From Manuscript to Book

Kate Hanney is a Cornerstones’ author who has gone on to self-publish three titles for Young Adults. Her books have been published through the co-operative she set-up with another children’s writer, Wendy Storer.

In my previous post, I spoke about my excitement as my publishing partner, Wendy Storer, and I launched Applecore Books, and began to get our middle-grade and Young Adult novels ‘out there’.

Well, it’s fair to say that excitement is still as real as ever. We now have five e-books and three paperbacks published under the Applecore logo, with more ebooks following and paperback versions of them all coming soon.

But what I thought I’d concentrate on in this post, is the practical side of self-publishing; that is, the actual process of transforming a MS into a book, both electronically and in print, and some of the options you might like to consider. The more I’ve redrafted this post, however, the more I’ve come to realise that this could actually form the basis of a whole book in itself! But in a nutshell, here are a few pertinent thoughts based on my personal experiences so far.

Uploading a MS to be sold as an ebook on Amazon, is generally very straightforward. It can usually be completed by uploading a word document, and the file will be converted automatically. An important decision the author must decide at this point, is whether to enrol their book in the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) ‘Select’ scheme. If an author does enrol, they commit to the scheme for a period of three months at a time. During that time, the book must be available exclusively on Amazon, but in return, authors get the opportunity to earn higher royalties in some territories, the option of offering their book free for any five days within those three months, and the potential to earn through the Amazon Prime scheme whereby every time a member borrows the book, the author receives a royalty payment.

Now, I’m not totally sure what to advise here. Yes, Select has the huge cogs of Amazon turning behind it, but of course it limits accessibility somewhat. So when Wendy and I first uploaded, we ran a little experiment; signing some of our titles up with KDP Select, and not others. As well as being on Amazon, the other titles were also available to buy from platforms like Kobo and Smashwords, and it was really interesting to see how sales were affected by the different approaches. For us, it seemed Amazon Select did work better, and we now have all our e-titles signed up with them. It’s important to point out however, that other authors have strongly advised against this and prefer having maximum coverage on as many platforms as possible.

As well as being very easy to do, the real beauty of uploading to Amazon in my opinion, is the reassurance that you can change almost anything about the upload as and when you decide. Price, blurb, cover images and even internal text can be revised whenever you feel the necessity. Which is great if you spot that one typo that slipped through the proofreading net, or if you feel the blurb could do with jazzing up a little. A word of warning though – the one thing that can’t be changed after you’ve clicked ‘save and publish’ is the management of digital rights. This is something Amazon applies to the file to ensure it can’t be shared electronically, so it’s well worth taking your time with the upload and thinking it through carefully.

As far as producing the print versions is concerned, if you are wanting to use Print on Demand (POD) - whereby the printers only print the books as they receive orders from retailers, and if you are looking to publish only one or two titles - then it would probably be advisable to take a look at some of the websites that offer POD set up and distribution services. The one I used when I first self-published Safe, four years ago is www.feedaread.com. They will hold your hand through the process and provide help with formatting and covers, and they will also provide you with your book’s ISBN. The cost for set-up and distribution is currently £88.00, and in return for their services, they will take a percentage of any royalties.

However, if you are feeling a little more innovative, and you have several titles to publish as paperbacks, you could go down the route Wendy and I have taken, and set up as an independent publisher.

For our POD services, we have registered with Lightning Source UK. And I would like to publicly say they most definitely live up to their name. I can’t quite believe the speed with which they are dealing with the production of our titles, or the fantastic service they are providing.

The process of uploading files for print in this way is considerably more complex than that of ebooks however, and it’s possibly not for the faint hearted. The interior text has to be formatted accurately by the author/publisher, with the correct settings for page size, margins, gutter etc. It has to be uploaded as a PDF, so you need a PDF writer, and it’s fair to say I’ve learned a lot about embedding fonts recently ...

The requirements for the cover image file are more than I could have managed on my own, armed with just my laptop and Microsoft Office. More advanced software and someone who knows what they are doing are an absolute must.   

You will also need to purchase your own ISBN numbers. We did this by registering Applecore with Neilsens. As far as I can ascertain, the minimum number that can be bought is a block of 10, and the prefix is specific to the publisher so they can’t be transferred. I’m still getting to grips with Neilsen’s services and Lightning Source’s distribution channels ... and several other things ... but my queries have always been answered quickly and in detail, and the staff there couldn’t have been more helpful.

So breaking through into the world of publishing has definitely entailed scaling a very steep learning curve, but as Applecore proves, it is certainly doable. Initially it takes some time, lots or research and some trial and error, but when my copies of Watermelon and Someone Different dropped through the letterbox, it was all most definitely worthwhile.

In my next post I would like to return to the subject of marketing: twitter, Facebook, offering freebies, blogs ... it’s an extensive list. So what, exactly, will work?

Wrap Up Your Novel (And Spot Our Seasonal Jollies)

 

What do you do when you’ve finished your novel and feel you’re ready to take it out into the real world? It’s only too tempting to see if you’ve armed it with the necessary survival skills to not only sprout but positively flourish. But sometimes the urge to send out the object of your love, affection and sheer hard work, to see if it will fly or flail, can be premature.

Stop.

You wouldn’t want Santa to climb down your chimney without Health and Safety training, so why would you let your dear novel compete with its counterparts without making sure it’s completely prepared? It’s not all about checking that all the commas and full stops are present and correct – though obviously this is also very important – often it goes much deeper than that. One blog isn’t enough to go into detail about the full craft of re-drafting, but there are some core issues that every author must ask themselves before dashing to get a submission package ready, or deciding to self-publish.

Firstly, consider the plot. The 3 Act Graph is a good way to measure whether your story is following the right kind of structure. This can seem quite clinical and against the creative spirit of writing, but you’ll notice that most novels - literary and commercial - will in some way or another fulfill this structure; they do so because it works. Consider the sub-plot/s – do they serve to enhance the main arc of the narrative or are they mere stuffing, distracting us from the essential story?

Then think about the protagonist and the main characters – is the protagonist’s emotional arc clear throughout the narrative? Are the characters well developed and distinctive? And importantly, are they all necessary to the story? Overwriting and tinsel of any kind should be avoided. At this stage everything should be assessed with scrooge-like scrutiny and if it’s not earning its keep by pushing the plot and/or character forward, then delete it.

Another aspect, which is sometimes overlooked in the hallelujah moment of having finished the novel is the denouement. Is the resolution satisfying? It doesn’t necessarily have to be a ‘happy’ ending but does it tie up, in some way or another, threads that you’ve woven throughout the book? Will the reader be left feeling content that the story has achieved what it set out to do, or will they have questions, trying to make sense of aspects that weren’t fully developed?

All these things aren’t necessarily obvious to the author, who knows their work so intimately that it’s hard to be objective. At this point an external critical eye can help to identify the issues that have become blurred in the re-drafting process. The one thing which is too often overlooked and which cannot be stressed enough, is time. Once you’ve stayed away from the manuscript for a few weeks now’s the time to look at it again, and judge with clarity whether it’s the cracker you thought it was.

You’ve set the foundation by completing the novel – re-drafting is your opportunity to build upon that firm foundation, and rejoice in creating something beautiful.

How Easy is it for Self-published Books to really Make a Splash?

If you’ve ever typed ‘self-publishing’ into Google, you’ll know there are around 14,000,000 results. Click on almost any one of them, and you’ll be forgiven for becoming slightly high on the premise of how simple the process is; how endless the possibilities are. You might nod in agreement with the comments regarding how the industry was in need of a shake-up, how the notion of ‘gatekeepers’ had had its time, and the suggestion I particularly like, ‘quality will always rise to the top, however it’s published’.

Well, it’s around two and a half years since I started working with Helen at Cornerstones on Watermelon, and around two years prior to that when I began writing it. Throughout this time, I have put hundreds, possibly thousands, of hours into writing, learning about writing and improving my writing. And like many authors, I swing between having an absolute, deep, unshakable devotion for my books, and wondering if they’re actually worth the space they take up on my hard drive.

But other people tell me they’re good, not just my mum (actually she’s a nightmare, and I rarely get more than a, ‘it’s alright’ from her). But people who know. Industry professionals describe them as, ‘compelling, strong, powerful, haunting, incredibly authentic’.

And more importantly, my target audience. I’m in a very privileged position; I work with young people, and they don’t ‘do’ tact. It wasn’t unheard of for one of my earlier readings to be met with that well-considered and insightful comment, ‘Miss, that bit were crap.’

So my books have been re-written and reworked, until I’ve reached a point where the kids don’t say they’re crap anymore, in fact, they won’t stop reading when the bell goes for break, and that ultimate, heart-warming compliment has been uttered several times, ‘Can I take this home to read?’

On the back of this approval, my new titles, Watermelon and Someone Different, have recently been launched into the big, wide, open-sea that is self-publishing (as ebooks initially and with paperbacks following). In an innovative move, my immensely talented writer friend, Wendy Storer and I, have joined forces to form Applecore Books www.applecorebooks.co.uk; an independent writing co-operative, publishing contemporary fiction for children and young adults. And I am so excited I might pop!

But am I right? Are my books good? And if they are, will they rise to the top?

Currently, I have a modest following on Facebook and Twitter, and not much else in the way of marketing. I am up against novels that are advertised on buses and billboards and in supermarkets. Novels that will be reviewed in national press, novels that are written by ‘celebrities’. Can my little old books make a splash anywhere near the surface? Will they find their way in that stormy sea, amongst all those luxury, corporate liners? Ultimately, is writing good books, combined with amateur but tenacious marketing, enough?

Well, it’s fair to say I’m about to find out. And in part two of this blog, which will be coming soon, I will be sure to let you know.

                                                                                       

You can visit Kate Hanney's website at www.katehanney.com

Seller Beware

The canteen buzzed with writers who were taking part in the York Festival of Writing last year.  I happened to be standing in the queue next to Helen Corner of Cornerstones, and of course we got chatting.  I told her about the book I’d almost finished called Seller Beware: How NOT to Sell your Business.

            ‘Or another strapline,’ I said, ‘is One Woman’s Road to Ruin and Recovery.’

‘I like that,’ Helen said, ‘but don’t put and Recovery on the end, else you’ll give the game away.  Let the readers wonder.’

I hadn’t thought of that.  Later, I picked up Cornerstones’ brochure.

I decided to let Cornerstones give me a professional critique.  Positive I’d written a winner, I wanted it to have the best chance before I approached a publisher.

Brett sent me a full report with excellent advice, mainly on restructuring.  She also wanted further details of the characters and dollops of emotion.

I took her advice but because I’d written half as much again I still wasn’t confident enough to submit without another professional eye.  But I’d paid Cornerstones once already. 

Still, I rang them, and after a lengthy chat (and promised discount!) I decided to go ahead.  This time I had Ed Handyside read it—the perfect choice as he’d gone through something similar.  He gave me heaps of encouragement, saying it wouldn’t come amiss if some thriller writers emulated my style!  Many of the suggestions he made were nit-picks and I was ecstatic he’d ‘thoroughly enjoyed’ my story.

I was talking to Kris, my Polish decorator, a few weeks later about the book (as you do).

‘I don’t suppose you know any publishers?’ Tongue firmly in cheek.

‘Actually, I do,’ came the surprising answer.  ‘Iain Dale is a presenter on LBC radio every evening.  And he’s a publisher. Why don’t you listen and phone in when there’s an interesting subject?  Then he knows you.  Afterwards, you email him and ask if he’ll read the book.  And,’ he finished, ‘he lives near you!’

Iain began with a topic close to my heart.  Should the government allow people to add a 25 foot extension to their house without planning permission?

I rushed to the phone.

The next day I emailed him, thanking him for allowing me to voice my opinion, and asking if he’d look at my book.

He agreed and three weeks later we signed the contract.

This would never have happened without Cornerstones.  (And Kris’s brainwave!) Cornerstones are a super company to deal with and worth every penny for such a brilliant result. 

Seller Beware: How NOT to Sell Your Business will be published by Biteback Publishing in April 2012.

Denise Barnes

Why writers are witches

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about subjective responses to books. As an editor, your role is to be as objective as possible. Often that’s easy. If a manuscript is in early draft stage, there are likely to be issues that are common to many novels, problems that can be measured against techniques and concepts that allow you to say, pretty much categorically, yes this is working or no, it’s not.

Contrary to what an author I spoke to recently thought, these aren’t arbitrary rules set down by people in publishing to make the author’s job harder; to make the already impenetrable-seeming walls of the industry even thicker. Rather, they’re techniques based on centuries of literary theory and reader responses. If you write in this way, then a reader will feel this, when what you ideally want them to be feeling is this. In many respects, it’s common sense.

But what happens when, as an editor, you find that you disagree – and with other editors, with people whose opinions you respect and admire? I’ve just read a book that received rave reviews in the trade and, even accounting for the percentage that are bound to be marketing spiel, there are a lot of readers out there who genuinely think that this is a really good book. Not only is it being bought, it’s being nominated for prizes.

You can see where I’m going with this (and before I’m accused of contrariness, I had no idea about the rave reviews until after I’d read it and told my colleague what I thought). I found the main character passive, the structure uncontrolled, with frequent backtracking and reflection often resulting in scenes that lacked dramatic punch – that weren’t, in fact, scenes at all. And, for a book that’s set up as a psychological thriller, there was a hole where the tension should have been: no sense of mystery, and no ongoing threat for the main character, nothing really at stake. Despite what the jacket said, my heartbeat stayed resolutely slow.

Does that mean I’m off the mark, that my editorial instincts are flawed? Statistically, it’s got to be more likely than that the several thousand people who disagree with me are all barking up the wrong bookshelf. There are a lot more of them then there are of me.

But hang on, we’re not talking about a first draft book here. This is something that’s been through a rigorous editing process and, indeed, that’s finely-crafted in terms of its prose. There’s nothing wrong with the description and the writing in places is rather beautiful. And even though I wasn’t convinced by some of the structural choices, I kept reading. So the author’s obviously doing something right.

Books have a magic that goes beyond questions of their art and craft, and that’s the ability to speak to different readers in different ways. And there are always going to be times when books that aren’t technically perfect capture readers’ imaginations.  Maybe it’s something to do with a mood, or an atmosphere, something in the ether that somehow the book taps into. Maybe the author has dealt with a subject that’s close to many readers’ hearts in an unusual, disarming way. Maybe readers are responding to a new world with wonder and curiosity. Who knows? If only it were possible to predict when this was going to happen, we’d all be squillionaires.

Editorially, your job is to make sure that all the technical aspects of a book are as strong as they can be, and I firmly believe that this is a worthwhile, crucial part of the process. That essential spell is so much more likely to work its magic if there aren’t queries distracting a reader – and you do find that these issues of editorial disagreement occur much more frequently with books that are further down the line, editorially; where there is less room for objective criticism.

All you can do as an editor is keep an open mind alongside your critical one. Aim to make the book as objectively good as it can be, but don’t forget that you’re tinkering with a kind of witchcraft. And the secret ingredient isn’t always going to be something you can circle with a red pen.

The bittersweet smell of success

At Cornerstones there’s nothing that gives us more happiness than placing our authors with agents and seeing them go on to get a publishing deal. Whilst what we do is rewarding in so many ways – helping authors find their way forward when they’ve got stuck with a story, shaping promising manuscripts into something that’s really dazzling – publication is everybody’s long term goal and it’s what we’re all working towards. So why do we always feel kind of sad when it happens?

It’s like saying goodbye after a long journey you’ve made with strangers who’ve become friends. It’s like handing over your child at the first day of school and knowing you won’t play such a big part in their life from here on in. It’s like the end of a love affair.

I think most people in the industry feel the same way to some degree – and authors will certainly know what I’m talking about. When you work on a manuscript for a long time it feels like you’ve poured a lot of yourself into it. You’ve got to know the characters and the plot so well you dream about them. You can’t help but think of it as yours.

But the crux of what we do is preparing authors for the publishing arena; for starting a career in writing. And so much of that is about learning to self-edit, perfecting those independent editorial skills that will stand you in good stead throughout your writing life. When authors first come to us it’s because they’re looking for advice on these techniques; putting their manuscript through the editorial process is often the start of a learning curve that can last months or years. And the end goal of that process is for an author to go out into the publishing world on their own two feet, without needing our help any more.

With every successful edit, a manuscript (and its author) becomes bolder and more confident and seeing that happen is the most rewarding part of all. But it’s also kind of sad to know that if the process is working then each edit is bringing us closer to the moment when we have to say goodbye.

Sniff.

Goodbye to my 'First'

I started writing my first book about five years ago now. When I left full time work to pursue the dream (finish the book, re-draft it – several times, naturally – get an agent, get a publisher, and have it in print) I’d written about 17,000 words. A year and a half, working part-time, coming back into full-time work, a severe edit later, and I now have 23,000 words. For those of you who aren’t great at maths, that’s 6,000 words in a year and a half, averaging out to about 11 words per day. Even now I feel a pain in my chest thinking about it. It’s rather similar to the pain I felt when the lovely Kathryn at work suggested I ditch it in favour of starting something new because progress seemed to be somewhat slow (backwards, practically, I was feeling). Shock. Horror.

One’s presumably heard of the term in regards to writing, ‘Kill your darlings.’ Well this was my ‘darling;’ singular. If I don’t have this, I don’t have anything, literarily speaking anyway. I shook off her uncomfortable advice from my already burdened shoulders and ignored her.

Except they still felt burdened. What was this unhealthy relationship I’d cultivated with my first book? The idea of letting go hadn’t occurred to me until K mentioned it. And then, as with most things in life, the delayed reaction caught up with me and the unthinkable became a possibility. And why shouldn’t it? Don’t most writers have more than one book in them? We’re not all going to be Harper Lee, write one masterpiece and then live happily ever after, basking in its global glory. Still, it hurt, as the end of most things do I suppose. Imagine those years spent tapping out words, creating sentences that made you feel as if you’d broken through some verbal barrier or discovered some profound truth. But sometimes you have to accept defeat – temporarily anyway. As with all firsts, you won’t forget it and maybe you had to have the first in order to get a better second (and third, fourth, fifth, so on.)

Just because you don’t want to do something, doesn’t mean it’s not good for you, even if you did think it was the ‘one’. So my heart is heavy, but my shoulders feel a tad less weighed down. It’s about knowing when to move on, and when to take the advice of someone who knows what they might be talking about (something about professionalism or whatever).

First book, I will learn the art of letting you go, though you will always be the one that’s taught me what I now know, and while you gave me sleepless nights you also gave me my first love. Thanks for that. And one day, maybe when the time is right, I’ll come back to you, or you’ll come back to me and we’ll finish this thing we started; my stepping-stone to whatever is to come.

Congratulations to Nick Cook

Nick has been signed on by the agent Eve White, and Cornerstones would like to wish him the best of luck for the future. We're so happy to have been a part of this wonderful journey.

http://therealnickcook.blogspot.com/2012/01/happiness-is-mostly-by-product-of-doing.html

Self-Publishing

Congratulations to Jan Ruth, author of Wild Water, winner of the self-published competition run by Cornerstones and voted by the public. First prize was Write a Blockbuster by Lee Weatherly and Helen Corner, Hodder, and Alison Baverstock's The Naked Author, A Guide to Self-Publishing, A & C Black. See What Alison has to say in her blog piece about the benefits of self-publishing and how to avoid vanity publishing

Thank you for your invitation to contribute to this blog Helen, and I am delighted to have supported your competition on self-publishing.

As some of your readers may know, I lead the MA Publishing at Kingston University – and so am naturally very occupied by trends within the book trade. My initial interest in self-publishing was simply that. I had spotted the growing disparity between the number of books published in the US and the UK (traditionally around 2:1, it rose to around 9:1 in 2010; the difference largely fuelled by self-published titles) and the new availability of publishing services to assist in the process. An initial exploration revealed that in some cases you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between professionally published and self-published titles.

And so my investigations began. But what intrigued me, as I interviewed those involved, was a whole new set of issues. My study of the whole area is now published as The Naked Author, a guide to self-publishing, and is available from Bloomsbury http://amzn.to/nakedauthor There is insufficient space here to consider all the areas explored, but to whet your appetite here are three:

1.       There is no single thing that is self publishing; it is a process not a product. And people decide to get involved for a variety of reasons. For some it’s the chance to gain objectivity on their work by producing a single reading copy of material they have so far only seen on screen, and from where they wrote it. For others it’s the opportunity to finalise a manuscript that has long been in their head – and on their conscience – and hence move on with their lives. A well produced self-published book can be despatched to potential investors such as agents and publishers, and in the process reveal the seriousness with which the author takes their work. Or it can be presented to a small circle of friends and family – with the subtext ‘I finally did it’.

2.       Stories circulate about bestselling self-published works, harshly overlooked by the traditional industry, and now selling in great quantities on Amazon. While self-publishing has the potential to make you rich (just as in theory anyone can become a millionaire) it is unlikely to do so. But it may make you happy. The fascinating thing about talking to so many self-published authors was the generally high level of contentment I encountered. Some had lived with a book shaped hole in their lives for years, and finally (to quote one) ‘scratching that itch’ was highly satisfying. Others wrote memoirs and felt it was part of putting their lives in order, so that their (seemingly entirely uninterested) family could find out more about them – once they were mature enough to want to do so.

3.       What is the difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing? It’s hard to draw a clear distinction – other than by examining the quality of the finished product. Both vanity publishing organisations and self-publishing firms will offer to produce your book at your cost, and may help you market it. But there are a few tricks to estimating where on the spectrum organisations sit (and there’s a whole chapter on this in the book).

When purchasing publishing services, try to estimate the quality of the organisation’s general output and their effectiveness. Ask yourself how much they seek to find out about your aims and purposes (and the standard of your manuscript) before they offer you a quotation – or do they seem in a huge rush to get you on the press? Look at the quality of other titles they have produced – and be very wary if their website is full of claims about how great they are rather than sample products. Poor editorial standards are a clear giveaway – readers will not tolerate mistakes, so nor should you.

Today self-publishing is part of publishing. Deciding to manicure content and communicate it more widely is highly current (surely that’s what users of social media are doing all the time).

And if you decide to self-publish to a high standard, you have not only taken responsibility for yourself, you have committed to finish something. Both reveal an essential – and admirable – sense of purpose, and in the process you may achieve not only a profound contemporary satisfaction, but a dignified posterity.

I wish you luck.

Alison Baverstock, www.alisonbaverstock.com

Queen of self-publishing

We ran an internal competition recently that invited our authors and the public to vote for their favourite self-published book, based on a sentence blurb and the jacket. There were a flurry of votes as the deadline drew near, and three out of the 50 authors who entered were almost neck and neck. In the end, the winner was Jan Ruth for Wild Water. It was great to see how these savvy authors spread the word via twitter, emails, blogs and local word-of-mouth to garner support. It goes to show that apart from being a good read, marketing your own book is an essential part of being published. Have a look at Jan's journey to self-publication:

Congratulations Jan! Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your journey to self-publication?
When I'm not writing I'm thinking about writing, or reading. I try and counter-balance this physical inertia by walking in the mountains or riding my friend's horse. (That sounds very self indulgent but now at fifty plus, I finally have the time to be!)

What inspired you to write Wild Water?
I wanted to write a book about infidelity where the man is the wronged party and the main voice of the story, and I wanted to write about the Welsh landscape; make it function almost as a character in its own right.

Is this your first book?
No, it's my second. My very first novel (25 years ago) went to a London agent trying to set up her own project, publishing love stories with a difference but it never got off the ground because of finances.

How did you find the writing process?
Until I get the main guts of the story down I am consumed by the process really, to the exclusion of everything else. Husband could quite likely come home and find dinner in a burnt out pan in the garden!

Did you submit to agents and publishers?
Yes I did the usual route with agents, and with Wild Water I was lucky enough to get Jane Judd on my side, who then referred me to Cornerstones. After some tweaking with the original script we were ready to go but unfortunately Jane failed to place it with a publisher because 'it fell between two genres and didn't quite fit anyone's list'. So it sat in a drawer for twelve years.

What led you to self-publish?
All of the above really. My son alerted me to the steady growth of kindle, helped me with the technical details and set up a website.

How has the experience been so far?
The best part of self-publishing is being in control of the whole process and getting feedback from the paying public. And although I have a sales background, the marketing of something internet based is somewhat different to a physical book, and I am still learning. But then, I didn't set out to write something commercial, just something readable.

As we've seen from our competition, every vote counts. How did you market this?
The advantage I had with Wild Water is the tremendous support I have locally. I talked to a lot of people about the book and the competition. Generally I find people will respect something sincere and will get behind you, especially if it champions where you live. 

What next?
Okay here's the marketing! My second book MIDNIGHT SKY is almost ready to go out on kindle, after a careful re-write courtesy of Cornerstones. Winning a competition like this opens up numerous ideas to be explored.

Thanks, Jan and we hope sales fly for you. Our next blog is an interview with Rowan Lawton, a literary agent at PFD, on what kind of author she loves to represent...

Cornerstones article for Jam magazine, July 2011.

Is self-editing a doddle or is editor-speak goobledegook to you?

Helen Corner at Cornerstones www.cornerstones.co.uk tells us why it’s always good to know what you’re talking about before you meet the agent.

You’ve finished your dazzling, high-concept and well-written novel, you’ve sent it out, and an agent calls you and requests a meeting. This is exciting - a chance for you to chat about your book and see if there’s a mutual rapport. You arrive at her office, where manuscripts are heaped on the desk, and sit down with a coffee while she balances your MS on her lap. There are lots of red tags on the pages, but she’s smiling so you relax.

She’s just how you imagined her: professional (she requested the meeting within a few weeks of you sending the MS), approachable (but not in a cosy way; after all you want her to be ruthless at the negotiating table) and you can tell you’re in good hands. Then again, you researched and profiled the five agents you submitted to, so you know that her reputation is outstanding. In your mind, you’ve already signed on the dotted line and written courtesy emails to the other four agents thanking them for their time and informing them that you have representation.

Then she starts thumbing through the red tags and talking about the book needing more work; one more redraft and a further read before she signs you up officially. She mentions strengthening your main character and introducing more tension peaks in the mid-section; and how about tightening up scene structure in general to increase pace? Oh and by the way, there’s no rush. She’d much rather see a polished MS that’s ready to go out to the six editors she’s earmarked.

You might be one of the few first-time authors who thinks this is a breeze. You can manage all of this and more, and deliver within the week. If you’re confident that you can make thorough rather than cosmetic revisions, then you’re lucky. At Cornerstones we’re often nervous when authors make swift revisions as they’re rarely effective.

But what if, like most debut authors, all this technique speak is meaningless? Your mind’s gone fuzzy, your hearing wobbles, your tongue sticks to the roof of your mouth and your pencil keeps slipping out of your hand. Words like ‘character empathy’ and ‘arcs’ appear on your notepad and you’re transported back to school during that awful failed French exam.

At this juncture, there are two things you can do and neither is ideal:

One is to put up your hand and admit that you’re not sure what she’s talking about. What’s an emotional arc, exactly…? This would be just about acceptable, as she smiles and takes a deep breath, but she may privately lose a bit of confidence in you - while she could teach you about self-editing, does she really have time?

Or you could keep quiet and decide you’ll deal with it alone. You’ll put yourself on a crash course in self-editing techniques, revise your MS and hope for the best. This means lots of pressure to get it right, and anxiety about whether you’ll be able to deliver.

Ideally, you should already be acquainted with these techniques. You’ll be confident and calm during this meeting, bold enough to take these editorial suggestions away to process later, think about the revisions that have been requested and then write a confirmation email with a proposed plan.

You’ll be able to write that you’ve thought seriously about increasing the tension peaks in the mid-section, but you’d rather combine the six she suggested into three impactful ones, which are listed, and which would fit into the 3-act graph. You plan to interweave the heroine’s internal conflict more closely with the action plot in a cause and effect way right from the beginning, which should boost empathy and understanding. As for scene structure, you intend to do a ruthless prune and cut down on overwriting to foreground the climax of each scene. This should aid pace and tension overall. (If I’m not making sense don’t worry: this can all be taught and is what we specialise in.)

This course of action doesn’t challenge the agent’s suggestions – which are brainstorming ideas and open to the author’s interpretation. It shows a mutual working towards a solution that feels right for your story, where you ‘own’ the revisions. This is very important because unless you feel comfortable with your edits they’re unlikely to be effective. A combined effort from you and the agent will hopefully deliver the best for the book and demonstrate that you can work together. The agent will also feel confident about sending you off to your first meeting with your editor who will almost certainly have further suggestions.

Your job is to know how to write fully. Not just to write creatively (which is mainly talent and application) but to know how to hone your work into a book strong enough to launch you into a full and prosperous writing career. It’s a rare author who can do this alone. Learning how to self-edit is not ‘writing by numbers’ as some authors fear; rather it’s knowing what components make a great story and then how, when and why you can bend the rules.

Self-editing can turn a goodish book into a dazzling one. It’s a process that shouldn’t be rushed, and should be nurtured like any other part of the craft of writing. And, at the very least, who wouldn’t want a second opinion on their writing? I’m about to get Kathryn Price, Cornerstones’ managing editor, to see if this article makes sense; if it can be tightened up and repetition cut; if the beginning, middle and end is in place.

Good luck in your first agent meeting, and with preparation you’ll be one of those dream authors that agents tell us about…

Cornerstones is a leading UK literary consultancy. They have over 60 professional editors who specialise in guiding authors through self-editing. They scout for agents and have launched many first time writers. See www.cornerstones.co.uk for author journeys.

Write a Blockbuster and Get it Published, Hodder, by Lee Weatherly and Helen Corner outlines their self-editing and submission teaching techniques. They’re very approachable so please email Helen@cornerstones.co.uk or call 020 7792 5551 if you’d like feedback on your sample material with no obligation to use their services.

Click on the links below to view how to subscribe to Jam Magazine. Also, feel free to access their online issue for free.

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'That to Begin, Implies to End...'

It’s never easy really, starting out, but you have to begin somewhere - as did I. I’ve begun a new writing… let’s call it, ‘venture’, and my boss has kindly decided to help me. I used to actually find it easy to begin writing something, and once I began I could go on for a while with great zeal, before, quite abruptly, coming to a stop. I never quite gave knowing where a story was going the importance it needed, which is probably why I’ve never finished anything to date.

So Helen sat me down, took out an A3 piece of paper, and started firing questions at me. Who is my character? What is her goal? What makes her tick? What’s her External Conflict (EC), her Internal Conflict (IC)? This was a lot of questions. Most of my answers to these questions began with ‘Err…’ followed by a few seconds silence. It’s not that I hadn’t thought about my story, or my characters, I had a general idea of what was going to happen and what it was going to be about, but of course thinking about the details began to give this general idea clarity. And in talking about the main character, I realised I’d thought a lot about the ECs she’d be facing, but not enough about her own IC. What began to develop was something solid, a clearer direction; plot.

Sometimes, the excitement is in not knowing where you’re going, but left adrift it’s not hard to lose momentum, and before you know it beginnings can lead to no end at all. That’s not to say there’s no room to maneuver, or that the events won’t evolve or change, but with a little bit of thought (or actually, a lot), knowing the characters you’re dealing with, and knowing the obstacles that they will face, you should, more often than not, help your beginning find that end.

Show and Tell Continued...

 Following on from our last blog here's a really useful discussion with one of our authors on Showing not Telling and getting inside your character’s head:

Author: I have been working hard to improve my manuscript for the last three months in light of the comments in the report and have a general query.

This relates to getting inside the main character’s head.  I understand that when writing in the third person there are two ways of writing in the character’s voice:
(i)   echoing the character’s thoughts in the narration; and
(ii)  letting the reader hear the character’s internal voice.

Using the last paragraph on page 6 of your ‘Show Not Tell’ notes, I am assuming that an example of (i) would be: What could the old goat have meant? and an example of (ii) would be: He means that it’s going to be me!

I am quite good at using (i) but hadn’t really used (ii) much, if at all.  I would really appreciate some guidance as to how often per scene or chapter I should include Skye’s internal voice.  My concern is if I do it too much it could become intrusive, but I am not sure how to get the balance right.

My opening is currently drafted as follows:

Skye Winters lurched precariously back and forth on the crumbling roof of the church tower as the wind gusted round her.  Night had fallen and her mind whirled.  How did she get here?  Where was ‘here’?  And why was she dressed in her pyjamas?  But of one thing she was sure: the irresistible urge growing within her to jump off the tower!

I could redraft to something like:

Skye Winters lurched precariously back and forth on the crumbling roof of the church tower as the wind gusted round her.  Night had fallen and her mind whirled.  How did I get here?  Where is ‘here’?  Why am I dressed in my pyjamas?  But of one thing she was sure: the irresistible urge growing within her to jump off the tower!

I actually prefer the former version, which I think is stronger, and am having difficulty in seeing the advantage to the latter.

What are your thoughts on this?


Kathryn: What a great question.

There are two ways of including the character’s internal voice – the first, which you prefer, is often known as ‘free indirect’, where the thoughts are in the third person past tense, like the narration itself, and the second, where we actually hear the character’s thoughts in first person present tense, is ‘direct’. Neither of these is ‘correct’ as such, and you certainly don’t need to use both – it’s about finding the method that feels right for your character and story. In contemporary fiction, free indirect is more common and like you, many writers, readers and editors feel that it makes for a more immediate, smoother experience of being inside the character’s head.

As I understand it the opening paragraph in your original version read ‘she had no idea how she’d come to be there’. I think your revised version …

Skye Winters lurched precariously back and forth on the crumbling roof of the church tower as the wind gusted round her.  Night had fallen and her mind whirled.  How did she get here?  Where was ‘here’?  And why was she dressed in her pyjamas?  But of one thing she was sure: the irresistible urge growing within her to jump off the tower!

… works very well. I’d recommend cutting the adverb precariously, and showing in other ways how precarious she is (perhaps her foot slips on the slates etc) - bringing in lots of senses (how cold is it, how does it smell up there etc) is also a good way of getting right inside the character’s experience of the moment. And watch for pacing – perhaps you could introduce the urge to jump off the roof a bit more gradually, building up to it and making it really tense.

Does this help?

Author: Thank you for your comments which are extremely helpful.  I think what you are saying is that if 'free indirect' feels right for my character there is no reason why I cannot stick to it throughout (although I may occasionally use 'direct' if that feels right for the scene).

I like what you suggest in your penultimate paragraph and it is something I can look to improve on throughout the manuscript.  The only issue with bringing in lots of senses will mean lengthening a manuscript which is already too long.  Likewise, with regard to building up to the urge to jump, I understand why you made the suggestion but she actually jumps in (currently) the fourth paragraph and if I build up to the jump that will mean lengthening the first chapter and I am trying to keep it tight.


Kathryn: Again, good question.

With showing/telling and getting inside the character’s head, it’s all about achieving a balance: giving enough rich, sensory detail to make the reader and character feel rooted in the scene without slowing things down too much (although remember that at moments of heightened tension and emotion it can actually be good to slow things down to give the reader time to absorb what’s happening). But ‘showing’ doesn’t have to take up more space; remember that a really strong verb can work hard for you. For instance, if you cut out ‘mind whirled’ (which is shown by the thoughts you’ve included anyway) and the adverb, you have a bit more space:

Skye Winters lurched on the crumbling roof of the church tower as the wind tugged at her. She gripped the slates with numb fingers, straining to see in the darkness. Her pyjamas clung to her, damp with rain.
How had she got here?  Where was ‘here’?  She peered over the edge. It wasn’t far down.
She ought to jump…
What? Where had that come from? It’d be crazy to jump, she’d break her neck!

This won’t be quite right for you and your style, of course, but you can see that it’s not much longer and it’s just one way of introducing extra atmosphere whilst showing the fact that the urge to jump is growing within her rather than telling it.

Show and Tell

We often hear authors ask why they should ‘show’ not ‘tell’, when so much of the published material they read is telling. I’m in the process of reading Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, and I can’t help but notice just how much he ‘tells’. There’s little dialogue and the reader isn’t really given the opportunity to interpret any given situation as it’s pretty much all told to them.  Yet, I am utterly hooked.

This does go to show that there’s a certain level of literary talent, which can get away with such a thing. You’ll find that most literary fiction is ‘telling’, but it takes an extremely skilled, not to mention, experienced, writer to manage to hook a reader as they’re told a sequence of events. When the writing’s not been developed to that point yet, the importance of ‘showing’ is essential to whether a story will be gripping enough.

So, when is it important to ‘show’ and when to ‘tell’?

To ‘show’ and dramatise everything can slow the pace of a story, and can quite easily end up boring a reader. The main thing is to understand the crucial moments in your story. What are the key turning points in the plot? When are there dramatic emotional moments? Who are the main characters and what are their characteristics and emotional responses? These are all points where ‘showing’ is much more engaging. Less important action can easily be ‘told’ to move the pace along. A reader doesn’t need to know, for example, when a character is getting out of a car and walking up the stairs to open a door, if opening that door doesn’t lead to some kind of significant event or experience.

‘Showing’ and ‘telling’ both need to be done in varying degrees when writing. The key is to recognise which aspects of your story are significant, and which are less so. It’s always a process and something which even experienced writers have trouble with, but to hone these skills could be the difference between a good story, and a great story.

Teen and Young Adult Fiction

There’s been a lot of controversy lately on teenage/YA fiction and the themes of violence it can incorporate. What are the accepted age ranges for both and how might they differ in the UK and USA? A Cornerstones author, JB Toner, raised questions about this to our managing editor, Kathryn Robinson; this is how the conversation went:

JBT: Please thank your editor for her thoughtful and very thorough report.

I need clarification on age groupings.

The new book that I'm working on is aimed at teenagers (maybe 14+). I thought this was what is meant by ‘Young Adult’, but if this market is the age-group (12+) I need to know that before I write any more.

KR: Thanks for your email and I’m really pleased to hear the report seems helpful. ‘Teen’ and YA is usually seen as being 12/13 to 15 years old.

JBT: Just to be absolutely clear about this point, are you saying that 'teen' and ‘YA’ are the same market - 12/13 to 15? I would have thought ‘teen’ might be 12-15 year olds, whereas Wikipedia defines YA as 14-21. Would you agree with that? Also, are you familiar with The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins? There is a lot of killing in that book and yet the book is labelled ‘teen’ on the back cover. I read somewhere (can't remember where) that the trilogy is thought suitable for 12 year olds.

KR: In the UK ‘teen’ and ‘YA’ are the same market – very generally described as12-15, although readers outside these ages will inevitably read these books too. I think there’s a difference in the US, which may be where the wiki definition comes from (and I think the ‘teen’ definition is used more there, too, whereas 'YA' is more common here); there’s a much more defined ‘teenage’ culture in the States, and their ‘teen’ reading age bracket encompasses this. The Hunger Games (of which the second book in the trilogy is in my bag right at this moment!) is marketed as ‘teen’ fiction – so12-15 in the UK. Yes, there’s a lot of killing - the genre is, I guess, dystopian horror – whereas certain other genres – historical, traditional fantasy, romance – would tend to be a bit tamer in terms of violence (the same rule applies to adult fiction).

I’ve read one of the reviews in the inside of the Hunger Games sequel which describes it as ‘post-apocalyptic brutality fiction’ – great definition I think and indicative of what an impact genre has on tone and levels of violence. Interestingly even in the Hunger Games books – at least as far as I’ve got with them – the level of sex is very slight and innocent, particularly when contrasted to the violence. What a strange world we live in…

See below an event that might be of interest to authors who write teen/YA fiction.

Tuesday 5^th July 2011

BOUNDARIES – Who Killed Controversy?
An insight into the future of teen publishing. With guest experts from across the publishing industry.

Venue: 80 Strand, London  (click for a map)

Members: £0

Non-members: £5

For membership information, please visit the members’ section.

It's All About the Flow

It’s not too shabby coming into work and having your boss look at the opening chapter of the book you’re writing. Thank God. I’ve been stuck on my non-fiction piece for a while now. I’d say a year if I were lying, two if I’m practising honesty. There’s something about the tone in non-fiction which you have to get right, or, I suppose as with any other writing, it just doesn’t flow. Mine, suffice to say, has not been flowing. It has been stuck, since 2009 (unlike my tears which have been free flowing since).

It might’ve been easier if it was an academic piece, that way the documentary style my so-called ‘funny’ anecdotal book seems to have taken would not only be acceptable, but expected. And so after Helen kindly read the opening chapter, she looked at me and said these simple words, ‘Narrative non-fiction’. Followed by, ‘Show, show, show!’ Of course. Retrospect all becomes telling and the only thing you have left to show for it is a dull story. Where’s the tension? The conflict? And in this book’s case, the irony? Narrative non-fiction allows some poetic license, lends immediacy to the event (or events), allows the writer to divulge information with action scenes and dialogue, without boring the life out of the reader. Hallelujah! An answer. I won’t get too excited as I’ve only just started writing in this new format, but at least I can say that the only things free flowing now, are words.

Christmas and the Like

It’s that time of year where everyone is winding down and preparing for days of basically, non-stop eating, watching very bad Christmas films, (mine, last year included Herbie Reloaded – or something like that – with Lindsay Lohan, annual re-watching of Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, and of course, It’s a Wonderful Life). When you put your feet up, curled up in front of an open fire (if you’re lucky enough to have one) or just huddled by the central heating, soaking in the deliciousness of resting after a meal which has rendered your body useless, spare a thought for all that hard work you’ve done this year and know that you deserve this rest!

Having sent out our Cornerstones’ author portfolio to agents we’re very excited about what the future might hold. Cornerstones will certainly be thinking about all the wonderful progress so many of our authors have made this year, and all the new talent which we’re looking forward to receiving next year. Having our own works of literature to complete it can be disheartening to not have progressed as far as one might have liked, but a new year brings new hope; it’s all about recharging the creative process and, one way or another, getting it done!

Happy Christmas to everyone, and a wonderful New Year.

You HAVE to read...

A friend of mine suggested I read The End of the Affair. She in fact stopped to take a breath, put both her hands on her chest, or thereabouts, closed her eyes (in the characteristically dramatic way that she does when passionate about something)  and said, ‘Oh my God, you HAVE to read The End of the Affair', I mean, it’s just, like, oh my God’. I’m sure she rambled a little more than that, but that was the gist anyway. And every so often when we’d meet she’d put her hand on my arm, close her eyes again and ask, ‘Have you read it yet?’ and I would, in my characteristically non passionate way reply, ‘No’.

‘But you have to – it’s just, right, well, okay, it’s just about this one moment in time which changes the entire course of this love affair – and I know you’ll love it, because in that moment the woman…(and she rolled her eyes here) ‘…wait for it’ (shaked her head) ’…finds God’. I thought she was about to start sobbing at this point but she managed to contain herself and continue, ‘You’ll love it’.

Of course, it was the mention of God changing said woman’s life that intrigued me, though I intended on reading it anyway. Being, for better or for worse, partial to religion I decided to pick it up and open the first page. I perhaps shouldn’t have done this at the bus stop, because suffice to say from the opening two paragraphs, I was hooked:

A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. I say 'one chooses' with the inaccurate pride of a professional writer who—when he has been seriously noted at all—has been praised for his technical ability, but do I in fact of my own will choose that black wet January night on the Common, in 1946, the sight of Henry Miles slanting across the wide river of rain, or did these images choose me? It is convenient, it is correct according to the rules of my craft to begin just there, but if I had believed then in a God, I could also have believed in a hand, plucking at my elbow, a suggestion, 'Speak to him: he hasn’t seen you yet.'
For why should I have spoken to him? If hate is not too large a term to use in relation to any human being, I hated Henry—I hated his wife Sarah too. And he, I suppose, came soon after the events of that evening to hate me: as he surely at times must have hated his wife and that other, in whom in those days we were lucky enough not to believe. So this is a record of hate far more than of love, and if I come to say anything in favour of Henry and Sarah I can be trusted: I am writing against the bias because it is my professional pride to prefer the near-truth, even to the expression of my near-hate
Hooked, so that I refused to put it away when I was walking home from the bus stop, on a wet and dark evening (the irony of sharing a similar atmospheric setting with the narrator leant itself to a little more enjoyment on my behalf). And when the following day I put it down after having finished it, I refused to pick up another book for days. It stayed with me in the way brilliant books do. I’m a sucker for a crisis, doomed love, moral agonising, especially when it’s written without being sentimental. Tragedy is key for me, and this had all the great elements of it; the torture of wanting one thing but being completely unable to reconcile with that want because of one’s duty made me want to tell everyone I met to read it. Of course, the subject matter might not be to everyone’s tastes, the tragedy might even be slightly too dramatic for one’s liking, but the narrative! Oh the narrative! I stop to put both hands on my chest, close my eyes, and say, ‘Oh my God, you HAVE to read The End of the Affair.

Master of Characterisation

The other night I went to the West End to see Mike Leigh's new film, Another Year, and where we had an audience with him afterwards. I'm a huge fan of Mike Leigh - Abigail's Party and Nuts in May... His films start off with a skeleton script and they develop, shoot and direct all at the same time. This is a bold process but I think that is why his characters feel so organic and real with edges of untidiness. When you see this film there isn't much of a plot - it is, surprise surprise, about another year that rolls by, and how if at all, the characters change (some of them don't and there's a poignancy in that). It is intensely gripping, beautifully shot, and with the characters at the core.

As writers we can learn from this film: how to unearth a character and make even the most unattractive ones sympathetic, how to bring heart and warmth into a story to balance out the dark. With a story, without character - even with the best plot in the world - unless we care about what happens why bother reading it?

When we talk about internal conflict versus external conflict or emotional versus plot arcs we're discussing how the external plot impacts on the emotional arc and forces the character to change. This is vital for your protagonist and essential in most genres such as children's and women's commercial (not so necessary for thrillers but there still should be a character we're gunning for). So, while I adore a page-turning edge-of-your-seat plot, even in my own writing (cowgirl romance) I must not get carried away with the thrills of herding cattle and knife throwing (and yes, I can do both) and forget about my character and the emotions she is forced to go through, and how the plot should constantly test her core problem or goal. This is established at the beginning of the story and could be a fear of being loved or a need to find a sense of home - that even the character may not be aware of - but where by the end she has overcome her fear or achieved her goal.

In Another Year the characters shift but not in the way that you would expect (I can't give the story away now, can I?!) where you can practically see the feelings gnaw away under their skin and where there is more said in what is not said that is often contradictory to the dialogue. It's a masterpiece and I highly recommend it to all you writers out there. As an editor, though, there were a few incongruities, some stray characters that didn't really serve a purpose and one or two scenes that were overlong but, hey! who am I to judge...

[By the way, I've been trying to get a DVD copy of Nuts in May and there are none available. If anyone knows how I might get hold of one please let me know - it's an all time favourite].