First-timer sales

[JennaGlatzer]

Just found this one:
http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/book_writin/three_the_easy_way_or_the_path_to_the_publication_ of_my_first_novel_how_i_made_it_work_26899.asp

A not-yet novelist actually had agents contact her after reading her work in a literary journal.

If you find interesting tales of debut authors, think about posting them here. I'd love to have a specific thread to point people to when they complain that commercial publishers aren't looking for new writers.

[My-Immortal]

Thank you so much for the info. I have a couple of friends that will be getting their books published in the upcoming year or so - I'll have to let them know about AW and see if they wish to join and share their news.

[Daughter of Faulkner]

Jenna,
Many thanks!
This is good to know. And as always, you are so helpful!

[JoeEkaitis]

Your humble author's own story, originally posted at RejectionCollection.com, revised and updated.


Then One Day, Everything Changes

by Joe Ekaitis, children’s author who’s finally goin’ to the show


There isn’t an unpublished author with submissions in circulation who doesn’t ask a thousand times a day, “Where will I be and what will it feel like when the good news finally comes?”

For me, the answer came on January 7, 2004. I had to renew my driver’s license so I took the day off. My wife Cathy’s ukulele-playing friends were coming over and I was making another pot of coffee. The phone near the kitchen sink rang.

When the caller asked for me by name, I presumed he was a telemarketer, and I was about to inform him that our phone number was registered with the FCC’s National Do Not Call List. The caller was a publisher who had previously rejected my manuscript for a middle-reader novel with some recommendations for a rewrite. I had made the requested changes but expected the same reply as from the other publishers in my inch thick stack of rejections who had also made editorial recommendations.

Based on the changes I had already made, the publisher said he was sending a contract with a clause requiring a few more changes, but overall, he felt we had a print-worthy manuscript on our hands.

It was as if a billion-watt light bulb had switched on over the kitchen sink. That night, Cathy and I celebrated at our favorite little Italian restaurant.

Probably the most important factor in finally achieving publication is a belief that the story really is good enough to be a book. It’s a fantasy novel, no more or less outlandish than any in print but with a twist in that two myth and legend staples live productive lives as members of 21st Century society. It was a surefire formula for failure at any of the cookie-cutter houses on Publishers’ Row (unless, of course, I was a celebrity who squeezed out a manuscript with all the effort of a morning trip to the bathroom), but it’s just what an adventurous small publisher in Utah was looking for. The publisher has since relocated to Idaho.

Collinsfort Village hits the streets on February 15, 2006.

[jen.nifer]

Jenna - just wanted to say that reading that article made my morning :)

[Vanessa]

Just found this one:
http://www.mediabistro.com/mbtoolbox/book_writin/three_the_easy_way_or_the_path_to_the_publication_ of_my_first_novel_how_i_made_it_work_26899.asp

A not-yet novelist actually had agents contact her after reading her work in a literary journal.

If you find interesting tales of debut authors, think about posting them here. I'd love to have a specific thread to point people to when they complain that commercial publishers aren't looking for new writers.

This is a very motivating story. Thanks Jenna for sharing.
Great entrance for you too Joe. I'm sure that phone call will always be remembered.

[blacbird]

It is a nice story, but it's worth noting also that this avenue means you have to achieve acceptance by some decent literary magazine(s), which I assure you can be fully as difficult as getting a novel accepted by a publisher, or securing an agreement with an agent.

bird

[Jamesaritchie]

It is a nice story, but it's worth noting also that this avenue means you have to achieve acceptance by some decent literary magazine(s), which I assure you can be fully as difficult as getting a novel accepted by a publisher, or securing an agreement with an agent.

bird

Or even more difficult. One of the main reason agents cntact you if your work appears in a good magazine is because selling to a good magazine is extremely difficult.

And even if you can manage it, nothing about selling a short story means you can write a good novel.

But if you can pull it off, then, yes, it can attract attention.

[Unimportant]

My partner just sold a novel to a small press, through the slush pile, without having had any previous publications at all.

It happens.

Yay!

[Jamesaritchie]

My partner just sold a novel to a small press, through the slush pile, without having had any previous publications at all.

It happens.

Yay!

Yes, it happens. If it didn't, there wouldn't be a bunch of published novelists out there. All previous publications can do is get you noticed, which can be important, can cut a good deal of time off the process, but a novel still must stand on it's own merit.

[blacbird]

All previous publications can do is get you noticed, which can be important, can cut a good deal of time off the process, but a novel still must stand on it's own merit.

Yup. But for it to have its merit noticed, it has to get read. There are a lot of places where the absence of a previous publication record will be the first thing noticed, and that alone can get your manuscript unnoticed long before getting it read has a chance to happen.

bird

[JennaGlatzer]

More first-timer sales.

Here's one who was a columnist for Absolute Write-- he's now on book four. Scott Nicholson: http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/virgin_in_the_church.htm (sold through the slush pile).

Here's Holly Lisle saying that she sold her first novel on her own (no agent) to the first publisher she sent it to: http://www.hollylisle.com/fm/Articles/agent2.html

Linda Style sold to Harlequin Superromance as a result of a contest placement that led her to pitch an editor at the RWA national conference: http://www.lindastyle.com/files_market2.html

Karyn Langhorne got the agent first, then sold a two-book deal to HarperCollins: http://www.absolutewrite.com/world_changed.htm

John E. Stith also got an agent first-- by sending a query letter. Then he sold his first book to Ace: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/OP71.htm

Debbie Macomber says she sold her first novel (the fifth novel she wrote) because "I refused to let New York ignore me! I wrote year after year, beginning a new book after I sent off each one. Eventually, I found that (brilliant) editor who loved my stories": http://www.debbiemacomber.com/debbiefaqs.htm

Jill Morgan got an introduction to an agent by a woman who ran a writing workshop Jill attended: http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/litmap/morgan_jill_ca.htm

Jay Neugeboren says, "Before my first acceptance ever (a short story, in 1962) I had accumulated, by count, 576 rejections; before I sold my first novel (and ninth book) in 1965, at the age of twenty-seven, I had accumulated more than 2,000 rejections": http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleid=7229

I'll go on tomorrow... :)

[blacbird]

Specifically, here's what Holly Lisle says about selling her first book and securing the services of an agent (I almost said securing an agent, but that sounds too much like S&M bondage -- although that might be a good idea, too).

"About persistence --- when I finished Fire in the Mist, I queried Russ. He turned me down by form letter, but I was determined that he was going to be my agent (he's one of the best in the field). I didn't bother querying anyone else, because I didn't want anyone else. So I sold my first novel on my own, and when I did, wrote him a note that said, basically, "You suggested that I query you again once I sold something. I sold my first book the first time out to the first place I sent it, within a month of sending it out. Would you be interested in representing me now?"

He contacted me by phone the day he got the letter."

That's the hard way to get an agent, kind of like drawing a spades royal flush in a game of five card draw with nothing wild."

Note the final sentence. I once had something like that happen: won a free cup of hot chocolate in a drawing.

bird

[maestrowork]

My very first novel got sold to a small press in November 2004. It will come out in Feb, 2006 (see my sig for info). After about 40 or so rejections from agents, I decided to submit to independent publishers simulataneously. 25 more rejections from agents later, two small publishers accepted my ms. and I made a choice. It's been a fun ride, and now I am getting ready for my book launch. It's not Random House; it's a small triumph, but a triumph nonetheless.

[Jamesaritchie]

Yup. But for it to have its merit noticed, it has to get read. There are a lot of places where the absence of a previous publication record will be the first thing noticed, and that alone can get your manuscript unnoticed long before getting it read has a chance to happen.

bird


Not really. A lack of credits can mean a slower read by someone a bit lower on the totem pole, but it won't usually cause something to go unread. New writers without any publishing credits land very good agents, and sell to very good publishers, each and every year.

I'd never lesson the value of previous credits. . .I sold my first novel largely because of previous credits, and I recently made a new book deal because of previous credits, but they certainly aren't necessary, and can be harder to get than a novel credit.

Trying to write short stories because you want the credits can waste years. Selling to credit worthy magazines is not something that's likely to happen if the writer is simply after credits. Short stories sell to good magazines because the writer loves writing them, and because the writer has an abundance of talent for writing short stories.

It can take years and years and years to sell a short story to a good magazine. Even some very good novelists never manage to write a short story that a good magazine will accept. The competition at most credit worthy magazines is far tougher than the competition in the novel markets. There are far more writers trying for far fewer slots, and at any good magazine the best writers in the world are your direct competition. This isn't the case in the novel market.

The novel market has much more room for new writers, and much more room for writing that isn't polish and perfected.

In the time it takes many writers to sell a short story to a good magazine, they could have written four or five or ten novels, and there are good agents and good editors who will read those novels. And the writer would have learned much more about writing novels in the process. Writing short stories is simply not very good practice for writing a novel, and can even be counterproductive.

If you really want to be a novelist, the best use of your time is writing novels, not short stories.

[blacbird]

I was speaking mainly of how queries are perceived and responded to. I agree that once you get your manuscript in a place where a set of eyes can look at it, it probably will get read, at least the first page or two. But it's a dead-solid lock that some queries get form-rejected by some agents owing purely to a lack of prior credits. In much the same way that many get rejected because the agent is too busy, doesn't like the expressed genre, had a bad breakfast, or any number of other non-literary reasons.

bird

[Jamesaritchie]

I was speaking mainly of how queries are perceived and responded to. I agree that once you get your manuscript in a place where a set of eyes can look at it, it probably will get read, at least the first page or two. But it's a dead-solid lock that some queries get form-rejected by some agents owing purely to a lack of prior credits. In much the same way that many get rejected because the agent is too busy, doesn't like the expressed genre, had a bad breakfast, or any number of other non-literary reasons.

bird



There I'll agree. The best first line any query letter can have is "My short stories have appeared in (Fill in name of two or three top magazines in the genre your novel is in.) This will almost certainly make and agent or editor ask to see the complete manuscript.

But there are ways around this, and the right kind of query letter will still make an agent or editor ask to see the complete manuscript. But it is much easier to write a successful query letter if you have some very good credits.

The trouble lies in getting those credits. The only reason they attract so much attention is because they're incredibly difficult to get, and not many writers manage it.

[blacbird]

The trouble lies in getting those credits. The only reason they attract so much attention is because they're incredibly difficult to get, and not many writers manage it.

Yeah. Exactly the point I originally made.

bird

[Holmes Adie]

I'd like to step out of the shadows, brush the cobwebs off my best internet jacket, let my eyes adjust to the light, and offer my first post to the board.

I'm recommending Gideon Defoe's story as told in The Guardian (http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,,1503261,00.html), for this quote alone:


He found the motivation to finish the rest after telling a girl he liked that he was a novelist. This did not have the desired effect. "Of course it didn't impress her. It's a book about pirates. Now she's moved to a town that doesn't even have a bookshop."

[emeraldcite]

This site has writers recalling their first sales...

http://success.crimefictionblog.com/

It's nice to see that it could happen to you...

[Susan Gable]

I have a thread running the romance section that chronicles new sales to romance publishers.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21655

Susan G.

[Liam Jackson]

It happens. :)

[Irishbard]

HI Jenna

My story is still evolving and Fun!

(Originally...it grew out of frustration.) I am a Gay Female...and will admit at the age of 40+...to being a hopeless Xena fan. HOWEVER...the portrayals of Amazons in that show (and others like Wonder Woman) bounced between one extreme to another.

I visualized the Amazons as a society. How they would live day to day - issues they would face...and one morning I woke up with a story. A young woman is rescued from Slave Traders and joins the Tribe. This Novella grew into 4 ..a serial story novel over 90,000 words.

After forcing friends to read it, I decided I needed feedback from those who didn't love me. I found academyofbards.org and posted all four Novellas for review and held my breath. Emails arrived. FAN MAIL. They loved it. I received invitations to post at additional free sites...one that showed amount of views, and allowed readers to rate the stories. Once again...very solid supportive feedback.

At the same time I was sending out Queries and getting rejection letters or no response at all. So depressing. Then I saw an advertisement at Writing.com...Thereadersretreat.com was seeking Authors. (An Ebook site)

So I sent an email with a link that showed my stories, the ratings, and number of views. ***And they sent back a CONTRACT!***

Starting this Month, Dec 1st, I became an Ebook (see at link)

http://www.thereadersretreat.com/html/ebookromance_3.html

What I've learned.....post your work for feedback, and don't give up. I am still hoping I find a Agent or traditional Publisher, but just getting this far has been an incredible experience.

Thanks for this BLOG...I hope others are encouraged by it! Take care.