It’s tough out there!

Today’s publishing climate is notoriously challenging, and precarious to maintain a position within. To get an agent, your work has to stand out from thousands of submissions, and now that editorial staff has been dramatically reduced at major publishing houses, pushing more of the editorial work onto agents’ shoulders, they’re not as willing as they once were to take on a client who still has much to learn.

Your book must possess publishable quality writing skills, a great story, and an opening so compelling that jaded gatekeepers sit up and take notice. And that’s just for starters.

You only have seconds to make an impression

Once you’ve published a few novels, have an established sales record and a dedicated readership you can ease up and take risks, but unpublished writers face a very different reality—in a bid to reduce her submission pile quickly, the overworked agent is more likely to look for reasons to reject, whilst at the same time hoping to find a story that sings a song so sweet and clear and pure that a shiver runs up her spine.

And it’s not just gatekeepers

Even once you’ve sold and published your book, that’s not the end of its journey. Now it has to sell, or you won’t be writing a second book (unless you take a pseudonym and begin again).  The truth of the matter is that bookstore browsers are even more harsh than agents and editors have to be. Sometimes they don’t even pick up a book. They’ll judge it by its cover and title.

If you’re lucky, they’ll pick it up and read the blurb on the cover. If you’re really lucky, they’ll read the first page. They almost never read past the third page before deciding to either buy it or put it down in favor of its neighbor.

What makes an agent decide to represent an author? What makes an editor decide to stake their reputation on acquiring your book? What makes a reader take your book to the cash register?

How do they make their decision?

They look for signs. For signs of a story, character and writing ability worth their time. In a stagnant or shrinking market these things must be done even better, more decisively, more brilliantly—because where buyers once would have bought five books, they now only buy one. So while the five books may all possess the qualities of a breakout novel, only one gets the chance to be read. Is it the one with the most intriguing premise, the most sparkling prose, and a character that the reader can get behind by page three? Maybe. But most of all it’s the book that promises the best story, well-told.

I know you all read a ton of how-to books and can probably regurgitate the axioms and writing rules set forth therein verbatim. So why are so few manuscripts that I read actually putting accepted wisdom into action?  There seems to be a gap between comprehension and execution.

Even knowing that the first pages must be compelling, and knowing what elements need to be on the first pages in order to achieve that effect, writers still submit weak openings filled with too much exposition, backstory, weak characterization, lack-lustre dialogue and, worst of all, anaemic tension or conflict.

So tonight we’re going to talk about why that is, and what we can do to make sure your manuscript is the one that makes it to the cash register.

The easiest way to join: ScribeChat

Special guest:

@WriterLor – Lorin Oberweger, founder of Free-Expressions Seminars with NY agent Donald Maass

Supporting blog post:

Break On Through... by T.S. Tate

Recommended Reading:

• Writing the Breakout Novel – by Donald Maass
• Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook – by Donald Maass
• Break Into Fiction – by Mary Buckham
• Flogging the Quill – by Ray Rhamey
• The First Five Pages – by Noah Lukeman

Related posts:

1. TRANSCRIPT: Writing a Breakout Novel in a Challenging Publishing Climate
2. TRANSCRIPT: Identifying and Developing Dramatically Rich Story Ideas
3. TOPIC: Writing Under The Influence—Which Influences, Good and Bad, Fuel Your Writing?

Tagged as: breakout novels