The Long Road to Publication - Part 6

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By Andy Smith

Hello!

By Gum, it’s been a while since we had one of these, isn’t it? The good folks at WWJ have been running their creative writing workshops over the summer, so they asked me to hold off doing any more Long Road stuff until they’d finished. And I did. So what’s been happening since last time? Well, quite a lot actually…

Let’s rewind a bit. Back in April I was getting nowhere, with lots of letters out to agents and publishers and lots of ‘no thanks’ in reply. I was, to be honest, getting close to chucking the whole thing in. I’d also gone through the process of trying to work out if my entire submission was wrong, and had asked the WWJ Clinic to dissect my cover letter and synopsis. I got some great feedback from the Clinic (as discussed in LRTP part 5 in May.) I started looking at re-writing the cover letter and synopsis, based on this feedback. 

Then, out of the blue, I had three replies which weren’t ‘no thanks’. An agent and two independent publishers all said they’d enjoyed my submission and asked me to send the full manuscript. Next thing you know, I’m in discussions about who to sign up with. In other words: I GOT A PUBLISHING DEAL!!!!!

Congrats to Andy from the team at WWJ!

To be more precise, I signed a two-book contract with Canelo Digital Publishing (https://www.canelo.co/), for Breaking the Lore and the currently-in-progress sequel. I think the word I’m looking for (still) is “gobsmacked”. Breaking the Lore will be available in Spring 2019 and book 2 will follow in the Summer. 

 

You might remember from previous posts that I’ve talked about the need for a pseudonym, since ‘Andy Smith’ is not exactly a memorable name. Consequently, both books (and maybe more?) will come out under the name of ‘Andy Redsmith.’ (A redsmith is someone who works with copper, and I’m a Smith working with A copper – geddit?) You can find Andy Redsmith on Facebook, AndyRedsmith (no space) on Twitter and “his” website http://www.andyredsmith.com/. On all of them there’s a photo of me, but they’re not bad apart from that.

So what does all this mean in regards to what I’m writing here? Two things.

First: I’ve spoken in previous posts about how I thought my submission was OK, provided it got to people who were interested in the sort of thing I was writing, but I thought I’d missed my chance with all of them. Turns out I hadn’t. Perseverance paid off. So everyone: don’t give up. Keep going.

Second: the three replies who showed an interest all came before I’d had chance to rewrite my cover letter and synopsis, i.e. before I had chance to include the suggestions from the WWJ Clinic. The advice from the Clinic was very good and would doubtless have given me a better shot if I had to carry on submitting, but I didn’t need to use it. That, basically, is luck. BUT make sure your submission is as good as possible, so that when your lucky break comes around you are in the best possible position to make use of it.

If the WWJ folks will let me, I’ll keep posting things on here to keep you updated on release dates etc. The long road to publication has turned out to be a long and hard road, and we haven’t reached the end yet. But I’m on the way. I hope I’ll see you there!

Andy

Photo by Alasdair Elmes on Unsplash

Creative Kicks - Week 10: With a Little Help from our Friends

“My job is to make you see and that is all.” - Joseph Conrad  

For the last three summers, we at Triskele Books and Words with JAM have run a Creative Writing Course to stretch the imagination.
We asked our friends and allies to contribute, who responded magnificently. Thank you to every single kind person who donated their ideas to help other writers. And a special thank you to JD Lewis, for permission to use her beautiful images.

Here are just a few examples of the contributions which most exercised ourselves and our readers.

Rebecca Lang, Stoking the Creative Fires

Take a blank piece of paper and divide it into four quarters by drawing two intersecting lines. In the first quarter, write a location for your story and draw it (it could be a map of a place, a house, a tree, a planet – be creative!).

In the second quarter, imagine your main character and sketch something representative (it could be a person or maybe an animal).

In the third quarter, illustrate an action – it could be someone doing something (perhaps exciting) like driving a fast car or running, or an event taking place.

In the fourth quarter, think of your ending or resolution and draw it as best you can.

Remember, it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, these are just markers for your story.

Roz Morris, Character and Story Development

Describe the same scene from two characters’ viewpoints; one happy, one angry. To help you enter the two different experiences, the happy character will think in shades of blue or white – imagery, descriptions of feelings, figures of speech and objects they notice. The angry character will use phrases, images and observations that involve the colour red. Use this mental colour palette to create two distinct experiences. 

Jessica Bell, Polish Your Prose

Be dynamic. Use strong verbs and fewer adjectives:

Weak example:
The darkness of the thick grey low-hanging clouds made the massive decorative rocks in our backyard look like animated gravestone-giants.

Strong example:
The thick clouds hung low and shadowed our backyard. The decorative rocks doubled in size and morphed into gravestone-giants. 

Bret Lott, On Detail

Themes can be rooted in detail. Work with a partner. Each takes two minutes to write down a list of what’s on your bedside table.

Now swap and use your partner’s list as the basis for the beginning of a short story. The objects belong to your narrator’s spouse. It’s either the day after the spouse’s funeral, or the day before s/he is going to ask the spouse for a divorce.

Jo Furniss, The Essence of Character

Exercise : Most people don’t know what they need in life—we’re too distracted by our desires—and your character is no different. Someone else can probably see into their heart more clearly than they see it themselves.

So… what does your character need?

Your character walks into a café / pub / restaurant to meet someone they know well, a friend or family member. There is also a waitress/ barman / cleaner. Write a 360° description of the scene from three POVs; how the friend sees the character, how the stranger sees the character, and how the character sees the scene.

Jason Donald, Filtering

What is filtering? It’s words or phrases tacked onto the start of sentence that show the world as it is filtered through the main character’s eyes. Meaning, the character is placed between the reader and the action in the story.

Janet felt a sinking feeling as she ran through the diner and out the front doors. She wondered if Jake would really just get up and leave her. She saw him throw the suitcase into the car and slam the door. He seemed cold as his gaze met hers. He pointed a finger, dropping his thumb like a gun. Now she knew he would take the money and disappear, leaving her to take the heat. She decided to beg and ran across the parking lot, sinking to her knees on the cold cement. The car's tires spun, and she felt the gravel spitting at her as she saw the convertible careen onto the road.

Do you see how the highlighted words come before the action? This forces the reader to step back and watch the character, rather than the action. It moves the reader away from the events on the page. An extra step has been inserted between the reader and the story. A filter.

Here is the same piece of writing after filtering is removed:

Janet's stomach sank as she ran through the diner and out the front doors. Would he really just get up and leave? Jake threw the suitcase into the car and slammed the door. He turned. Her gaze met his, and his eyes narrowed. He pointed a finger, dropping his thumb like a gun. A cold chill enveloped her; he would take the money and disappear, leaving her to take the heat. She ran across the parking lot, sinking to her knees on the cold cement. The car's tires spun, spitting gravel at her as the convertible careened onto the road.