The Writing Center

The Associated Press ran a story today on the latest in government doublespeak (I last wrote about doublespeak back in July when Dell recalled computer batteries due to “thermal incidents”). This AP story is even more disturbing, covering the use of such terms as “food insecurity” for the problem of hunger in America, and the idea of “redeploying” rather than “retreating” from Iraq.

It’s as if the government thinks no one will catch on if suicides are called “self-injurious behavior incidents” and prisoners are called “imperative security internees.” It’s not just the current administration that is taken to task; the story also points out that the Democrats’ stand on abortion is invariably called the “right to choose.”

The article quotes Timothy Lynch of the Cato Institute as saying, “By corrupting the language, the people who wield power are able to fool the others about their activities and evade responsibility and accountability.” Yet to me, it doesn’t seem as if doublespeak actually fools people — rather, it simply talks down to them. And this, of course, violates not only one but at least two tenets of good writing: be clear, and respect your audience.

Recently a writer asked me to have a look at a publishing contract she’d just been offered — she was wary because the agency had responded so quickly with an unequivocal “yes” that she thought it must be too good to be true. She was right.

The agency, it turned out, is well known by several bloggers and web sites warning writers of scams. And this writer’s instincts were right on — while finding an agent can happen miraculously quickly for a lucky few, usually it is such an arduous process that when an agent responds immediately with a contract, writers are wise to be cautious, perhaps even a little paranoid. At the very least, doing a little more research is never a bad idea.

At best, a scam agency will waste your valuable time. At worst, it can cost a writer hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in addition to his or her valuable time. There are plenty of good resources to help you avoid some of these illegitimate agencies, among them Victoria Strauss and A.C. Crispin’s blog about scams, as well as the popular Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors sites.

But more important than recognizing a bad agency is knowing what a good agency is. And the only way to find this out is to do your research: to invest the time, to get to know the industry. This is usually the last thing a writer wants to do when he or she has just finished a manuscript and is eager to send it out — but of course, this is what the illegitimate agencies count on.

But try looking at your agent search as you would the writing process itself: as something that takes time, sometimes quite a bit of time, to be done properly and well. Subscribe to PublishersMarketplace and/or Publishers Weekly long before you’re ready to send out your queries. Look at sales records, and look for these sales on the bookshelves. The more time you invest in the process and the more knowledge you have, the more confident you’ll feel in getting good news.

We just received exciting news from one of our Metro alumni — Mitra Sarkhosh’s poem “In the Shadow of the North” has been selected for publication in the 2007 Magee Park Poets Anthology, the annual publication of Magee Park Poets, a poetry program sponsored by the Carlsbad City Library. Of course, Mitra’s success is wholly independent of Metro Writing, as we do not teach poetry — but we want to show off her accomplishment just the same! Copies of the anthology can be purchased through the Carlsbad Library.

Congratulations, Mitra!

In our Getting Published seminar last weekend, we discussed everything from submitting stories to literary magazines to querying editors at the glossies to the best strategies for finding an agent. When I went through a list of DOs and DON’Ts for submitting to literary agents, a few students were amazed at some of the examples I brought up of what not to do — i.e., don’t claim your book is a surefire best-seller; don’t mention all the other agents who loved it but inexplicably rejected it anyway. “People actually do that?” they asked.

Yes, actually, they do — and it was fun this morning to catch part of an NPR interview with local author Debra Ginsberg, who spoke about some of her experiences working at a literary agency (her first novel, Blind Submission, released this month, is set at an agency).

When asked what sorts of books make a good impression on an agent, Debra mentioned the usual things that capture agents’ attention: being on the cusp of a trend, being a celebrity, having a strong writing and publishing background — but she also mentioned that more obvious is what makes a bad impression, among them poor spelling, punctuation, and grammar, as well as claiming that your book is the best in the world. She has worked at agencies that receive 75-100 manuscripts a day (some, she said, actually arrive with cash stapled to them). When dealing with this sort of volume, it’s easy to see how rejection can be swift; as Debra said, while it’s hard to say what types of books are accepted, it’s easy to say what types of manuscripts and proposals get rejected.

Of course, it wasn’t surprising to hear that the publishing industry is as competitive as ever — but it was good to hear that a great story, presented in a professional, polished manuscript, is still the best way to make a good impression.