Interview with Linda Little, Part II

Today's post continues my interview with Linda Little and focusses on the stuff we writers are dying to hear: how other writers have become successful.
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Tell us about your path to publication.

When I sent my first manuscript out, I didn’t have an agent and didn’t need one. It’s good to remember that agents are looking for work they can sell – not work they love. They know a lot about literature, a lot about markets, a lot about the possibilities that exist.

But even the big publishing houses still accept unsolicited manuscripts. When you have a full-length manuscript, you can do simultaneous submissions although the chances of getting a big publisher on a first novel is, again statistically, very low.

I sent my book proposal for my first book off to the seven small publishing houses and two of them responded quite quickly that they wanted to see the full manuscript. Then it took ten months before anyone read it. Once the editor at Goose Lane read it, it was only about a month before they offered to publish it. After the offer to publish, it took about 18 months before it was ready for release.

For the second novel, I thought I would see if I could get an agent to make sure I did everything I could for my book. To find my agent I applied to three prospective agents with query letters and all three agreed to read my ms. Based on the ms, two called me on the phone to talk about it and to talk about representing me. The third agent, who was not interested, sent me a refusal letter. I chose from the two interested agents based on the conversations we had.

As a writer, you have every right to expect that an agent will have read your book and be able to talk about it before they give you an offer of representation. They shouldn’t agree to take you on just because you’ve won an award.

Don’t send and wait. Send and write. Keep going.

Did you focus on Canadian agents or did you approach American agents as well?

I stuck to agents in Canada because I’m Canadian and this is where I live and this is how we do things. I don’t know anything about the American market.

A bit of advice I can give is that at some point you have to start looking at your manuscript – your baby – as a commodity. Agents and publishers work in a marketplace and it’s a completely different world. If you think of it as a good in a marketplace, you’ll know what they need of you. They don’t ask, ‘Is this good?’ They ask, ‘Can I sell it.’ And you want them to ask that, otherwise they won’t be in business in ten years and you want them to be in business in ten years.

Your first book, Strong Hollow, won the Cunard First Book Award in 2002 and was short listed for many others. What was that like – winning an award for your first book and what doors, if any did it open for you?

They don’t open the doors you might think.

I was just thrilled to get a nomination for a national award, for the Raddall Award. Totally thrilled. The thing about an award – and I’ve been on all sides, as juror, as nominee as winner – you have a bunch of books and specific people come with their choices and depending upon who’s on the jury will determine who wins. You can win the Giller and not the Raddall. You can’t put books in order of how good they are. Long after awards come and go, the book is left.

There are books you read and ‘Oh!,’ you think. ‘I can never write like that. If I kill someone, can I write like that?’ And the gun’s loaded. You must love your book. You can’t say one is better than another.

I can tell you the moment I cried was the moment I got the published book in the mail and unwrapped it and held it in my hands. I can look at them and say, ‘These are things I did in my life.’

Your second book, Scotch River, won this year’s Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award and the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and made it to the 2006 Globe & Mail Best Book List. How important is it for honours like these to be available for writers?

It’s great for publicity. Few books are mentioned of the hundreds that come out so, if you can get your book publicised, that’s great. If you can get your book to poke its head above the others.

What does the publisher do for promotion?

I don’t quite get the publisher’s job, but generally, they get you invited to events to talk about your book.

What’s your writing process? Do you write every day?

I don’t write and work at the same time. I do each in seasons. For me, it’s a long way from River John to Scotch River so, when I get there I want to stay for a few months. When it’s writing season, I write from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

It’s no secret that writing is a damn hard way to earn a living and that, in fact, many very good writers aren’t able to. Can you talk a little bit about your experience earning a living as a writer in Nova Scotia?

I don’t make a living from writing. It’s extraordinarily unlikely to be able to do so. You might as well buy a lottery ticket.

It takes a long time to write and the financial recompense is very low. If a person is going to be in it for the long haul, it’s responsible to figure out what you need to do financially.

I used to work at the Nova Scotia Museum during the summer. Now I teach at the Agricultural College during the fall. I teach how to write academic papers and a course on Atlantic Canadian Literature.

Do you sense that this is any different than for writers in other parts of the country or in the U.S.?

It is. I have no idea how they do it in Toronto – it’s so expensive to live there. It’s easier here because the cost of living is lower.

Have you begun thinking about or writing another book?

Yes, I have. The Alleged Third Novel, as I call it, is a work of historical fiction. We’ll see what becomes of it.

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Many thanks to Linda for taking the time to speak with me. If you have any questions for Linda, please send them and I'll forward them along to her.


Have a great writing day!


Colleen