Free Writers' Newsletter

Short story contest – deadline delayed!

The deadline for firstwriter.com's First International Short Story Contest has been delayed by one month to May 1, 2005 to allow for last minute entries.

The competition is seeking short stories up to 3,000 words, and is open to stories on any subject and in any style: literary fiction; genre; romance; horror; science fiction; experimental – all are acceptable and will be treated equally – the only criteria on which they will be judged is the quality of the story and of the writing.

The winner of the competition will receive a cash prize of £200, or the equivalent in your currency (that's over $300). Not only that, but there will also be ten special commendations awarded. All eleven winners will be published in firstwriter.magazine and receive a free annual subscription to firstwriter.com worth $28.49 / £18.99, allowing access to our daily updated databases of over 200 writing competitions, over 600 literary agents, and over 450 magazines.

Another advantage of the firstwriter.com competition is that submissions are made online – saving you the hassle of printing and posting. To enter your story online in seconds go to https://www.firstwriter.com/competitions/short_story_contest/ 

How to get top-selling agents' attention
By Jill Nagle, Founder and Principal
GetPublished, guerrilla guidance for your writing adventure
An excerpt from How to Find A Literary Agent Who Can Sell Your Book for Top Dollar 
www.FindTheRightAgent.com

Many authors nearly jump out of their shirts when they get an offer of representation from an agent. However, not just any agent has the right contacts to get the kind of money your work may be able to command. A top-selling agent with a recent track record of selling work like yours for the kind of money you want is your best bet, yet so many authors shy away from approaching top agents, thinking those agents would never pay attention to someone of their stature.

The bad news is, it’s true: top agents are often way too busy to give a new client the time of day. So how do you get top agents’ attention? A personal introduction from one of their own author-clients gets an agent’s attention more effectively than almost anything else. Some agents accept only such referrals, and no cold queries. 

To create your own such connection, if you don’t have one already, you’ll need to approach authors whose work your target agent has sold. Some authors will be more willing than others to talk to you about their book, the process of getting published, and their agent. Those most likely to talk to you will probably be those who:

• are less famous rather than more famous;
• have a book recently out – they’ll have publicity and connections on their mind, which you can leverage to both your advantages;
• have a book that relates to but doesn’t directly compete with yours;
• view you as having something to offer them, which you most certainly do; and
• after having looked at your work (proposal, or at least outline/sample chapters), believe it is worthwhile and want to support it.

Here’s how to increase your chances of getting a personal referral to an agent from one of their authors:

1. First, create a list of 5–10 agents who have recently sold works similar to your own for the kind of money you want.
    
2. Next, do a search on amazon.com using their text-search function, to get the names of authors whose books that agent has sold. The search will turn up the acknowledgments section in which the author thanks the agent – that’s how you’ll know which authors’ books that agent has sold. 
   
   Watch out for the rare agent name mentioned randomly in other sections of the book, as this is probably not an indication but a coincidence. Not every author thanks their agent, but enough do that you should be able to get a decent handful or two of authors, depending on how prolific the agent.
    
3. Research those authors on the internet – check out their websites, if any, other places they’ve been published, so that when you approach them, you’ll have done your homework on who they are.
    
4. Familiarise yourself with the books of those authors you’ll be approaching.
    
5. Decide what you’ll be asking the author for. Here are some suggestions:
   
   1. an interview, if you have a way to publish it (otherwise you may be perceived as wasting the author’s time – I know I have been through this!);
   2. a blurb for your book. Don’t ask them to write the foreword – you’ll choose that person from among those who have written you blurbs, as you’ll want the most famous; or
   3. help. About 25 per cent of authors will be genuinely interested in helping you as another author. The rest may be threatened, indifferent, or simply too busy.

To learn more about how to avoid putting your dreams on hold by tying up your life’s work with the wrong agent, get a copy of How to Find A Literary Agent Who Can Sell Your Book for Top Dollar at http://www.FindTheRightAgent.com 

Jill Nagle is a published author and principal of GetPublished, which provides ghostwriting, coaching, consulting, teleclasses and more to aspiring and ascending authors. She has been helping other writers get published for the last decade.
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How I got a literary agent
An interview with author Jeffrey Bishop

Jeffrey Bishop recently placed his book with the Running Water Literary Agency, which he found using firstwriter.com's database of literary agencies. We asked him about his writing, and how he found success.

fw: Jeffrey – thank you for taking the time to talk to us, and congratulations on securing a literary agent! Tell us about the book you managed to place with them.

JB: Bartemus Ammblin in the Old Forest is set on the Great Plains of North America 10,000 years ago. Within a highly evolved critter society, a young rabbit named Bartemus Ammblin is trying to survive seventh grade in the Burrowton School. His best friends, a badger and a wolverine, support him while he's constantly battling the school bully, a nasty bullfrog. Bartemus is beginning to show promise as a mystic and healer and is taking after his grandfather, the local know-it-all. Bartemus's powers are forced into play when a band of wolves attack his hometown and take the citizens hostage. With the help of his friends, a crazy old pheasant, and some eccentric characters along the way, Bartemus must save the prairie from the wrath of a tyrant.

fw: Is it your first book? How long did it take to write, and where do you get your inspiration from?

JB: This is my first work of fiction. I've had articles published in nonfiction books and trade magazines (I'm a composer and orchestra conductor) prior to this, however. Bartemus took approximately six months to write. I did a lot of research prior to the actual writing process, though. I did several trips through the region to gather information on wildlife and plants. There are recipes and original music in the books as well, so that took extra time too. My inspiration came from the fact that I felt that too much of young adult literature panders to the average kid. I grew up the typical nerd and was a voracious reader. I see the literature today as being a far cry from the C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Susan Cooper books of past generations. I don't pretend to be such a writer, but that's my goal – to inspire a sense of awe and wonder while prodding a young person's intellect and morality.

The actual inspiration for the characters, timing, and place came from my intimate relationship to the prairie. I've lived on or near it my entire life. It just seemed a natural extension of my own life story.

fw: Did you mention the fact that you'd previously had nonfiction articles published? Did it help?

JB: I've had articles published in Teaching Music Through Performance, in Orchestra Volumes 1 & 2, the Instrumentalist magazine, and the trade journal Orchestra News. I did mention this in my approach along with the fact that I've had over three-dozen pieces of music for orchestra and band published. I think it's very important to have at least a foot in the publishing door; even some nonfiction articles can help!

fw: What made you decide to try and get a literary agent?

JB: I was lucky enough to have a friend of a friend who works as a field representative for a large publishing group. He was kind enough to get the manuscript into the hands of some high power editors in New York and London. One of the editors was a big help and offered several suggestions. I spent a year working on the sequel and rewriting the last five chapters of the first book. That's when I started looking for an agent. As a full time teacher, composer, and conductor I travel across the country doing clinics and have a full schedule of commissions for new pieces of music. I needed someone who could work the literary side of my life while I controlled the musical side.

fw: Once you'd decided that you needed a literary agent, how did you go about getting one?

JB: I did what every aspiring writer does – bought the books, subscribed to the magazines, and read every article on the web that I could find. I wrote the query letters and sent them out and began a large collection of rejection slips. I had a hit on one agency that wanted a huge reading fee and that's when I realised how much money unscrupulous agents could make in this business! It was a shocking revelation and one that I won't ever forget. Once I exhausted most of the standard methods, I found firstwriter.com and decided to give it a try.

fw: Even J.K. Rowling got rejection slips! But how long did it take to get a positive response?

JB: I think I received over two-dozen rejections. That includes the ones from inside the industry that my friends helped me with. It took about a year after I got serious about finding an agent before I landed one. From the horror stories I've read about, I think I had a pretty easy go of it considering how bad it could have been.

fw: And how did firstwriter.com help you to achieve this?

JB: I used the search engine to narrow the categories down to children's fantasy within America. That gave me a huge amount, much too cumbersome to sort through at once, so I began plodding through them a little at a time. I came to rely on the daily email updates almost exclusively after a month or so. I would save the ones that fit my needs, print them off, and send out queries. That's how I found my agent. It was from one of the InstantAlert emails.

fw: So would you say that you found the InstantAlert feature the most useful aspect of your subscription to firstwriter.com?

JB: I loved the InstantAlert emails. They became my daily "to do list." I would sort through them, delete the ones that weren't pertinent, and then sit down and work on query letters. It made the process of finding possible agents so much easier. And in my case, I found an agency that was just getting started, so that really was to my advantage. I've got an agent who believes in my work and believes that she can sell my work. Together we're going to get my work published by the best possible company. That's such an empowering feeling in this otherwise eviscerating line of work!

fw: How did you approach the agents you identified from the InstantAlerts?

JB: I had a standard query letter that I sent out to several agents (usually 5 to 7) at a time. I would wait for the replies before sending out another set. I used the Writer's Markets guidebooks at first, but then came to rely solely on firstwriter.com, as the agents were already narrowed down for me. I also changed my query letter after several rejection slips. I was frustrated that after having nearly three-dozen pieces of music published that literature could be so difficult! I had no idea! A little bit of arrogance and attitude in that first paragraph of the revamped letter made an
impression. I got three positive replies from agents, two of which passed on the manuscript, but the last one offered a contract.

fw: What are your plans now, and how's your agent helping you?

JB: I'll keep on writing. And my agent will work on selling what I write. She's busy with the query letters, bios, and other materials for the publishers. She's been in contact often with regular updates. I am very happy with the relationship. As for the book, there are sequels in the works. I have designed the story arc like the plot of a grand opera: three acts with three scenes in each for a grand total of nine books. At 300+ pages on average per book, I will be writing for several years and loving every minute of it.

If you want to see how Bartemus and company are doing, check him out at www.jeffreysbishop.com.

fw: Thanks, Jeffrey – and best of luck with this and the rest of the books!

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