Selling A Book Before You’ve Finished It: A Lesson in Stubbornness
When I went out into the publishing market four years ago, I had a newfound agent, an incredible amount of naivete, and two book manuscripts for sale: a China memoir about the years my young boys and husband and I lived in Beijing, and a novel manuscript about a woman finding love in Paris. I’d had the good luck to sign an agent who believed in both my books. Not every agent who was interested in my memoir was interested in my novel. One agent was keen on the novel and not so much on the memoir. But I believed in both books. Deeply. Desperately maybe. I couldn’t sort of forego one at the expense of the other. So I needed to trust myself to find an agent who would stand behind both projects. I kept talking to agents—I reached out to a dozen and talked to a half-dozen and then I found the fit—a woman who understood both my book projects and was behind them entirely.
The memoir had to be tinkered with after we sold it. But the novel was inchoate. There was a plot, yes sort of, and some characters, but it was unclear what anyone was really doing or what their motives were, or how I could create a rich story out of the material I’d put on the page. In short, I’d sold a book I hadn’t finished yet. The China memoir had almost written itself, its scenes arrived in my head fully formed every day, and all I had to do was transcribe them to the page. Not so the novel.
The novel had to be conceived and reconceived. Selling it before it was done began to feel like I was walking a tightrope between my most ambitious hopes for the novel and the hard cold reality that I had to finish the thing. And soon. I was so grateful to have sold it. But I felt building pressure to complete it. And could I finish it anywhere near on time? Could I even finish it? Friends in the publishing business—writers— kept saying, it doesn’t matter whether you hit your deadline or not. What matters is that you write the best book you can. I listened and nodded at them and then continued my long, steady panic. Could I handle the pressure of not knowing how the novel would end or even where it was headed? Maybe I could just call the whole thing off.
What happened is that I didn’t hit any of my deadlines. They passed. Then they passed again. But I trusted my editor. She believed in the book and what I was really trying to do with it. And I slowly learned to trust myself and this idea that I’d know when the book was really ready, which is what finally happened last fall. As I write this here at the start of the countdown to my novel’s launch, it’s a reminder to us all to be stubborn about our writing. To stay the course and get to the desk and put the time in. To believe in our projects and find people who believe in them. Even if that takes months or years.
Sometimes I subtitle the writing workshops I teach “Seminars in Stubbornness.” I really believe that getting to the desk and working through the mess that is any first draft, has a great deal to do with being stubborn. It’s much more about stubbornness than talent. Once you have material (for me it was a very wobbly first draft of my novel) there’s some comfort. Because you’ve got something to work off of or against on the page. Even if you ditch the whole first draft, it’s because you are in conversation with the material and have reached the realization that there’s a better way than that first way you tried. I always believe it’s better to be talking to the words on the page than to have no words to talk to.
There were many better ways to tell the stories of my novel than the angles that I started out with. I did a lot of the structural tap dancing you hear about: changing the novel from present tense to past and then back. Moving from a third person limited point of view to a first-person narrator. I got to know the novel through its iterations. I got to know my editor. And she got to understand what I really most hoped and wanted for the novel.
Do I recommend trying to sell a novel before it’s done? I’m not sure I can vouch for your mental sanity if you do it. But what I can attest to is the power of the process of writing a book. Any book—whether you self-publish or put it in a desk for a couple years to get some space from it or sell it in a country like Macedonia where you do not speak the language. The trick is to stay true to the impetus behind the book—the reasons you wrote it in the first place. Because when we strip away the plot and characters, what we are left with is the heart of the thing—the whole emotional underpinnings of the book. If we stay true to this notion of heart—of emotional connection—then maybe we can remain stubborn and stand up for our books and for our creative process out there in the noisy world that is publishing these days.
Susan Conley is the author of the novel Paris Was the Place, forthcoming from Knopf on August 6th, 2013 and the memoir The Foremost Good Fortune (Knopf 2011). She’s written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post and Maine Magazine. You can follow Susan on Facebook and Twitter and at her website.
Photo credit: Bellini Crossing Niagara River On a Tight Rope by photographer George Barker, 1844-1894, courtesy Wiki Commons.
So. Right. On. Time!! Thank you! The Universe says "aaaaah!" I am "re-mixing" my first novel as we speak-attempting to bring the funk this time, enliven the soul, get all up in those characters, and make them more authentic, threadbare, vulnerable, and vibrant! I am almost scrapping my first draft. Doing it till that impetus for writing in the first place jumps off the page!
I wish you incredible success with both books!
Re Abigail Thomas: no, Susan, I haven't. Thanks for the recommendation.
Thanks so much Gerry. Have you ever read Abigail Thomas? She has written several great memoirs. She's also a woman who came to writing "late." Take good care and good luck.
Stories can indeed take their own sweet time! I'm living with a bit of that right now with a story that has potential but doesn't seem to want to cooperate. I am, shall we say, "older"--a late-blooming writer--so I feel the pressure of time. The long wait to hear back from an agent can be agonizing, if I let it. The best thing for me is to move on to something new.
I just bought the memoir, Susan. I'm really looking forward to reading it. Then, the novel.
Thanks so much for writing Tiffany! Yes--I really do think our books can wait patiently. And that we sort of pre write them in our mind and on the napkins of restaurants and ticket stubs of trains when we are living far away from our home countries. Enjoy your time there. It is such an amazing thing you are doing. And good luck!
I cannot wait to read your memoir! (And your novel too!) I am an American living in Sydney (after a year and a half in NZ) with my husband and two young sons. Although I have language on my side, it is/was/and will continue to be quite an adjustment to live abroad. I look forward to the day I can write my book. It's waiting very patiently for me. In the meantime, congratulations on finding the right agent. I wish you nothing but success and that your books come to Sydney!
Best.
Tiffany
http:/
Hi all, thanks for the great questions and kind words. I dropped out for the 4th of July down a long dirt road in Maine with my family. Restorative! So let's see. Big, real congratulations to all for persevering and working on the manuscripts and finishing! the manuscripts. And I want to try to hit all the questions--the query letter to the agents opened with talk of my memoir. It was pretty much done and it told a complete story. Then in the second half of the letter I talked about the novel. I had writer friends who really recommended comparing my "style" to other, published writers. So I did that. It is cringe-inducing. But I did it. I think the memoir was the driving force behind getting my agent. Then she took both books out on the market, leading with the memoir and then saying something along the lines of, "Oh, you like the memoir? Well there is a novel too!" But the agent was key for me. She brought the book manuscripts to Knopf, where my editor chose them. And my novel seemed "done" enough for my agent to like it and be able to sell it. But I knew it wasn't done and so did my editor. I love Kamy's comment about STAMINA. I really really think that could be the subtitle to so many writing journeys. Stubbornness and stamina. Good luck!
Such an inspiring story about you wrote your own.....thank you Susan. Is blogging or fbing about the topic you are about to write about or ponder publishing a good idea? Does it lead to more readership or should you do that after your book is out?
I look forward to reading your novel, Susan, and hope to enjoy it as much as I did Foremost. Congratulations on having persevered!
Congrats on your success and thanks so much! I'm reading this post at a time when I badly need a "Seminar in Stubborness". It's very reassuring to learn that other writers going through the agonizing process of building a novel, tearing it down, rebuilding again that you are in the midst of. I don't have an agent or publisher for the novel I'm struggling to shape but this post has motivated me enough to keep plugging.
Thanks for reminding us to keep the vision alive!
Fantastic advice that i needed right now. Congrats on your book release! I'm working on a novel right now too. It is quite the different beast from a memoir/non-fiction. Thanks for your encouragement!
Sometimes even when you think it's finished, it isn't. In any case, you can't fail until you quit. Bravo for hanging in there and getting it right!
Susan, Brava for you! It takes courage and persistence to go the way you did or to just keep believing in a project that has no agent or editor. But as you say, being stubborn and having faith in what you're writing will pay off--maybe not right away, but eventually. I've had one novel that three agents have represented through all revisions and I still believe in it even though all three could not sell it. Congrats on PARIS WAS THE PLACE. And thanks for the pep talk. Love hearing about SheWrite authors hanging in there and sharing their stories. --Val
When I was a graduate student working on my first book, and at a moment when I'd just realized that what I'd done was all wrong, and I was essentially going to have to start over again, I looked at my advisor (the terrific novelist Colin Harrison) and said, trying not to cry, "How do you do it?" His answer was simple. "Stamina." The books you see in the bookstore, he told me, were there as much because their authors were able to FINISH something as they were because they were good. (In other words, plenty of talented writers never get that far because they lack stamina, aka stubbornness.) Thank you for such an honest and inspiring post. Sounds like some people might want to hear more about that agent search... :)
Informative post, Susan. I also read Zadie Smith's Changing My Mind and loved it. You say you found an agent, then you speak of an editor. I'm assuming these were two different people, true? If so, was the editor at the publishing house, or someone you paid, or. . . . ?Thanks.
You've had an interesting journey, Susan. Congratulations on the novel launch. I'll look for it. I'm so interested in the fact that you found an agent who saw the novel's potential and was willing to work with you. That's wonderful! (Of course, she had the memoir and knew what a good writer you were, so I'm sure that meant something.) I agree about stubbornness; I think that's what gets me through the low points.
Susan, a great insight! Did say on your queries that you had not finished your manuscript? Sure would like o see your query letter. I am finishing edits on a paranormal story, a very large book or trilogy and would like to start querying agents right away.
Susan, how encouraging. Thank you for taking the time to blog. Perseverance is the key and you never swayed in the beliefs of your pieces. augie