Donald Maass - Breaking Inside and Breaking Out
January 2003 HODRW Meeting Recap
by Leslie Ann Sartor
Donald Maass is the president of The Donald Maass Literary Agency founded in 1980, NYC. He represents over 100 novelists and sells approximately 100 novels every year to major publishers in the US and overseas. Mr. Maass is an engaging speaker and by the groans, nods, and laughs from the participants in the room, his comments and insights were right on.
Breaking In Issues, Early Career Steps and Traps
It is as easy as it has ever been to get published for the first time. Approximately 5700-5800 new titles are published each year. The same was true 10, 20 years ago, and the same will likely be the case 10 years hence. Donald Maass then went on to explain that what is different today is how much harder it is for an author to publish a 3rd, 4th, 5th novel. Not harder to write one, but to survive in this business and stay published. There is a very high attrition rate. Why? A lot of problems start early, even before we go out and meet agents and editors, and are built-in traps.
As writers, we all know we're driven to write, it's compelling, absorbing, it's addictive. So we spend more and more time writing, and at some point, friends/family ask us what we're doing. We finally screw up the courage and confess we're writing a novel. Then our friends ask, when is it going to be published? Anxiety sets in, and expectations, our own and others', need to be met.
So we begin to tiptoe into the world of publishing. We go to conferences, meetings, workshops, and we learn there are rules, often time contradictory, which make us feel confused and intimidated. We go on to submit and face rejection, then more rejection, leading to frustration. Hopefully, instead of quitting, we become better writers, but we're still getting rejections. All of a sudden, we get a bit of positive feedback from the publishing world and we become euphoric. Next comes a personal letter from an agent or editor, and we know we're close until we receive the 10th or so letter, and we become deeply frustrated.
Anger sets in as our friends and colleagues grasp the golden ring that still eludes us. Our anger comes out in different ways, but the moment we feel the most anger and frustration, the why-not-me, is often when we're closest to actually getting the agent and contract. When we choose our first agent, decide what kind of writer we want to be and how best to rearrange our lives to fit in this new commitment, do we want to be in a state of anger and high anxiety? NO.
We need to be thoughtful and rational, not angry. Our first contract will have a lot to do with what we write immediately after that. Why is it important that we be smart and rational? Today, trade publishing is a vast, highly structured, corporate, $27 billion dollar-a-year business, and 80% of this business is done by five conglomerates. Books have to be more profitable than before, which has a profound effect on the authors. Furthermore the large numbers of Independent Distributors--the small companies that distribute to the supermarkets and drugstores--have dwindled down to three. Books aren't seen in as many places as before, and if shelved, tend to be the best sellers. Paperback numbers are way off from when Mr. Maass started in the business. Twenty-five years ago, The Thorn Birds sold 12 million copies, which was huge. Today, 2 million copies is huge.
Even more, the rise of bookstore chains and the way they do business have had a profound impact on the development of fiction careers. Computerized sales tracking allows the buyer to look at the figures a book produces, not the quality of the writing. Net sales of the previous title are looked at when placing an order for the new title and can create a downward spiral. This selling into the net is vigorously denied by the bookstore chains, but if an author doesn't find a significant audience fast, and grow it persistently, they can quickly become persona non grata.
It's a tough industry, so it's crucial to make smart initial moves.
How do we help ourselves? Understand the industry you're getting into. Get help and advice from agents and editors. Getting an agent is easy, right? (lots of laughter here) Mr. Maass knows this is one area where anger often trips us up. We reveal ourselves, and our anxiety in our query letters.
Query letters aren't supposed to convince the agent we're the next Nora, or that sweat, tears, and tons of work have gone into this manuscript. Agents and editors want to be convinced the manuscript is worth taking a look at. Make your query relaxed, confident and professional, and if it takes 2 pages, do it. (Breaking those rules) We summarize stories all the time, think of the TV episodes we talk about. Be short and concise. The synopsis paragraphs of the query should name our protagonist and the goal, have a bit of the setting, describe the main conflict and complication, and add one colorful detail to make the story stand out.
Another major help is to understand our customers. The editor is our first buyer, but the real customer is the reader. If the reader liked your first book, they want to find similar things in your next book. Meet their expectations. Consistency is important; every author has a brand name. But artistically, that consistency/style can be confining, stifling the need to grow and stretch creatively. Mr. Maass suggests the use of a pseudonym and have a brand name for each kind of writing.
So, be smart. Be educated. Get help. Understand our customers, publish to them. Write well. Write consistently, and you will do well.
Later Career Development and Breaking Out
Mr. Maass offered insights into what it takes to bring our writing to the next level--the breakout novel. Breakouts happen all the time, books that take a big jump creatively with sales figures that reflect that change.
Mr. Maass took 100 breakout novels and read them side by side to understand what made them stand out.
Stakes were raised in these books by creating memorable characters we resonate with. Characters that don't simply have inner turmoil--emotional things happening--but have deep inner conflict. Characters that have more at stake, that have to choose between two goods or two bads. Characters that are torn in two directions, who want things that are mutually exclusive and whose conflicts may not be fully resolved at the end of the book. Characters you think of after you put the book down.
If the character is memorable and has a particular quality, we can also give him/her the opposite quality. For writing exercises, please look in Mr. Maass's book, Writing the Breakout Novel.
Action, problems, tension and conflict move the story and engage the reader. Conflict is the essence of story. It's a lot more work to build a breakout novel, but every one of us can do it.
Info on fraudulent agents/publishers: www.SFWA.org - Writer Beware.
Writing Books by Donald Maass: The Career Novelist, Writing the Breakout Novel
Workshops: Writing the Breakout Novel, www.free-expressions.com.
The tape from this workshop is available from the HODRW librarian.
Leslie Ann Sartor has recently completed a contract adapting a non-fiction book to an epic fictionalized screenplay hopefully her breakout work.