Q&A: Agent Rejection, Author Websites, And Starting with “And.”

Today on the podcast, Chris and Gena answer questions from listeners and writers on Twitter including:

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• What should a self-published author include on their website?
• Is it OK to begin sentences with “And” or “Because”?
• Will agents reject a submission based on word count?

…and more!

Links:

• Get Noticed by Agents, Editors and Readers FREE PDF

Episode 8 Transcription:

[00:00:14].810] - Chris
Hello, and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast. This is Christopher Maselli, and I'm here with my wife, Gena Maselli. How are you doing today, Gena?

[00:00:22].390] - Gena
I'm doing well. I'm doing well.

[00:00:24].620] - Chris
Yeah. This has been really fun to do this podcast. And today we have something extra special because because we decided we were going to put out there just to kind of ask anyone if they want to ask us anything. And so this is the "Ask Us Anything" episode of Writing Momentum Podcast. And so we have four questions that we've picked out, and we're just going to ask these off the top of our heads. We have not prepared anything. We're just going to have them come up and see what we come up with.

[00:00:51].280] - Gena
Well, and, Chris, where did you get these questions from?

[00:00:53].600] - Chris
Yeah, these are all from Twitter. So these are things that people have actually asked on Twitter. We don't know who any of these people are, and so hopefully they don't mind us asking. But Twitter is a public thing. So why not? Right. All right. So the first one comes from at Connie W. Steele. And she says writing community with websites for yourself, published books. What are your most important aspects to include? So I think she's saying if you're a self published author and you putting your books out there, what should you include on your website? Now, this is actually kind of funny. She asked this because I think we actually answered a lot of this on episode, what was it three where we had the best components of an awesome offer website. And some of those things are you want to include your home page, right. Because you have to have just kind of an introduction to yourself. You want to have your voice in that, then you want to have about the author you want to have about your book or about your series. However, you're putting it together, then you want to have a contact page.

[00:01:54].620] - Chris
And most importantly, do not forget this. It's not the blog. The blog is fine if you want to do it. But the most important thing is a lead magnet. Do you remember what a lead magnet is, Gena?

[00:02:05].060] - Gena
I do. A lead magnet is a short piece of content that people can use and that they are willing to exchange their email for receiving that content. So it could be a list of top. If you're writing a fiction book that takes place in a particular place, maybe it takes place in New Orleans. You could have something like the top ten places you don't want to miss in New Orleans.

[00:02:35].750] - Chris
Yeah. If your readership just loves New Orleans, and that's what your book is about, that's a good one. Or it might be a short novella that you offer, and we emphasize short. Don't put a whole 200 page ebook out there. They're going to be busy reading that instead of buying your actual book. Right. So you want to just put a short novella. It is not chapter one of your book. You don't want to put that out there because no one wants an incomplete product.

[00:02:56].670] - Gena
Well, and if you're doing a book, say on a nonfiction book, maybe you're writing a nonfiction book on how to find more joy in your life. Maybe you could give people simple tips for finding more joy or putting more joy in their relationships or something that ties into your book that your readership would be interested in and that they would be willing to give you their email. Now, why is the email so important, Chris?

[00:03:22].580] - Chris
Because that's what you end up. That's your audience. Those are the people you're really speaking to, that you're able to speak into their lives because you can't really develop a relationship with someone that's really deep in a short period of time over something like social media or through just putting your books out there and hoping because that's kind of a one way thing. You want to have a two way relationship, right where you can speak back and forth. And the best way to do that is through email where you're putting something in their inbox once a week and they can respond to it that sort of thing. If you subscribe to our email list, you kind of get an example of how we do that for our lead magnet. If you go writinmomentum.com/getnoticed you'll see that you can download a PDF on how to get noticed by agents, editors and readers. And we developed that because that's the biggest question that we get. And so we thought, well, let's go ahead and put something like that out there, because that's a way that people can receive value from us. That's really valuable.

[00:04:18].360] - Chris
But also get on our email list. Right.

[00:04:21].490] - Gena
And then also, if you're looking at doing more books in the future of writing more books in the future, then you have a built in audience. Your email list will become so very valuable to you, and you can then let those people know, hey, I've got a new book coming out, and so you automatically have sales through that, you'll be able to probably find some interested beta readers. If you're looking for some beta readers to read your book before you publish it, that can give you some feedback on maybe some holes that you've got in the book or something that needs to be explained better. So those kinds of things that becomes a tool that you can use, that email list becomes a tool that will be so very valuable to you.

[00:05:05].520] - Chris
Absolutely. All right, Gena, what's our second question?

[00:05:08].340] - Gena
The second question is, let's see it's from Kay Riley Author. Kay Riley Author. Yes. Anyone begins sentences in their novel with and or because sometimes I want to rebel and do just that.

[00:05:24].830] - Chris
So she's saying, does anyone begin their sentences in the novel with and or because she wants to rebel and do just that she wants to rebel. So is that rebellious?

[00:05:33].750] - Gena
Do you think I would say I don't do it often, but I do do it occasionally.

[00:05:39].480] - Chris
Yes. And now I would say, Absolutely. I do it all the time. I love that because I think that it's the kind of thing that can really produce for lack of another word momentum in your book. Right. If you're wanting to make things clip along at a good pace, you can sometimes end the previous sentence a little shorter and start the next sentence with a capital "And". It's something you see a lot in marketing writing, and we use it a lot when we write marketing materials, because it's very popular for that. But you'll also find it in novels that move along at a very brisk pace. So you read a James Patterson novel, he'll do that a lot. Right. He'll start sentences with an "And" because just as a way to keep you propelled along from sentence to sentence from paragraph to paragraph because it's just kind of compelling. Right.

[00:06:23].590] - Gena
I think that definitely is something that you see in fiction writing more than even in nonfiction writing. But because you are building momentum as you're taking people through scenes or you're taking them through dialogue. And that's really the way people talk.

[00:06:39].150] - Chris
Yeah.

[00:06:39].690] - Gena
People talk that and you want that level of authenticity in your book. But in a nonfiction piece, I will use it, especially if I have a really long sentence. I will break that up. And I will also use it in my first draft. And then I can always come back and edit it out. And I can try to work with my sentences to try to still get that flow without having that and or but or so right there at the beginning. But sometimes you just go with it.

[00:07:08].410] - Chris
Yeah. And I think I get what Kay saying here that I want to rebel because it is kind of rebellious against the general laws of grammar. Right. Your English teacher may not like you doing this. So if you're a student probably wouldn't do that. But really, writing is more than anything about communication. And in today's world, when people are reading fiction and they want to be taken on a roller coaster ride, that's one way to produce a roller coaster. That's the way you produce those quick ups and downs. Right. If you're writing a nonfiction novel and you just want to make sure you're getting that point across, sometimes you have to start sentences with things like and or because that makes a difference.

[00:07:50].470] - Gena
Well. And I will also say, Keep in mind who your readers are. If you are writing to an older generation, you may not want to do that. But if you are writing to the younger generation or to just the 30 something 40 something individual, they will not care if you are writing to my grandmother, I would say, don't start your sentences with and, but, or so and don't end your sentences with a preposition.

[00:08:18].330] - Chris
Right. All right.

[00:08:20].570] - Gena
Hold to those older grammatical rules that are correct. But you know what? Language is evolving, and so don't just get stuck just because you don't want to break that rule.

[00:08:35].630] - Chris
Yeah, that's good. All right. Good question. Okay. So the next one is actually it's a two parter. So a person is asking a question in response to another tweet. So let me read the first tweet. This is from Gabby Wright, which is @whocaresgabby and she says I was told that a fantasy book above 120,000 words gets an automatic rejection for most agents. Mine is 132,000 words. I thought it's hopeless, but I sat down yesterday, went through 10,000 or so and removed about 900 words. I guess I'm doing this, she says. And then that's responded to by Ricky Aberly. And he says, Is this a thing? Can future submissions be rejected due to word count? How can I find out what sort of word count I should be working with? Okay, so I have a couple of laws here.

[00:09:33].570] - Gena
This is a great question, because first of all, I do need to say there is such a thing as average word length in books depending on genre. So please look at that. I believe we even did a blog post about this earlier.

[00:09:49].300] - Chris
We'll talk about this on the future.

[00:09:50].520] - Gena
Yeah, we'll talk about it future. But there is a difference between different genres and word counts, especially even breaking those. It is not just a nonfiction books are this much. And fiction books are this much? No, even within nonfiction that those genres get broken down. And there are specific links that publishers are looking for. So I just want to put that out there. If you don't know that there are word counts, please look those up. Check out our website. We've got some on there.

[00:10:24].120] - Chris
Yeah. Let's take this in part. So first, Gabby has said I was told that a fantasy book above 120,000 words gets an automatic rejection for most agents. I would say, first of all, that is not true. When you put your word count in your proposal or in your letter that shows them that you are aware of what the word count should be around. But if it's written really well, they are not going to reject it just because of word count, because think about Harry Potter. This book was way above the standard word count, right. But it was accepted because it was written so well. So the fact that Gabby's was 132,000, I wouldn't swipe that at all. I don't even think that's just about 10% over. I think that's totally fine. Just use word count as a guide. However, Gabby went on to say she went through about 10,000 characters or 10,000 words and removed 1000. Look, if you can remove 1000 words that easily, then they probably didn't need to be in there in the first place. So in that case, I'd say, Congrats on editing yourself like that, because then you are closer to target count and they probably weren't necessary.

[00:11:39].990] - Chris
What do you think, Gena?

[00:11:41].090] - Gena
I think you're absolutely right there. That tells me that she probably needed to go through it one more time and have it edited. I would also say a lot of times when they are looking at word counts, you have to look at this from a publisher's point of view. They are looking at word counts because in their mind, they're doing the math of how much that book is going to cost to be printed. So they're looking at how many pages it's going to require, and there are different signatures that they are going to use, and they are going to be breaking off. And if they go above a certain page count, it increases the number of pages, which increases the signatures of the page. And that means more money for them. So that is what's going on here. And I will say that this is for traditional publishing. If you are looking at independent publishing, you can put it at whatever you want. But I would be aware of those common word counts because that's also what readers are used to reading. If your reader is used to reading 120,000 word book and you produce a book that is 200,000 words, there better be a reason that it's that far above because your readers may be questioning that is such a big one in the world and it needs to deliver.

[00:13:08].390] - Chris
Yes. I think a really good example of this is picture books. So many picture books that we have seen that people have floated by us. They have been either way under or way over 32 pages. And that's talking about when you lay out the text on the pages. Like, if you create a dummy copy, it would be way too much or way too little. And picture books are something that are very costly for editors. And so they are looking for people who understand that picture book should fit on a 32 page layout. And if yours doesn't, then that is a reason that you could get rejected right away. So anytime I write a picture book, I make sure it can be laid out within 32 pages easily, because that's really a key.

[00:13:52].780] - Gena
I think when you break that rule, it tells the publishers also, especially in picture book, it tells the publisher that they're not dealing with a professional, that they're dealing with someone who is still learning the ropes.

[00:14:05].390] - Chris
Yes. So the final part of Ricky's question was, how can I find out what sort of word count I should be working with? Look, there's a lot of blog posts out there that will help you find out. Just do a quick Google search. We'll do a future episode on this and just kind of break that down. But definitely more than anything, find other books in the genre of what you're writing and just kind of use those as a general rule. Right.

[00:14:28].170] - Gena
Okay. Do you italicize the main character's internal dialogue. Google says no, but most popular romance books in first person point of view that I've read does it? Is it because readers prefer it, which is correct. And this comes from J.M. Buckley @jmbuckley.

[00:14:47].380] - Chris
Yeah. So the question is, do you italicize the main character's internal dialogue because Google says no. So my first answer would be Google doesn't know Google doesn't read books.

[00:14:58].410] - Gena
I've seen it both ways. I will. If it's very pointed dialogue that is within. If it's just a passing observation that I know is from the point of view of the main character, I won't. But if it is a pointed statement that is running through the person's mind, then I will.

[00:15:17].330] - Chris
It's the main character's internal dialogue. Yes. To me. Absolutely. Anytime I have a character when they speak, you put it in quotes, when they think you put it in italics, and that separates it from what you as the author are writing about the scenes. Again, I think this just goes back to communication. If someone is reading your book and you were to put both the internal and external dialogue in quotes, people are going to think the person is saying something right. Or if you don't put it in italics or quotes, they're going to think you as the author, are imposing that upon the character in order to just make sure that you know it's the character thinking italics totally work. Just think of it in terms of communication.

[00:15:56].370] - Gena
Well, and I would say several of these questions that we've had here. People have responded with blanket statements, and the person says that Google says no, or that a book of a certain length gets thrown in the slush pile. I would say be careful of blanket statements. I mean, yes, if you're breaking grammar rules, you might be questioning it, but there's always exceptions. There's always exceptions.

[00:16:30].050] - Chris
You do have to know the rules before you can break them.

[00:16:31].870] - Gena
But definitely learn the rules before you break them.

[00:16:34].010] - Chris
Okay. Well, this has been fun. I enjoyed doing the Q and A just off the spot. So what we're going to do is we're going to ask you if you have any other questions, go ahead and send them to us. Go writingmomentum.com/podcast. Throw a question in the comments or hit us up on Twitter @writingmomentum, and we will do our best to answer those until next time, please rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. Gena and I just love being out here and talking about writing, and we hope you're enjoying it too. Until next time, may your writing have momentum.