publishing Archive -

Posts about publishing

Aug22016

Interview with Jennifer Johnson-Blalock of Liza Dawson Associates

Today, I’m interviewing Jennifer Johnson-Blalock, an associate agent, of Liza Dawson Associates with questions about Publishing, what she’s looking for, and being an Agent.

Jennifer joined Liza Dawson Associates as an associate agent in 2015, having previously interned at LDA in 2013 before working as an agent’s assistant at Trident Media Group. Jennifer graduated with honors from The University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in English and earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Before interning at LDA, she practiced entertainment law and taught high school English and debate. Follow her on Twitter @JJohnsonBlalock, and visit her website: www.jjohnsonblalock.com.

David: You’ve probably seen a lot of queries since you became an agent. What’s the number one thing writers get wrong in a query? Is there one area where we should really try to improve?

Jennifer: The number one mistake writers make in queries is not hooking me in with a compelling and succinct description of the project. I get a surprising number of queries that provide more of a synopsis, talk mostly about the writer, or (worst of all) say that the book “can’t be described.” I think queries are most akin to flap copy—perhaps with a bit more plot summary.

One area in which I’d urge writers to strive for improvement is with comp titles. They’re SO difficult (trust me, I know from writing pitches), but finding the right comp really helps agents get a feel for your book. Don’t be afraid to be specific; think: the voice of X and the pacing of Y.

David: Something that stood out for me right away is that you’re looking for highly readable books that explain why we act and think like we do. Can you explain what you mean in a bit more detail and give us some examples?

Jennifer: I’m really fascinated by pop psychology and sociology books that explain human behavior and conditions. One of my favorites is STUMBLING ON HAPPINESS, which is all about how we misremember the past and do a poor job of predicting what will make us happy in the future. Recently I loved MODERN ROMANCE’s exploration of the contemporary dating landscape.

I’m really looking for books for a trade, rather than an academic, audience. Daniel Gilbert’s use of memorable anecdotes and Aziz Ansari’s humor made those books very readable and compelling for the average reader.

David: My family is Oklahoma City too, though they don’t attend Thunder games. What’s your favorite book with a sports theme? Though it’s fiction, I love Chris Crutcher’s STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES.

Jennifer: Recently, I loved Emily Giffin’s THE ONE AND ONLY–such a perfect blend of football and romance that nails that FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS feel. And this is a few years old, but Miranda Kenneally’s CATCHING JORDAN has a female quarterback, which is just amazing. I’d love to see more sports books about women breaking barriers. Also, I’ve been saving them for a slightly less hectic week, but I’m so excited to pair my Olympics gymnastics viewing with both Caela Carter’s TUMBLING and Megan Abbot’s YOU WILL KNOW ME. (Come to think of it, I loved DARE ME–yes, cheerleading is a sport.)

David: You’re a feminist, which I, and my critique group, really appreciate. What are some pitfalls writers fall into in that department? Are there certain tropes or negative clichés they should avoid?

Jennifer: Oh, this is a big question. This is by no means comprehensive, but there are two things I see frequently in books that really frustrate me as a feminist. The first is rape as a plot device or characterization ploy. If it’s at all possible for you to substitute an assault without rape and have the same story, then you shouldn’t use rape. And it also shouldn’t be a shortcut to explain why a character’s angry or vulnerable. The second big issue for me is the failure to present accidental pregnancy as a choice. I read so many books where a character becomes unexpectedly pregnant and immediately jumps to, okay, now I’m having a baby–that’s not a foregone conclusion. I want a character to at least consider all her options, including abortion.

On the other side of things, however, I’ve read many submissions over the last year where the politics are so appealing, the feminist themes are so strong, but the plot is lacking. I really believe in strongly plotted books, even for novels that are very much concerned with theme, voice, and characterization. Feminism is a baseline for me; it’s not enough to make me sign a book.

David: Publishers Marketplace lists some great deals across different genres for you over the last year, including non-fiction, fiction, and YA. What’s your favorite recent sale or work by a client you’re excited for us to read?

Jennifer: I cannot choose between my babies! Seriously, though. I will say that the FIRST two books that will be hitting your shelves come out next summer, 2017: Rebecca Barrow’s YOU DON’T KNOW ME BUT I KNOW YOU, a contemporary YA about a girl who receives an unexpected letter from her birth mother as she and her boyfriend struggle to decide what to do about an unexpected pregnancy, while facing a growing distance with her best friend, and Kristin Rockaway’s THE WILD WOMAN’S GUIDE TO TRAVELING THE WORLD, a work of commercial women’s fiction about a twenty-something travel-loving New Yorker who starts to question her five-year plan after meeting an American artist in Hong Kong.

They’re obviously very different books, but they’re both extremely smart and well written and feature strong women at their centers–they also both have very long titles ha!

David: I know a lot of agents and editors get bombarded by writers and it can be overwhelming, being pitched all the time. Is there anything you’d like writers to know that you feel would improve the process from our side?

Jennifer: Just keep in mind that agents are human–sometimes we make mistakes, sometimes life gets in the way, and we don’t respond as quickly as we should, etc. Know that we appreciate how hard it is for writers, and we really do wish the best for each of you. We’re all readers who want more books in the world, but we as individuals have limited resources and thus have to limit what we take on. And remember that this is a highly subjective process. I’ve disliked books that the rest of the world has loved. When I read queries or hear pitches, I’m looking for books that I personally want to champion.

David: I love THE SECRET HISTORY OF WONDER WOMAN. I wrote a lot of papers about her in college. My poor professors probably got so tired of all the bondage talk. You have such a wide range of what you’re looking for. Are there any topics or areas you’re really oversaturated with right now? Any you’re light on and really hungry for?

Jennifer: As a newer agent, my list is still small enough that I could take on more of anything. But I’d really love to find the following:

a dark thriller or suspense novel–think Caroline Kepnes or Gillian Flynn
an upper MG project like COUNTING BY 7s
a very smart contemporary romance that feels fresh
a deeply reported narrative nonfiction book with a personal edge and a sociological bent like ALL THE SINGLE LADIES

David: Before you were an agent, you interned at LDA and worked as an assistant agent at Trident Media Group. What advice would have for anyone looking getting into publishing? Any myths you’d want to dispel?

Jennifer: Publishing–especially agenting–is very much still an apprenticeship model industry in which connections are important. You really do have to start at the intern level, and I’d encourage you to be open about your first internship. I actually started as an intern for a digital book discovery platform, which led to my internship at LDA, where I really wanted to be. And that was at 29 years old, with a Harvard Law degree and a few years of experience in both law and education–there are no shortcuts.

Once you have that internship, be willing to put in all the time you can, even though you may not be getting paid. I put in hours beyond my required 15 each week for Liza, which seemed a bit crazy at the time, but it obviously paid off in the long run. Finally, I’m not in a position to change this yet, but I know the expectation of an unpaid internship in New York City is impossible for some people–I hope that we as an industry continue to work on ways to make publishing more of an equal opportunity career field.

Feb32011

My Own Two Cents: Why I Hate My Kindle

I love technology. I may write about fantastic societies without computers or electronics, but I still love my iPod, my netbook, and my Playstation. Despite this, I hate my Kindle.

It was a generous Christmas gift, and I’ve been trying to experiment and work around my initial impressions, but so far any attempt to find a more positive angle hasn’t worked.

Let’s start with the consumption problem. When I buy a latte in a disposable cup and drink it, it’s been consumed. I trash the cup, I notice the expense on my debit card statement, and I move on. I’ve consumed something, and it is wholly gone. Books on the Kindle feel the same way for me. I can’t give them to a friend, donate them to the Denver Children’s Home, sell , or trade them. The book I purchased for the Kindle was the same price as a paperback, and it’s gone. I’m never going to read it again. From an author’s standpoint, this is a good thing: a single copy for a single reader, so a book will have higher sales figures, but it also impacts the ability of a reader to spread the book’s popularity by word of mouth or loaning it out. If eBook’s cost were lower than a paperback it might appeal to me.

The second problem involves the portability: I can use the Kindle to load up on books so that say, on a two week trip to Europe, I’m not toting around as much weight. But I can’t use the Kindle during takeoff and landing, two periods when I’m most likely to read while everyone else watches the belt bit or braces for impact.

I thought perhaps the vocal feature would be useful: I could listen to any book I purchased, but that quickly proved grating. It was like being read to by Stephen Hawking, so I’m more likely to pay for an Audible book that I can stand to listen to.

A friend pointed out that pdfs can be transferred over, but this did not work very well either. I have a lot of reference books, mostly historical, that could be usefully stored in a digital form, but the Kindle doesn’t handle viewing them very well. You need to zoom in and around in order to see the pages. This kills the pdf’s ease of use completely, and I’m more likely to stick with my netbook. This problem might be solved by upgrading to the larger version, but that would further degrade the portability factor.

I am sure that the environmental impact of printing a book and shipping it to a store outweighs the cost of transmitting it wirelessly to the Kindle, but I’m also tired of having to charge the various devices in my life. A book is perfectly serviceable. It does not require a battery or one more cord in a drawer.

These are my own impressions, and two friends swear I’ll come around, that in no time the Kindle will be as indispensable to my life as my iPod, but so far I have to say that I’m going to stick with killing trees and browsing bookstores.

Jun232010

Had to Share

Laura Miller’s Salon piece on self publishing. The section on slush was what I found the most interesting:

It seriously messes with your head to read slush. Being bombarded with inept prose, shoddy ideas, incoherent grammar, boring plots and insubstantial characters — not to mention ton after metric ton of clichés — for hours on end induces a state of existential despair that’s almost impossible to communicate to anyone who hasn’t been there themselves: Call it slush fatigue. You walk in the door pledging your soul to literature, and you walk out with a crazed glint in your eyes, thinking that the Hitler Youth guy who said, “Whenever I hear the word ‘culture,’ I reach for my revolver” might have had a point after all. Recovery is possible, but it’ll take a while (apply liberal doses of F. Scott Fitzgerald). In the meantime, instead of picking up every new manuscript with an open mind and a tiny nibbling hope, you learn to expect the worst. Because almost every time, the worst is exactly what you’ll get.

I’m sure Miller’s article will be getting a lot of discussion on the publishing blogs, and I’m very interested in seeing how it’s received. I obviously have a stake in this matter, and I’m one of the partial. But I also know that my book under the bed was rightfully rejected. Does the query process truly act as quality control, or is it stiffing good books? All the reading I’m doing is beginning to hint to both.

May232010

The Cycle and Struggle of Writing

There’s been a wave of blog posts lately regarding rejection in writing, reiterating how hard it is get published and succeed. I don’t feel the need to beat that horse, but I do want to talk a bit about what we learn when we start writing and aspire to publication. First, let me give credit to the wonderful Betsy Lerner, whose post put the bug in my head.

I had an idea early on that writing a book was only the first step. Having watched my aunt struggle to publish in my teens, I used to say that writing the book was only half the battle. Now I’m pretty convinced that the initial writing is closer to ten percent. There’s querying (which in of itself is not a simple process), coming up with a marketing plan, networking, learning to write a strong synopsis and elevator pitch, avoiding scammers, and thickening your skin till it has the consistency of concrete. You need to be actively reading all the while to keep the rhythms of English close at hand. There are a lot of decision points mixed throughout this process: is a critique group right for you? Should you blog, use social network sites like Facebook, invest in a website, joins local associations, and invest the money to attend conferences? Then there is the writing itself, revisions, polishing, and growing in your craft.

One of the biggest misconceptions I face in telling people I write is that it’s an automatic sign of success, having written a book. Just explaining the idea of a practice manuscript can be a bit draining.

So why write and persist when the process is so hard? The easiest answer is that I love it. It defines me. The few times in my life when I’m put it away, tried to walk away, have been the most depressing I’ve had. Each step in the process of writing and publishing is a lesson, a learning experience, and a struggle. When it all gets me down, especially the notion that I might never publish in an industry undergoing seismic upheaval, I turn to my computer, fire up Word, and start a new project. I try to find that spark that first drove me to want to write down a story. The best answer to getting frustrated with writing, perhaps ironically, is to write.

Aug302009

Queries and Confidence: Rules for the Query Process

You may have sensed a little radio silence on the blog lately, and I’ll admit I’ve been busy. My next two projects are coming together, and I’ll soon have to choose which one to devote myself to for the rest of the year. I’ve also taken the time to join the Rocky Mountain Writers Association to expand my contacts and critique circle.

Publishing continues to be a scary game right now, as Jenny Rappaport relays, and more than a few agents are closed to queries, particularly from debut authors. It’s not a good time for trying to break in. The query process can be intimidating, and it requires just the right grip on your work: you have to believe in your book, but also you have to know when editing is required.

Despite all the doom and gloom, I’m optimistic about my writing. I’m hopeful about Eastlight’s chances, and weirdly enough, I get excited when I’m researching my queries.

Rejection is a powerful motivator, if you take it right. You can choose to go hide from the process (and I’ll confess that starting my day by reading up on the state of Publishing is a powerful motivator to fire up the Playstation and avoid reality), or you can rally and use the frustration as fuel to get more queries out there.

All this engagement with the query process has led me to some personal rules:

1. It only takes one yes: don’t give up and query widely.
2. Rejections are normal and the nature of the game.
3. The sooner you query, the sooner you sign (don’t let the process get you down).

The one caveat as always, is the balance: your work has to be ready. You have to have it in the most polished, professional state you can. With few exceptions, regardless of genre, you can only query an agent once for a book.

Jul172009

Late to the Party: Some Comments on Trying to Publish and Michael Chabon’s Wonder Boys

You might notice that the list of links on the blog is growing. This will keep happening as I keep finding new sites that help with my understanding of the publishing process and business. If you’re an aspiring writer, I recommend any of them, as they’ll help you get the lay of the land. They most certainly should be read and carefully studied before you start the query process. I especially recommend Kristin Nelson, Nathan Bradsford, and Janet Reid for this.

As a whole, the process of publishing can really get you down. Writing and publishing are two very different things. When I was writing my first book, I heard a lot of comments that made me scratch my head. Most were usually along the lines of: “Won’t that be nice? To write a book and make a ton of money?” I knew these weren’t comments on my talent, but rather a supposition that writing a book leads to fame and fortune. Let’s be clear: I’m getting more savvy about the state of publishing every day, and it’s an uphill battle to make it out of the trenches, publish a book, and see it succeed. Even if you reach this point, continued success is not guaranteed. You have to continually evolve, continually market yourself and your work, and continually improve. Frankly, the whole process of breaking into commercial fiction can get me down. Quitting isn’t an option, but taking a breather isn’t a bad idea either. For me, a breather is a book or movie that reminds me why I love writing, and the English language, so much.

Nearly eleven years ago, my friend Alan gave me a copy of Wonder Boys. It’s even autographed. And for eleven years it sat on my shelf, unread. I wish I’d cracked it open years ago. Wonder Boys is that rare book about books, like A.S. Byatt’s Possession, that brings out my love of the written word. Chabon nails his characters so well, so cleverly, and sums up the crazy things writers do to find material to work with. He also captures a lot of the pretension and manic energy that surround them, and I have to say, I can spot myself or some people from my college program in his pages. Here I am, reading a book that most of you probably discovered a decade ago. But I think we’ve established I tend to move at my own pace when it comes to reading, though I’m quickly trying to better synch myself with the state of the market and adjust my reading list accordingly.

When reading a book as good as Wonder Boys, you have two directions you can take your feelings: jealousy that you may never write anything nearly that good, or you can be inspired to write more, write better, and fall back in love with your craft. I’m sure there are some people out there who would have a third reaction, which would be “I can do better than that,” but I’m not among them. I choose to be inspired, to let books this good drive me to write better and push myself out of my comfort zone. I could give you a solid critique of Wonder Boys, break it down for you, but I wouldn’t want to spoil your fun. It’s worth reading if only for Chabon’s fantastic phrasing, which turns over and over to make me laugh or catch my eye on some delicious detail in his wording. If you trust me on these matters, just read the book.

Apr172009

Lessons Learned so Far

Status: Eastlight is complete! First query letters are off. The first rejection is in. Now we play the waiting game.

I was really flattered yesterday when someone asked me what he should do to start writing a book. I felt a bit like an imposter, as I haven’t published my novel, but I do think I have figured a few things out. Here are the things I am applying to my own work.

Write. This one is standard advice. You’ll read it anywhere. To write well, you need to write as often as you can. I’d take it a step farther and say that you need to write with a structured approach. Be free form to get it down, but try to keep it in my mind that the work has to make sense to other people. In fantasy we have a tendency to spin out worlds that to us are intricately detailed, with lots of juicy side-trips, but that same book needs to translate into something a reader can engage. My friend Alan says that I “have a hard time seeing the trees for the forest, and my forest is deep and lush.” He’s referring to my tendency to build an entire world, when the reader only needs the part they’re exploring. So I’ve been cutting a lot of these details out and saving them for later journeys.

Grammar. This is one I’ve seen pushed aside in a lot of the creative writing courses I’ve taken. The idea is that writing is intimidating, and grammar more so, therefore it’s important to just write and not worry about grammar, which is something you can bolt in later. I think of grammar and the language itself as the operating system. You might create an incredible video game, but if it won’t run on any computer’s operating system, then you’ve made something that will never sell. So again, write freely, but study grammar and language. Writing truly is a craft and becoming good at it means constant practice and applied study. If you’re writing fantasy, think of it as your own wizardly studies. Mastery takes expertise and training. The beauty of it is that you can always learn more, go farther, and reach a new level in the craft. The next level will always be there. Reach for it, and never stop growing in skill.

Read. Annie Dillard says that the payoff in writing is being a better reader. Actively read, not just in your genre, but in others. See what’s happening in Literary Fiction, Horror, Suspense, etc. Even Romance may have a few things to teach you. This is one piece of advice I see over and over, but the part that I don’t see as often is that you need to read actively. By this I mean that you need to analyze books as you read them. Think about point of view, exposition, plot elements, characterization. Try to grasp what’s working and not working in the books you read or even the movies you watch. I’ll warn you though, this might kind of ruin reading for you. I know I’ve learned to shut off my writer self when discussing a movie with friends. Dissecting a creature does after all kill it.

Share. I wrote my first book in a vacuum. I thought of it as a great opus, a piece of art, and didn’t get any input until it was finally finished. And then, it didn’t sell. The book was bloated, with too much description, too much exposition, not enough dialogue. The book came out just like it was being written: solitarily, with little review. When you’ve got a draft together, carefully select people you trust to share it with. They need to be readers or writers, but it’s hard to find just the right critique circle. I chose readers who have a lot of experience with books but not so much with writing. I felt the writers I worked with were too close to their work or ideas to objectively critique mine. Even then, my readers had very different tastes. I found their feedback to often be helpful not for fixing problems, but for telling me what wasn’t working. Regardless of the feedback, be gracious. Somebody took the time to read a less than perfect version of your book. I really could not have written this book without them.

Open-mindedness. Holding your work too close to you is a sure way to strangle it. Some of the best sentences I framed for Eastlight were the ones I had to cut. They were pretty, but they didn’t fit into the flow. I find that I suffer from too many ideas, too many random directions. I had to cut a lot of these side-trips and segues in order to make the book work as a whole tapestry. Be open to the feedback you receive, and be prepared to make changes. Define which items you’re not willing to budge on, but be sure they’re worth the fight. I may revise this lesson once Eastlight is published, as I suspect that publishers and agents will have some suggestions of their own. The important thing is that I am open to them. I’m not married to the work, and as long as the changes don’t compromise the heart of the story I wanted to tell, I am willing to make them. Get a thick skin. It’s a tough market, and thousands of books are written every year that will never be published.

Editing. You’ve got to be brutally objective when you edit. Stephen King suggests putting a manuscript away for six months before editing. I’m too impatient for that, but I do recommend getting some distance. In my case, I sent the book out for critique and got to work on my next project. I started writing something completely different, so that when Eastlight came back covered in blood red ink, I was ready to see it with fresh eyes. It really helped. I integrated the feedback that I felt enhanced the book, starting with the line by line typo corrections, then turned my attention to items of larger or vaguer note: “This character doesn’t have a big enough part;” “There are too many religious factions to keep track of,” etc. Some of this feedback was a matter of the reader’s taste. Some of them agreed on weak points, and after having taken six weeks off from it, so did I. I cut a lot of factions, speeding things up considerably, and making it easier for the reader to jump into the story. In some places I combined factions, removing partitions, and in one, I changed an important faction that showed up at the end to match one from the beginning, giving the story some nice parallelism. A friend asked why I worried so much about editing, that wouldn’t the agents or publishers take care of that, which brings us to my next lesson learned.

Professionalism. Be in it to win it. Be objective and on. Write the best book you can and try to avoid obsessing about publishing. When you’re ready, and the book is as good as you can make it, start studying the publishing and querying process. Do not just start sending your book out. Read up on agents, what they represent, what they’re looking for. Follow the instructions on their website or in Writer’s Market, or on Publisher’s Marketplace. Never assume you’re the exception to the rule. Be prepared to see your work objectively and take critique. Get real on the chances and on the process. Don’t assume the book you’ve labored on as an act of love is the next big seller. Be kind to the agents that request partials and gracious to those who don’t.

I’m sure as the process progresses that I’ll have a fresh list or a few refinements, but the list above is a good start.