AUTHOR SHARES IMPRESSIONS OF WRITERS CONFERENCES

Note from Kae: Deb Schubert is an author (and now friend) who is shopping for an agent and a publisher for her women's fiction and a cozy mystery series. Thanks so much for this, Deb!

THOUGHTS ON BEA AND BACKSPACE CONFERENCES, NEW YORK CITY, MAY ‘09
By Debra L. Schubert

First of all, Kae, I’d like to thank you for inviting me to fill you in on BEA and the Backspace Writer’s Conference from a writer’s perspective.

I was fortunate enough to attend both of these conferences during the last week of May in NYC. BEA – The Book Expo of America – was actually a five-day conference, but the first day, Wednesday, May 27th was the writer’s conference portion of the event. (The following four days were mainly for agents, editors, and booksellers.)

The day started out with an opening keynote speech by author Karin Slaughter. Karin is a petite blonde spitfire. Her genre is crime, but it may as well be comedy – she’s the Ellen Degeneres of the publishing world. She spoke of how she owned a sign company, although her true passion was writing. After ten years of seeking representation, she became an overnight success. Since then, she’s written several number one international bestsellers and doesn’t miss selling signs one single bit.

After that, I attended a workshop on “How to Write Great Characters” by author N.M. Kelby (author of the Whale Season and Murder at the Bad Girls Bar and Grill) and an agent panel featuring Janet Reid, Barbara Poelle, Michelle Andelman and Ted Weinstein regarding what agents are looking for in queries and sample pages. This included brave souls from the audience going on stage and pitching their stories. The afternoon was the Big Event – the terrifyingly wonderful (or just plain terrifying) PITCH SLAM! This is like speed dating for writers and agents. Sixty-six agents were in attendance and you could pitch your story to as many agents as you could fit in to the two-hour time slot. There were no sign-up sheets. You just got in line in front of the agent you wanted to pitch to and waited your turn. My genres are women’s fiction and cozy mystery, but I was pitching only my women’s fiction novel. I met with six agents and all six asked for sample pages (one even asked for the full ms!). It was a miracle that my stomach made it out of the enormous Jacob Javitz Convention Center along with the rest of me. To tell you the truth, at the time I wished it hadn’t. I was a bundle of nervous energy, as I’m sure most of the writers were.

The Backspace Conference was a three-day event held at the Radisson Martinique Hotel. The first day was Agent-Author day where your query and first two pages were critiqued. Different groups of agents rotated through and listened to your work. They’d stop you when the pitch or pages no longer worked for them and gave their opinions. This was also fairly brutal. However, that’s the whole reason writers attend conferences – to receive honest critiques and hopefully click with an agent. The second and third days were filled with wonderful workshops including a role-playing exercise in which different publishing industry parts such as editor, marketing manager, publicist, etc. were taken on. Led by Agent Jeff Kleinman, it was fun and informative. I learned you need to have as much of a platform as possible, even for fiction. Another panel I attended was entitled, “The Agent-Author Relationship” led by two agents and two of their published clients. This relationship really is like a marriage on a lot of levels. First of all, you have to “fall in love” with each other, or at least the agent needs to fall in love with your work and as a writer you must feel he/she is the “right” person to go to bat for you. It’s also, hopefully, a LTR, one that lasts throughout your whole career. It was interesting to see how the personalities of the agents and authors on the panel “matched.” Another interesting panel discussion was with Agents Matthew Mahoney, Alexandra Machinist, and Colleen Lindsay. It was entitled, “What Literary Agents Want and Why It’s So Hard to Find Representation.” They spoke about keeping their eyes on the current market, being aware of what editors are looking for, and writing great queries and, of course, a great book.

With the exception of the Agent/Author Day at Backspace, my overall impressions of both conferences were that they were extremely worthwhile and I would highly recommend them to any serious writer with a completed manuscript. The problem with Agent/Author Day was that we were supposed to be able to pitch to at least two groups of agents, but only got to pitch to one. Given the cost of the day (approx. $200), I would say this was not worth the money. The people running the conference are aware of the problem, so hopefully it will be corrected by next year. However, the 2-day workshop portion of the Backspace Writer’s Conference was invaluable as was BEA.

If you have any questions, please feel free to stop by my blog and ask away. Again, I’d like to thank Kae for the opportunity to share my thoughts on these wonderful conferences.

BAD NEWS--GOOD NEWS

We rejected a manuscript today. It was a well-written piece of women's fiction.

Question: We put SO much time into this. Read the query; loved it. Read the partial. Ditto. Read the entire manuscript. Why did we turn it down?

Long Answer: We hated the characters. There was nothing to hang onto. They were simply awful women.

Think back to your school days. Remember the gorgeous girl who seemed to want to be your friend? You were pleased and flattered. She was smart, beautiful, funny and had lots of other friends. Then you really got to know her. You saw the cruel trick she played on the fat girl in algebra. You heard her lie to the teacher. You saw her cheat on every test. You even saw the nasty note she wrote about you! You began to dislike her very much and soon you moved on to a new circle of friends.

That's how this book made me feel. It's women's fiction. Ya' gotta' give me something to love, people!

BUT on a positive note--We took on a new author today. The book is funny, sweet, and fabulous. It concerns golf, the 60s and a dog with great power. I'll tell you more about this project in weeks and months to come, but let me just say, reading this manuscript was a pure delight. I've been chuckling all day.

ODD MOM OUT Revisited

I finished Jane Porter's book tonight, and gads, I cried. I cried on page 404 when Luke said, "I haven't given up on you, not by a long shot."

Now, I'm not an easy cryer. I started thinking about the books that have made me cry. I must admit, Love Story did it, but that doesn't count because I was pregnant and uber-hormonal at the time. Sophie's Choice, Cold Mountain, Of Mice and Men, and Oh, Pioneers! brought me to tears. But a girly romance? Not in recent memory.

So, what is it about Odd Mom Out that engaged this jaded reader to such a degree? Why does this book work so well in the women's fiction genre? Let's get out the white board and do an analysis. It might help me as an agent and you as a writer of women's fiction:

1. Porter is a slick, powerful and gifted writer. That is the first and most important reason this book works so well. In her hands you feel safe and you feel pampered. She won't let you down. Her language, word choice, tempo, plotting, and energy work together to weave a fine tale.
2. The characters are believable. Marta, the odd mom, is plucky, brave, funny and passionate. And, as I mentioned in the previous post, her priorties are in the right place. Her daughter is number one. Marta and her daughter moved back to Seattle from NYC to help Marta's dad and her mother who has Alzheimer's. Marta loves her family and will not betray them. This character development is a vital part of women's fiction. If you don't identify with and like the protagonist, you are not going to like the book. [Readers' Note: I HATE Madame Bovary, but I LOVE that book. It's a classic, for heaven's sake. So what's up with that? Yes, dear reader, Madame Bovary is a first-class bi---. But that novel is not women's fiction. It's a literary masterpiece. We don't like Lady McBeth or Becky Sharpe much either. Again, they're not chick-lit, oops, sorry, women's fiction.]
3. The plot moves rapidly, yet believably. We follow Marta and her daughter Eva from late summer through the new year. We meet their friends, their enemies. We attend meetings, endure Eva's struggle to be "popular," agonize with Marta's balancing act as mom and career woman. But we are caught up in all the action and we keep turning pages.
4. The love interest is engaging, hot and lovely. (OK, Porter walks a fine line here, but I don't want to give away the plot.) Luke is a hottie and he is kind, gentle, smart and we can't wait for Marta to give in.
5. Jane Porter wraps up loose ends, gives us a happy outcome, but doesn't whitewash some very real problems.

That's it. Can you write a book for women that keeps these things in mind? Can you make me cry?

CHICK-LIT? WOMEN'S FICTION? WHATEVER!

With spring around the corner, Jon and I have resumed our early morning 2-mile walks. Our conversation on these walks, though we’re both barely awake, often centers on books and our business--What we’re reading. What we’re rejecting. What we’re dreaming about. What’s knocking our socks off. Then we talk about what we’re reading for fun.

Today I monopolized at least one mile telling Jon about Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter. I picked up the advance copy of this book at the Book Expo in New York last year. I’ve never read this author, but I liked the sassy jacket which features a tea kettle and a svelte female in a red dress, fishnet stockings and platform mules. (Plus, like most advance copies at BEA, it was FREE!)

I’ve read up to page 150 and I love this book. It’s not fine literature. It would have been considered “chick-lit” a couple of years ago. Now it’s “women’s fiction.” Ms. Porter knows her way around a story. She writes in the first person with lots of dialogue to move the action ahead. The protagonist, Marta, is compelling, smart, and has her priorities in the right place. I like her. I like her daughter Eva, and the story rings true. I find myself rooting for Marta, hoping she gets the best of the snobby “A-List” moms at Eva’s school. I know there’s a love interest in the wings—I just haven’t gotten there yet. He’s big. He’s handsome. Be still my heart!

So, is that all it takes to get a book published? Likable characters, believable action, good dialogue? Hunky love interest? Perhaps not, but it’s a good start. If you write women’s fiction, read Odd Mom Out. And if you can structure a story as well as Jane Porter, I’d love to hear from you!