A cornucopia of questions on writing and publishing today…

1. Amy writes to say, "I’m working on a novel (aren’t we all?), and wondering if it makes more sense to classify it as a ‘romance’ or a ‘fantasy.’"

I suppose I could tell you that you need to be true to your artistic vision, or suggest you reflect on which genre best reflects your overall story…but from a practical perspective, let me give you some facts: Last year romances outsold fantasy novels more than 200 to 1. There are a bunch of publishers producing and selling romance novels. There are a few doing fantasy novels. While it’s true that both genres have their diehard fans, there’s not any question which group is larger and buys more books. (And, to be completely fair, I should mention that there are a couple imprints that combine romance and fantasy, but that’s an even smaller niche.) So it depends on what you want to accomplish, Amy. If you’re looking to simply tell the best tale possible, then consider your story and determine the best direction to go. But if you’re thinking of the business side, then unless you have some strong connection to fantasy publishers you’ll find considerably better odds of getting published on the romance side.

2. Sandy wrote to say, "I juggle more projects than I know what to do with. How do you decide what to tackle next? And how do you allocate time to simultaneous projects?"

I’ve noticed that, when it comes to projects, writers come in two basic types: "Size One" and "Extra-Large." Some writers (and I’m one of them) can only focus on ONE writing project at a time. If, for example, I’m working on this blog, I can’t write pieces of it, then leave to go write a letter, then leave that to go help an author create a proposal, then come back to my blog. I’m a "Size One" writer. I start ONE project, work it all the way through, then move on to something else. I may let my one project sit for a while so that I can stew on it a bit, or to calm down and make sure I haven’t libeled anyone, or set it aside for a few days because I can’t get to it. But by and large I’m working on ONE project at a time.

Other writers favor the "Extra Large" approach. I represent an author who is currently working on two adult novels, a YA novel, a nonfiction book, and a study guide. And when I say she is "working" on them, I mean she is literally working on them — writing pieces, picking up one, then setting it aside and picking up another. I don’t see how she does it. That sort of piecemeal writing would drive me mad…but it all stays together in her head somehow, and I’ve discovered there are a lot of professional writers who approach their work this way. They would no doubt argue it’s the only method that allows them to make a living at this business, since a "Size One" approach wouldn’t produce enough income to survive.

So you may want to figure out which type of writer you are, Sandy. When I was making my living as a full-time writer, I created a writing calendar. I simply took a regular wall calendar and marked off the days I was allowing myself for each project. So, for example, I’d mark off four days for the editing of someone’s book, one day to catch up on letters and phone calls, three weeks for the creation of the next study guide I was writing, followed by two days for a magazine article I needed to create. That kept me working on ONE project at a time, and it gave me an overall vision for what I’d be doing over the course of the month. I also broke each big project down into daily goals or tasks — so that one day my goal was to edit 3 chapters, and the next day the goal was to edit 2 more. That helped me set a pace. As Ted Engstrom once said, "Most of us overestimate what we can do in one year, and underestimate what we can do in five." You’ll be amazed at how much you can get accomplished as a writer if you have a writing calendar and daily goals.

3. Dana wrote to ask, "Is it realistic to think I can make a living doing this?"

I should note that there is a corollary to my previous answer, since I also have found that there are two types of professional writers: the "Specialist" and the "Generalist."

The Generalist is the writer who takes whatever comes her way.  She may do a travel article today, a copyedit tomorrow, a nonficiton book next week, followed by a romance novel and a suspense. If she’s good enough, and can write both clean and fast, she’ll make a living. But she’ll probably never hit the big time. Still, it’s possible to make a good living at writing and books, which is the goal.

The Specialist focuses all his attention on one genre. Maybe he writes suspense novels, so he studies the genre, works on his craft, and tries to create the best suspense novels he can. He’ll work on building his readership, and try to get well known in his genre. He goes deep into one area. He’ll find it tougher to make a living, since it takes time to write a novel, and for most writers it’s tough to earn enough on one novel to pay the bills. On the other hand, these are the folks who have a much better possibility of breaking out and hitting the big time. Either way, it’s a struggle. But compare writing to painting or music or dance or acting… Who ever told you making a living at art was going to be easy?

Think of it this way: I can dance. Really. I’ve taken ballroom dance lessons for years, and I love getting out on the floor. Love to tango, do a good rhumba, but absolutely love to do an east-coast swing. I’m pretty good at it, and can certainly hold my own at any publisher’s ball or birthday party. But…well, it’s a big step from impressing the boys at the golf club Christmas party to asking somebody to pay $26 to come watch me dance on stage. I’m okay…but there’s a gulf between myself and a professional dancer. I can sing, too. Was always in the musicals in school, love to join the Christmas choir at church, and can even locate the bass notes on my own. But there’s a major difference between singing at my local church and expecting people to pay $18.99 for a CD of my singing. There’s just a huge gap between being "pretty good" and being "a professional that people will pay to see." And it’s the same with writing. You may be pretty funny. Or able to tell a good story. You might be able to string together some verbs and nouns. But there’s a significant difference between being able to write competently for your church newsletter and asking readers to plunk down $21.99 for a hardcover novel. Not everybody has the talent (or the time, or the training, or the temperment, for that matter).

I don’t hear many people at writing conferences talk about it, but the reason most people aren’t published is because they simply aren’t good enough. "Talent" is an essential ingredient in making a living writing.

4. Angie wrote to ask, "How can I best prepare for a writing conference?"

Great question. If you’re going to a conference, be ready to talk about your writing. Have what’s called an "elevator speech" — a twenty-second, simple, non-technical answer to the question, "So what are you writing?" If the conference accepts works for critique, by all means participate — where else can you find professionals who will evaluate your work for such little money? Also, I’ll encourage you to read widely before attending, so that you know what’s hot in publishing; what people are talking about. And speaking of people, tell yourself that you’re going to smile, introduce yourself to others, and make friends — even if you’re an introvert. These people are all writers like you, so they share your passion for books and words. Just tell yourself that you’re going to connect with them (here’s a trick: learn to say the magic words, "So what are you writing?"). Listen to people’s answers — one of the most boring things in life is being cornered by a wannabe writer at a conference who insists on giving you his life story or who can’t shut up about his own book idea. This is a time to engage others so you can learn from them. Be polite with editors, be truthful with writers, and be optimistic with everyone. If you go in with the attitude that you want to learn (rather than the attitude of "I have to get a book contract or I’ll die!"), you’ll have a better time of it.

5. Steve wrote to ask, "When a magazine or literary journal tells you under their Submission Guidelines that they don’t accept ‘previously published works,’ are they referring to e-stories and e-books as well as to printed works?"

It depends on the magazine, but often it’s a matter of selling. If you’ve "sold" your story somewhere, they’ll consider it previously published. Many magazines will accept stories that have appeared elsewhere as e-stories, but most consider an e-book to constitute "previously published." That’s because there’s a sense that an e-book has made your story available for sale to the market, so it’s not new any more.

Hey, I’m off to Scotland for my 25th wedding anniversary. If you need good writing advice over the next couple of weeks…go back and read my archives!

Tons of questions — I’ll try to get to a couple of them today.

First, Cheryl wrote to ask, "What is the process of getting your proposal selected by a publishing house?"

Think of a publishing house as being an actual building. Your proposal is more than likely sliding into the building by way of a window known as an acquisitions editor (often an acquaintance of your agent, sometimes a person you met at a conference, or maybe a guy who lost a bet). They’ll read through it, make some suggestions, talk it over with your agent, and eventually make a decision on whether or not they think it’s worth pursuing. (Most publishers are relying on agents to do the initial filtering of junk, so the slush pile has sort of moved from the publishing house to the agent’s office…which means you’re going to have to sell it to an agent first, therefore adding one more step to this process). If the acquisitions editor likes it, he or she will take it to some sort of editorial committee, where they sit around grousing about their pay and making editorial jokes ("I’m having a DICKENS of a time with this one!" "Yeah, let’s catch a TWAIN out of town!" Editorial types love this sort of humor. That’s why they’re editors and not writers.) Eventually they’ll run out of bad puns and be forced to discuss the merits of your proposal. If it passes muster, it moves to the next step…

The Publishing Committee, which is a group generally made up of folks from editorial, marketing, sales, and administration. They’ll meet somewhere between once a  week to once a month, and they’ll have an agenda of books to talk through each time, with the various representatives offering their own perspectives — the editors will talk about the mertis of the words; the accountants will figure out the costs and potential dollars in play; the sales guys will begin thinking up excuses for why they won’t be able to sell many copies; and the marketing people will sit there trying to think of how to cover their own sorry hind ends.  (True story: Thomas Nelson just announced they’re doing a new book with Bill Cosby. I was once in a pub board meeting talking about a book from the world famous comedian, and the marketing representative spent her time explaining to everyone why she wouldn’t be able to garner any media for him. For Bill Cosby?!  When I asked her about it later, she explained that she "couldn’t put herself in a position where others would have a lot of expectations" of her. Uh-huh. All that heavy weight of expectation for trying to get TV shows to talk to one of the world’s most famous entertainers. I explained that I could use my cel phone to immediately start booking him. Of course, editors have expectations put on them every time they bring a book to pub board. Just another example of those hard-working marketing types in CBA.) Anyway, this is the group that will explore the feasibility of doing your book. They may send it back to the ack editor to do some work.

At that point, the editor has to run a Profit & Loss sheet or pro forma, in which they’ll take wild surmises as to how many copies they can expect to sell in the first year, what the hard costs of ink/paper/binding will be, how much money they’ll have to throw at the money-grubbing author, who, if she really loved Jesus, would write her damn books for free, since we all know the publishers are only in it for the ministry. The editor will take all this information back to the publishing committee, who by now has had all sorts of time to think up new reasons why they shouldn’t do the book. Eventually the pub board will be forced to make an actual decision, so they’ll probably throw the Urim and Thummim, read their Ouija board, and make a decision.

All of that points to one thing: It’s tough to get published. A publishing house has all those filters in place so that they can do the easy thing and say "no" to you. (Really.) The purpose of the process is to say "no" to most everything. Therefore create proposals they can’t say "no" to.

Second, Andrea asked, "If a publisher turns down my proposal, does that mean everyone at the publishing house has rejected it?"

Maybe not. It’s possible the ack editor loved it, and the marketing people drooled over it, but the accountants replied, "We don’t see how we can make money with this one." If that’s the case, you or your agent may end up having another discussion with the company about their objections. Or you may have better luck with a different imprint, if the group you’ve been talking with said they liked it, but felt it would fit better with someone else at the company. Still, my experience has been that once a group of people have said "no," it’s hard to get that word out of their minds.

Going to another imprint may be a perfectly valid response, especially if you’ll be talking with a different publications group. I have been told "no thanks" on a project by one Random House imprint, only to be offered a contract by another Random House imprint. Sometimes it’s a matter of sticking with it and answering objections, other times it means you’ve just got to find the right group.

One thing to stay away from is to send something to different editors at the same imprint. Nothing ticks off an editor more than walking into a meeting and discovering someone else on the team is looking at an idea he or she just rejected. Unless you’ve thoroughly revised the proposal, it’ll make you look bad.

Lots more to come – keep those cards and letters coming.

Sue wrote to me and asked, "What is the one thing I can do that would most help me grow as a writer?"

May I offer more than ONE thing, Sue?

1. Write a lot. Most writers are really wannabes — they talk about writing a lot more than they actually write. But if you wanted to be a better pianist, would you TALK about playing the piano, or would you sit and PRACTICE? The same goes for dance, or painting, or singing, or baseball. Or writing. The best thing you can do to improve is to write more. (You want real-world advice? Set a goal of 1000 words a day, 5000 words a week, and get busy.)

2. Find experienced writers. For some, that means joining a writing group, in which you all write something and share it with each other every month. The critiques of others will hurt, but they will often help you improve. For others, that means finding a mentor — someone who may not have hit the bestseller lists yet, but he or she is a bit further down the path than you are. A mentor can offer advice, perspective, and wisdom to help you grow. For still others, it means simply making friends with a writer who is more or less on your own level and asking him or her to be your accountability partner, reader, and sometime counselor/shrink/psychic/motivational speaker.

3. Hang out with writers. We all get better by spending time with a diverse group of people who share our interests. Here’s a suggestion: If you’re a novelist, consider signing up for the ACFW conference in Dallas this September.  ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) offers some of the best training in craft outside of personal coaching or college classrooms, and spending a week with them is a great investment. If you’re a nonfiction writer, consider going to one of the big summer conferences like Write to Publish at Wheaton College next week. You’ll find good instruction, lots of friends who share your passion for writing, and one of the few remaining chances to be face-to-face with editors and agents. (And while I’ll be teaching briefly at both of those conferences, they’re not paying me anything to plug them.)

4. Read widely. Don’t settle for the same stuff all the time. Introduce yourself to new, young writers. Check out a bestseller. Pick up classic books. Try your hand at Twain or Dickens or Austen. If you’re a fiction writer, read a great nonfiction book (try Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm or John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air). If you’re a nonfiction writer, buy yourself a great novel and dig into another genre (have you read Lisa Samson’s Quaker Summer yet?).  Stretch your reading boundaries this summer.

5. Do one thing to improve your craft. Buy a book on writing and try the exercises. Take an online class, or sign up for a writing workshop at your local community college. Check out one of the software programs designed to help you get going on your novel. Enter a contest. Give yourself an assignment to write an article for your local paper. (If you need suggestions for books on craft, I recommend Carolyn See’s Making a Literary Life, Patricia O’Connor’s Words Fail Me, and Les Edgerton’s Finding Your Voice.)  And yes…I’ve recommended all of these books in the past. I’ll start recommending new things tomorrow!

I hope that helps, Sue. I’ve got a backlog of questions people have sent in — I’ll try and get to several of them over the next few days.