Yes, you're great, but don't be too sure of yourself

Best Advice I Was Too Cocky To Follow

My second novel, ">VAPORS, came out in 1999 with a huge promotional blitz by the publisher that included a nationwide publicity tour with media reps and lots of interviews, John Grisham's publicist for ">THE FIRM working full time, full-page ads in major publications, in-store displays…basically, the works.  At BookExpo, I was the second bestselling author overall and the bestselling fiction author. Pretty heady stuff.

At the time I was represented by a top five literary agency inNew York (Sobel-Weber). Here's a recap of our conversation in LA when she caught up with me at BookExpo:

Smart, experienced agent:     "Vapors is really doing well. Now I need you to get busy writing another book along those same lines that builds on this success and establishes an expectation from the readers.

Overly-cocky me:      "But I want to expand and grow as an author, exploring new areas and styles and really stretching myself. I already wrote that story and don't want to write something similar."

Smart but frustrated agent:   "This is where you've now established yourself. If you don't want to build on this, perhaps I'm not the right agent for you."

Supremely confident me:  Actually, my memory fails me here, but what I think I said was something about being true to my art and my vision.  What I know for sure is that ended up without an agent.

Smart, capable agent:  (inner monologue – and yes, I'm speculating here) "Wes is an idiot."

Now, after writing six completely different novels, I am finally following that agent's advice with my ">Mayday Salvage and Rescue series.  Readers seem to love the characters and many are already waiting for the second book, which I'm writing now.  While they wait, many of them are going back and reading my backlist, which is terrific.

I mentioned elsewhere on this blog the value of finding a book somewhat similar to what you're writing and using its structure as a guide. In writing a series, that's exactly what I've done, using ">TORTUGA GOLD (the first in the series) as a story framework that will become even more familiar to the reader in TEQUILA BOOM BOOM.  That framework was the launching point of my outline into which I plugged the scenes that fulfill each requirement. Then I expand them and I write the book. I'm not a slave to it, but since TORTUGA GOLD works well, it serves as a handy paradigm.

The other point of this post is this: If you have a good agent or editor you trust, listen to them.  I would be much farther ahead had I done so at Sobel-Weber.  But I should also point out that there are bad and worthless editors out there, and perhaps even bad agents. Check them out thoroughly through the online forum "Editors and Predators," or through Literary Market Place or other credible sources before you trust them with your work and your career.  Thousands of people with questionable credentials are building websites and calling themselves editors, and I have too much respect for the skills of a good editor to believe that someone is qualified for the job merely because they have an English degree or read a lot. Between the recession and e-books, lots of editorial jobs were eliminated inNew York, so there's good talent available from people with great bona fides.

And keep in mind that there are story editors and line editors.  Only you know which one you need, assuming you're honest with yourself.  Make sure you buy the services you need.

Good writing…Wes