Kathleen Colvin, Author

Cozy Mysteries

The Author's Life

What It Takes to Be A Traditionally Published Writer: Pitching

Photo of Kathleen Colvin at her computerI write about strong historical women. I need inspiration in my own life, because being a novelist is a tough business. There’s long hours with potentially little pay while you strive to get it right.

Selling your work is part of writing. If you want a big traditional publisher, you need an agent. A lot of writers chase agents, and it’s easy for you to be lost in the hundreds of emails that crowd their inboxes every week.

One way to be successful at pitching is to attend a writing conference like Willamette Writers, which is being held this weekend in Portland, Oregon. This year, I’m on the conference committee.

The pitching room at Willamette Writers is in a huge banquet room. You have about five minutes to sell your book to the agent. Every minute counts.

Believe me, it’s rough. The only way I know how to handle it is to prepare:

Memorizing the pitch. I usually start a week ahead of time and learn the pitch sentence by sentence. I practice where I’m going to put suspenseful pauses and hand gestures.

When I’m in a pitch, I know exactly what I’m going to say. That takes a lot of pressure off.

Dressing strong. Conference attire is “business casual.” I wear what makes me feel strong. I’m invincible in a crisp white shirt.

Lean in. I’m at the table. The pleasantries are over and the agent looks at me expectantly. Before I start my pitch, I lean in slightly. That’s what you do when you have a great story to tell a friend. Then I smile and say my pitch.

Taking notes.  Some agents will pass, some will ask for 10 pages, others will ask for the whole manuscript. I carry a leather folder large enough to hold an 8 1/2 by 11-inch notepad. In the middle of the pitch, when agents tell me what to send them, I write it down.

Right after I walk out of the pitch room, I pause and review my notes. There’s no opportunity to later ask the agent for clarification.

The pitch goes awry. Sometimes I pitch to an agent whom, despite my best research, turns me down flat. They’re not interested. It’s awkward. I have three industry questions just in case. Even though this isn’t the agent for me, they still see trends.

When I’m done. I follow through and send everything requested to every agent. It’s a critical step to success.

Pitching is tough. But women have always done tough things, so I’m not alone.

 

Want to Be a Good Novel Writer?

How do you become a good novel writer?

Put in the time.  A long time. About ten years.

Photograph of a woman writer typingSure, for a few writers, they’re prodigies like Mary Shelley, who wrote the classic Frankenstein before her twentieth birthday. For the rest of us who juggle other demands in our lives, it takes years.

I’ve put in the time. I’m back working on chapters of my latest novel, and I can feel that the writing is better, much better than I’ve ever produced before.

Last week I read a chapter to my writing critique group, Puget Sound Writers’ Guild, who are an educated, sophisticated, and picky bunch. They echoed what I thought was wrong with the chapter, but overall the consensus was that it was darn good.

There’s a handful of Guild members who have been around for years. I’ve seen them progress. My friend Jeremy is one such writer. He gets up extra early every day to spend time writing before he goes to work. Years have gone by. He was good before, but now he’s great.

I’ve also seen newbies come into the group, with stars in their eyes how they’re going to “make it rich” by banging out a novel in six months. Their writing isn’t great, and they don’t stick around long enough to get better.

Malcolm Gladwell is well known for stating that it takes 10,000 hours to become proficient at something. Doing the math, that’s putting in 1,000 hours for 10 years, which sounds daunting.

It is. Writing a great novel takes time.

Help Me Craft the Back Cover of My Novel

Want to help me craft the back cover copy of my new novel Marc Antony’s Best Wife coming out this fall?

I’ve tested it on my writers’ group and a marketing expert. Can you make it even better?

Here it is:

Fulvia, the wife of pleasure-loving Marc Antony, knows that whoever controls Rome controls the fate of the empire. When Julius Caesar is assassinated, Rome is thrown into chaos. To assure her children’s survival, she guides her husband to oppose Octavius, Marc Antony’s rival to rule Rome.

When her husband turns against Fulvia, she uses her wits, wealth, and intelligence to fight Octavius. She must sacrifice her forbidden love to keep her family together. Marc Antony makes a political pact, and Fulvia is forced to give her daughter to Octavius in marriage.

While Marc Antony is overseas having an affair with Cleopatra, Octavius battles Fulvia for control of the army. Fulvia retreats with Marc Antony’s soldiers and becomes trapped in a hill town in Perugia. Starving and forced to submit to Octavius, she must choose between losing her family or her life.

Marc Antony’s Best Wife is the story of a woman who triumphs in the cut-throat world of Ancient Rome.

Thank Goodness! I Finished the First Draft of My Latest Novel!

I confess I cried when I printed it out

Yesterday at 9:30 AM I wrote “Finis” on a 304-page first draft of my latest novel.

I couldn’t resist writing a dramatic Latin word at the end, because it’s been a hard slog. I started the draft the first of December.  There’s been some delays, like the death of my mother-in-law and a 2-week trip to the Southwest to try to recover.

I’ve never whipped out a draft this fast. All along, as the words flowed out, I repeated the phrase of a writing mentor: “I’ll fix it later.”

So every character in the novel nods their head. (I’ll fix it later). A significant character disappears after the first six chapters (I’ll fix it later). The love interest doesn’t even get one smooch with my protagonist (I swear, I’ll fix it later).

Frankly, the draft smells like 3-day-old fish that’s been left out on the counter. First drafts generally do.

And yes, I’m pooped. But I was motivated.

It may not look like much, but it was a fine meal

I talked to my sister before she left for France a few weeks ago about finishing the novel before she returned.

“How can you get it done without me nagging you?” she said.

On the phone, she couldn’t see my eye roll. But her question made me doubly motivated. I’m a self-disciplined kind of gal.

So precisely 12 hours before my sister arrived at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to return to the U.S., I was done! Finis!

And before my sister had boarded her plane, I had consumed my celebratory dinner of German pancakes with lemon and powdered sugar, a treat I’ve had since I’ve been a kid.

It sure tasted good.

 

My Vacation: Ten Bookstores in Five Days

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My treasure from the bookstores
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Tables to linger at outside of Book Passages

I used to think that the answers to everything could be found in books.

Now the internet has all the answers…or does it? I rarely find depth in Google offerings. So when I want to research something, I still turn to books.

San Francisco is a city full of independent bookstores, both for new and used treasures. I usually have my eight or so favorite bookstores that I go to time and time again. But this time it was different. I deliberately went to unexplored bookstores in neighborhoods new to me.

It was a joyful time. I loved the unexpected finds.

After all, at Dog-Eared Books, I couldn’t have known that I wanted a history of women’s strength training with the title of “Venus with Biceps.”

Words of wisdom on the Green Apple book cart
Words of wisdom on the Green Apple book cart

Or that at the art museum bookstore I needed a book called “Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk.”

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Great wallpaper at Adobe Books

I delighted at finding book-related wisdom. In the Self-Help section of Green Apple books by the Golden Gate Park was a hand-lettered sign: “Aren’t all books self-help?”

The Green Apple book cart at their main store on Clement Street had other wisdom: “Think before you speak. READ before you think.”

I wanted the wallpaper in the backroom of Adobe Books that had the pattern of shelves of books.

The wonderful thing is, even when I do the tour next time, there’ll be new treasures as well as old ones.

How joyous!