Pub Rants

Category: Conferences & Book Fairs

Post Workshop Debrief

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Slow but steady. Have two contracts to tackle tomorrow.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? PAPERBACK WRITER by The Beatles
(I’m not even kidding! Strange coincidences on what is actually playing when I’m writing up my blog entry.)

So how did it go last night? Well. I think. Somebody who attended might actually want to chime in here.

Here’s what we did:

1. We began the evening with our customary warning. That we are going to be bluntly honest but we will also try and be encouraging and helpful. Also, if anyone decided they didn’t want their piece read, they could opt out at any time. No one took us up on that offer. That always surprises me.

2. Once we did the disclaimer, we jumped right in to reading the pages. We had one of the workshop organizers, Denise, do the reading aloud of the entry. Kate and I followed along with the copy we had. I can’t just be read aloud to. I need to see it on paper or on screen and read along with it. As Denise read, if we would have stopped reading, Kate and I spoke up and said “stop.” Then explained why.

I actually don’t know how many 2-page entries we were able to get to in the 2-hour segment we allotted for the workshop. I think we did around 20. Here’s the general breakdown:

–out of the 20 we read, Kate and I would have asked for sample pages from just 1 of the projects read. That’s actually pretty good! I have done this workshop where I wouldn’t have asked for any. And what was really interesting is that everyone in the room knew it while it was being read. The audience’s attention was caught and engaged. You could tell by the reaction. People leaned forward in their chairs a little while listening. They reacted when it was funny. People just paid closer attention. So the workshop attendees sensed it just as we did. Fascinating. You folks know more than you think you do.

–of the 19 we would have passed on, I’d say that for at least 12 of those, we did not reach the second page before we would have stopped. For some of those 12, we knew by the second paragraph that the project wasn’t going to work for us. Reasons for that? Level of the writing wasn’t where it needed to be yet.

Some interesting things to note.

1. Kate and I had one entry that was read to the second page before we stopped the reader. But when we did say stop, it was at the same time. We both said that something was off about the entry and it was hard to put our finger on the why of it. It wasn’t because the writing was bad or anything like that. It was because we didn’t feel engaged in the story unfolding. Hard to give feedback on such a vague reaction but it’s often true. There is nothing technically wrong with the piece. It’s just not something that makes us read on.

2. Many of the NOs were because the writer started with one of the following:
–starting the story in the wrong place
–opening with a scene that was just too mundane (like a person waking up in the morning)
–action scenes that weren’t going to play a part later in the story. In other words, writers have been told to grab our attention right away but they weren’t given any other guidance on how to effectively do that. Starting with a huge action scene and then on page 2 having the reader realize that it was just a dream is not very effective. Also, the action scene has to be integral to the central conflict of the story. Otherwise, it doesn’t serve a purpose. A great action opening is only going to take you so far if it’s not connected to the plot.

So remember, action with a purpose….

After about 8 entries were read, I stopped the session and took the temperature of the room. How was everyone doing? Had we destroyed any dreams forever because that’s not what we wanted to do. Should we continue?

Everyone wanted us to push on so we did.

We also wanted the attendees to hear some openings that worked, so both Kate and I brought in the opening 2 pages from clients we had signed.

We thought that would be a nice change of pace from the carnage. Grin. Not to mention it might help demonstrate when writing works.

There it is in a nutshell.

The Toughest Workshop To Give

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I know it’s hard to believe but I just forget to blog yesterday. It hit my mind around 4 pm. I told myself I needed to do 2 more things and then pop on to blog. I did my tasks, left for home, didn’t even think about it later as I often blog from home. I just totally forgot.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? SOLITARY MAN by Chris Isaak

Tonight, along with Agent Kate Schafer Testerman, I’m speaking at the Smiley library for our local chapter of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators). The workshop is full so if you’re local, you won’t be able to just pop in.

Kate and I are going to do the two pages workshop. This is the class where participants bring the opening 2 pages of their manuscript. We pretend that we are sitting in our office reading the slush pile. If we would have stopped reading, we say “stop” and then we explain why.

I always do this workshop with much trepidation. You got to be ready for brutal honesty. It’s so not for the faint of heart. There’s a big difference between getting a rejection letter by email versus being told so at point blank—regardless of how nice or helpful we try to be when being so bluntly honest. And that is our goal tonight. Encouraging, helpful, but not pulling the punch.

A lot of what we’ll hear tonight will be from writers who aren’t quite ready for agent time. That’s not to say that these writers won’t ever be—just that they haven’t reached the spot yet. The only reason I continue to do this workshop is that I get tons of emails from participants afterwards that tell me how helpful it was. I’m always stunned. Really? I think it would just be painful but okay.

They say it was tough and it took time for them to process but in the end, they wanted to hear what wasn’t working rather than continue on without knowing why.

That’s valid. Still, I think I might be more nervous than the writers who will be there! Okay, maybe not but I’m going to run a close second.

And speaking of this workshop, I’ll be doing it at the Backspace Conference which is coming up at the end of may. There are two weeks left for the general public to register so if you are interested, you might want to check it out.

How An Agent Earns Money From A Conference

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: October is a big royalty month for us so a lot of statements and a lot of money coming in.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? I CONFESS by The English Beat

So my blog entry on Tuesday totally got me thinking. Agents can make money from conferences and here’s a terrific example.

I have a debut middle grade novel coming out this week (October 6) and this novel totally made me money from a conference.

How?

I actually met Janice Hardy at the Surrey International Writers Conference two years ago. She had scheduled a pitch appointment with me. She sat down for a 10 minute session and pitched me the project.

I was immediately intrigued and asked for sample pages. I emailed my associate Sara Megibow and told her to be on the lookout for it. The sample pages came in. I read and liked them so asked for the full.

Then I signed her. We did a revision (because the ending needed work). When ready, we went out on submission to editors.

I accepted a six-figure pre-empt for the Healing Wars trilogy.

I’d say that’s making money! It’s a project I may not have landed if I hadn’t attended the conference so technically, this is money I made from a conference. Grin. Just not in the way that writers mistakenly assume.

I actually can’t remember if Surrey charges an extra fee for the pitch appointments or whether that’s part of the general conference price. Either way, agents don’t receive that money; the conference does.

Happy Release Week for THE SHIFTER Janice!

How Agents Make Money—Hint: It’s Not By Attending Conferences

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: And no one ever talks about the late nights we agent keeps.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? CORNFLAKE GIRL by Tori Amos

I have to say I was highly amused to read a hypothesis from a writer that agents make their money from attending conferences.

If that were true, it would certainly be a poor way to make a living.

For the record, the good majority of conferences pay for travel, hotel lodging, and food. Occasionally, a conference will pay a small honorarium. I’ve personally seen remuneration of $150.00 to $250.00. Let’s say an agent attends 8 conferences at that level. That would be a whopping $2000.00. To put that into perspective, that would just about cover my business class internet for the year and maybe one-quarter of my yearly phone bill. As the honorarium stands now, it might cover our yearly office coffee budget for Starbucks and Common Grounds. Big grin here.

Now I have heard rumors of conferences paying anywhere from $500 to $1000 as an honorarium but I’ve never had the good fortune to participate in any of those conferences (although can someone tell me where I could sign up?).

No, agents don’t attend conferences to earn money. We attend conferences in the hopes of meeting an author and finding a project that will, in turn, earn us money.

It’s actually pretty simple. Agents make money by taking a percentage of what authors earn when an agent sells a project on that author’s behalf.

And there are a variety of revenue streams:
1. The initial sell to the US publisher
2. UK sale
3. Foreign translation sales to foreign publishers
4. Audio
5. Film
6. Other subsidiary rights such as first serial, book club, etc.

And trust me, I’m in my seventh year of agenting and this is certainly not the path to get rich quick. However, it’s a more than comfortable living—for which I feel extraordinarily blessed.

The Risk of Pitching A Memoir

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: I always enjoy doing my local conferences so it’s no surprise that this afternoon that I find myself at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference. Two conferences back to back, glutton for punishment I guess. Grin.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? DON’T SPEAK by No Doubt

Last conference blog entry, I promise (at least for a little while anyway). This really occurred to me when I was out in Hawaii and I think it really needs to be said.

When you are pitching a memoir, don’t take it personally if an agent declines to look at pages.

I know. Impossible. After all, most people who write memoirs probably didn’t have a happy time of it and thus why they want to write it to begin with.

As an agent, when it’s clear that the memoir is something that might simply be too painful for me to read, I’m between a rock and hard place. Do I ask for the pages even if I know I’m not going to be able to handle reading them? Or do I decline?

One time I did decline and I felt awful because it was clear the writer was on the verge of tears. Even though I explained why I was passing on looking at pages (nicely but honestly), I knew that the writer felt like it was a personal rejection of the validity of the story and what the writer had experienced.

Ack.

So, what do I do for the future? Ask for pages knowing it’s not right for me or do I request them—knowing in my heart of hearts that we are going to pass?

I have no answer and I’m sure I’ll handle it case by case (or pitch by pitch as the case may be).

Glazed Like Doughnuts

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Back in Denver after a red-eye flight. A little bleary.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? YOU’LL THINK OF ME by Keith Urban

Last year it felt like I had done about 8 conferences too many. Big Grin here. So this year I was very careful on how many I actually committed to so truth be told, it’s been a while since I’ve had to do pitch sessions. I certainly got back into the swing of things this weekend with over 30 pitch sessions.

Because it’s so fresh in my mind, I have a couple of things I’d love to share with you readers—just in case you are doing a conference in the near future.

1. As hard as this will be to actually do, try not to be nervous. Agents are pros at helping writers through the pitch session. Even if you botch it to start, we’ll help save the session for you so do let us. In other words, don’t ramble on about your project. If you’ve missed, just stop, ‘fess up to it. Chances are we’ll be charmed and we’ll start asking questions to help you get it right.

2. This one is crucial. Limit your pitch to under 2 minutes and I recommend 1 minute if you can do it.

Why?

Because if you talk for the full 10 minutes, trust me, we’ll start glazing like doughnuts and our thoughts will start drifting. It really is hard to focus on someone talking straight for that amount of time without any interaction (and we really try not to glaze).

Luckily, this only happened once for me and when I realized I had lost my focus, I tried to get back into the session. I have no idea if the writer noticed or not. I hope not.

When the glaze is happening, I do look for an opening to see if I can interject and ask a question. Another good piece of advice? If the agent does that, don’t go back to your pitch! Let it ride and move forward from there.

Agents & Editors At Work—Really!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Having a day of play on Oahu!

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Nothing, just the sound of the waves.

Try not to laugh too hard as we work hard at the Halekaluni’s House Without A Key beach bar.

From left: Me, Agent April Eberhardt, April’s husband, Putnam Publisher Neil Nyren, Agent Cathy Fowler.

Untitled In Paradise

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Aloha! Need I say more?

What’s playing on the iPod right now? Kokomo by Beach Boys

Here is a shot of me working this morning before the conference officially begins!

It’s a tough life but somebody has to do it. I’ve got my feet up and my netbook (thank you Ally and Leslie!) ready to roll. As I’ve been working on this little netbook, I’ve had 3 different people stop and ask me about it.

I should get a kickback from Verizon or HP or something. Even though it’s a brand new toy, I’ve got my eye on that new Apple iBook as well if they ever release it this fall.

So what’s happening today at the conference? Opening ceremonies and then the agents and editors are free until the one-on-one consultations begin at 2 pm. I imagine a lot of attendees are nervously awaiting that.

Just remember, keep your pitch short—under 2 minutes—and allow time for the agent to ask questions. Don’t worry. We are pros at this and we’ll do our best to help you relax and make it a good experience (and to pull the necessary info out of you if you botch it!) Grin.

Still, you want to be able to talk about your novel easily so simply practice in the mirror a two sentence sum up of it so you are ready.

Have a great Labor Day weekend folks. I know I will.

Spread Out The Workshop Love!

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Another late blogging night. You know what that means, I had a crazy work day.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? YOU CAN’T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT by Rolling Stones

I’m actually of two minds about tonight’s rant. On one hand, I’m really not complaining because as a general rule, I love giving workshops at conferences. Back in the 90s, I taught college for several years. The classroom, in a lot of respects, feels like coming home to me.

And there’s no doubt that I’m passionate about my various topics in publishing.

But lately, I have to wonder at the scheduling of workshops at some of the conferences I’ve attended.

At RWA this past July in Washington, D.C, I had three presentations scheduled. First off, I was thrilled. All my workshops were accepted! Then I got the schedule. I literally was going to be doing these presentations back-to-back. Starting at 1 p.m. and ending at 5:30 p.m. with only 2, 15-minute breaks between the three workshops.

Well, grin and bear it. I got what I asked for so suck it up. But gee, I can’t help but think that my presentations could have gone better (or perhaps I could have been more energetic) had they been scheduled on separate days.

Just a thought anyway.

And today I got the workshop schedule for another upcoming conference. You guessed it. This time I have three hours of presentations in 2 workshops and sure enough, they are back-to-back, all in one morning. At least this time I get more of a break in between them.

So it’s not really a big deal but how I long for a conference organizer to spread out the love. I can do it all in one morning, no doubt. But I’ll tell you all now, I’ll do it better if the workshops were spread out over 2 days at least. Grin.

Wrapping Up RWA

by Kristin Nelson

STATUS: Travel day as I head back to Denver from D.C.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? BABYLON by David Gray

1. All the romance editors I talked to mentioned that they were still buying projects (and I spoke to several from each house). So nice to hear when other fiction sales have slowed down as of late.

2. Many editors expressed interest in seeing something fun and meaty in contemporary romance. It’s been a little while since contemporary was actively sought from authors beyond the established lions in the industry such as Rachel Gibson and Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

3. We all have our fingers crossed that historical romance will trend up again.

4. Paranormal is still selling well. (Here’s an interesting tidbit though. What’s hot in the U.S. doesn’t necessarily match what’s hot abroad. For example, Sherrilyn Kenyon couldn’t be hotter here in the US but not as hot in Germany. An Australian bookseller weighed in and said the Aussies like her bunches Down Under as well.) I find that fascinating.

5. On Saturday night, a non-dark romance without a vampire or werewolf in sight, Seducing Mr. Darcy, won the RITA on for best Paranormal. Does that mean anything? Heck if I know but I thought that was rather cool. Also, a Young Adult title nabbed Best First Book (the fun title Oh. My. Gods.) YA is taking over the world!

6. Three editors asked me what I thought would be hot next. Uh…if I knew that, I’d buy a lotto ticket too!

7. And last but not least, I did survive teaching three one-hour workshops back-to-back-to-back. But I didn’t have much voice or energy by the end of it. I dragged a fellow agent off to the Bantam party only to discover that it had ended 20 minutes prior to our arrival.

Oops. But that gave us ample opportunity to visit the White House where we were promptly not invited in for tea.

Me and the wonderful Sally Harding of The Cooke Agency: