Thank you for submitting your proposal to Seal Press. Unfortunately, your project doesn’t have enough of a hook or angle for me to be able to truly define what you’re doing to my Editorial Board and sales team. I appreciate your story, but I’m afraid it’s a bit too vague and sprawling for us to be able to pursue your project for our list.
Sincerely,
Brooke Warner
Senior Editor, Seal Press
This is typical of rejection letters I write in my role as Editor at Seal. In fact, there are more submissions than not that fall into this category of too diffuse, too big, too sprawling, too vague—even too common. All writers, but especially writers of memoir, must must understand that they need to define a unique angle in their pitch, cover letter, and/or manuscript.
I hear and read pitches all the time that that do nothing to give me a unique sales handle, nothing to tell me what’s different about their book, or alternately (flip side of the same coin) what’s similar to other books that are on the market. I’ve talked in previous newsletters about the difference between high concept and low concept books, and it’s not so much that you have to have a high concept, but you do need to help the agent or editor you want to publish with make their job easier.
This vagueness happens so often in memoir because memoirists are trying to tackle the landscape of their lives. Unless you're famous, your life story is not enough. Typical submissions might look like: (1) a writer’s life story from point A to point B, (2) a writer’s experience as a mother, (3) a writer’s bizarre set of experiences that led them to where they are today. And it’s a conundrum, because there are writers who get published under these scenarios. After all, #1 could be Eat, Pray, Love; #2 could be Operating Instructions; and #3 could be Running with Scissors. But Elizabeth Gilbert, Annie Lamott, and Augusten Burroughs were/are writers with well-established platforms. For the average writer trying to catch a break, the hook can make or break the deal.
As a case study, I’ll share the example of a memoir I edited at Seal called Loaded, by Jill Talbot. When Jill first approached me with a book idea, she actually proposed an entirely different book. It was going to be coauthored with a friend and the title was South of 30, which the authors described as “a collaboration, a collection of essays, that creates a conversation as well as our own individual ruminations about life as women in our late thirties.” Not a bad concept, but too big? Yes. And ruminations about life? Definitely too vague. I rejected that proposal, but I was struck by Jill’s writing. So you could say she caught a break. I wanted to develop something with her. She was---is---a beautiful writer, and in a follow-up conversation she mentioned she’d been in rehab. It just so happened that I wanted a book about addiction at the time, and she was open to going down that road. And so we developed a proposal together that worked. The angle was clear: addiction. Addiction to alcohol, addiction to men, addiction to troubled relationships. The result is Loaded, and it’s a fantastic book that’s highly literary while still being high concept.
Not all of you will be lucky enough to develop a proposal for an editor who’s really interested in your book, but some of you might. Listen to people who work with books. Have conversations about hook. Look at the books you love and try to figure out if the hook is immediately apparent. Make sure your pitch is clear. The tighter your concept is, the more likely you are to get positive responses. And remember, this doesn’t mean that your writing has to be simple or that the scope of your book needs to be necessary scaled back. Your hook is not the entirety of the book, and it doesn’t need to be. Think of it like CliffNotes for your would-be agent or editor. We want to work with people who help us help them, and a well-defined hook goes way farther than you might think.
A special thanks to Jill Talbot this month for letting me share her story.
Until next month.
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
May 6, 2010
April 11, 2010
The future of feminism panel that wasn't
Dear Warner Coaching readers, I have never before cross-posted with Seal, but I'm doing so because I realized I had a tremendous spike in the number of readers visiting this site over the weekend, which I think has to do with AWP. So here goes, for those of you who are interested in reading:
I flew to Denver this weekend to attend AWP. I was supposed to be sitting on a panel called The Future of Feminism, which Amy Scholder at The Feminist Press had organized quite some time ago.
We got the very last time slot of the conference: 4.30 on Saturday afternoon. I was prepared for a not-so-good turnout, but I’ve been to enough conferences to know that sometimes the biggest impact is made on the smallest groups.
When I showed up to my panel, this was the sign I saw on the door.
I had no notification, no advance warning, no opportunity to have made a different decision. I was, needless to say, bummed. At first I thought the conference had canceled the panel on our behalf, and I couldn’t understand why. Then, as woman after woman came by, some audibly disappointed, I started to feel genuinely upset.
One group of students from Western Washington University turned to me, and recognizing my name on my badge, asked if I would do a talk without my panel. I wish I had said yes. One of them said, “We thought it was so cool that this was going to be our last panel of the day. We were going to go out with a bang!”
As it turned out, Amy had a family emergency. These things happen. The other panelists decided, it seems, that they didn’t want to do the panel with so few people. Later that evening, at a meet up hosted by SheWrites, Lucy Bledsoe, a beloved Seal author who has a new novel out, asked me what happened. It was kind of ironic, she said. What does that say about the future of feminist publishing? And I had been thinking the same thing as I sulked back to my hotel room.
And because I wish I’d had the wherewithal to tear down that sign and just do a talk about feminist publishing, or about women and publishing at the bare minimum, I’ve composed a few thoughts that I might have highlighted had the panel happened:
1. We still have a presence.
The fact that presses like Seal and The Feminist Press, as well as Cleis and Belladonna and Firebrand, and many others (please comment and list yourselves!) are still out there publishing with a feminist mission is extraordinary. I meet with women all the time who think that feminism died with the second wave. They are thrilled to know that the younger generation is carrying forth messages about women’s equality, and that we don’t just sit idly by and think that all of the disparities have ceased to exist. There’s room for new feminist voices, and there’s a thriving online community of bloggers and activists (too abundant to list here) who are doing amazing work in the name of feminism. And lots of them are getting published.
2. There’s more than one kind of feminism.
Seal is increasingly publishing “mainstream” feminism, for which we’ve been criticized by some and commended by others. Whatever your feelings are about mainstream feminist writers, the good news is this: they reach a wider audience. We’re expected to bring in books that can sell---that’s the nature of the book business, even though lots of books don’t. So for us to be able to say that we have feminist books that sell well is, to me, a huge win. Notably is Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism, but there are many others. Some Seal books are overtly feminist in scope, while others simply have a feminist or pro-woman sensibility to them. That is critical to who we are, and it won’t change for as long as Seal continues to be around. I would have loved to hear what some of my fellow editors have to say about mainstream feminism and/or popular or celebrity feminism. And I want to note, in the interest of talking about a mainstream book that Seal has coming up in 2011, that we are publishing our first ever male authors*, Michael Kimmel and Michael Kaufman, who are writing a mainstream book that tackles feminism for men---and it’s actually targeted toward men (and not only their girlfriends, sisters, wives, and moms).
*It’s important to qualify here that Seal has published men in our anthologies, and we have two memoirs by trans men.
3. Women are keeping publishing real.
When it comes to accolades and honors it unfortunately seems to be the case that men are still getting more attention in the publishing industry than women. But I see women pushing the envelope. Women are bringing things that matter to their writing. Women are keeping it real. Sure, not all women are feminists, or they are and they don’t know it. This very complex issue of women and their feminisms was tacked in the Seal book Girldrive, by Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein. In my ideal world, every woman would call herself a feminist, but what I realize more and more is that all we really need to do is acknowledge that we care about the same things and that we are stronger than our differences. Feminism can be a torturously divided movement, and I hesitate to even call it that, though I’ll leave it for lack of a better word. If I were going to leave our would-have-been audience on one note, it would have to do with coming together. I don’t think the goal of feminism was ever for women to be more divided, but it can sometimes feel like that. At Seal, and I imagine this is true for my other feminist press colleagues as well, part of what we look for in our manuscripts is inclusiveness, a pro-woman sentiment, bridging the divides, educating our audience, and owning a uniquely female perspective on whatever the topic is---be it motherhood, social issues, organizing your life, or breaking out of your career rut.
So that's what happened. Because there are so many charged issues that come up around feminism, and because feminist publishing and feminist bookstores have been so obliterated over the past three decades, I thought Lucy's noting that it was indeed ironic that the panel was canceled couldn't have been more true. So I apologize to those of you who wanted to be there.
Thanks for reading.
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
I flew to Denver this weekend to attend AWP. I was supposed to be sitting on a panel called The Future of Feminism, which Amy Scholder at The Feminist Press had organized quite some time ago.
We got the very last time slot of the conference: 4.30 on Saturday afternoon. I was prepared for a not-so-good turnout, but I’ve been to enough conferences to know that sometimes the biggest impact is made on the smallest groups.
When I showed up to my panel, this was the sign I saw on the door.
I had no notification, no advance warning, no opportunity to have made a different decision. I was, needless to say, bummed. At first I thought the conference had canceled the panel on our behalf, and I couldn’t understand why. Then, as woman after woman came by, some audibly disappointed, I started to feel genuinely upset.
One group of students from Western Washington University turned to me, and recognizing my name on my badge, asked if I would do a talk without my panel. I wish I had said yes. One of them said, “We thought it was so cool that this was going to be our last panel of the day. We were going to go out with a bang!”
As it turned out, Amy had a family emergency. These things happen. The other panelists decided, it seems, that they didn’t want to do the panel with so few people. Later that evening, at a meet up hosted by SheWrites, Lucy Bledsoe, a beloved Seal author who has a new novel out, asked me what happened. It was kind of ironic, she said. What does that say about the future of feminist publishing? And I had been thinking the same thing as I sulked back to my hotel room.
And because I wish I’d had the wherewithal to tear down that sign and just do a talk about feminist publishing, or about women and publishing at the bare minimum, I’ve composed a few thoughts that I might have highlighted had the panel happened:
1. We still have a presence.
The fact that presses like Seal and The Feminist Press, as well as Cleis and Belladonna and Firebrand, and many others (please comment and list yourselves!) are still out there publishing with a feminist mission is extraordinary. I meet with women all the time who think that feminism died with the second wave. They are thrilled to know that the younger generation is carrying forth messages about women’s equality, and that we don’t just sit idly by and think that all of the disparities have ceased to exist. There’s room for new feminist voices, and there’s a thriving online community of bloggers and activists (too abundant to list here) who are doing amazing work in the name of feminism. And lots of them are getting published.
2. There’s more than one kind of feminism.
Seal is increasingly publishing “mainstream” feminism, for which we’ve been criticized by some and commended by others. Whatever your feelings are about mainstream feminist writers, the good news is this: they reach a wider audience. We’re expected to bring in books that can sell---that’s the nature of the book business, even though lots of books don’t. So for us to be able to say that we have feminist books that sell well is, to me, a huge win. Notably is Jessica Valenti’s Full Frontal Feminism, but there are many others. Some Seal books are overtly feminist in scope, while others simply have a feminist or pro-woman sensibility to them. That is critical to who we are, and it won’t change for as long as Seal continues to be around. I would have loved to hear what some of my fellow editors have to say about mainstream feminism and/or popular or celebrity feminism. And I want to note, in the interest of talking about a mainstream book that Seal has coming up in 2011, that we are publishing our first ever male authors*, Michael Kimmel and Michael Kaufman, who are writing a mainstream book that tackles feminism for men---and it’s actually targeted toward men (and not only their girlfriends, sisters, wives, and moms).
*It’s important to qualify here that Seal has published men in our anthologies, and we have two memoirs by trans men.
3. Women are keeping publishing real.
When it comes to accolades and honors it unfortunately seems to be the case that men are still getting more attention in the publishing industry than women. But I see women pushing the envelope. Women are bringing things that matter to their writing. Women are keeping it real. Sure, not all women are feminists, or they are and they don’t know it. This very complex issue of women and their feminisms was tacked in the Seal book Girldrive, by Nona Willis Aronowitz and Emma Bee Bernstein. In my ideal world, every woman would call herself a feminist, but what I realize more and more is that all we really need to do is acknowledge that we care about the same things and that we are stronger than our differences. Feminism can be a torturously divided movement, and I hesitate to even call it that, though I’ll leave it for lack of a better word. If I were going to leave our would-have-been audience on one note, it would have to do with coming together. I don’t think the goal of feminism was ever for women to be more divided, but it can sometimes feel like that. At Seal, and I imagine this is true for my other feminist press colleagues as well, part of what we look for in our manuscripts is inclusiveness, a pro-woman sentiment, bridging the divides, educating our audience, and owning a uniquely female perspective on whatever the topic is---be it motherhood, social issues, organizing your life, or breaking out of your career rut.
So that's what happened. Because there are so many charged issues that come up around feminism, and because feminist publishing and feminist bookstores have been so obliterated over the past three decades, I thought Lucy's noting that it was indeed ironic that the panel was canceled couldn't have been more true. So I apologize to those of you who wanted to be there.
Thanks for reading.
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
April 4, 2010
4 Ways to Make Your Writing Feel New Again
It’s Easter, so today’s topic has to do with rebirth, renewal, and getting reinspired. It’s timely, too. I have a handful of new clients who have reached out in the past couple weeks looking for a shot in the arm, and I have plenty of other long-timers who have hit a slump and are looking for ways to liven things up and make their projects sparkle.
So where do you find new inspiration? How do you get motivated when you’re asking yourself whether it’s all even worth it?
Share
Sharing your writing is key. Some writers are great about doing this, but some of you (you know who you are) are writing in such isolation that you simply have no gauge, no barometer for how well your work is going to stand up to criticism, to relevancy, to feedback. Many writers do this on purpose—because it’s scary to share your work. But if you’re in a slump, you absolutely must take that risk. Other people—whether they’re friends, a writing group, possibly even family—can breathe life back into your work and make you remember what it is you love about writing.
Hire someone
Hire a coach, an editor, or a reader to read your work and give you feedback. Ask them not to spare your feelings. Be open to seeing another person’s comments. Whether or not you integrate them into your story or book project is totally up to you. Comments from outside professionals are meant to open up a dialogue. It’s not about accepting edits hook, line, and sinker. Sometimes what someone else sees can open a doorway to an inspiration or creative depth you weren’t able to previously access.
Create something visual
SoulCollage® is a process I like to share with word-lovers because of its power to help highly articulate types get beyond the verbal. SoulCollage® is a special way of collaging, that asks you to rely solely on your intuition to create a 5 x 8 inch collage. See instructions here. You can do this on a larger scale, too, and create a Dream Board. The primary thing you’re looking to do here is get out of your head. To create something visual that gets you in touch with the nonverbal aspect of your creativity. You’ll be amazed at the power of your own imagination—and oftentimes Soul cards are so prescient that many months later you piece something together that you didn’t even notice upon first examination.
Change your process
There are lots of ways to do this. Try writing in a new place. Maybe your garden. Move your desk to a new location. Or get out of the house altogether. Go to a coffee shop or the library. Try writing in the morning if you usually write at night, or vice versa. Take a writing retreat. Gift yourself a weekend away, whether you stay at a B&B or a friend’s house, and commit to writing for the whole weekend. See what happens. Sometimes the key to getting reinspired is reconnecting with your characters (if you’re writing fiction) or reconnecting with your expertise and why you want to help people with your writing (if you’re writing self-help) or sitting with the power of your personal story (if you’re writing memoir). Whatever you do, make your process intentional, and commit to sticking with some changes to get you out of your rut.
These are my four suggestions, but if you have others you'd like to share, please do. We can all benefit from hearing about things that have really worked for others. And I welcome your stories and comments.
Until next month.
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
So where do you find new inspiration? How do you get motivated when you’re asking yourself whether it’s all even worth it?
Share
Sharing your writing is key. Some writers are great about doing this, but some of you (you know who you are) are writing in such isolation that you simply have no gauge, no barometer for how well your work is going to stand up to criticism, to relevancy, to feedback. Many writers do this on purpose—because it’s scary to share your work. But if you’re in a slump, you absolutely must take that risk. Other people—whether they’re friends, a writing group, possibly even family—can breathe life back into your work and make you remember what it is you love about writing.
Hire someone
Hire a coach, an editor, or a reader to read your work and give you feedback. Ask them not to spare your feelings. Be open to seeing another person’s comments. Whether or not you integrate them into your story or book project is totally up to you. Comments from outside professionals are meant to open up a dialogue. It’s not about accepting edits hook, line, and sinker. Sometimes what someone else sees can open a doorway to an inspiration or creative depth you weren’t able to previously access.
Create something visual
SoulCollage® is a process I like to share with word-lovers because of its power to help highly articulate types get beyond the verbal. SoulCollage® is a special way of collaging, that asks you to rely solely on your intuition to create a 5 x 8 inch collage. See instructions here. You can do this on a larger scale, too, and create a Dream Board. The primary thing you’re looking to do here is get out of your head. To create something visual that gets you in touch with the nonverbal aspect of your creativity. You’ll be amazed at the power of your own imagination—and oftentimes Soul cards are so prescient that many months later you piece something together that you didn’t even notice upon first examination.
Change your process
There are lots of ways to do this. Try writing in a new place. Maybe your garden. Move your desk to a new location. Or get out of the house altogether. Go to a coffee shop or the library. Try writing in the morning if you usually write at night, or vice versa. Take a writing retreat. Gift yourself a weekend away, whether you stay at a B&B or a friend’s house, and commit to writing for the whole weekend. See what happens. Sometimes the key to getting reinspired is reconnecting with your characters (if you’re writing fiction) or reconnecting with your expertise and why you want to help people with your writing (if you’re writing self-help) or sitting with the power of your personal story (if you’re writing memoir). Whatever you do, make your process intentional, and commit to sticking with some changes to get you out of your rut.
These are my four suggestions, but if you have others you'd like to share, please do. We can all benefit from hearing about things that have really worked for others. And I welcome your stories and comments.
Until next month.
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
March 21, 2010
LISTEN: Who Needs Editing? No, Really…
Last Friday I did a teleseminar with Linda Joy Myers, President of the National Association of Memoir Writers. If you're writing memoir, you need to check out this website and become a member. She's doing amazing work, and there's so many great resources for writers.
The audio starts about ten seconds in, so hang in there! This is a discussion about the types of editing and my thoughts about the value of editing for writers, whether you're just starting out or already have a publisher.
Thanks for listening.
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
The audio starts about ten seconds in, so hang in there! This is a discussion about the types of editing and my thoughts about the value of editing for writers, whether you're just starting out or already have a publisher.
Thanks for listening.
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
March 2, 2010
Busting “Don’t Get Your Hopes Up”
I had a fun and inspiring coaching call last week where one of my clients envisioned her proposal being well-received by publishers. We dreamed into the reality of what it would feel like to have multiple offers. We actually felt the joy and celebration of going through that experience. And it was delicious.
After I hung up I got to thinking about all the ways in which we don’t allow ourselves to dream. All the ways we keep ourselves from soaring. Our culture tells us, “Don’t get your hopes up.” All because the letdown will be too big. It’s easier to pick yourself up off the floor if you expect the worst, if you don’t allow yourself to feel into the probability of what’s possible.
Well, it’s time to call bullshit on all that. Getting our hopes up is the primary motivating factor behind everything we do. Anyone who’s ever succeeded at anything will tell you that they hoped and dreamed and believed that their dreams would come true.
And yet we do this thing of telling, professing, self-limiting. Almost every author I’ve ever worked with has confronted some variation of the demon who tells them they’re not good enough.
You’re not qualified to write this book/talk about this subject.
Who’s going to want to read what you have to say?
Your writing isn’t good enough to get published.
Why do you think you can do this?
Expect the worst.
Do any of these messages sound familiar? These are the pin needles to the balloon your spirit is trying to fly high. Recognize them for what they are.
Regardless of what you choose to believe in this month, test out where you stand on getting your hopes up. Do you allow yourself to believe in you, or do you squash that seed of hope before it starts to feel too good? Just check it out. If you find that you’re in fact not allowing yourself to soar, just do it. Believe that it will happen. You will be successful. You will write a book that everyone loves. You will get published. You will live the dream.
Until next month.
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
After I hung up I got to thinking about all the ways in which we don’t allow ourselves to dream. All the ways we keep ourselves from soaring. Our culture tells us, “Don’t get your hopes up.” All because the letdown will be too big. It’s easier to pick yourself up off the floor if you expect the worst, if you don’t allow yourself to feel into the probability of what’s possible.
Well, it’s time to call bullshit on all that. Getting our hopes up is the primary motivating factor behind everything we do. Anyone who’s ever succeeded at anything will tell you that they hoped and dreamed and believed that their dreams would come true.
And yet we do this thing of telling, professing, self-limiting. Almost every author I’ve ever worked with has confronted some variation of the demon who tells them they’re not good enough.
You’re not qualified to write this book/talk about this subject.
Who’s going to want to read what you have to say?
Your writing isn’t good enough to get published.
Why do you think you can do this?
Expect the worst.
Do any of these messages sound familiar? These are the pin needles to the balloon your spirit is trying to fly high. Recognize them for what they are.
Regardless of what you choose to believe in this month, test out where you stand on getting your hopes up. Do you allow yourself to believe in you, or do you squash that seed of hope before it starts to feel too good? Just check it out. If you find that you’re in fact not allowing yourself to soar, just do it. Believe that it will happen. You will be successful. You will write a book that everyone loves. You will get published. You will live the dream.
Until next month.
Brooke
GO BACK TO THE WARNER COACHING HOMEPAGE
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