The Saturday Slash

Don't be afraid to ask for help with the most critical first step of your writing journey - the query.

I’ve been blogging since 2011 and have critiqued over 200 queries here on the blog using my Hatchet of Death. This is how I edit myself, it is how I edit others. If you think you want to play with me and my hatchet, shoot me an email.

If the Saturday Slash has been helpful to you in the past, or if you’d like for me to take a look at your query please consider making a donation, if you are able.

If you’re ready to take the next step, I also offer editing services.

It’s dangerous to be a sorceress in a place where magic is a crime. Good hook! 15-year-old Tatiana (Tana) Definitely pick one name and go with it has never seen the world beyond her village on the island of Kisiwa. Her past is a giant question mark, her parents are lost to her memory, and her only link to them is a strange amulet she’s had since birth. Though Tana longs to run away to the distant mainland, far from her drunken uncle and their decrepit farm, she can't risk losing her only home. But when an assassin murders her uncle, Tana flees the island and finds herself at the center of a crazed sorcerer’s insidious plan. With a bounty on her head, she scrambles to uncover the ugly truth about her amulet and save the only people she trusts.

While this is well-written, you're suffering from the same issue that an earlier Slash had - you're being too vague. You've got a name and an island, but there is nothing else here to differentiate this story from any other number of fantasies that deal with a lost past, a found hero, and a villain. Why is her uncle murdered? What is the ugly truth about the amulet? Why is magic a crime here? A query needs to not be a tease. You're not trying to get an agent to wonder what will happen next - that's for a reader. For an agent, you want to show them why they want to represent this book. In other words, what make this different and unique from every other fantasy query they had in their inbox this week that deal with these same tropes - a lost, special child, a murky past, and a destiny that can't be avoided.

The Lost Heir is book one of a YA fantasy series, complete at 70,000 words. This novel would interest readers who loved J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and John Flanagan’s The Ranger’s Apprentice.For comp titles, it's better not to use really big names. Everyone wants to think that they will be the next Harry Potter, so it's overused. I’m 16, and I live in Santa Barbara, CA where I am a student at Laguna Blanca Highschool. For the last five years, I’ve written various versions of this novel, though I’ve never submitted it for publication. I also review YA books for the Santa Barbara Independent; for example, this is my most recent review (https://www.independent.com/2020/07/20/review-hafsah-faizals-we-hunt-the-flame/). Also, I participated in a Stanford Pre-Collegiate creative writing course in the summer of 2019.

It's great that you are serious enough to pursue a pre-collegiate program, but I don't know that I would share your specific age, or student status. I would instead let the work stand for itself, and see if it garners interest. Of course, if they should request to see pages, or a full manuscript, you should be up front about your age. I don't think it can necessarily hurt or help you either way, but I don't know that it merits mention in a query.

Debut Author Sasha Laurens on the Uncertainty of Being on Submission

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 for the SHIT is Sasha Laurens, author of A Wicked Magic. After studying creative writing and literature at Columbia University, she lived in New York for years and, at various times, in Russia. She currently resides in Michigan, where she is pursuing a PhD in political science.

Pre Order A Wicked Magic and get some awesome swag from Sasha!

Although A WICKED MAGIC is my debut, I’ve been on submission twice. My first book didn’t sell, but by the time we went out with it, I was already writing A WICKED MAGIC. After a few months, I realized A WICKED MAGIC was a much stronger project, and I wouldn’t want to stop working on it to revise Book 1 if it sold. Book 1 was also very different, and the books didn’t feel like the same author’s “brand”. I decided, with my agent, to pull Book 1 from submission and go out with A WICKED MAGIC. A WICKED MAGIC got immediate interest and the rest is history!

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

I can’t exactly recall at this point, because it’s been a few years since I first experienced it. 

Did anything about the process surprise you?

When my future editor, Ruta Rimas, first expressed interest in A WICKED MAGIC, she asked to set up a call. Calls are usually a good thing, but good things cannot be trusted, so I assumed this was an interview where I needed to impress Ruta. When she spent the first fifteen minutes talking about her imprint and other great projects she’d worked on, I was genuinely confused and worried that I wouldn’t have a chance to make my pitch (which no, I had not prepared). We were halfway through the call when I realized she already wanted the book. 

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

I didn’t do a deep dive. I trusted that my agent, Jennifer Udden, knew the industry well enough to have put together a good list for me. This is what I pay her for!

When you’re on sub, the uncertainty you’re living with is mostly non-negotiable and not subject to your control. I don’t know what editors want. I don’t know what their imprint has bought recently or what trends are breaking soon. I don’t know what an editor means when they say on their website that they want “atmospheric YA with heart” or whatever. I don’t know when their MSWL was last updated. I do know that trying to read these meager tea leaves will drive me to insanity, while doing absolutely nothing to enhance the chances that the editor will like my work. 

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

With Book 1, it was weeks or months. Some editors never responded until we pulled the project. With A WICKED MAGIC, it was around two or three weeks for initial interest, then my agent then informed everyone who had the MS that they needed to get moving.

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

First, take some time to get a bit of distance from the project you’re subbing. Sub is the end of the road for many great novels, so it’s a good time to start processing the end of that project. Take a minute to be proud of what you’ve achieved. I knew I’d written the best book I could have and I was really happy with it. If it didn’t get published, I’d always have that.

Second, protect yourself from email obsession. You don’t actually need to check your email every thirty-five seconds. Limit it to a certain number of times a day, or specific times. I recommend chatting with your agent about how you’d like to receive responses. I wanted to hear everything the minute my agent did, but we also discussed receiving a weekly update instead.

Third, distract yourself. Work on your craft, explore new ideas, write some stuff for fun! It doesn’t have to be something potentially sellable. You can also take a break from writing (plz don’t revoke my author card). Letting yourself miss writing can be a great way to reconnect with what you love about it!

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

Who doesn’t have rejections?! I had queried and found my agent on Book 1, so that lil’ guy had already been rejected more than 45 times when I got to sub. The rejection muscle was already developed, so it was easier to take a few hours or a day to feel sad and then move on.

With A WICKED MAGIC, we had interest before we the first rejection. That set weird expectations: surely EVERYONE WOULD LOVE IT, right? Everyone did not love it, of course, but the rejections are worded more like to polite congratulations (“This isn’t for me but so happy it’s found a home!”). These were surprisingly distressing to me, for two reasons. First, I was guilty of moving the goal posts on myself. Second, the rejection muscle for A WICKED MAGIC was weak. This book is much closer to my heart than Book 1 was, and it had been read by very few people. I had no experience of people dismissing it, so those rejections hurt.

Feelings! Always surprising you by being bad!

If you got feedback on a rejection, how did you process it? How do you compare processing an editor’s feedback as compared to a beta reader’s?

In my experience the feedback on a rejection isn’t detailed enough to compare to an edit letter or a critique. It’s a few sentences. The feedback I’ve gotten from editors has always been very contradictory: one editor likes the voice, another doesn’t connect; this editor thinks the world is great, that editor doesn’t get it at all. Yes, if you are wondering, this did make flames come out of my ears, and it can’t be the basis of a revision.

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

A WICKED MAGIC went to acquisitions during publishing’s dreaded Holiday Dead Zone, so it took a while to get the offer. During this time, I fell victim to magical thinking, and came to believe that two bad things had happened (record of these events has since been lost to the sands of time) and the offer falling through would be the third. When my agent called to say she had news, I was one thousand percent sure it was bad. When it wasn’t, I was speechless.

I had the tremendous good luck that the day the deal was finalized (after the offer, we had to let other agents pass or offer, and then my agent negotiated the offer into the deal, which took about a week), my agent was at a convention near where I live. After she woke me up from an afternoon stress-nap with a call about the final deal, we got to celebrate together. 

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 almost a year before the deal was announced. First, my editor moved to a new imprint and took this project with her, which meant the contract had to be renegotiated. Then we had months of back and forth about the title, and my agent moved to a new agency. The deal was (purportedly) final in January and it wasn’t announced until October.

When I got the deal, I didn’t have a ton of writing or publishing friends to keep it secret from—and in fact, I didn’t really keep it a secret. I told lots of people about it, just no one who “matters” in publishing. The difficult thing about waiting was I felt like I also had to wait to connect with the publishing world. For example, I couldn’t join the 2020 debut group until the announcement. However there is some miniscule, teeny-tiny chance that this is just an excuse, because the prospect of connecting with the publishing world makes me want to hide in a cave forever!

It's Just A Book: Publishing During COVID

by R. S. Mellette

I'm a Laker fan. It's one of the things in my life that has nothing to do with writing, filmmaking, theatre, or any of my other artistic pursuits. It's important to have a sanctuary like that or what else will you do when you need a break? So as I drove home from my day job on Wednesday, March 11th, I had ESPN on. I joined them as they waited for more news about the Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma Thunder Game. Apparently, it had been postponed just before tip-off and no one knew why. The arena announcer told everyone they had to leave the building. "You're all safe," he said, "but you have to leave."

FYI – telling a stadium full of people, "You're all safe," does not make them feel that way.

I stopped to get gas. When I got back in the car, ESPN reported that Tom Hanks and his wife had tested positive for COVID-19. A few minutes later, they explained that the game had been cancelled because of COVID. The next day, the NBA shut down their season. Eight days later, California went on lockdown. That's how COVID started for me.

I'm kind of proud of the fact that I didn't think about my book right away. It was scheduled to come out later in 2020 – the year that has become an adjective, meaning "completely messed up crazy" – so I knew in the back of my mind it would probably be delayed. I was aggravated that it wasn't out already because lockdown seemed like the perfect time to sell books. But then again, I first wrote this story in 1996 or so. I turned it into a novel in 2008. Got an agent in 2010 – she sent it everywhere with some very near misses. It went on the self until 2016, when I got back with my agent to send it out again. Still didn't sell to one of the Big Five, so my agent dropped it and me (again). I decided to take it to Matt Sinclair at Elephant's Bookshelf Press. He offered to publish it and set 2020 as the year.

So, postponed by pandemic? Looking back, I should have expected it.

What to do? What to do?

Let's look at how I was preparing for publication prior to the lockdown.

I love EBP. Matt is the perfect release valve that all major leagues need. If you look at books like Battery Brothers, Lost Wings, or dare-I-say-it my own Billy Bobble series you'll find great (or, in my case, not bad) books that major publishers would never take. They are dark, or hard to pin to an age, or too difficult to sell – not to the public – but at the acquisition department. This is why small, traditional, publishing houses exist. They are the farm leagues of the majors, and Matt is one of the best team owners.

The trouble is, very few people go to minor league games, and even fewer people read small press books.

In going with EBP, I knew I'd have my work cut out for me in trying to turn the book, Kiya And The Morian Treasure, into something other than just another cover on Amazon. Matt and I were (are) planning on an old-fashioned, offset, hardcover, print run. I was (am) biting the bullet and hiring a publicist – knowing full well they don't sell books and that I'd have to do much of the work. My neighbor is a professional audio book narrator. I was (am) lining her and a sound editor up to make an audio book. I was in touch with podcast hosts services to do some cutting-edge tech stuff with the audio version. I was laying the groundwork in Facebook groups, posting for fun, but also to ready the members for when pre-orders opened. I'll need their help to create some buzz. I planned contests, give-a-ways, articles, networking opportunities through SCBWI. I was ready to storm the beaches of Normandy.

Then New York shut down completely. Ain't nothing happens in publishing what don't go through New York City.

So… what to do?

Luckily, I haven't spent any money yet. Every 4 weeks or so, the publicist e-mails to see how it's going. She wants my business. I e-mail Matt to see how it's going. His plate is full thanks to schools being closed and a host of other things. I see my neighbor on occasion to say I still plan to hire her. I've sent the manuscript out to some people for final notes, possible film production companies, etc. Yeah, it's still good. No, I don't have a movie deal. I did a final pass on book 2 and stand at the foot of first-draft-mountain on book 3 – just in case.

I also spend a lot of time putting it in perspective. I'm healthy. Everyone in my life is healthy. I can do my day job from home, so I'm employed. I've learned that I actually miss the commute I used to hate so much. I never realized how I needed that 20 or 30 minutes to transition from the tedium of my job to the excitement of my imagination.  Like the man says, "I can't complain, but sometimes I still do."

Life will get back to normal. The Lakers will play again. Kiya And The Morian Treasure will, eventually, be in a store near you. My loved ones and I have our health. I hope you and yours do, too. Am I upset about the delay? Kinda, but in the end… it's just a book.

P.S. I've driven so little during the lockdown, that I'm still on the same tank of I bought on March 11th – which was before the crash in gas prices!

What do you remember about the beginning of the shut down? What was your last day of freedom?

R.S. Mellette, lives in Sherman Oaks, CA. He created and wrote The Xena Scrolls for Universal's New Media department. When an episode aired based on his characters, it became the first intellectual property to move from the internet to television. Mellette works and blogs for the film festival Dances With Films.