The Wordsmiths Project Journal

The news is plastered everywhere publishing folks read – it even made national headlines: Steve Ross, the publisher and vice president of Crown Publishing will be moving to HarperCollins to become the president and publisher of the Collins division. However, The Wordsmiths Project portrait I did of Steve specifically reflects his work at Crown. So, I’m in a quandary. Do I create a new portrait or let the one that I have of him stand?

The current portrait is definitely related to Steve’s impressive body of work at Crown. Specifically, he made considerable waves in the industry when he created Crown Forum, the first major publishing house’s imprint for politically conservative titles, such as those penned by Ann Coulter, John Podhoretz and others of that right-wing ilk. Steve told us that some of his friends expressed disapproval and even dismay over the idea. However, he said that it was a decision related to his abiding belief in and support of the First Amendment. After all, Crown’s other imprints also publish books by Barak Obama, Jimmy Carter and others of the left. And that’s why my portrait of him has him juggling various books, trying to keep the right, left and center all in the air at the same time.

While I am sure that Steve does firmly feel that every political position has a right to be heard, and that such unimpeded voices are key to our democracy, I also know that he is a highly skilled marketer. One of the stories he likes to tell about himself is that even as a child he watched with fascination as people took books off the shelves in bookstores. Starting at a very young age, he tried to understand and analyze why certain books attracted attention, while others remained untouched. Not that he didn’t also love to pick up the books to read them, voraciously. But he read beyond the covers, striving to figure out what made each volume have the impact it did, what were the turns of phrases or the perspectives that made it work, what kinds of readers would be drawn to it, and how could it have done a better job.

This passion for books and for understanding what sells and why was evident in Steve when Daniel and I first met him. As a young associate editor at John Wiley & Sons, he was our editor on “The Green Travel Sourcebook.” At the lunch where I first came up with the idea and title for the book, and Steve jumped on it, excited by the (then) very new concept, I remember looking across the table at him. That was the moment that I realized that he was destined to go far in publishing. Not just because he was obviously bright and talented, with a passion for books, but that he had a way of encouraging the best from his authors. And, as an author, I knew that if I gave him my all, he would do the same. Besides, he had an instinct for the marketplace, which his writers could depend upon – as long as they listened to him.

Getting back to the current Steve Ross Wordsmiths Project portrait. Not only does it do a good job of telling the story of what Steve has achieved at Crown – juggling the various points of view and political perspectives of both the right and left, while intuitively finding the books that the public will buy – it is also one that I spent a great deal of time and energy creating.

Quite honestly, when I do a photo shoot for The Wordsmiths Project, I’m never quite sure what I’ll end up creating as the final portrait. Sure, I have a few ideas – more like itches that make me shoot from particular angles or ask a subject to strike a certain pose. Being familiar with Steve’s sense of humor, I knew I wanted something different for his portrait, so I asked him to sit cross-legged on a conference room table, and I climbed up on the table with him. It was silly and fun, requiring that we contort our bodies in ways that they don’t always go anymore. (After all, a few years have passed under the bridge since our Wiley and Green Travel days.) But it produced some great photos. When we were finished, I went out into the hallway and photographed numerous Crown books, because I knew I wanted to use them in the final portrait – whatever it would end up being.

Then, when I got back to my studio, I went to work on my favorite photos from the shoot, spending several days, designing, editing and working on the minute details. For those of you who know Adobe Photoshop or similar imaging programs, you may be interested in seeing the Layers palette of the final picture (shown to the right). The image ended up being over 650 megabytes in file size, because of all the layers and adjustment layers that I pasted together to create the portrait. (For those of you who aren’t into the details of computerized art, suffice it to say it was a very precise process of creating and combining various elements into a single picture. Each of the lines in the palette to the right represents a separate piece of image or a particular edit added to or tweaked in the final picture.)

I’m pleased that Steve loves the portrait. So much so, that when he saw it at the Book Expo exhibit, he asked if he could purchase the original signed and framed exhibition print that I had personally printed. (Unsigned, unframed pictures, printed by Smugmug.com’s automated system can be purchased on this site. They are quite good, but not the level of excellence of the exhibition prints.) I told him, no, he couldn’t buy it. But if he gave a substantial donation (and I quoted an appropriate sum) to the Writers Emergency Assistance Fund, that I would give the print to him. He didn’t take me up on that offer for a few days – not until after the news about him leaving Crown was made public. Then, he asked some of his future associates at HarperCollins if they felt it would be appropriate for him to have a piece of art in his new office that depicted him juggling some of the books he published at Crown. The consensus was that it would be a nice addition to his office. So, he called me and arranged to make the donation and asked me ship the portrait to him.

Even though I have that very nice nod of approval from Steve and others at HarperCollins, I can’t help but wonder if having a “dated” portrait of Steve in The Wordsmiths Project might be inappropriate. What do you think? Should I create a new portrait, or do you feel that the current one which reflects his work at Crown should stand?

Please voice your opinion through an email (via the Contact page) or leave your comments here. Thank you.

Back in April, I was thrilled and honored when Lance Fensterman of Book Expo America told me that BEA Cares (Book Expo’s charity arm) would be providing The Wordsmiths Project pro bono exhibit space at Book Expo. It was the best news I had heard in a long time; I would be launching The Wordsmiths Project and promoting the Writers Emergency Assistance Fund (WEAF) at North America’s premier publishing industry trade show. However, I had no idea all that would be involved in organizing, preparing and mounting the exhibit in New York City’s Javits Center. The past couple of months have been a hectic pressure cooker, which is why I haven’t had the time to journal recently. But the result, at last week’s Book Expo 2007, was wonderful and worth all the sleepless nights.

The space BEA Cares gave us was right in front of one of the main entrances to the trade show – near the BookTV bus and the Pen American Center table. (And, yes, BookTV did do an interview with me, but I’ve yet to find out when it will air.) So, we had a very nice amount of traffic. Initially, people walking by weren’t quite sure what the exhibit was all about, but they were drawn in by the pictures. Once there, I could tell them about WEAF and hope that those who took the envelopes will send in some donations. In addition, I asked folks for nominations of people I should consider photographing for The Wordsmiths Project. The nominations we received are quite interesting. But, please remember, The Wordsmiths Project will be ongoing for at least another year or so (as long as I’m enjoying myself and it’s doing some good). So, I’ll welcome nominations at any time. (Click here for how to nominate.)

I had a great time at Book Expo, seeing old friends and photo subjects and meeting all kinds of new interesting people. My only disappointment was that I was so busy at the exhibit, I didn’t have time to check out all the conference discussions and other events.

Who hasn’t had that nightmare of being back in school, wandering the halls, trying to figure out what you did that was so wrong. In one variation, everyone is staring at you, and you don’t know why until you glance down… at your own very naked body. Another is that you failed a test that you didn’t know was scheduled for that day, on a subject you didn’t even know you were supposed to be taking that year. Classic anxiety dreams, about unknowingly doing the wrong thing, or failing unanticipated tests, or being the object of derision, because you didn’t know the rules of the game and made a fool of yourself.

The freelance life often feels like an extension of high school in more ways than one. Like school, it’s a small world, in which a reputation (whether positive or negative) can spread before you know you’ve done anything worth gossiping about. And when an agent or editor fails to respond to your letters and queries, you can be at a loss to determine if their silence has more to do with how you handled yourself than with the quality and subject of your writing.

I was recently on a panel at the PhilCon conference (Philadelphia, November 17-19, 2006), called “How to Lose Agents & Infuriate Editors.” Essentially, the purpose of the panel was to help writers understand and avoid committing professional faux pas that make agents and editors run in the other direction. On the panel with me were Jane Letty (who recently retired from agenting), John Joseph Adams (assistant editor of “The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction“), Jonathan Maberry (bestselling author and writing teacher), Jenny Rappaport (agent at L. Perkins Agency) and Margaret Riley (publisher, Changling Press).

Naturally, given the name of the panel, it started with discussions of the panelists pet peeves. Then, it evolved into a no-holds-barred discussion of what works and what doesn’t when (1) trying to get the attention of agents and editors, and (2) trying to keep them happy and invested in making your work successful. The panel was chock-a-block full of useful information for writers — much more than will fit into a single Journal entry. So, for this one, I’m going to focus on the panel’s advice regarding what a query letter should and shouldn’t contain.

One thing that editors and agents really don’t appreciate are query letters that go too far in sharing too much person information. Jenny Rappaport said, “I’ve gotten ones that say, ‘I’m a stay at home mom, who has three children, who are all delightful, and they do this and that and I like putting them to bed at 2 in the morning.’ And, I’m like, this has nothing to do with your novel.”

Jane Letty added, “And please don’t include in your cover letter or your query that if they don’t like this that you have tons of other material. I see that and I say, ‘Gee I can get another post office box.’” It’s a balance between sounding productive and appearing desperate. No editor or agent wants to work with anyone who comes across as needy, because that’s a red flag that you might be a problem to work with. As Margaret Riley said, “What we do for a living… we go out and we look for books to buy. Not just books, we don’t want your book. We want your next ten books. That’s how we make a living. We want to know that you’re reasonably stable. That if you tell us you can write a four book series that you won’t disappear in the middle of book two. So, you want to try to cut down on the flags that make us think that you might be insane stalkers.”

In other words, as friendly as you hope to eventually feel with your agent or editor, it’s important to remember at all times – and especially in your query letter – that it is a professional relationship. All they want to know is that you are a talented, productive writer, who has the ability to deliver great, saleable books, within deadline, with no hassles for them.

Jonathan Maberry suggests thinking about a query letter from a pure sales point of view. “It is a marketing tool,” he said. “It is something that is going to, hopefully, get them excited about your project in a way that triggers thoughts of, ‘Well, if I’m excited this way, sales will generate from it.’”

Jonathan further explained, “The essence of the novel, the heart of the novel is important. If you’re going to spend time on a letter, less is more…. Often the catch phrases about your book in your query letter are used by agents to enchant editors and I have seen on a number of my books and books of my clients and students, where stuff that was in the original query letter becomes part of the book’s back cover material. If you have a good hook, it just follows all the way through. So, actually, writing back cover text is a good way to distill down what your book is truly about, what’s the most interesting thing about it.”

It’s can be quite difficult for an author to narrow down an entire book into a single sentence. We’re too deep into the details, innuendoes, all the subtleties of character, plot and storytelling – even when we’re writing non-fiction. But it’s that high concept sentence that marks a book as having commercial (sometimes even movie) potential. What’s more, it helps to focus you while you’re writing, to stay on target with the book. When I was trying to describe my novel “The Winter Boy,” I turned to my husband, Daniel Grotta, for help, and he came up with a six word description: “Older women, young men, sex, conspiracy.” Of course, there’s much more to it; it’s only one piece of that advertising copy Jonathan referred to. I mentioned that phrase on the panel, when we were talking about crafting the description of your book. Several few minutes later Jenny Rappaport repeated it, proving the point that the right phrase or sentence gets you and your book remembered. “When you’re writing a query letter,” Jenny said, “I get so many of them that say, ‘My novel explores love and depression and the flow of patience.’ That tells me nothing about your book. The hook is so important,. Like what Sally said, you know ‘older women, young men, sex, conspiracy,’ That makes me simply go, ‘Ooh, that could be interesting. That I could sell.”

Of course, it doesn’t matter how good your query letter is, if you send it to the wrong person. An agent or editor’s ability to sell your book is the single most important factor in their decision whether or not they want to work with you. So, authors need to identify their markets, and then look for the agent or editor that knows and sells into that market. As Jenny explained, ” I don’t do picture books, because I have no clue what the picture book market is. It’s a completely different ball game than adult fantasy or adult non-fiction or children’s fiction.”

In other words, before you even start to write your query letter, you’ll need to do a bit of research. First, determine what authors write books that would attract similar readers to yours. Then, do an Internet search to find out what agents represent them. Or, just look in the acknowledgments pages of their books, where a smart author always thanks their agent and editor.

While Jane Letty feels that a query letter should be subtle, “an invitation to join in the conversation,” the entire panel agreed that doesn’t mean to curb your enthusiasm. If you’re not enthusiastic about your own writing, why should they be? However, don’t write in your letter, ‘This is the next DaVinci Code.’ That tells them nothing about your book, only that you have high expectations for it. On the other hand, a query letter isn’t a place to be modest. Tell them your credentials, and be proud of who you are. But don’t stretch the truth, to make your credentials sound more impressive than they are — not just because it’s wrong, but because you’ll be found out. Remember, publishing really is a small world. Besides, it’s your writing and the marketability of your project that matters the most, not your resume (though having been successful previously is a good omen that you will likely deliver again).

Another annoyance that the panelists voiced was the writers ignored the published guidelines, and/or didn’t bother to become familiar with the agency or publisher’s preferences. “In our case,” Margaret Riley said, “We’re an online publisher, we deal exclusively through email. If you snail mail me a proposal for a book that explains that you don’t have an Internet connection, it’s going in the garbage. There is no way you can promote an online book, if you don’t have Internet access. It cannot be done. And if you can’t promote it, it can be the best book in the world, and we’re not going to sell it, because we can’t promote it completely for you. We can help you. We’ve got a great promotions staff. But we can’t do the whole job. You have to be a presence.”

While many agents and editors now prefer email queries, others want snail mail. A very few invite phone calls; most hate phone calls from people they don’t know and have no dealings with. If you break the rules, you better do it with an incredible amount of style that you can be sure they’ll appreciate ( which is tricky indeed), or because you happen to have met the person at a conference or elsewhere, and you got their permission.

Remarkably, some query letters come through rife with grammatical errors, run-on sentences and circuitous, garbled thinking. Remember, this is your first salvo, trying to prove what a great writer you are. If the letter is sloppy, and poorly written, why should your book be any better?

But knowing all these things that tick off agents and editors, doesn’t really give a clear view of how to write your query letter — only what to avoid. So I described what my letter for “The Winter Boy” contained, to give a concrete example of a query that got results. “The first paragraph explained why I was contacting that specific agency — because they represent books that have a similar market to “The Winter Boy”. And it contained that six-word description of the novel. In the second paragraph, I had my three or four sentence synopsis. Then I had a similarly short paragraph of my credentials, with a Webpage link. I concluded with an offer to send the first three chapters. Attached to the letter was my one-page synopsis”

I have a lot of contacts in the publishing industry. However, I sent my letter over the transcom, as a cold query to an agency I wanted, because I knew they had significant successes in the right market for my novel. And, it worked, I signed with them, which goes to show that the right query letter to the right person can get results you want.

“None of these folks want to read a lot,”, I explained, “Well, they do want to read everything, but they don’t want to get a letter that is five pages long. Keep it all within one page, and break it up into short, easy to digest bites. Don’t give them the kitchen sink; leave them wanting more. Make it easy for them to understand who you are and what you’re offering. And don’t forget the self-addressed envelope in any snail mail queries. No matter how good you are, even if you are a well known personality, an SASE is a courtesy, simplifying matters for them.” And that’s the whole point — removing all roadblocks, so they’ll keep reading. Only then will they discover how good a writer you are and how much money they could make — if only they could sign you.