WIV Positive

My name is Amy, and I’m WIV positive.

Do you know your status?

Visitors to the ThrillerFest blog are not a random sample of the population. Voluntarily reading these words is itself a simple test with a positive predictive value of greater than 90%.

In other words, you too probably have WIV, or Writing Impulse Virus (subtype: thriller).

For years, I tried to conceal my desire to write fantastic tales under the veneer of a respectable career as a biology professor. It worked for a while; the demands of teaching and family made it easy to resist the temptations of Microsoft Word. But I didn’t do enough to protect myself. Late-night trysts with a thesaurus, flash drives filled with secret back-up files, and hushed references to “my book” could only lead to one thing. I became WIV+, afflicted by a disease for which there’s no cure, only lifelong keyboard therapy.

At first I was ashamed. How could I tell my husband that the scientist he married was really a writer at heart? How would my children manage the stigma of answering the question, “What does your mommy do?” (“Oh, she sits at a computer a lot and doesn’t make any money.”)

I’m in the early stages of the disease, and I have the classic symptoms:a completed manuscript, a decent pitch, a few requests for partials, and a growing stack of rejection letters. What I need (besides an agent) is a support group. Luckily I learned about an organization dedicated to serving the needs of the WIV+ community—International Thriller Writers.I registered for ThrillerFest at once.

Why am I, an unpublished writer, going to ThrillerFest? Because today, I may be just an author wannabe, lost among the unwashed masses of query composers filling the slush piles of the world. But I aspire to be much more. I have accepted my WIV positivity and embraced the writing bug. I’m going to ThrillerFest because I need to go. I need information and advice for living with WIV. I need the fellowship of others who share my condition. I need hope and inspiration.

I want to meet debut authors who recently crossed the magic threshold into publication and tell myself, that could be me next year. I want to listen to authors who have more experience and say, I can apply their knowledge in my work. And of course, I want to meet an agent who will fall in love with my manuscript and tie the contractual knot on the spot (hey, it doesn’t cost anything to dream!).

It does cost something—rather a lot, in fact—to register for ThrillerFest, to fly from California, and to stay almost a week in New York. But I believe it’s worth it, because one day, I’m going to see my name on a bookshelf, and then I’ll say WIV is the best thing that ever happened to me.

Dr. Amy Rogers, (unpublished) author of The Han Agent

Pitching An Agent Part II-The Screeching Halt

Okay, here I go again being upbeat about the agent pitching process and rejection. Last week I wrote about my take on the painful pitching process. This week I would like to write about another aspect that I see only too often-what I call the “screeching halt.” It’s when the writer gets a detailed rejection from an agent, and then never contacts that agent again.
Whenever an unpublished writer explains this scenario to me, and it’s more often than you would imagine, I usually respond with “Huh? That’s it? You get a letter explaining what didn’t work and you don’t follow up? What’s up with that?”
It is at this stage that the writer begins speaking in slow, measured tones, as if I am deaf and not quite getting the gist of the conversation. The writer says something usually along the lines of, “Um, I just said he rejected me. He doesn’t like it. End of story.”
This response on the part of the writer baffles me to no end. I understand it in regards to form rejections, those are not worth a follow up, you're best just moving on, but a one page typewritten letter with specific critiques? That's quite different. Here’s this hardworking agent, snowed under with piles of paper all around, who could have easily hit the “no” form letter and lighten his load, but instead takes the time to give some feedback, and what does he get? Nothing. No “Thanks, I’ll think about what you said,” no, “How about I rewrite those sections and you take another look?” or even just, “Thanks for your time, I love it the way it is, but should anything change I’ll take another look with your thoughts in mind.”
Detailed rejection letters are gold. They are often some of the first words from a professional in the industry about a new writer’s manuscript. You may not like them, you may not agree with them, but you should, at the very least, acknowledge them with gratitude. And my guess is, if you’re like me and strive to read the words with an open mind, you just may find some of them are correct. And if you do, just revise it, write a letter to the agent explaining that you took their words to heart, and ask to resubmit. Nine times out of ten they’ll say yes, reread it, and with any luck you’ll be on your way!
Another suggestion: if the detailed rejection comes right before Agentfest, and you know that agent will be attending, do your very best to acknowlege their work in person. It always helps to put a face with a name. A handshake and a "thanks for the letter. I'm looking the manuscript over with an eye toward your suggestions. May I send it again when I'm finished?" That's what Thrillerfest is about, meeting and greeting. It's a lot of fun.
I'd be interested to hear views from other authors and agents on this subject. Specifically, if you're an author who's been rejected initially, did you ever resubmit with success? If an agent, do you accept resubmissions? Am I leading the unpublished astray here? Thanks in advance!

Jamie Freveletti
Running from the Devil
May 5th
www.jamiefreveletti.com