NWS

[lynne pardoe]

Hi all, I hope you're all well. I just wanted to say I got my NWS report back a few days ago - and it wasn't good. I know I was pushing boundaries and writing just what I wanted rather than something romantic but it didn't go down well, and the reader is right, if a touch unhelpful.

What I did was to write an ordinary romance between a social worker and a GP but put a lot in it about the people she works with and one does hog a load of the book. I was aware of that, but it's just what I want to write but the reader says it'll never sell like that and I should either self-publish (which, given Deidre's excellent post the other day I might do in time) or tailor my work to the market.

So I'm going to do the latter. What I like reading at the moment is Susan Lewis, Diane Chamberlain (who was a social worker) and Cathy Glass, whose stuff is really memoirs cos its reports of her work as a foster carer, that's what I'm trying next cos it's fairly short (80k Words) and I can write it with my eyes closed (well, nearly!!!) 

I think rather than be in the RNA I'll lapse my membership and pay Hilary Johnson's author agency the £130 or so because I need market guidance from a wider place than romance.

I'm not unhappy about it though, it was a book I had to write to get it out of my head and I did want market guidance, well I surely got that. There is a place where the reader's tone is a shade unpleasant, in my book which is similar to  a medical romance except one of them is a social worker in a GP's surgery, one patient dies and my reader thinks that was awful. 'How am I supposed to think?' she writes. But I think medical romance does have some deaths in it, and sensitivly handled it's ok.

I think there are many different types of romance and not enough done in the RNA to pair NWS work with a reader familiar with that particular sub genre so some of the reports miss the mark sometimes. I totally agree with what Deidre said about it a few weeks ago and with her excellent post about self publishing, which I might do with this book but I also might seperate it out into 2 books, a mainstream romance and a memoirs of a social worker book. Last year my reader read a synopsis and said it had 'real promise!' 

I'm 5k words through a memoirs book, when it's done I'll submit to that agency I met at the Woman's Weekly day, she said they aim to turn m/s round in 8 weeks, so I'll try that and then go to Hilary if I need more direction.

All of which begs the quesiton, I shouldn't really be in a group called writeromantics, much as I love all of you, I'm not writing 100% romance and I'm not keeping up with posts etc.

I have to list things on ebay today too, to keep the pennies coming in and clear the house, my hubby is much more tidy than me and I've got so much stuff!! 

Better get on, lynne x

[Jo Walter]

Hi Lynne

So sorry that your NWS feedback has given you a knock, rather than being helpful.  I can tell by the tone of your email that you are feeling down and one of the main aims of setting up the Write Romantics was that we would be here to support one another.  So don’t you DARE think about leaving us!

Just as Deirdre and I have said previously, getting a fab NWS report is no more guarantee of success than getting one you don’t necessarily agree with.  Deirdre and I both had second reads last year and we are not any further ahead (at least yet) than we were before we got them.  On the flip side, Helen P said she had some quite harsh feedback on her NWS submission initially and look who is the signed author!

If the reader had said that you can’t write or you need to go back to ‘how to’ books, then I would allow you to wallow in your disappointment.  However, all she has said is that it won’t sell in a traditional romance market. So what?  There are tonnes of traditional romances out there anyway.  You don’t want to be another whoever, you want to be the first Lynne Pardoe.  Yes, you need to write for a market, but you don’t necessarily need to write for your NWS reader’s market.  Agents and publishers keep telling us they want something different.  So, dare to write it and get it in to agents or send it to Hilary, whatever, but don’t let anyone force you to be someone you are not.

As for leaving the RNA/NWS, then that is entirely your decision of course.  It may well be that there is something far more suited to your genre than what they offer.  I have thought the same from time to time and I will certainly give the NWS another year, but beyond that I don’t know.  As for linking that to leaving the Write Romantics, please don’t.  Is there likely to be even the tiniest hint of romance in your future books?  By which I mean even a kiss or two?  If so, then you’re in!  Helen P is really a crime writer and will soon have graduated from the NWS, so please don’t think you have to be foremost a romance writer or an NWS member to hang out with the rest of us.  We would miss you if you went, Lynne!  Before too long, hopefully none of us will be NWS anymore and some may remain RNA members and some will not.  I am diversifying into a YA this time, which is only about 5% romance at best and so I am expecting similar comments too.

I know you will pick yourself up and dust yourself off anyway, but let this feedback drive you rather than de-motivate you.  Look at the publishers and agents who take the books that you love to read and target them.  Don’t try and force your writing into an HMB shaped hole if it doesn’t fit.  It sounds like you made a useful contact at the Woman’s Weekly workshop, so work those contacts girl and put it out in a few more places before you decide whether your reader really holds the key to all knowledge about writing or just holds a single opinion.  I suspect the latter. 

As for the opinion about the death in the novel, that’s something bulls do on the grass I’m afraid.  Look at JoJo Moyes’ Me Before You.  Death hardly harmed her book did it?  I’ve got a death in mine and all my beta readers loved that emotional content, even though they all said it made them cry.  However, my second reader said it was well written, but too traumatic in parts and could I tone it down in case in upset anyone?  Well I haven’t and I won’t!

Anyway, I hope I haven’t been too bossy or made you feel worse, I just would really hate to lose you, Lynne.  Chin up chuck, onwards and upwards.  If you ever want a chat or a rant about it all you know where we/I am.  I suspect I may need to reciprocate when I finally get my NWS submission in, not to mention when the verdict from Choc Lit finally arrives!

Jo xx

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[lorraine hossington]

Hi Lynne,

Sorry to hear about your report, but don't think of leaving thewriteromantics. I am sure there is a market for your book out there. Don't despair. I do know that Hilary Johnson is supposed to be excellent. If you go to her website, you'll see a few RNA authors went to her before being published. One of them is Chris Stovell, Jean Fullerton and Christina Courtenay.

You have to decide whether you want to leave the NWS. I will say that it took Evonne Wareham 20yrs in the NWS, before she became published. Are you coming to the conference? If, so try and pitch your novel, and see what they say. Then you can actually talk to an editor. Please don't be to down about things. And Jo is absolutely right, don't think of leaving thewriteromantics.

                                        Lorraine x

[Deirdre...@aol.com]

Lynne,  I second everything that Jo says.  Please don't go!  I've had some lovely emails from you and look forward to more.

 

About these reports, we've all been there (well most of us, I know I have) and there's no doubt about it, being effectively given the knock-back flippin' well hurts.  It takes a bit of time to pick yourself up again. I do agree about the different romance genres perhaps not being represented as widely in the RNA as they could be but I guess in time that may change as the membership changes.

 

I have constant doubts about whether the RNA is for me.  The bottom line for me is that the subs are quite cheap for the critique service they give and if I didn't belong to the RNA/NWS I would miss the 'community' it provides, warts and all.   The book I'm currently trying to flog does not have a romance as its central point but it is still what they call romantic fiction and there's been no problem with it going through the NWS.  Must admit I have gone for the jugular with my new one and made the love affair the main plot of the book in order to give it a better chance.  I guess that's the choice we all have but on the other hand I also believe in writing what you want to write as it will always sound more authentic.

 

You just hit on the wrong reader Lynne, I'm convinced of it, especially as your synopsis was so well received before.  The thing is, they are short of readers, Melanie has to rope in anyone she can and even though they may be published they are not necessarily trained to critique, which I think is a shame.  They should know how to present the negative stuff so that it is helpful to the writer but not all of them can. We just have to take what we can from it and chuck the rest.  The reader of my first NWS submission called my male lead Arden all through her report when his name was Aden, and I think I might have got her again with my second as she called a character Junno instead of Jonno (as if!).  It made me wonder how much attention she paid.

 

About HMB, they are a tricky outfit to write for.  I know that because my friend Maureen, who writes as Isabelle Goddard, has been writing Regency romances for them.  After she'd got a couple published she got a three-book deal which you might think was the tops but the trouble was, she had by then taken a dislike to that kind of book, consequently she's spent the last year and a half struggling to fulfil the deal and doing battle with her editor who was snotty with her to say the least.  She got one in the bag but they rejected her next.  She re-wrote it according to their instructions (they are very prescriptive) and still they didn't want it, so then she had to come up with another and then one more!   Luckily she scraped by and they eventually accepted both but she feels she's wasted time trying to fit in with a genre she no longer believes in instead of cracking on with what she really wants to write.

 

Anyway, I'll ramble on no longer. Lynne you sound as if you've got plenty of ideas as to how to go on from here so go to it, girl!

 

Best of luck with all your pitches, conference-goers.  Wish I was going with you and can't wait to hear how it all went.

 

Deirdre x

[lynne pardoe]

Deidre thanks so much for that, it's so nice to know I can still hang out with you guys, I'm sure most of my stuff will probably always have romance in it, but I guess it depends how widely you interpret the word romance, for me I loved my job and that is love just not boy/girl. I've always fancied writing a saga or whatever they're called nowadays, but I'm not too sure if that's romance, I think so but others might not.

HMB interpret it quite narrowly, it's like looking through a microscope and all you can see is the relationship but I couldn't resist looking outside that narrow focus & I'm sure I'd be like your friend Deidre. 

I'm glad to know its not just me and the RNA, it is a great thing on the whole but it does have its downside. I think probably like you Deidre I probably will stay with them, it would be nice to think the way is open to speak to an Editor/Agent if I decide I need it in the future. 

I didn't know they struggled to find enough readers, I suppose that would make it harder for them to match reader to writer. I think I probably did just hit on the wrong reader, its a lovely way to look at it. She also said she found my book confusing cos it has three different settings, a dr's surgery, an archaeology site and people's houses but plenty of books do that and I don't see that mine is anymore confusing than any other.

Funny enough, if someone says I can't do something it usually annoys me so much and gets under my skin that I have to prove them wrong. So I'd better get on and do something about it and get that cursor to screen asap! 

Thanks loads everyone for your help and support!! You're a great gang and I'm lucky to have you all around me, no-one quite understands these things except another writer I find, cos they don't know about genre & sub genre, NWS etc, though they do try and are lovely too.

Anyway, I'm waffling now, I'm off to bed then up to work in the morning,

take care and loads of thanks, lynne x

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From: Deirdre...@aol.com
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 15:45:17 -0400that
Subject: Re: NWS
To: lynne...@hotmail.co.uk; thewrite...@googlegroups.com

[jowal...@yahoo.com]

Hi All

Just a quick heads up to say I have posted Lorraine's interview with Donna this morning, so please stop by with a comment and a like if you have the time. Thanks!

Jo x

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

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From: lynne pardoe <lynne...@hotmail.co.uk>

Sender: thewrite...@googlegroups.com

Date: Sun, 23 Jun 2013 23:21:38 +0100

To: Deirdre...@aol.com<deirdre...@aol.com>; thewrite...@googlegroups.com<thewrite...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: RE: NWS