The Hunt for a Salesman

During the editing process I've decided I should start the agent hunting process as well.  I didn't realize all that was involved in publishing a novel prior to getting started but it seems like everyone understands that getting published is no small feat.  Added to this mix is the new world of self publishing.  Aspiring writers can convert their documents to Kindle format and let Amazon pump it out electronically.  Authors can get up to 70% commission but if you get 70% commission off 10 purchases it probably isn't going to replace your day job.  I gave this an effort to see how difficult it was by publishing my short story Massacre in the Suburbs on Amazon for Kindle.  It was a breeze to get this far but I've found that advertising after publishing is futile at best. I've now come to appreciate what a publishing house does for an author. 



I'm not sure if I have copyright ability with this picture but Ari Gold is exactly what I need.  I need a salesman.  Someone who can take my work and track down the big publishing house and convince them that they'd be foolish not to back what is clearly going to be the next Liars Poker.  Arrogance aside, sometimes I say that in the mirror to make myself feel better about the long process, and I really wish I could find a talented dude or lady who could say it for me instead!

So today I started the Agent search.  I found a lot of great information on how to write a Query Letter which is a short, one page, document that describes who I am and what my book is about.  Then I found some online listings where I can go through and check out agents and see what they are good at selling to publishers.  I certainly don't want an agent who can't sell fiction but loves selling parenting how to novels.  Once I narrowed down the search, I still had a ton of agents to go through and each wants their query letter in a particular format, emailed usually, with certain words in the subject line and 10 pages of text from the novel.  The list goes on but today I've sent out my first 4 query letters.  I even got one rejection email back, but it was written so sweetly I couldn't care less. 

Restoration

I'm half way through with the second draft of Fraternity of Greed and I've noticed that this first run of editing isn't going to suffice for a complete job.  I find myself just deleting adverbs and fixing grammar and spelling errors. I thought about it longer and it became clear that editing a first draft of a novel is like restoring an old car.  I have never restored a car but I imagine the process makes a lot of logical sense.  Most of the process can be summed up in two or three major steps. 

The first step is to make sure the car is fully functional and involves going through the vehicle to find which of the original parts work well and which need replacing.  This first run through Fraternity of Greed feels very utilitarian like that first step in car restoration; going through and replacing hoses, spark plugs and air filters; double checking transmissions and belts to make sure that the car can still drive or in my case, the novel is readable.



The second step is more aesthetic than utilitarian.  The car now drives but looks old and needs some body work.  Checking for exterior dents or replacing seats and the steering wheel really turns a junker into a reasonable automobile.  Once the second draft of Fraternity of Greed is ready I will go through the novel and check for tone and pace problems.  Ironing out these grand issues make the novel much more readable, much like the first edit, but also can dramatically increase the aesthetics of the novel.

Finally, the car needs to be detailed with a new paint job and a thorough wash and wax.  The tires are shined and any chrome is polished.  The third draft of Fraternity of Greed will go into this process and will be completed in many ways but a final look for symbolism and word choice will make the novel "pop".

Hemingway's Style

Before I started the first draft I had a particular style in mind that I was hoping to emulate. As I read Hemingway's final book (published postmortem) "True at First Light," I noticed he used a very particular writing style to move the reader through the novel.  In scenes of the book that he felt were particularly important he used almost all dialogue.  Very occasionally description would fall between the dialogue but just to show the addition or leaving of characters from the scene, almost like stage direction.  When the scene was over Hemingway would switch to prose to move time along quickly and get to the next important scene.  What was very interesting was the length of his prose and dialogue was usually very consistent.  He would, for example, write one page of prose to get the characters to the next day, then two pages of dialogue for a very important scene when they are about to go hunting.  He would then switch back to prose for one page to get the hunters out to the kill and two pages of prose for them to talk about the act of the hunt.



As I got about the editing process, I want to focus not only on the gramatical changes but on the flow of the book.  Very often in the first draft you can tell if I, the author, am in a good mood when I'm writing or in a bad mood. You can also tell if I'm chatty or short.  I need to find a consistant voice across the length of the book so the reader forgets that it's my voice speaking and begins to feel like it is theirs.

Editing A Novel Day 1 - Cluttered Minds

Today, October 1st 2010 is the first day of editing my novel Fraternity of Greed.  I've never edited a novel before and I remember the pain and anguish of editing papers 1/100th in size in school and know that this task is going to be gargantuan.  Essentially, I am going to have to take this cluttered work that spat out of my head last summer and organize it into something elegant and also potentially publishable.  As I thought about this at my desk earlier I took a look down and realized that if the editing process needed a good simile it was already right in front of me with my cluttered desk.



They say that cleanliness is next to godliness and clearly I'm more human than most, thus cleaning my desk sometimes feels like an insurmountable task.  About every month or so, I go through and put everything in its right place and while the task is Sisyphean it is none-the-less rewarding.  One step at a time, I go through each area of the desk and either throw away the unnecessary or find an appropriate spot for organization. After a just a few minutes I already feel rewarded as clean "areas" begin to appear and grow.  Before long the areas overlap into bigger swatches of cleanliness and finally in a couple of hours I'm done and wonder why I waited so long to start the process in the first place.

As I start editing FoG (Fraternity of Greed), I'm going to keep a little web log for anyone the feels like following along as someone with cursory writing talent at best attempts to turn a promising piece of work into a publishable one.  For those that don't know I'm actually a math major by training and in the world of finance so my brain is beating to a different drum that most writers I assume but I feel compelled towards writing and that's what has brought me to this point.  I finished my first draft one month ago on August 31st and at the advice of Stephen King "On Writing" I took some time away from the novel to "forget" about it and hopefully will find it easier to edit now that it will not be so fresh in my mind.

So without further ado, I am opening up my first draft, printing it, and getting started.  Hopefully the process is more fruitful and less Sisyphean than cleaning the chaos that is my desk.

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