Guppies: A school of—and for—emerging writers

by guest blogger Elizabeth Zelvin

Sisters in Crime was the first organization I joined in 2002 when I completed the first draft of Death Will Get You Sober, the mystery manuscript I'd been talking about for years. I visited my local chapter, which was going through a lull at the time. And I signed up for Guppies, which I was told was the SinC online interest group (not yet a chapter) for the Great UnPublished, or prepublished wrtiers, as they are often called in SinC. I'm so glad I did! In fact, if I hadn't, I bet I'd still be nursing the unfulfilled dream of getting a novel published that I'd carried around for more than 50 years.

Guppyfish_2Guppies catapulted me into the world of mystery publishing in the 21st century. It had changed a lot since I first tried to market a manuscript—three of them—in the 1970s.

I learned it was no longer fairly easy to get an agent, competition was fierce, and there were many steps to go through. You had to write a killer query letter, a tight synopsis, and a zinger of a first page. You had to research the agents and expect double and triple digit rejections.

The craft had also changed. I was thrilled with my 85,000-word draft and wanted to send it right out. It had only one murder, to which I made a leisurely approach in the first three chapters. "It seems more like a literary novel," one of my first Guppy critiquers said. I was baffled by that at the time. But by the time a wonderful publisher accepted my book for publication in 2008, all that backstory was gone. I'd cut the book to 72,000 words and added what one author who blurbed my book called "a forest of bodies." Guppies taught me what "backstory" is. They taught me "kill your darlings." They also taught me there are more darlings lurking in my creative brain—as long as I keep writing.

When I wanted to give up, Guppies encouraged me. They read the manuscript, and their comments made it better. They made me take out a lot of adverbs and "to be" verbs. They made my one-paragraph description sparkle. They told me where the conferences were. They coached me in my elevator pitch. They plied me with virtual chocolate. They commiserated over the rejections and rejoiced when the manuscript sold.

I've always read Acknowledgment pages attentively. I used to wonder how these authors got to know so many writers and other helpful people. Thanks to Guppies, now I know.

Visit the Guppies website at: www.sinc-guppies.org

Elizabeth Zelvin's first mystery, DEATH WILL GET YOU SOBER, is coming from St. Martin's in April 2008. She can be found on MySpace, at www.elizabethzelvin.com, and blogging on Poe's Deadly Daughters.

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Comment by carole gill on July 19, 2007 at 7:12am
OH PLEASE BE MY FRIEND! Very interested in what you have to say!

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