Submission Planning 1: Agents

The time has come to start thinking about sending my latest project out into the world. It’s time to make my submission plan and think about the various routes to publication. There are so many options available to authors these days, but also so many pitfalls.

My preferred route is to find an agent to represent me. Agents are invaluable. They have the best contacts, know the right editors to submit to and will negotiate the best deal for you. So my first line of attack will be to submit to agents.

Of course this requires research, and I’ve found a few useful ways to track down agents to put on my submission list. Here are a few of them.

• Agents who represent my favourite authors. Most authors will include this information on their websites, plus this has the advantage of giving you an easy way to personalise your submission letter.

• Agents on twitter. Twitter is a really useful resource for this. Lots of agents tweet and it’s worth checking out their profile because they often state if they are building their lists or are looking for a particular genre.

• Agents in the Bookseller. Keep an eye on the Bookseller for announcements about new agents or agencies. Agents move around a lot and a young hungry agent with a reputable agency who is actively building their list goes straight to the top of mine.

• Recommendations – if you are acquainted with an author ask them who their agent is. They’ll be happy to tell you, especially if their agent is a good one.

• Writers and Artists Handbook – really rather an obvious one but included for completeness.

• Online listings – there are a number of these resources, such as agent hunter or query tracker but some do require a membership fee and the focus tends to be rather more US based. Still, they can be a good starting point.

But wherever you find your potential agents please please please check them out thoroughly before submitting. Here are a few things to check for.

• Sales record: Is the agent a deal maker? You should be able to find information on recent deals either on their websites or in the Book Trade literarture. If they don’t have any deals under their belt then maybe they don’t have the right contacts and if so how are they going to sell your book?

• Clients: Who are their clinets? Have you heard of them? Check out their books. Even ask them about their agents.

• Experience. Be wary of the agent who pops up out of nowhere and who doesn’t provide any information of where they previously worked in the industry.

• Fees. Never pay any fees to an agent at all! No reputable agent these days charges a reading fee.

• Affiliation of professional organisations. For example in the UK check to see if they are a member of the Association of Author’s Agents. No necessarily a red flag but a good indicator.

Remember, a bad agent is worse than no agent and sadly there are scammers out there who would happily part you from your money. But if you’ve written a saleable book and you’ve done your research then you should be fine. I hope we all find the agent of our dreams.

The Second Person

I’m not talking about my mysterious alter ego here (I’ll save that for another day) – I’m talking about Point of View. I want to talk about something I’ve been experimenting with recently which is using different voices and perspectives. My Yeovil Prizewinning story, A Legend of Flight, was the result of this sort of experimentation and one of the other things I’ve been experimenting with recently is writing using the Second Person POV.

I’m sure most of my blog readers know what I’m talking about, even if they haven’t tried the second person themselves, but just in case you are scratching your head and wondering what on earth I’m blethering on about – a brief recap.

The main types of POV:

• First Person (I). Becoming increasingly popular, particularly in YA. Generally lends itself to a single POV work. Multiple First Person POVs can work but you need to keep the character voices distinct.

• Second Person (You). Occasionally seen in short stories or as a minor POV character in a novel.

• Third Person (He/She). The most commonly used particularly for multi-character POVs.

• Omniscient. The God like viewpoint. The narrator describes a scene as if looking down on it from above.

So, back to writing in the second person. It tends not to be used very much and that is for a very good reason – it’s tricky to get right, very intense, and difficult to sustain for a long time. Hard on the reader as well as the writer. As a result if you come across it at all it will be in the form of a short story or as short sections of a longer novel. For example in Complicity Ian Banks uses it very effectively to give us the murderer’s POV.

But what do you gain from using the second person? Here are a few of the benefits.

• Intensity – the second person is very powerful, the reader is immediately immersed – they effectively become the character in your book.

• Ambiguity – there’s a certain ambiguity to a character written in the second person. They could be male or female, young or old. They take on some of the characteristics of the reader. This makes second person an effective tool for certain types of story. For example it works well in crime when writing a scene from the killer’s POV.

• Accusatory – the use of the word ‘you’ can feel very accusatory for the reader and this can, again, be utilised for good effect.

• Uneasy – one of the effects of writing in second person it that it is uncomfortable for the reader. They are being forced into the head of a character they may not like or feel at ease with. Add to this the intensity, ambiguity and accusatory nature of this POV and the reader’s sense of unease is only heightened.

Not all stories lend themselves to the second person, but I do think it’s worth giving it a try, if only to expand your writing armoury. It’s not at all easy to do well. My first efforts came across as clunky and difficult to read. For a while I wrestled with it. People who read it didn’t like it. But after a while I started to get the hang of it. It no longer seems to jar. So I’ll share with you my top tip for writing in the second person:

Try to avoid the use of the word YOU as much as possible.

This applies particularly to the start of sentences. A succession starting with ‘You’ quickly becomes grating. Try turning your sentences around so that the word ‘You’ comes in the middle. The flow will be greatly improved. You words will cease to jar.

What are you waiting for? Give it a go

Getting Literary in Yeovil

The Yeovil Literary Festival is in full swing, packed with all sorts of exciting authors and events. I was up there yesterday and today and I’ve come away buzzing – inspired to get on with some new writing. There are still two more days to go but I thought I would share with your some of the highlights so far.

Yesterday the festival kicked off with the Yeovil Prizewinners event. I was there in my capacity of short story winner 2016 but all the rest of this year’s winners were there as well – something of a first – I don’t think everyone has been able to make it before! The standard was excellent and diverse. The winning novel was superb and I can’t wait for it to be published and I can read the whole thing – and I’m pretty sure it will be – it was really good!

Some of the past winners were there as well, now published and with books to sell, and it was a lovely feeling to be amongst them with my own. Sue Yockney and Chip Tolson were launching their latest books. Sue’s new novel, Outside the Box, is a satirical romp, and Chip Tolson has just released a collection of his short stories, many of which are Yeovil Prize winners in their own right. 

Jackie Gingell, myself, Sue Yockney and Chip Tolson 

Chip and Sue on the bookstall - selling like hot cakes

Chip and Sue

And their books! This is my haul from the event! 

Today I headed back up for a crime writing workshop run by local crime writers Clare Donoghue and Chris Ewan – yes I’m thinking of dabbling in a bit of murder and mayhem – which was excellent but I do wish it had been longer. In fact they’ll be running a course in Taunton soon. Unfortunately a bit too far for me to get to.

But one of the best things was bumping into other authors. It was particularly nice to meet fellow Allsort Emma Carroll as well as Kiran Millwood Hargrave who I met at the Yeovil Prizewinners event a couple of years ago and has now had her first book published.

I only wish I could have stayed longer and spent more time talking all things writing. I hope to see you all again soon!

Meet me in Yeovil

The 2016 Yeovil Literary Festival runs from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd October with a fantastic selection of authors and events to wet your appetite.

But the festival actually kicks off on the Thursday afternoon at 3pm in the Johnson Studio of the Octagon Theatre with the Yeovil Literary Prize event. Here you will have the chance to meet past and present winners of the Yeovil Prize and hear how winning has benefited their writing careers.

I will be there reading 'A Legend of Flight', my winning short story and I will have copies of my short story collection, The Scribbling Sea Serpent for sale at a reduced price.

But above all I love to meet other authors so do come along and say 'Hi'.

Winning the Yeovil Prize

Today, at last, I am able to tell you some very exciting news. My short story, “A Legend of Flight” has come first – yes FIRST – in the short story category of the Yeovil Literary Prize 2016!

To say I’m delighted would be an understatement. You can see the full list of results here.

This story was a bit of an experiment as I was trying out a different voice and I think I can safely say that it was a success. That’s the great thing about short stories. They’re the perfect form for trying out something new. It may not always work, but when it does – ah – then amazing things can happen. Like this.

Tales of the Damned

I have just received my contributor’s copy of the latest book to hit the shelves from CFZ Publishing’s Fortean Fiction imprint – Tales of the Damned: An anthology of Fortean ** Horror.

The collection contains 25 stories from 21 different authors, some of whom are well known names in the field of Fortean and Paranormal research. This adds a really interesting dimension to some of the stories included.

To quote the editor, Richard Freeman: “Who better to pen a collection of weird tales than those who hunt monsters, search for ghosts and study anomalous phenomena?”

I myself may not be a monster hunter and I incline towards the sceptical, but you cannot deny that there are things in this world that might at first appear inexplicable. Often the explanation for something seemingly anomalous turns out to be quite mundane, but this itself is intriguing. The whole subject is a fascinating one. Imaginations are set alight and stories like those in this collection are the result.

If you want to know a bit more about Forteana then do check out fellow contributor Andrew May’s fascinating blog on the subject. In the meantime I have a few stories to read!

Tales of the Damned is available in paperback from Amazon UK and Amazon US and the kindle version will be issued in a few weeks.

** The term ‘Fortean” refers to the works of Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 - May 3, 1932). Fort was an American writer and researcher into strange phenomena. You can find out more about him here.

Fissures

Everything changes. The world is in a state of flux. Just like the cliffs around where I live. Last time I walked along this section of the coast path the ground had opened up, a giant fissure, the seaward side slipping downwards.

Every time I come here the landscape is different, has slipped a little further, the crack wider, the drop greater, sections of path that I once walked now empty air and precipitous falls.

This section of coastline is on the move, never standing still, constantly reinventing itself. The cliffs crumble and reveal treasure. I picked up these fossils on the beach below, pristine and new, un-battered by the waves and tides.

Next time I go there it will have changed again.

Making Time to Write

How many times have we heard, or maybe even uttered, those words “I’d love to write a book, I just don’t have the time”.

Well I’ll let you into a secret – I don’t have the time either. I have a day job, I have a family. This year I have two teenagers sitting important exams, I’ve joined a running club and I’ve been helping my mother move house. Some days when everyone else is using the computer and I have a million and one other things to do it feels as if the whole world is conspiring to stop me writing.

Yet, somehow, the novel I started back in September has managed to creep up to 71K words out of a target length of 80K. It’s the longest thing I’ve ever written and the end is in sight, the finale looming.

Since I know I’m not the only person compelled to write who is also pushed for time I thought I would share a few tips with you that have helped me get this novel written.

1. Get a smart phone and use it for all you social networking and procrastinating. That way when you do get the chance to sit down and write you write.
2. Have a plan – I find an outline helps a lot. Mine is organic and changes as I go along, but it means that when I do get a chance to write I know exactly what happens next.
3. Don’t edit – get that first draft down, editing can come later. I know some people prefer to make each section perfect before moving on to the next bit but chances are that section will never be perfect. Finish that first draft and then you will have something to work with.
4. Don’t worry if the words feel stilted or don’t flow, keep pressing on, you can come back and fix it later.
5. Try to find writing slots of about an hour. I can generally manage a thousand words in an hour but if you can only manage to find half hour slots that’s fine. Then make sure you spend that time slot writing.
6. Don’t worry about finding a regular slot, although if you can so much the better, but if you have to fit it in here and there between everything else then so be it.
7. Keep a tally of your word count. It’s satisfying watching it creep up and seeing how 500 words added here or there can start to make a difference.
8. Thinking time is just as important as writing time, so take any opportunity, to give yourself space to think and play over your next scene in your head. That way when you get the chance to sit down and write the scene is all ready to go.
9. Stay focussed on one project. It’s so easy to get seduced by that shiny new idea but if you keep hopping from project to project you’ll never get anything finished. 
10. Finally enjoy it. Writing should be fun, a creative release.

So remember. “I don’t have the time,” is NOT an excuse – and this applies to all things in life – not just writing!

The Last Jupiter

After a bit of a hiatus I have finally dipped my toe back into the world of short stories, and what better place to make a comeback than in Jupiter SF.

Jupiter SF, edited by Ian Redman, is a superb magazine that has been going for many years, but sadly the latest issue, Issue 50, named for the moon Herse, is to be the last. Jupiter has always had a reputation for publishing quality science fiction, featuring many well-known authors and receiving great reviews. I am not alone in being sorry to see it go and I do wish Ian all the best for his future ventures. I’ve been fortunate to have been published by Jupiter twice before and I am honoured to be featured in this final edition.

I am also in quite esteemed company. This issue features work from Ray Blank, Jon Wallace, G.O. Clark, Garrick Fincham and Christina Sng.

This issue, and many of the back issues, are available on kindle as well as in print so if you wish to support Jupiter, and read some excellent fiction, then head over to the Jupiter website or to Amazon and pick up a copy or ten. Jupiter 50, Herse, is available in kindle format from Amazon, here.

Sacred Wells

We wandered through the village towards the Abbey ruins and pushed open an iron gate to take another path; through the cemetery, past the gravestones. Here, down a cobbled track, in a dell surrounded by a grove of lime trees, was the sacred well.

Springs and wells have been revered by people for thousands of years and standing here in the Easter sunshine surrounded by birdsong and daffodils and listening to the tranquil sounds of the running water pouring out from the Earth, I knew I was standing somewhere special. For this is St Augustine’s Well in Cerne Abbas. It was once part of the Abbey and previously had a shine built on top of it, but that has been stripped away and all that remains now are the stone channels through which the water flows.

One strange thing about this well are the ribbons which festoon the surrounding trees. I am aware that in some places people dip rags into healing waters and then tie them to nearby trees as healing prayers. Indeed, this well does come with its own batch of folklore attesting to the healing properties of these waters, but I’m not aware of this being a local tradition, and many are ribbons rather than rags.

And so I’m curious. Why do people do this? Is it a healing ritual, are people tying their prayers to the trees, or is it simply a memento of their visit, a bit like graffiti? There are also a fair few ribbons tied to the trees around the abbey ruins, and that makes me think that it might be the latter.

(A bit more information about this well can be found on the Dark Dorset Website.)

Trying Something New

It’s too easy to get into a writing rut – to stay in your comfort zone. But sometimes you need to step out of that zone, to push the boundaries and to try something new.

That is what I am doing.

When I started out I wrote mainly Science Fiction and Weird fiction short stories, and achieved modest success, placing them in anthologies and magazines. It was satisfying and rewarding. I could have settled into that rut and stayed there. But I didn’t. I wanted to write novels, and so I tried my hand at writing for a younger audience.

The culmination of this venture was RED ROCK, my YA Cli-Fi thriller. And for a while I felt I’d found my niche. But RED ROCK hasn’t sold particularly well – at least not by publisher standards – (they expect sales of around 10K for a book to be considered a success) – and the subsequent MG and YA novels that I have written have all been politely declined.

I know in my heart that they’re better books, but this is a business. Publishers are looking for something shiny and new, and by that I mean debuts. What nobody tells you is that once you’ve had one book deal it becomes so much harder to get another, especially if your sales aren’t huge. There are no second chances in this game.

I’m not prepared to accept that. I do have an idea for another kids’ book, but I’m not going to write it. Not just yet.

I’m stepping out of my comfort zone and writing something new. Something different. And I’m not just talking about switching genres – (adult psychological thriller) – I’m talking about voice.

I’ve been experimenting with different points of view, mixing the first, second and third person, the present and past tense. Each can be approached in a different way, and the more things I try the more I start to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s fun being experimental, and I’m accumulating a number of interesting flash pieces that I may well post on this blog at some time in the future, to illustrate a few of the techniques I’ve been trying out.

The new novel is coming on well, and I’ve started to test it out on my critique group. And as for that kids’ book idea – I may well write it one day – but if I do it won’t be like anything else out there! And it won’t be like anything I’ve written before!

The Purbeck Literary Festival

Sometimes life gets in the way of writing and recently I’ve been cutting down on author events. However, I did manage to spare a few hours at the weekend to join my fellow Littoralis, Laura James and Kathy Sharp to run a panel event at the Purbeck Literary Festival.

Kathy Sharp manning our table of books

The title of our event was ‘A Foot in the Door – A guide to getting published.’ where we talked about the benefits of being with a small publisher and discussed our experiences.

Although the focus of the day was largely on self-publishing, I hope that many of the authors who attended our event will feel encouraged to explore the small publisher route as a viable option. Certainly our experiences have been very positive, even though we all write in different genres and are published by very different publishers.

Events like this are always a good networking opportunity and it was nice to catch up with local authors. If you are in the area the Purbeck Literary Festival has events running all week so do check out their programme and see if anything takes your fancy.

And if you would like to know a bit more about the Littoralis – four Dorset authors inspired by the sea - then do visit out facebook page for regular updates.

Over at the Allsorts

As you may already know I regularly post over at the Author Allsorts blog - a collaborative blog run by a group of published UK based picture book, children's and YA authors.

My latest post talks about the science in science fiction and if you haven't already seen it then do pop over and take a look.

When Science and Fiction Collide:

Pen Names

I sometimes wish I’d been published under a pen name.

It’s not that I dislike my name – in fact I think it’s a good name. It points clearly to my Celtic roots and I’m proud of my heritage. No, the problem is that I share my name with rather too many other people.

When I first started sending stuff out I briefly thought about my name, but at that time the only other Kate Kelly that came up in my google searches was the infamous Kate of the Kelly Gang, sister to Ned the Australian outlaw. I thought she made a rather cool namesake, and so I kept my name.

But over the years, since those first short stories came out in print, a number of other Kate Kellys have appeared on the scene. There’s one who writes non fiction. She isn’t an issue since she clearly isn’t me. But then, when Red Rock went up on Amazon I looked at the ‘People who viewed this also viewed’ section and was horrified to see a whole load of rather steamy covers showing up – not the most appropriate thing to be appearing on the page of a children’s book!

And then there’s the Mormon activist! Now if you search on my name and Red Rock most of the hits will be her!

Even the Guardian muddled us up – linking to her biography from a piece I wrote for them recently! These days I seem to spend most of the time trying to tell people they’ve got the wrong Kate Kelly!

There are many reasons authors chose to publish under a pen name. Maybe it is because they are writing in more than one genre and want to keep their readerships separate, or maybe it is because they don’t want anyone they know to find out what they are writing – say they are a teacher or a Judge writing raunchy romance!

In my case I think I’ll use a pen name in future simply to avoid confusion!