Real-Life Characters

I am writing my first YA novel and most of the characters in it are based on someone I knew in real life. What, if any, problems would this pose for me if the novel ever became published? Many of the people written in to the story gave me their blessing (over email or Facebook) before I began, but nothing "in stone". I have changed all names and many obvious identifying characteristics, but if one of these people read my novel, which hopefully they will some day, there will be no question who the characters were based on.

I think it does pose problems for a number of reasons. You’ve gotten vague permission from people to use them in your novel, but let me tell you, people have a very different idea of what that means once they read the novel. Certainly things could be fine and no one could complain, but let’s face it, that’s not going to happen. One person is going to complain. At worst, that person could sue you for defamation of character if she feels she’s easily identifiable in your book and feels your portrayal is unflattering. At best, you could lose a lot of friends. Remember, we all have a bit of a warped view of who we are, and someone else’s vision of who we are can be a little shocking. For example, I was recently asked if I was “too nice” to be a really great agent. When I told my husband this he howled in laughter that anyone would ever think I’m “too nice.” I’m still trying to figure out how I should feel about this ;).

From a creative standpoint I wonder if writing this way is holding you back. There’s no doubt writers get a lot of their characters from the people around them, but from what I understand most take bits and pieces to create new people rather than simply inserting people they know in the book. In other words, one character is an amalgamation of the characteristics of many people, not just friends and family, but people they observe in public. Not only do I think this is safer, but I think it allows you the creative freedom to really let your characters be who they want to be or need to be rather than fit them into a mold.

Personally I worry less about the possibility that people will sue down the road and more about the fact that you aren’t really letting your creativity take the book to new places. That by limiting yourself to writing about the people you know, you’re not pushing the book to new heights.

I’m curious, though, what other writers think about this.

Jessica

Author Speed Date

The idea of speed dating is that you get 10 minutes to sit down with a prospective date and get to know them. In that spirit, we present Author Speed Date. A quick 10 minutes for you to get to know some of our clients. Today we'd like you to meet Paige Shelton.

BookEnds Author Speed Date

Name (the one you’re published under): Paige Shelton

Speed date Bio (one or two lines): A Midwesterner transplanted to the Rocky Mountain west after college and too many years of humidity-infused frizzy hair. Always wanted to be a writer, but have had a few advertising-like jobs in order to pay the bills.

Web Link: www.paigeshelton.com

Next Book, pub date: Fruit of All Evil, just released!

Agent: Jessica Faust

About Me

Real Name or Pseudonym: Well, my legal name is Paige Shelton-Ferrell, so my writing name is pretty close.

Currently Reading: The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

Next on Your Reading List: Matched by Ally Condie

Facebook or Twitter (include account name): Facebook, Paige Shelton

Three authors living or dead you would want to have dinner with: Phyllis A. Whitney, V. C. Andrews (yeah, really), Laura Ingalls Wilder

Jet-setter or armchair traveler: Armchair

Glass ½ full or ½ empty: 3/4 empty for sure. I'm working on this.

Tea or Coffee: Diet Pepsi

Live to write or Write to live: Live to write, but it'd be fun to actually make a living from it someday.

About My Writing

When (time of day) I write: I write morning and evening.

Writing soundtrack: Playlists on iPod. Sometimes I'm adventurous and leave it on Shuffle. My playlists have all kinds of music, but always lots of Springsteen.

Character Inspirations: I have no idea where these people come from, but when they arrive they're pretty vivid.

Plot Inspirations: Well, there's got to be a body, but other than that it happens as I write.

Setting Inspirations: Farmers' Market books: Even though the characters haven't been to Myrtle Beach yet, it was my visit there that inspired me to set the stories in South Carolina. Two places inspired Broken Rope, Missouri, the setting for the upcoming Gram's Cooking School: Tombstone, Arizona, and Rolla, Missouri (where my parents grew up).

Plotter (carefully plot books) or Pantser (write from the seat of my pants): Total pantser. Pre-planning puts me in a panic.

A Writer's Trip to NYC

Out of the blue I found myself preparing for a trip to New York (first time). Trying to be practical I decided to make a plan of things I can do to take full advantage of my trip. Soon, I noticed that aside from the many tourist stuff (museums) and not-so-tourist stuff (trapeze school) I can do there’s nothing publishing/writing related to do . . . I mean there are tours of NBC studios, NYSE and the Federal Reserve, but, understandably, nothing similar for any companies in publishing. There are lots of internships, but I can’t do anything like that. . . . So I thought I’d ask. I did manage to find some writing classes that will be taking place at various Borders stores, but if you or other agents/editors/writers who read your blog have any suggestions I’d really appreciate the input.

I honestly can’t think of anything like you describe. In other words, there are a lot of museum-type things—visiting famous writers' bars, for example—but I can’t think of publishing excursions where you learn about publishing. Although, I don’t know that a trip to NBC studios teaches you much about being a news anchor, either.

The thought of a trip to a publishing company makes me laugh. I imagine tour groups squeezing around piles of books and peering into editors’ offices, trying to see an editor around the stacks of paper on her desk. Trust me, a publishing office in reality is nothing like those you see on TV or in the movies.

Certainly there are classes available in NYC for writers, through NYU or other schools, but that’s probably not going to work for someone who is just taking a short trip. I’ll turn this over to my readers. Anyone have favorite literary trips in NYC, or elsewhere for that matter?

Jessica

Workshop Wednesday

By repeated request we've started Workshop Wednesday. It will definitely play out through 2011, and beyond that we'll just have to see. We've received well over 200 queries at this point, but we are choosing at random, so don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.


Dear Ms. Anonymous,

Your intimate involvement with the agent/author relationship combined with your hands-on, editorially-focused approach would be invaluable to my journey as a writer. Your years of experience in the industry plus your love for characters placed in wacky situations that remain grounded to a relatable reality, would be a perfect match for my novel, Gaia’s Secret.

I think it's great to include a personal connection in your query whenever possible. The problem with this opening is that it's not at all personal, it's an impersonal attempt to be personal, or at least it feels that way to me. In other words, it feels like you're doing nothing more but attempting to butter me up, not showing how you might know me personally. If I were you I'd skip the attempt at flattery and simply get to the point. "I'm querying you today about my novel Gaia's Secret" is perfect.


In a parallel world, connected by an ancient system of portals, eighteen-year old Daria Jones is the heir to the Regius dynasty, the keeper of untold powers, and the final link uniting Earth-as-we-know-it with its magical sister, Gaia. The only problem? No one bothered to tell her. And to make matters worse, a reawakened race of evil sorcerers make a house call; someone wants Daria dead.

In some ways this paragraph suffers from the same problem as your opening paragraph. It uses a lot of words, but in the end it doesn't really say anything. It leaves me with more questions than answers. Be careful that you aren't working too hard to set up the story by including too much information. For example, does it matter for the pitch that this world is parallel (I assume you mean parallel to ours, although I'm not sure) or that it's connected by portals? I also assume that Gaia is this world, although that's not clear either.

In fact, I don't even see how "keeper of untold powers" fits in. It sounds like this could be interesting, but in the end it's not, because I don't know anything about it.

I think this would be stronger if you went more along these lines: No one bothered to tell eighteen-year-old Daria Jones, heir to the Regius Dynasty, that she's also the final link uniting Earth with Gaia (and now I need to know why that even matters). When she suddenly discovers . . .


When her overprotective father disappears, she turns to Cicero and Sonya Anderson, the only family she trusts to find him. With the illusion of her once-mundane life now completely shattered, she’s forced to follow them through the nearest portal—Yosemite National Park—into the heart of this beautiful and deceptively dangerous new world. Further compounding her problems, their son Alex, her childhood crush, plans to join them. But after a bad break and three years of silence, Alex is the last person she wants to see. And he’s changed. He’s completely gorgeous.

The problem with this paragraph is that it doesn't answer any of the questions I have from the previous paragraph. What does her father's overprotectiveness have to do with the pitch? Why doesn't she trust anyone, and who are these people she turns to and why does she turn to them? Does it even matter who they are? It doesn't seem like they play any big role in the pitch, which should probably focus more on Daria and less on everyone else.

What makes her think she needs help? This seems like it's probably the most important question of the entire pitch.

The biggest problem is that you have told me nothing about this story. You've told me what leads us to the story, why we have a story (because Gaia is in danger and her father has disappeared, although we don't have a connection between the two), but we don't know what this story is about.

My suggestion is you need to make the focus on Daria and Alex, since I assume there is a romance there, and you need to stress how these two travel from the magical world of Gaia to Earth in order to . . . what? Are they planning to find her father? Save Earth? Save Gaia? What is their purpose and what do they face during their journey? Most important, your pitch should be about what happens once they are on Earth, since I'm assuming this is the most important piece of the story.


Not your average coming-of-age story, Gaia’s Secret brings a new twist to life-as-we-know-it. This 106,316 YA fantasy tells us of a world just beyond ours that was never meant to be separate. Through the determination of a strong female heroine, the worlds may find peace and be unite once again.

The problem with saying something like "not your average" is that so far the book sounds pretty average. You haven't given me anything to show how this book stands out from others. And personally, I'm not sure if I see this as "coming-of-age." I mean, I guess all or most YA is coming-of-age in some way, so I think you could skip that.

Your tag line, "tells the story of a world beyond ours that was never meant to be . . ." is interesting. I find this probably the most interesting part of the pitch, but I didn't get any of that from the pitch. I didn't get that these worlds weren't meant to be separate or why it's important that they unite.


This novel has strong series potential but tells a complete tale and stands alone.

I think you could skip this sentence. All books, except in a very, very rare instance, should be a complete tale and stand alone. This doesn't add anything to the query and, in fact, might make the agent instead wonder why you would have to point out that the story is a complete story.


I completed post-graduate work in Clinical Laboratory Science and have an all-consuming passion for literature and the extraordinary.

This short bio is fine, although if you have bio info on your writing that would be more powerful. In other words, are you in a critique group or part of a writing organization? I would be more interested in that. The other thing, which isn't that important, but when it comes to a bio I'm more interested in what you are doing now. In other words, you "completed" post-graduate work, but what's going on with you now?


Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.


Best wishes,





Jessica

Random Questions

Do you prefer italics or underlining in manuscripts?

I don’t really care.


If you please, could you respond via email as well as on the blog?

I’m afraid I only respond on the blog, and not personally through email. My schedule is incredibly tight, and while I love helping authors by answering their questions, I need to be able to do so in a way that helps as many people as possible. If I responded individually as well as posting to the blog, I wouldn’t have time to do the work I’m actually getting paid to do. And I do need to write somewhere close to 200 blog posts a year and need to find my material somewhere.


I have an idea for a funny, faux non-fiction book - think "The Zombie Survival Guide" or similar. A book that sounds non-fictioney, but is completely fake. Thinking ahead, should I write this book to completion, since it is technically fiction (as in, it is based on nothing real), or approach it as a classic non-fiction, and complete a non-fiction book proposal, with all the items that go into one of those?

I have noticed that a lot of funny fiction gets lumped into the "non-fiction - humor" category, at least on Publishers Marketplace. It sounds like you’re writing humor to me, which would mean you would need to write a proposal, not the entire book.


I am getting ready to query my second book and am wondering how I should approach agents who requested previous material from a different manuscript. Should I remind them that they've requested my material before, or just send a normal query letter without mentioning
it?

Always, always mention it. Remember, querying is networking, and you are reminding the agent that she liked you previously. If you can, it might help to describe the previous book in one sentence, too, so that she has a reminder of what the book was, an extra memory jolt, so to speak.

Jessica

Pitching Effectively

I'll be attending a writers' conference and have a 10-minute appointment with a literary agent. Do you have any suggestions on what the pitch should - and shouldn't - include? Is there something people do that really annoys you? Anything that's particularly effective?

The most important thing your pitch should include is your blurb. Really, it doesn’t need to be that different from your query letter, a short, compelling description of your book. Everyone is different, very different, when it comes to what makes a successful pitch. I think it’s Janet Reid who has posted on the subject, and what she’s looking for is different from what I want to see. All that being said, if you give a short, compelling pitch you’ll win an agent over every time.

Here are my tips for pitching successfully.

1. Bring along your query, a short 1-2 page synopsis, and the first chapter of your book. Have it out when you sit down in case the agent finds it easier to read off that.
2. When you sit down, introduce yourself and take a moment to ask the agent how she’s doing or how she’s enjoying the conference. In other words, a few seconds or a minute of small talk tends to break the ice and make everyone a little more comfortable.
3. Start your pitch with your title and genre, then give your blurb. Your blurb should not go on and on. It only needs to be a written paragraph, and if it’s easier for you to read it go ahead and read it.
4. Have questions. In other words, use your time wisely. When authors pitch to me I’ll often ask questions about the book, but I always ask the author if she has any questions for me. Have some. This is your one-on-one time with an agent, so use it. Ask questions about her, the agency, the business of publishing. Think of it as a pre-interview. If she calls to offer representation, you already have a sense of how well you talk and how comfortable you are with her.
5. Relax and enjoy yourself. 10 minutes can go quickly.

Jessica

Author Speed Date

The idea of speed dating is that you get 10 minutes to sit down with a prospective date and get to know them. In that spirit, we present Author Speed Date. A quick 10 minutes for you to get to know some of our clients. Today we'd like you to meet Lorraine Bartlett.

BookEnds Author Speed Date

Name (the one you’re published under): Lorraine Bartlett, Lorna Barrett, and L. L. Bartlett

Speed date Bio (one or two lines): Before she became a New York Times bestselling author, Lorraine Bartlett had done it all—from drilling holes for NASA to typing scripts in Hollywood.

Web Link: LornaBarrett.com; LorraineBartlett.com; LLBartlett.com

Next Book, pub date: Sentence to Death, June 2011

Agent: Jessica Faust

About Me

Real Name or Pseudonym: Lorraine Bartlett

Currently Reading: Julie and Julia by Julie Powell (I have a large and elderly to-be-read pile.)

Next on Your Reading List: Off Season by Anne Rivers Siddons

Facebook or Twitter (include account name):

Lorraine Bartlett; Lorna Barrett; L.L.Bartlett;
@LorraineBartlet; @LornaBarrett; @LLBartlettbooks


Three authors living or dead you would want to have dinner with: Betty MacDonald, Dick Francis, John Mortimer (Good grief, they’re ALL dead!)

Jet-setter or armchair traveler: Definitely armchair traveler.

Glass ½ full or ½ empty: Half empty most days. Half full on launch days.

Tea or Coffee: Tea.

Live to write or Write to live: A little of both.

About My Writing

When (time of day) I write: Mid-morning through afternoon.

Writing soundtrack: New Age music.

Character Inspirations: People I meet.

Plot Inspirations: Out of thin air.

Setting Inspirations: Places I have been. Usually placid places.

Plotter (carefully plot books) or Pantser (write from the seat of my pants): A pantser all the way.

Picking Your Agent

I’ve done a number of blog posts on choosing an agent. What questions to ask, how to shop around, and how to know if an agent is right for you. Obviously, all of my posts are from my perspective and not from the perspective of someone who has actually made that decision herself.

Recently, though, in talking with an author I had offered representation to, I learned a lot about the process and felt more secure about the ability authors have in making that decision. This author had received multiple offers from agents. We were talking for the second time, and I asked how it was going. She said it was overwhelming, but the one thing she discovered is that you can learn a lot about an agent by the way she offers representation. And I thought that made a lot of sense. For those who have never received an offer, think of it this way. Did the agent call or email? Did she take the time to talk with you or simply offer and let it go at that? Did she offer with stipulations on revisions or simply offer and tell you she loved it?

Now, keep in mind there is no right answer to how an agent offers or how an agent answers your questions. In other words, the right answer is the one you deem correct, because the agent is working for you, not your friends or critique partners.

And while I’ve covered this information before, I think it’s worthwhile to hear it from another author as well: http://jmeadows.livejournal.com/819549.html

Jessica

Workshop Wednesdays

By repeated request we've started Workshop Wednesday. It will definitely play out through 2011, and beyond that we'll just have to see. We've received well over 200 queries at this point, but we are choosing at random, so don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.


Dear Ms. Faust:

I am submitting "Coffee, Ghosts, and College," a 76,000 word completed urban fantasy for your consideration.

This is a fine opening; basic and to the point. The only thing you might want to work on is your title. I know I frequently say that your publisher will probably change the title anyway, and while that's true, it doesn't mean you don't what a strong title to grab the attention of everyone else along the way. This title does nothing for me; it gives me no real picture of what I can expect from your book, other than the fact that your book includes ghosts, coffee, and college. It doesn't sound original or exciting.


Brigid started the night by setting her hand on fire with magic, freaking herself out and proving her parents weren't deluded Wizards after all. Her friends weren't entirely convinced it wasn't a trick.

On the way to dinner, she slipped on the ice, tripped over a homeless man, and saw his ghost walk off. "I'm even pissing off the ghosts today," she thought. Then it hit her--ghosts meant murder.

These first two paragraphs about Brigid are kind of intriguing. Not great, but not horrible either. What's missing is a real sense of understanding. You mention a lot of things, but I still think we need more context.


More great news.

She had to persuade her friends that magic was real, ghosts existed, and there was a magical murderer running around. Oh, and she hadn't studied for her Environmental Economics test.

Why? Why did she have to persuade her friends and what does any of that have to do with setting her hand on fire? The answer to these questions seems to be the heart of the book, and instead you've pitched the lead-up or background. When thinking about your query, think about what happens in the middle of the book (or roughly), not what happens in the opening pages. In other words, what makes this book interesting centers around the climax. Why does she need to convince her friends that magic is real, and, honestly, what does that have to do with your opening paragraph, in which we seem concerned that her friends might think it's real?

I think it would be more powerful to get to the point. Brigid spent her life scoffing at her parents' belief that they were Wizards, but when . . . Now it's up to Brigid to . . . how you finish these sentences are probably your query.

One thought about the title again—from the description I could have sworn this was YA, but yet the title says "College." I'm confused. Make sure your title is not only eye-catching, but that it helps define the genre you're pitching to.


Gotta love Mondays.

I get what you're trying to do with this line, but it feels lost.


Thank you for your time.


Jessica

International Authors

I’m curious about how the fact the author isn’t in the U.S. affects the marketing or sales of a book. For example, an author overseas cannot conduct a signing event, a literary journalist might not want to call an overseas author, or an overseas author could not participate in a physical interview.

In your experience has this ever affected sales or any stage of the publishing in some way?

Our world is so much smaller than it was 10 to 15 years ago. With avenues such as Twitter and email it’s so easy to connect with people all over the world. The only thing that might be tricky for an international author is a book signing. That being said, I think book signings are the least important of all promotional activities.

Most authors connect with readers through social networking, blogs, and articles, and I don’t know of any journalist who has difficulty connecting with a source, no matter where that source might be.

Jessica