Novel Writing on Edge - Development Notes From Algonkian Writer Conferences

HOOK OR LOG WITH CORE WOUND AND CONFLICT Your hook line (also known as logline) is your first chance to get a New York or Hollywood professional interested in your novel. It can be utilized in your query to hook the agent into requesting the project. It is especially useful for those pitch sessions at conferences, lunches, in the elevator, or anywhere else. When a prospective agent or editor asks you what your book is about, your high-concept hook line is your answer. Writing one also encourages a realization of those primary elements that will make your novel into a work of powerful fiction.  The great novel, more often than not, comprises two stories: the exterior story or plot line, and an interior story focused primarily on the protagonist, one that defines and catalyzes her or his evolutionary arc throughout the novel. For example, a protagonist with a flaw or core wound that prevents her from achieving a worthwhile goal is forced to respond to a lifechanging event instig...

Aspire to be a great genre author? So what's your high concept?...  If you fail to grasp the vital importance of this second question, you will fail to conceive much less write a publishable genre novel - thriller, mystery, fantasy, horror, crime, SF, you name it. Just not going to happen. Don't let any writer group or self-appointed writer guru online or writer conference panel tell you otherwise. You're competing with tens of thousands of other aspiring authors in your genre. Consider. WHAT IS GOING TO MAKE YOUR NOVEL STAND OUT from the morass of throat-gulping hopefuls who don't know any better? Believe it or not, 99.5% of the writers in workshops all across the country *do not* arrive with a high-concept story. If anything, their aborning novel child is destined for still birth. They strut forward proudly waving their middle or low concept tale while noting how their hired editor from Stanford, or Iowa, or the Johns Hopkins MA program just "loves it!...

A must have for query letters and pitches . First of all, we're going to include a snippet or two from the Penguin Random House website on COMPARABLES, then follow up with notes from a former senior editor at Random House, Caitlin Alexander. Part I Comparison ("comp") titles are books that are similar to yours in one of two ways: either the content is comparable (premise, sometimes  with a dose of theme, and/or plot) or the sales trends are expected to be similar. For your publishing team, comp titles are extremely important . The comps help those editors making acquisition decisions figure out who and how big the audience might be for any given title .  Editors also look at the sales trajectories of comp titles: will Book X be the type to backlist forever, like Book Y, or go strong out of the gate and then fade fast when the publicity dies down, like Book Z? Marketing teams also find comps useful when putting together marketing plans for individual titles. Addi...

Edge recommends the following query model below. Note this does not include a long story pitch or short synopsis (which will sink you if you don't know how to artfully write it), but rather a single hook line (which will also sink you for the same reason).  Note that comparables (at least two) are vital to your novel.     Dear Mr. or Ms. (name of agent): Background   "I recently completed a novel similar to The Art of Racing in the Rain , which I know your agency represents ( or the following one because it shows you've done your homework like a professional ), I read in Publishers Marketplace that you represented XYZ to ABC, and thought you might be interested in taking a look at a novel I just completed." NOTE: the credential paragraph below can be moved to second to last paragraph, and if no creds then rely on the story hook .   ___  Professional credentials, platform, or relevant background   "I have 50,000+ followers on social media pl...

First of all, let's look at what a pitch should never be. This is a modified example from a past pitch conference. Despite the fact that this writer received our pitch models in advance, the following is what they produced for the first day of the conference. The title and author's name are withheld for privacy reasons. As follows: Sixteen-year-old Warren’s grandfather was his world: Chicago firefighter, Marine, master builder, musician, upstanding Polish-American man. Now Warren’s a stranger in his own house. His mother, a doctor, is guilty and distant; his father, a fire chief, means well but fails.  His siblings seemed to get all his grandfather’s gifts: discipline, heroism, talent, craft.  Warren tries his best to mimic their feats – swimming, piano-playing, building, firefighting – battling in spirit to take his grandfather back. He tries, and he fails. He resents and fears his awesome big brother, who guards the family heritage like a hero of yore; he envies ...