Taking a Break

I think I have missed two posts at this point and I apologize for not having made this announcement sooner, but I don't think I wanted to admit that I was going to have to stop this for a while. But here it is: I won't be making anymore posts here, at least consistently, until May.

I just started university so there has been no time to write. Every time I do have free time I use it to relax and have fun, because while I love to write, it does take quite a bit of concentration and energy. The only reason I managed the posts every week is because I wrote quite a few of the topics ahead of time and then published them when I needed them. At this point I believe that I only have one draft left.

But as soon as school is over in April I will get back into writing. This blog will continue as usual. If I feel inspired I might have another post up before then but don't count on much. What I will say is that expect my next post May 1st at 7AM as usual. Until then I hope that you are all reading amazing books and enjoying your lives.

A Short Insight Into a Literary Internship

Back when I was still trying to figure out how I could express my love for stories, I was an intern for a literary agency for three months. It was my job to the read the one hundred pages of manuscripts and provide detailed summary of what I'd read as well as its marketability overseas (which I assume was the focus of this particular agency).

The review would have a limit similar to this: 

TITLE: 

AUTHOR: 

SUB TO:

SUB BY:

FORM: 

LENGTH:

BUDGET:

GENRE: 

LOCATION: 

PERIOD: 

READER: 

DATE: 

LOGLINE: A short hook that describes the main character, location and major conflict of the story.

COMMENT SUMMARY:

A shortened version of what I thought of the book which will be expanded later on in the review.

PROJECT RECOMMENDATION:

WRITER RECOMMENDATION:

SYNOPSIS:

A thorough analysis that took up most of the review so that the person after me wouldn't need to read the whole manuscript to understand most of the events.

COMMENTS:

I could make comments on the story and the parts that I thought were strong/weak.




The manuscripts I was given would range from nonfiction to children's literature. I wouldn't know what to expect when I opened a new document.  Some left me awed because I would already imagine them on a shelf at a bookstore and some left me uncomfortable due to the strange ways some of the characters viewed the world.

First and foremost this experience taught me I wasn't mean to work in the publishing industry because reading other people's work only makes my desire to write stronger. But I have now gained a deeper sympathy for the poor interns who have to wade through the countless manuscripts. Essentially, when new authors are warned against starting their novel slowly, it is great advice. There was nothing worse than reading the first ten pages and realizing the next ninety would contain the same mindless chatter between characters and the same description repeated in ten different ways.

Of course the window I was shown into the publishing world was very small. I still don't know how the manuscripts given to me were chosen or how much weight they put into my reviews. But when they did contact me they were always pleased with my work.

Due to my undying curiosity I did do some research on the novels I was reading to find out more. A few were set to be published in the coming months after I'd been sent them while others had no trace on the internet at all. My assumption is that the literary agency was in charge of selling books that were already supposed to be published in North America overseas. Oftentimes publishers will sell the rights of books to other publishers in different countries so they don't have to worry about all the added details of the vastly different markets around the world.

The coolest thing I was sent to read was a condensed version of the sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman which just came out in 2015. I will forever be puzzled as to why I was sent something of that popularity and why it wasn't the full story, instead some strange shortened summary of it. But I did was I was told and read it.

I enjoyed reading the nonfiction proposals the most. Authors who want to write in that genre often have to sell their idea to a publisher, as well as their image to a certain extent to prove why they are more qualified about the subject than anyone else, before even beginning to write it. I will have an entire post in the future dedicated to how this process works as it is completely different than fiction novels.

But at the end of the day this experience taught me that I would rather work on my own stories than someone else's. Hopefully my next interaction with the publishing industry is when I have my own manuscript ready.

Publishing (Part 1) - Traditional Publishing

Unfortunately I have no new news to share with my writing process. I am still looking forward to getting a lot of my editing done over winter break.

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When a book is finally done, there are two major options that you can choose. There is the traditional publishing, which is what I am talking about today, or self-publishing which I will cover in a later post. Both are viable options but I will be going through the pros and cons for both options.

Traditional publishing takes time. Instead of being able to publish your book in a couple of hours on Amazon, it can take years to get your book on the shelves. What is boils down to, is that this way of publishing can be difficult at first but is easier in the long run, whereas self-publishing is easy to accomplish but hard to get successful with.

To go this route you first have to get a literary agent. You have to send query letters with samples of your writing and they have to choose to represent you. Different agents will have different expectations and requirements. Some will want to work close with you to perfection your book while another might just be interested in the business side of it. But before they decide to represent your book, they have to find it in the “slush pile” which is a term for the thousands of submissions they probably receive weekly. After you send your submission it could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to six months to hear back from them. Then they might request a full manuscript and decide whether they like it. It then becomes their job to sell your novel to a publishing house. Even after you sign a deal with a publishing house you might have to wait another six months to a year before it actually hits shelves. Therefore you could look at a couple years after you’ve finished your book to finally get it published.

But once you get a deal with a publishing house there will be a great team of professionals to help you edit your book, design the cover, and all the other details associated with getting a book ready. Even if you go the self-publishing route these are still necessary to do before you publish your book. The only difference here is that you now have to pay all the costs of getting a professional editor to take a look at your book, and maybe buy a piece of art online as your cover.

On the other hand, when the deal is made with a publishing house, you have lost some control of your book. The editors might have creative licence to make changes to your book whether it is to remove a character or theme, or add something else in. Depending who you are working with this might depend, but for the most part they own your book. It belongs to them for the full life of copyright which is the lifetime of the author plus seventy years. You might be able to work out a deal later to get it back but it will essentially no longer be yours.

The publishing house will aid you in marketing to some respect but the vast majority of it will still be up to you. They will give you benefits that you couldn’t get on your own such as print distribution to bookstores, and national coverage. I have heard that most libraries will not carry self-published books either, and schools won’t encourage students to read them. There is a sense of validation that comes with being traditionally published.

Finally, the most important aspect of all of this is the money you will earn. An author will usually get an advance once the book has been sold. For new authors this will be around ten thousand dollars. Then they will earn royalties on the books sold. This can range from seven to twenty five percent of cover price. But you won’t start getting money for royalties until you have made more than your advance. So if you were paid ten thousand dollars, you won’t begin to earn royalties until the royalties you have already made has reached ten thousand dollars. Royalties are only paid two times a year so you will have to wait six months between paychecks.

I have heard that sometimes deals will be made so an author will receive a lower advance in return for higher royalties. None of these numbers are set in stone as publishing deals will always vary depending on your book and your agent.

But one thing I want to stress is that self-publishing is a valid option and you don’t need the validation of a literary agent or a publishing house to prove that you have written a real book. There are many people who have been successful going the self-publishing route though it is rarer. But if your book is fantastic it won’t matter how you publish it because people will love it in whatever form it is. There are instances where people have self-published only to traditionally publish that book after they have received a lot of success.