Ryan Graudin on the Submission Process

 If there's one thing that many aspiring writers have few clues about, it's the submission process. There are good reasons for that; authors aren't exactly encouraged to talk in detail about our own submission experiences, and - just like agent hunting - everyone's story is different. I managed to cobble together a few non-specific questions that some debut authors have agreed to answer (bless them). And so I bring you the submission interview series - Submission Hell - It's True. Yes, it's the SHIT.

Today's guest is Ryan Graudin. When she’s not writing and drifting around the globe, she enjoys hunting through thrift stores and taking pictures of her native Charleston, SC. Her novel ALL THAT GLOWS, the story of a Faery Godmother who falls in love with the prince she’s forced to guard, is due out with HarperTeen in 2013. You can learn about all of these things and more at her blog, and you can find her on Twitter @ryangraudin.

How much did you know about the submission process before you were out on subs yourself? 

I actually knew more than I thought I did, looking back on the whole thing. I made a point to look up interviews such as this one and read about other author’s experiences so I could emotionally prepare myself. The thing is, everyone’s experiences are so varied and different. What one author goes through probably isn’t what will happen to you.

Did anything about the process surprise you?

I was actually surprised to learn that an agent has to send out pitches to the editors—much like we have to send an initial query to an agent before getting asked for the manuscript. It makes sense, now that I think about it. Editors are far too busy to read manuscripts they don’t specifically ask for!

Did you research the editors you knew had your ms? Do you recommend doing that?

I did. I followed them on Twitter. I read interviews they gave through various sites. I googled them every day. Honestly, I didn’t get too much out of it. It was only feeding my paranoia at the time. And I hardly needed it fed.

What was the average amount of time it took to hear back from editors? 

I got my first feedback the day after my agent sent out all of my submissions. Apparently when editors are really excited about a certain pitch and they start reading it and fall in love with the first few pages, it’s common for them to check back in with the agent and say that they “love what they’ve read so far.” It was a great way to start off the wait. Overall it took about two weeks to hear back from all of the editors since my MS had such serious interest straight off the bat.

What do you think is the best way for an author out on submission to deal with the anxiety?

Work on other things. Be productive. It’s impossible to rule out the anxiety altogether (at least, it was for me, because I’m not a master of Zen). I buckled down and finished the rough draft of another novel I was working on. It helped me with the idea that, even if novel on submission didn’t sell, I would have something else to work on with my agent and put out there.

If you had any rejections, how did you deal with that emotionally? How did this kind of rejection compare to query rejections?

I did get some rejections. I think the fact that there was an editor who was loving it and getting second reads, etc. really helped to soften the blow for these. At the same time it put a lot of weight on the expectation that this editor’s enthusiasm would turn into an offer. The anxiety became really, really bad toward the end of things. Another thing that softened the blow of the rejections was that they were all very complimentary of my writing and the storyline—many of the rejections were due to the fact that the editors didn’t see this title fitting into their imprint.

When you got your YES! how did that feel? How did you find out – email, telephone, smoke signal? 

The funny twist in my story is that I knew the day I would hear about HarperCollins final decision. The final acquisitions meeting took place an entire week after I knew it was going to happen! That meant for seven days I was burdened with this terrible knowledge. As the day drew closer I felt more and more like throwing up every time I thought about it (which was a lot). On day zero I begged one of my friends to spend the entire day thrift store shopping with me. This was, in part, to keep me from obsessively checking my email at every single 30 second interval. The acquisitions meeting was in the morning, and I figured that if a deal was going to be made my agent would call me. Noon rolled around. Then 1 o’clock. 2 o’clock. My nerves grew and I figured that the silence of my phone could only mean terrible things. Finally, close to 3 o’clock, I couldn’t take not knowing anymore, and I asked my friend if I could use her smartphone to check my email. Lo and behold, there was an email from my agent, saying that HarperCollins was going to be making me an offer for not one but TWO books. I felt more relieved than anything else. I was staring at the phone screen in silence while my friend was dancing wildly around the shopping center. Then, of course, I couldn’t stop smiling.

Did you have to wait a period of time before sharing your big news, because of details being ironed out? Was that difficult? 

I had to wait two months to shout it to the world! Funny you should ask this because I addressed the issue with this video on my blog.

Self- Image in The Hunger Games

Since publication, Suzanne Collins' THE HUNGER GAMES has been the subject of more than one parental tirade against the violence depicted therein. While this post isn't focused on that topic, the one thing I do want to say is that whenever I hear an adult ranting about any book my first question is, "Have you read it?" Haven't had a "yes" answer to that one yet.

Instead, I want to focus on something THE HUNGER GAMES gives teens without being preachy, without talking down to them, and possibly without them even knowing they've learned a powerful lesson.

How tired are you of effortlessly gorgeous female teen characters? How about the rich one with the designer everything who is torn between two ultra hot guys? Or the girl from the wrong side of the tracks that's hitting an 11 on the 10 scale and the guy on the right side of the tracks who falls for her? Are you sick of perfect skin, glossy hair and full lips? 'Cause I sure as hell am.

Katniss kicks ass across the board. Sure, she can kill people in fun and imaginative ways, but the first time we see her she's using her skills to fill the fundamental need of feeding her family, alongside longtime guy friend Gayle. Her love for her little sister sends her to the stage to take Prim's place in a contest where she knows the odds are against her and her life is at stake.

And what does Katniss look like? Well ... we're really not sure. She's got dark hair, and it's usually in a braid. Due to the fact that she's from the poorest area of a poor district and has to hunt her food we can assume she's probably not terribly clean all the time and might even *gasp* smell bad occasionally.

Once a handful of professionals get a hold of her Katniss cleans up and gains attention from the world, but guess what? Ultra-hunky Gayle and super-sweet Peeta were already in love with her, before she got a dress that caught on fire and became the de facto spokeswoman for world peace.

Hmmm ... what could have possibly attracted them to her in the first place? Could it be ... her personality!?!?

One of my favorite lines from the entire series comes from a scene in MOCKINGJAY when Katniss goes to see Peeta after he has been conditioned to despise the polished and public version of her persona, and he says, "You're not very big, are you? Or particularly pretty?" (p. 230).

Katniss even points out her physical shortcomings, in a refreshing non-self-pitying manner: "With my acid-damaged hair, sunburned skin, and ugly scars, the prep team has to make me pretty and then damage, burn, and scar me in a more attractive way." (p. 59).

Katniss has been through battles, bested her enemies, won over the world and had a guy on each arm the whole time.

And she's not "particularly pretty."

Good for her.

The Synopsis Sweats

I know the feeling.

You sweated bullets and cried blood for how long getting that ms together? Your tortured brain finally performed all the necessary contortions to produce a query that is written for results. And now... you get to write a synopsis!! Hooray!!

Ok well... not so much with the hooray. I've written a few synops and I'm not going to tell you that I secretly enjoy it, or that it's not as hard as it sounds. 'Cause I don't, and 'cause it sucks.

Here's the bad news: If you take the route that Mindy-of-the-past (the unagented one) took, then you'll choose to send your query only to agents that don't request a synopsis. And while that might sound attractive, it also seriously limits your playing field. (Note - Mindy's agent does request a synop, good thing I got over my synopphobia).

Here's the good news: I have never heard of a writer getting signed because they wrote such a hot-damn-awesome synop that the agent snapped them up like a toad with a three legged cricket.

The purpose of a synopsis is to show the agent that you've got a plot arc, character development, and pacing all figured out - without them having to read every single word of an ms they're not sure they're sold on yet. The purpose of a synopsis is not to torture you or make you stab yourself in the eye with a carrot.

Tips on writing a synopsis? There's lots of advice out there, but just like writing a novel, you'll find that some of it will work for you, and some won't. So I'll tell you how I do it, and you can take it or leave it.

First - Make sure that your story is edited before you write a synop. And I mean edited with The Bloody Hatchet of Adverb Gore.

Second - Edit it again.

Third - Write your synop as if you were telling your story to a friend. Just write it - have a brain vomit that includes the salient points in your ms. If you hit a point where you think, "Hey, wait a sec... if I move on to the next plot-moving point, it skips like, 50 pages." Then you need to -

Fourth - Edit your ms.

Fifth - Hack away at that synop. Are you aiming for four pages, but you've got five? Should be fine - just kill some extraneous "that's" and re-check your phrasing for the cheapest word count you can get away with and still convey your idea. Are you aiming for two pages, but you've got four? Well, haul that axe back out and take a hard look at those sentences you're leaving in to illustrate how awesome you are, but don't necessarily show forward plot movement. It's called "Kill Your Synop Darlings," and it's a game with a high body count.

So now what? Ask your betas to look at it, especially those who have read the ms in question. You'd be surprised how many of them will have some insight on how to improve it. Beta readers are useful across the board - synopsis, query, novel. Use them wisely. Use them well.

And then? Put it in the envelope, attach it to the email, and send the sucker.

Then refer back to the good news.