A Day in the Life.... by Jim Hart

A while back one of my clients sent me some interview questions for her blog. Here is a portion of that exchange. I thought they could be helpful if you’re either looking for a literary agent, or just wondering what your agent does all day! 

Q: You get lots of emails, not just queries but from current clients, editors, etc... What tips or advice do you have for writers regarding queries?

A: Keep it brief and be professional. Don’t try to be all mysterious and cute (unless you’re a humor writer).  I want to see the title, genre and word count of your book. And then a brief synopsis of two, or three, paragraphs. Quickly tell me about yourself. Is this your first published book? Why did you write this book? Tell me something about your author platform.

If the book you are pitching has been previously self-published PLEASE indicate that first. In most cases a publisher will not be interested in a previously self-published book. It’s frustrating to find out on my own that the book being pitched has already been self-published and has been available on Amazon.

Q: What catches your eye?

A: Quick details. Author credentials. A plot or subject that is either somewhat original, or is handled or presented in a unique way.

Q: Is longer or shorter better?

A: I like a shorter e-mail. Just hit me with the details: what’s the book? Who are you? Any publishing history?

Q:What are some things you DON'T want to see in a query?

A: Poor writing. Desperation. I would prefer that the author does not copy and paste chapters from their book into the e-mail.

Q: What are you looking for in a proposal?

A: Honesty. I look for some sort of indication that the writer has a good knowledge of the publishing industry. I need a good bio with only pertinent information. I look for a marketing plan that spells out what the author will do and has done, not just what they plan to do. Don’t plan on making a website for your book. You should already have one in place before sending proposals. I look strongly at the comparable/competitive titles section, so take the time to do research.

Q: You've requested a full manuscript. On the author side of things, it's a lot of waiting and nail biting and checking emails every five minutes. But what happens on the agent side of things?

A: I’m trying to find extended periods of time where I can read relatively uninterrupted. I like to try to get six to ten chapters reviewed in one sitting. Usually by that time I’ll know if I need to, or want to, continue. If the manuscript is really compelling I read it in one sitting.

I’ve read a manuscript that I loved while on vacation. Most of the time I also take notes – what I liked or did not like, what I thought worked well and what did not.

Q: Why can it take weeks to get back to authors on partials/ fulls?

A: Every day is a new adventure and I never know what is going to demand my attention at the moment. We could get contract offers from publishers that need immediate attention. There may be phone calls from clients and editors. These are some of the things that I do in the time that I’m reviewing a proposal or a manuscript:

• ·         I’m also going through my contacts, doing some research on possible publishers and taking notes in order to get an idea if a particular manuscript has a decent chance at getting picked up by a publisher.

• ·         I’m looking at their web page / blog / Facebook / twitter pages

• ·         I’m looking them up on Amazon to see any publishing history

Q: When is it appropriate for an author to follow up on a MS request?

A: Six weeks

Q:  So you love the MS, and the author and you really seem to click...how do you decide to make that final step and offer representation? And, in the end, what makes you decide on sending a rejection?

A: As soon as I am convinced that:

1) The writing is excellent and there is little or minimal work to be done on the manuscript.

2) I have identified a suitable number of editors to send the proposal to

3) I have a clear understanding of the author’s expectations and their writing goals for the future.

4) I get the sense that the author will be professional and pleasant to work with, and they understand that we will need to work as a team.

And that would be same criteria when I make the decision to not represent an author.

Q: What do agents do all day?

A: Drink coffee and use eye-drops! I try to send proposals to editors every day. Sometimes dozens will be sent in one day. We always have multiple e-mail conversations going not only with clients, but with editors. In addition to reviewing proposals and manuscripts I am reading industry newsletters, updating my contacts, researching publishers, trying to stay abreast of industry changes.

Q: Any other tips or advice or insider info?

A: Show the agent, through your query and proposal, that you are a hard worker. Do your research before sending a query or proposal to an agent. Don’t send a query until you have a great proposal complete and ready to send when it’s requested. I personally don’t mind when the proposal is attached to the query. That saves me time, and it’s one lest e-mail to keep track of.

And be patient!

Good Friday by Jim Hart

John 18:14 tells us that “Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jewish leaders that it would be good if one man died for the people.”  (NIV)  (For the full context of Caiaphas’ statement take a minute and look at John11:49-52) This was the point in time in which they began to plot Jesus’ death, which ultimately lead to His crucifixion on a cross.

When Jesus’ followers witnessed His crucifixion, not only did they see their friend, teacher and son crucified, they watched their hope being crucified.

I wonder if they remembered Jesus’ teaching to “pick up your cross and follow me.”? The understanding at that time, and in that culture, was that when you took up your cross, you didn’t come back. It was a one-way journey. And that’s what Jesus calls us to today.

When we pick up our cross to follow Him we abandon our will for His, just as Jesus, in the garden, submitted His will to the Father. Because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, we can leave our old life behind, die to ourselves, and walk in newness of life. We should never, ever lose sight of the significance of what Jesus attained for us on the cross.

Letting go of our will, our hopes, and our dreams is painful. It’s not easy, it can be a struggle. And it's not without sacrifice. But when we consider what the cross really means, and what happened on the cross, and that it lead to Jesus’ glorious resurrection, then hope returns – new hope, resurrected hope, hope that is alive. A hope that He will give us life – an abundant life. And a glorious hope that tells us one day we will live with Him for eternity.

God took the cross - an object of scorn, horror, repression and humiliation - and made it a symbol of life, love, freedom and hope. Only God could do this. And today we see images of the cross everywhere. On churches, on hillsides, on artwork, on clothing, on jewelry.

Every time I see the cross I want to remember what it represents:

It’s about our sin and shame being washed away.

It’s about despair yielding to hope.

It’s about darkness being overcome by the Light.

It’s about chains falling off and replaced with liberty.

It’s about death being conquered by life.

Aren’t these the things that our world, our nation, and our neighborhoods desperately need today? We look to programs to provide relief to suffering. We look to governments to correct issues of the heart. We look to militaries to rein in evil. It’s so evident that man's attempt to make things right by our own efforts are never enough, never completely do the job, and so often create more difficulties.

We can’t forget to look to the Cross.

Let’s celebrate the Cross! Let’s write about it! Let’s sing about it!

It was good that One Man died for the people. For me and for you.

The Book was Better by Jim Hart

 

How many times have you come away from seeing a movie that was based on a novel and said “I thought the book was better”? And really meant it?

Are you excited when one of your favorite novels has been made into a movie? Or do you, as many of us will, make up your mind that it can’t possibly be any better than the book?

When I asked my son which he liked better, World War Z, the book or the movie, he just said “they were different" and explained why.

My wife and I saw The 100 Foot Journey without reading the novel first, and we found the movie to be excellent. But does is it ruin a book for you if you've seen the movie first? I think it can be a bit of a risk - once those movie visuals have gotten into your mind.

What about Left Behind? I’ve yet to read the books, or watch the movies. (Should I be admitting this?) But I hear people much preferred the books.

The Outsiders has been credited with creating the modern YA genre. Even though I read the book years earlier, I really enjoyed the movie version. As for the Lord of the Flies – I thought the book was better.

The first book-movie combo I remember encountering was 2001, A Space Odyssey. And honestly, I have equally enjoyed both the book and the film. Maybe the film a bit more. However, in this case, it's important to note that the novel for 2001 was developed at the same time as the movie, and was actually published after the film version was released. So it may be difficult to say whether the screen visuals or the book narrative was the major contributor to the overall story, and which one carried the other. In this case, we might not have had one without the other – the movie or the film!

We all know there are authors who do an outstanding job of showing a scene without the aid of a film. Through their writing alone, our imagination yields vivid pictures – how we see the hero, what the setting looks like, and maybe even the sounds and smells. Isn’t that the goal of a great novel – to create such a strong sense of place, character and history that images from the written page settle in our mind and become memories? And sometimes they seem as real as reality itself (but not quite to the extent of the Matrix....yet).

The images and emotions conjured up by a great book stay with us for a lifetime. The adrenaline of a good movie quickly fades. Books, we treasure. Movies, we appreciate. There’s a difference.

When I saw the movie Prince Caspian, decades had passed since I last read that C.S. Lewis series. When Reepicheep first came onto the screen I let out an involuntary vocal response: “Reepicheep!”  The visual had instantly resurrected a memory and accompanying emotion, long since filed away, of that valiant little mouse. Isn’t that the power of a well written character?

While watching The Two Towers I had an even stronger reaction when, at the battle of Helms Deep, Aragorn “looked to the East, at dawn’s first light” and saw Gandalf come riding over the hill on Shadowfax. The sense of hope that was portrayed, without a word being said, nearly brought me to tears right there in the theater. In that brief nano-second, when synaptic nerves fired and chemicals were released in my brain to do their job, I simultaneously imagined what Christ will look like, and what our response will be, when He returns to finish the battle, riding on a white horse. That’s what can happen when a director does a proper job of interpreting a great scene from a great book.

Aragorn is the character that I most enjoy in the Lord of the Rings movies. He looks, speaks and fights as I had imagined when reading the book. Or maybe the visual on the screen has replaced the visual in my mind? Or maybe just enhanced it. I’m sure there’s some psychological principle that could explain it, but that would take away from the mystery and wonder of the process. I’ll just conclude that I’m satisfied with the image of Aragorn that I’ve retained, because its origin is still found on the printed page.

In the introduction to Fantasy Fiction into Film: Essays, Leslie Stratyner and James Keller write “changes to the written text in a screen adaptation are not undesirable. The film text is not another edition of the original, but a distinctive art from that involves a unique set of priorities and requirements.”

So there you have it. Not better, just different.

Although I still think the book was better.

Editing Gone Wild by Jim Hart

Thomas Jefferson reportedly had over 6,000 books in his personal library. How could you read all of those books in a lifetime? Reading just one book a week would take nearly 115 years.  But in his entire library there was one book that Jefferson took it upon himself to perform some major editing.

In what became known as the Jefferson Bible, Jefferson took a blade, cut out selected portions of the New Testament, and then re-assembled them, omitting references to Jesus’ miracles, His resurrection and His deity. Jefferson, in his interest with ancient philosophers, was only interested in the doctrine and moral teachings of Jesus Christ.

So…..wow…..where to begin. Removing the supernatural changes who Jesus was in a foundational way. His message of the Good News is not complete without the miracles, His claim to be the Son of God, and His resurrection from the dead. Without them, Jesus’ teaching could be cut and pasted into any other teacher’s, philosopher’s or holy man’s story. 

That’s the power of editing.

A single word by itself usually will not adequately communicate a complete and coherent theme. But string some words together and the mystery happens. Is there a formula to achieve that mystery? Nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and punctuation used in the right fashion and sequence transform those lonesome words into a thought, a concept, and eventually an entire book. And then a proper edit can enhance the message. Or wreck it.

There’s a scene in the B movie Tremors in which actor Michael Gross’s character is asked what was in the explosives that he used to kill the giant worm monsters. His classic response was “a few household chemicals in the proper proportions.”  Words, assembled properly, are also pretty powerful. And it helps to know the proper proportions.

The repeated practice of putting words together properly (writing) increasingly yields better results, and the wonderful mystery that is writing becomes all the more compelling. To borrow another movie quote: “Writers write.”

We were talking about macro editing and micro editing this week with in our agency. Both approaches have their place, and both are needed to produce a publishable manuscript.

Your book, be it non-fiction or fiction, has a central theme and message. And we know that editing can either steer us to that message, or make it difficult to find and comprehend the message.

So what’s the point? When it’s time to edit that manuscript, take a step back, look at the big picture, and remember to leave room for the mystery.

Thomas Jefferson used a razor blade to edit; today we can use tools like Scrivener. What’s your personal editing philosophy? What tools do you use? How have you learned to trust your editor?

Patience and a Plan, by Jim Hart

An editor recently told me that “publishing moves at glacial speed”. So in other words, I’ll have to wait a little longer before I hear from the publishing committee. But things are still moving, just very slow. You can probably guess where this is going.

 
The book of Genesis tells us that Jacob ended up working for his father-in-law a total of 14 years to be able to take Rachel, the one that he loved, as his wife. Scripture tells us that the first seven years seemed like only a few days to Jacob, because he loved Rachel so much. But still…14 years is a chunk of time.

Some say time is relative. I’m sure there are scientific explanations as to why this may be true. But what remains true is the concept of “a watched pot never boils”. Or as the great philosopher Tom Petty sang, “the waiting is the hardest part”.

Many years ago the clock on the back wall of our church sanctuary stopped working. My father, who was the pastor of the church, replaced it with a calendar. And now we had a new way to measure the passage of time during the sermon.

But back to Jacob. He had a goal (to marry Rachel), and he had a plan to get there (work for his father-in-law). And his plan worked.

Amy Blake, a Hartline author, just saw her first novel, Whitewashed, published this February. In her interview for her publisher’s blog Amy shared this:  

            I’ve always loved to read, though for years I never had enough self-confidence to believe    I could become a published author myself. Eventually, I took a couple of writing courses, attended writers’ conferences, and decided to give writing a try. I started with short stories, articles, and devotionals and was encouraged when some were published. Then I   moved on to books. My first novels were pretty bad, but they helped me learn how to write. Now I’m glad I stuck with it through the discouraging seasons.

This is some the best advice that I could offer to a writer with the dream of being a published author. Amy didn’t just wait, she worked. And in addition to her just released novel, Amy will also see her juvenile fantasy book released in November of this year.

Here are some ways to work while you wait to achieve your next dream: 

 

1)      Stay connected to the Lord in prayer and Scripture.

2)      Work on your on-line platform. Dominate the twitterverse.

3)      Keep writing! Submit articles to your favorite magazines; look for opportunities to guest blog.

4)      Reach out to other authors and publishing industry people for possible endorsements.

5)      Read a book about writing, social media, and/or the publishing business.

6)      Attend a writer’s conference.

7)      Write out your two year, five year, and ten year writing plan.

8)      Research material for your next book.

9)      Memorize the Chicago Manual of Style.

And that’s nine plans (none of which are from outer-space).

What work do you plan to do while you’re waiting?