As I prepared to start querying last fall, I picked up the 30th edition of The Guide to Literary Agents. I noted all the agents I wanted to reach out to, then went to each agency’s website to learn more. And what I learned is that a book is not the ideal way to get information about literary agents.
Not only were some agents who were listed as open to submissions closed, but I found that several of the agents I was interested in had left their agencies. Yes, it was nice to have a list of reputable agencies, but it was a lot to wade through to have so much of it be out of date.
I quickly found my way to QueryTracker, which is how perhaps half of agencies accept queries. There you can search for agents by genre and learn what they’re looking for. They even list agents who accept queries via email instead of through QueryTracker, so it’s comprehensive and up to date. It’s a much better way to find agents.
The Most Useful Part of The Guide
I can see how this book would have been incredibly useful 30 years ago—or perhaps even 15 years ago, which was when QueryTracker launched. However, the latter two-thirds of The Guide dedicated to agents is of limited usefulness. What I would have preferred was listings focused just on the agencies and what they represent—and dropping the information on Member Agents, How to Contact, Terms, and Writers Conferences they attend. All that other information is best discovered on the agency’s website.
With the listings reduced, the much more useful first one-third of the book could be expanded. This part had essays on writing query letters, writing a synopsis, tracking queries, and more. If that content were bulked up, The Guide could be a much stronger rival to books like Get Signed by Lucinda Halpern and Funny You Should Ask by Barbara Poelle.
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It’s easier than ever to make some money as a writer, and harder than ever to make a living at it. That’s why this book by Jane Friedman is so timely.
The Business of Being a Writer walks you through the economics of book publishing—from nonfiction proposals and fiction queries all the way through to marketing and promotion. That’s roughly the first half of the book.
The second half is about all the other things a writer will likely have to do to make ends meet. She talks about creating a business model for yourself and all the elements that might be part of that, including freelancing, crowdfunding, donations, paid newsletters, serials, teaching, grants, and more.
For anyone who dreams of making it as a writer, this is the truth-telling book you need.
I give it 5 stars, 16 dog-ears, and 2 Post-its.
For me, The Business of Being a Writer pointed out some new avenues and resources I wasn’t aware of. But more than anything, it confirmed what I was already pretty sure about, which is that very few people can make a living by writing books alone.
In fact, I don’t know any full-time book writers. (If you’re one, I’d love to know you.)
All the writers I know have at least one other job. That’s not to say that their books haven’t been successful. Some of them have been hugely successful, but often that success doesn’t come directly from book sales. Instead, their books often open the door to many other much bigger money-making opportunities such as:
Paid speaking
If you have a book, especially a nonfiction book, then you have a story to tell. That can get you in front of corporate and consumer audiences. The best example that I personally know of is Jay Baer, who’s the author of 7 books, in addition to founding six multi-million dollar companies. Most of his books included extensive speaking tours, where he’d speak at industry conferences and at large corporations—sometimes more than 100 a year. That exposure helped propel his other businesses, which included a consultancy.
Savvy pre-release marketing move: Jay schedules lots of speaking gigs right after the release of his books and waives his usual speaking fees in exchange for the event organizers pre-ordering books for all of their attendees. That produced huge pre-order sales, which instantly make his books New York Times bestsellers upon release.
Conferences
… like starting your own conference. That’s what Joe Pulizzi did. He founded The Content Marketing Institute and its flagship event, Content Marketing World. His seven books helped him earn the name the Godfather of Content Marketing. He’s since sold CMI and Content Marketing World and started a couple of new businesses, including a new conference, Content Entrepreneur Expo.
Ann Handley, a 3-time author and frequent speaker, also runs a conference, the B2B Forum. Like Jay and Joe, Ann knows how to dress to impress and tell a great story on stage.
University teaching
Being a published fiction author is almost a prerequisite for getting a creative writing teaching position these days.
Education & coaching
Today, there are lots of educational opportunities outside of academia. While I don’t know Jane Friedman personally, she’s a great example of this. In addition to her books, she speaks, runs in-person workshops and online classes, and has her own newsletter.
Consulting services
While education and coaching is for consumer clients, consulting is for business clients. In addition to Jay, 2-time author Kath Pay also runs a consultancy. Writing a book is almost a form of advertising for consultants.
A book is also a great business card. Two-time author and former agency owner Simms Jenkins once told me that he’d walk into a meeting with a new prospect and put his books on the table and it was an instant credibility booster.
Paid newsletters
Many writers have found success on Substack, Beehiiv, and other newsletter platforms. Among fiction writers, they’re writing about writing or sharing poetry, short stories, and serialized books. And among nonfiction writers, they’re typically writing about the subject matter area that their book is about, or about the subject of their next nonfiction book.
Once you’ve built up a large newsletter audience, events are the next much-more-lucrative step. This is something that some traditional media organizations are only just finding out. For instance, WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, held its first in-person multiday conference earlier this year to celebrate their 75th anniversary. It was so successful they’re making the WBUR Festival into an annual event.
Editing services
Some fiction writers smooth out the spikes in their novel writing income streams by offering developmental editing, copyediting, line editing, or proofreading services. Publishing successful books yourself builds your credibility as an editor, creating a virtuous circle.
For me, the notoriety from my email marketing books have made me much more desirable in the digital marketing industry as a subject matter expert, consultant, and speaker. Overall, the direct profits from my book sales represent probably only about a quarter of the value my books have created for me.
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Don’t be fooled by the fact that the subtitle of this book includes the word “screenwriting.” This book is for anybody who wants to understand storytelling at a deep, technical level.
It covers story structure, down to the level of beat. Idealist, pessimist, and ironist controlling ideas. Character development and inner, personal, and extra-personal conflicts. How to handle the inciting incident. Designing acts and scenes. Selecting your cast of characters. And all with great examples from famous films you’d likely seen.
If I were creating my own masterclass on creative writing, this would be one of the core books.
I give it 5 stars and 13 dog-ears and 4 Post-its.
In Story, there are two concepts that were particularly helpful to me as I’ve been writing my sci-fi trilogy. The first concept is that beats create scenes, scenes create sequences, sequences create acts, and acts create stories—with each of those marking a change. The beats mark changes in action/reaction, with those culminating in the turn of a scene, with those culminating in a final scene of a sequence that has a greater impact than the earlier scenes in the sequence … and so on, with acts culminating with the biggest changes.
All that’s to say that with every beat, scene, sequence, and act turns on a change of fortune for one of the main characters, either for better or worse. The more reversals the better, since those are usually born out of conflict and make for more of an emotional rollercoaster. That may seem intuitive, but keeping this top of mind has really helped me avoid flat scenes that don’t affect the characters.
One of my favorite scenes in the second book in my series features three worsening beats for the male protagonist, then two improving beats that has him looking on the bright side of things—only to have the chapter end the sequence with a full reversal of his fortunes, where he actually gets the thing he initially wanted but now no longer wants. Then the next chapter starts with it getting even worse. It’s a torturous ride and a lot of fun!
And the second concept is the Negation of the Negation. McKee explains it like this:
“A story that progresses to the limit of human experience in depth and breadth of conflict must move through a pattern that includes the Contrary, the Contradictory, and the Negation of the Negation. … Negation of the Negation means a compound negative in which a life situation turns not just quantitatively but qualitatively worse. The Negation of the Negation is at the limit of the dark powers of human nature.”
My takeaway is that love vs. hate, for example, is too black and white. The Negation of the Negation is a more interesting twist on hate, such as self-hate or hatred pretending to be love. I got really excited when I read about this, because it turned out my sci-fi trilogy already leveraged this concept, as the overarching extra-personal conflict is a war that’s masquerading as peace.
And a separate novel idea I’ve been outlining and amassing notes about involves a devotion to love lost that keeps the protagonist from moving forward with their life.
The Negation of the Negation is a fascinating concept that I’d never encountered anywhere else. If you’re working on your own story, see if you can fit it into this square of Positive, Contrary, Contradictory, and Negation of the Negation themes. It might show you how to uplevel your theme. It’s also fun to brainstorm potential squares as a starting point for a story.
And for all of you non-writers, it’s a concept that you’ll find in some of your favorite, most-gripping stories now that you know what to look for.
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Fight Write by Carla Hoch is fantastic for any author who wants to write a believable fight scene, whether it’s with guns, blades, or fists—especially if, like me, you’ve never been in the military or mastered a martial art. But, honestly, even if you have, you’ll find this book valuable.
First and foremost, it’s a great reference guide, detailing different fighting styles, attacks, melee weapons, guns, and more. But as much focus as there is on creating a credible fight, Carla also focuses on the build up to the fight and the aftermath. Those have to be credible, too. So, there are discussions of intimidation and posturing, as well as post-fight injuries. She also has a number of interviews sprinkled throughout that bring more visceral first-hand accounts of fight-related experiences.
I give it 5 stars, and 12 dog-ears.
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