Excerpts from Writers Tricks of the Trade: 39 Things You Need to Know Excerpts from the Writers Tricks of the Trade book | Page 13

WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE
“Regretfully, Mr. Agent has suddenly become extremely ill. There-
fore, he will not be able to take on any new clients. Unfortunately,
we must withdraw the contract and offer of representation.”
Was this an amazing coincidence? After all, only a few days before
they gushed about how much they loved the manuscript. Obviously
they didn’t love it enough to defer the $300 until they made the big
sale their offer letter alluded to. We later discovered our manuscript
had needed lots of work at that point, including rewriting big chunks
of it. They would probably have offered the services of a dandy edi-
tor who would have kicked back a referral fee to them. Any ques-
tions?
Are you ready for “prime time”?
Here is what we determined our problem to be, and this part of the
story is mostly for unpublished authors who are ripe for this com-
mon rip-off scheme. We wrote a good query letter, but the manu-
script didn’t stand the test.
Fortunately, after requesting and reviewing the manuscript, a few
other agents offered sage advice. Both of us had been published but
not in fiction. We clearly didn’t understand point of view and many
other nuances that weren’t part of writing magazine articles, politi-
cal print copy and, in my sister’s case, a cookbook and touring guide.
These helpful agents said they felt we were good writers and of-
fered suggestions about what we needed to do to write fiction suc-
cessfully. In other words, we simply were not ready.
Of most importance, was the one who suggested hiring a manu-
script evaluator for A Corpse in the Soup and said we should take
workshops related to fiction. Once we learned more about the
“tricks of the trade” of writing fiction, we recognized and fixed the
problems in our manuscript.
Rule number one. When choosing an evaluator, editor or book doc-
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