So here’s the scoop on who you should pay, when, and why.

“Literary agents” (quotation marks deliberate) who ask for a fee for editing, or who recommend an editing service, are likely scam artists who have no interest in placing manuscripts with publishers. Run, do not walk, away from this sort of interest in your book. Yeah, it’s exciting to hear their enthusiasm. You’ll be a lot less enthusiastic once you’ve spent time with them.

Legitimate literary agents comply with ethical standards that prohibit them from charging authors a fee (beyond minimal office expenses for postage and copying——many do not even charge for those, and most charge only against advances received).

Agents make their money only on manuscripts sold. Agents pay money to authors; they do not collect money from authors. When your book is sold to a publishing house, your agent will collect an agreed-upon percentage of whatever it is that you make from the book. You should never write a check to your agent.

Now … on to editing.

Authors who are preparing manuscripts for submission to literary agents may wish to take full responsibility for the editing of their submissions. They often belong to peer-editing writing groups, writing workshops, critique groups, etc., and I strongly advise you, if you’re writing a book, to send it through this review process.

While a pass by a professional editor may be a worthwhile investment for the submission package of a few chapters, it is not absolutely necessary.

However, a self-publishing author is a publisher and, like all publishers, is responsible for having the book professionally edited before publication. This is when you write the check, folks. Editing (which may include both developmental editing and copyediting) is a normal part of the publishing process and is best done by skilled professionals, who do not work for free.

So … clearer? Let me know if you have any other questions. Recognizing the various roles in the publishing industry and moving efficiently through them is the best way to be seen as a professional; and it will put you … beyond the elements of style!

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Interesting conversation about pitch, which leads me to think what all writers, particularly unpublished writers, need in their arsenal LONG, LONG before they start running around trying to corral an agent, publisher, or self-pub their masterpiece.

• GENRE Identification: Don’t snicker. If you can’t categorize the principle genre of your story, you’ve got one strike against you with an agent, and for some agents, it’s three strikes, and you’re out. GHOST had elements of sci-fi, fantasy, humor, chick flick, thriller, and mystery well integrated into the plot, but at the heart of it, it was a romance (Ditto). Don’t confuse or frustrate the agent. The agent has to sell it to a publisher. And if you self-publish, you will have to categorize your story as well. Fortunately, sometimes you’re able to pick two or three categories as a self-publisher, but understanding your own story is important for gathering an audience.
• Pitch: That 20-second, professional sound bite that clearly summarizes your novel with the 5W’s (who, what, where, when, and why) without sounding like a newscaster on speed. (Yes, occasionally a “W” is understood by inference.) At conferences, more success can be achieved from having that “elevator” pitch while riding the elevator, sharing a drink, going to the bathroom, waiting for a cab, signing in, meeting & greeting, or having pleasant dinner conversation with an agent than anything else. Remember when you write it, that this is vocalized. Practice it so that it feels natural.
• Short (TV-Guide) synopsis (log line): This is your written 25 words (much like the pitch) that sums up your story in one sentence. Don’t say you can’t do it…the TV guide has been doing it for over sixty years for every conceivable novel turned into a movie. This is something that you have posted everywhere so everyone sees that you have a book and this is what it’s about. It’s the tease to ease someone into your lair.
• 100-word synopsis: This is the 100-word synopsis of your story that can be used as the basis of your query. This is the one that is the sales pitch without the ending, making the reader ask the question, “What happens?”
• Long-pitch: This is the expanded version of your pitch. This is the 90-second expansion of the key points in your short pitch. This is the statement you make after the agent trapped in revolving doors says, “Tell me more.” They’re not asking you to ramble on endlessly, they want to know if the initial idea has some legs. Does it have complementary and competing sub-plots? Just how idiosyncratic is your protagonist, antagonist? How unique is the setting? Are there possibilities for sequels? How does the story lead to the climax? Is there a climax after the climax? Have your 10-15 second tag-on ready if they ask how does it end.
• 500-word synopsis: This is the synopsis of your story with the ending.This is about one-page, single-space typed. This is the proof that you have command over your story and is often the next thing after three chapters that an agent wants. While there can be requests for other lengths for different types of books, I’ve only been asked for a longer synopsis once, and that was about six years ago. Bottom line. If you can’t write it on one page, the agent’s going to think that you don’t understand the heart of the story.

Are there other things to have in your arsenal? Sure. You could have a 50-word synopsis, a 200-word synopsis, talking notes in case the agent wants to chat with you over dinner on his tab at a fancy restaurant (hey, we can dream).

But the most important item you need in your bag of tricks, is a completed, well-edited book. And now-a-days, you might carry it around on a flash-drive just in case, just in case. “I do believe in spirits; I do believe in spirits.”

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Rick Bylina is a novelist and generally interesting person living in North Carolina. Now available: “One Promise Too Many” and “A Matter of Faith.” Read his blog here, and then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

In general I’ve agreed with his opinions, so I have no problems recommending him. Check it out, and then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

I run a national publishing consulting firm and shop manuscripts to all of the Mind/Body/Spirit publishers. Here’s what I can tell you about them:

While it is possible to shop directly to a publisher, you MUST have a very strong book proposal to accompany your manuscript — and, like anything, it helps if you have connections to people within that publishing house, especially to the acquisitions editors.

Here is more information you should know:

You must have a unique twist to your subject matter. No publisher is looking for material that has already been covered, and so much of the New Age thought/philosophy/techniques have been covered. That’s why Harper Collins, who used to be a major publisher of New Age books, rarely publishes them anymore. It wasn’t until The Secret that the MBS publishers started to really “rev” up again. Now there are a flood of Law of Attraction knock-offs on the market, but that phase will probably wear thin soon.

You had better have a very strong promotional plan and be out there promoting PRIOR to sending them your manuscript, because publishers are interested in authors who have eyeballs — in other words, those authors who are out in front of audiences where they are being seen continually. Likewise, the competition section of your proposal had better be strong, because otherwise publishers will know you didn’t do your homework.

I know the majority, if not all, of the Mind/Body/Spirit publishers. Never tell a publisher that you know you have a bestseller or that you know Oprah will want to interview you. They will see both of these statements as signs of an amateur.

While you don’t necessarily need an agent to approach many of the MBS publishers, you will want an agent or someone at the NWU to help you with your contract. I used an NWU contract advisor for my first book, which was published by a New Age publisher. That advisor was superb. She gave me eight hours of her time and went through every single detail, telling me what I should fight for and what rights I should not give away. That being said, if I had to do it over again, I would have hired a literary agent to negotiate the contract at an hourly rate, because I didn’t have the clout to get everything I wanted as a first-time author. If I’d had an agent working with me, I could have at least doubled my advance.

So, who are the few agents out there who accept New Age books? Anyone ever hear of Eckhert Tolle? I consistently shop manuscripts to Eckhert Tolle’s agent. So far, this agent has been willing to consider every client I’ve sent to him. My reputation is always on the line when I send something out, so a book has to be polished and a book proposal has to be exemplary before I will ever send it out to someone who can command the kind of advance that Tolle’s agent can command.

Then there’s Sylvia Brown’s agent, but she only takes manuscripts that she believes will get a high six or seven figure advance and you had better have the promotional plan in place to prove it.

There are a few other agents I work with who shop to MBS publishers and there are still other agents I hire to negotiate contracts when I’ve found a publisher for one of my clients. They will negotiate a contract for $50/hour and
have taken about five hours to do contracts for me in the past.

So, there you have it. I hope this letter does not come across as self-serving. It is truly my intention to provide information that helps those who publish in the Mind/Body/Spirit genre to have the success they desire.

Much of this is good advice that transcends genres. As you know, putting together the best possible book proposal and brilliant query letter, having a platform, and having a terrific manuscript are the keys to getting published anywhere, though perhaps particularly so in this niche area. Follow his advice and you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!

Second truth: everyone needs to be edited. Everyone. Every writer has idiosyncracies at best and errors at worst, and there is no way that the writer can be aware of them all. The fact is that one editor probably won’t be aware of them all, either, but he or she has a lot better chance of it than does the writer.

So where does that leave you?

You’ve written your book. You’re about to embark on a search for an agent or publisher. You decide that the first thing to do is to get it — your masterpiece, that is — professionally edited. Right?

Wrong.

I’m not saying that your book doesn’t need editing; au contraire, I’m quite willing to bet that it needs a lot of editing. But that same amount of editing is also going to be very expensive, and it may not be the best use of your funds at this time.

Instead, consider this: what you really want to do is capture the attention and interest of a literary agent or of a publisher. That’s your real goal here, not having a picture-perfect manuscript.

What will you be sending out in your quest for arousing that interest? Certainly not the entire manuscript! Instead, you’ll be sending out a proposal, which will include — at most — three chapters of the manuscript. It will also include other essentials, such as a synopsis, an analysis of competing books already in the marketplace, a statement of your platform, an outline, and other components.

You’re starting to get the idea: I can tell. Your first order of business is to make this proposal the best proposal it can possibly be. So by all means have it edited — and have those first three chapters edited, also — and hold off on the whole manuscript until someone has asked you to send it to them.

You can have someone write the proposal — it’s one of the things that I do for clients — but that’s relatively expensive. Consider writing your own and then sending it to a top-notch editor. You’ll pay up to a couple thousand dollars, but you won’t be in for too much; and if no one asks for it (perish the thought!), you’ll still be able to pay next month’s rent!

And then you’ll be … beyond the elements of style!