I guess one way is to be brass-necked about this and, if you know any authors in your genre published with the biggies, you ask for their editor's email address.

I have several online friends in my genre, published by big publishers, but i would never ask them myself! It feels a step to far. But maybe they wouldn't be bothered, dunno...

I can't think of any other way. Networking a lot at publishing events i guess - but i don't live in London and weekends away are out due to domestic responsibilities.

Any ideas, Terry?

My diffiuclty is that I have written a novel that I can't seem to fit into any genre! What a fool!

Stu
http://tollesburytimeforever.blogspot.com/

What's it about, Stu?

I queried agents (in London, mostly) with my main book, The Black Orchestra, taking them in alphabetical order. I sent out 2-3 per week, and got as far as "H" before an agent responded requesting the whole typescript.

I sent it to him, and he wrote back asking me to rewrite it. Make it faster, more exciting, he said.

To make a long story short, 9 months later, after 2 major rewrites, he passed on it.

I'm too old to waste any more time with agents and traditional publishers, so I've started publishing my stuff as eBooks.

The Black Orchestra is with my editor. Hopefully I will publish it next year.

IMO self-publishing is the way of the future; all those gatekeepers are swept aside, the timeframes are so much shorter, and the royalties are much, much higher.

Yes, i rewrote for an agent once, JJ, and they passed on it - it was a painful lesson.

Have you hired a freelance editor then, before self-publishing?

Well, Petal, it's called Tollesbury Time Forever and in short, the general pitch is:

"Beatles fan, schizophrenia sufferer, cricket lover and alcoholic, Simon Gregory battles his illness and society to find the son he abandoned twenty-four years ago."

The first half of the novel details Simon's psychotic experiences and the second relates his recovery and eventual reunification with his wife and son.

The Blog I have started has a few excerpts from it - would be grateful if you could take a look as I'm not sure whether it's the subject matter or my style of writing which is making the book difficulty to classify!!

Cheers!!

http://tollesburytimeforever.blogspot.com/

Yes, I have a wonderful editor called Lucille Redmond and a fantastic cover designer called Anya Kelleye. I blogged about them (complete with links) at http://euclid-thoughts.blogspot.com

Stu: I read an extract in your blog that suggests your book is set in 1836. Is this correct? If so, then its genre is obvious. It must be historical fiction.

Thank you for checking it out! The main character has schizophrenia and following a suicide attempt suffers a psychotic episode, part of which is his belief that the year is 1836. So I think I would struggle fitting it into historical fiction - histerical fiction perhaps???

This is a very interesting area. I suspect that what's being circled around here is the question: What do I want? Why do I write in the first place? Because once I'm clearer about that, I'll know what specific questions I need to ask and who to.

In terms of giving good, up-to-date, accurate and effective advice about publishing, I've always found the more commercially-geared writers to be the most reliable and generous. Possibly, this is because they're usually clearer about what they want, i.e. to make money/a living from writing. A lot of other writers tend to have a mixed bag of motives which they're not always particularly conscious of. They want their writing to be admired, to win awards; they want peer respect and the admiration of family and friends. Oh, yes, and to sell a few books would be good, too. Hence, their submissions can be less than to the point.

As I said earlier, another factor where information is concerned is governed by timing. When you're ready for the next step, you'll find the appropriate sources of information. In my case, that's meant developing the knack of second-guessing myself. Which essentially has meant making myself more pro-active. And in essence, that's meant doing a whole load of stuff that I might not normally always want to do: attend conventions, do/take workshops - and put myself out to talk to people while there; do whatever it takes, in other words - which is why I've been to the US three times; because the kinds of workshop I knew I needed aren't available here.

And back to timing again: a huge benefit to doing lots of stuff which your reasonable, comfortable mind would think is not worth the investment, is that it brings unexpected ancilliary benefits, which in time accumulate and give you useful insights you wouldn't otherwise have got.

Where approaching editors direct is concerned, I'd say you need two things: nerve and an honest assessment of where you're at as a writer. If you know your work is of publishable quality and you know what a publisher will need from you in respect of that, now and in the future, then get their email address and send them a professional query.

Terry

Right, Stu, sorry, all I had to go on was a couple of short excepts. Back to the genre drawing board, so!

Terry, How does a professional query differ from an agent's query letter? This is where practical advice really helps.

Thanks,
Lorraine

I've had a look, Stu - difficult one. Why don't you run a thread in the private loungs (someone has recently, as they weren't sure which was their genre). You might get some good ideas.

One place to start is by thinking of any other authors you would compare yourself to, in style. Can you think of any?

Thanks for taking a look. I guess it has some kind of similarity in weirdness to Life of Pi. Has a bit of Jack Kerouac about it too which obviously is not too helpful!

Well, that depends!

The first main difference, however, between querying an agent and querying a publisher is that in the case of the former, you're looking to employ someone, whereas in the latter you're asking them to pay you for your work. If I wanted to go to an agent first, I would do two things: include the submission package for my novel as it should be sent to a publisher and a separate cover letter setting out what I am looking for in the agent. I wouldn't expect or want the agent to prepare my submission package for me. This establishes clearly from the start that you are looking for an agent to help you with your career, not hoping they will take you on and look after you. This is a crucial difference. If you start out with an agent in a submissive role, then you are not going to be in much control of your career.

As for publishers, find out who the individual editors are, meet them if you can, get their email addresses, then query them. Make the query professional, e.g. do it in the form of an Advance Information sheet. This is what the editor will have to prepare for her acquisitions committee. She will love you if you do it for her. Basically this means: 12-14 word sentence that describes your book; two or three para summary (like a blurb); one/two page synopsis; marketing points, e.g. how your book will appeal to readers who love writer X, Y etc. Throw in a tag-line too, if you can. Write the synopsis in the voice/tone of the book - make it entertaining for the editor. If you have relevant credits, add those. And - something that has become paramount for many publishers - show you have a web presence. If you do all this, you will already be ahead of the vast majority of submitting writers.

On a panel at a conference last year, the editor of Angry Robot books mentioned that he'd recently been given an elevator pitch, literally, by a writer; and it was so good, he took the book on. A couple of hours later, the same editor was sitting in the bar, with several writers scattered around, but not one of them approached him. Including me!

Terry