Atlanta Writers Conference
Pitches and panels and punch, oh my!
I finished my memoir on January 14, 2022. Actually, I finished it for the 3rd time.
The first time I finished it, about 6 months earlier, I rushed to get the bare bones outline written, including everything that happened in the “story,” the real life events that inspired my memoir. That left the ending like a bland sheet of wallpaper. Sure, it had glue on its backing and hung on the wall more or less evenly. But it had no character at all.
Like the painter I am (Oh wait, I’m a writer……..checking my supply of brushes, umm, changing out of my writer’s smock smudged with oils), I filled in all the highlights and sunspots and colorful flair for the scenes, including dialogue and movie script scenes and important details that I kept a tally of notes about not to forget. And I reached the end the 2nd time. By this time, my manuscript was 203,000 words, twice the length of most memoirs.
The 3rd time I finished it, I made final cuts. “Kill your darlings,” I was told. I cut, and cut, and cut, and cut. It took several weeks, and I was working a deadend job at the time as well. I cut until I reached the end. On January 14, 2022, I reached the end again - 168,000 words! Certainly anyone reading this would see the brilliance in its pattern and arrangement. I called it done. I willed it done. I declared it done.
We went out to eat to celebrate.
Somewhere deep down inside (and maybe from all the advice I’d read about memoirs and getting memoirs published) I knew that at 168,000 words, it wasn’t really done.
In the summer of 2020, as we were living in Aptos, California in transition from New Haven, CT, I had already looked up literary agents in the book A Guide to Literary Agents. I located some 60 agents who represented memoir. I learned all I could about writing query letters and whether I should write a book proposal or finish my book. I opted to finish my book. It’s unclear whether publishers want a proposal or finished manuscript for a memoir, which reads like fiction but has non-fiction content.
Now, with finished manuscript in hand, I drafted a query letter, spread out my spreadsheet of agents, and began sending queries out. I’m in the game! I even got back a few rejections. I’m so proud.
I talked with as many people as I could about my manuscript. Consensus was - it’s too long. I sent it to a dozen people, first-readers, friends, to read. The responses were overwhelming. I drowned in silence. Certainly if it was gripping and captivating, I’d get a response.
I won’t take this personally. It’s too long. It needs another round of editing. I started learning about manuscript review vs. developmental editing.
And then I found the Atlanta Writers Conference, a bit pricey, but a good learning opportunity and a way forward. I had a teaching colleague in San Diego who wrote a book and wanted to get published. She talked about having to go to writers conferences and learn to pitch and revise and revise and revise her approach to get the book ready for the market. That seems to be where I have arrived.
My approach in my book, tied as it is to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is unique - I think that’s it’s selling point. But it may not reach a market, not without self-publishing. So here I am.
At the Atlanta Writers Conference on May 6-7, I will meeting with editors and agents. On Friday, there will be workshops and mini-seminars on the publishing profession. There will also be a query letter critique and a mixer on Friday night. On Saturday, there will be a Q&A panel and then two manuscript critiques with editors (query letter, synopsis, and first 19 pages of manuscript), and then two pitches with editors. And then there will be awards and prizes.
I’ve already completed a preconference edit by email in February. I’ve received helpful advice for writing my query letter and synopsis. The comments on the first 20 pages of my manuscript were encouraging. Ms. Nelson said my “writing is very clean” and that I have a “good grip on writing provocative prose.” But she’s concerned with the query and synopsis and marketability of the book.
It’s the old art object problem - “wow, fantastic, that’s beautiful. . . . what is it?”
The revised query, synopsis, and first 19 pages of the manuscript are due April 4. That means, I have to start chopping. After a couple of months of rest, and some additional reading of memoirs and books about writing, I have a good idea how to cut my memoir even more. It’s now a race against time. How much can I cut by April 4 so I can write a revised number of words at the top of the letter. 168,000 words is going to lead to the initial comment - “it’s too long. It needs to be cut.”
So here I go again. To the cutting room.
I always knew I’d make a good editor.
There is a plan in place. Nail this query letter and synopsis. I’ve tinkered with those first 19 pages, pulled it in even more. Cut as much as I can before the conference. Go to the conference. Learn and hob nob. Then, afterwards, complete my cuts if I haven’t finished, hire an edit for a manuscript review or developmental edit, and then start querying agents again.
Stay tuned for the further adventures of My Own Private Waste Land. I’ll be returning to how I started this book in the first place.
Thank you for reading, and have a good week.