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Category : Career
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Continue Reading "Part 2! Talking with Your Unsupportive Spouse"Part 2! Talking with Your Unsupportive Spouse
“Why do you spend so much time writing?”“You’re never going to get published.”
“You want to spend HOW MUCH on a writer’s conference?!”
If these complaints sound familiar, then you might be facing an unsupportive spouse (or parent, loved one, etc). Last week, we covered the different kinds of unsupportive spouses—some are afraid of change, some don’t have all the info they need to become supportive, and some are controlling.
One of the best things you can do is to have a heart-to-heart conversation with your spouse. This discussion should help to clarify information that is fuzzy (to them) while also alleviating any fears they may have that their day-to-day will drastically change. From this conversation, they should be able to slowly move from unsupportive to supportive.
But how do you prepare for such a conversation? We discuss that and more on this week’s episode of The Gatecrashers Podcast.
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Continue Reading "Help! I Have An Unsupportive Spouse!"
Help! I Have An Unsupportive Spouse!
“My spouse doesn’t support my writing career!”This is a common complaint among writers. Parents, family, friends, partners—it can sometimes seem as though the people we love the most are the least supportive of our writing dreams and goals.
In the recent episode of The Gatecrashers Podcast, literary agent Amanda Luedeke and novelist Charis Crowe discuss how to tell if your spouse is truly unsupportive or if they are acting from a place of fear or lack of information.
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Continue Reading "How I Became a Literary Agent"
How I Became a Literary Agent
I live in Indiana.I had no previous book publishing experience.
In fact, when I first started working with Chip MacGregor, I wasn’t fully sure what an agent did.
So how did I get to become a book agent? We discuss my journey in this week’s episode of the Gatecrashers Podcast.
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Continue Reading "How Authors Can Use Social Media Analytics"
How Authors Can Use Social Media Analytics
Authors are told to write what they’re passionate about, but many times this leaves them confused. “I have so many book ideas!” many of my authors have told me. “How do I determine which one to write?”I’ve known authors to struggle with questions like should I write mystery or fantasy? Romance or women’s fiction? A book on parenting teenagers or parenting toddlers? Should I do a cookbook or a fitness book? A Bible devotional or a trade book?
Sometimes the answers to these questions can be found in the author’s online analytics.
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Continue Reading "If you could ask any question of a literary agent…"If you could ask any question of a literary agent…
I’ve been taking the month of April and asking readers to send in their specific questions of literary agent. So if you could have lunch with an agent, sit down face to face and talk, what would you ask? Here are some of the questions that have come in…
Recently a publisher stated that he thinks an author ought to plow some of their advance back into marketing — which upset me, since it seems wrong-headed to expect authors to bear the financial burden of book promotion. Why pick on the weakest financial link in the chain? Am I hopelessly naive? Or is that the new normal?
I saw that interview, and I’m of two minds. First, I agree that every author needs to throw himself or herself into their own book. Let’s face it, NOBODY has more at stake in a book than the author. Nobody knows the story better. Nobody has spent more time on it. Nobody is counting on the the success more than the author. So I understand a publisher trying to encourage an author to go “all in” on marketing. But second, I think it’s crazy for a publisher, who is hopeful for the book to do well but not completely tied to its success (because the publisher has other books to sell), to say, “The author ought to take his advance check and use that money to pay an outside publicist.” Um, maybe there are times where that’s exactly what needs to happen. But it comes across as out of touch and unrealistic, since most authors are trying to live on advances. I mean, I could just as easily say to a publisher, “If you want to be more successful, you need to reinvest your paycheck into training your people.” So no, this is not the new normal. I do think publishers are expecting more out of authors when it comes to marketing these -
Continue Reading "Questions you’d ask an agent…"
Questions you’d ask an agent…
So this month we’re going to let you ask whatever you’ve always wanted to ask a literary agent. You send me the questions (or send them to me on Facebook, or stick them in the “comments” section), and I’ll try to answer them, or get another agent to answer them. First up, some questions that came in last month…
Suppose you have a character in your novel that would be perfect for a particular actor. Should you tell your agent about it and let them handle it?
You could… but it probably won’t get very far. It’s rare that a project gets pitched to an actor in a role, unless it’s a major author with clout. (So, for example, if you had a role that was perfect for Leonardo DiCaprio, you could try and talk with his agent. Um, and you would be author #5962 who has the “perfect” role for him.)
If I have an agent, then decide to write a self-pubbed novel, how can I include my agent in the process?
This is one of the things happening in publishing these days that is still in process, so there’s no one right answer for every situation. You could ask your agent to help you with it — the editing, the copyediting, the formatting, the uploading, the cover, etc., then pay a percentage as a commission. OR you could see if your friends are producing a line of books, make it part of that line, and pay a certain commission to him or her. (For example, we helped our authors create a co-op line of clean romances.) OR you could do it all yourself and not pay the agent anything. OR you could do it yourself, but work with your agent to help with things like marketing and selling, and pay a commission.
I am brand new to the industry, and delving into the potential of writing fiction. So
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Continue Reading "Ask the Agent: Should I work with a speaker’s bureau?"
Ask the Agent: Should I work with a speaker’s bureau?
I’ve recently had a couple people write to ask me about speaker bureaus — How do they work? What do they make? Are they worth it?
Over the last twenty years, I’ve worked with numerous speaker bureaus to try and get speaking engagements for authors. Like any other business, the quality varies greatly. Some have been good; others have been terrible. Let me offer some thoughts…
First, a good speaker’s bureau is pro-active, not re-active. This is really the biggest complaint people have about most speaker bureaus. An author will sign with them, give them permission to get them engagements, then wait. A good bureau will make calls and try to find new places for an author to speak. A bad bureau sits and waits for the phone to ring. (And if that’s all your speaker’s bureau is doing, you can simply have your own phone ring.)
Second, a good speaker’s bureau provides support, not just basic information. A good bureau captures all the details. They tell the author where they are needed, when, how they’ll get there, and where they’ll be staying. They’ll offer to help with travel, offer details on how many times the author is expected to speak, on what topics, under what circumstances, and to how many people. A bad bureau simply gives the date and time.
Third, a good speaker’s bureau will work for their money. Most bureaus take 20% of the speaker fees. So if you’re being paid $3000 to speak at a conference, the speaker’s bureau will want $600 of it… and for that sort of money, you’d expect they would work hard for it, try hard to land new engagements, make sure the proposed gigs were a good fit, and spend some time negotiating the deal to try and maximize it. For the record, I rarely find that to be the case. Many wait for the phone to ring, tend to always
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Continue Reading "What can a new writer do to get noticed by an agent?"
What can a new writer do to get noticed by an agent?
A regular reader of the blog sent in this question: What can a new author do to get noticed by an agent or editor?
The most essential thing you can do as someone new to the industry is to be a great writer, of course. All the agents and editors have seen wannabe writers who are anxious to get published, but haven’t put in the time to really learn the craft. We see stories that have plot problems, shallow story lines, weak characters, bad dialogue, tons of description… And the surprising thing to me is that I’ll sometimes see that from a writer at a conference who is pushing hard for representation.
It’s why I’ll frequently ask people at a face-to-face meeting, “What’s your goal for this meeting?” I mean, some people at a conference are looking for me to react to their story. Others want to show me some writing and interact a bit on it. Some people just have questions about the business or their career. But if a writer sits down at a ten minute meeting and expects an agent to offer representation, that’s probably unrealistic. A much more realistic goal would be to have a discussion about the salability of your work, and see if the agent or editor wants to take a more in-depth look at some later date. Maybe have you email the manuscript to him or her.
If you want to get noticed at a conference, show up for your appointment on time. Dress professionally. Have a brief pitch prepared, and make sure you’ve actually practiced it out loud, so you know what you’re going to say. (Your family will think you’ve gone crazy for talking to yourself in the basement… but that’s okay. If you want to be a writer, you probably already qualify as “crazy.”) Do some research on the agents, to make sure you can target your pitch. (I’ve lost
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Continue Reading "Ask the Agent: What do you look for in a query?"
Ask the Agent: What do you look for in a query?
I recently had an online discussion with a writers’ group, and they had several questions for me…
What are the three most important things you look for in a query?
A strong writing voice, clarity of argument (if nonfiction) or story (if fiction), and author platform.
How important are queries to your agency?
I use them as ways to look for talent. Of the queries that come in cold (that is, not introduced by authors I already represent, and not someone I met and spoke with at a conference), the percentage of queries that turn into clients is very, very low.
What experience is worth mentioning in a query?
Anything you’ve had published is worth mentioning. Anything that reveals a big platform is worth mentioning.
Do you think going to conferences and making connections is a better way to meet agents than querying them?
Absolutely. Being face to face with someone, in order to gauge personality and likability and trust, is far more important than choosing someone off the web. I think going to conferences is a GREAT way to connect with agents and editors.
What subjects and genres are currently overdone in the queries you see?
I don’t know that anything is overdone at the moment. Tastes change. Every generation needs its own voices. We see new ideas break out, and we’re always surprised. I know some people will say “dystopian is overdone,” or “Amish fiction is overdone.” They might be… until somebody creates one that sells well. (Having noted this, I’ll admit I hate the question, which get frequently. The fact is, we’re always surprised at the latest breakout hit.)
Which genres do you think deserve a comeback? What genres would you like to see in queries?
Beats me what deserves a comeback. Chick-lit is making a comeback, now known as romantic comedy. I suppose I’d like to see westerns and spy novels make a comeback.
Which genres
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Continue Reading "What have you always wanted to ask an agent?"
What have you always wanted to ask an agent?
I started this blog nearly ten years ago (we’re coming up on the ten year anniversary for this blog), as a way to simply answer the questions writers have about the process. Some people wanted to ask about writing, others about publishing, still others about marketing. Writers asked about careers, they asked about proposals, and they asked about contracts. Lately we’ve had a ton of people asking about indie publishing and working with Amazon to become a hybrid author.
Over the next couple of months, I thought we’d do an “ask me anything” segment. So… what have you always wanted to ask a literary agent? I’ve got a backlog of questions, but I thought I’d begin by simply asking the people who read this blog a question: If you could sit with me over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine somewhere, and ask anything you wanted, what would you want to know? What would you like to chat about?
Drop a question in the “comments” section below, or send me an email at chip (at) macgregorliterary(dot)com, and I’ll try to offer short answers to your questions. You can ask about books, about proposals, about writing, career planning, marketing, platforms, proposals, or anything else. If I don’t know an answer, I’ll ask someone who does. If they don’t know, I’ll just make up something that sounds good. (Or maybe I’ll ask someone else.)
So there you have it — October is gong to be “ask the agent” month. Send me your tired, your poor, your huddled questions yearning to breath free. I’ll do my best to get you a good response.
-Chip