On Publishing

On May 19th, I went to a talk in the Strand given by this dude, Julian Friedmann. He’s meant to be a top screen and book writing agent, who’s keen to support new talent. Whether he’s any good or not, I got some valuable tips out of the evening which I thought I’d share with you.

What to include with a manuscript submission:

• A contents page. Different editors/agents like to peruse submissions in different orders.
• Short ten-line pitch that could possibly end in a cliff-hanger.
• Brief description of significant characters (2-3 lines each for minor; 5 lines for major).
• Your intentions. Why write this story? Why do you feel it is you who must tell it?
• 2-3 page synopsis (if it’s a novel), present tense. Don’t include back-story in synopsis, put necessary back-story in character bios.

The accompanying letter should not begin with ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ or ‘To whomever this may concern’. The writing/publishing industry is apparently quite informal and it shows far more professionalism to address your covering letter to the most relevant person; even begin the letter with their first name. If this is information that can’t be found on the net, then a secretary can usually give you the correct contact.

Should anyone find themselves in a position to pitch at a convention or literary event, here’s a few tips on verbal pitching:

• Brevity. Aim for 60 seconds.
• Don’t wait to write story. Pitch depends on who you pitch to. Work out how to pitch early in the development of your idea.
• Include the title, format (novel/play etc) and genre of your work.
• If you want your story to be easy to sell, it should be easy to pitch. 
• To aid in the explanation of more complicated stories, sometimes referring to a similar work can help.

General reminders I found useful:

• Story has to come from who your characters are. You can’t dump characters in a situation which could not have resulted from who they intrinsically are.
• Human behaviour, ie why people behave the way they do, is at the heart of storytelling.
• The ability of the author to exert objectivity over the psychology of a character is important.
• You are writing for other people, not just yourself; the primary relationship is writer-reader, not writer-characters.
• Let a character speak for his or her self. Automatic writing is a good way to generate the small details that make a character three-dimensional. With a wealth of description then available, you can pick and choose the unique traits/idiosyncrasies to weave into your characterisation.