Chip MacGregor .com

Guest Blogger: Thinking about Rejection

Rejections aren’t scary… When I was thirteen, I sent my first “book” length manuscript to a publishing company that shall remain unnamed. Six weeks later (impressive, considering what I now know about the publishing world), I received my very first rejection letter. I still have it.

Since then, I have received numerous rejection letters. If I am meeting my writing and submitting goals (remember, I write short stories), I receive at least 3-5 rejections every few weeks. I still keep all of them. Now, I also receive acceptance letters, but it’s the rejections that encourage me to keep growing as a writer, learning about different literary journals, and writing the best stories possible.

Many of the rejections I receive are humorous:

Thanks for sending your story along. The fiction department was torn on it. One of our editors is a big fan of mustard in fiction, but personally, I can't stand dark chocolate and mint Milky Ways. It was a close call, but we're going to pass on this one. Thanks for your patience, and please think of us again in the future.

Often, I am encouraged to send more writing:

I've read your story a half-dozen times now, and while there's a lot to like here, it didn't end up fitting with the issue I'm putting together. That said, I enjoy your sense of humor and your writing, and I hope you'll send me something else to read soon.

And a lot of my writing receives more than one glance:

Although I will not be accepting this submission, it received repeated attention well beyond a first reading.  I encourage you to submit again.

Finally, often my writing receives even a first glance because of the writing communities in which I am involved. Although I am rejected, because of my submissions, blog posts, and comments on writing networking sites, my name is becoming known enough for people to read my work, whether or not they accept it.

I’ve read and enjoyed your pieces in other journals so did give your story a quick read anyway.

And, honestly, in the publishing world—whether literary or otherwise—getting someone to look at your writing can be considered, to utilize a lunar reference, one giant leap for mankind!

But, it is still important to know your market… Now, I would never even consider submitting to a journal without first reading several of their past published stories and authors. I do my homework before submitting.

Also, I familiarize myself with the journal’s submission requirements. Some journals prefer attachments via email, some prefer a direct cut and paste into the email, and still others only accept printed copies with a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope (SASE).

Finally, even if an editor sends me a humorous response to a short story, I always initiate via a formal query letter. Mine looks something like this:

Hello,

My name is Sarah Joy Freese, and I am a graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with an MA in creative writing and an MLIS in library science. Please accept my short story, “[Insert Name Here]”, for submission into your literary journal, [Insert Name Here].

I have been previously published in places like elimae, Monkeybicycle, Prick of the Spindle, The 2^nd Hand, and The Salt River Review. I have a story forth coming in The Santa Fe Writer’s Journal.

Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your reading.

Sarah Joy Freese

Taking the time to familiarize yourself with the market in which you are interested, writing awesome stories, and researching, researching, researching, will allow you to feel confident with the material that you submit. When you do send your work out and receive your first rejection (because you will), now you can realize that they aren’t quite as scary as you initially perceived, and you can keep submitting your work.

But, again, please do your homework. You will keep getting rejections if you are only antagonistic toward the responses that you receive.

Our guest blogger today is Sarah Freese, a young writer and editor who I thought had something interesting to say. Sarah, like me, is a short story lover and an editor. She is going to do a short series of blogs, touching on some topics I think will be of interest.

A quick note... Some readers think I've been deleting their notes in the "comments" section. I've only done that twice ever, I think. My blog will only post a certain number of comments at any one time, then it rolls over to a new page of comments. You have to find the very small, faint caret (looks like this: >) at the bottom of the first page of comments. Click on that, and it'll move you to the next page of comments. There have been some GREAT comments on this blog -- my apologies if you posted and thought I'd edited or deleted your note. I didn't! Promise!

The Trends in Fiction

Cecily wrote to ask, "Can you tell us the latest trends you're seeing in fiction?"

Happy to. This is coming straight from my experience, so another agent, or an editor at a particular house, may be seeing different trends. My thoughts...

--The continued growth of romance -- particularly historical romance. Let's face it, last year the publisher who saw the biggest growth was Harlequin, and they did it in a down year for most publishers. The fact is clear: readers in a bad economy like to escape by reading romance novels. You can roll your eyes if you want to, but it's the truth. (And yes, I'm happy to say I represent some excellent romance novelists.) 

--Thrillers aren't selling like they used to. They're far from dead, but the whole CIA/24/CSI thing has been fading. James Patterson and other bestselling novelists can still move large quantities, but once you move away from the bestselling authors, it's much slower (and, frankly, much harder to place a new novelist). 

--There is a renewed interest in Americana, particularly during sunnier days. We're seeing interest in the Victorian and Edwardian periods, for example (um... assuming it's fair to use British terms for American history). That seems to be a trend away from seeing so many wartime sagas -- perhaps a reflection on our fatigue with the never-ending war in Iraq. 

--We've seen a lot of growth with fiction that surrounds historical events. Not a retelling of the events, but of stories that touch on history. So, for example, we're not seeing novels that re-tell the assassination of President Lincoln, but we ARE seeing novels that have to do with people who were in the vicinity, or who knew John Wilkes Booth, or who were at Ford's Theater, or who were part of the chase to catch the conspirators, etc. Again, not so much focused on the event itself, but on characters who were influenced by the event. 

--Literary fiction is definitely a growth category in American publishing. Take a look at any bestseller list, and you'll see a lot of literary fiction. Not only that, but many of the books have a clear spiritual thread -- something I don't see many people recognizing or reporting on. 

--One of the most-reported growth trends has been in paranormal fiction. And while we see a lot of YA titles (Stephanie Meyer et al), much of the growth in adult paranormal novels has been of the "erotic"  stripe. 

--If you separate paranormal from fantasy & speculative fiction... well, for all the talk about the huge growth we're going to see in fantasy titles, I'm still not seeing publishers buy or sell much spec fiction. I know that pains all the fantasy writers, but the fact is it's still a fairly narrow niche. Speculative readers are devoted, and there are more than there used to be, but overall the industry isn't viewing this as the next big thing. 

--I see mixed signals in the horror category. Some think it's up; others think it has run its course. I don't have a firm opinion one way or the other. 

--Of course there has been huge growth in the Christian/inspirational category over the past 7 or 8 years. The incredible growth has slowed, making some think religious fiction is hurting, but that's just not true. Christian fiction is still a HUGE category, and there is still growing interest from those houses who were late to jump on board during the heyday. So while, yes, we're not seeing the big growth in titles that we did a couple years ago, compare the number of titles and the number of genres and sub-genres to what we saw just three years ago. 

--One of the most visible areas of growth in the inspirational category has been Amish fiction (or "bonnet novels"). Some people have said that it's going to fade out, but I don't believe it. I think it has established itself as its own sub-genre. What Bev Lewis started and Cindy Woodsmall followed has turned into its own category of fiction. That sort of thing happens sometimes -- consider Louis L'Amour creating the giant interest in westerns, or Edgar Allan Poe basically establishing horror fiction. People are still buying it, so it has clearly found its audience. 

--A trend among CBA houses seems to be a pulling back -- moving away from some of the edgy themes in order to focus on the safer, tried-and-true CBA story. This is possibly due to the economy and our desire for security and simpler times, or it could be the normal ebb-and-flow of publishing interests among readers. 

--And a very strong trend is the growth of small presses, including those who only provide e-book versions of novels. Publishing is going through a huge transition, and with change comes new opportunity. Some new, smaller houses can be more nimble, and they are rushing to create books that are aimed at the new technology. Some of them will survive, some will no doubt see great success and become large corporations (that are perhaps no longer as nimble), and some won't make it through next month. At the same time, we're seeing large publishing houses make a commitment to the new technologies -- even if it may not be as quick or as complete as some writers would like. But the sprouting up of new companies is a good thing for writers. 

--And any discussion of trends wouldn't be complete without mentioning the growth of e-books and the shifting desires of readers to see books in other formats. I don't think ink-and-paper books are going away any time soon -- most every reader still loves printed books. But I've got three kids in their 20's, and all of them are comfortable reading a book on a screen -- even an iPhone screen. That tells me when their generation is in charge, the e-book will be a core business, not a side business. It will be a major part of every publishing decision, not simply a sub-rights discussion. 

By the way, I'm teaching a seminar in Atlanta next weekend entitled WRITING BESTSELLING FICTION. My co-teacher is bestselling author Susan May Warren, and we're going to be exploring how an author can move beyond just writing another novel, and create a book that has all the qualities of a bestseller. We'll be talking about plotting, characters, structure, themes, dialogue, scenes, and the importance of things like the hero's journey and the inciting incident. We will have some specific time devoted to writing romances and suspense novels, and Susan has some great things to share about finding your writing voice. We'll close by talking about selling your book, creating a proposal and query letter, and we'll offer some face time so each participant can talk about their manuscript. We're meeting at the Embassy Suites in Atlanta, and as I noted the other day, I think there is space for two more, so if you'd like to join us, check it out at www.themasterseminars.com. 

THREE COOL THINGS:
1. Beth White has two novels that Zondervan is making available on Kindle FOR FREE. If you've got a Kindle, check out Fireworks and Off the Record (currently the #2 ranked book on Kindle!).
2. Hannah Selleck at DoubleCheck Editing has her website up and running (www.doublecheckediting.com). I used DCE to proof my own site, and they did a great job. If you need editing or proofing done, check it out.
3. Susan May Warren and I are co-teaching a seminar in Atlanta next week called, "Writing a Bestselling Novel." It'll be at the Embassy Suites near the airport. We have room for a couple more, if you're in the area. Find out more at www.themasterseminars.com .

Some People Just Don't Get It

I used to do stand-up comedy and magic for a living. I'd be the MC, get up, do my schtick, and introduce the speakers. Or maybe just do some dopey card tricks and send them home happy. I made jokes about the stupid questions men ask. (True story: I was at the drugstore recently, and handed my prescription across the counter to the guy in the white jacket. He looked at it for a moment, then smiled and asked, "Is this a prescription?" Um....... "Nope," I said. "It's a hold-up note. I wrote it in Latin.") One of the bits of business I used to talk about was car salesmen -- their fake smiles, their overly friendly manner, the way they talk about features we don't understand ("This baby has blowback buckled chrome muffler bearings!"). Poking fun at stuff, all done with a bit of attitude. It's what I do. 

But I could count on something -- once a month or so, there would be a car salesman in the room, and he'd feel a need to get up and defend the honor of car salesmen everywhere: "You know, a car salesman is just trying to sell you the best car he can at the highest price you'll pay," he'd explain, as though we all needed to take Car Salesman Explanation 101. Everyone in the audience would sit, blink, maybe nod once, then hope someone else was going to go back to the humor, because jokes about car salesmen don't require an explanation. They're JOKES, for crying out loud. Not mean spirited, just funny. They had attitude. They included exaggeration. They offered over-the-top examples. That's what actually made it humor. But... some people just don't get it. They're humor-impaired. Unable to figure out that a person being funny isn't trying to personally offend them. They're just telling jokes. 

I share this with you because I recently posted this on my Facebook page: "Warning to Stupid People: I don't need your bears. I don't need your hearts. I don't need your rainbows. I especially don't need them if I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE. So pack up your rainbow-hearted-pillow-bears and hit the road." If you're on Facebook, you already know what I'm talking about -- people will come on and say they're sending you a heart to show they love you, or hand you an angel to show they're spiritual, or hit you with a cyber-pillow to show the have the brains of a Cocker Spaniel. (See? That was HUMOR!) Anyway, most people got the joke. They've read my blog, know that I use attitude and sardonic humor, and understand that I'm being funny. I don't honestly think most people are stupid. I wouldn't really tell someone to hit the road. 

But...some people just don't get it. Any time I do something like this, I get notes from church ladies, who feel a need to scold me. "NICE people don't call others stupid, Chip." "There's no reason to call others names." "If you were really a Christian, you wouldn't say such mean things." One person (someone I've NEVER MET, and who clearly doesn't know me) came on to say that she was shocked that I would engage in "name-calling." 

My mature, Christian response: Give me a flippin' break. This is HUMOR, people. It's characterized by things like exaggeration, attitude, and offbeat observations. With humor, you mimic people. You set up silly comparisons. You talk about things you hate, or things you love, or things that frighten you. You explore the dopey things that happen in this world -- the negative personality traits, the over-the-top behaviors, the crazy worries you have (and my thanks to Judy Carter for her wonderful exploration of humor in STAND-UP COMEDY: THE BOOK). Much of comedy writing is a set-up and a punchline; the rest is basically descriptive observations that have their core meaning set in truth. The comic writer goes a bit beyond, or has a skewed view of it, but that's what makes it funny. And, frankly, it's funniest when the person doing it is completely sincere (or at least seems that way). Give a look to the blog of Jenny B Jones sometime, and see how she plays on her fears, her behaviors, and the things she loves that don't make any sense. And Jenny, like me, enjoys poking fun at herself as much as others. There is nothing mean-spirited or unChristian about it. 

When did Christians decide to stop laughing? When did we decide we can't have people who are curmudgeons? (Cec Murphey, you're in trouble!) When did we determine we don't want people poking fun at the dopey behaviors we all fall into? (Julie Barnhill and Charles Marshall -- report to the principle's office.) Why is it that using sardonic humor is suddenly unacceptable? (If that's what you think, you might want to read your prophets and the Apostle Paul a bit more carefully.) Maybe this is why there isn't a big "humor" section in religious bookstores.

Sorry, but I have a personality, and it shows in my writing. Jim Rubart, who is a marketing guru for all those novelists trying to figure out how to promote their books in a crowded marketplace, likes to tell people I'm "the bad boy of Christian publishing." Maybe -- but that's not what I intend. I'm just trying to share information, and I don't feel like doing it apart from my personality. If I see something that looks stupid, I have a tendency to say, "That's stupid." Not, "I've prayed about this deeply, and while we are all different, the Spirit says to me that you and I are not in complete harmony." Sure, I've made mistakes with that at times. I've sometimes said things I regret, or poked fun at someone who was easily offended. But anyone who has spent any time with me at all knows I don't have a mean bone in my body. I recently disagreed with Ted Dekker on something, wrote about it, and he called me and we talked. No hard feelings -- I respect the heck out of Ted, I just disagreed with something he said. And I fear Christians have entered a stage where disagreeing is bad, disagreeing publicly is very bad, and disagreeing with humor and attitude means you're no longer part of the camp. 

That's not good enough for me. Look, I'm not out to ruin your day. I'm out to share good information and, frankly, to have some fun. If my words make you unhappy, I'm sorry. You may want to read someone else -- someone nicer than me. (Rachelle Gardner is nicer than me. Try her blog.) But don't give up on humor just yet, okay? This world is screwed up, and if you can't laugh about it, you're going to find this one long, sorrow road. 

Is there ANYTHING more boring than the opening ceremonies at the Winter Olympics? (Maybe... watching a Paulie Shore movie? Listening to European techno music while running on a treadmill?) I mean, hundreds of people in parkas and silly hats, trudging aimlessly across the screen, while the announcer says, "There's Yakov Hickenlooper, the great Flaming Mogul Wingding from Albania." This goes on for HOURS. My wife was watching. I wanted to set my eyeballs on fire. And it's listed under "sporting events." Yeesh. I went and read a book, and thus missed everyone from "Croatia" to "Zanzibar." I'm sure I missed a great cultural event. Can't wait for the curling finals. (A note: It was 72 degrees inside the stadium. Those parkas were for show.)

Children's Books

We're trying to take all your publishing questions, so send them along. Jan wrote to ask about children's books: "I read recently that an author doesn't necessarily need an agent if she is writing for children, and that it might be a better use of our time to submit directly to a publisher. Do you think that's true?"

Um... Okay, I'm not the children's book specialist. Just so we're clear, I rarely have represented children's books (a few times, like Rene Riva, I couldn't say no). So I'm not the expert. However, I've certainly been around children's books and children's book authors and editors. And in my experience, I would disagree with what you read. In my experience, most of the children's publishers want proposals to come through agents. (We can get into why that is, if you want -- a good agent knows what the publisher is looking for, helps the author make sure it's ready, know how to help prepare the proposal so it fits the publisher's format, understands the economics of children's publishing, etc.) So I'd tend to disagree with whoever wrote that article. 

This is a good place for me to point out that, over the years, I haven't exactly been the "agent evangelist." I made a good living as a writer without having an agent. (Truth? I kept talking to them, and I always seemed to know more about the industry than they did.) Is it possible to make it in this business without an agent? Sure it is. But it's getting harder. Most publishers simply won't accept un-agented proposals any more. They've done that as a means of trying to professionalize the relationship. They've also done it because the scads of young editorial assistants they used to have don't exist any more, so they don't have the personnel to wade through the unsolicited slushpile. It doesn't get talked about much, but the fact is publishers now rely on agents to be the first filter -- to go through the material and clear out the dross. They expect agents to help bring in publishable, salable manuscripts that fit the house and are well-written.

Now, having said that, the role of literary agents is definitely changing. Self-publishing is exploding, publishers are moving toward more e-books, and no one is quite sure what this business is going to look like in ten or twenty years. To which I say... "yeah? and this is new?" Hey, publishing is a dynamic industry. We've never really known what direction it was headed in. We all get surprised by mega-sellers that come out of nowhere and take us in new directions (Left Behind, Twilight, The Da Vinci Code, The Shack). So I expect the industry will be very different in a few years. 

That said, my guess is we'll still have publishers. People will still want information and entertainment. They may read it on a device, but somebody will still have to write it, and others will still edit and produce it. Authors will still need help with careers, and will still be looking for guidance on things like ideas and topics and writing. They will still need someone who understands contracts to handle the business side, and they'll still want someone else negotiating for them and singing their praises and protecting them. (As I've noted before, your publisher has a team of lawyers and accountants working for them. Who do you have as an author?) So I think those of us who are good at this job will continue to work and make a living. A longer answer than you might have anticipated, but those are my thoughts.

chip

One of the Greats is Gone

One of the originals in CBA went home to be with the Lord yesterday -- Bob Hawkins, Sr, passed away at the age of 88. You may not know him, since the man had experienced some health problems and faded from the public eye in recent years. But understand the impact he had... Bob Sr helped develop The Christian Reader, was instrumental in launching the careers of Jim Dobson and Tim Lahaye, was the salesman who almost single-handedly made The Living Bible successful, started Harvest House Publishers, and created countless good Christian books. He was a founding member of ECPA, was the impetus behind the Christian Book Awards, was awarded ECPA's Lifetime Achievement Award AND CBA's Life Impact Award... frankly it's hard to list all of his accomplishments in Christian publishing. The list of authors he personally influenced is long. The man's legacy is huge. I know very few people who will have such a profound impact on the publishing industry. You can read all about him at  www.harvesthousepublishers.com   He'll be missed. Please say a prayer for Shirley, Bob Jr, and the Harvest House Family. 

BY THE WAY, I'm teaching a two-day writing seminar in Atlanta Feb 26-27 with bestselling novelist Susan May Warren. It's called "Writing the Bestselling Novel," and will be a small-group, hands-on seminar where we'll dig into what makes a successful novel. Would love to have you join us! Find out more (or register) at www.themasterseminars.com .

A Guest Stops By

Our guest blogger today is Sarah Freese, a young writer and editor who I thought had something interesting to say. Sarah, like me, is a short story lover and an editor. She is going to do a short series of blogs, touching on some topics I think will be of interest.

During graduate school, I was the creative non-fiction editor for The Cream City Review, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s graduate literary journal. Reading through the slush pile in this journal allowed me to read for plot and story arc. It encouraged me to generate ideas and hear what other authors were writing. It allowed me to channel my own creative ideas, so that by the time I submitted my thesis, the big ideas—plot arc, character, setting—generated into my own ars poetica (aesthetic—the art of poetry). I knew what I wanted to write. The light bulb turned on, if you will.

“Do you know who I am?” These are the first words that Chip MacGregor said to me after I handed him my master’s thesis at the 2008 Festival of Faith and Writing Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Having just spent 2 years obtaining an MA in creative writing and an MLIS in library science, I thought myself knowledgeable about all things literary. And, unlike those “other” writers, I actually had a full length manuscript.

Only, it wasn’t a full-length manuscript; it was a collection of short stories.

And, yes, it fit the requirements necessary for me to pass my thesis in that it supported my reading list (or my reading list supported it); it met the page requirements; the arc was appropriate; the characters developed throughout the story; the plot flowed well; and the language was decent.

But it wasn’t perfect. It wasn’t publishable. And Chip is a literary agent, selling publishable manuscripts.

Language and Details. After my conversation with Chip, and after I graduated, I took some time to read. I hadn’t read books in quite a while, as graduate school tends to suck life out of you. I read everything I could get my hands on—some of my favorite Christian writers; some bestselling non-Christian novels; and, finally, literary short stories. The latter, I read aloud.

And kept reading them aloud. And I started emailing the publishing companies asking if I could either read through their slush piles or help edit their stories. I had fallen in love with language. Some ignored me, some replied with “Thanks, but no thanks,” and a few responded with: “Absolutely!” Eventually, one company clicked well with where I was in my writing/reading/editing process, and the relationship that I had with the editors grew.

Through working with the literary journal, I am able to focus on language—the way the words move to form a picture. But, I am also able to focus on patterns. For example, I recently edited Allan Shapiro’s, The Butcher and the Breather. Allan has a fling with coordinating conjunctions in that he likes to use them a lot. I noticed this as I edited his manuscript. Consider it his ars poetica. While this did not present a problem, it did present an artistic challenge. As an editor, I needed to make sure that each comma and coordinating conjunction was used appropriately. However, Allan often liked to string together sentences with the word “and”. It is my job to know that commas need to come before coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), if both parts of the sentence are independent clauses. However, if I were to do this every time Allan included “and”, I would be inserting about 350+ commas. So, instead, I removed every comma before “and” (sometimes he had included it, and sometimes not). He also used other coordinating conjunctions. In front of those, I made sure to integrate the commas because he did not string them together as he did with the “ands”. So, I enhanced his ars poetica by maintaining consistency among his use of commas and coordinating conjunctions.

So What? As a writer, you might be thinking that it’s really boring to pay attention to things like commas and coordinating conjunctions. Wouldn’t I rather focus on the bigger issues? Sure. No. I like the details. The details help me write fan-damn-tastic stories of my own (For an actual comparison, see pre-language editing: http://www.prickofthespindle.com/fiction/2.1/freese/genesis.htm and post-language editing: http://www.elimae.com/2009/01/Kalila.html). They help me remove excessive adverbs, as Chip STRONGLY suggested in our initial conversation at the Festival of Faith and Writing. The details are like employees washing their hands before returning to work—they help not spread diseases within my own writing.

They help me know who I am.

Sarah Freese

Sarah Freese is on the Writing Initiative Faculty at Colorado Christian University. Sarah and Chip MacGregor met at the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing, which we consider the BEST writing conference around. It will be held again at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. Michigan, April 15-18. Chip is serving on the faculty, and Sarah will be in attendance.