Joann says
I design online courses for a living and getting people to follow instructions is always a challenge. You may want to try bullets or numbers:
1. Do this
2. And do this
3. And do this or you're on my list
You could even present it as a checklist complete with boxes next to each item.
Good luck!
Anonymous says
"Most writers reach out to their local newspaper, maybe do a few local signings. Sign stock in bookstores in their town. Give ARCs to book bloggers."
Cool Anon 7:29, that's a long way "from publicizing their work"
Jabez says
Anon 7:29–
That's interesting. I started reading Barry Eisler's books for the same reason.
Jabez says
I should clarify. I didn't start reading Eisler's books because he "hates Bush," but because of his political writings on his blog. I don't agree with him all the time, but I was impressed by his passion, the clarity of thought and expression, and his voice/attitude. Also, I thought that since I was enjoying reading his blog, it would be good to "give back" by buying one or two of his books.
All in all, for me his blog did its marketing/promotion job well. Whether it was a net gain for him overall, I don't know. It's certainly more risky to blog on politics and the like other than something less controversial.
Anonymous says
Jabez,
I wasn't suggesting you should try to be someone other than you are on a blog. I think Barry Eisler is a good writer. I read his books before I discovered his blog. But after reading lots of blog posts I was less enthused to read more of his books.
I don't know if this makes sense, but sometimes I just want a book to be a book and not feel there is an agenda attached to it. I don't want the baggage. I'm sure Mr. Eisler is doing just fine without my 25 dollars. But I have to tell you, after that experience (and, not to shoulder him with this burden, OTHER author blogs, as well) I made a conscioius effort NOT to read author blogs anymore. To me, they take away from my reading experience, takes me out of the book. Without wanting to, I find myself relating an author's MC/character traits to his real-life opinions, instead of losing myself in the book. To each his own.
Jenna says
To Anon, Mira et al: why do you believe the publishing industry should "value your talent" by protecting you from the process of selling your product?
That's a sweet dream, but it has never been that way. Not for the (successful) lawyers and doctors, or even for the authors. Publishing is a business, and since William Caxton started printing English books in 1476, books are published to sell and make money for the publishers. (He didn't print the Bible, he printed Canterbury Tales, because his wealthy patrons would buy it.)
Publishing is an industry in turmoil, with a decreasing market and technological change forcing innovations, both in delivery mechanisms, and in the roles of the producers. It is not a refuge for the reality-averse seeking to get paid to scribble away in ivory towers.
Look, lots and lots of people can write. Writing talent is not that rare. What is rare is the person who can use that talent to articulate something interesting and compelling to others, and then follow through to make sure that communication occurs. That means the nasty selling part.
Perhaps that is a bit cold for you, I've met a lot of writers who have nursed the fantasy of writing as an escape from the ugly demands of the daily world. We've all know the stories of the recluse bestselling writer, but your chances of being that person are about the same as your chances of being an A-list movie star.
The only career I've seen that approaches that lucrative safe haven for the smart, gifted, but not genius-level introvert is computer programming. You might want to think about what your actual goal is.
Because if you want to support yourself with your writing, you're going to need to learn the process of selling your work: first to agents, then to editors, then to the public.
There are approx. 200,000 books published every year in the US. Most journey unnoticed into the recycling bins, few make money for their publishers, even fewer for their authors. What's the point of birthing a book if you're just going to let it die in the remainder bins? That's an ego-trip, not a work of art.
Apologies if this seems harsh, your stubborness in repeatedly insisting that it is the industry that should change to fit your dream provoked me.
Nathan Bransford says
I think what mira is saying, though, is that selling isn't really an author's area of expertise and that in an ideal world they'd be able to focus on the writing part. I'm somewhat sympathetic to this because I don't know how effective the means at even a savvy author's disposal really are relative to the time they take. No one is really able to quantify how much effect, say, having a blog, or participating in social networking really has on sales.
At the same time, I agree with you that this is your book, it's a business, and you should do whatever it takes (within reason) to try and help sell it. It's not enough anymore to be just an author, and when I post on this more fully I'll include links to articles about Nora Roberts and Harlan Coben, who have been relentless over the years at reaching out to audiences and doing everything they could to increase their sales. The fact that they are some of the most successful authors in the business isn't a coincidence.
Gail Goetz says
I'm always afraid to send attachments because I don't know how they'll come through on the other end. Now that you have posted this, I will school myself on word documents. You never know. I might be requested to paste my query letter into a word document attachment when I send you my thirty pages. You never know. It could happen.
Mira says
Thanks Nathan, for clarifying what I was saying in terms of marketing.
It's nice to be in agreement, even in a piece of it. 🙂
Jenna, I can see that you felt provoked, so I appreciate that you spoke about it. And I didn't find what you said harsh.
I do think you're misunderstanding some of what I said.
I don't want the industry to change to fit my dreams. I want the industry to change in ways that are more fair to the writer and more effective for the industry.
I also should say that, although I do want to be published, my motivation is not about finding a source of income, so my perspective may be different from those who write for a livelihood.
Here are my points:
a. We disagree about talent. Lots of people can write. Not everyone can write a book that will sell. If you look at query statistics, the publishable ones are rare gems. Another example, I can draw a picture. But I have not yet found anyone interested in buying a stick figure with a little round head on top.
b. Publishers are becoming aware that marketing books is a good thing.
c. What Nathan said I said – the author is not an expert in marketing, and may, in fact, be very bad at it. Let them write; when they write they strengthen the industry. Asking them to market – for free – devalues their contribution as well. Utilize them for tours, signings, etc., but for the rest, put out some money and hire an expert to market.
Marilyn Peake says
Anon @ 6:27 A.M. said:
"Marilyn,
If I remembered right, you have books published. It would be a wonderful blog topic if maybe you, Nathan, and a few other published authors could give us an idea what your life is like now, what kind of things you have to do to promote your book, if there is travel involved, etc."
If Nathan's interested in doing that, I would love to participate. I've done a lot of book promotion. One of my more unusual book promotions: I had an ad designed by a company that does the slide-show type ads played before movies, arranged to have the ad run before every movie in the theater for a week, and held a book signing in one of the theater's party rooms. It was a lot of fun!
Donna says
While it's true that there are always some people who will flub directions (who hasn't, at some time?), you can probably increase the 75% compliance rate.
I did find the sentence "Please paste your below e-mail…" a bit confusing for a moment; I was thinking something was garbled or there was a missing word before "below" — which is an adverb, not an adjective, and so should not be modifying 'e-mail'.
I like a couple of the suggested revisions that others sent. Jan's is good. Giving your reason for asking for the letter to be pasted in the file is also a good idea, I think.
Jenna says
Mira, I'm so glad you didn't take my post personally. I've enjoyed your posts for a while and contrasted your process of learning about the industry with mine. (I only started writing seriously two months ago. But I'm an MBA and that shapes my perceptions of businesses and how to succeed in them.)
I was incensed by Anon (what's up with that? hard to respect the words of someone who won't even sign their name). Nathan has set an almost shocking level of helpfulness and civility for this blog and I think I got protective/defensive.
I am fascinated by the evolution occuring in the publishing industry, but like most big changes, it has sometimes terrible costs.
What is effective for the industry is to push as many of the costs of production and distribution onto others as possible. No more extensive in-house developmental editing, soon no more in-house marketing, there is relentless pressure to reduce costs while attempting to sustain as much margin/profit as possible.
You may look long term and say this will devalue the product, but the owners of large publishers are driven by quarterly earnings and daily stock averages. Like it or not, that's our system, and there are painful stock corrections for those who ignore the rules.
The idea that writers should stick to (only) writing and require a staff of subject experts to get the words into people's hands is nice, but not sustainable in today's business market.
That kind of coddling is only possible in extremely high profit margin businesses, and with Amazon selling first-run Kindle titles at $9.99, get used to working harder at tasks you may suck at, and receiving less money for your trouble. The mid-list will not provide a life-supporting level of income, for publisher, author or agent.
For you, Mira, this is not a problem since you say that while you want to be published (why?), you're not looking for income. So, self-publish, and if your voice is compelling, it will find its market. I'd buy it. 🙂
Jenna, squelching back to lurkerdom
Mira says
Jenna –
I've enjoyed your comments too – I did recognize you from other times here. Hope you don't go back to lurking! I have no idea why anyone would lurk when it's so fun to comment, and you have things to say! 🙂
Hmmm. Well, I am not an expert in business, whereas you are. So, I may be wrong on this, or even ignoring valid points you've made because I don't get them. Sorry in advance.
I know the industry is struggling. That's part of why I'm speaking up.
Boy, I'm repeating myself. I hope I'm not boring people at this point.
If I were to run a business, apart from hiring you as a consultant, I would choose the best people for the job. If I had jobs to distribute, due to workload reduction and cost-cutting, for example, I would distribute those to the people who were not the value-stream of the company.
People who write books create the product. I would want them writing book after book after book, so I could sell book after book after book.
I would then find room in my budget for effective marketing. And yes, I understand that the Publishing business is unbelievably poor and will soon be applying to the government for bail-outs, but maybe, somewhere in the deep recessess of their budgets, they can find something. A nickel or a dime to hire an expert to market their product, so they can, um, sell it.
So, you can cut costs and try all kinds of things that won't be effective, or you can utilize a business strategy that will grow the business. That includes having authors contribute to the business in the best way possible – write!
And I will self-publish, but I hope I don't have to. Writing for me is about trying to help make the world a better place. I have humble goals. 🙂
ICQB says
I haven't read through all 270-some-odd comments, so perhaps this has already been said. The problem may be with pagination.
Some people go through a lot to paginate correctly – title page no number – first page no number – numbers start on second page with #2.
If another page is pasted into the front, this screws everything up. Will you hold everyone to strict pagination (for those who are not pagination wizards)?
Patrice says
Nathan, I don't know if you will slog through all these 280 comments to get to mine, but for what it's worth I think part of the reason folks don't follow your directions is that they are confused. So if you tell them WHY, it will be obvious to them, and they will do it:
"I'd like to see the first 30 pages. But to help me identify your partial submission, please paste your original email (this query) as the first page of your submission. I read on a Kindle, and I only want to deal with downloading one document."
Spencer Ellsworth says
Nathan,
I would tend to be really obvious and overexplain, since most writers probably won't read beyond 'Please send me more' without fainting:
"Please send me the first thirty pages of your manuscript as a Word doc.
[insert paragraph break]
When you send the document, be sure to paste your query letter onto the first page before the story starts. This makes it easier for me to keep records of the query letters."
Diana says
It never ceases to amaze me the number of writers who need to take a course in remedial reading comprehension.
Some have excused the 25% as the writer being too excited to follow directions. I doubt it, that seems to be about the percentage of writers that I have noticed need to take remedial reading comprehension.
Good luck getting 100% compliance. 🙂
Jenna says
Hey Mira, down here at post 277 and 282, I suspect we are only talking to each other anyway, everybody else has happily moved on to beach books. 🙂
I wrote this ridiculously long post analyzing what I know of the publishing industry and making a plea for what I consider responsible authorship (honor your creation and be responsible for the process of getting it read), but it was so long the blog won't accept it, even in pieces …sheesh).
If you (or anyone else, for that matter) want(s) to read it, I can email it to you. Email me at jennamarshallhano@yahoo.com and I'll send it.
Now you know why I'm a lurker…smile.
Jenna
Anonymous says
Professional Pen says…
Too ambiguous; sorry Nathan, but to me the problem is obvious.
As you know, the industry standard for a full or partial submission usually consists of the manuscript, a covering letter, and a one or two page outline, while the manuscript is refered to as a "manuscript" or m/s, not a "word document", so for those writers who've been through the mill a few times, your email is ambiguous because it can be taken that you wish to be sent the manuscript and a word document which contains the other standard info, but with a copy of the "below email" as the first page of that other info (and since you don't mention what that other info is, it's likely that nothing else is provided.)
Solution: "Thank you for your recent query email. Would you mind sending me the first 30 pages of your manuscript as a Word attachment? However, for Kindle convenience at my end, could you please also paste your query e-mail (copy below) as the first page of your sample manuscript so they become the same word document? Also, can you please put "Submission as Requested" in the subject line and body of your reply to this email.(No other outline or information is neccessary at this stage.) I look forward to reading your work."
Ironic though, isn't it, that you can be so close to your own writing that you can't see the reason why other people don't "get it"? LOL.
Mira says
Jenna – good point! Lol.
Yep, I'd like to read it. Okay, I'll e-mail you. Or if you want, my e-mail is on my profile and you can send it.
🙂
Carey_Corp says
Wow Nathan! I'm amazed by how many of your reader post lengthy responses and discussion followup. Interesting, valid topics but all I can think is "when do these people write?"
*note on tone – no disrespect intended*
-C
RainSplats says
Nathan, try this –
"Thank you for your recent note. Please send me a partial. (A partial is a 31 page Word document consisting of your original query + the FIRST 30 pages of your manuscript.)
I look forward to getting to know your work."
————————-
-"partial" is a buzzword in your industry. Use it.
-Your current post on how to respond to a partial request rambles. Post a new one.
-Drop "would you mind". It's unclear and sheepish.
🙂
Elizabeth says
You need the instructions about where to put the query in the same sentence where you make the request about sending sample pages. Otherwise it's too easy to skim over that part.
"Would you mind sending me your sample pages as a Word document, with your query pasted at the beginning as the first page?" or similar should get a much higher percentage of what you're looking for, I think.
Penelope Lolohea says
Oh, my! These comments!
Although I can see you've received a lot of help from other people, I thought I would add my own version to the mix:
Thank you for your recent note. Please send me the first 30 pages of your manuscript, and be sure the email follows the guidelines below:
1. Send the pages in an attachment, using Microsoft Word.
2. Please include the original query letter as the first page of the document.
For further instruction, and an example of how to format your document, visit this link: (Link to post with more detail and an example).
I look forward to getting to know your work.
Mira says
Jenna – I just sent you an e-mail.
That was amazing. I'd encourage you to post it here. People will still read this thread.
Or post it the next time this discussion comes up. You had some really important points, I'd encourage you to say them! That was quite an analysis.
And here I thought that you hadn't responded because I bowled you over with my arguments. 🙂
Lol. Guess not. 😉
Tim O'Neill says
I suggest:
"Thank you for your recent note. Please send me a 31-page Word document with the below e-mail as page one, followed by your first 30 pages. I look forward to getting to know your work."
Nobody hears or reads anything past the good news. “I’m not going to give you a ticket this time, but blah, blah, blah.” Good luck.
Anonymous says
Forgive me if the following suggestion has already been posted –
When replying to an email, I usually hit the reply button which automatically splices in a copy of the original email with my response.
Wouldn't it save you alot of headaches to reply to their email in this fashion, then ask for the author to 'Reply directly to this email, do not create a new one'? Or is scrolling to the bottom of the email to find the original query not a good option for you?
Side note – no matter how you simplified a process or clearer the directions, there will always be someone who doesn't understand.
Patience is the best solution I can offer you.
Jenna says
Mira, thanks! Clearly I'm getting nothing done on my manuscript, but it was useful to me to organize this stuff in my head enough to write it, glad you enjoyed it.
Maybe you can convince Nathan to read it and write about it, it would be interesting to read his perspective from inside the industry, I'm sure I got a lot wrong.
Jenna
Jenna says
Part 1:
Big (as in publicly-traded) business doesn't work that way. I'm still learning about the publishing business, and I'm extrapolating here from what I've learned and my understanding of US and global business market models. (Filter accordingly.)
With that caveat, here's what I see: there are lots of smaller presses, many privately-owned which view the publishing process more similarly to how you see it. That's an honorable and valid lifestyle business, and some of these presses have a great deal of prestige. They often stick to their long term vision of distributing what they see as worthwhile literature. But that's not where the money (large scale market) is.
Example: Nathan doesn't represent poets. I doubt he hates poetry, I suspect it's because he hasn't invested his resources to develop the contacts/expertise because he doesn't love it enough to do it for free, and there's no money in it. Small presses (many non-profit), small print runs, small profits.
When I talk to my business friends about publishing, they laugh. Very few of the smart MBAs/senior executives/venture capitalists of my generation are interested in publishing because while there are always opportunities (Amazon's Kindle has some conversational traction as a marker for the evolutionary cycle), it's a painful, still somewhat backward, place to be right now.
The industry is being pushed to modernize. In the last 100 years, publishing has not traditionally attracted brilliant business people. The margins were high enough to support management strategies that were more, uh, "artistic."
With global media company ownership, aside from a small number of prestige imprints (like Nan Talese) which serve the marketing goal of lifting the brand by appealing to intellectuals, the focus of the major publisher changes to quarterly profits. From a financial perspective, compared to most other industries, publishing is inefficient and bloated.
If they can succeed in breaking up the traditional companies and pushing the high-cost departments of the process (writing, filtering, editing, marketing, distribution) onto others, they can focus on the highest-margin parts of the business (whatever that may be).
Jenna says
Part Deux:
So, look at it this way:
Writers already write mostly for free (what do you think the average non-bestselling author advance will be in 5 years? I bet $0.).
The agent is the first filter for quality, and they are also not on the pub's payroll. Since they make money by commissions on sales, they only make money when they have something they can sell. So the publisher only pays agents when the pub. buys.
Developmental editors: a vanishing breed w/in publishing companies, refugees are mostly freelance now. Most likely, a few smart editors will band together and offer these services for a fee to authors and agents. (Publisher win: this cost of producing the best possible book they no longer have to bear.)
Aquiring editors: this is where the pub. starts to incur costs. I bet that their compensation structure will move to something closer to commission-based (depending on final profit of the properties they acquire) to reduce the pub's exposure and focus the best talent on producing hits.
Marketing: outsourcing elements of the marketing plan has a long history (advertising and pr agencies, website design/mgmt/analysis, collateral design/production, etc.) and in lean industries, you get a *very* small staff of in-house people coordinating the work of the specialists, each who got the business by competitive bidding.
Printing: I don't know much about printing as a cost. Big hunks of manufacturing metal generally have high installation/maintenance costs, but low marginal cost: as in, once the printer works, each additional book costs a negligible amount to produce. Digital production (esp. for text-only books) is minimal, and so even more attractive to publishers.
Distribution: I think a lot of distribution is already pushed out to fairly efficient, large-scale consolidators like Ingram and Baker & Taylor. I don't think the pubs haven't yet forced the distributors to actually pay for most of the books (I'm not sure yet how returns work, seems rather byzantine accounting), but they will if they can. Not sure how much leverage the pubs have, and I expect they are gleeful about the prospect of cutting out the middlemen for digital distribution.
Retail: For the bookseller chains/Amazon, it looks to me like publishers are still enmeshed in paying for retail distribution thru co-op advertising, paying for premium placements, and on the back end for unsold inventory returns. Again, it's a leverage issue, and I'd expect it to change as digital distribution becomes a bigger piece of the pie.
Just as digital distribution has changed the music business model, it will (painfully) rework the publishing one. Probably not as quickly, most book buyers are over 35 and are more attached to their paper books than the avg. music buyer (13-24) who is increasingly digitized, but just as surely.
Jenna says
Part 3: (and final)
And it's not just the business side that's changing. The whole idea of what a book is and how it is read by its consumers is changing. Five years ago, did you think you'd watch TV or listen to music on your phone? Maybe you don't yet, but many, many people do. In Japan, which is the American market in 5 years, the teenagers are reading and writing novels in 140 character spurts on their phones.
Now I'm not saying that we'll all be doing that, or that the book as physical object is dead, I love my hardbacks as much as anyone. What I am saying is that business is about making money. And while some utterly inefficient aspects of publishing will remain due to historical legacies and the entrenched biases of the people who work in the industry, the companies that do well enough to survive the shakeouts will not be the patrician, author-friendly clubs we celebrate and long for with a nostalgia that belies the truth that it was never that rosy for anyone other than a select, elite few.
Why do you care? Well, it's just not very responsible to spend months/years distilling your soul into a book and then blindly turn it over to "those people" and hope for the best. Aside from missing the financial rewards (unless you are freakishly lucky), you do your book a disservice if you truly believe there is an audience for it, or if you want to "change the world."
Honor your creation and see it through. Especially if you'd ever like to see a check for your efforts, or get the opportunity to do it again. Or, self-publish. Really, it's a fabulous little market segment and given my background I may try to use it myself when I finally finish my manuscript. Speaking of which…gotta go. Good luck! Hope I haven't bored you to tears.
Nathan Bransford says
Great posts, Jenna! I think you bring up a lot of interesting points.
Mira says
Jenna – I just saw you posted these. Wow. I hope people still read this thread – but you can also bring these points up in discussion for the future.
This is too impressive for me to continue the argument.
I will say one last thing, though. If I ever had a book published, I'd work my fingers to the bone marketing it. Of course! But it's the principle of the thing.
Mira says
Oh wow. A nod from Nathan! You go, Jenna.
lev says
I've arrived late to the e-mail request post, but I'd like to offer this:
"Thank you for your recent note. Please send me the first 30 pages in a Word attachment. Please paste your e-mail (below) into the first page of the Word document. It will alter your own pagination, but don't worry. I look forward to getting to know your work."
I edited a bit and played junior psychologist. Maybe mistakes are being made because some writers hold obsessively to their pagination. (Hey, it's an idea.)
Best to you,
Zelda Levine