Navigating Conflicting Advice

So I got through to the Final 50 of Penguin’s WriteNow programme and I’m still reeling from the news. There are one or two more rounds to go to see if I’ve made it onto the winning cohort.

I saw the email a couple weeks ago and have spent this month going through the entire manuscript of TWENTY-NINETEEN. This is what they’ll use to judge the final 10. If I make it that far, I will receive a Penguin mentor for a whole year with the chance of a publishing contract, representation, or more at the end.

My measly first 5000 words got me through this far, and I had an amazing zoom session with a Penguin editor. She was just brilliant. She said she didn’t have anything for me to improve on, because she “trusted that [I] will explain further in the story”, and she loved that she had so many questions because the opening left her so intrigued. This was her full editorial note, which was sent alongside my acceptance email:

·         This reminded me of Colson Whitehead meets Naomi Alderman meets Margaret Atwood meets Marlorie Blackman and shows huge potential for a SFF list but also has commerical crossover potential. With the right editor to help shape and develop what is already a very well-imagined world, this could be really excellent.

·         You have a fantastic natural style and are clearly very accomplished in writing compelling dialogue and creating tension and pace in the narrative.

·         [redacted as it’s very book-specific] What you’ve done so far is brilliant, and I think it’s just little thougths and extra details like this that will embellish and add further richness to the world you’ve created.

Besides previous comments from another agent, Juliet Mushens, this is the nicest thing a publishing professional has ever said to me. It gave me more than confidence, but it showed that there is hope for this story, if I just work on it a bit more and iron out the kinks.

I really hope that as they look through my entire manuscript, more elements of the story will become clear, and they will see the potential for TWENTY-NINETEEN to be great, if not rough around the edges. As I was reading through and working on it this month, I felt helpless because the flow of the story is a little all over the place. This is due to my completely re-writing the story, taking out massive elements, and then adding new parts for the new plot. In my eyes, I can see that the flow has been affected by this, and if I can see it, then I know the Penguin team will. I hope this doesn’t stop my chances, and that they can still see the points I’m trying to make.

I emphasise the entire manuscript because earlier today I received another rejection from an agent who read the first 10,000 words, and the things that made my Penguin editor excited and intrigued, are what turned her off and ultimately led her to reject the submission. I was somewhat confused by some of her critique, as 10,000 words isn’t even three full chapters of my 90, 000 word novel, and as I read more into her rejection, she heavily emphasised that the lack of information, explanation of later plot elements, and lack of exposition left her lost. In my experience, a story that basically feeds me the entire plot within the first two chapters isn’t a very fun read at all, and I hate stories that info dump. She also had a problem with my two paragraph synopsis. I had obviously left out a lot of extra plot details so that she just got the major events of the story, but she struggled to see how they would marry up.

It made me realise just how difficult it is to get an agent. They really are the sturdy gatekeepers of this industry, and if things don’t follow a safe formula, they have not the time nor money to take risks.

I guess this is another example of how subjective publishing can be, but ever since starting Black Girl Writers, I have noticed a different response in how lit agents and editors approach manuscripts. The latter seems much more open to receiving a wider range of stories, whereas lit agents are very careful and very cautious. Even relating to the synopsis issue: I sent the same synopsis to another editor from HarperCollins who responded “omg based on what you just wrote I’m so excited to read this!” But for the agent, it didn’t make sense.

This isn’t a post to bash agents by the way. I still feel like I have an issue with properly explaining things in this story, which isn’t a surprise: when you write SF/F, you have the entire timeline, backstory, lore, and other intricacies in your head that will never make it into the actual manuscript due to padding. Sometimes it can be difficult to take the reader on a journey through those things without dumping them with info, and so I tend to write sparse brush strokes, when a heavier hand is needed. So with that in mind, I’ll definitely take what I can from the agent’s critique.

In other news, I’m kind of desperate to start writing a fantasy novel right now, and TWENTY-NINETEEN has taken up so much of my life. Whilst it’s with the Penguin lot, I’ll focus on other things and remind myself why I love writing just for me again, without the pressure or the stress of “publication”.

BTW I find out if I made it in early October, which is near my birthday. Fingers crossed!