That Special Something – what makes a recommendation? by Victoria Boulton #ChaBooCha

Your dream has come true. Not only is your book agented, published, and sitting on a shelf in your local bookstore, but your agent is starting to look at international rights.

International rights - Like it getting translated and sold to publishers around the world. All new countries and all new markets for your book. Plus all the fun that comes with shiny new covers for each edition.

But it’s the waiting game all over again. And while you’re waiting for a literary scout to say ‘I know just the publishers for this,’ it’s sitting on my desk. Because literary scouts have so much reading to do, they sometimes need an extra pair of eyes – and that’s where I come in. I work professionally as that ‘extra pair of eyes.’ Not the most prestigious title, but it’s one I cherish.

I’ll only recommend a book to the scout if it has that special something. And whether you’re at the international rights stage or just finishing your first draft, it’s never too early to start thinking about it. 

That special something is a key that will get you through many doors. It can get you agented, published, and 5 star reviews. It’s what makes people gush about your book to their best friends and buy it as Christmas presents for everyone they know. It’s the most important question any reader will ever ask themselves while reading your book, and you need the answer to be a good one.

And that question is: ‘How does this book make me feel?’

A simple question, but one that it’s hard to get the right answer to. Because the answer I give for most books that cross my desk is ‘not enough.’

Emotional resonance is, in my opinion, (and let’s be real, I’m just one opinion! I’m not the arbiter of taste!) the most important element of your book. And the crazy thing is, emotion doesn’t arise from plot, no matter how high the stakes. It doesn’t arise from your world-building. Your character can be fighting to save her sister from the most awful of terrible baddies, or facing bullies who belittle and demean her every day, but that alone won’t get the response you want.

Emotion arises first and foremost from character. From their history, from their reactions, from their actions. From the way they are feeling, and how they express it. It’s moments when your character feels like they’ve been punched in the guts but actually nobody has touched them. When their chest is tight and their breath is shallow as they stare down their biggest fears. It’s the leg-wobbling relief when their dog makes it out of from the collapsed building, and the warm, spreading wonder as they look at people who used to be strangers and are now their closest friends.

So when you’re looking back at your writing and getting it ready for the next stage, whatever that may be for you, look at your character and think ‘what does this make her feel? And how can I show it?’

You’ll be amazed at how many doors it will open for you.

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Victoria Boulton is evaluates manuscripts for literary scouts and works as a professional editor and audiobook narrator. She’s also a writer herself, and her house is so brimming with books that soon they will be pressing on the doors and windows. 

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Give-away

Today's prize is a copy of the book  "The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide To Character Expression" by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. If you are already a signed-up member of the challenge, all you need to do to be entered to win this prize is comment on this post. The winner will be selected by a random number generator at noon on March 31st and announced within 24 hours of the drawing.

Five Reasons Why Kids Love Fantasy by Victoria Boulton #ChaBooCha

Kids love fantasy. They do. We’ve all seen the queues at Harry Potter launch night, or the little girls dressed as Katniss, or the complete adoration kids have for Percy Jackson. From toddlers to teenagers, fantasy has an enduring appeal.

So what exactly is so great about fantasy? (“EVERYTHING!” I want to scream) Well, I’m no expert on child psychology, but I AM a fantasy & sci fi bookseller with several years experience in children’s publishing, so I’ll give it a go!

1. Fantasy is exciting.

Fantasy is almost always an adventure. Whether slaying dragons, raising dragons, or riding off on epic journeys of discovery, there’s lots of action and lots of things to see. Kids are full of imagination, and fantasy taps into that, giving them gorgeous new worlds to explore and funny new friends to explore it with.

2. Fantasy makes kids the heroes

In the real world, kids can’t go off on wild adventures or save the day from the evil overlord. They have school; they have their parents. And while they may love the lives they have, it’s nice for them to imagine someone like them as the most important person – the chosen one with magic, the one who falls into the secret world of unicorns. In these stories, people who look like them, who are only as old or tall or strong as they are, get to save the day. That’s a pretty set-up.

3. Fantasy is an escape

We like to think of kids’ lives as being happy and carefree, but even the most well-adjusted kid has their own problems to deal with, problems they sometimes can’t escape until they’re older. Bullies, teachers, older siblings – sometimes they just want to go somewhere where these things don’t exist anymore.

4. Fantasy is simple

And life often isn’t. Fantasy lets kids visit a world where the bad guys cackle and plot and the good guys make speeches and save the day. It’s all clear cut, white and black, good and evil. That can be really fun, and a real relief.

5. ...but Fantasy is also complex

It’s a safe place to explore complicated ideas. Maybe the bad guys are clearly bad and the good guys are clearly good, but there’s also difficult concepts like racism, sexism, and broken families – even if these take the form of elves, lady knights, and orphans.

Children's fantasy has a lot to offer. It can help kids grow in empathy and give them a safe space, and a more optimistic view of the world. And I for one know I wouldn't be the woman I am now if I hadn't grown up with Harry Potter, Lyra Belacqua, Bilbo Baggins or a myriad of other heroes. And I know that I will never stop loving those children's books, no matter how old I get.

*****

Victoria Boulton is the founder of Medusa Books (medusabooks.co.uk), a used Sci Fi & Fantasy online bookseller. She's also a writer and avid reader, when she can fight her cat out of her lap.

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Give-away

Today's prize is the book "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card by Ray Bradbury. If you are a signed-up member of ChaBooCha, all you need to do to be entered into the drawing for this book is comment on this blog post. Winners will be selected from a random number generator on March 31st at noon (GMT).

Make Writing Fun by Victoria Boulton (guest post) #ChaBooChaLite

Make Writing Fun

I’m sure you’re all hard at work on your stories, so I’ll keep this brief (but I’m also sure you’ll be happy for a short distraction)!

I’m an editor by trade, but I’m also a writer. I know how easy it is for writing to become work, especially if you’re doing a lot of it. What starts out as a creative frenzy can quickly become a second day-job.

Don’t make writing a second day-job. Make writing fun.

Write the scenes you most want to write

Sometimes we get bogged down in the technicalities of what we’re writing. It can pay to skip ahead to the parts of the story you’re really passionate about. Forget that plot integral breakfast scene or the boring sections of travel. Write the fun bits. Write villain battles and first dates and the dog biting the evil teacher on the bum. Write the scenes you first imagined when you came up with the story. Write what excites you.

Play with your characters

Epic character moments are guaranteed fun. Don’t be afraid to subject your character to extreme lows – or let them climb to extreme highs. Let them grate against each other and the plot. Try things out with them – things you didn’t plan, but just seem right. As your characters develop, so will your love of writing.

Stray from the path

Your first draft is the perfect opportunity to try things out. You’re going to edit later, when things all have to make perfect sense, but right now you can let creativity rule. Take your characters to new settings, introduce characters you never planned, and write the scenes where everything goes a bit mad. If it goes wrong, you can always cut it later, but first drafts are your creative flint and steel. Strike your ideas together and see what makes sparks – maybe you’ll hit on something that takes your story from candlelight to raging fire!

Reward yourself

You have taken on a creative challenge, and I will certainly applaud you for that, but sometimes you want something a little more tangible. I always find that buying some special chocolaty writing rewards really makes writing enjoyable, but go for whatever you like. Celebrate every day you write, and every session, and you’ll find that writing looks a lot less like work and a lot more like fun.

Writing won’t always be fun, and it’s okay for it to be hard. But as much as possible, I hope you will keep the joy alive.

Anyway, I don’t want to keep you from your stories. I wish you all a fantastic ChaBooChaLite and a month of FUN!

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Victoria Boulton is a freelance editor at www.storyfox.co.uk, specialising in children’s and YA fiction. She’s a Ravenclaw, weirdly emotional about Avatar: The Last Airbender and adores her stupid, chubby, wonderful cat. You can follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/vicorva. She’d love to hear from you!

***** 

There is a special offer from Storyfox Editing Services for ChaBooCha Lite members. Storyfox is offering a 20% discount on its services for ChaBooCha Lite members. Some of you may not know that our mascot, the badger, is named Nabu after the Assyrian and Babylonian god of wisdom and writing. In honor of this, Storyfox has given you a coupon code of Naboo (spelled differently in order to use up the number of letters needed for the code).  The coupon is valid through the end of October, so if you complete your story during this challenge in September, you have time to get it ready for a proper editing service to have a look at it.

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To top this off, I am offering one person who comments on this post (and is signed up to the challenge) a book cover, created by me or my talented husband, for their story. If you are wondering why you would want a mock book cover, it's because a book cover, even a temporary one, can sometimes give you an additional impetus to keep writing. It gives you an idea of how your book might look when it's published. My book covers are limited by what I have in terms of stock photos and ability, but I still manage to come up with some decent book covers. The book covers showing "The Fae World Anthology" series are examples of the book covers for a series of anthologies that Melusine Muse Press is taking submissions for; the book covers were created by me, so it gives you examples of what I can do. (They are mock covers in the sense that I will be making subtle changes to them before the anthologies are published.)

Winner will be selected through a random number generator and announced on September 15th.

Your Query Is Not a Blurb: Query Tips from a Freelance Editor by Victoria Boulton

 

Your Query is Not a Blurb: Query Tips from a Freelance Editor

You’ve just finished your novel - not just written the first draft and corrected a few typos, actually finished it. Months of beta readers and critique and editing and workshops, and you’ve got this glimmering piece of finished art in front of you. Somewhere deep inside of you, doubt still niggles: it’s not perfect. You know it’s not perfect. But you (wisely) ignore that niggle because you know that perfection will never come. What you have is a really great, tightly written story and you don’t have to be embarrassed about it. It’s ready. You’re ready. It’s time to send it out to agents.

But.

But there’s this thing called a query letter. And all those months you spent polishing your manuscript, those years you spent honing your craft? They don’t really help. This query letter is a whole new beast: leaner, meaner, more stressful. It’s a professional correspondence that also has to entice someone to read your books. You think: well, it’s just the same as a book blurb, right? You try not to worry about it. But then you receive the response that no, no, a query is not like a blurb at all.

Oh, you think.  

Before the panic sets in, let me stop you right there.

How good you are at writing query letters has zero correlation to how good you are at writing novels. They are different skills. Ultimately, it’s your skill at writing novels that will get you published. So relax.

And, because I believe in practical advice, here are 10 tips to help you write the query your novel deserves.

 

          1.  Follow convention

I know it breaks the mould of how writers are taught to think, but a query letter is a professional correspondence and agents get a LOT of them. They’ve seen every gimmick the slushpile has to offer and, more often than not, they’re tired of it. Convention is to write about your story in third person present tense (regardless of how your actual novel is written) and then write a short bio listing relevant experience or publishing credits. This is a format that works. Stick with it.

      2.  Follow the guidelines

Agents want authors who are easy to work with. Following the submission guidelines is like their first test of that. If the agent asks for a query and 10 pages, don’t send them a query, synopsis and full manuscript. They may well auto-reject you if you can’t follow basic instructions.

      3.  Make it clear what the story is about

This sounds obvious but people really seem to struggle with this. Your query needs to make it clear who the main character is, what they want, and what is stopping them from getting it: Character, conflict and stakes. 

      4.  Keep it focused

I know it seems cruel to try and hook an entire novel with less than 500 words (and it kind of is). Your novel probably has a hundred things to recommend it. But a query is not a synopsis: you’re not summarising your entire novel. You’re just giving enough information to make it sound interesting and special. Ideally, you’ll stick with one main character and the challenges they face.

      5.  Be specific and avoid clichés

Your query letter is not the same as a blurb. Agents need more information to go on than a reader: a reader is looking at a finished product that is worth their time. That is not the case with agents and slushpiles. Phrases like ‘faces inner demons’ or ‘uncovers secrets that will change everything’ are generic and clichéd. They don’t show the agent anything that makes your novel stand-out, or give them any reason to think it’s special. Go for specifics instead.

          6.  Don’t be afraid to spoil

Following on from ‘be specific’, I repeat: a query letter is not the same as a blurb. You absolutely shouldn’t list off every major plot point as you would in a synopsis, but you also shouldn’t get really vague when it comes to your awesome plot twist. If knowledge of this plot twist makes your query stronger: reveal it. There’s a balance to be found, certainly, but don’t be afraid to actually sell the parts of your novel that make it special.

      7.  Write your best

Your query writing needs to be very tight indeed. Don’t use two sentences where one would do. Use powerful verbs. Use fresh analogies in the place of clichés. If you’ve gotten to the query stage, chances are you are a fantastic writer. Show it off. Because if your query letter is sloppy, agents will assume your novel is, too.

      8.  Get it critiqued and proof-read

Have your friends read it. Have other writers read it. Have people who know your story inside-out read it. Have people who’ve never so much as sniffed in your novel’s direction read it. Get other eyes on your query before you send it out, people who will be honest with you, because finding out that you left out a word at the end of a . And that You Accidentally Capitalised Some Of The Words after you send it out is too late.

          9.  Include title, genre, age range (if appropriate) and approximate word count

Agents want to know what they are getting into, and a query doesn’t always tell all. Word count is a big one – agents want to be reassured that you have a normal word count for your genre and audience. They’ll also be interested in how YOU list the genre. If the query sounds like a classic high school story but you class it as a work of science fiction – well, that’s telling (and might suggest that you need to rewrite your query!)

      10. Be professional and personalise your letter

Remember that a query letter is a professional correspondence. Be polite, be friendly, be formal. Tailor your letter to the agent you’re sending it to if possible – for instance, if you heard that they adored Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone and that’s why you’re sending them your Russian fairy tale, include that. When you personalise your letter to a specific agent, they know that you’re interested in working with them, not just whatever agent will have you. It also makes you look savvy, and that’s always a good thing.

Those are my top 10 query writing tips, but my number one tip for the query process is this; believe in yourself. Your writing is beautiful and unique and worth it. Stick it out, keep writing, keep believing. Your day will come.

If you have any questions about querying or novel writing, I’ll be patrolling the comments this week and you can always contact me at www.storyfox.co.uk/contact.

Some useful links:

• Query Shark:  Agent Janet Reid rips up query letters and gives advice for improvement. You can learn a lot from reading the archives!
• Query Letter Critiques at NaNoWriMo: Get help from the enthusiastic and hard-working writers at NaNoWriMo. One of my favourite corners of the internet and a great place to get an objective critique.
• Query Letter Hell at Absolute Write: You won’t be able to access the Share Your Work forum unless logged in, but here’s where you can bare your query to the internet and get valuable critique. 

(Fair warning: getting critique from the internet can be harsh and sometimes unhelpful, but the benefits usually outweigh the drawbacks. Follow these links at your own risk!)

Victoria Boulton is a freelance editor at www.storyfox.co.uk, specialising in children’s and YA fiction. She’s a Ravenclaw, weirdly emotional about Avatar: The Last Airbender and adores her stupid, chubby, wonderful cat. You can follow her on twitter at www.twitter.com/vicorva. She’d love to hear from you!