Welcome back to the Secret Victorianst for a different sort of blog today—an interview with fellow historical novelist, Hope C. Tarr. You might remember Hope from the virtual panel event I did with Lady Jane’s Salon, the NYC-based romance readers’ club she co-founded, back in 2020. Next month, Hope’s debut historical novel Irish Eyes will be released by Lume Books, and I know readers of the Secret Victorianist are going to love it. Irish Eyes opens on the Aran Islands in 1898 and takes readers on a journey, with its heroine Rose, to the streets of late nineteenth/early twentieth-century New York City. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Hope and enter for a chance to win a copy of her novel below!
SV: How did you first get the idea for your novel, Irish Eyes?
Hope: Irish Eyes is very much a love note to my Irish ancestors, who came to America on the coffin ships at the height of the Great Hunger. For years, I batted around the idea of writing something with an Irish heroine. Finally, on a hiking trip to Western Ireland in (gulp) 2008, I stopped at the famed Cliffs of Moher and gazed across Galway Bay to the trio of islands known as the Arans, and Rose O'Neill’s story began taking shape in my mind. Back in Manhattan, running along the Hudson River, looking out to Ellis Island and Lady Liberty helped further flesh out Rose’s story.
SV: How did the book evolve from your first to your final draft?
Hope: Whoever first said that “writing is in the rewriting” was wise indeed. Irish Eyes changed so many times. Originally, I had a prologue, in fact two prologues, which I really loved. The first prologue began with Rose in 1922 at mass narrating her life story to the parish priest. The second prologue started with Adam, Rose's future love interest, at the Battle of San Juan Heights during the Spanish-American War. I've actually shared that prologue on my History With Hope Substack! To pick up the pacing and start in the thick of the story, both of these very different prologues ended up on the chopping block. A la Stephen King, sometimes you really do have to murder your darlings. 😉
But by far the biggest shift in molding the story was also the scariest. At the onset, I'd written the entire book in my trusty go-to perspective: third-person. But something was missing. The story wasn't... gelling. As a reader, I'd always adored novels written in the first-person—du Maurier’s Rebecca, anyone? —but I'd never had the courage to try first-person POV myself. Once I did and rewrote the entire book in Rose's voice, it all began coming together.
SV: How did writing historical fiction differ from the genres you've written in in the past?
Hope: After wonderful years spent writing 20+ romances for Penguin, Harlequin, and Macmillan, I was ready for a BIG change. Ready to push the boundaries of genre and do a deep dive into history, in this case, mostly early twentieth-century history. Ready to write the sort of big, sweeping historical novel that I'd grown up devouring. Books like Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, technically romance, where you get to spend time with the characters, who evolve over not days/weeks/months but years. In other words, a saga. For a while now, “saga” has been something of a dirty word in American publishing. For that reason, I suspected I was going to have a tough time selling this book, especially as it would be my historical fiction debut, which probably explains why it took me so long to finish it and then shape it into a shoppable manuscript. That being said, if I had to sum up the experience of writing Irish Eyes and bringing it to this point, that word would be “freeing.”
SV: Do you have any tips for writers of historical fiction who are trying to make their books relatable to modern readers without being anachronistic?
Hope: Admittedly, this can be a tough balance to strike, especially when keeping in mind younger readers, who approach fiction with a very different set of expectations than I did at that age. With Irish Eyes, as with any historical fiction, I try to step back and ask myself, “how critical is this point/word/phrase to telling a great story?” If the answer is “not so much,” I may leave it out rather than veer into anachronism. But I also think it's important to understand how we've collectively evolved over the eras. And not evolved. So many of the issues addressed in Irish Eyes—immigration, the roles and rights of women, labor reform, income inequality—are eerily reflective of our present moment. History is cyclical, not linear. It's important to bear in mind that we are making "history" every waking moment.
SV: Your novel, while it's one woman's story, touches on major world and local events, e.g., WWI and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. What was your process like for naturally weaving these references into the novel?
Hope: The biggest challenge in writing Irish Eyes was to decide what historical events not to include. (Back to murdering those darlings!). The book covers 24 years in Rose's life. While the 24/7 news cycle is a recent phenomenon, newspapers were a big, busy feature of turn-of-the-century life. In writing the novel, I put in, and later took out, several events that, while interesting, wouldn't have directly impacted the immigrant community of my fictional heroine and her growing family. For example, the assassination of President McKinley (September 14, 1901) gets a brief mention while the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of March 25, 1911, in Lower Manhattan, gets a half-chapter.
SV: You're a New Yorker yourself. How did this help your process in writing the book?
Hope: Living here as I've been privileged to do, the city's history is all around, waiting to reveal its stories to those open to knowing them. I was here in 2011 for the centennial commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire at the Brown Building (formerly the Asch Building) where the factory was housed in 1911. The long-anticipated memorial was dedicated in October 2023. The adjacent Washington Square Park began as a potter's field when a series of yellow fever outbreaks starting in 1797 caused the city morgues to overflow. Human remains still rest beneath the elegant fountain and curated plantings. McSorley's Old Alehouse, NYC's oldest continuously operating bar (1854-present), which I recently revisited for another History With Hope episode, serves the same cheddar cheese and onion platters it did back when the great illusionist Houdini stopped in for a post-performance pint.
SV: What historical novels have you read and loved recently?
Hope: I'm very keen on World War II at the moment, likely because I'm working on the sequel to Irish Eyes, set in occupied Paris. I recently finished, and loved, Good Night From Paris, by Jane Healey, a fictional account of the real-life Hollywood screen actress, Drue Leyton, who was living in Paris with her French husband when the Second World War broke out. Rather than return home to the States, Drue accepted a position broadcasting from Paris to the (then neutral) US. Under the Nazi occupation, she repeatedly risked her life working for the Resistance.
SV: What should we look forward to seeing later in the American Songbook Series?
Hope: As I cagily slipped in above, I'm at work on a sequel, Stardust! The second book in my American Songbook series, Stardust follows Rose's granddaughter, Daisy, into the late 1930s and 1940s. Fashioned in the image of her indomitable Irish grandmother, Daisy will take the reins of Rose's Kavanaugh's Department Store when the time comes. In preparation, Rose sends Daisy to Paris to apprentice with the iconic couturier and fragrance entrepreneur, Coco Chanel. In shadowing the mercurial Chanel, Daisy is thrown into the thick of a glittering and treacherous cast of characters—American and British expats, the Parisian haute-monde, war correspondents, and German spies—all of whom congregate at the Hotel Ritz. While she's there, the Nazis invade and occupy Paris. Like the world-famous Chanel No. 5, a blend of 80 secret ingredients, no one in occupied Paris is what they at first seem. 😉
Hope C. Tarr
SV: Thank you so much for speaking with me, Hope, and for giving me the chance to read Irish Eyes ahead of publication.
Hope: Thank you so much for having me! I hope readers will enjoy Irish Eyes as much as I loved writing it.
Would you like to win a signed paperback copy of Hope C. Tarr’s Irish Eyes, alongside a signed paperback of my own historical novel, Bronte’s Mistress? If so, sign up to my monthly email newsletter here. Anyone who subscribes to the newsletter between 21st November 2023 and 7th December 2023 (the Irish Eyes release day!) will be entered into a random draw to win both books. Already signed up? Spread the word to friends and family who might want to win and stay in touch with me via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Hello and welcome back to my Writers’ Questions series, where I answer burning questions you might have about the craft and business of writing. As a writer of historical fiction, I’ve posted previously about some of my favorite and least favorite tropes in the genre, but I’ve never posted about what historical fiction actually is. Think the answer is straightforward? You might be mistaken…
At its simplest being an author of historical fiction means writing stories set in the past. But how far back would you consider “history”? As anyone knows who’s ever been to a thrift store and noticed clothes from a decade you remember being labeled as “vintage” knows, it can be very disorienting to see period you lived through being treated as historical. Yet, at the same time, World War II, one of the most common settings for historical novels being published in the early twenty-first century, is within living memory for some people alive today.
Because of this, rather than choose an arbitrary number of years’ distance for a book to be labeled as #histfic, I favor Margaret Atwood’s definition: historical fiction is “set in a time before the writer came to consciousness.” That means that if I ever write a novel set in the 1970s, 1980s, or even the super early 1990s, I’d consider my setting historical. If another writer were a teen or adult during those decades and wrote a book drawing on memories as well as research, I wouldn’t consider it to be historical in the same way.
So much for the “historical” part of the name, but what about the word “fiction”? Believe it or not, this can be controversial too, as it’s very common to see real (and really famous!) historical figures showing up in the pages of historical novels. My answer here is much simpler: it doesn’t matter who your characters are; if your novel is set in the past and you’re making things up, it’s historical fiction.
If your novel is primarily about a real person who lived in the past, you might like to use the label “biographical historical fiction”, and this is valid whether or not your protagonist is a household name like Napoleon or someone lesser known, like Lydia Robinson, the titular character of my debut novel, Bronte’s Mistress. Super recognizable historical figures are sometimes referred to as “marquee names” by those in the publishing industry as they are powerful marketing tools, but this term isn’t one that readers are usually familiar with. On the other hand, if a big historical figure just makes a cameo appearance in your book (e.g., you’re writing about London in the 1590s and William Shakespeare wanders into one of your scenes) that’s not enough for the sub-genre to be “biographical”.
Historical fiction is a wide genre bucket, so we see many crossovers with other genres too. Love stories that are set prior to the writer’s consciousness, which follow the romance novel structure, are designated “historical romance”. If your book is about a detective character solving a murder, many decades or centuries ago, congratulations, you’ve written a “historical mystery”. And if your historical setting has a magical twist, it sounds like you’re an author of “historical fantasy”.
Last July, I was happy to be asked to be part of the virtual book tour for Mimi Matthews’s 2021 John Eyre (a gender swapped retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre—er, yes please!). And today, I’m back as part of another virtual book tour for a Mimi Matthews book—historical romance, The Siren of Sussex, which was released this month. Mimi, I’m in awe of your writerly productivity!
The Siren of Sussex is a Victorian set romance. Our heroine is Evelyn Maltravers, a young woman more at home on horseback than in a ballroom. But Evelyn knows the way to help her family is to secure a husband during her first season, even if that will be difficult following her older sister’s scandalous disgrace.
In London, Evelyn’s plot to take society by storm using her skills as an equestrienne brings her to the door of Ahmad Malik, a half Indian, half English tailor, who fashions the most eye-catching riding habits. She doesn’t expect the powerful mutual attraction that blossoms between them or how their goals—finding Evelyn a husband and making Ahmad the most sought after tailor in the city—will make them strategic partners, not just tradesman and client.
As much as I’d enjoyed Matthews’s writing previously, I was a little wary about whether The Siren of Sussex would be a book for me. I read more historical fiction than historical romance and the beautiful cover, featuring a woman on horseback, made me think this novel might be better suited to people who enjoy riding (readers: horses make me sneeze!). However, I was soon swept up in the delightful and engaging story. Evelyn and Ahmad were unusual and likable leads, whose compatibility and chemistry was obvious, and the obstacles facing them, due to differences in race and social station, were difficult to overcome.
The details about horseback riding weren’t technical or overwhelming and added unexpected elements to the novel, as did Ahmad’s passion for ladies’ fashion and Evelyn’s uncle’s interest in spiritualism. There were also tantalizing hints about the rest of the series to come, with a strong supporting cast of side characters and just enough references to Evelyn’s younger sisters, who all have their own quirks and aspirations!
I’d highly recommend the book to lovers of historical romance and those looking for a feel good read this January, with good historical details and highly readable prose. What’s more, Mimi Matthews is giving readers of my blog a chance to win a copy of The Siren of Sussex! Check out all the details below...
Welcome back to my Writers’ Questions series where I’m answering aspiring writers’ FAQs about craft, publishing, and the emotional journey of writing a book. Today, I’m tackling the type of chapter lots of writers are most anxious to write—the sex scene.
Is this gross? Will my parents ever read this?! Do I even have sex right??? These are just some of the questions that might be running through your mind when you reach THAT scene in your manuscript. But never fear, I have some practical pointers to make the task less daunting.
Be clear about the intention of your scene
A good starting point is to ask yourself what impact you want this particular scene to have on your readers. If you’re writing erotica, you’re definitely aiming to titillate, and this can be true of sex scenes in other genres too. But this is far from the only emotional response sex scenes can elicit. Maybe you want the scene to be romantic. Maybe instead the encounter is intended to be humorous. A sex scene can also be unsettling, sad or scary. Start with the emotional landscape you’re looking to paint, and this can direct its content and language.
Stay laser-focused on point of view
People experience sex differently, depending on their gender, their experience level, and the “role” they’re playing in any given sex act. Personality type, the relationship they have with their partner(s), and the character’s emotional state are also all going to have a huge impact on the scene, as it will be filtered through the lens of the point of view character. This should make writing a sex scene much less scary. Don’t worry—you don’t need to capture how every sexually active person feels during sex; you just need to convey what sex feels like to this one character, at this one moment.
Choose your heat level
Think about how we know sex has happened in a movie. Sometimes, if rarely, we see it all, genitalia included. More often, audiences get to view some nudity, kissing, and billowing bedsheets, but nothing explicit. (Think about how many actresses seem to keep their bra on in bed.) We might hear some moans or maybe they’re drowned out by crescendo-ing music. In many films, sex is even less explicit than this, replaced by visual innuendos (e.g. exploding fireworks) or post-sex scenes, like breakfast the next morning. In fiction, we do something similar. You can “fade to black,” ending a scene before sex has happened but when it’s obvious that it’s about to. You can turn down the heat by keeping your language more suggestive than clinical. And, of course, you can put it all on the table and risk upsetting more conservative readers on Goodreads. Writer, the choice is ultimately yours.
Write sex like dialogue
People don’t always talk during sex, but they often do, and there’s an even greater chance there’s conversation between characters leading up to sex. Taking cues from how you write non-sexual dialogue then is a great way to go about structuring sex scenes. I think about dialogue as having three components—what people say, their body language and physical actions during the conversation, and what the point of view character is thinking but doesn’t say. In a sex scene, the balance between speaking, doing and thinking will probably lean more towards doing than in a typical section of dialogue, but if you have a character who’s very in their own head during the act and/or characters who are into dirty talk, any of these three components could come to the fore. Look to have a mix of all three, not just action, to avoid making your scene read like a sex position instruction manual.
Get feedback
Yes, really. Especially if you’re writing an encounter outside your realm of experience e.g. from the perspective of a character of a different gender and/or sexuality and/or body type. It’s much less embarrassing for one critique partner to point out your mistakes than to find yourself mocked online and nominated for a Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
Writers, what other strategies do you have for writing great sex (steamy or otherwise)? I’d love you to let me know—here, on Facebook, on Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. And check out my novel, Bronte’s Mistress, which contains sex scenes between Branwell Bronte and the older woman with whom he is rumored to have had a disastrous affair…
I’m something of a Bronte fanatic. After all, my own debut novel (Bronte’s Mistress) was inspired by a real-life scandal that rocked literature’s most famous family. So I was delighted to be asked to participate in the virtual book tour for John Eyre: A Tale of Darkness and Shadow, Mimi Matthews’s new Bronte-inspired Gothic romance. As part of the tour, 35 online influencers specializing in historical fiction, Gothic romance, and paranormal fiction are celebrating the release with interviews, spotlights, exclusive excerpts, and reviews.
John Eyre is (as you might have guessed from its title!) a gender-swapped retelling of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847). John is a tutor working under the employ of a fascinating Mrs. Rochester at Thornfield Hall. The housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax has morphed into a butler, Mr. Fairfax. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that the maniac in the attic is a hidden husband, not a secret wife.
What might be less obvious at first glance though is that this isn’t just a take on one nineteenth-century novel, but two. Bronte’s Jane Eyre meets Bram Stoker’s 1897 Dracula in this fast-paced read. This is not as outlandish an idea as it might seem at first glance. Author Mimi Matthews details in her Author’s Note several passages in Bronte’s novel that borrow from vampiric imagery (e.g. [Rochester:] “She sucked the blood: she said she’d drain my heart.”). And the Gothic Yorkshire setting lends itself to violent, as well as psychological, horror.
The structure of Matthews’s novel is more indebted to Dracula than Jane Eyre, as Mrs. Rochester’s letters and journal make up a significant portion of the narrative. While John is definitely our main character, this decision means that Mrs. Rochester is available to us in a way Bronte’s Mr. Rochester never is. Matthews’s Mrs. Rochester is still attractive and magnetic—to John and to readers—but our access to her makes her more human and less dangerous than her masculine namesake. It’s also tricky to entirely reverse the original power dynamic in a nineteenth-century setting. John is Mrs. Rochester’s subordinate by position, wealth, and class. But he is still a man, with all the privileges this entails, and he takes the lead romantically and physically at moments when I would have liked Mrs. Rochester to seize the reins.
Matthews excels at building atmosphere and in delivering clarity at a line level even while her characters move in a fog of confusion. I delighted in the Gothic creepiness of the Milcote mists, the mute children John tutors (a distorted mirror of Jane Eyre’s talkative Adele), the casement bed (hello, Wuthering Heights!), and the role of laudanum in the plot. Obviously, this isn’t the book for those who prefer their historicals firmly rooted in reality, but if you enjoy paranormal details there are plenty to soak in here.
John Eyre doesn’t pretend to be a serious examination of gender dynamics, as Jane Eyre often is, and questions of race are also less prominent than in other Bronte-inspired fiction (this Mr. Rochester still benefitted economically from slave labor, but there is no suggestion that Bertha’s heritage may be non-white).
I’d highly recommend John Eyre to other Bronte fans who are happy to read works that play with the sisters’ worlds. This is a book that is beyond anything else fun—fun to uninitiated readers, but even more fun if you’re familiar with its source material.
Have you read John Eyre? What did you think of it? Let me know—here, on Facebook, on Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist. For updates on my blog, my book, and me, make sure you sign up for my monthly email newsletter below.
I can hardly believe it. The launch of my debut novel, Bronte’s Mistress, is now only a month away! The book, as the title might suggest, is a work of historical fiction, inspired by the lives and works of the Bronte family. It’s based on a true episode in the great literary family’s history, and three of the four siblings who reached adulthood are major characters in my novel.
But there’s another important way in which the novels of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne continue to impact writers and bookshelves today. They are pivotal to our understanding of the Gothic genre.
I recently chatted to C.G. Twiles, author of The Best Man on the Planet, which the writer describes as a ‘modern Gothic romantic thriller’. I wanted to know what Gothic means today, and how the Brontes can help us understand our more modern ideas of romance and suspense.
Austin:
Thanks for chatting with me today about Gothic fiction and The Best Man on the Planet! What inspired you to write the book?
Twiles:
Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I read it when I was 21, and, ever since then, I’ve wanted to write something similar.
The Best Man on the Planet isn’t a retelling, but more of an inspired update. After all, it was hard to think of a really dark secret that my ‘Mr Rochester’ (in my novel, Mr Foster) could have that would shock people these days. We’ve heard it all at this point. My title is ironic, much like The Great Gatsby. I was also tired of thrillers with the word ‘Girl’ in the title, so I came up with one that had ‘Man’.
I have a lot of other interests, like true crime and psychology, which I wrote about for years, and so these themes also ended up weaving their way in. And I’ve always wanted to write a big soul-mance romance. So I put all that into one book. A modern Gothic romantic thriller was the result.
Austin:
How would you define Gothic fiction in particular?
Twiles:
For me, a house that has a sinister vibe is key to a Gothic novel. It can be a mansion, a castle, an urban apartment, or a double wide, but the dwelling is a witness to all the drama, virtually another character.
And then there’s often a Byronic hero, which of course comes from the poet Lord Byron. A dark, brooding, usually male, character, with some kind of torturous past that punishes his present.
But I would argue that while Gothic fiction often centres on the tortured psyche of the male, it is really about the psyche of the female, and how she deals with it. I look at it as the male being the dark part of her psyche.
There are exceptions of course—in Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, the woman is the Byronic hero. And I haven’t read your book, Bronte’s Mistress, yet, but I’m imagining that in your novel, both Branwell and Lydia are Byronic: Branwell tortured by drink and a sense of failure, Lydia by her boring marriage and constraints of her class and era. Am I right?!
Austin:
No spoilers here but you may well be onto something…
I find a lot of your answer really interesting, especially what you said about the central role of the Gothic house. One of the things that stood out to me when reading The Best Man on the Planet was the Gothic mansion in Brooklyn that your main character, Casey, finds herself working at. How did you go about characterizing the house? Is it a real mansion?
Twiles:
It is real! It’s a members-only club, called The Montauk Club, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I basically described it to a T. While I was writing the book, a member allowed me inside (and bought me dinner—thank you!). You can read more about The Montauk Club on my website, www.cgtwiles.com. I hope it will survive the pandemic given that it has currently stopped all events.
I suppose mansions are so central to Gothic novels because of the genre’s origins. These books were often focused on the secrets and depravity of the upper classes, and those people lived in castles, estates and mansions.
Austin:
Speaking of the genre’s origins, do you have any favourite Gothic reads, whether classic or modern, you’d recommend?
Twiles:
I love anything by the Brontes. I also like middle-of-the road Gothic authors, like Dorothy Eden, and Ira Levin, who wrote Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives. In Levin’s stories, there are often sinister homes and strong heroines under duress. I was really into V.C. Andrews as a kid and read all the Dollanganger series, but I tried to reread it recently and couldn’t get into it.
Austin:
And any favourite, or least favourite, Gothic tropes? Which can readers expect to find in your novel?
Twiles:
In The Best Man on the Planet, there’s crime, there’s love and sex (though not explicit), there’s a house that basically comes alive.
A couple of things I also did that aren’t common now in thrillers but were in Gothic fiction back in the day: I have a heroine with a strong moral centre; she is not an unreliable narrator. There’s a sense of humour threaded throughout. The Brontes were great, dry wits, and you don’t see much of that these days in thrillers; they’re all so serious from the first paragraph. But I’m not capable of writing without some humour.
I’m not a huge fan of the dark and stormy night trope. Charlotte Bronte made beautiful use of a storm sweeping in and splitting the huge oak tree after Rochester’s proposal to Jane, but I don’t think that can be topped, so I tend to stay away from storms. It just seems a cheap, easy way to try to get a thrill. How much more challenging is it to create a sense of dread under a clear, sunny sky?
Austin:
Did you also find it challenging to deal with some of the digital realities of our lives today, when writing a Gothic with a contemporary setting?
Twiles:
Yes. It’s hard to give characters modern technology (cell phones, texts, emails and social media), and still manage to have the staples of suspense – like characters who can’t reach each other. If you think of that great scene in Jane Eyre where she and Rochester communicate telepathically, now they’d just text each other. Not as exciting! I kept making things happen and then realising it probably wouldn’t happen that way if there was a cell phone, so I went to elaborate lengths to get rid of modern technology.
Austin:
What about our modern views on psychology? We’ve come along way in our understanding of the psyche since the 1840s!
Twiles:
I took the more up-to-date approach that our biology and brain wiring plays a huge role in our development, more than what our mother might have done to us at age five!
In the world I created in my novel, the brain scan has much more importance than the subconscious. I wanted to ask the question about the role our brains play in who we are—you hear about people who have a stroke and they are suddenly a completely different person! There are people who came out of strokes speaking with foreign accents, or whose sexual orientation changed, or who suddenly became math or musical geniuses.
So I wanted to explore that rather than the deep buried memory thing that so many thrillers are exploring. Who are we really? In the book, Mr. Foster has had a brain aneurysm that burst. He wakes up completely changed. Is he now responsible for the actions of the man he was before?
Austin:
People will have to read your book to find out! Thank you so much for chatting for my blog and best of luck with The Best Man on the Planet.
Bronte’s Mistress is available for pre-order, in hardcover, e-book and audiobook, now, and will be published August 4. Click here to attend my virtual launch event with Strand Book Store NYC on August 3, wherever you are in the world. Want to stay in touch? Sign up to my email newsletter below, or connect with me via Facebook or Instagram, or by tweeting @SVictorianist.
This week, with the world in lockdown, my literary agent, Danielle Egan-Miller, joined me via Zoom for a virtual Q&A session for my unagented writer friends, to share her experience, advice and perspective.
I played note taker as well as moderator for the conversation (“can everyone please go on mute?!”), so what follows are Danielle’s answers to the questions my writers’ groups asked. I hope they are of help to those of you currently in, or about to enter, the querying trenches.
Danielle Egan-Miller
Q:
Danielle, can you introduce yourself to everyone on the call?
A:
Hello, everyone. I’m Danielle Egan-Miller, the President and Owner of Browne & Miller Literary Associates, in Chicago—a role I’ve held since 2003. I represent clients in multiple genres, predominately in fiction. I’ve spent my entire professional career (since the early 1990s) in publishing. I started in, and returned to, the agenting side of the business, but I’ve also worked as an editor and an imprint manager. So please throw your questions about publishing at me, however weird they are. I’m happy to answer!
Q:
How did you get into publishing, and specifically agenting?
A:
I’ve always been a voracious reader. I was the kid always checking out the maximum number of library books and my grandmother was an English teacher. But, when I went to college, I initially thought I was going to go to law school. It was a circuitous route but I eventually landed as an English major. After graduation, I worked for a law firm for a bit, but then decided to attend the Radcliffe Publishing Course rather than pursue law school. This was the right choice.
I’m a sixth generation Chicagoan and I didn’t want to move to New York. This was pretty unheard of in publishing back then. Jane Jordan Browne, the founder of Browne & Miller Literary Associates, was the only literary agent in Chicago (although she initially started the agency in California in the 1970s). I sent her my resume, cold, and became her assistant. Working under her, I eventually became an associate agent.
I then went to the publisher side, working as an editor on non-fiction books.
I returned to the agency when Jane offered to make me her partner. She wanted someone to take on the agency after she retired. Jane was very editorial as an agent, and very old school. This has informed my own approach. I also tend to be editorial in how I work with clients.
Q:
What are some things querying writers need to know about literary agents?
A:
You don’t have to take a class to be an agent, so anyone can make a website and say, “I’m a literary agent.” A lot of people do that with no training and without having the depth of experience required.
The geography of agenting has also changed a lot over the last fifteen years. Agents now work all over, vs. just in New York City. I think some left the city after 9/11, but the move to digital has also had a big impact. When I started out, we had to mail physical manuscripts. I even had to take a typing test. In around 1995 we got our first (AOL) email account as an agency. Jane would print the emails out on the back of old manuscripts and share them with the team. Now it’s very different. I can do my job from anywhere.
What hasn’t changed though is that this is a job still very much based on networking and relationships. I used to only pitch to editors over the phone, but I usually pitch over email now. However, I still never submit anything cold.
The fundamental thing that should matter to querying writers is an agent’s track record in terms of sales. Our job is many things, from career management to negotiation to contracts, but successfully selling the works written by the authors you represent is where it all starts. Agents work on spec which means we only get paid when an author gets paid, and so my success is based on what I sell.We all post our deals online so look at Publishers Marketplace and Publishers Weekly to see what an agent has sold recently.
Q:
How do agents pitch to editors at publishing houses? Do you just reuse a writer’s query letter?
A:
We sometimes crib from a writer’s query letter if it’s good. But writing a pitch, and making a book sound as good as possible, is one of my core strengths as an agent. A pitch letter is a sales letter and important business communication. The blurb we write for a book will often follow it around to different departments at a publishing house so it’s important to get it right.
At Browne & Miller, we think a lot about positioning. Comps (comparative titles) are important. We might look at similar books published in the last couple of years and the copy used to describe them, for example.
In-house, we usually “round robin” the writing of a pitch. The author gets to give input, too, as we perfect it. I tend to be very transparent throughout this entire process with my clients.
Q:
Does every agent handle every genre? How should I find out which genre(s) an agent represents?
A:
Every agent is different when it comes to genre. I, for example, am something of a generalist, but there are genres I don’t rep.
Start with agents’ websites to see the types of books they represent and are looking for. Publishers Marketplace is another good place to look as agents list what they’re looking for on there. Some agents are also on social media, especially Twitter and Instagram.
And Manuscript Wishlist is also a great resource. I found a now #1 bestselling author from an #MSWL tweet. [Note from Finola: If you don’t know what this is, check out my previous blog post, which contains a full explanation of Manuscript Wishlist.]
If you know a writer who is agented you can ask them to refer you. Agents are also often speakers at events and conferences and may take live pitches at those.
Another easy thing to do is to think about which shelf your book would be on and which writers you’d be next to. Look in the Acknowledgments sections of their books. An author will often thank his/her agent. And flattery will get you far. If you can genuinely compliment an agent’s client’s book, do.
Q:
Do writers need to include comp titles in a query letter? Is there any harm in using them?
A:
The risk writers run in including comp titles is that they’re wrong. But on balance it’s better to try. I love the mash up comp: “X meets Y.” Or if there’s a twist on a genre e.g. “It’s a cosy mystery with a paranormal twist.”
A kiss of death in a query letter is not knowing what it is you’ve written. That would be an automatic no from us.
Comp titles should be fairly recent. And if you’re going to use something old, tell us why this book is different and new. Don’t just say, “It’s reminiscent of The Call of the Wild.”Tell us why we need a new The Call of the Wild. Ideally you should have read the comps you use.
Librarians are also a great resource for finding comp titles. Say you’re writing a historical mystery set in New York City. Ask a librarian to point you in the direction of the most popular books in this vein. You should know who the big players are in your genre, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for you.
Q:
What should writers learn from the American Dirt and RWA controversies?
A:
Readers and publishers are interested in authentic voices. So there are amazing opportunities for writers who bring a different perspective or worldview.
Q:
What makes a query letter stand out for you?
A:
I probably get around two hundred to three hundred email queries a week. Other agents, who are more aggressive about soliciting queries, may get double or even triple that.
First and foremost, query emails need to be well written. Email gives people the licence to be casual, but a query should be very polished, not something written off the cuff.
I want one or two descriptive lines up front, telling me what a book is e.g. “It’s a 95K police procedural featuring a thirty-five-year-old single mom who might have ESP.” That should be followed by a good descriptive paragraph, similar to the back copy on a book. You shouldn’t include every detail of your story, but you should make me want to read it.
After that I want to know about you. I consider both debuts and previously published writers. Tell me what is relevant about you and your writing experience. I like to know if you’re in writing groups, or groups related to your genre, and if you’ve gone to conferences, or entered contests. Also include clear contact information in the body of your email vs. relying on the “reply” button.
Every agent will list their own querying guidelines on their website. Follow these to a tee. For instance, I only want to see a query, not the first three chapters. I don’t open any attachments I haven’t requested. If you’re querying twenty agents you might have twenty different versions of your query.
Make sure you spell check your email. And please spell my name and the name of my agency correctly.
If you’re struggling to write your book’s blurb, switch with a critique partner or within your writing group. Pitch each other’s books to each other. Writers aren’t necessarily marketers and that’s okay. An outside perspective could be what you need.
Q:
Are there rules about what you need to achieve as a writer in your first ten pages? For example, if you write mysteries, do you need a dead body on page one?
A:
How editors and consumers are reading is changing expectations about the first few pages of a novel. Many editors are reading manuscripts first on their commutes, on their phone or tablet. And reading in this format makes it seem like it takes longer to get to the action. Twenty-five printed pages could be a hundred swipes on a Kindle.
I edit by hand and my assistant then types up my notes, using track changes and comments. But I have to be aware that many are reading digitally and you should be aware of that too.
If you are writing a mystery, you certainly might not want to wait until 30% through your novel to introduce a dead body, but, on the other hand, not every mystery needs a dead body on page one. I understand writers’ worries about becoming too artificial. We see the same problem in romance. Often editors and readers want the hero, heroine, and romantic conflict all introduced within the first few pages.
Part of this is being driven by genre fiction having a huge readership in e-book. E-book readers have their own demands and a quick opening is one of them.
Q:
You mentioned that your approach as an agent is pretty editorial. How much editorial work are you willing to invest in a new client and/or manuscript?
A:
I like to do editorial work but still a manuscript needs to be pretty sound for me to take interest. I always compare it to a cake—it needs to be baked enough. That means don’t query me with an early draft.
However baked it is, if the writing is problematic, lacking rhythm or cadence, I can’t fix that. Other agents may have a different view, but, if the writing is creating an obstacle to reading, if I’m seeing a lot of odd sentence structures and it’s not flowing well, the book is not something for me.
I do a represent a lot of historical fiction writers and, for historicals, there is a big difference between dramatising the life of a historical person and writing a historical novel. A historical novel is meant to bring historical characters to life in a way we don’t know, not just dramatise what happened to them.
It’s important to remember that agents work on spec. Good agents never charge writers an editorial fee. We get paid only when we sell your book so I need to believe that the manuscript is something I can sell.
The relationship between a writer and an agent is like a marriage. You have to trust each other. After all, your agent will be the one advocating for you in the marketplace. When it comes to the editorial process, if you don’t like my feedback, then we’re probably not the right fit. A manuscript has to become “submission ready” and if I’m still finding things that bother me, an editor will probably feel same. I’ve learned that from experience. One or two editorial passes is common for me, though sometimes it’s more.I talk to writers upfront about how many editorial passes I think it’s going to take before their manuscript is ready in order to set expectations.
Q:
How is COVID-19 affecting the publishing industry and, in particular, agents’ ability to make new deals?
A:
Great question. This crisis is continuing to evolve on daily basis, but right now I think it’s great time for writers to query agents. Agents are very actively looking and we have to believe that editors are going to keep buying.
Books being sold today will be published eighteen months to two years in the future and we have to believe that 2022 will be better than 2020.
At my agency, March was a rollercoaster. We were meant to be at London Book Fair. There was all sorts of drama leading up to it, before we withdrew, and it was eventually cancelled. My son had to move out of college on three days’ notice. I am fortunate that my son is old enough that I’m not home schooling but some editors are, and I have to be aware of that.
I was personally catatonic for a week or two, with everything going on, but I’m motivated now to make some good sales during this crisis. I have several projects on submission. This agency will turn fifty years old next year and it’s made it through all sorts of difficult times including the 2008/2009 economic down turn. We’ll get through the coronavirus pandemic, too.
Lots of writers are struggling to write in the current climate and so many have told me they’re incredibly distracted. My authors have certainly had events cancelled, but we’ve had no book releases rescheduled as of yet. I expect we will continue to see cutbacks at publishers.
One thing I am not doing is virus-related books. I’ve received so many queries about those so far. Please don’t!
Q:
How are audio books changing the publishing industry?
A:
Audio books are the biggest area of growth in the industry. Amazon has made it so easy. People can now listen to books while working out, in their car, or on their commute. In the past you read a book first, then maybe listened to it, but not anymore. We’re seeing audio-first consumption.
As an agent, it is now very difficult to negotiate away audio rights from the publisher. For most imprints at the Big Five, having the audio rights is now mandatory.
Q:
Can you talk a little more about the business side of the business—rights, contracts etc.?
A:
The relationship between writer and agent is a significant business relationship. I am a member of the AAR (Association of Author Representatives) and we have a code of ethics, which, among other things, addresses how agents should handle their authors’ money.Messing up the money is the best way to get a bad reputation as an agent.
I have a fiduciary relationship with my clients. For many, I receive all their advances, royalties etc., and I personally write every cheque and issue 1099s. And an AAR member, I have to pay out monies due to authors within ten business days.
One of an agent’s biggest roles is to negotiate a contract on your behalf, so an agent has to have an understanding of what the negotiable points are within a contract. Some large agencies have contract departments. I handle all contracts myself. This is something that it’s fair to ask about if an agent has made you an offer of representation. Most agents aren’t lawyers, but some are. I guess my early interest in law went to some use!
An agent should always look out for the author’s best interests and be able to explain why this a deal is a good one or not. Most agencies have a boilerplate contract which is a good starting point for negotiation.
When it comes to rights, there are a lot to think about. We have to think about the territories the publisher wants to sell in, foreign translation rights, audiobook rights, e-book rights, film/TV rights, large print rights, first serial and second serial rights and more.
Typically, the publisher wants to take everything, and the agent wants to give nothing and the negotiation starts from there. So it’s important to know what all the rights are worth.
Q:
How do you stay up to date with the types of books acquiring editors are looking for?
A:
Normally, I see editors several times a year, for example at BEA, various conferences, the London Book Fair, and during other trips to NYC and LA. I’m always reading deal posts and the trade publications and I stay in touch with a lot of editors via social media. I am also established enough that I get contacted by (especially younger) editors, so they let me know what they’re looking for.
Q:
What do you appreciate in relationship with client?
A:
It’s important that we hit it off personality-wise. I appreciate honesty and friendliness and I think I have such cool authors! I’d love to have them all at a great cocktail party. Lots of my clients are now friends and talk to each other as well.
Q:
What’s a red flag from an author that makes you less likely to want them as a client?
A:
I have a good radar for high maintenance people and a mantra that “life’s too short” to deal with them.
For me, an author wanting to be famous is a red flag, as is a writer who sets their own expectations about money. I love to make money for an author, but money isn’t always the best leading motivation for a writing, or any creative, endeavour.
I want to work with writers who are talented, pleasant, hard workers, goal-oriented, and who I genuinely like.
Q:
Can you explain what a bidding war is?
A:
It’s typical to go out with a manuscript on what’s known as a “multiple submission.” For instance, I might send a manuscript to six editors at the same time. Some agents may send to twenty editors or even more but I don’t typically go that high.
If multiple editors want to buy a book, it then may go to auction, which the agent conducts. I always set auction ground rules that include that the writer can take any offer at any point for any reason. It might not just be about money, but about whom a writer wants to work with and whether an offer is for one book or more.
The more a publisher spends on a book, the more the book has to make to be deemed successful.
We were all very grateful to Danielle for taking time out of her day to talk to us, and I hope this write-up has been helpful to some querying writers out there.
If you want to read the query that helped me get an offer of representation from Danielle, you can check it out here. For more information on my forthcoming novel, Bronte’s Mistress, click here. And, if you want to be alerted about news, giveaways, events and more, follow me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or sign up for my newsletter below.
