Horrific little bug making its way around the litblogosphere called “Nyah nyah, bitch” Syndrome. NNBS is characterized by the unprompted sharing by the infected party of details of their methodology that directly contradict the advice being given and still resulted in a book deal/offer of agent representation, etc.
What differentiates NNBS from your average disagreement in methodology, of which I wholeheartedly approve and often take part in myself, is the fact that actually FOLLOWING the advice given is never a bad idea, though on occasion, not following it might be (hence the advice).
For instance: Agent blogs about the wisdom of not sending in submission under cutesy/offensive/inappropriate email handle, because it looks unprofessional and makes said agent reluctant to enter into business relationship with you. NNBS-positive poster shoots back that they got an agent despite the fact that their screenname is “cockmaster69″ or somesuch. Know what? Good for you. Do you think they wouldn’t have read your email if you’d been “jane_smith?” I don’t either.
Another instance: Agent reminds writers to always include an SASE. Another writer says he got a ton of agent offers only when he *didn’t*. Nyah, nyah, bitch. Please. As if it was the lack of SASE that earned you the response? Way to teach aspiring writers to concentrate on the secret handshakes and codes and turning-page-37-upside-down tricks rather than writing a good book and presenting it in a professional manner. You know why your magazine subscriptions provide you with an SASE? Because they are more likely to get a response if they make it free, that’s why.
I often see advice bandied about that says to finish your book before querying, because editors cannot buy and agents cannot sell a partial manuscript from a debut author. I never dive in and say, “Oh, yes they can, because I sold mine on a partial, nyah, nyah, bitch.” Why? Because it’s a fluke. It’s a fluke that’s so unusual and unlikely that there’s no point in talking about it, or encouraging people to try it. If they do, they do, if not, then no big deal.
Yet not a month has gone by since I sold my book that I don’t get an email asking me how to sell a book on partial. I do not know the answer to that. Write a really strong partial, pray for a partial-friendly market, I guess. I also hear from a lot of people who are upset that their partial hasn’t resulted in an offer, and that editors or agents have asked to see the whole thing when it’s done. The common reaction to this news seems to be: “This won’t ever sell, since it didn’t sell on partial.” Come on, now. Finish the book.
Writer’s Digest recently published an article: “How I Broke All the Rules and Got Published Anyway.” Talk about damaging! Such articles are meant I’m sure, to demystify the process for writers. Writers, neurotic little souls that we are, often get so caught up in the vagaries of formatting, paper brightness, font size, spacing, SASEs, paperclips, binder clips, rubber bands, how far down the page to start the first chapter, how to format chapter headings, what to do with widows and orphans, etc., that we lose site of the big picture. Which is: write a good book and present it professionally. But what these articles actually do is encourage people to do bizarre things with their submissions, because they make it seem as if breaking the rules is actually what got their manuscript noticed, rather than the actual manuscript.
Most people I know who got their manuscript noticed did it the old fashioned way. They queried an agent or editor, and got a request. They sent in the requested manuscript, and got an offer. That’s it, that’s all, there’s no big secret. Any variation is a minor ripple in the usual process. Maybe they didn’t get their request from a query, but from a contest win or a conference pitch. One out of a thousand sells their first book in a REALLY unusual manner, say Janice Lynn and her American Title win that resulted in a book contract. But that story is newsworthy because it’s so unusual. You hear about debut authors selling on partials, you hear about contest wins or meeting editors in bathrooms or POD self-published projects that get book deals because they are so, so, so unusual. Most people send in queries, get requests, send in requests, and get offers. Period. And you’d be surprised how often that chain of events breaks down on the author’s side. I have heard so many agents and editors tell me that they never get requested manuscripts.
The number two question I get when people hear I have a novel coming out (number one is, “What is it about?”) is “How did you sell your book?” And then they are surprised when I tell them. I queried an agent, she requested the book. I sent it to her. She offered, I accepted, she sent it to publishing houses, and we got an offer. Wow, that can’t be! No one ever sells a book if they try to do it the NORMAL way! But that’s exactly what happened. The other stuff: the partial, the buzz, the auction, the speed — they are accessories. A black dress is still a black dress, no matter what the neckline looks like, or the bows or the ruffle along the hem.
Just because you’ve done it or you’ve heard of someone doing it another way doesn’t make the usual way any less valid. The NNBS-positive folks might think that they are demystifying the process for the poor writers who translate “get thee a proper email address and make sure not to salute the prospective editor with ‘yo yo yo beeyatch’ if you want your submission to look as professional as possible” to mean “follow all of these rules to a tee or you shall never, ever get past the gatekeepers of the Eeeeevil Publishing Empire,” but that’s not how it’s coming across. Instead, it’s sounding like, “do it *my* way or you’ll be stuck on the publishing carousel with all the peons. If you really want to get published, you can’t do what they tell you to. Guidelines are for dummies. Rules are for losers. They don’t apply to real people.”
It’s sounding like “Nyah, nyah, bitch.”
Post below if you got an agent or book deal “the usual way” or if you didn’t, but still believe that the usual way is perfectly valid. If you don’t believe that, post here anyway and we’ll chat. 
You’re immune from NNBS because I want you to come in and tell me if i’m totally off-base.
January 30th, 2006 at 10:09 am
Diana, you are NOT totally offbase in any way, shape or form. The NNBS people are doing a great disservice, IMO. You have nothing to lose by going into the submission process the right way. No editor is going to ignore you or “lose” your manuscript because you did it right. They might, however, because you did it wrong. I’ve been in this business since 1987…published since 1996. I’ve worked with many editors in different houses and trust me–doing it wrong CAN result in not getting published. Or it might not. But who wants to play that game of roulette?
I sold my first book in the completely traditional way (though with a nontraditional premise for my book…that always helps.) I pitched at a conference to an editor. She asked for the partial. I sent. She asked for revisions. I revised and then continued writing. She asked for a full. I submitted and she asked for more revisions. I resubmitted. More revisions. Then the sale. My editor then was only an assistant and she didn’t want to go to the table with the book until it was a sure-fire sale. Her strategy worked. I sold the next book on a partial. And every single one after that.
When I moved to single title, I got an agent. Sent in a synopsis and query, my publishing history and mentioned that I already had interest from a publisher. I followed up with said agent queries (something some people fail to do…why I don’t know). My agent had some misgivings that I could pull off a certain part of the story and asked for partial, which I sent her quickly and bam, I had representation.
Nothing funky. Nothing unusual. Except maybe that when an editor asked me to revise, I did it and when I was asked for partials, synopsis, etc. I sent them. So far (knock on wood) I’ve had a solid career that’s going on ten years this March and over 25 books because I’ve focused on writing stories that can sell (because of both craft and marketability) above all else.
January 30th, 2006 at 10:44 am
*raising hand* for the usual way. You’re right on the money here, Diana. The unusual paths to publication create a buzz simply because they’re that. Unusual. They also appeal to our inner fantasies of originality and specialness. Maybe even our need for Unconditional Love. It’s Lana Turner at the soda fountain all over again.
With the exception of you and Kathy Love (who was unpublished when she got a three-book contract from Kensington for unwritten books) everyone I know did it the normal way.
What makes the normal way so unbelievable to people? I have no idea. Maybe it’s because it requires work and effort. Reasearch. Discipline–qualities not commonly associated with artists. But they should be.
People really, really like to believe in magic. You see it in everything from fad diets to pop psychology. And, as we know, it does exist, but it’s not mainstream and it never will be. Aspiring writers would definitely be better served by following the well-worn path. The odds of success are better that way.
January 30th, 2006 at 10:49 am
I sold on TV. *g*
January 30th, 2006 at 10:50 am
But isn’t that an accessory, Alison? Like, you submitted to Birgit in the usual way, etc. etc. etc. she CALLED you… you just happened to be on TV at the time. Right?
January 30th, 2006 at 10:50 am
I agree with absolutely everything you said, Diana. And frankly, as opinionated as I am, that surprises me. But I think you’re completely right.
I got my agent by…querying. Yup, I sent out actual query letters, with all the usual information in them. Title, genre, word count, short summary, a short paragraph about me, and a polite closing. And an SASE, with the two paper queries I sent out. Yes, neither of them were returned. But if I hadn’t included them, I would never have known if the lack of response was because the agents didn’t like my stuff, or because I hadn’t included an envelope.
My agent read my query and three sample chapters. She liked what she read, and called to ask for more. I sent it over via email, as requested. She called back that night to offer me representation.
It was that simple. And (pay attention everyone) EVERY agented author I personally know did it basically the same way. Send out query. Receive request. Send in requested material. Wait. Receive offer of representation.
Not complicated. Sometimes slow and frustrating, but really very simple.
January 30th, 2006 at 10:53 am
LMAO @ Alison.
January 30th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
On the ball, Diana.
Not that I’ve sold yet, but hey.
Sometimes the unusual works, and that’s great. But it doesn’t mean that tried and tested is wrong…
(And DAMN you for sucking me in! I SO did not need another must-read-blog, but I just popped over a few times to see if you were saying anything interesting, and you always were, curses!)
January 30th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
But isn’t that an accessory, Alison? Like, you submitted to Birgit in the usual way, etc. etc. etc. she CALLED you… you just happened to be on TV at the time. Right?
Yep! Full manuscript! (Though, no SASE. I never sent those to Canada because they were just too much trouble to deal with!)
January 30th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
I got an agent the usual way. I wound up turfing her, and I did that the usual way, too (phone call to discuss issues, more issues regardless, email, official termination letter, bye-bye).
Cindy
January 30th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Must admit I never sent SASE’s to Canada either and I only once tried to seek out IRCs. I just started sending checks to cover postage, which they cashed, btw. And they returned a lot of stuff to me because of all the revision I did prior to me being under contract.
January 30th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
I really like that you’ve said this, Diana. I think someone needed to, and it also needed to be said by someone who sold the unusual way and can still say, yes, but you should follow the rules anyway.
I read those other blogs where the NNBS advice pops up and I’ve never been tempted to follow it. I’m not much of a rule breaker. I’ll read the guidelines ten times to make sure I understand, and then I’ll do exactly what they want.
Oh, and I’ll triple check myself to make sure I did exactly what they wanted. LOL!
I think people who get agents/contracts the unusual way would have gotten them regardless. I haven’t had anything in submission for a while, but when I did, I sent the SASE and the query and all the usual stuff. An agent called to request the full. She never used my SASE, but I didn’t conclude from that incident that I shouldn’t send it in future.
January 30th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
I think I did everything as bassackwards as humanly possible, but I don’t recommend it and I know it was a complete freakish fluke. I sold three books on a pre-empt based on three sample chapters and a synopsis. Which just does not happen. No one was more susprised than me. I wrote about the how and why and whether it would work for others here (http://www.electricmist.net/archives/001731.html) (hope you don’t mind me posting that, Diana).
There’s no harm that can befall a project when you do everything the right, professional way. I’d spent years in screenwriting and before that, selling non-fiction articles, and it was all done in a professional, rather standard, way. It’s probably what gave people the confidence to step out on a limb for me with the things they did for the Bobbie Faye book — they saw a track record there for “normal” and “professional” they felt they could rely on for the long haul of writing and turning in three books. Instilling that confidence is so very important.
Excellent blog, Diana, by the way. It’s on my must-read RSS feed.
January 30th, 2006 at 1:24 pm
Sorry, Anna what can i say? It’s always been my life’s goal to be a must-read!
Alison, I always wrestled with those International Reply Coupons. It was only years later that I heard if you send to Harlequin in Canada and use US Postage, they merely put it in their weekly mail drop to New York and the NY office mails out your response. How brilliant is that? What did you do for responses back in the pre-email era?
Cindy, do you still trust in the method, even if it didn’t work out the first time?
Toni, hi! GREAT POST! It’s eerie how much our stories have in common. Friend pitching, etc. Except you had heaps heaps heaps more experience than me. My agent just had the fact that I’d won a couple of awards, spent a year as a columnist for a local newspaper, and had finished four other manuscripts to go on. But I had at least finished them. In the end I suppose, it’s about the work as well. But it’s good to make it clear that flukes or not, they don’t exist in a vacuum. Everyone go read Toni’s story. You’re exactly right. NOthing is lost by doing it the normal way. I send my agent “query letters” now when I’m trying to entice her with a new project.
Lynn, I think you’re right. I think it’s that “correlation not causation” thing. Though of course, there are a billion stories that talk about how years later, your editor says she never say that other story for which you have a rejection letter signed with her name. But who knows if sending a team of penguins to tap dance out the letters would have resulted in the same rejection letter that she forgot or she forgot she signed for her assistant?
I’m afraid I’m coming across as a fuddy-duddy, all “follow the rules”. But I do think they are there for a reason, and just as in writing, you need to know when it’s okay to break them. For instance, I sent a prospective agent another project before she was finished evaluating the first one I sent her. But I did that because I had a lot of interest for project #2, and I thought it was likely I’d get an offer on it sooner than with project #1. I don’t know if I’d recommend it under other circumstances, but in that case, I think I made the best decision. It was a priority issue. You just need to look at the situation and say, is there a reason I’m breaking this rule (whether it’s about SASEs, because the publisher is in another country and it’s just not feasible) or partials, or multiple submission) and is it a good one? (Note: a good one is NOT “But I’m SPECIAL!”) If so…
Oh, and try to get a decent email address. Just do it.
January 30th, 2006 at 2:47 pm
I totally agree with you Diana. I’m a stickler for the rules, at least when it comes to how and where to submit. I sold the old fashioned way - met my editor in Reno, told her what I was writing, sent her exactly what she asked for (lucky me, she likes to see fulls), and got an offer 2 weeks later. I’d been looking for an an agent for awhile, had a full into one of them, and bird in hand, I emailed a handful of agents to discuss representation. Sadly, the one who was considering my full turned me down, but I’m very happy with who I ended up with. How could I not be, when she turned my 1 novella sale into 4 novellas and a ST?
And Diana, your story of your first sale is definitely unusual, but don’t you think you were able to pull it off because you’d done everything the “usual” way for awhile? I mean it wasn’t like you were going around saying, “If I can’t sell this on a partial I’m not going to sell it,” right? You’d already proven to the agent that you were a)professional and b)capable of completing a manuscript, so worth taking a risk on.
January 30th, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Okay, this is totally unrelated to your blog topic, but I wanted to post a comment anyway and tell you what a pleasure it was to meet you this weekend and wished you and I could have chatted at Big Bowl. I really, REALLY dug your erotica covers! Pretty awesome that you got to pose with that guy. Hee! See ya around the loops and at the next WRW meeting!
January 30th, 2006 at 3:01 pm
I think that a lot of people forget that Agents and Editors want to find the “next big thing” as much as each one of us wants to be “the next big thing.” I’m convinced, in my naiveté (which I enjoy so please no bursting bubbles just yet) that if you write a really good book that lots of other people will want to read, you’ll find a home for it.
But I still think you should follow the rules. In the end, it’s a business and we should treat it that way. We should approach submissions the same way we approach the business of our “day jobs.” As an attorney there are an inordinate amount of lame rules that I have to follow to turn something into court (you want to talk about font and margin sizes!!) Sure people break the rules and sure courts sometimes accept it. However, when I get a brief from opposing counsel who hasn’t followed the rules I think a tad less of them. But I still read it, because in the end, I have to respond to it. Just perhaps not right away
(man, re-reading my post I feel so harsh! I guess I’m bit by the Monday bug as well…)
January 30th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Hear hear! I got my agent the usual way, with a twist (targeted agents who’d sold to the editor that requested my manuscript while judging the fantastic Stiletto contest). The original editor ended up making one of the offers we considered.
You are so spot on with this. Before signing with an agent, it can be very tempting to focus on the peripheral stuff, thinking there must be a secret handshake or formatting trick involved in breaking through the literary Red Rover line.
I know I developed this mindset with my first project. But nope. The big picture is so much more important: be professional, stay open to criticism and advice, and write a darn good story. Just as you so eloquently stated.
January 30th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Diana,
I still totally trust in the method (’the usual way’). My former agent and I were simply not a good match–not really the fault of either of us, sometimes this sort of thing just needs to be experienced. And, actually, when I think about it, the agency was supposedly not taking on new clients when I queried them. I didn’t listen to that, which I guess isn’t the usual way…. But I didn’t listen b/c the RWA website agent listings are stale, stale, stale, and, for all I knew, the agency I targeted would be in the mood to take on someone. And, as it so happened, they were. The primary agent’s assistant was looking for her first client, and I was in the right place at the right time, even if it didn’t work out in the end. I’ll never regret the experience. It taught me bunches, and I’ll continue to query agents and editors ‘the usual way.’
Re - the SASEs. I buy American postage for SASEs from my U.S. critique partners, but I only send a #10 envelope for a reply and ask eds/agents to shred the manu if it’s not what they want. I think a U.S. agent/editor’s eyes would bug out if I sent them a cheque in Canadian dollars!
Cindy
January 30th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
And there I thought the trick was to keep an interesting blog, sneak the occasional writing snippet in, and one day an agent or publisher will stumble across it and offer a contract.
*grin*
January 30th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Sign my sale up for “usual.” But the book’s not…….
January 30th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
*raises hand* I sold the usual way. After getting lots of (usual) rejections. Query, send partial, send full. Query, send partial, send full. Lather, rinse, repeat. I kept doing those steps until I got a yes. That’s all! I’ve sold twice on partial now but only because I’ve got a track record.
I did have an agent ask me for a full that I never sent because I just didn’t think we’d be a good fit after talking with her. She later defrauded a bunch of clients, so that was a good call.
January 30th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
What did you do for responses back in the pre-email era?
HQ always responds, whether you send an SASE or not, so I just waited to hear from them!
January 31st, 2006 at 8:06 am
Jami, I htink you’re right, that it was about the experience, I’d submitted enough stories to know that this situation was different. I mean, I’d written four novels, and I never had people knocking down my door for them like they were for this one, so I knew I needed to move on it. I didn’t think it would sell on a partial. MY CP did, but I thought she was nuts, and then my agent told me we were going to do it, so I went with that.
Hey, Karmela! Nice meeting you, too!
Ah, Gabriela, if only, right?
Yeah, Carrie, the Mondays, but not undeservedly. When I was coordinating a contest, people turned their entries in all manner of ways, which is all well and good, and doesn’t it just take me a few seconds to fix it? yeah, but that’s not hte point. YOu’d only have to do it once. I’d have to do it two hundred times, to every entry!
Really, Alison? Wow, the secret’s out!
January 31st, 2006 at 11:35 am
Diana- you are never off base (IMO) - beeatch slap the NNBs- I hate seeing their snotty little posts.
January 31st, 2006 at 1:24 pm
What I’d like to hear is a story of someone who did it the traditional way while being a complete nobody and knowing no one. Meaning: no mutual friends with any agents, never worked as an editor, not married to a publisher, an agent, not a cover model, not a celebrity, not a big magazine editor, not a great friend of a NY Times bestselling author, no high concept book Hollywood would die to get, has no mentor respected in the industry… someone who is no one from the boonies, just sent a query on a good book, and voila…:)
January 31st, 2006 at 10:38 pm
I had never met my agent before querying - STILL haven’t met an editor. I queried, got an offer for representation from one out of at least forty tried, she marketed the book and we got an offer. I live in Texas, work as an accountant and originally hail from a hole-in-the-wall in Louisiana.
That traditional enough?