Convention Diary Good Friday 14th April 2017 Writing Publishing And Literary Agents

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The first official day of the Birmingham based 68th Eastercon Science Fiction Convention. I had a choice of two buses to travel in by from near the hotel, so I took the first of the two to arrive. Services seemed unaffected by the Easter bank holiday and run 24 hours a day at 30 minute intervals until late at night when they go hourly. The bus took a long circuitous route through the suburbs of Birmingham. I learned later that the other bus took a quicker more direct route so future rides would be on that one. I got the hotel curtesy bus and arrived at the Metropole convention venue nice and early as most convention attendees started checking in the main hotel itself. My cheaper accommodation saved me time on that. The first event started at 11.30 am, and of several options I chose literary agent John Jarrold’s talk on approaching professional publishers and agent. He knows what he talk about, being the agent who first said yes to a favourite novel of mine, Iain M Bank’s Consider Phlebas. John’s observations were direct and challenging as he tells it how it is. A full book needs to be 90,000 words long. A writer deterred from writing again after criticism or rejection has no business writing. The opening pages and paragraphs make or break a book. Avoid info-dumping, be consistent about the point of view rather than head-jumping from character to character. Dialogue should be naturalistic, not description in speech marks. Characters should use modern language, not cod-Shakespearian thees, thous and verilys. Don’t use odd or obscure words for the sake of it or to how off your vocabulary. Don’t repeat the same word three time in a single sentence or paragraph. Don’t preach to or patronize the readers. Finish the complete book before trying to sell it and leave it aside for a month or two before revising it thoroughly. Enjoy the writing or don’t do it. Know that one in thirty manuscripts will get nowhere. Consider self-publishing but accept that mot self-published books sell less than 100 copies each. Read widely and not exclusively in the genre you are writing for. A good cover letter will not guarantee publication. Follow publisher’s submission guidelines to the letter. If they ask for the first 10,000 word, don’t end 15,000 or a section from later in the book. Keep to deadlines. Completing the writing of the book is often the beginning and not the end, so be prepared for an even harder task selling and promoting the writing. Direct, honest, hard hitting, and I’m glad to see by no means a deterrent to me or other writer. It was good to see a publisher not making it sound like every writer gets an easy sell in three easy steps but showing what to really expect. A great start to the convention weekend. I realized that this was the room two of my own three presentations would be using later in the weekend too, and I was very impressed by its layout. Arthur Chappell