BY KATHI KAMEN GOLDMARK AND SAM BARRY

The Author Enablers are here to answer your questions about writing and publishing. Together, Kathi and Sam have more than 25 years of experience in book publishing. Kathi is an author, radio producer and former publicist; Sam is a marketing manager at a major publishing company and a freelance editor. They are also proud members of the Rock Bottom Remainders, the all-author rock band founded by Kathi in 1992.

Hold on tight to your dreams

Dear Author Enablers,

I have just finished writing a 900-page novel, the first book in a fantasy/sword and sorcery series. I am preparing to send it to agents and publishers, but have come upon a piece of advice that causes me great concern. In Hooked: Write Fiction that Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go, author Les Edgerton says, "Never, ever, ever begin a narrative with action and then reveal the character's merely dreaming it all."

I have opened my story with a recurring dream in which an evil sorcerer has magically intruded on the hero's dream world, and much of the novel is based on whether or not the contents of the dream are a true account of the future. My need for clarification arises from the fact that I have done exactly what [Edgerton] advises against.

Ronald Taylor Smith
Grass Valley, California

Remember "Dallas," the popular television series in which all of the action (or most, anyway) was revealed to be a dream? Some folks liked it, some didn't, and that's a risk every writer takes with any imaginative idea. Wasn't Scrooge dreaming it all? And what about Alice? And anyway, a dream world in fantasy fiction is different from a simple dream, right? With a well-constructed plot, you might be the exception that proves Edgerton's rule. If your writing is wonderful and your story engaging, we don't think there's anything wrong with violating a guideline meant to help fledgling writers hone their skills. Dreams seem especially appropriate to your genre—we'd have a harder time if, say, you had written a historical novel with this conceit. ("Abraham Lincoln awakened to realize it had all been a dream...")

The length of your manuscript might be a bigger concern. Although the fantasy genre abounds with long novels, we wonder if it makes more sense, your first time out, to present these 900 pages as a trilogy, subscribing to the "leave 'em wanting more" theory of entertaining an audience (not to mention a literary agent). At any rate, make sure you do some careful research and send your query letters to agents and publishers who specialize in fantasy fiction.

Dear Author Enablers,

Cute name. (Wish you actually could).

I'm 40 pages into a short novel and wondering how in the world I'm ever going to get a shot at having it published. I attended a lecture recently by a publisher who was definitely coming from the school of "hard knocks." After he finished discouraging us, he let us know that his company alone receives 600 submissions a day. My question is, in what venue is one likely to run into the largest gathering of publishers?

Marc Meyer
Naples, Florida

We hear you. It's tough to get published. It's also tough to make a living as a musician, or to get your art shown in an important New York gallery. And it is really tough to get a movie made.

It might help to look at this from the publisher's point of view—not because they are perfect, but to better understand the mindset to which you are selling. Publishers want to make money, and most books don't. It costs many thousands of dollars to publish even a small book, with no guarantee of return on the investment. So publishers have to be tough, and they are—tough to get through to, and once you do, tough to convince.

Is it worth going to all this trouble when there is no guarantee that your work will get published? Only you can answer this question for yourself. In our experience, most authors write first and foremost because they love it.

But that wasn't your question, was it? The publishers we know hang out in some pretty exotic places: their homes, their kids' schools and—a whole lot—in their offices, working hard to produce books that people will love. Occasionally, publishing colleagues might gather for an after-work drink in a bar near the office, or at a press party or author event or trade show. But here's a tough-love question for you: Would you rather spend your time tearing around New York looking for the publisher hangout du jour and hoping someone will notice you, or actually writing a good book? Our advice is to take a deep breath, apply butt to chair and finish your novel before you worry about finding a publisher.

Thanks for writing,
THE AUTHOR ENABLERS