Preparing for the Call

By Patricia Sargeant-Matthews

"The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare." – Juma Ikangaa, course record holder in the New York City Marathon

We work for years honing our writing craft – goal/motivation/conflict, point of view, pacing – hoping one day we’ll get The Call and a publisher will offer us a contract. But it’s not enough to hope. You also have to prepare for The Call.

Whether you’re an aspiring or published author, it’s important to continually study the publishing industry. You’ll need that research to make informed decisions. The bottom line is, you are ultimately responsible or your career. So the decisions you make before, during and after receiving that call – e-mail, courier pigeon – will lay the foundation of what we hope (and plan) will be a successful publishing career.

The market

Studying the market. That’s a huge proposition. What do you do? Where do you start? Actually, if you’re a member of Romance Writers of America® (RWA®), you’ve already started. By joining RWA, you’ve availed yourself of numerous resources to learn the business side of writing. Make use of every single service RWA and its chapters offer – that you can afford.

RWA’s monthly magazine, Romance Writers Report, the bi-monthly RWA Enotes and the association’s Web site provide market updates on publishing companies and literary agencies. These updates list publishers’ submissions guidelines, what editors and agents are looking for, how to submit to them and how to contact them. This is must-read information and you already paid for it with your dues. Don’t miss an issue.

If you haven’t already become an RWA PRO member, get thee to your chapter’s PRO liaison and find out what you need to do to qualify for PRO status. PRO membership opens even more opportunities for researching the industry, including the PRO Bootcamps and PRO resources.

RWA also offers a multitude of member loops that allow you to share information, insight and experiences with other aspiring/published authors. Some loops are free to national or chapter members; others require additional membership fees. Want to know more about a publisher’s line? Have a question about submitting to an editor? Send a message to the loop. Go on. The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.

It’s amazing how generous RWA members are with their time and information. Knowledge truly is power, and together we learn more than we can separately. My experience has been that the overwhelming majority of authors are willing to tell you who their agent is and how they found that agent. They’re willing to share promotional and business tips with you. Just ask them.

Outside of RWA, other resources that provide information on the publishing industry include Publishers Weekly and Romantic Times Book Review.

The career plan

The industry information you learn helps form the basis of your career plan. This plan will be your map, setting the parameters and identifying the possibilities for your career.

When laying out your plan, you have to ask yourself a lot of questions to uncover your professional expectations and ambitions. These questions include what do you want to write? Category? Single title? Historical? Contemporary? All of the above? The answer to these questions will help direct you to specific publishing houses, which you know all about because you’re studying them with your industry research. Right?

You know in which genre or genres you want to write and which houses you’d like to target. The next question might be whether you want and/or need an agent.

The literary agent

Do you need an agent? That depends on what you want from your writing career. Speaking in generalities, if you’re pursuing a contract with an e-publisher or a category publisher, you probably don’t need an agent. But more and more of the New York publishing houses require agent representation for submissions.

From the industry research you’ve done and continue to do, you’ve learned which publishing companies contract the types of stories you want to write and whether they require agent representation. Your research also informed you of the agents who represent the stories you write and how to contact them.

The contract

Whether you have an agent or not, it’s important to thoroughly read and understand your contract before you sign it. It will be your signature on this legally binding contract. Therefore, you are ultimately responsible.

When reviewing your contract, consider not just where you are today in your career. Consider also the direction in which you want your career to grow. If your ultimate goal is to be a full-time writer, then remember you’re building for the future.

And here’s another way your research will help. RWA’s member magazine, its author and industry loops, as well as it’s conferences and reports provide members with important information about contract terms and what those terms mean to you.

For example, what is basket accounting? How do option clauses impact your career plan? What rights does the contract give you and what rights do you want? And, if you don’t understand something in the contract – no matter how insignificant it may seem – ask questions. Remember, the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.

Now go forth and study the market. Best wishes for a successful writing career!

When she’s not studying the market, Patricia Sargeant-Matthews writes romantic suspense as Patricia Sargeant. Her debut novel, You Belong To Me, earned third place in the Reviewers International Organization’s 2006 Award of Excellence in the Favorite Debut Novel category. Her second romantic suspense, On Fire, is a September 2007 release. It’s the first book in a trilogy.