By
Walt Gragg
Actually, the title of this article is
highly misleading. I can’t tell you how
to write books agents and editors will love.
I can’t tell you how to approach putting a novel together at all. Nor would I want to do so. We’re all individuals. Our approach, the experiences we draw from in
creating a work agents, editors, and readers will love, are uniquely ours. How I write is unlike anyone I’ve ever
met. How I come up with the story lines,
I haven’t a clue. How I piece together
the story and polish it until the words leap off the page may not work for you
at all. But it doesn’t matter. It works for me.
Only you can do figure out what works
for you.
Am I saying don’t go to writers conferences
and learn everything you can about the process of writing and selling your
work? I’m I saying don’t join a critique
group? I’m not saying that at all. You should go to as many conferences as you
can. You should join a writers group if
it works for you. But ultimately you
need to parse what you learn, along with the advice you receive, and apply your
own filter to how you wish to approach putting words on the page.
Are there “rules” you need to follow? Absolutely.
There are some basic ones. Learning
them is critical. The biggest rule most
aspiring writers break is sending their work before it’s ready. What you send has to be the best you can make
it. You also need to ensure your
submission is properly formatted. Send a
single-spaced manuscript and they won’t even consider it. There are lots of books on formatting
manuscripts. Get one. Sending an error filled, rough draft won’t
get you a second look.
Blind calling an agent, whose time is precious, rather than
querying or better yet, pitching them at writers conference, is a no-no. Strangely, the most important rule if you’re
going to succeed is not about the actual writing. It’s about the selling. Before you sit down to write the first word,
understand one thing – getting published is a marathon not a sprint. It can take years for your work to find a
home. And those years can be beyond
frustrating.
Are there “rules” you can ignore? Yes. I
break many of them. It’s important to me
that my books are distinctively mine. As
I told my editor at Penguin Random House “I want to be the first me, not the
tenth someone else.”
The one person you must please more than
anyone is you. With my second novel The Chosen One, coming out this month
and the one I’m presently writing already sold, I am pleased I made the effort
to be true to me in my writing.
Trust your instincts. Do what works for you.
Write the best book you can and see
where it leads.
Walt Gragg lives in the Austin, Texas
area. He is a retired attorney and former Texas State Prosecutor. Prior to law school, he spent a number of
years in the military. His time with the
Army involved many interesting assignments including three years in the middle
of the first Cold War serving at United States European Command Headquarters in
Germany where the idea for his first novel THE
RED LINE took shape. Walt is the 14th Annual American
BookFest 2017 Best Book Award Winner for best thriller and was a finalist for
the prestigious International Thriller Writers Best First Novel. Walt’s book releases include –THE
RED LINE and THE CHOSEN ONE He is presently working on a third novel that
is already under contract to the Berkley Publishing Group at Penguin Random
House. Website - waltgraggbooks.com Facebook – walt gragg books
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