Frequently Asked Questions

Book FAQs

» Will there be more Walker Papers?
» Will there be more Negotiator books?
» Will there be more Inheritors' Cycle novels?
» Will there be more Strongbox Chronicles?
» Why do you write under multiple names?

Writing How-To FAQs

» What style do you write in?
» Do you advise using a synopsis or outline?
» Do you have any advice on sharpening my writing skills?
» I wrote a book. Now what?

Will there be more Walker Papers?

Yes! I'm contracted for 3 more books (4-6 in the series) and hope that sales will justify a final three books to wrap up the series.

Will there be more Negotiator books?

Margrit and Alban's story is done, so regardless of what else I may do with the Old Races universe, there won't be any more stories featuring them as the main characters. Right now I'm writing the occasional short story set in that world, but I have no plans to return to the Old Races in novel-length form until the Walker Papers series, at least, is finished.

Will there be more Inheritors' Cycle novels?

I certainly hope so. I have plans for 2-3 more books in that series, and will hopefully know whether it'll go forward by the end of 2009.

Will there be more Strongbox Chronicles?

Probably not.

Why do you write under multiple names?

C.E. Murphy is my real name. Not the one I go by in day to day life (that's Catie), but they're my real initials. A friend of mine suggested I use the initials when I was dithering (well before publication) about what name I would write under ("Catie" never sounded grown-up enough to me to put on a book cover), and I decided he'd hit on something. So C.E. Murphy is the first name I've published under, and it'll be the one that stays in the sf/f genre.

Cate Dermody was my grandmother's maiden name. I wanted to use a different name for publishing my Bombshells, which are action-adventure romance, for a variety of reasons: partly because I was lucky enough to sell to different lines early in my career, so there was no kind of financial hit in writing under different names; partly because I'd seen other authors who'd been pigeonholed into placements in bookstores because their names were associated specifically with one genre or another, and partly to honor a woman I never met: from what I can gather, my grandmother was just the kind of kick-ass, name-taking woman that the Bombshell line was meant to be about.

You'll have gathered by now that I'm not all that concerned with keeping my various identities secret (I'm Batman!). The final reason I've decided to write under more than one name is that the idea of a reader being able to look at a Cate Dermody title and think, "Ah, that'll be action-adventure romance," or a C.E. Murphy title and think, "Fantasy novel!" appeals to me. I think the different names allows a kind of branding that can be useful for readers, and I like that. :)

Writing How-To FAQs

What style do you like to write in? Do you type double-spaced or single and what type of font?

Courier/Courier New 12, 25pt spacing, 1" margins all around, 4 carriage returns at the start of each chapter before the chapter heading. I use Microsoft Word and have the magnification set to 95% so I can see just slightly more of what I'm working on all at once.

I wanted to know if you suggest writing an outline or a sypnopsis to help you finish the story. If I do use an outline or sypnopsis how detailed should it be? Should I include subplots like chapters narrated by characters other than the main character?

As for synopses vs outlines, well, I wrote my first several novels without either, and these days I write synopses. I don't necessarily think there's a lot of difference--a synopsis can be as detailed or as general as you want it to be, as can an outline. If writing the subplots for secondary characters seems to work for you, go for it. Synopses and outlines and, in fact, the general format for writing any book, is very individual. Don't get the idea in your head that you're doing it wrong, because there's no such thing. In fact, I'd say if you've already completed a novel and that process worked for you, you're *definitely* doing it *right*.

But also don't feel stuck in doing something the way you've always done it. Like I said, I wrote my first several novels without either synopsis or outline, and that's changed for me. I also always used to write sequentially, and now I'll occasionally write a scene out of sequence just because I want to get it written. Or I'll write the end of the book when I'm still three chapters away from it, because it means that in a way I've FINISHED, and that can help me deal with the last few chapters. :) So don't be afraid to experiment and see what works for you.

Do you have any advice on how to sharpen my writing skills?
(This question came in from a 16 year old writer who wrote his first novel at 15.)

The very best way to sharpen your writing skill is to keep writing. :) It's a major accomplishment to write a whole novel when you're 15, and you should be proud of yourself (I didn't write my first novel until I was 19). I wouldn't worry too much about the writing being bad. The fact that you can recognize that it's not particularly good puts you miles ahead of many writers, even ones who are much much older than you are.

Get critiques. Not from your peers, if you're sixteen. Go to your favorite teacher at school, or a librarian, and ask him or her to read your book, or even just part of your book. Tell them you're looking for critiques on what can be improved. Tell them you know the writing isn't good and you want to make it better. This will be scary, I can pretty much guarantee that, but if you genuinely want to improve your writing, it'll be enormously helpful.

Listen to what they have to say, even when it stings, but also don't be weighed down by everything they say. There are times they'll be wrong. Listen to your gut: if you think something they've said is wrong, think about why, and decide if you're having an emotional reaction or if that part of the story really does have to be that way.

Read a lot. Read nonfiction and fiction and read outside your favorite genre in fiction. Look at what other writers do, especially the ones you like. See if you can figure out what makes the stories work, and try to learn to do that yourself.

But mostly, keep writing. Believe in yourself and your stories, and keep writing, and you'll learn. I have faith in that. :)

A friend just emailed me asking for advice for a friend of hers; he's written a novel and while he says everyone who's read it can't put it down, he doesn't know how to get it into a publisher's hands. He says it crosses genres, so he doesn't even know where to start, and that he knows it would sell if he had an agent but he knows he can't get an agent without having sold. He's considering vanity publishing, because he doesn't know what else to do. So what, she asks, should he do?

Tell him not to go the vanity publishing route. If he's written a good book he can find a real publisher for it, and it's a crime to do vanity publishing. Tell him to remember that a legitimate publication scheme means money always flows toward the author.

Also tell him that it is in fact possible to get an agent without being published. It's a lot of work, but so is everything in the publishing industry.

And you're right: he needs to send it to publishers and, probably more specifically, agents who market things in his genre. All stories cross genres: practically every book you'll read has a romance, and I use mysteries for the backbones of my fantasy novels all the time. What he needs to do is determine what genre is most like his, and the answer to that may be "mainstream fiction" (that's what it sounds like to me). He needs to get a Writer's Market and a guide to literary agents (the book paired with that, 'Agents Directory', is actually by someone who used to work for the DMLA, my agency), and he needs to pick up books by authors he enjoys reading/whose work is similar in some fashion to his, and see if any of them thank their agents in the acknowledgments; that's a very good way to find agents who are actively working in your genre.

A hugely useful resource for legitimate agents and agencies is Preditors & Editors. It's also got query letter suggestions, proposals, synopses--it's a really valuable resource.

He needs to come up with a one sentence pitch for the book--an elevator pitch. My book in 15 words or less, that sort of thing. My pitch for URBAN SHAMAN was:

"A Seattle cop with no use for the mystical has a near-death experience and is offered a choice between dying, or life as a shaman. When she chooses life, she finds herself neck-deep in a murder mystery and up against a couple of old Celtic gods."

Something like that. There's a whole bunch of ideas at ForwardMotion.

He'll need something like that for a query letter, but first he needs to study agents and agencies and find out who would be a good match for him.

He should send out query letters, FOLLOWING THE AGENCY'S INSTRUCTIONS on what they ask for in a query letter (some just want a letter, some will ask for the first 5 pages of the manuscript, etc), and just keep trying until he gets a hit.

Where does he live? One of the best ways to get an agent's attention, or an editor's, is to go to writer's conferences. Lots of them have editor/agent appointments where you can pitch (which is why you need to have that elevator pitch memorized!), and they'll often ask you for your book, or at least a proposal on it, at those things. That's one way to get past the unsolicited submissions problem that many publishers have. I can't recommend highly enough going to these things--the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' conference in Colorado every September is what got me actually on the path to publication. I would hugely recommend that one, if it's possible for him to attend.

Pretty much the last thing I can say is not to get discouraged. This is just not an easy business to break into, but if he has in fact written a good book, then he'll make it. Publishers want good books. They really do. And most of what they see is absolute crap, so if you've genuinely written something good, then you're already way ahead of the game.

Ok, no, I've got one more thing to say after all. :) You're right: I spent a whole lot of years honing my craft and getting to the point where I could sell. It didn't actually take me that long to sell, once I'd gotten there, but I was goddamned methodical about it. This is not a crap shoot and it's not about luck. There's some aspect of that, sure, but it's a business, and you need to treat it like one, even if all you're doing is trying to break in.

Polish your manuscript. Make it the best thing you possibly can. Find the agents you most want to be represented by. Query them.

Start writing your next book.

There's a hell of a lot of down time in this business. An awful lot of wait time. Do not spend that time fretting. It's useless. Do what you can--query, query, query, until you get a hit--but don't wait til you've hit it big with the one book to write the next. One of the first things an agent who takes you on is going to say is, "What else do you have?" You want to have something. URBAN SHAMAN was the fifth manuscript I wrote, and I'd written 7 by the time I sold it. That's paying off for me in a big way now--I've been able to sell that series and two others since then because I had either a complete manuscript or a significant partial manuscript completed on those other series. Use that time, because right now it's all you've got on your side. :)