Writing the Paranormal Novel: Techniques and Exercises for Weaving Supernatural Elements Into Your Story.

by Harper, Steven

  Close with something like, “I have a synopsis and full manuscript for the book if you'd like to see it. Thank you for your time. Sincerely …”

  And you're done.

  Here's a sample query letter for a paranormal novel:

  Dear Ms. Smith,

  Hot young attorney Jonathan Harker just wants to marry his beloved Mina and run a legal practice in peace. Unfortunately, a terrible monster has followed Harker back from a recent trip to Transylvania, a monster that visits Mina at night and drinks her blood. In desperation, Harker enlists the aid of Abraham Van Helsing and, using clues supplied by a lunatic imprisoned in an asylum, they set out to track down the evil vampire Dracula before he turns her into an undead slave.

  I love the novels of Robert Louis Stevenson, especially The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and my work follows a similar vein. When I learned you represented Mr. Stevenson, I thought you might be interested in seeing my work as well.

  By way of introduction, my romance novel The Primrose Path was serialized in The Shamrock, and The Shoulder of Shasta came out just last year. I have a complete manuscript for Dracula, and I'm working on another gothic romance.

  If you're interested in seeing Dracula, please let me know. I have enclosed a self-addressed, stamped envelope for your convenience. Thank you for your time.

  Sincerely,

  Bram Stoker

  INSTANT DEATH

  There are certain things you want to avoid in queries. Including any of the following will get you rejected, and rejected fast.

  The wrong name. I already mentioned how query letters should be personalized to the agent or editor, even when you're massblasting them out by e-mail. It's really, really easy to put the wrong name into a query letter when you click that Paste icon. Triple check. The fastest route to rejection by Ms. Smith is to send her a query addressed to Mr. Brown.

  Biographical information. At the query stage, the agent only cares about your writing. Once she agrees to take you on as a client, she'll be fascinated to know that you grew up in Borneo or that you have forty-six cats. Until then, keep your mouth shut about anything that doesn't involve the book.

  Your research. No one — and I mean no one — cares about this. Agents and editors assume you've done proper research or you wouldn't have written the book. Telling them you did research is like telling them you learned to type.

  What rights you want to sell. The query letter stage — or any part of the submission stage — is not the negotiation stage. Once the agent calls to say she wants to represent you or the editor calls to say he wants to buy the book, you can talk numbers and percentages. Any earlier than that sounds pretentious.

  How cool a movie this would make. Sure, it's fun to cast the movie in your head. But it's not a selling point for a novel. Movies aren't books. Once your manuscript is published, you can talk to Hollywood (or, more realistically, hope that Hollywood talks to you).

  A NOTE ABOUT SEARCHING AND YOUR WEB SITE

  Internet searches are de rigueur these days. Any editor or agent who thinks your query is worth investigating further will turn to the Internet and run your name through a search engine before asking to see the full manuscript. If you're shopping a book around, check your Web site, your blog, and the social places where you hang out online. Are your posts something you'd want an agent or editor to see?

  Okay, sent out fifty-five query letters this week after getting twenty-six rejections last week. Stupid agents wouldn't know a good book if it leaped off the shelf and sank its fangs into their ugly throats.

  Or perhaps:

  I hate my life. Everything is horrible all the time. All I see is darkness and despair closing in on me like a hellmouth of doom. Sigh.

  Stuff like the first entry tells the agent you can't act professionally in public. Stuff like the second entry tells the agent you won't be any fun to work with. You can be sure rejection is forthcoming.

  E-MAIL OR HARD COPY?

  A great many agents now take queries by e-mail. Take care that you follow the agent's guidelines. Some will want the query letter pasted into the body of an e-mail, and others will want it as a separate file. If the agent wants your treatment and/or samples, send it the way the agent wants. As with queries, some want the material pasted into an e-mail and others want a file. You don't need to put your address and phone number at the top of an e-mail query letter.

  If the agent wants a paper query, send it with a self-addressed stamped envelope for the agent's reply. The same goes if you send a treatment and/or sample chapters. You can add “The manuscript is recyclable, and I have enclosed a business-sized envelope for your convenience” to avoid paying extra postage for the manuscript's return.

  EXTENDED QUERIES

  Some agents may want more than just a letter with the initial query. Their Web page or writers guidelines may say they want:

  a treatment AND/OR

  the first five pages of the manuscript OR

  the first twenty pages of the manuscript OR

  the first fifty pages of the manuscript OR

  the first chapter OR

  the first three chapters

  I've even run into a couple of agents who ask for the first page only, though this is rare. (And, I feel, a little mean-spirited, like someone who says, “You have ten seconds to impress me, starting five seconds ago.”) Yes, you can cheat a tiny bit. If page 20 ends in mid-paragraph, you can send twenty pages plus half a paragraph.

  If you can, still try to end with that cliffhanger, however small. You want to finish with something that makes the reader need to turn the page.

  PITCH SESSIONS

  A number of writers conferences around the country give potential authors the chance to attend pitch sessions. A pitch session is essentially a short one-on-one interview between you and an editor or agent. You have a short period, usually around ten minutes, in which to convince the other person that your book is worth reading. It's sort of a combination of job interview and speed dating.

  Before you sign up for a pitch session, do your homework. For an editor pitch session, find out what publisher the editor works for and what sort of fiction he edits. (Usually this is listed in the conference's programming information, but you may need to do some Web surfing, too.) There's no point in pitching your haunted detective series to an editor who handles memoirs and how-to books, for example. You'll also want to know if the publisher is a real publisher. (See the section on scams on page 246.) Find out what else they've published. Can these books be found in stores? Have you heard of any of their authors?

  For an agent pitch session, the approach is much the same. Find out what sort of fiction the agent handles, who is on her client list, and to what publishers she has sold books. If things seem acceptable, sign up.

  Some conferences charge extra for pitch sessions; others include them in the price of attendance. Be sure the price, if there is one, is something you feel you can afford. It's a gamble, since there's no guarantee you'll sell the book or sign on with the agent. If you can't afford to lose the money, don't play.

  Before the pitch session, figure out what you're going to say about your book. Prepare the sort of thing that might appear on the back cover. Include the overall concept of the book and the basic plot idea. Be brief and succinct, like you would in a query letter. Yes, it's perfectly okay to use notes on a card — the agent/editor knows you're a writer, not a public speaker.

  The pitch session is basically a job interview, so treat it as one. Dress professionally to show that you are a professional. (Jeans, T-shirts, and tennis shoes are a bad idea.) Bring with you:

  your business card

  a pad of paper

  a pen

  any crib notes about your book you might need

  a treatment

  sample chapters

  It's extremely unlikely (though not impossible) the editor/agent will ask for a copy of your treatment or your sample chapters, so you're bringing those just in case. They flat
-out won't want your manuscript; don't bother bringing it to the conference. The reason is actually logistical — they won't have time to read it at the conference, and they won't want to haul a four-hundred-page pile of paper home on an airplane when you can simply mail it to them.

  When you walk into the pitch session, shake the other person's hand, make eye contact, introduce yourself — and don't plunge right into your pitch. Talk to the other person for a moment about something else; make a connection. This makes you more memorable and shows that you're interested in the person, not just in whoever happens to be sitting at that table. Let the editor/agent take the lead and say, “So tell me about your book.”

  Toward the end of the session, ask if the editor or agent would like to see sample chapters or the full manuscript. If she doesn't accept this gracefully, thank her for her time, and leave. If she does, ask for her contact information and whether she wants it electronically or in hard copy. Once you're safe outside, allow yourself a little joyful jump — the whole thing might still end in rejection, but you've gotten someone's attention.

  One last tip: Hang out in the hotel bar later. If you see someone you pitched to, walk up, reintroduce yourself, and offer to buy the editor/agent a drink (assuming she doesn't seem to be occupied with someone else). Don't bring up your book again. You're trying to connect with the person and become more memorable. (And authors who buy drinks for agents are memorable indeed.)

  THE FIRST RESPONSES, INCLUDING REJECTIONS

  Four weeks is a reasonable time to wait for a response on a query letter. If you haven't heard back after about a month, you're justified in dropping another e-mail or letter that basically says, “On [date] I sent you a short query letter about my book [title]. Approximately four weeks have passed and I just wanted to check on its status.” If you still don't hear back, it's safe to say the agent isn't interested — don't waste your time with further inquiry.

  Most of the responses you receive will be “no thank you” rejections. That's the way it goes, and there's no remedy except to develop the hide of elephant and keep submitting queries. (Meanwhile, you're also working on your next novel, right?)

  But one or even more agents may express interest. If you only sent a query letter, they may want to see the treatment and sample chapters — or even the full manuscript. Since it's already formatted, you're ready to send it. Once you've done so, about six weeks is a decent time to wait for a response. If you haven't heard back by then, drop that “I just wanted to check on the status of my book” letter.

  Again, most responses will still be rejections. Some may come with suggestions for revision. Since one of the steps to becoming a professional writer is a willingness to learn, I suggest you consider their comments carefully. Editors and agents are extremely busy people, and anyone who takes the time to give you pointers is doing you a huge favor. The last thing you should do is write back with a snarl. That sort of behavior is unprofessional and will get you blacklisted by other places — agents and editors talk to each other and love to share horror stories.

  Incidentally, although you can mass-blast queries and samples, you can only send a full manuscript to one editor at a time. (The same applies to agents, but since editors and agents are separate parts of the industry, you can send the full manuscript to one editor and one agent at the same time.) This is because you can only sell a book to one publisher at a time. If you send your full manuscript to two editors and both offer to buy it, you'll have to turn one down. The one who loses out will realize she spent all that time reading your book and getting the go-ahead from her superiors for nothing. She won't appreciate it and she will remember you. Later, you may find yourself wanting to switch publishers, or that editor may come to work for your current publisher right when you're trying to sell another book. The publishing industry is actually very small, and the segment of it that publishes paranormal fiction is even smaller.

  If more than one editor asks to see the full manuscript, however, it's perfectly acceptable to send a second copy of the full manuscript out as long as you say, politely, in your cover letter to the second editor that someone else is currently considering the book. In other words, don't surprise the second editor and you'll be okay. (And if multiple editors are asking for your work, you really need to step up your efforts to find an agent.)

  A SIDE NOTE ABOUT WRITING IN GENERAL

  There's a saying among writers that it takes a novel to learn to write a novel. A great many professional writers have at least one novel sitting in their desk drawers (or these days, hard drives) that they can't sell. I certainly do. My first novel is still tucked away in its file, completely unsalable. I also have about three-quarters of my second novel. My “first” novel is actually my third. But I learned from that first book I wrote. I learned about plot structure, character development, and how to carry a story through 100,000 words. If your first novel doesn't sell, don't despair — you're in good company. Your next novel will be better anyway, and then you'll show them all.

  DEALING WITH ACCEPTANCE FROM AN AGENT

  When an agent calls or writes to say she enjoyed your book and would like to represent you, feel thrilled, but don't celebrate quite yet. You'll need to talk — probably on the phone if you don't live nearby — to do a little interviewing. Ask the agent exactly what sort of services she provides, what experience she has, and what books she's sold. (The latter are likely listed on her Web site, too.) You're perfectly within your right to ask for references. You also need to ask about the commission.

  The agent's job, you see, is to negotiate on your behalf with publishers, editors, and anyone else who wants access to your work. It's her job to know what rights are acceptable to sign away and for how long. She knows what undesirable clauses the publisher is likely to slip into a contract and how to get them removed. She argues about money, royalties, percentages, and the dozens of other details with the editor or publisher, leaving you, the writer, free to enjoy a purely artistic relationship with these people. You don't have to worry about arguing money for half an hour with someone and then having to talk with the same person about rewrites for chapter seven.

  In exchange for all this, the agent takes a commission, which is a percentage of everything you earn on any book she negotiates for you. Most agents charge a 15 percent commission on domestic sales and a 20 percent commission on foreign sales. Good agents do not charge for phone calls, copying, or other office costs. Since the agent's income is tied to yours, it's in the agent's own interest to work out the best contract possible for you.

  Once you've interviewed the agent and decided you want to sign on, the agent will send you a contract. One tip: Avoid a clause that ties the agent or agency to you for a certain period of time. The agent may leave the agency or the industry, or you might discover you don't like the agent's work after all, but you'd be stuck there until the contract ran out. Instead, make sure the contract allows you or the agent to end the relationship with appropriate notice, usually thirty days. However, the agent will still collect commissions on any books she negotiated for you before you terminated the contract.

  DEALING WITH ACCEPTANCE FROM AN EDITOR

  If an editor calls you to say she wants to buy your book, thank her profusely and say your agent will call her. When the editor asks who your agent is, tell her you're in negotiation with someone right at that moment (if you have any queries out with agents, you'll be telling the truth), but you don't want to give a name until the negotiations are final. Thank the editor again, get off the phone, and contact the agent at the top of your wish list either by phone or e-mail. Tell the agent about the offer, and I guarantee you'll get a fast read on your book. Don't worry about losing the editor's offer — publishing moves slowly, and the editor's offer will be good for weeks.

  Then go celebrate.

  GOING IT ALONE

  There's no law that says you have to use an agent, and some authors choose to operate without one. Some do it because they can't find an agent they like,
and others because they don't mind handling the bargaining and the paperwork themselves, and would rather save the commission. If you're well acquainted with contract law and the publishing market, enjoy haggling, and don't mind spending lots of time on the phone, you can go this route perfectly well. Frankly, I don't recommend it unless you have no other choice. My own agent writes novels of her own, and even she hired an agent to represent her work.

  SCAMS

  True story, though the exact details have been changed for anonymity's sake: A few years ago, I was browsing through a bookstore with fellow writer Sarah Zettel, who happens to be one of my best friends. We were talking about fantasy novels in general, and one of the clerks overheard us. “I've written a fantasy,” he said. “I've got an agent, too. Things are going great — she hasn't charged me very much.”

  Sarah and I exchanged uh-oh looks. After more than two decades of friendship, we've developed a working mental telepathy, and both of us knew the other was thinking: Which one of us should break the news? I finally took a breath and asked a quiet question. “How much have you paid her?”