Nick Harrison’s Blog

I enjoy hearing about the experiences of fellow writers. I think most of us do. In this first interview for my blog, I’m turning to Linda S. Clare, author of The Fence My Father Built. I had the honor of reading Linda’s manuscript a while back. I loved the story, but it wasn’t a good fit for Harvest House. Linda kept going and when the time was right, she connected with Abingdon Press. Their recently developed fiction line under the guidance of Barbara Scott has been impressive indeed, including at least one starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. That’s something many authors would give their first born to receive.

Here’s Linda’s book on Amazon:

Q. Linda, your previously published books were non-fiction. Isn’t The Fence My Father Built your first published novel? If so, what was the transition from non-fiction to fiction like?

A. Fiction was my goal all along. At one time, common advice to writers was to publish nonfiction to establish oneself and then move to fiction. It’s not the case anymore—nowadays, many nonfiction writers need a built-in platform, or reader base, in order to succeed in nonfiction. So when I finally made it to fictionville, I was thrilled. The switch was natural for me. I love making stuff up.

Q. I know this novel has been one you’ve been passionate about for some time.

A. You mean like 15 years? Maybe rabid is more like it. It was at times hard to be passionate, but I will say I never gave up on my characters. The novel would come “close but no cigar” at some pub house and I’d put it away, only to take it out and revise it later. One day I even drove around lost, in a pouring rain, looking for a certain editor’s office. He turned me down and he knows who he is.

Q. Can you give us a brief history of how it came about?

A. I took a fiction workshop in the mid 1990s from Melody Carlson, a chum of mine, and Muri Pond simply appeared. She told me she had to find her long lost father. I kid you not. I just wrote down what she told me to write.

Q. What was the initial seed-idea that resulted in The Fence My Father Built?

A. The year before Melody’s workshop, I’d written a novel called Edge of Wonderland. I’d secured New York representation and thought it was going to launch my writing career. That book, set in the desert, also had strong themes of father-daughter relationships.

Q. The road to publication for any novelist can be paved with rejections. Was that the case for you?

A. It might surprise some readers, but big-shot New York agents don’t sell every book they represent. Mine couldn’t find a home for my novel. She told me to “go write another one.” That’s when I wrote The Fence novel. If so, how did you handle rejection? It was devastating at first to come so close and ultimately not be published on that first book. You will note I don’t say I failed. Many author’s first novels are lying in a drawer. You must pick yourself up and go on, keep honing writing skills, learn the business. That’s what I did.

Q. What is your writing schedule like?

A. I used to be a morning writer but for the past 10 or so years, I’ve taught college writing at night. Now I generally write my blog, etc in the morning and work on my WIP from 1PM until 4PM.

Q. What authors have influenced your writing?

A. First and foremost, Barbara Kingsolver, especially her Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, and Poisonwood Bible. We’ve both explored similar themes of relationships and the desert or unfamiliar environment. Others include Jodi Picoult, Elizabeth Berg, Marilynne Robinson and Sherman Alexie. I also love memoir, especially Frank McCourt, Kaye Gibbons and Jennifer Lauck. My favorite kind of novel is a coming-of-age story told in first person. As far as Christian fiction goes, I’m a newcomer. But I really think Joyce Magnin, (The Prayers of Agnes Sparrow) Mary De Muth (Daisy Chain) and Susan Meissner (The Shape of Mercy) are strong writers who are changing the face of Christian fiction. And watch out for Southern writer (also Abingdon) Christa Allen (Walking on Broken Glass).

Q. Has procrastination or writer’s block ever been a problem for you? If so, how did you handle them?

A. Writing is my therapy—seriously. The incident with the New York agent sent me into a tailspin for several months. It was difficult to climb out of that snake pit. But here I am.

Q. You occasionally teach writing workshops and classes here locally. Has that had an effect on your writing in any way?

A. Of course! I learn as much if not more than my students do. Since teaching was my first career (I taught art in elementary schools) teaching writing keeps the basics in front of me all the time. Problems my students face in fiction are the same as what I face as a writer: writing interesting characters in trouble. Keeping them interesting and in trouble isn’t always the easiest way to write. But it’s the only way that works.

Q. How did The Fence My Father Built find a home at Abingdon?

A. I know this isn’t helpful to up-and-coming novelists looking for a sale, but once again my friend Melody Carlson rides to my rescue. She happened to chat with Abingdon editor Barbara Scott, who said she was looking for a few good manuscripts for a start-up fiction line. I sold The Fence My Father Built unagented. The rest is history. But if I had to give a new writer with a hot manuscript advice, it would be this: Write, write, write. Read, read, read. Revise, revise, revise. Find a good critique group. Produce, produce, produce. Try getting some articles published in magazines. Network. Keep writing. Never give up.

Q. The Fence My Father Built has gotten some very nice reviews. I notice that one Amazon reviewer said, “I was pleased to find that this is not a ‘religious’ genre book…” Is it hard for a Christian writer to not be message-heavy in his or her fiction?

A. First of all, I have been so pleased by the reviews. But part of my story as a novelist lies in the timing. My novel had to wait for the market, I think. Readers increasingly want to find their own conclusions and meaning. They demand complex characters who reflect our complex world. Christian fiction readers want good, clean entertainment, but they also want deep meaning and poignancy. It just so happens that Abingdon promotes a solid message of the human condition illuminated, showing characters who struggle with real life problems—whether they’re looking for a long-lost father or facing the “big” 5-0 birthday. The authors I’ve worked with at Abingdon make you laugh, cry and shout for joy at the redemption, faith, hope and love in the stories. All without shoving the Christian message down readers’ throats. I don’t know about other writers but my style is to show how God is for us but without the shoving.

Q. Is there any particular part of writing fiction that is hardest for you (plotting, character development, dialogue, etc)?

A. Shhh! Don’t tell anybody but plotting is difficult for me. I tend either toward the melodramatic or the desolate ending. Sometimes I take awhile to get the climax scenes right. I think most writers exhibit their own world view in their characters and in their plots. Mine is, “We’re all really messed up but hey! God’s going to sing us through whatever we face.” I believe in the ABCs of redemption: God Always with us, Bringing us eternal life in Christ our Savior.

Q. Have you always been writer?

A. Yes! Well, at least from about age 10 or so, when I was quite sickly with chronic bronchitis and asthma. I stayed home and wrote stories and poems on my great-aunt’s enormous black Underwood typewriter. Mother sent my stuff to children’s magazines. Later, at age 16, my first publication was a poem I sold to The Denver Post newspaper. I was thrilled—and hooked on writing.

Q. Do you have a goal for your writing?

A. Beyond becoming a bestselling household name? My goal is to write as many good books as I possibly can. I’m a polio survivor with a crummy thing called Post-polio Syndrome—I tire very easily and I type one-handed. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to do, but you can bet I’ll be doing it with gusto and style.

Q. What are you working on now?

A. I have several works-in-progress. I’m nearly finished with a stand-alone novel called Hiding from Floyd, about redemption for a family still grieving ten years after Floyd, who was seven, died tragically while playing Hide and Seek with James, his very strange brother. I’m also pitching a sequel to The Fence My Father Built called The Hallelujah Gate, starring Nova, Muri and the Red Rock Tabernacle Ladies. If it’s contracted I get to write more about Native Americans and vortexes. And I have a completed memoir about my childhood stays in a Shriners Hospital, called, One Hand Clapping.

Q. Any parting advice for fiction writers?

A. As I said earlier, write, write, write. Read, read, read. Revise, revise, revise. Smiling doesn’t hurt. And never give up.

Early next week I should be posting my first interview here. I hope you’ll watch for it. In the meantime, today’s entry is repost of something I wrote for another blog a couple of years ago. Most of you will not have seen it, but if you’re a writer, you’ll relate to it. Here ’tis:

I’m in a bad mood today. Give me a couple of days and I’ll bounce back—I always do. My bad mood is from the same source as your bad moods: a rejection. This one was particularly painful because it was from a publisher I’ve published two prior books with and my new proposal was for my best book yet….in my opinion. They did not agree.

I wish I could say that rejections get easier as the years go by. And for some people, I suppose they do. But I’m not one of those people. I actually have warm blood running through my veins. Smiley here.

If you too have warm blood, you likely go through some variation of the following stages when faced with a major rejection:

1. The first stage, of course, is the What are those stoopid editors thinking stage. This proposal is GOOD! Why can’t they see that? And compare my novel with what IS selling these days! Ack! (Of course, when I reject a novel from an author, it’s always the right decision. I’m clearly exempted from the inept editor category). Another smiley here please.

2. Next comes: I’ll show them! I’ll send it out to a really knowledgeable editor who will publish it to great acclaim. A year from now they’ll be holding meetings trying to remember which editor was responsible for letting this masterpiece slip away!

3. Step three is the food and TV stage. Lots of feel-good food, like pizza, donuts, chocolate chip cookies, Breyer’s ice cream (vanilla, of course). TV-fare like old “I Love Lucy” reruns. Anything that’s funny and mindless. Barney Fife is a great restorer of one’s soul at times like this.

4. Next (after a day or two of misery) I might actually pray about the rejection. Okay, okay, I know this should be step one….but somehow ranting for a couple of days is more fun, if less spiritual. But after the rant and after the gorging, there has to come a time where I must acknowledge that which I’ve known all along: God is my agent. God is the one who directs my writing path. Long ago all of this was surrendered to Him. And yes, another rejection is a clear reminder that God has not seen fit (once again) to consult my timetable. Prayer calms me down. It starts to bring me back into focus. During this phase I may even do some repenting for steps one, two and three.

5. When I think I might be ready to face life as a writer once again, I usually drive over to Barnes & Noble, get a venti-sized mocha, and browse awhile. Usually I’ll pick up a few attractive books and read the first few lines. For some reason, this motivates me. Why, I could have written this, I think. Being in the company of all those books is like finding comfort among close friends. No doubt many, if not most of the books on the shelves at Barnes & Noble were rejected at least once before finding a publisher. I recall the story of Patrick Dennis and his manuscript for Auntie Mame. He started sending it out by working his way through an alphabetical list of publishers. It was finally accepted by Vanguard Press.

6. By the time I’m ready to drive home from the bookstore, I’m beginning to think clearly again. Actually there are two places where I do my best thinking about my writing: in the driver’s seat and in the shower—neither of which is conducive to jotting down all the insights that sprout up. But somehow on the drive home or somewhere during the next day or two, the creativity kicks in once again. The well that I thought was permanently parched by rejection has once again started to accept the trickle of ideas and what-ifs that might make for a great new book idea—or an improvement on the tear-stained manuscript still sitting where I left it after reading the dastardly rejection.

Hope springs eternal for the writer who won’t allow himself to become hardened by rejection. And even if I never publish another book, I’ll still endure gladly (okay, gladly probably isn’t the word here) the process that includes rejection. It’s in my blood, after all. That same warm blood coursing through my veins doesn’t know what it means to give up writing. I suppose that’s a good thing. I’ll be in a better position to decide in about 48 hours.

In the coming weeks, there are several things I’d like to do on this blog. One is to dispel a few myths, another is to do a few interviews with successful authors, yet another is to answer your questions (email them to me at nickbevh@comcast.net), and finally I’d just like to do the occasional rant…or encouragement…or whatever comes to mind.

I have several people in mind for interviews and I promise one real soon. But today I want to offer the first myth we should dispel. And this will be one that may draw some criticism from my editorial colleagues, but that’s okay. It might make for a lively discussion.

The myth is that you should never break rules in how you approach editors or try to have your work seen. Like all myths, there’s a grain of truth to this. It should go without saying that you shouldn’t be rude, pushy, or deliberately do something you know will rile an editor. However, that does leave some room for BENDING the rules WHEN IT SEEMS APPROPRIATE. (By the way, this is not an invitation for you to flood me with queries and proposals with a note saying, “but you SAID we should break the rules sometimes!”).

Breaking the rules efficiently largely has to do with your attitude. Politeness goes a long way. Several years ago I was eating at a restaurant several hours from home. A writer I had met at a conference recognized me and approached me and we began to talk. We had a nice conversation and I invited her to submit her manuscript to me at a later date. Was that pushy of her? Would you walk up to an editor in a restaurant and start off with something like, “You probably don’t remember me but….”

Some authors are too scared of offending an editor and would likely pass up that opportunity. Frankly, I was impressed that she remembered me. It was a divine appointment (though we did not end up publishing her novel).

Occasionally I get a phone call from an aspiring author. This is one of the worst rules to break, unless you have built a relationship with the editor and will keep the call short. I say that, and yet my favorite acquisition in all my years as an editor was the result of someone essentially making a “cold call” to Harvest House asking to “speak to an editor.” Dumb, dumb, dumb. And yet, when I took the call I found myself inviting the author to send me his self-published novel. Two weeks later when I read that novel, it was the first book I’d read in a long time that, as soon as I turned the last page, I wanted to start reading it over. Again, it was a divine appointment. (We did end up publishing his book. At one point I’ll dispel the myth that you should never consider self-publishing).

Another divine appointment happened when our company’s president ended up sitting next to the husband of a would-be author on an airplane. As any good spouse of a writer would do, he made a pitch on behalf of his wife’s book. We later published that book and it sold well. It was yet another divine appointment.

I’ve written several books of my own and my first major breakthrough was a divine appointment that resulted from me breaking a rule. I was an aspiring writer with only a few magazine articles to my credit when out of sheer desperation I chose my top six favorite publishers and simply wrote a one-page letter to each one with my qualifications and my query: did they have any books for which they needed a writer? I prayed, put the six letters in the mail and waited. Of course, I knew it was not kosher to approach publishers this way….but I was, as I said, desperate.

Little did I know that a couple of years earlier I had interviewed a woman for a magazine article who was now an editor at my number one publisher of choice. NUMBER ONE! She remembered me and responded to my letter and within a month I had my first book contract. I did two books for that publisher and both remain my bestselling books yet.

Now please hear me when I say this is not meant as an invitation to break the rules. I’d rather you see it as a call to watch for divine appointments. Unique ways to get a hearing with an editor. It’s a matter of learning how to balance action with humility. When to step out without being obnoxious. (Believe me, I could share stories of broken rules by would-be authors with whom I’d never want to publish).

I hope this advice helps you. But as I said, please don’t see it as an invitation to call me tomorrow or drop by the house for a friendly chat. And remember, not all editors are the same. Some editors may deeply resent even the slightest bending of the rules. Others, like me, are a bit more lax. We want to find really good writers and sometimes that means accepting a divine appointment we weren’t expecting.

Let this blog then be an invitation to pray for God to set up a divine appointment in His own way. Don’t let it be an excuse for acting unseemly.

If you have a story of a divine appointment that may have bent a rule or two, but which resulted in publication, send it my way and maybe I’ll do a blog of your responses. And if an editor reads this and wants to share a story of when an author bent a rule with you and yet it turned out to be the right thing to do, send it along. (Email them to nickbevh@comcast.net)

As many of you have likely heard, J.D. Salinger died today.

I have mixed feelings about Salinger. When I was in college in the 1960’s, he was the perfect author for a young angst-filled wanna-be writer. Like many of my generation, I identified somewhat with Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye. Even more revealing as to just how angst-filled I was (remember this was the 1960’s and being angst-filled was a required rite of passage) I even identified with the protagonist of Salinger’s short story, “A Perfect Day for Banana Fish.” If you haven’t read the story, suffice it to say the protagonist kills himself at the end. Reading Salinger as I did and listening to Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am a Rock” over and over ought to have earned me the angst merit badge. Fortunately, my angst was released considerably when I became a Christian somewhere late in those college years.

Fast forward several years to the day in my 30’s when I tried to read Franny and Zooey again. That book—and all the stories about the Glass family—had been my favorite Salinger books. But to a man who was now married with three thriving kids and a job he loved, well….let’s just say Franny and Zooey no longer satisfied a man who had lost his angst along with his Simon and Garfunkel records (except “Bookends” of course).

And now that I’m past sixty (gasp!), although I haven’t read a Salinger book from cover to cover in a long time, he still does influence me in one very special way. And that is through his writing voice. We often read about an author’s “voice” and how important it is; and justly so. And no author I can think of has a more distinctive voice than Salinger. I’m quite sure I could open up The Catcher in the Rye to any page, read a paragraph, and spend the rest of the day thinking in Holden Caulfield’s cynical voice. In fact, when I work on my YA novels (still unpublished of course—and undeservedly so!), I can detect the Salinger influence in my male teenage protagonists.

I think it’s good to have an author who can influence an aspiring writer’s voice in that way. It sure helps with writer’s block. As I’ve suggested many times, if you’re stuck and need a breakthrough on your work-in-progress, just pick a writer you love and type out a few paragraphs written by that author until you’re writing with his or her rhythms. It should be fairly easy then to transition to your own manuscript.

Salinger was a notorious recluse in his later life. As someone has said, he became famous for not wanting to be famous. I’m sure the question on the minds of most literary scholars is did Salinger leave a roomful of unpublished manuscripts? That would be the hope, since he hasn’t submitted anything for publication in decades. I suspect, though, most fans will hope nothing turns up. If it does, it will likely be lesser work and only diminish his reputation.

I’ll close this brief tribute to Salinger and his lasting influence on me by quoting an apt line from The Catcher in the Rye.

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours.”

Amen to that, Mr. Salinger.

The other night my wife and I went out to dinner. After our meal, she announced that she wanted to go the nearby mall for about an hour. No problem for me. Right across the street from the mall is a very delightful Barnes & Noble. An hour in a bookstore is right up there with an hour-long massage. So off we went.

As is my custom, my first task was to look over the new books, envying the editors of some of the books and thanking God I was not the editor of others. Next came the bargain books (and it was easy to see why some once promising frontlist titles were now “bargains”.) Then I checked out the “staff favorites.” As usual, no one working at Barnes & Noble reads the type of books I enjoy (nor do any of them read Christian books, apparently). Then I wandered over to the Christian fiction section and turned all the Harvest House novels face out (and yours too, Angie). I won’t tell you whose books I had to turn spine out in order to accomplish this. Then I took a few minutes to read the first few pages of our next book group selection to see if it’s going to be a good read. (It is). Finally, nearing the end of my hour, I made my way to the magazine racks. Among the writing magazines was the most recent copy of Paris Review. I’ve long admired their book-length collections of interviews with famous authors and skimmed through an interview in this issue with Norman Mailer. Not too far into the interview I had another one of those “aha” moments we writers get when we read something that rings true to our writing experience.

“I usually need a couple of weeks to warm up on a book,” Mailer said. He also said that sometimes he “broods” over his book before and during the writing.

I like that. He “broods.” If I were to name one common problem among much of the fiction I see in my role as an editor, it’s that the author has clearly not brooded long enough over the story either before beginning the book or as it was written.

Brooding, by the way, is not research. I know many novelists put in the necessary research before beginning their book….but I wonder how many put in the necessary brooding time. An unbrooded book is pretty easy to spot. Simply put, it has no life to it. It’s just a story—a lifeless story. Brooding imparts life into a story. Brooding allows an author time to get to know his or her characters. It also allows the writer time to get to know the story not as a set of events unfolding but as fictional history that the author and reader experience as reality.

How does brooding happen? Most authors will say that their books begin with just a single idea. Either a “what if” or a character who appears to them or some other small seed of a story. So the brooding starts when the seed is planted. Brooding continues as the seed idea is watered and given the sunshine of further imaginative thought so that it can grow into full bloom—sometimes (but not always) before the author even types page one.

Some women novelists compare this brooding time to carrying a baby. An expectant mother, no matter how eager, wouldn’t want to deliver her baby after only three, five, or even seven months. No, she wants that baby to wait until full term (even though the final weeks can seem endless), because when the baby is finally delivered, it’s far more likely to be a healthy baby than if delivered prematurely. So too with a book. A successful brooding period results in a healthier book.

What then does an author do while brooding? How does brooding happen? Does an author simply sit on one’s hands or play video games until the brooding process is complete? No, of course not. A good author knows that the time spent brooding brings results during the brooding process, in addition to after its finish.

For that reason, a notebook is indispensable during brooding; because, as an author broods, insight begins to somehow mysteriously happen—and sometimes at the most unexpected times and in the most inconvenient places. For some reason, this insight that comes during brooding will come at no other time in the creative process of writing a novel. Other valuable insights may come then, but not brooding insight. That’s why it’s important to capture this valuable insight while it’s fresh. Write it down the moment it occurs to you.

Brooding over the actual manuscript is encouraged too. Brood over the open document on your computer. Type snippets of dialogue that come to you. Revise scenes. If brooding is going well, your characters will speak to you during this time. Listen to them. They may suggest new motivations for their actions….or, if you’re brooding particularly well, one or more might even rebel against your predictable plot and reveal their true story, much to your surprise.

So don’t think of brooding as a passive time. A good writer’s mind is always active, always considering, always tinkering with the work at hand. Stephen King in On Writing refers to this as the “boys in the basement” doing their work.

One might think that this warm-up or “brooding” time becomes easier as a novelist progresses, but interestingly, Mailer says that these days (he’s in his 80’s and has been writing successfully for more than 50 years) his warm-up time for a new novel can take up to six months. Six months! That’s far longer than when he began writing all those decades ago. And I suspect if we were to ask Mr. Mailer, he would tell us that the brooding process cannot be hurried up….rushed. Just like a pregnancy.

Yes, there are successful writers who can churn out a book (maybe more than one) in less time than Mailer broods over his books, but as I read these novels I often wonder how much better they might have been had they been properly brooded over. And if you’re a beginning novelist, you may already know how hard it is to find a publishing home these days, simply because of the intense competition. If brooding will improve your fiction—and I believe it will—then it will give your novel a distinct advantage over the many unbrooded novel manuscripts that come across editors’ desks.

As I set Paris Review back on the rack, my wife arrived to pick me up. She had a great time at the mall, she said. But I had a better time. I had been reminded of an important lesson about writing fiction (I also realized why I had failed so miserably two years ago during National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) when aspiring authors are encouraged to “write a novel in thirty days” I need at least that long to brood).

Don’t you?

Like many of you, I read several blogs a day….mostly related to writing. Recently on one of the blogs it was suggested that the best thing an aspiring author should do in order to succeed is to learn to write better.

I have to take issue with that advice. While I agree that all writers—even long published authors—should be improving his or her writing, I don’t think that’s the most important thing one should do to become successful. There are many mediocre writers who succeed wildly….and many excellent writers who never achieve success. (If we’re defining success as publication and strong sales).

In fact, if you were to ask me my greatest regret about publishing, it’s that so many good writers never reach the heights they should. And to be honest, I’m really at a loss as to why that is. I don’t think it’s anything I can change, so I have to learn to adapt to it. And if you’re an aspiring writer, so do you.

So what then IS the most important thing one can do to succeed as a writer? (Given that we’re talking about Christian writers here, I’m going to assume you’ve already determined through prayer that you are called to write. That, I would say, is really number one). I believe it’s immersing oneself in the writing and publishing world. It’s LOVING that world and wanting desperately to be part of it. It means reading publishing trade journals and magazines (and blogs!) about publishing in the same way a 10-year-old boy devours silly joke books. It means learning the different publishing companies and what they publish and who their editors are. It means knowing which books are winning awards and which are topping the best seller lists. It also means knowing which books have failed and having an opinion as to why they might have failed. It means all this and much more. And not because you HAVE to, but because you WANT to. This is YOUR world. Your industry, if you will.

In short, you need a hunger for the world of writing, reading, and publishing that won’t be denied. Hobbyists need not apply. Of course, if you do have that hunger, you will also want to learn to improve your writing. You will understand that just as an aspiring pianist may want to play at Carnegie Hall, he or she will have to do a LOT of practicing to get there. In our industry it’s called collecting rejection slips. The measure used to be that a writer might have to write a million rejected words before seeing some success. Maybe that number has changed, but the process hasn’t.

Yes, there are the occasional success stories of authors who sort of stumbled into success, but they are certainly the minority. Most successful writers have earned their place at Carnegie Hall.

Here’s a personal question for you: Have you ever cried over a rejection? I don’t mean did you ever get misty and tear up? I mean did you ever bawl like a baby over a rejection? And then, after a time of proper grieving, did you get up, dust yourself off and get back to work? If so, that’s good. Ten points for you! (Soon I’ll share my “bawling like a baby” rejection. Ouch. It still hurts!).

That grief shows a hunger. You will not be denied….even if it means waiting, even if it means self-publishing your first book, even if it means skipping a vacation so you can afford to go to a writer’s conference.

When your discouragement is so great that it stifles your hunger to succeed, you’re in trouble. If that happens, re-evaluate. Maybe you WEREN’T called to this writing life. But if you were, then you’ll find that the hunger will soon beat down the discouragement and you’ll be back at your desk writing.

Now, go work on your manuscript. Even if only one page.

More next time.

And if this has been helpful, pass the word to other writers. Twitter for me if you don’t mind. I have yet to enter that world.

For a long time I’ve wanted to write about the author/editor relationship and today is the day. What has prompted this desire is my awareness of another instance where a good novelist has unwisely chosen to ignore advice from a good editor. (Not me, by the way).

Let me start by saying that good author/editor relationships are very, very important. Woe to either the author or the editor who must work with someone with whom they do not trust or respect. For an editor, editing a writer you love makes the job so easy and fun. And for the writer, having an editor who “gets” what you’re trying to do also makes life so much easier.

And when that happens, both author and editor should listen closely to what the other is saying. In the case I’m talking about, an author had an editor who LOVED the author’s previous work with another publisher, and, in fact, had read the multiple books by this author more than once. The editor, naturally, was delighted to be able to work this successful author.

But then when the manuscript was delivered, the editor noticed that not only was the content of the manuscript completely a surprise, but it was also likely to be harmful to the author’s career if published. It was a total departure from what the author had written previously. It was simply not a good move on the author’s part.

What was the author’s response to this editor’s valid concerns? The author essentially said (angrily and in a huff), “But God told me to write this book!” Yes, the author got mad at an editor who LOVED this author’s work and who was trying to save the author from disaster.

I couldn’t help but wonder if that author might just pause a moment and consider that in Christian publishing, God often chooses to speak to authors through their wise editors. To be honest, I doubt this author ever even considered such a thing. After all, “God told me to write this book!”

That’s hard to argue with, I suppose. But given the histrionics that accompanied this declaration, it’s hard to imagine the author heard from God at all. I’d like to refer that author to Galatians 5, but that would not likely stand against the “God told me to write this book!” argument.

So the author is now off to find a new editor. One who will rubber stamp the author’s insistence that this book is from God. What a sad mistake.

Another recent case almost makes me want to laugh. This example involved an author who insisted to the editor that he be shown every single edit made in the manuscript, including every comma added or deleted. I do not predict long-term success for that author.

This sort of author/editor breakdown happens every so often. It’s too bad when it happens. Editors have a purpose in the life of the author….and it’s not always just to insert or delete commas. Sometimes we editors can see from a different vantage point than the too-close author.

Happily, I can also report that these breakdowns are rare and that they are outweighed by the many times authors and editors sail along in a happy marriage, each respecting the other’s place in their life. Each allowing God to speak through the other.

If you’re an established author, my word to you is be very careful before you dismiss your editor’s advice or warning. If you’re a new author, I hope you find an editor who understands your mission as a writer and can help you get where to you want to go.

Life will be sweet then. God told me so.

Teri asked:

1. What is Harvest House especially looking for now as to genre, writing, etc.

As far as fiction goes, the Amish fiction has shown no signs of waning for us. It’s still strong. Contemporary fiction is not as popular. So we’re looking for well-written historical (largely 19th century) or Amish fiction. Non-fiction that does well for us usually addresses a “felt need” in a large number of readers.

2. What are some of the things in a proposal that make you want to request a full manuscript?

I usually consider the topic or genre, the writing as evidenced in the first few pages and, if non-fiction; what are the author’s credentials for writing this book?

3. What will make you put a manuscript in the rejection pile faster than anything?

A poorly written first page.

Those are all short answers to questions that deserve longer answers. I hope to give better answers as time goes by and I can tackle all sorts of topics individually, including those above.
As I said in my last blog post, your actual writing is only 60% of your success. The other 40% involves researching the publishers, following trends, going to workshops, reading the writing magazines and much more. Every writer should have a short list of the 5-7 publishers that are publishing the kinds of books he or she wants to write. You need to have those publishers’ websites bookmarked and visit them often. You need to learn who the editors are and which editors are most likely to appreciate what you do. And that’s the topic I promised to talk about this time….but which will now have to wait till next time. That topic is the crucial editor/writer relationship.

More next time. Please come back….and also tell your writing friends.

My New Year’s resolution is to blog regularly. It’s been a year since I made an entry here and that’s just too long. It’s not that I’ve nothing to say. I’m chock full of opinions—just ask anyone who knows me well. I’ll try to share some of those thoughts as we make our way through 2010.  Mostly I’ll blog about writing and getting published.  Many of my Facebook friends are writers and I suspect many of my blog readers will be also. But I reserve the right to blog on other topics as it seems appropriate.

Probably the best place to start is to help motivate you to success as a writer in 2010. Every writer I know has faced rejection and discouragement about their writing. I certainly have my share of rejection slips (and am collecting more all the time).  If you’re a beginning writer, rejection slips can be very depressing. (Not that they aren’t depressing to seasoned writers—they ARE). But for new writers, it’s especially hard. You wonder, “Am I on the right track? Did God call me to be a writer? If so, why is it so hard to get published?”  

I could probably blog all year on those three questions alone, but let me start by making three observations about writing success.

1.      Repeated rejection does not necessarily mean you’re not a good writer. In my role as a senior editor at Harvest House Publishers, I reject good writers all the time. I do so with great reluctance, but the truth is that every publishing company has limits to what they can publish.  We know what our company can reasonably publish in any given season and we choose the proposals that we think best fit our goals and are an appropriate fit for us.  Thus, we often have to reject fine proposals that we trust the author will send elsewhere until he or she finds the right publisher.

2.      A successful writing career is probably 60% about your writing and 40% about all the non-writing aspects of your career.  So, if you’re a good writer, you’re well on your way. But are you doing the 40% that will give you a leg up?  That 40% consists of things like knowing the current market, personal reading time, going to writer’s conferences (and meeting with editors), building the dreaded “platform,” belonging to a good critique group, and so on.

3.      For most successful writers, the path to that success was very incremental.  Patience is mandatory for aspiring writers.  If you love to write and desire to succeed, then write down some incremental goals and keep moving ahead.

Certainly prayer is key too. That almost goes without saying. I’ve published nine or so books now and mostly the way they came to be published astonishes me.  At some point in my blogging efforts this year, I’ll tell you how my first non-fiction book came to be published. It was nothing short of a miracle—and that’s often what it takes to get published these days.

Now I’m working on a book that is possibly the most exciting I’ve ever undertaken.  It’s still in the proposal stage, but I’m very hopeful about it.  For this writer, it’s a dream come true. But it almost didn’t happen. That too is a story I’ll try to blog about later in the year (after the proposal finds a publisher and I’m at liberty to write about it).

I don’t want to keep you here so long as to bore you, so I’ll try to keep my blog entries a reasonable length. 

One final thing: I read several blogs myself and I’ve noticed I enjoy it when those bloggers answer questions about writing (or other subjects). So you can help me out by asking questions you think would be of interest to writers and I’ll occasionally use this space to tackle some of those questions.  Email your questions to me at nickbevh@comcast.net and I’ll try to answer the ones that I think will benefit the most readers.

If you find what I write useful, please send my blog address to your friends. I’d love to build up my readership.  And if you’re not a writer, I hope to blog some things you too will find of interest in the coming months.

Next time I’m going to discuss the editor/author relationship.

Now go work on your WIP (work in progress).

I composed a Christmas greeting for the few people we know who do not do the internet. It goes out in the mail tomorrow. But for those of our friends who visit the blog or our Facebook wall, here is our holiday greeting. We really do wish everyone of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year…..and we hope we see many of you in 2009.

Christmas 2008

Dear Friends,

Christmas time once more!  This year finds the Harrison household plugging along just fine.  As always, there’s news to report…mostly good.

Perhaps the biggest change of the year was Bev deciding to quit her job as a sales rep for a large fabric manufacturer. For the past year she has enjoyed calling on quilt shops from here in Eugene as far south as Yuba City, California and east into Nevada.  Alas, she had no longer taken the job than the price of gas skyrocketed. And now that she’s quit, the price of gas has come back down. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.   The folks at Harvest House are happy though. Bev has come back to them and found work waiting for her. It’s nice to be so wanted!

For Nick, he continues happily at Harvest House and is still writing when he has time. Several book proposals are being sent around to various publishers via his agent.   One of the highlights of the year was a chance to work with a popular actress from the 1940’s and 50’s who wanted Nick’s help on a book about her life…..but then changed her mind when she realized that she’d really rather not relive some of what she went through. Nick was disappointed, but understood her feelings. 

Rachel and Winston are still in Eureka. Rachel is still writing both fiction and poetry and Winston has a wonderful job at the library with an office overlooking the bay.

Rebecca and Mike (and Joshua) welcomed their second son in January (Matthew Harrison Gores) and continue to prosper here in Eugene.  We love our time with the grandkids.

Bethany and Sean (and little Emma) will welcome their second daughter (Abigail Marie) in February.  We plan a trip to Nevada as soon as the new one arrives. 

Bev’s parents live in a small cottage behind us and keep very busy with their quilting business. It’s great to have them so close. Nick’s parents are still in San Jose, but we still hope for them to join us up here in Oregon soon. 

As 2008 concludes, Nick is happy to report that his prostate cancer is a thing of the past. His five year check-up was very positive and his urologist released him with the good news that there’s less than a three percent chance of recurrence.  Praise the Lord for good health!

Speaking of which, we pray that all of you will enjoy a healthy and happy 2009 and will stay in touch with us via mail, email, or Facebook. (Isn’t the internet great?  Nick reconnected with a friend he hasn’t heard from in 40 years!).  We also invite you to visit our website…though admittedly Nick doesn’t blog there as much as he’d like. The address is nickharrisonbooks.com and hopefully Bev will have some of her quilts posted there in 2009.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Nick and Bev!