Authors on Show is undergoing exciting changes!

Yes, that's right. Authors on Show has some fantastic changes upcoming.

Lorraine, who was on holidays, has come back recharged and is now discussing with the team of how to make this wonderful site for authors and readers more attractive.

I can only recommend to take a look on a regular basis since there might be something intersting for you.

The content of my fridge

Do you belong to those who don't like grocery shopping? Well I can't stand it, as almost most shopping activities, unless it's at Ikea or B&Q.

To avoid going too often, and that's difficult with a tiny fridge in a single household, I must be inventive when it comes to cooking.

What do I have in my fridge right now? And what am I going to do with it?

A red bell pepper
Fresh green beans
Garlic
Baby corns
Pork loin
Carrots

Great ingredients for a Thai stir fry.
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Broccoli and cauliflower
Leek
Elmre 50% (single cream substitute)
A bag of grated Mozzarella

Fabulous with the potatoes, mix, put in the oven, enjoy.
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Tomatoes
Mozzarella
An orange (for the juice)

Brilliant with olive oil and basil.
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Minced meat
Eggs
Mustard
Red and white cabbage
Lemons

For my legendary meat balls, with peas and carrots and potato-mash. And cabbage as a side dish.
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My every day's use:
Salami
Pate
Cheese
Butter
Milk

Tasty with rye bread.
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Tons of wild rocket 
Red seedless grapes
Apples
Fresh mint
Fresh coriander

That's mainly dragon-food, I share the mint with him. (Makes a rather refreshing tea)

And other little bits and bobs. And you thought my fridge is tiny, eh?

A few words on how to self-edit your novel

New writers often make the mistake to write their book in one go and when finished, they think it's ready to be discovered by the big publishers of the world. In some cases, that might even be true. The majority though, have to learn the hard way it's not how it works. When the rejection letters pile up, they eventually realise, they might need to do a little bit more than just write.

If you don't have a trusted person to spot plot inconsistencies and other errors, there are a few tips to clean your manuscript before submitting:

First off, forget about the manuscript for a few weeks before you start with the editing-process.

Then:

• Try to read as a reader, get the distance from the manuscript.
• find and delete adverbs(-ly). Only use them in moderation.
• Change as many -ing forms as possible; i.e. was standing into stood
• If you have two people in a dialogue, get rid of all the 'he said', she said' where it's clear who's speaking.
• Do not try to replace 'he said', 'she said' with other words for there is nothing wrong with it.
• When one character is addressed personally, don't forget to put a comma before it.
• i.e. 'That's what I meant, Gary.'
• And: He turned to Gary. 'Gary, do you think it's all right?' No need to address Gary as it's clear that he's been spoken to.
• Try to be logical; i.e. in the complete darkness he saw two figures. When it's completely dark, how can he see at all?
• Reality check: are your characters acting realistically? Is it believable?
• Spot repetition. Have you a habit of using the same phrases over and over? Change them.
• Plot inconsistencies: Is your MC just falling asleep and two paragraphs later, watching telly in bed?
• Does your scene drag? Does it feel unnecessary to 'tease' the reader for that many paragraphs? Delete the dragging part.
• Are there scenes that don't add to the plot? Chapters even? Delete them.
• Are there characters that don't play an important role in relation to the MC or story? Get rid of them.
• Is there a character that is not described much, though s/he is important? Flesh it out. 

This needs some time to adapt to, but with every chapter it's going to be easier and with every book you'll become more secure if you learn these by heart.

Good luck.

Nicole

Submitting your novel

Seriously? I love it. After spending so much time with my characters, after I went through all emotions they went through, I find it's time others would participate. Many say it's a story made for Hollywood and it's true. It has all a romantic comedy needs, as well as a little mystery to keep you on your toes. Yes, I love my novel!

I love the process of writing the blurb, the synopsis and the query. Often, while writing the book, I already have the blurb finished. They synopsis is a bit trickier, but I only needed three rewrites to shorten it a little.

When I did my first round of submissions, I had a different blurb and got a few rejections. I recently changed it and am certainly pleased with it. After months of not paying attention to No Wings Attached, I decided to send it out again, to publishers as well as agents. I know I've got a good story that's entertaining for both, women and men, but to be fair, not many men would admit to have enjoyed my novel.

Now how to find an adequate agent/publisher? The answer: research, research and research. Nothing worse than sending out your manuscript to the wrong person. I do understand agent's frustrations getting children's books when all they do is erotica. And you will be deflated as well, because you'll get a rejection and nobody likes getting them. Me included.

Every time I hit the send-button, a feeling of anticipation overwhelms me. Will this be the one who takes my first three chapters and reads them in one go, then asks for more? And if so, will this agent be the person who will do everything to find a good home for my baby? I always prepare myself for the decline, better to expect the bad and be positively surprised, I think.

Though I'm not that worried. The publishing-business is tough and it's all about the money, there are plenty of writers out there who have a great marketable story and when the manuscript gets just in the right hands of an agent who happens to love this kind of books, then, you're in.

It's mainly luck, apart from having a money-making product that fits into the market in a few months. The only thing you should do is write another book and keep submitting, giving up is not an option. You need to believe in yourself, if you don't, how can you expect others to believe in you?

Writing your first novel

When I wrote my first novel, No Wings Attached, I hadn't got any idea of writing at all. The only thing I knew, was, I wanted to write what I would buy and also keeps me turning the pages. I started out with a complete different story, sent it to my friend, who is a copywriter, to see what she thinks. And, boy, did she rip it apart. (Thank you, Pidi, for all the time and effort you put into that book. I love you.)

I know I said it's better to not ask a friend, but if the friend has valuable knowledge of how to write, then you'd better give it to her, or him. So, after I got her comments and suggestions back, I sat down and had a thought.
Don't ask me how I ended up with this novel, the paranormal theme which almost borders at fantasy. I don't even read fantasy, I must say. But I did and the result is a book I'm reasonable proud of: a typical romance, packed with humour. Basically a romantic comedy, sprinkled with paranormal elements.

The whole process of writing and going though the rough plot-holes took me 2.5 months. During the evening, I wrote about 2000 words, and in the day, I edited. Then I researched quite a bit as well. When I thought my book is pretty and ready for submissions, I had to learn the hard way that this wasn't the case. Nowhere near it, to be honest.

Smart as I am, I targeted the big publishers first, and Harper Collins was one of my choice. That's when I learned of authonomy. I uploaded my manuscript there and got a lot of good comments, saying that this is real movie-material. Which, I believe so myself, it is.

A few were very helpful and pointed out my mistakes. This platform is fantastic to grow from. I studied threads about writing, punctuation, dialogue attributes, dos and don'ts, and went to reseach a lot, asking my best friend, google.

I also met a person I'd call my mentor. A master of editing, and with every new knowledge I gained, I went over my manuscript for another edit. There was a time I couldn't see it anymore, for I made all the mistakes a novice would make. During my editing-process, I lost about 40k.

Nowadays, I write with more precision, using the skills I gained to start out as perfect as possible. That takes longer, I write about 500 words on a good day, but when the book is finished, I only have to go through it one more time to polish it.

In addition to that, I try to be as flexible in genres as I can. Whereas humour is the one that seems to suit me best, my current book is literary fiction and I love this challenge.

Got told I'm doing a good job there, too, which encourages me to go ahead. The writing-business means learning on a daily basis, and that means you train you brain. A very good side effect if you ask me.

Written a book, and then?

Many will agree with me: writing is the easiest part of the book.

But what comes next? As a writer, you're basically a loner, withdrawn in the world you're creating. That means, you will have a book finished that you had in your head,
every single character, the storyline, the development is close to you.
Question is, is it any good? What do others think of your writing? To get a decent feedback, you need others to give you an opinion. Best would be to not ask friends or family as they are inclined to praise the book you've worked so hard for, and they don't want to hurt your feelings.

There are several online-communities that provide the comments we need. There, we might get pointed out the holes in the plot-development, where we went wrong with the characterisation, etc. With the right advice, we're able to edit our novel until it's ready to submit to agents and publishers. Editors, nowadays, are very selective people, so are agencies.

Another new site, http://authorsonshow.com/, gives authors and their ready-to-submit manuscripts the opportunity to showcase their story. Alongside this platform runs a blog with similar features.

But, there's more to it. This site also has a publisher, an agent, and reviewer, who answer questions from the readers, and successfully published authors are posting their experiences in publishing.

There are videos, informations and advice about writing on AOS as well.

So, I'd recommend to have a look, make suggestions and become part of something good.

Have a nice weekend, all.

An agent's point of view

Yesterday, I attended a workshop, held by a well-known agent, former buyer of fiction at Waterstones.

Although the workshop was called 'How to get an agent/to get published', I want to concentrate on her point of view regarding submissions.
Apart from the obvious like, addressing the agent in person, especially if there are more in that agency, doing the research etc. she gave some valuable information which gave me hope.

It is preached everywhere that you manuscript has to be perfect, or in a near-perfect condition to be considered by an agency. So far so good. But what defines 'perfect'?

Surely, it should be grammar and spell-checked. Also it should be punctuated as best as you can.

One of the attendants compared the submitting process to the music industries, saying that record companies used to get demos and had to decide if the raw quality is enough to make something out of it. Surprisingly the agent agreed to have experienced this in her job as well. She even said, that sometimes she prefers the rawness of a draft, 'hearing' the author's voice, rather than the one of many editors that went over it.

There are a lot of opinions about how and when agents decide it's not for them. For instance: the manuscript has punctuation errors, clearly a weakness of the author, they will reject you. Or: the writing is in first person present tense, rejected. Not starting with a big bang, rejected.

I learned yesterday that it isn't the case. At least not for this agency. She said, that when the query letter hooks her, she wants to see the synopsis (1 page A4, double spaced, by the way), and the whole manuscript. She stated that if the synopsis intrigues her, the book doesn't need to start off with a bang, she wants to see the story unfold. Also, that if the writing is compelling, but there are some issues that are not there yet, then she writes back to the author, addressing the points of concern, encouraging the author to send the revised material.

As she works for an agency that also offers editing, she'd be prepared to help the author with a punctuation issue, of course only if the writing appeals to her and she sees the saleability.

I must say, I left this workshop being uplifted, knowing that there are agents out there, who don't expect everything to be 'perfect' and that a missing word, some misplaced commas or the 'wrong' tense doesn't put them off, as long as they see a strong story and 'hear' your voice.

How she will react to my submission though, only time will show.


Nicole