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The Steve Laube Agency

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Home » fiction

fiction

4 Questions a Fiction Proposal Must Answer

By Steve Laubeon August 1, 2022
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Last week we dealt with five questions a nonfiction proposal must answer. As promised, we now turn to those who are putting together a novel proposal.

If you compare these two posts, you’ll see why a one-size-fits-all proposal template isn’t always helpful. There are differences between the two types of proposals. Please try not to shoehorn a novel proposal into a nonfiction presentation.

What Is Your Word Count?

Think carefully before you put a number in your proposal. I don’t know how often I’ve seen someone propose a 270,000-word manuscript or, on the other end, a 27,000 word-manuscript. (One zero can make a big difference!)

Your novel may be complete and you are just telling the agent or editor its length. But your word count might be a reason it is being rejected.

Here is a simple rule of thumb: Take your word count and divide it by 300. The answer will be the approximate page count of a printed book. Therefore, a 280,000-word manuscript becomes a 900-page doorstop. And a 28,000-word manuscript is more like a booklet or short story of 90 pages.

You might say, “But in ebooks the page count doesn’t matter!” True. But ebooks are one format–and not the only one. Major publishers still sell more than 50% of their fiction in printed form.

What is the ideal length? It depends.

I can hear the cry, “Steve! That is a singularly unhelpful answer!”

But it does depend on your genre and whether you are targeting a particular publisher. If you want to write for the Harlequin Love Inspired romance line or suspense line, your manuscript should be around 55,000-60,000 words.

If you are targeting the longer-form novel, your story should be between 80,000 and 100,000 words. There is often room for more than 100,000 words, but don’t go overboard.

But if you are writing epic fantasy and want Enclave Publishing to grab it, the length can go higher because that genre lends itself to longer stories (hence the word “epic”). For example, the fantasy novel Embers (Book one of the Abiassa’s Fire series) by Ronie Kendig came in at around 132,000 words. In printed form, it is 448 pages long (in a 6×9 trim size).

If you are writing a novella, then, of course, the short length is appropriate.

That is why I must answer, “It depends.”

When Will Your Manuscript Be Complete?

If you are a first-time novelist, never before published, your answer should be, “The manuscript is complete and available upon request.” Agents and publishers rarely will take a book from a debut author unless it is already complete.

Why? Because you might have spent 15 years perfecting your opening chapters, but the story falls apart on page 200. We have to have confidence in the whole story before we represent it or before a publisher will contract it.

If you are an established author with a track record with major publishers, you know to pick a reasonable completion date that you are confident in achieving. A publisher will look at your delivery date and begin planning which season your book will release to the market (usually 12-15 months from that delivery date).

What Is Your Unique Story Hook?

What about your story makes a reader salivate in anticipation of reading? Some call this “high concept,” but not all novels are “high concept.” (Read Randy Ingermanson’s excellent article linked here, “What is High Concept?” for a full explanation.)

Unfortunately, it is hard to come up with a story pitch that doesn’t sound like all the others. Darcy Patterson wrote an article identifying the 29 Basic Plot Templates. This is why novels can tend to sound the same if you are not careful.

A few years ago, I was at a writers conference taking 15-minute appointments all afternoon. At one point the room emptied and only I and one other editor remained. We stretched and yawned at the same time and began to laugh at that. Then the editor showed me a small card where this editor had made quick notes all afternoon about their appointments and the pitches presented throughout the conference. It had a list that looked a bit like this with tally marks (This is not the actual list, but a representation of it.):

Prairie romance III
Single girl looks for love I
Tornado IIII
Kidnap II
Drowning I
Losing ranch I
Angels vs. Demons I
Cancer IIII
Death in Family II
Big City setting I
Small Town setting IIII

The editor then said, “Where is the originality? They all start sounding the same.”

See the problem? Of course, you might argue that this is a problem with the novels already being published. To a point that is true. But if you go into the general market and look at the breakout novels of recent years, you’ll often find a common thread of a unique story or setting. Consider some of the following: Gone Girl, The Help, All the Light We Cannot See, The Fault in Our Stars, Goldfinch, and The Book Thief.

Below is the hook we used with Ginny Yttrup’s novel Words at the top of her book proposal.

Sticks and stones can break my bones,

but Words? They can always heal me.

A child whose silence holds the truth captive…

An artist whose work speaks the agony of her past…

Will they let the truth set them free?

Following are the first lines from the novel:

“I collect words. I keep them in a box in my mind. I’d like to keep them in a real box, something pretty, maybe a shoe box covered with flowered wrapping paper. Whenever I wanted, I’d open the box and pick up the papers, reading and feeling the words all at once. Then I could hide the box. But the words are safer in my mind. There, he can’t take them.”

That proposal sold quickly, and the book later won a Christy Award for “Best First Novel” because the writing is amazing. This leads me to the last question.

Is Your Writing Amazing?

I do not expect you to actually answer that question in your proposal, but the execution of your idea has to be truly incredible. The bar of success is set very high, and it isn’t something that can be dashed off in a few hours and tossed into the marketplace. It can take years to learn how to write well.

I’ve said it before: Some are born with the gift of writing, and with a nudge here and there they can create something wonderful. For the rest of us, it is something that must be learned. Learned through failures, missteps, false starts, and manuscripts that should be buried in the compost pile in the backyard.

I know many writers, and am privileged to represent a number of them, who have toiled for years to get to the point where their ideas and their writing skills combine to produce the novels the marketplace wants to read. It can be an arduous journey. I hope you are willing to take it!

 

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Category: Book Proposals, Get PublishedTag: book proposals, fiction, Get Published

Create a World Your Readers Love

By Guest Bloggeron September 26, 2019
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Today’s guest post is written by Virginia Wise, one of Tamela’s clients. Welcome, Virginia! She is the author of the Amish New World series, in which colonial settlers discover love—and God’s promises—in the Pennsylvania wilderness (Kensington Publishing). Her latest books include An Amish Second Christmas, Where the Heart Takes You, and When Love Finds You.  Connect with …

Read moreCreate a World Your Readers Love
Category: Writing CraftTag: fiction, novels, worldbuilding

How to Annoy Your (Fiction) Readers

By Bob Hostetleron July 25, 2018
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Some people are more annoying than others—and you know who you are. And some writers are more annoying than others—and you may not know who you are. So I’m here to help. Here are six ways writers of fiction can annoy the heck out of the readers: Give your characters similar or hard-to-pronounce names Fantasy writers, I’m talking to you. How in the world am I supposed to pronounce Fleurxgh? Sure, I …

Read moreHow to Annoy Your (Fiction) Readers
Category: Craft, Writing CraftTag: fiction, Writing Craft

What’s on Your Shelf?

By Steve Laubeon February 12, 2018
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A series of interview questions that dig into my reading life. What’s on your nightstand right now? I am an extremely eclectic reader and have dozens of books waiting for attention. In fiction I’m currently reading Run Program by Scott Meyer a science-fiction story of a newly developed artificial intelligence program that “gets out” of the lab and is now running loose on the Internet – with all …

Read moreWhat’s on Your Shelf?
Category: Personal, ReadingTag: Books, fiction, Nonfiction, Reading

Writing Thoughtful Books

By Dan Balowon August 15, 2017
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There has always been a hierarchy in fiction distinguishing “literary” from “popular” books, with lines drawn between both topics and reading levels.  Authors of each are different, somewhat like actors who work on stage versus those who work on screen. Comparisons of literary vs. popular and stage vs. screen are often done in a derogatory manner. Christian authors describing non-fiction might use …

Read moreWriting Thoughtful Books
Category: Art, Faith, The Writing Life, TheologyTag: Faith, fiction, Nonfiction, Theology

Remove the Barriers in Fiction

By Karen Ballon February 15, 2017
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Few things empower fiction better than well developed characters. Which is why you don’t want to create unintentional barriers between your characters and your readers. What barriers, you ask? Well, here’s one that affects POV characters: John knew he was about to learn something important. Do you see it? The barrier? No? How about here… Sally realized she wasn’t getting it at all. This barrier is …

Read moreRemove the Barriers in Fiction
Category: Craft, Writing CraftTag: fiction, Writing Craft

Contrived is a Four-Letter Word

By Karen Ballon February 8, 2017
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Few things irritate fiction readers more than a story peopled by characters who act and react without any apparent reason for what they’re doing and saying. No reason, that is, except to illustrate the author’s message. Or prove the author’s point. Well, you say, don’t we all have a message or point in what we write? Isn’t fiction about letting our characters take the readers on a journey of …

Read moreContrived is a Four-Letter Word
Category: CraftTag: Craft, fiction, Writing Craft

Fiction: Don’t Order Flowers Yet – An Evaluation of 2015

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 7, 2016
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An Evaluation of 2015: Ours is a tough industry. A lot of writers are rejected. Over and over. The journey to publication seems harder than ever. Available slots in a publisher’s list are fewer and harder to secure. It’s more difficult than ever to make books profitable. Competition is tougher. Only the top authors seem to be making money. What year am I talking about? I think it is 1998. Or was …

Read moreFiction: Don’t Order Flowers Yet – An Evaluation of 2015
Category: Agency, Book Business, Career, TrendsTag: Book Business, fiction, Trends

Escaping from Reality

By Dan Balowon November 17, 2015
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I enjoy history, especially when I can match up certain events which occurred simultaneously in different places, making for an interesting snapshot of the world at a particular moment in time. Two events juxtaposed create a different story than either would individually. Seventy-five years ago this week the classic Disney movie Fantasia debuted in the United States. It was the third Disney movie, …

Read moreEscaping from Reality
Category: Get PublishedTag: fiction, Get Published, Non-Fiction

Is Christian Fiction Dying?

By Dan Balowon January 28, 2014
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Last year, a couple Christian publishers stopped publishing fiction.  Some publishers are nervous about it and in a wait-and-see mode. Others are excited about growth potential.  The answer to the title question is no, but it is certainly interesting to explore the reason behind such widely diverse opinions on the subject.

NOTE #1: For full disclosure, I am a member of the advisory board for …

Read moreIs Christian Fiction Dying?
Category: Awards, Book Business, Dan, E-Books, Get Published, TrendsTag: fiction, Trends
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