Preparing to Pitch at a Writing Workshop

Six long years it has taken to write this book. This novel. This Fantasy. This Southern Literary Speculative Fantasy.

I’m going with Southern Fantasy for now.

On February 20^th, I (finally, finally, FINALLY!) get to pitch Blessed Are the Peace Makers at the Atlanta Writing Workshop, where I am confirmed with two agents and wait-listed for another.

Scattering Seeds aka Pitching Literary Agents

All three agents represent the Fantasy genre and all three sound awesome. Is one of them looking for me and for Peace Makers? Will one of them love William and Awen’s story as much as I?

In order to find out, it’s important I be prepared when the pitch-date rolls around. To this end, I searched our Relentless Writers Blog for helpful tips, then googled to find more on pitching at a conference.

These are the articles that helped the most:

The rules to follow before/when querying a manuscript, by Literary Agent, Mary C. Moore, including:

"Rule #6: Have your manuscript finished, edited, and polished before querying.
Reason: Although a lot of agents will do edits before shopping your manuscript, their time is limited. They are not going to be willing to do extensive edits on a project, so if you send out a manuscript before it is finished, you are essentially setting yourself up for rejection."

From Author, Chuck Sambuchino’s Tips for Pitching a Literary Agent at a Writers’ Conference:

I learned not to bring manuscript pages, to keep my pitch under 90 seconds (fiction) and that it’s okay to bring notes, but not to read from them (oh, and to be brilliant when sitting next to an agent at lunch, but not to pitch them there.)

From How to Pitch to an Agent at a Writers’ Conference, by Author, Kerrie Flanagan:

“Writers need to understand that agents attend conferences with the same high hopes that writers do. Writers want to find an agent who will represent them, and agents want to find clients who have a book they can get excited about. The agent/author relationship is that of a partnership where each party has the same goal in mind; to sell the book to a publishing house. 

Jon Sternfeld, with the Irene Goodman Agency said, ‘I wish writers would see the agents more as an equal—when there's too much desperation in the writer's eyes, agents tend to de-value them. If a writer is confident, I know that they don't need me so much as we need each other.’”

Am I there yet? Am I ready to pitch? Not quite. There are things I have left to do in the next two weeks:

 1)      Complete the last pass (3^rd Draft) of Blessed Are the Peace Makers;

2)      Hone my query letter and memorize it for my pitch;

3)      Write (and memorize) a few more one-line blurbs for chance-meetings of other agents (and interested writers) during the day-long workshop;

4)      Practice, practice, practice my pitch and one-liners;

5)      Do deeper research on the three agents I will be pitching – so far I’ve only found the standard bio on each of them (maybe because they are newer agents);

6)      Plan my outfit so that I look professional and feel great;

7)      Resolve to reap the other benefits of attending the workshop, whether I receive an agent request or not, courtesy of Author, Merissa McCain.

There you have it. Good luck on YOUR next pitch.

~ Olivia J. Herrell aka O.J. Barré

P.S. Or just skip the pitch altogether and go Agent, Janet Reid's route: Pitch Sessions Are the Spawn of Satan. Wish I'd read this before spending so much time and money. 

Structural Racism in Romance: Call it out

This is a post about change.

The other day I came across an essay by Courtney Milan, where she laid out her views on a controversial post from the Kirkus Reviews blog. The original Kirkus post (here) celebrated diversity across romance subgenres, with statements from Kwana Jackson and Damon Suede, but it also included the following quote:

As a reviewer, I have very little time to actually read books that I don’t get assigned... 

I rarely get romances to review that are written by or include characters of color. So even when I actually buy a book, or a publisher sends me an author I really want to read, I usually don’t have time—reading that book takes me away from titles I get paid to read. 


You don't even have to read between the lines to see that Kirkus, an organization with substantial clout in the world of publishing, doesn't send diverse books to it's reviewers. As Courtney Milan states, "This is an example of structural racism. Everyone may mean well, but if a publisher knows that a debut author isn't going to get a Kirkus review, that publisher is less likely to buy that author - even if they care about diverse books, they also have to care about the bottom line."

The Kirkus reviewer, Bobbi Dumas, responded to Courtney Milan with a thoughtful post, inviting further conversation, a discussion I hope continues. In contrast, I found the formal statement from Kirkus to be somewhat disingenuous. They said, in part, "The editors of Kirkus are always thinking about diversity - all kinds of diversity - when we make our assignments." 

Nice of them to take that position, but it's contradicted by their editor's statements in the original post. They do say they will be working to improve diversity in their reviews, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with. 

Now, why would I use a video from the 1976 Olympics to begin a discussion of an ongoing controversy in the romance world? Because I hope to make a (potentially clunky) comparison.  

The video is a twelve minute history lesson, primarily because of the conversation between the two broadcasters, Donna de Varona and Curt Gowdy. Here's some background, for those of you who weren't around to watch the '76 Olympics in real time. The East German team, particularly their women, won an astonishing number of medals. Prior to the 4 x 100 relay, their women's swim team had won the gold medal in every event, and they were heavily favored to win the relay.

Here's a snippet of the pre-race conversation between Mr. Gowdy and Ms. de Varona...

CG: "I want to ask you about these amazing East German women. What's been your impression watching them, as a former Olympic swimmer?"

DdV: "Well, I think our main problem, which I've stated before, is that our women are developed in the club system. The men that developed that system are only coaching men on the collegiate level. Young boys have good high school programs and good collegiate programs. Women are just starting to get involved with that. We don't have the coaches available to us, and there's a big gap and we have a long way to go, contrary to East Germany, where the women are brought in equally with the men..."

I absolutely applaud the deftness with which she changes the focus of his question from the East Germans, widely suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs, suspicions which were later confirmed, to the issues being faced by the US women's swim team. Ms. de Varona goes on to say that the only reason US swimmer Shirley Babashoff was able to compete in the '76 Olympics was because Title IX provided her the means to train with her college men's team.

Here's some more backstory for you. The first time she competed in the Olympics, Donna de Varona was 13 years old. The year was 1960, and she was the world record holder in the 400 IM. Four years later, she won two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

And after that? She retired from swimming, because there was no place for her to train. There were no college programs for women swimmers. 

Instead of swimming, she studied broadcasting, another area with few opportunities for women. She was seventeen the first time she appeared on ABCs Wide World of Sports, the youngest broadcaster and one of the only women on the network. She carved out a career in television, and served on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

I'm going into these details because I didn't know much about Ms. de Varona, and she has had an amazing life. While she was still in her twenties, she worked with the Senate on a number of measures, and was a consultant on the legislation that included "Title IX of the Equal Education Amendments Act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational institution receiving Federal funding."   (Wikipedia)

Title IX. The 1972 law that said if you were going to spend money on men's sports, you had to spend the same amount on women's sports. Forty years after the law's passage, women's athletics looks a lot different, and not just because of digital photography.  Here's a link to the 4x100m relay final from the 2012 Olympics in London so you can see what I mean.

So what does an ongoing debate among authors and publishers of romance have to do with the problems faced by women athletes in 1976? A big part of my message, I think is that the '76 video gives me hope, because it shows that change is possible. The downstream effects of a single piece of legislation have made a difference in the life of every woman in this country. 

The discouraging part comes from the difficulty in legislating the marketplace. I mean, we've got laws against discrimination, but we still create sub-subgenres for romance novels written by and about all types of people. Labels like m/m romance, African-American romance, interracial romance, and transgender romance create barriers, making books sound like something your average romance reader wouldn't be interested in. But these stories are all built around the same basic template and they pull from the same tropes. They're all romances.

They're more alike than they are different, though a hard-wired, systemic bias makes those similarities difficult to see.

The only way to cure that kind of bias is to call it out when you see it. The discussion engendered by a few blog posts has prompted Kirkus to promise "immediate steps", and maybe they actually will create policies that enable diverse authors to have their work reviewed. If they do, it'd be a smaller-scale Title IX, and their action would have significant potential impact. 

The alternative is to carry on the status quo, though I have to believe that pioneers like Donna de Varona hold us to a higher standard than that.

I'm the Queen of Procrastinators, and nobody can steal my crown

There, I've said it. And you know what? I'm going to share my top ten strategies to avoid getting things done, right here, right now. Yay!


     1.   Be creative

Ha! I bet you thought being creative was a prerequisite for all writerly types out there, am I right? Well, that may be true when you start off. You can't write without being creative (and I truly do believe this holds true even in academic writing...). So what's the problem with being creative, you ask me? Here it is: How is one supposed to get things done when you cannot turn around without stumbling over (or, oh horror of horrors, stepping on) super-cute, impossible to ignore plot bunnies? You thought dust bunnies were a problem? Not. Even. Close. 

     2.  Be nice

I've never had a neighbour who asks for cups of sugar or flower or whether or not I have a spare cake tin, but there's always something one can do in order to play nice with people. Not that there's anything wrong with being nice - I mean, surely everyone can do with some karma or brownie points or however your good side keeps score. There's just one problem: it takes time. Sometimes I envy those crochety old authors you occasionally hear about, the ones who go vanish in a mountain cabin somewhere and come back only to hand their hand-written magnus opus to their long-suffering agent... ah well. I'll just be the nice one, instead. 

     3.  Earn a living

That mountain cabin with the glorious views and the handy distraction-free location? Well, it won't pay for itself. I don't know about you, but I really, really don't earn my living writing things. Not the sort of things I WANT to write, that is. Most jobs these days involve a minimum of nine-to-five dedication. If you don't have a job, you're probably spending an inordinate amount of time either looking for one or worrying about it. And when you're done working and/or thinking about a job, what do you do with the rest of your time?

     4.   Be healthy

You spend time trying to be the best you possible! Good for you! It's what we should all do, isn't it? Sports and dieting (or healthy eating, however you want to call it), that's the way to go. Whether you do team sports or you're more the solitary warrior type (I, myself, am partial to running and yoga), it's all good for you. Sports can even help when you're stuck with your story. Even walking can help (as my bloggy friend Mia recently posted about). Of course, it's rather difficult to write whilst walking, running or playing tennis...

      5.   Have hobbies

Once you're done with all the healthy and the money and the nice, why not try your hand at, say, sketching your favourite characters? There's a worthy thing to be spending your time with, surely! We all have pictures of our characters in our heads, don't we?  (please don't tell me that's just me...) A couple of pictures of him or her up on the storyboard is a great help, I'm sure. In fact, why don't we just draw ALL our characters? Once they're all suitably represented, we'll get back to writing about them. I swear. 

      6.   Aquire more hobbies

It's winter right now, and your friends are cold. Go knit them a scarf, a hat, some gloves. A sweater, maybe...

     7.    Get a pet

I have two dachshunds to call my own (well, that's how I put it, anyway - they might explain it differently). They are wonderful, such characters, wriggly little things that make me smile just thinking about them. They also want attention, and I love giving it to them. That scene I was writing? Nowhere near as important as cuddling my babies. 

     8.   Go on holiday

The Beach! The Mountains! Nature! Sports! Relaxation! What are you waiting for? Take your notebook. I'm sure there will be time to write. 

     9.   Love your family / have a life

Need I say more?

     10.  Sleep

When all else fails, there's always the siren-song of your bed. Certain hours of sleep are necessary to keep functioning, so sleep is good, right? Right. 

Make sense, my top 10, don't they? Perfectly reasonable things to do (ok, some more so than others), all things that can be used to procrastinate. My theory? It's all a question of timing. What do you think? And what's your favourite perfectly reasonable method of procrastinating? 

A Manuscript Checkup: Are You Really Ready to Query?

I sometimes hear of querying authors lamenting the decline of “editorial” agents. In truth, all agents are editors of their projects. It just depends on where along a manuscript’s evolution do they want to jump in. What these authors aren’t realizing is that they might be looking for representation too early in their writing process. Most agents look for a project in its later stages or last stage of development. And the reason is simple and practical. The sooner an agent can get a project in front of editors, the sooner (hopefully) he can see a paycheck. If he’s very lucky, he might find a project that only needs one round of editing, but most likely, that one round of editing will uncover the need to do more.

I’ve been working on a client’s book project for over the last month. This is my third time going through the manuscript for this editing round. I’m fairly sure this is either my fifth or sixth time reading the novel. One thing is certain, though. I loved this story the first time I read it, and I love it more now. It’s true that with each edit and revision, the manuscript improves. But it’s more than that. While I could see issues when I first read the story, I could also clearly see solutions. And now that the changes are on the page, the story is better than I first imagined it could be.  

Often I'll get submissions that are so early in their development that I cannot even begin to unravel their issues, much less envision solutions. Those novels, while "completed," are not "market-ready.” Occasionally, time permitting, I’m able to send feedback. When I do, I am struck by how often the same recommendations come up.

Even after countless rejections, some authors may still find it easier to keep querying and keep submitting rather than go back into their novels to fix what is not working. Often it’s because they’re too close to the work and can no longer see problems in it. Some do see or sense there are issues but are unable to pinpoint them or don’t know how to solve them, or where to start.

I have put together some questions that you can use as a checklist to see if you should start or keep querying, or use them to jumpstart your next revision:

1. Are the stakes clearly defined within the first few paragraphs, or at least within the first chapter?
2. Are the scenes grounded with specific and unique details that make them tangible and immersive?
3. Do the main characters have inner lives with complex thoughts, reflections, memories, etc.? Even if they do not reveal their fears, faults and vulnerabilities to the outside world, do they let us in to see them?
4. Do we have context to the main character(s) emotional journey? Is there a personal journey at all?
5. Can we clearly envision distinct physical features of the characters that also reveal their unique personalities (or do we only see their hair and eyes)?

If you have answered “no” to any of the above questions, then this could be why you are receiving rejections or no responses at all.

Keep going through your manuscript, asking the next questions:

1. Is there an over-reliance or repetition of facial movement or expressions to portray emotions, such as “sighing,” “grimacing,” “groaning,” and “cringing”?
2. Are there large blocks of dialogue where nothing else is happening in the scene, or it is unclear what the characters are physically doing during the conversation?
3. Is there a lot of expository information (explanation of background, characters,  ground situation, etc.) revealed through dialogue?
4. Are there words, phrases, gestures, physical sensations that are used commonly or repetitively (such as “heart pounding” or “pulse racing”)?
5. Is there filtering language? (for example, a character sees something happening rather it just happens on the page, or rather than saying the thought, the character’s “sees it through his mind’s eye”)

If you have answered "yes" to any of these last questions, it appears, you have some work ahead of you.

Hopefully by going through these questions, you'll have a better perspective on your manuscript, and be in a better place to decide whether or not you should keep querying or look at revising. These questions also aim to provoke ideas on ways to tell your story better, so that the next time you query, there’ll be an agent or editor who not only falls in love with it, she’ll love it more each time she reads it.

Birthday Sex

I know we just had the big New Year’s countdowns and reflections, but my birthday was two days ago; so for me, this is bigger. It presents a candid opportunity to look at my accomplishments to date and my future goals as a writer. A birthday is a serious crossroads. One minute you’re younger, the next you’re as old as F*&k. 

I appreciate that in reality it’s a slow, gradual build up, but something about that number flipping from one day to the next, like a sadistic, surreal countdown to mortality, is humbling.

I thought since I’m twenty-nine (again) I should come up with a kick-ass twenty-nine list—something really mind-altering and profound—detailing all the things I’ve learned as a writer this year. Problem is, I could only come up with three. So, here instead, is my concise, yet enlightening birthday list. In no particular order:

1.  I really like sex. But more, I really like writing about sex and plan on weaving more of that pleasurable tapestry into my novels. I went to a workshop recently that challenged the audience to find ways of incorporating sex into literary fiction. What I mean to say is, in this workshop, we were exploring deep and penetrating (sorry, couldn’t help myself ;) uses of any sexual act or erotic tension to bring a story to a whole other psychological level. I decided that concept sucked balls (really, this is too easy ;) and will continue to write sex to titillate and entertain.

Sex scenes in any story shouldn’t be gratuitous. It has to mean something to the characters and progress the plot, but it doesn’t need to turn my characters’ worlds upside down and rock them to their core… unless it’s a mind-blowing orgasm—then it should totally do that. There is a time and place for deep questions about sex and sexuality in writing, but there’s also a forum to play with the erotic in a fun and sensuous way. I don’t want to change the world, I just want my characters to be very, very happy. 

2.  I need to write more. I’ve been to a lot of workshops lately that tout the need to write prolifically and super fast. These facilitators were throwing around insane numbers like completing six to seven novels a year. Each of these mystical creatures needed to be between 50,000 – 75,000 words long.

When I first started writing, it took me five years to complete my self-help guide, Life: Living in Fulfillment Every Day. At the time, I was working with my beautiful co-author Annemarie, so I blame the logistics of coordination. My second book, which happened to be my debut historical romance Avelynn, took a year and a half to write, and a year and a half to edit. Three years. Not bad. I was clearly making progress. The second book in the Avelynn series took two years in total. Currently, I’m working on a contemporary romance and have lofty aspirations to finish it well before a year is up. But, seven novels in one year? I know incredible writers who can actually do this. And kudos to you. Seriously. I’m jealous.

For those of you interested in writing more, faster… here’s my take away from those educational workshops: outline, outline, outline. I’m a pantser, so this was a tough pill for me to swallow, but I have to admit, I tried outlining a three act structure using Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat for my newest novel: Hot in Aruba, and it helped. A lot. I have a greater understanding of story structure and where the big moments are and why they are there. Once you get the main bits and pieces down in your outline and are ready to write your novel, take a few moments each and every day to get a feel for what you are going to write before you sit down to write it. Make jot notes; use conscious flow. Do whatever you have to do to understand what needs to happen in the scene you’re about to write and why it needs to happen. Figure out your most prolific time of day. Do you write more in the mornings? Evenings? Commit to writing during that time. Use the rest of the day to catch up on social media, for example. Determine your best place to work, where you are least likely to be distracted. Know your strengths and use them.

3.   Debut novels are not always the great big shiny stars you wished they would be. Once you discover this painful, festering gash of wisdom, you have to learn to cope with it. Avelynn, my beautiful book baby, didn’t get off to a great start. It did very well in Canada, but just couldn’t break into the American market. No matter what I did to promote it, not enough people knew it existed. Despite fantastic reviews, including glowing accolades in Canada’s National Newspaper The Globe and Mail, I just couldn’t garner enough attention. There are millions of books on Amazon alone, trying to make yours stand out is like finding a needle in a haystack. Once you come to this startling conclusion, there might be confusion, grief, despair, incredulity, anger, and frustration, but ultimately there will be relief and acceptance. If you’ve made it this far, a good rule of thumb is to understand that a debut novel is merely a gateway, a stepping stone to bigger and better things. The key is to keep writing.

I’m sure I’ve discovered a great deal more writing wisdom in the 365 days since I last encountered such a stark reminder of my distant birth year, but age blurs the memory. I’ll start working on the other twenty-six points as I go along for next year’s 29^th birthday post. :D

In gratitude,

Marissa xo