The Story Behind Another IWW Publication Success!

An Essay
by Jassy Mackenzie

The escalating crime rate in South Africa provided the impetus for my novel. Week after week there'd be these dreadful stories in the news - burned bodies found in the boots of hijacked cars, people murdered in their cars at traffic lights ... it was scary. What was fascinating, though, was discovering that in a country where random violent crime has everyone living in fear, some of the most horrific murders are committed by people known to the victim.

So I started wondering how many people in this country commit murder, confident that with the high crime rate and the demoralised police force, they'll never be found out and the crimes will be shrugged off as "random". This idea fired up my imagination and I started writing.


In August last year I saw a short story competition advertised by a South African writer's college, and thought I'd give it a go. I've never had much success with short stories, but to my utter amazement I ended up winning the competition and had my story published in a national newspaper.

I'd already started writing my novel, and this win gave me a lot of encouragement to keep going. I thought I'd better make the most of my single fiction publishing credit while it was still fresh because at least it was something to put in the query letter. Even so it was a long process - the first draft bore no resemblance to the final product, and by the time I'd almost completed the book in March this year, I realised with a sinking heart it needed a major rewrite and a substantial plot overhaul.

I got busy with the rewrite and about two thirds of the way through I ran seriously out of time, I was entering the busiest part of the year work-wise (I edit two monthly magazines and also do freelance writing), and I thought - is this worth it? Is it ever going to be published? So I did what any sane person would do in the circumstances - immediately started querying agents! My reasoning was that if any of them asked to see the completed manuscript, this would provide the impetus I needed to finish it.

A couple of agents asked to see the first 30 pages - they passed on it but were very encouraging about my writing and also gave me some excellent comments and insights on why they'd passed, so I took them into account and soldiered on with the rewrite.

Then in May, someone asked for the full MS. In a state of terrific excitement I threw my heart and soul into the rewrite and completed it in a week. I sent it off to her and still haven't heard back!

In the meantime I'd read about the Internet Writing Workshop on Max Barry's website when I was trawling the net for advice on writing the synopsis and query letter. I started submitting chapters and found the whole process enormously helpful. Somehow, boyfriends and sisters just don't have the same impartial eye that a writer in a crit group has! The advice I received on everything from the plot to the characters to the glitches I hadn't noticed in my own writing helped to make all the difference and the chapter-by-chapter format made the rewriting more manageable.

It was also incredibly encouraging and inspiring to have people actually reading the chapters, because for me the most important reason I write is because I want people to read my stories. So while the agents were shaking their heads and telling me South Africa was a tough location for them to sell, the feedback from the Novels-L group kept me going.

In the end, I didn't get an agent, although just before I received the acceptance letter from the publisher I found an agent in the UK who wanted to read the full MS and thought she could sell it, and a South African agent I'd contacted a while ago emailed me sounding very keen. It was weird how it all happened at once - after months and months of slogging and heartache and taking rejections on the chin, suddenly everything started looking positive.

I hadn't done serious research on South African publishers but when I did, I found that most of them are approachable and you don't need an agent. In November I sent my (newly rewritten) query letter off to a small selection of them and every one of the responses I received back was positive. The publisher that eventually accepted it requested a synopsis and sample chapters and told me they'd discuss it in their next meeting. They emailed me back two weeks later requesting the full MS and asking if they could have a two-week option on it, which led to an offer and me downing many, many glasses of champagne.

I feel incredibly unqualified to give advice to other aspiring authors, but based on the mistakes I made during the whole process, here's a few handy hints.

• 1. Check and double-check that everything's perfect before you send it out, especially if you're emailing. Watch out for making last-moment alterations before you press the Send button, because they can backfire on you. Rather email the query to yourself the first time, open it a few hours later, and read it. That way you will be able to spot the glaring errors and the odd glitches in formatting that have crept in, rather than letting it land in the agent's inbox.
• 2. Any advice or comments that agents give you when rejecting your chapters or MS is worth taking seriously. If you find that two or more agents are making the same observations about your work, then consider a major rewrite.
• 3. Query smaller or local publishers as well as agents.
• 4. Enter all the competitions that you can. It's amazing how prepping for a competition helps to beef up your writing.
• 5. Don't rely on advice from loving relatives when it comes to improving your MS. Loving relatives are there for one purpose only - to tell you how wonderful your book is, and how stupid all those agents are who've been rejecting you. Rather submit your work to a crit group such as this one. You'll be amazed how much you learn from critting the work of others, as well as from the comments you get on your own chapters. It's also great to be in the supportive presence of fellow writers.
• 6. Keep a positive attitude in the face of rejection, but if you're sick of being positive then being bloody-minded will do just as well. Just don't give up. Make your query letter as punchy as possible, pursue every single avenue, rewrite as many times as you need to, do as much research on agents and publishers as you can ... because you only need one of them to say yes!
• 7. Submit your work to agents in small batches, and don't query all your best prospects in one go because if they all reject it for the same reason, then you've wasted those queries.
• 8. I never got a single positive response (in fact I hardly got any response at all) from filling in those online forms on agents' websites. If you can, rather get hold of the agent's email address and query direct.
• 9. Think of yourself as a writer, and try to attract positive energy into your writing life. Do whatever works for you, from feng-shui to holistic therapy.
• 10. Start your next book as soon as you're submitting your first one. That way, even if you're battling to get your first one published, you can tell yourself ... "This one will be better". It's quite possible that you'll get a couple of agents who reject your first work but say they would like to see your next, in which case you'll already have good prospects lined up for it.