Getting the Call: Stephanie Diaz

I’m glad to bring you another success story of a friend I made in last year’s Speculative Fiction Marathon.  (This year’s marathon starts next week, June 4th. See my post on the SFSM.) Usually the phrase it never rains but it pours refers to negative events. For Stephanie it meant amazing things. I can’t wait to hear more from her as she undergoes the submission process. 

I got the email on a Tuesday. I was sitting in my acting class at San Diego State University, taking notes on my laptop and watching my fellow classmates perform theatrical pieces when I noticed the little red “1” at the bottom of the screen. Distraction led me to skim the email without noticing who it was from.

My reaction: double-take → shock → audible squeal that no one noticed, because the class was getting rowdy.

An agent had finished my manuscript, and wanted to know when a good time might be to chat, once she finished wiping the tears from her eyes. Yes, my YA sci-fi had made her cry.

Questions tumbled through my mind. Would this be the call, or just one of those “let's discuss revisions over the phone, but I won't actually make an offer yet” kind of deals? See, this wasn't going to be my  first time speaking with an agent on the phone. Two months prior, an agent had called me out of the blue one afternoon after reading part of my manuscript to discuss its failings and what I could do to improve it. I will be forever grateful for that call, as it led me to revise and turn my novel into the manuscript that landed me an agent. But when another call loomed on the horizon, I didn't want to get my hopes up.

I emailed the agent back with my availability. I pulled up several blog posts and forums about getting The Call, just in case. The next day, I tried to ignore my cell phone. We hadn't actually scheduled a time, so the agent could've called at any second. For a couple solid hours, I was a tangle of nervousness and second guesses. Around lunchtime, I decided to go to the library to take my mind off the call.

I was turning right at the light for the library when my phone rang. I pulled into the parking lot as quickly as I could, cursing the car that almost blocked me, and managed to answer in the nick of time.

For the next twenty-odd minutes, I sat in my car with a door open (it was hot in that parking lot), a giddy smile plastered on my face. The agent loved my ms (which I had sent her a week and a half prior) and offered representation.

Back at home, emails were sent to other agents reading my ms or query, letting them know they had a week to get back to me. I spent the next several days in a daze, pinching myself occasionally. This was the third ms I'd queried over the course of six years. Only a day before I received the email requesting The Call, I'd been ready to give up on this manuscript and move onto the next.

Things got even more surreal when I received a second email in which an agent wanted a call. That Friday morning, I spoke with two agents from the same agency on the phone and listened as they gushed about my ms and tried to convince me to say “yes” to them right then and there. But there were still five others reading, and I had to give them time to finish.

Another offer came the following Monday, and I started pulling my hair out. A fourth came Tuesday evening. Wednesday, I spoke to the fourth agent on the phone, then took an hour to watch a new episode of Glee and figure out which agent I should pick.

I kept coming back to the second agent who'd offered: Alison Fargis of Stonesong. From the minute I started chatting with her and her fellow agent, Emmanuelle Morgen, I knew I wanted it to work with her. She had missed a subway stop and almost forgotten to pick her son up at school trying to finish my ms. Her clients praised her. She and I had the same vision for my story. Most of all, out of all four agents, I could tell she wanted it the most. She was truly fighting for me.

So I picked her. :)

--

BIO: Stephanie Diaz is 19. Born and raised in sunny San Diego, she currently studies film production at San Diego State University, but spends most of her time making novels out of stories in her head. She enjoys rainy days and afternoons spent wearing PJs and sipping wild berry tea. Someday, she would like to hike the trail to Mount Doom. Her work is represented by Alison Fargis of Stonesong.

Find Stephanie's blog here and her twitter here.

Throwback Thursday!!

**Come take a peek at the past...our very own D.F. Matthew's first post**

IMAGINING A NEW WORLD WITH HELP FROM A BLUE HEN

Recently I was waltzing down the aisles at my local bookstore (yes I said waltzing) and I actually took a moment to truly look at what was available to read. I was stunned to realize how bland the selections before me actually were. Seriously. How uninspired the books felt.
Tell me if this sounds familiar. You make your way into your favorite bookstore. You’re greeted at the door with the aroma of overpriced yet delicious coffee and baked goods; the sight of aisles upon aisles of books waiting to be chosen like pound puppies sends your heart a flutter, and the store owner’s offers of a foot massage. Okay, aside from the last part, you are in a slice of heaven right now. You come across your favorite section; check what actually lines the shelves. Am I wrong? About ninety percent is the same book told in a different voice. Even in a category like Sci-fi/ fantasy you’re hard pressed to find many new ideas. Dragons, orcs, trolls, wyverns, oh this one has the fabled golden dragon, wait, I just read that one.
Where did all the imagination go?...(Continue reading HERE)

Getting the Call: Phoenix Sullivan

This writer has helped me out so many times that I couldn’t wait to get her post. Phoenix Sullivan has picked apart query letters for myself and dozens of others. She’s even applied her talents to assist with the dreaded synopsis. Her version is still the one I use for my synopsis. On her blog, she pays it forward every day with self-publishing strategies. Phoenix has carved her own path, and she can be her own boss.

Like many of you, I pinned a lot of hope on getting "The Call." Two manuscripts and 300 queries later the phone still hadn't rung.

One of those manuscripts, Spoil of War, had been taken to the editorial board at two separate publishers. Two agents sent revision letters for it that, unfortunately, would have turned the story into something it was not.

SECTOR C got 12 passes on the requested full, with most of those agents saying there was nothing they would change about the story and that they fully expected it to sell. Pretty much everyone praised the writing and the voice in each manuscript. I figured Spoil of War, cross-genre with some controversial subject matter and a nod to the sensibilities of the 1980s, might be a tough sell.

SECTOR C, though, was high concept and I hoped it would be highly commercial. In another time, another economy, the consensus seemed to be, it would have been picked up quickly. But non-apocalyptic, near-future science fiction wasn't commanding a large enough market to take a chance on it. A smaller, digital-first press would probably have picked it up, but the idea of low royalties with little to no advance and the low sales associated with many small publishers didn't impress me.

When "The Call" finally came, it was more of a "Wake-Up Call" or "A Call To Action." I could closet these two stories and attempt the query-go-round with my next yet-to-be-written manuscript ... or I could self-publish them and see where that could lead. Self-publishing successes were just beginning to make the news, and it was becoming clear the new generation of self-publishing was not the vanity publishing of the past but a new beast entirely. It wouldn't be easy -- but I do dearly love a challenge.

That was "The Call" I answered.

And a challenge it clearly was. Marketing an ebook has as much to do with luck as perseverance and knowledge of the techniques. I published Spoil of War: An Arthurian Saga in April 2011. SECTOR C followed in September. Neither started with a huge splash. After a major publicity hiccup in August, Spoil of War found its audience on iTunes, where it's consistently been in the Top 3 in Historical Fantasy in the UK and AU stores and in the Top 10 in the US since December. And despite a rough start on Amazon, it's currently the #1 Arthurian Fantasy based on popularity and is featured on the front page of Amazon's Science Fiction & Fantasy storefront.

SECTOR C keeps bouncing up the rankings only to fall back then bounce back up again. In January, it was the #2 bestselling Medical Thriller on Amazon. Twice it's been featured as the representative title for Science Fiction on the Kindle E-books landing page on Amazon. In April, it climbed up to #84 on the Top 100 bestsellers chart storewide and made Amazon's Movers & Shakers list. A pretty good showing for a little book nobody wanted.

In December, I also published Vet Tech Tales: Confessions of an Animal Junkie, a novella-length volume of essays about my early experiences of becoming a veterinary technician. In its present form, it's too short for a traditional publisher to care about, and I would have had to wait until I completed at least 3 times as many essays/chapters to even begin querying it. As it is, the first volume, at 99 cents, is selling while I'm writing the next. In fact, just this last week it was on several Top 100 Bestseller lists, including #1 Veterinary Medicine, #97 Science, #24 Animal Care & Pets, and #56 Home & Garden. 

I'm not getting rich off of my books, but I'm pretty happy with the supplemental income they're providing. I don't have to sell nearly the number of ebooks on my own that I'd have to sell through a traditional publisher to make the same amount of money. And, because I'm offering my books free through Amazon and/or iTunes periodically, I can still get the books into thousands of readers' hands and, hopefully, in front of their eyes. Being able to get that level of distribution along with high royalties for what I sell is pretty sweet.

While I'm not (yet) in the league of those who've sold tens of thousands of their books online, I'm confident I've made more so far than I would have going with a digital-first or small publisher. I tend to be very open on my writing/e-publishing blog about what I've made, so I don't mind sharing my sales figures with you here.

·         I made about $2000 in 2011 and am right at $11,000 earned so far in 2012. (The learning curve for online marketing was, for me, a long one – I got better at it in December.)

·         I've sold 8675 copies of my books in total.

·         620 copies have been borrowed through Amazon Prime, meaning Amazon has paid me between $1.50 and 2.50 per each borrow (the amount varies month to month).

·         I've given away 69,860 copies of my books through Amazon and iTunes.

If the right deal with a large traditional house were offered, I'm pretty sure I'd take it (although "right" is getting harder and harder to negotiate). But I'm not going to go hunting it down. And the right house won't be a digital-first press or a small imprint. Not because I'm arrogant, but because I've seen too many good books not get the push they need to get the sales they deserve. I would willingly work with someone who can take my sales to the next level, but most of the small publishers I've seen haven't learned how to sell their ebooks on Amazon or iTunes or Barnes & Noble. And if you can't sell well in those venues you really can't compete.

When I think about querying again, I have only to remember an author friend of mine who snagged a well-respected agent nearly a year-and-a-half ago. The author made agent-requested revisions and the agent shopped the manuscript but was unable to sell it. This was the author's second agent (the first retired) and the second manuscript the author couldn't sell. The agent refused to shop a third manuscript the author had completed because the agent didn't think the non-US locale would be marketable. So the author is now polishing a fourth manuscript to try again. Although agented, this author is no further along in their career than they were 6 years ago.

I've beta-read for this author. The writing is wonderful. It's their timing and luck that need improvement.

Sometimes, it's up to us to make our own luck.

What I've learned from my friend's experience, my own experiences and others' is that "The Call" isn't the same for everyone -- and the results can vary widely. For many, "The Call" simply never comes. A few authors will hit that home run we all want; others will happily settle for a $3000 advance and a book that doesn't earn out. And others still will heed a "Wake-Up Call" of their own and self-publish -- with the same variance in results. There are self-published books that can't sell 10 copies a month and those that sell 10,000.

Who really knows ahead of time which books will break out? The best any of us can do is study the market and follow our heart.

And maybe throw a bit of salt over our shoulder while we tuck that 4-leaf clover behind our ear…