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Once again we return to our So You Want My Job series, in which we interview men who are employed in desirable jobs and ask them about the reality of their work and for advice on how men can live their dream.<\/em><\/p>\n A lot of men dream of being a writer. Many have even written up a manuscript, and truly believe they’ve crafted a great novel. But then what? How do you go from typing away in a room somewhere and eagerly clutching a finished manuscript in your hands, to actually getting it published? And even if it does get published, how do you get actual people to read it? Today novelist Dennis Mahoney offers his advice on making this much desired leap. Fresh from the process, Mahoney’s first published novel, Fellow Mortals<\/em><\/a> was released this year by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux and garnered a New York Times<\/em> book review.<\/a> This is a thoroughly interesting and enjoyable interview, even if you don’t ever aim to write the Great American novel. 1. Tell us a little about yourself (Where are you from? How old are you? Describe your job and how long you’ve been at it, etc.).<\/strong><\/p>\n I was born in Troy, NY and stayed in the area through college. My wife and I moved around the East Coast after graduation, chasing jobs we never really liked, until we bought a house back in Troy after our son was born. I\u2019m thirty-eight now and have been writing for two decades. My creative inclinations were strong early on, but they initially emerged through drawing and imaginative play. The Empire Strikes Back<\/i> came out when I was six and changed my life. I remember wanting to be George Lucas and make something that amazing. I\u2019d make \u201cmovies\u201d by taking sequential photos of my action figures, or by drawing a cartoon, slideshow-style, on a big roll of paper I could pull through a fake TV made of a box with two slits cut in the side. So the storytelling impulse was there, even if I wasn\u2019t yet writing. Books weren\u2019t a major part of my life until my teens.<\/p>\n 2. Why did you want to become a novelist? When did you know it was what you wanted to do? <\/strong><\/p>\n I was on a self-improvement kick in junior year of high school\u2014trying to find direction, hoping for a girlfriend\u2014and since I wasn\u2019t naturally athletic, reading and writing felt cool and almost countercultural. I\u2019d been lazy, \u201cnot fulfilling my potential,” and had been demoted to a lower-level English class. Since I\u2019d already read a lot of the material in the advanced class the previous year, I started reading other books instead. Getting through Stephen King\u2019s The Stand<\/i> felt like a real accomplishment. Reading Hemingway and Shakespeare by choice, and finding similarly bookish friends, gave me a huge boost of confidence. I felt I had cred staying up all night to finish a book. A lot of that was pretense, but the books themselves began to change my outlook, as books often do, and soon I was writing poetry and convincing myself it was marvelous stuff. I began to build my identity around being a writer.<\/p>\n 3. Do you think writing is something that should come naturally through self-education and practice, or that it\u2019s worthwhile to major in something writing-related in college and\/or graduate school?<\/strong><\/p>\n Self-education and practice are essential. A major can help but isn\u2019t as necessary. I\u2019m not putting down writing programs; I\u2019m saying no writing program will help if most of your effort isn\u2019t self-generated in the first place. I learned the most from books I wanted to read, rather than books that were assigned to me in class, but being an English major exposed me to works I wouldn\u2019t have looked for, like-minded students, and wonderful professors. It was a lifestyle. I was a proud book nerd. And any successful career has to be a lifestyle, doesn\u2019t it? A Major League baseball player thinks like a player off the field, staying focused, eating well. The game\u2019s his life. I don\u2019t consciously walk around thinking about writing all day, but it\u2019s always with me. There have been times I\u2019ve gone to the gym because getting in shape gives me energy, and I want more energy to write. So crazy as that sounds, I work out to be a better writer. I read to be a better writer. But getting back to writing programs: writing can be taught like any craft, but you need the natural inclination. If you\u2019re faking the desire because you think being a novelist would be interesting, you\u2019ll never truly care enough to be one. What began as pretense in my own life became real as I felt in love with writing.<\/p>\n 4. So a man\u2019s written a novel. Now what? How do you go about finding somebody to publish it? Do you send out the manuscript yourself, and where do you send it? Do you need to get an agent to shop it around? Basically, how does the process of getting a book deal work?<\/strong><\/p>\n The traditional way to get a book deal is well-established and generally nightmarish. I went through the entire process with two previous novels before my third, Fellow Mortals<\/i>, found a home. (Note: In retrospect, I can see why those first two novels were repeatedly rejected, and I\u2019m glad there were agents who didn\u2019t let me put them into the world. Gatekeepers are often a good thing.) Here goes: With non-fiction, you pitch an idea with a sample chapter and a detailed outline. With fiction, you need the finished book. So let\u2019s say you\u2019ve completed a novel, revised it repeatedly, shown it to honest readers and gotten feedback, revised again, and made it as perfect as you can. The major publishers almost never look at a book that isn\u2019t presented by a reputable literary agent. You can find good agents a number of ways. Two of my favorites are checking the acknowledgments page of similar books\u2014most authors thank their agents\u2014and Agentquery.com. The latter allows you search for agents by specific criteria. You can find an agent who represents similar authors, so you don\u2019t submit your horror novel to someone who reps romance novels, for example. The results of the search provide contact info, agency site links, and submission guidelines. Once you have some appropriate agents in mind, send a query. That\u2019s a short letter introducing yourself, describing your book in a few compelling paragraphs (think jacket copy), and asking if they\u2019d be interested in reading a sample. If all goes well, an agent will request pages. If she likes the sample pages, she\u2019ll ask for the whole thing. If she loves the whole thing, she might offer to represent you. A good agent will have relationships with editors at publishing houses, and will submit to those she feels are the likeliest fit. There\u2019s still no guarantee you\u2019ll get a deal at this point, but if an editor loves the book, too, an offer will be made to buy and publish the book. You\u2019ll get an advance on royalties, based on how much money the publisher expects to earn. Advances are usually low, but if you\u2019ve gotten as far as a deal, count your blessings. You\u2019ve made it farther than most, and if your book is a hit, you\u2019ll get additional royalties once you\u2019ve earned back your advance. <\/strong><\/p>\n 5. What are publishers looking for in offering book deals? Do you have any tips for landing one?<\/strong><\/p>\n Every publisher is different, and every editor is a combination of professional and, more importantly, subjective interest. I firmly believe that most agents and editors adore books. Very few editors are rolling in money. They\u2019re in it because they love it. That doesn\u2019t mean they don\u2019t want their books to sell like crazy, but a lot of editors will fight for a book they believe in even if they think the potential readership is small. My publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, has a reputation for supporting authors based on merit more than obvious marketability. They take more chances, but are therefore increasingly selective. My editor actually passed on my novel twice. I got the deal because I did a good rewrite, she saw the book\u2019s potential, and the two of us hit it off. My tip for getting a deal is simple: love writing, and don\u2019t quit. Just keep writing better novels until one of those book-loving agents or editors is thrilled<\/i> to find your manuscript sitting in their pile. You can\u2019t control people\u2019s reactions to your work, except by doing better work. A lot of writers spend too much time worrying about book deals when they ought to be writing a book.<\/p>\n 6. What do you think about self-publishing? Is it a viable option these days? What are the pros and cons of self-publishing versus going the established publisher route?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m not terribly well-informed on this subject, but here\u2019s my take. Self-publishing used to be a joke. Now, thanks to many excellent writers who went that route, it\u2019s more respectable. But I think it\u2019s even harder than taking the traditional route. Yes, anyone can self-publish, and earn higher royalties per copy, and skip the torturous query-rejection situation. But then your book is out there and you have to find ways to get noticed amid the millions of books on the market. You can hire a publicist, but there goes a lot of your extra money, and the self-publishing success stories are much, much rarer than some people believe. And even though the self-publishing stigma has diminished, it still exists to some degree. If you tell someone you self-published a novel, all they really know is that you wrote a book. If you tell someone a major house is publishing your novel, they know you wrote a book and<\/i> it was good enough to rise out of the slush pile. It all depends on what you want. Will you be satisfied self-publishing? Are you willing to make it work with tons of self-promotion? Go for it. Will you be disappointed with anything less than a traditional deal? Work until you get one.<\/p>\n 7. Tens of thousands of novels are published every year. How do you get your novel to rise above the fray and get noticed? Do you have any promotional tips? How did you score a review in the New York Times Book Review<\/i>? How do they pick which books to review — is it just chance that they came across yours?<\/strong><\/p>\n My publisher really goes to bat for the titles they publish. Sales reps travel store to store, trying to convince booksellers to carry upcoming books (this is true of all major publishers). I have an experienced publicist at FSG who contacts every major and minor paper, magazine, or web site that might be interested in covering the book. She sends them copies and follows up. That was how I got the Times<\/i> review. (It didn\u2019t hurt that FSG is a respected house; as a side note to the previous answer, the Times<\/i> still won\u2019t consider self-published books for review.) Word-of-mouth, which no one can control, remains one of the top\u2014if not the<\/i> top\u2014ways of getting noticed. If readers like a book, they recommended it to friends and family. If word-of-mouth grows, the books takes off, and no single review or article can compare. I\u2019ve also blogged and tweeted, but those approaches work best when you\u2019re winning an audience with original material instead of just self-promoting. Facebook is useless; it\u2019s mostly friends and family who, one hopes, will buy your book anyway. I wrote guest essays for a number of popular sites to get my name out. But again and again, the best promotion is having a good book, so the bulk of the novelist\u2019s work is writing the actual novel.<\/p>\n
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