Using Control Most Effectively Pre and Post Contract by Martina Boone

I just sent the second book of my Heirs of Watson Island trilogy back to my editor for the final time before the Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) come out. And I know it isn’t perfect. ARCs almost never are — they’re uncorrected proofs, that’s what it always says on the cover. But if I could just have one more draft . . . one more pass . . . one more day . . .

Recognize the sentiment?

Regret, what-if, and could-a, should-a are the writer’s constant companions. That’s one of the aspect of being an author that is the most difficult for me. As a writer, I’m in total control of my work and the fictional world in which my characters live. There, I’m GOD. (And it is good.)

But once the manuscript leaves my desk in any form, my level of control dwindles the closer the book comes to publication. Why? Because the book goes from being my brain child to being a product that needs to be appealing to as many people as possible so it can be economically viable. At least if I want to make a living as a writer.

Looking back from this side of traditional publication, I’ve come to recognize that there are steps along the path to publication where we writers have control, and there are steps where our control is minimal. Based on what I’ve learned to this point, here are some ways I think we can make the most of the control we have. And I do think that most of these apply whether we are publishing traditionally or as indie authors.

Using Absolute Pre-Contract Control Most Effectively

1)       Take as much time as we can to master craft. Read widely, take workshops, know grammar inside and out, keep learning!

2)       Examine the premise of our manuscripts from every possible angle. Look for ways to make them bigger, fresher, more unexpected, and more interesting; good is the enemy here. Competition is stiff, and the premise, more than anywhere else, is where we can ultimately create a salable manuscript.

3)       Figure out who the audience is going to be and what they generally expect/want in a book.

4)       Re-examine the premise with the audience in mind. Does it meet conventions and then twist them?

5)       Write the best book possible that meets the promise of the premise and promises to entice the audience.

6)       Develop a network of trustworthy critique partners and beta readers who will be brutally honest with you. Shut up when you hear their advice. Put the manuscript away for a few months. Then look at it again, and be as critical and objective as you can be when addressing what the readers suggested.

7)       Write a brilliant pitch for the book you’ve written. When the book is salable and well-executed, this is easier than you might think. Frequently, problems crafting a query/pitch suggest there are still problems with the premise or the execution of the book itself.

8)       Create a list of agents you’d like to work with. Get references. Do your homework. Take your time and make sure you’d really love to work with those agents and that your communication styles and tastes are going to be compatible and that they are going to represent all the genres that you want to write in the course of your career.

Now that’s where your control stops. Because from this point, we are at the mercy of market conditions, trends, individual tastes, and yes—let’s be honest—luck.

I am under no illusions that my book is better than a LOT of books that didn’t get published. It’s a solid book, with a lot going for it, and I did as good a job writing it as I could. From there, I was pulled out of the machine by the giant claw of luck. Other books, other writers, are not always so lucky.

Here’s the thing though, we can help to make ourselves more “lucky.”

If COMPULSION hadn’t landed me and agent, and if it hadn’t sold, I would still have kept writing. Work is never wasted. I’ve learned something with each of the manuscripts I’ve written, and all of that goes into making the next book better, and that means that I am more likely to be nearer to the top of the pile when the claw of luck swoops down again to grab someone.

Now here’s the part we don’t see written about as often.

Using Absolute Post-Contract Control Most Effectively

Once the claw of luck grabs us, we have very little control, and we have less and less as the book gets closer to sitting on the bookstore shelves. Which really, when you think about it, is fine. We’re writers. We’re not marketing experts, or copeditors, or keyboarders, or cover designers, or sales reps, or publicity. (Unless we’re indie publishing, in which case we have to be all of the above.)

Once the book has left our desk, and if we aren’t indie publishing, all we can do is . . . wait for it . . . write the next book and make it better. Be GOD in a different universe.

Because you know who ultimately has control?

Readers.

And what they want is plain and simple. They want books that make them feel something new, experience something new, and make them want to keep reading more.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Martina Boone was born in Prague and spoke several languages before learning English. She fell in love with words and never stopped delighting in them. She’s the author of Compulsion, book one in the Southern Gothic trilogy, the Heirs of Watson Island, which was a Fall ’14 Okra Pick by the Southern Independent Bookstores Alliance, a Goodreads Best Book of the Month and YA Best Book of the Month, and an RT Magazine Best of 2014 Editor’s Pick. The second book in the trilogy, Persuasion, will be published in October 2015. She’s also the founder of AdventuresInYAPublishing.com, a Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers site.

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Nine Things Writers Need to Know Before the Book Deal

Please welcome Martina Boone from Adventures in YA Publishing!

Hi IWSG readers!

I love this blog because as writers, we all know a lot about insecurity. Being creative types, our imaginations are wired to run overtime. We imagine what we would love to see happen (the big book deal) and what we are afraid will happen (no book deal, horrible reviews, orphaned books, etc.) Not only that, but everything we do is open to artistic interpretation as well as to trends and market forces and the vagaries of chance, which can seem like the perfect storm of pressure designed to make an aspiring writer crazy. And believe it or not, the time that we spent working toward getting an agent and a book deal will eventually look almost idyllic.

Last year, I was lucky enough to get an agent and a three-book deal based on a YA novel that I had started the previous May. Compulsion will be released October 28th from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse. I’m honored and excited to get a chance to do this post, because I would love to travel back in time and tell pre-book-deal me a few things. Since I can’t do that, I hope that some aspiring writers might find what I would have told myself helpful as they start their own careers.

1) Don’t rush. Man, I felt like I needed that book deal and if I didn’t get it fast, I was a total failure. I knew it wasn’t logical. Doctors, lawyers, violinists, ballerinas, dental hygienists—they all spend YEARS learning their craft under supervision for many hours a day. We’re lucky if we spend an hour a week getting critiques from other writers, and we squeeze in an hour or two of writing a day, if that. And we expect to achieve the equivalent of playing with a philharmonic orchestra in a year or two. Unfair pressure much? Yeah. That. So, again, don’t rush. Don’t accept that kind of pressure. Take the time to learn, to write because you love to write, to learn what youwant to write, and how you best want to write it.

2) Don’t compare. Yes, Veronica Roth wrote DIVERGENT in college. Tahereh Mafi was 22 when she wrote SHATTER ME. But how can you make your WIP better than it is now? How can you make it bigger, more unique, more buzz-worthy, more controversial, more interesting? Do that. Don’t worry about things beyond your control. Once a book gets to a certain level of merit, talent and quality become only a part of the equation. Plain old luck plays a role. That is not—at all—to suggest that DIVERGENT or SHATTER ME didn’t deserve their phenomenal success. They absolutely do, and if you analyze them, you will see why. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other DIVERGENTs or SHATTER MEs out there that equally deserved it but didn’t happen to hit the right convergence of stars.

3) Don’t skimp on the writing training. In the long run, there is nothing except the story. Have you told it in the way that will most do it justice? Have you constructed the scenes in the most vivid, visual, tension-packed way they could be constructed? Have you used the words and images that will best transfer the emotion from your heart to your reader’s heart? Take the opportunity before you are published to take every writing class, attend every workshop, enter every contest. By the time your book is out there, you’re going to have to have EVERY confidence that it is the best that it can be so that you don’t drive yourself crazy with woulda-shoulda-couldas.

4) Don’t let your skin stay thin. The book is a product, but it’s also an artistic endeavor. Everyone is going to have a different opinion. You can only know that you put out the best book you could, be proud of that book, and focus on the next book.

5) Don’t let editing, promotion, marketing, work, family, natural disasters, or anything else stop your from writing every day, reading every day, and learning every day. Writing is an engine. You have to oil it and keep it tuned to keep it running.

6) Don’t forget you aren’t in this alone. Phenomenal sites like this one keep this journey from being a solitary one. They are a source of sympathy, empathy, friendship, critique partners, beta readers, readers, and much more. The friends I’ve made on the journey to publication are the best part of the publishing process. Seriously. Eventually that circle of amazing people expands to include an agent, an editor, an editorial director, a marketing manager, a marketing director, a publicist, a sales team, a publisher . . . a whole team of people who love your book and talk about the characters as if they are as real as they were when you poured them on the page.

7) Don’t forget this is a career. You and that whole team of people behind you need to be able to count on your next book being as good or better than this one — and being ready in a year. Be a professional. Write every day. Look long term. If the current book doesn’t sell, be sure you’ve done your best with it and move on to the next book. You’ll get better, the market will change, and the current book may have another chance. But not unless you’ve stayed focused!

8) Don’t forget to enjoy it. It’s an incredible, miraculous thing, this writing process. Revel in it. All of it. Every step and every stage, every heart ache and every celebration.

9) Don’t forget to believe. Believe in yourself and the magic of books. That’s what all this is about! : )

Happy writing to all!
Martina

Martina Boone was born in Prague and spoke several languages before learning English. Her first teacher in the U.S. made fun of her for not pronouncing the “wh” sound right, so she set out to master “all the words she’s still working on that! In the meantime, she’s writing contemporary fantasy set in the kinds of magical places she’d love to visit. She’s the founder of Adventures in YA Publishing, a two-time Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers blog, and YA Series Insiders. She is also the author of COMPULSION, book one of the Heirs of Watson Island, a Southern Gothic novel for young adults (Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse, October 28, 2014). If you like romance dripping with mystery, mayhem, Spanish moss, and a bit of magic, she hopes you’ll look forward to meeting Barrie, Eight, Cassie, Pru, Seven and the other characters of Watson Island.
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COMPULSION

Three plantations. Two wishes. One ancient curse.

Darkly romantic and steeped in Southern Gothic charm, you’ll be compelled to get lost in the Heirs of Watson Island series.” — #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Jennifer L. Armentrout

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IWSG Post Day and Upcoming Guests with Awesome Writing Tips

It’s time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic. If you’d like to join us, click on the tab above and sign up. We post the first Wednesday of every month. I encourage everyone to visit at least a dozen new blogs and leave a comment. Your words might be the encouragement someone needs.

Our awesome co-hosts for today are Krista McLaughlin, Kim Van Sickler, Heather Gardner, and Hart Johnson! Be sure to pay them a visit and thank them for helping today.

This site continues to expand with more great links and guests.

We have some amazing guests lined up for the next three months:

Martina Boone from Adventures in YA Publishing will be here on July 16. She’s an agented writer and her first book, Compulsion, comes out this October from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse. She will be sharing tips on what to do pre-book deal.

Angela Ackerman from Writers Helping Writers will be here on August 20. Angela and Becca Puglisi are authors of The Emotion Thesaurus, The Positive Trait Thesaurus, and The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and they run an amazing site for writers.

Jessica Bell will visit on September 17. Jessica is a musician and writer, author of countless books, including her Nutshell series for writers. She also heads up the Vine Leaves Literary Journal and Homeric Writers' Retreat & Workshop.

Any rocking superstars you’d like to see?