Restore your faith in your writing 🙏

Welcome to the seventh edition of Chapter Break, a newsletter with writing and publishing insights put together by me, your friendly neighborhood book editor! If you haven’t subscribed yet, join our amazing community of 2,700+ storytellers and story lovers by subscribing here:

What is your greatest fear as a writer?

Artists are often stereotyped as being sensitive and anxious, but it’s not for no reason. Becoming a published author is a hard, arduous journey that can feel discouraging to writers who aren’t prepared to go through multiple rounds of edits, the querying rollercoaster ride, and the book deal process. The hard truth is that sometimes, despite all the blood, sweat, and tears, writers don’t get immediately published.

Being unafraid comes from learning to trust yourself — your work ethic, your words, and your ability.

Getting published is a lot of hard work, but remember — if you’ve finished writing a manuscript, you have already accomplished the most difficult task of them all! You have proven to yourself that you have the capacity to work hard for something you love.

In today’s interview, literary agent Rachel Beck offers concrete steps you can take to boost your spirits and set you on the right path.

I hope you enjoy today’s interview. Please forward it to anyone who might find it interesting!

OUR SPECIAL GUEST TODAY IS…

Rachel Beck

Literary Agent at Liza Dawson Associates

Open to queries via the guidelines listed on her agency page.

What is the most common mistake you see writers make when querying? What should they do instead?

Lack of research ahead of time — the agent's name is wrong or misspelled, querying a genre that the agent does not represent, word count for the genre is too long or too short. Instead, be sure you make it clear you are targeting a specific agent for a specific reason. Definitely get their name right, mention why they will like your book, and be sure it matches their wishlist.

Also be sure you've done research on how to write a successful query letter (tons of resources for this online) and that all the elements of your story are on par with the marketplace (e.g., the word count is appropriate for the genre—you can find word count guidelines online too).

In your view, what are the tenets of a productive and healthy author-agent relationship? How have you seen these play out with your clients?

1) Communication — the more frequent, candid, and transparent the better! My best relationships with my authors (and not coincidentally, my most successful authors) are ones where we talk frequently and they are unafraid to ask questions and be honest with me about how they're feeling about the process at every step of the way. The authors I don't hear from much, I assume to be not very invested in getting published or in their book's success, and 9 times out of 10 things usually play out that way. Open lines of communication really are key to success.

2) Hard work — a strong work ethic on both of our parts is required to succeed. A bestselling author will wind up putting hundreds of hours into their work before they see any results or success, so it takes an author who is not afraid to do the work upfront, and who believes in their book enough to dedicate this type of work ethic in order to succeed. And the right agent will also hustle hard on behalf of your book (without ever seeing a dime until the author receives a book deal too). So both parties willing to do the hard work upfront is essential. Hands down, my most successful authors are the ones who are the hardest workers.

3) Persistence — along these same lines, because it takes SO much unrewarded time and effort while enduring LOTS of rejections before anyone expresses interest in your book, the third key to a productive author/agent relationship is willingness to stick to it without giving up. An important part of the agent job is to be a cheerleader, to keep championing the book and encouraging the author to keep at it, because it can feel disheartening after dozens of rejections, and sometimes the only thing keeping the author from giving up on their dream of publication is the agent's unwavering belief in them. I've personally had to talk many of my authors off the creative ledge, so to speak, and restore their faith in themselves and their writing. It's really a key part of the job.

What is one thing you wish emerging authors knew about the publishing industry or the traditional publishing process?

Even with a book deal, it's still very, very hard to make a living as a full-time writer, due to shrinking advances, the fact that most books never earn out their advance (in other words the author never earns royalties), and less promotion and marketing dollars spent by in-house publicity departments. So it's not the end of the road once you get that elusive book deal, but really the beginning, at which point you should be ready and willing to put in a LOT of work and elbow grease to promote your books and hustle to stand out from the crowd of competing debut authors.

Want to learn more about how book deals work? Read more here!

Considering the book publishing industry seems to be constantly in flux (shifting trends, publishing mergers, etc.), how can emerging authors best position themselves for success?

Stay on top of the trends by subscribing to industry newsletters (and having a Publisher's Marketplace subscription if you can afford it), following publishing professionals' blogs or manuscript wishlists (the MSWL website is a great resource), staying tuned in to industry gossip on Twitter, and, probably most importantly, reading a LOT of current books in the genre you want to write in. Doing the work now will show down the line!

What’s a book that you have recently read and loved, and what did you like so much about it?

Somewhere Out There by Amy Hatvany — she's a women's fiction author I've been following for a while, and I love her because she's not afraid to look unflinchingly at the really tough things we face and pull them apart to examine with compassion, curiosity, and tenderness. She has a lot of moral gray area in her books, which always makes me think about the subject in a new way and makes me grow and expand in my worldviews.

This one follows a family through the incredibly heartbreaking and messy dynamics of adoption, tracking two girls who were given up to the state by their young, impoverished mother over the years, one who ends up being raised by a loving family and the other who remains in foster care until age 18. It was a raw, difficult, honest read, but ultimately made me feel compassion for each of the characters and see the whole subject of adoption in a new, more complex way.

Thanks so much for reading!

If you found this interview interesting, forward it to a friend!

Who should I talk to next?

Let me know your thoughts and any ideas for future interviews by replying to this email. I’d love to hear from you!

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