Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent

In Praise of "Voluntourism"

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:44:00 +0000

Hello! I promised I would tell more about my trip to Peru, and I aim to keep that promise. But first, let's just go ahead and get the picture of me and a really happy llama out of the way.

There.

Now then.

A few months back my group applied for and received a Change Ambassadors Grant from Travelocity's very awesome Travel for Good program. They have a wide variety of service projects to choose from, and we eventually settled on the GlobeAware Care for Cusco program.

Why? Do you SEE the llamas? (Actually we wanted the opportunity to work with the kids)

Background.

Cusco is surrounded by incredibly remote villages that are only reachable, if you have a car, by a two+ hour trip on bumpy dirt roads. Since the people who live there don't have cars, the trip is an arduous one hour walk and a three hour bus ride. Since the parents in the remote villages want to send their kids to Cusco to school so they can have a better future, some Cusqueños opened an "albergue" for these kids to stay in Cusco during the week, to go to school and learn extra Spanish and English in the afternoons and evenings. Then they make the four+ hour return to their villages on the weekends. It's not really an orphanage, but some of the kids who live there are orphans.

The alberque:

Volunteers from the US come to the albergue a few times a year to help improve the house by day and work with the kids to play games and teach English in the evening. The main project we worked on while there was the construction of a stone bench so that the kids could watch each other play futbol and voley (aka volleyball).

Like so:

It really ended up being a fine bench, if I do say so.

The kids were incredible, hilarious, and very eager to improve their lives. They come from some of the most humble and geographically remote places on Earth (I have never seen mountains like the mountains in Peru), and they welcomed us with open arms. They can also play a mean game of Uno.

While there we also....

Went to a remote village to help a family build a new stove out of mud and straw:

Played futbol atop ancient Inca ruins (well, technically the kids played while I choked on thin air from the hike up. Did I mention Cusco is 11,000 feet??):

Celebrated birthdays by stuffing our faces with cake (a tradition, or so they claimed):

Danced:

Wore alpaca wool hats while visiting a pre-Inca volcanic salt farm:

And of course made the trip to Machu Picchu:

All in all it was simply an incredible, amazing trip, and not an exaggeration to say it was life changing. It's easy to get so caught up in life and work and one's own challenges and to forget the incredible need out there both around the world and in our own backyard. I know we're in a tough economic climate, but if you have the opportunity I cannot recommend a volunteer trip enough.

Here are the links again, please check them out and give it some thought!

Travelocity's Travel for Good program
Travelocity's Change Ambassador Grant
GlobeAware

I'm Back! (and a quick note on copyright)

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:46:00 +0000

Hola! I'm back from Peru, which was quite an incredible trip. I will have a rundown on the week and an exhortation about the wonders of voluntourism when I'm able to pull it together.

In the meantime, thanks so much to the incredible guest bloggers! I caught up on the comments yesterday and not only did they write awesome posts they also did an admirable job facilitating the discussion in the comments section. Thanks for that.

I'm also pleased that everyone gave Eric the proper encouragement to start a blog. He is now the proud owner of Pimp My Novel, which is already proving to be an indispensable resource in the publishing blogosphere. Set your blasters to "subscribe."

Now then. As I catch up on my overflowing Inbox, just a short post for the FAQs. Reader Riley Corbin wanted to know if you need to file for copyright before you submit to publishers.

The short answer: no, you don't have to.

The slightly longer answer: Please read this post by Jonathan Lyons that deals with everything you need to know about copyright.

Guest Blog Week: Everything You Need to Know About Writing a Novel, in 1000 Words

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

By: Victoria Mixon

PLOT

Plots are myriad, but plot structure is simple: hook, development (with backstory interwoven), climax.

Shakespeare's five-act play, Syd Field's three-act story, Freytag's triangle (although Freytag called complications climax and climax resolution---causing untold confusion): like a holograph, hook-development-climax works on all levels, from the big picture down through chapters, sequences, scenes, to actual lines of dialog.

"What the hell is this?" Kerouac calls out to Slim in On the Road.

"This is the beginning of the rangelands, boy. Hand me another drink."

Hook your reader (make them curious), tell your story, throw them off a metaphorical cliff when you're done.

The five biggest mistakes in plotting:

1) Starting with backstory. I know, chronology works in life, but not so well in fiction. Chronology did work back when Moll Flanders wanted to tell us all about where she came from before she told us where she was. But that was then. This is now. Hook your reader first. You've got to make them curious before they'll listen.

2) Letting the complications sag. The middle of a book is common bogland, and that's why you hear so many people say, "I started that book, but never finished it." Fitzgerald spent a lot of energy (and his publisher's patience) on the galleys because The Great Gatsby sagged mid-way. It's the writer's job to keep upping the ante on the complications, starting a bigger problem the minute the last one's resolved, keeping the reader turning those pages.

3) Dragging your denouement out. If at all possible, end at the instant of climax, like Henry James in The Turn of the Screw: "His little heart, dispossessed, had stopped." You may grieve to let your characters go, but your reader just wants to find out what happened. And if you're so brilliant they can't let go--wow! Even more reason to quit while you're ahead. The best compliment a writer can get is, "I didn't want that book to end." Hello, Constant Reader.

4) Putting the climax too far from the end. That's what your reader is reading for, and when they've found it--they stop. It's true, some brilliant works have been written where the catastrophe is the hook and the rest of the story is exploration of that catastrophe, but that's sleight-of-hand. The climax is still the point where the writer confronts the reader with the pivotal event. The end.

5) Using a trick ending. Never conceal information from the reader so you can whack them over the head with it on the last page. Even mysteries, which appear to be all about trick endings, give the reader the clues to see through the trick before they get to it. John Gardner was adamant: if you set the reader up to resent you--they will. Good-bye, Constant Reader.

SCENES

Character

It might be your hook that catches the reader's attention, but it's the characters who drag them in and hang onto them for life. Know thy characters. They must be real people, not two-dimensional cartoons, with real bodies, real mannerisms and tics, real foibles, dreams, insights, and idiodicies to be ashamed of. Know them backward and forward. Then don't tell it all. Hemingway said, "The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth of it being above water."

Dialog

Leave out most of the words. No kidding. Leave out oh, well, yes, no, um, uh (definitely these last two). Leave out names except for extreme emphasis. Leave out first articles and even subjects of sentences wherever possible. Do you answer a question with, "It's on the table," or with, "On the table"? Try it and see how much snappier your dialog becomes. For heaven's sake, leave out ellipses. Be like Emily Bronte and use em-dashes instead. Leave off dialog tags. Replace them with brief significant actions or, if you can get away with it, nothing at all. A book filled with characters talking the way we really talk, with tags, goes on forever and bores even the writer to tears.

Unless absolutely necessary, make characters talk at cross-purposes. How many of us actually listen to other people? We don't. We're always thinking about what to say next, when they shut up.

Description

Keep it brief and significant. Raymond Chandler used to be able to burn up the whole first chapter describing a house. You can't do that anymore. Everyone knows what a house looks like. Find those details that make a person, place, or thing important or unique, mention them, and get back to your characters.

Action

F. Scott Fitzgerald said, "Action is character." No matter what complications you throw at your characters, no matter what climax you have in store, each character must act in the only way they know how. If you've got characters who can react in various ways, you don't know your characters well enough. Go back and learn them. They have reasons for only being able to respond under pressure one way. And the different ways different characters deal with trouble is where the tension lies, so it's best to have characters with very different personalities going through this hell together.

Donald Maass also makes the point that action is not necessarily external. Action is very often internal. Conflict is very often internal. Total climactic catastrophe---as we all know---is only too often internal. "Tension on every page," Maass says, and this is about as good as advice gets.

EXPOSITION

Exposition seeks not to just inform but to enlighten. Don't waste your reader's time with explanations. They've got brains. Let them use them. Leave out every explanation that can be inferred from the context. When you must cast light upon a scene, do it in context. Either you need to give the reader a breather between bouts of excitement or the tension can be heightened by knowing a little more about what's going on. Take advantage of pacing to interweave backstory and exposition, but always keep up with your characters.

Go for it.

Guest Blog Week: The Top 7 Things Every Aspiring Author's Website Must Have

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

By: Jordan McCollum

Nathan has blogged about author websites, and everything he says is spot on—but, as he freely admits, professional opinions on author websites vary even within the publishing world.

But so far, I'm on the outside of the publishing world. My day job involves learning how to get the most out of your website. So from the perspective of Internet marketing, here are the top seven things every aspiring author's website should have.

7. A blog. All right, all right. I'm a little partial to blogs, but not everyone likes blogs or is good at blogging. And that's okay. If you want to call it an "announcements" section, or call it your "articles," that's fine. But do have at least one section of your site where you can post your news—anything from finishing your latest work in progress to selling a short story. This is also a great place to start gathering a following, especially if you like to connect with other people, share your research and discuss the process of writing.

Free advice: If you already have a blog, you can integrate it with your website. Check out Blogger's Custom Domain feature and host it at http://blog.YOURWEBSITE.com to make sure everyone linking to you is pointing those links to your domain.

6. Social media. This doesn't mean you need to run out and join every social networking site you've never heard of. But it's always a good idea to give your website visitors potential ways to connect with you. So if you're already on MySpace, Facebook or Twitter, or any other large social network, list those somewhere on your site—somewhere easy to find.

5. Search engine presence. Unless your name is John Doe or Mary Smith, it should be fairly easy to find your website by searching for your name in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing). One good way to start with this is to buy YourName.com. If YourName.com (and YourName.net and YourName.org) is taken, experiment with middle initials, maiden names, hyphens, etc. Still nothing? Maybe you should consider a pen name that would be easier for your readers to remember, too.

Free advice: If you have some competition for your name in search results, put in a little extra legwork to find places to get links back to your site, especially from related sites—guest blogging, article writing, etc. I mean, we are writers here, aren't we?

4. Professional design. For real. This doesn't mean you need to run out and hire a $10,000 website designer, or that your website has to look as awesome as J.K. Rowling's. You don't have to dress like a fashion model to pitch to an agent at a conference.

At the same time, you're not going to wear your ratty jeans and wife beater to a business meeting. Just like your nice pleated khakis, your website needs to look professional: clean, polished, easy to read (spell checked!), easy to navigate. Make it easy for your visitors to find the important stuff on your website (see #1, 2, 3, and 7, at least).

3. An about page. Most of us have an urge to list our friends, spouses, pets, children, favorite television shows, other hobbies, and small collectibles in our query letter. Hopefully, if you're reading Nathan's blog, you'll forbear and omit this paragraph from your query. But your website about page is exactly where you should put all that information. After all, if someone visiting your website wants to know more about you, why not tell them?

2. Your work. No, you probably shouldn't slap your whole manuscript on your website. But you should at least have a short summary of your work on your site. You might also consider a short excerpt—a chapter or less—in addition to your extremely engaging summary. This is also a good place to put your writing credentials (if not under #3 already).

1. A contact page. You'd be amazed how often both aspiring and published authors forget (or don't want) to give their website visitors a way to contact them. Now, odds are low that a literary agent, editor or publisher is going to use your contact page to send you a desperate "Please, please, work with me! Your brilliance makes me cower in inferiority, but I cannot bear the thought of anyone else tainting your work!" note—but there's always the possibility.

Free advice: Use a simple web form instead of listing your email address to avoid spam email harvesters.

What do you think? What else should an aspiring author have on his/her website?

In addition to being an aspiring author herself, Jordan McCollum works in Internet marketing. She is the editor of an Internet marketing news blog, Marketing Pilgrim, as well as the author of a blog on finding fulfillment in motherhood, MamaBlogga. She blogs about writing technique at JordanMcCollum.com. If ever she says anything about starting another blog, please shoot her!

Photo credits: Microphone—RAWKUS; binoculars—Joël Dietlé; telephone—Maria Li

Guest Blog Week: You Tell Me: What's Your Writing Dream?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone! Blogger picked a bad time for its auto publish function to stop working, but I just posted yesterday´s post as well. Please make sure to check it out below this one.

By: Steph Damore (aka Allegory19)

You all have one right? The Best Sellers lists, literary acclaim, book tours, six-figure advances… or maybe your dream is smaller, like walking into the bookstore and seeing your novel on the shelf.

Me?

I have this dream. It’s summer time. I wake up at 6 a.m. and lie in bed for a few minutes. It doesn’t take long for my mind to wake up and the writing to start. Afraid the ideas will slip away, I get up and escape down the hall to the computer room. The house is quiet, and I can just write and write and write.

This is actually the dream that I get to live every day. I’m not published. I’ve never sold any of my work. But I’m blessed.

So what about you? What’s your writing dream?

Guest Blog Week: The Five Stages of Querying Grief

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

By: Kiersten White

Stage One: Denial

This can't be happening to me! Novel is so good! I was supposed to get an agent within days of sending out that first query! There must be some sort of mistake--it's already been three weeks. Sure, everyone else has to go through a long, drawn-out querying process, but not me! There's going to be a request for a full in my inbox RIGHT NOW, I just know it.

Stage Two: Anger

What?!? [Insert Author Name Here] got an agent on her first try! And my book is at least as good as hers! And WHY won't anyone get back to me? I personalized and everything! Don't they understand I'm checking my email every twenty minutes? I HATE THIS! QUERYING IS THE WORST THING EVER! JUST READ MY FREAKING BOOK ALREADY!

Stage Three: Bargaining

Okay. It's okay. If I can just get a request for a full, if an agent will just read the whole thing, I'll be happy. No matter what, I'll be happy then.

No? A partial. Just read a partial, I swear then I'll be happy, I won't complain or freak out or want to give up. Just a partial?

No? Just respond. Anything. Just respond, and I'll be okay, really, I promise. Just a response? Please?

Stage Four: Depression

It's been three weeks. This is it. No one is going to want Novel. They'll never read it, so they'll never know how much fun it is, how well-written it is, how much potential I have as a writer. I'll never get an agent, which means I'll never get published, and there's nothing I can do about it. I suck. I suck, I suck, I suck I suck I suck. And the worst part is that I don't suck, but it doesn't matter, because no one will ever know. I'm never going to be an author. It's over. I'm going to bed. And I'm not getting up again.

Stage Five: Acceptance

Well, it is what it is. I’ve put in the work, I’ll keep at it, and I know I'll be published someday. Maybe an agent will fall in love with Novel. Maybe not. It's more luck than anything else at this point, and I can accept that. Either way, I'll keep writing, and someday, someone will represent me. In the meantime, I’ve got this shiny new idea over here just begging to be written…

Of course, eventually you will make it out of this cycle. But that leads us to the stages of agented submission grief and there’s like 87 of them. One step at a time, right?

Guest Blog Week: Book Sales Demystified

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

by Eric

I’ve followed Nathan’s blog for close to two years now, and he has done an admirable—nay, outstanding—job of outlining, explaining, reiterating, and overall demystifying the somewhat byzantine method by which manuscripts (produced by you, the author) are acquired, auctioned, sold, &c, and eventually transformed into finished books (purchased by you, the consumer). So first of all, thank you, Nathan, for all you’ve done to make this business a little clearer to the rest of us.

The very last stage of this process, though—the sale of books from publisher to book store to consumer—isn’t really the focus of the blog, and so has received relatively little treatment so far. With Nathan’s permission, I’d like to shed a little light on this last leg of a book’s journey.

I work as a sales assistant at a major trade book publisher (feel free to insert your favorite name here: Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins, &c), which means that my job mostly involves 1.) preparing sales materials for the sales reps who sell the books to a given account, and 2.) keeping track of the promotions we run at said account. Since the account I work on is a national chain (e.g. Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million), this is a fairly involved process. How does this affect your book once it’s already survived the gauntlet of critique group, literary agent, and editor?

First, the sales materials. Each book that we publish is grouped according to its on-sale date, usually by month but occasionally by span. (There are three spans: Spring, Summer, and Fall.) Within a certain month or span, different sales reps are responsible for selling different subsets of books to the account (for example, the two reps for whom I work divide the list of one imprint; one sells the hardcovers, the other sells the trade paperbacks and mass-markets). For each title in a subset, it’s my job to create a sales kit. My sales kits generally consist of:

- A cover sheet, unique to the account, that breaks out basic information (author, title, ISBN, &c) and provides the book’s subject code, which determines which buyer at the account is responsible for it and what section of the store the book will eventually live in. Each buyer usually specializes in just a couple of genres/categories.
- A kind of “fact sheet” that summarizes all the important information about the book: title, author, ISBN, &c, as well as marketing information, quotes/blurbs, copy, and “comp” information. Alas, yes, your book will be “comped” to a previously published title—either your last book, if you wrote one, or a book that is similar in content, format, and span/on-sale month, if you didn’t—and the comp’s sales figures factor into the account’s initial buy.
- A full-color copy of the book’s cover.
- Any other promotional materials (additional praise/quotes/blurbs, sell sheets, &c) that may be useful.

The sales reps then meet periodically with the buyers at their account and “pitch” them each title. (You thought the pitch was over with the editor’s acquisition. You were wrong.) These meetings are referred to as “selling in” or “sales calls” and they are the meetings at which initial orders are decided. Simply put, the initial order is the number of copies the account’s buyer wants to purchase in time for the on-sale date; any later orders are considered reorders and are used to replenish stock when it runs low. The sales kits are essential to these meetings—the rep uses them to get the buyers excited and to push them to order quantities that are in line with the publisher’s expectations. This generally involves convincing buyers (via cover images, sales data, praise and quotes from famous critics or authors, &c) to purchase more copies than they otherwise would.

So let’s say your book, I AM PRETTY AWESOME, a literary memoir, gets a 2,000-copy buy at a given account. Not bad! Your previous book, I GUESS I’M OKAY, sold 1,500 copies in its first four weeks and has experienced 80% life-to-date sell-through. (Sell-through is the percentage of books an account sells compared to how many it bought.) Not only that, but a couple of big-time authors have come out to praise it and it got a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. Both the rep and the buyer are confident that 2,000 is a good number based on this information.

After the sales call, the reps will either enter the orders into our computers themselves or ask me to do it. At this point, the order quantity is called an estimate, since we estimate this is how many copies of each title the account will initially order. (Keep in mind that we tend to sell books to our accounts about five months before they go on sale, so it’s possible substantial changes can occur to the order quantity between the sales call and the placement of the actual initial order.) Once the order comes in, it is compared to the estimate, any discrepancies are worked out between the publisher and the account, and the books are shipped in time for their release date.

In summary: sales of your previous books, sales of “comp” titles, your platform as an author (as described on the fact sheets), the book’s cover, the current economic climate, events in the news, &c all contribute to how many copies of your book a given account will buy. If you’re lucky—either because you’re a big shot or because you happened to write a book about the life and times of Michael Jackson a few months back—the orders for your book could be HUGE, say, 10,000 copies. This will qualify your title for promotion, e.g. placement on that magical table at the front of the store, and so brings us to the second half of my job: promotion, through a system we call co-op.

Co-op, in short, is the process by which we work with an account to determine which of our titles get special treatment: placement at the front of the store, on endcaps, in special displays, &c. The account is paid for running these promotions for a set amount of time, either flat amounts or a certain amount of money per book. Any time you see a title on a major front-of-store display, it’s because that book’s publisher paid the account for the promotion. Stephenie Meyer doesn’t magically get her own table, and those “New Release” tables aren’t populated by the store staff’s personal favorites. The publisher and the account agree on time tables, promotions, and monetary reimbursement, and the account is paid upon completion of those promotions.

Of note: co-op is formalized through a legally binding contract process, so it’s not treated lightly by either the publisher or the account. Once the deal is inked, titles are promoted, and once they’re promoted, the account is paid.

Your next question, I imagine, is probably something along the lines of “holy hell, how do I make sure my book gets co-op? How can I help decide which titles it’s comped to?”

Alas, I’m afraid the answer is: you can’t. The vast majority of titles go to their section (science fiction, literary fiction, biography, &c) at on-sale, and the Grishams, Meyers, and Evanovichs receive co-op. To be sure, they’re not the only ones; new authors do get co-op for their titles. It’s relatively rare, though, so don’t be disappointed if your book isn’t front-of-store come release day, especially if it’s your first one.

I hope I’ve helped dispel at least some of the mystery surrounding book sales without dismaying too many of you—the business side of publishing can seem remarkably dispassionate compared to the creative side. Please leave any questions you have in the comments, and I’ll try to answer as best I can.

Next Week's Guest Bloggers Will Be...

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the guest blog contest! There were over 250+ entries and they were awesome. Very awesome. Some were personal, some were wacky, some were touching, some were hilarious, but all were good in their own way. This was actually one of the most difficult contests I've yet had to judge and I spent a really long time agonizing over the choices.

So -- let me say again, thank you so much to everyone who entered. I wish I had time to thank everyone personally, but... well, I have a plane to catch. So THANK YOU everyone.

You will be in great hands next week. I intentionally chose a variety of publishing topics and authors representing different perspectives, so there will be a little bit of everything.

Without further ado, next week's guest bloggers will be (in no particular order):

Eric
Kiersten White
Jordan McCollum
Victoria Mixon
Steph Damore

Also, please note that all opinions expressed by the guest bloggers are their own and may not necessarily be shared by me, Curtis Brown Ltd., the Internet, and/or Ryan Seacrest.

Enjoy!

This Week in Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:43:00 +0000

An abbreviated week in publishing as I imagine the Americans among us will be jetting off early this weekend to celebrate our nation's birthday. I'll post the winners of the guest blog contest tomorrow and they'll run next week.

First up, for all you Brits from whom we stole this fine country: longtime friend of the blog and early contest finalist Stuart "Conduit" Neville's book THE TWELVE goes on sale today in the UK!!! The US version, GHOSTS OF BELFAST, publishes in October.

Via John Askins, Malcolm Gladwell published a review/takedown of freevangelist* (*trademarked - must credit Nathan Bransford) Chris Anderson's new book FREE (which had previously been subject to some Wikipedia-plagiarism claims). Gladwell notes that free doesn't really work as a business model. Seth Godin in turn published a takedown of Malcolm Gladwell, saying free is going to happen anyway. Who's right? You decide. Also you don't have to pay to read any of this.

Author/accused memoir fabricator James Frey recently co-wrote a children's book project that sold to HarperCollins and has already been optioned by Michael Bay. The Guardian's book blog has the rundown.

Mike Shatzkin wrote a provocative post on the evolving role of agents in the new publishing landscape, concluding that the new pressures on agents who previously specialized in mid- or lower-tier books (which are disappearing) could result in some new experimentation. It's a thought-provoking article no matter your take on the future of publishing. (Via Jim Duncan's Twitter feed)

And finally, the Millions put together a truly indispensable preview of one of the most indispensable publishing seasons in recent memory. This fall is going to be huge.

¡Que tenga un buen fin de semana!

Guest Blog Mini-Contest

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:54:00 +0000

Now for something a little different.

I'm going to be out of the office next week working at an orphanage in South America through Travelocity's Travel for Good program - more on this when I return. Rather than the usual mix of re-posts and best-of-posts, I thought I'd open things up to you, the bloggers and would-be-bloggers who read the blog.

So. Want to get something off your chest? Want to build some blog traffic? Want to tell the world about your love of reality television shows? Want to mock me mercilessly? Now's your chance.

Here's how this will work:

- Please e-mail a guest post between now and noon Pacific time tomorrow (Thursday) to querycontest@gmail.com.
- Please limit yourself to one entry.
- Please do not e-mail entries to my work address.
- Make sure to format your blog post in block formatting (i.e. single spaced, double spaces between paragraphs, no indenting, plain text) for easy copying and pasting.
- I will choose the five best, most helpful, funniest, awesomest posts to run next week and link to the guest blog author's blog or website or Amazon page or favorite charity or what have you. The topic is totally up to you, although some relevancy to this blog's themes will probably receive preference (but not necessarily!).
- I regret that I will not be able to run every post, and thus some blog post writing may be in vain. But! You can always use the post on your own blog, or, heck use it in your novel. Recycling encouraged!
- Rules and guidelines subject to change without notice.
- Did I mention you only have a little over 24 hours? Sorry for the short deadline!! (Actually it was intentional).

I aim to leave you in good hands. Thanks, everyone.

Sports Novels

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:33:00 +0000

Regular readers know that I am really into sports. I approach the NBA Draft like it's a holy ritual and I could rattle off the stats of obscure Sacramento Kings players from the 1980s.

So you'd think that I'd leap at every sports book that came my way. But here's the thing: sports novels for adults are tricky.

All you need to do to see what I mean by that is to look at which sports-related books have been successful. There are very, very few successful pure commercial sports novels. While I'm sure there are exceptions, the ones that tend to make it are [genre] + sports, whether that's suspense plus sports (e.g. Harlan Coben's novels featuring sports agent Myron Bolitar), literary fiction plus sports (e.g. SHOELESS JOE, the basis of the movie "Field of Dreams"), fantasy plus sports (e.g. SUMMERLAND), or John Grisham novel plus sports (e.g. BLEACHERS, PLAYING FOR PIZZA).

On the other hand, there is a thriving market for sports narrative nonfiction, whether it's MY LOSING SEASON, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, THE BOYS OF SUMMER, etc. etc.

Why would this be?

I think what's behind the difficulty of pure sports novels is that sports already provides so much human drama and narratives and storylines that a straightforward novel about sports is almost redundant. Sports provides a real life narrative experience that makes novels feel almost hollow in comparison.

Thus, in order to give readers something that they can't already find just by following the NFL or NBA or curling, an author has to bring something new to the table, whether that's by introducing suspense or fantasy or literary merit or a real-life behind the scenes look. I also think this is why children's sports novels are successful - they tend to feature kids as protagonists, which offers something different than the real sports world.

So if you're thinking of writing a sports novel: verisimilitude isn't enough or even what you should be aiming for. It's important to bring something else to the field.

Breezing Through Voicemail

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:27:00 +0000

I don't like to complain. I don't.

But this one is kind of funny.

For as long as it was in development I had been looking forward to the new Curtis Brown website like a kid waiting for Santa Claus.

Why? Submission procedures online. Bios. Specifically my bio.

I was dreaming... DREAMING about the moment I could just refer one of the many time-consuming query calls I get every day to the website. Finally, finally I would be able to say: "Have you checked the website? No? Curtisbrown.com. Everything you need. Bye bye. No, really, go to the website, I'm... no... website... I'm hanging up now."

Better yet, I changed my voicemail message to mention the website. Here's what it says:

"Hi, you've reached Nathan Bransford blah blah blah (paraphrasing!), if you are INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING A PROJECT FOR REPRESENTATION OR IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE, CURTISBROWN.COM." (I don't actually shout, I restrained myself.)

Problem solved, right?

Nope. Problem not solved. People just breeze right through the message. I get these voicemails constantly: "Hi, I'm so and so from such and such place (for some reason they always say where they're calling from) and I'm looking for a literary agent." Some people just call back later.

Foiled. Better yet, I don't think I can make it any clearer, but I'm open to ideas in the comments section.

I don't think this post will cure the problem, but.... just wanted to share. Happy Monday!

This Week in Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:22:00 +0000

This week! The publishing!

We'll start waaay back in the Great Depression. With our current economic downturn affecting..... everything, including culture, are you curious about what people were reading back then? Me too. Would you believe werewolves, dog books, and business books?

Knopf Doubleday (I'm still not used to saying that) has quite the Fall season coming up, what with books by Dan Brown, Jon Krakauer, Margaret Atwood, Pat Conroy, and Jonathan Lethem, among others. Bookseller Arsen Kashkashian takes a look at the catalog with the reverence it deserves, but calls it "Random House's Hail Mary" and discusses the decisions a buyer has to make with such a momentous list.

Speaking of bookselling, agent Andrew Zack posted a takedown of the Bookscan service, which purports to report (say that five times fast) 70% of book sales and which publishers rely on heavily, but as any agent knows, actually reports FAR, FAR LESS I SWEAR I HAVE THE ROYALTY STATEMENTS IN FRONT OF ME DON'T BELIEVE BOOKSCAN THE SALES TRACK IS FINE I PROMISE. Ahem. Little, Brown editor in chief Geoff Shandler also weighed in in the comments section.

The New Yorker's indispensable book blog The Book Bench tackled a crucial and weighty question this week: is Lauren Conrad's novel L.A. CANDY any good?

Oh, and speaking of celebrity news, my bunker buddy Dick Cheney sold his memoir for a reported $2 million.

In news-via-John Ochwat news, speaking of Dick Cheney, there's a hilarious contest over at the Globe and Mail to name his memoir. Ooooh the possibilities.

Also via John Ochwat, John Scalzi tackles the question of why debut novelists always seem to be in their thirties (except of course for those precocious teenagers). Why is it? Well, it takes a while to write a novel, and anyway, most writer's first novels suck.

Over at Bookends, Jessica laments the poor state of communication in the publishing industry and how frustrating it is to have to chase editors who are so uncommunicative you start to wonder if they're still alive. Hear hear.

And JA Konrath tackles a tough question in a really awesome, comprehensive manner: when should you self-publish?

And finally, I'm really going to miss the King of Pop. I don't know if we'll ever again have someone who is as talented a singer, songwriter and dancer. RIP.

PSA About Vampires

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:39:00 +0000

So there's this book called TWILIGHT and it's kind of popular.

Whenever there is a popular book, my inbox explodes with query imitations. There was the epic and ongoing TOTALLY NOT HARRY POTTER deluge, quickly followed by the TOTALLY NOT DA VINCI CODE phase. Often these queries boldly come right out and say they are the "next" [insert book they are imitating].

The current TOTALLY NOT TWILIGHT era we're in blows all of the other eras out of the water, particularly when you combine it with non-vampire paranormal and/or urban fantasy tropes. Well over half of the queries I am receiving these days involve some combination of vampires, zombies, faeries, pixies, ghosts, and/or Dick Cheney.

Now, don't get me wrong. This doesn't mean that you can't write or query me with urban fantasy/paranormal. The opposite in fact. Just look at the bestseller list.

And before I get angry comments, let me also say that I'm not accusing everyone who writes in these genres of imitating TWILIGHT. I'm not saying that.

But I think it's important to keep some things in mind if you are querying in these increasingly well-trodden genres:

1. I don't know if I speak for other agents, but I'm getting some serious vampire/faerie/zombie fatigue. Whether it's the misfit teenager who is secretly communicating with a ghost or the misfit teenager who is actually a vampire (or, conversely, has a crush on one), I've seen it all and I'm seeing it often. Now. That doesn't mean I don't want you to query me with urban fantasy or paranormal. But I'm not going to be favorably disposed to something that sounds like the same old paranormal story. It needs to be something different and it needs to feel fresh. I know it's really difficult to do something different and fresh when everyone and their mom and their grandma and her mom are writing paranormal. But thems are the breaks.

2. Do. Not. Mention. TWILIGHT. Don't mention TWILIGHT. It never existed. You didn't read it, it has no bearing on your book, you aren't comparing yourself to it, you're not living on the same planar field in which that book was written. Don't mention it in the query. Agents don't want the next TWILIGHT. Well. Caveat. We want something that is as popular as TWILIGHT. But we don't want a straight up imitation. And saying your book is going to be as popular as TWILIGHT just makes you look.... well, like you think faeries are real. (They're not, are they?)

3. Understand what you're up against. You might think that because you happen to have a novel in the hot genre du jour that it's going to grease the publication tracks and you'll soon be showing off to your friends with a new hardcover of the next TWI... that other vampire book that is kind of popular. Keep in mind that because there are so many people writing these novels now, the stakes are raised. Ground has been trodden. You have to either trod new ground or trod the existing ground with spectacular, mindboggling execution. It's not, in other words, easier.

Ultimately, the same old advice applies: write what you love, write a really amazing, incredible book, and let the gods of publishing take care of the rest. Or should I say the publishing zombies...

You Tell Me: Where Did You Hear About the Book You're Reading?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:15:00 +0000

Last week we all shared what we're reading at the moment.

Marketers and publicists and literary agents and everyone else interested in sales wants to know: how did you hear about it?

Also: where did you buy/borrow/acquire/steal it from?

Can I Get a Ruling: Does Listening to an Audiobook Count as Reading?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:13:00 +0000

This came up in the comments section while I was incapacitated, but I thought it would make for a good Can I Get a Ruling:

Does listening to an audiobook count as reading?

On the one hand, you're absorbing a book. The method doesn't matter, right?

On the other hand, someone else is doing part of the work, aren't they?

What do you think?

Following the Guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:17:00 +0000

Hello all, I am back, eating solid food again (who knew it tastes so good!) and although still weak from eating nothing but three hot dog buns, ten saltine crackers, and a piece of toast over the course of five days last week, I have officially turned the corner. Nothing a little green tea, cough drops, and a celebratory "I can eat again!" pizza can't cure.

So just a short post for today.

Being out for a while means that I end up reading and responding to queries in bulk, and thus I'm much more attuned to trends. And the current query trend isn't a good one: people are mentioning that they read the blog but then, when writing their query, ignore everything I have ever said in it.

Don't get me wrong: I do not expect people to read every single post I have ever written before querying. But I do hope queriers mentioning it will at least read the essentials and make a stab at conforming to the query guidelines.

If you haven't taken the time to familiarize yourself with the suggestions or attempt to follow them, it's probably best that you don't mention the blog at all. At least that way I won't be confused.

You Tell Me: What Are You Reading at the Moment?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:28:00 +0000

Thanks for all of the well wishes, I've been laid low by the flu and so responses to queries and things are going to be a little delayed.

In the meantime, every now and then I like to get a snapshot of what people are reading to get a sense of the pulse of the book world.

So. What are you reading at the moment?

Interrupting Your Regularly Scheduled Programming...

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:24:00 +0000

I'm a tad under the weather and so won't be posting as per usual today.

Like many people though, I've been riveted by what's happening in Iran. Andrew Sullivan has been a great clearinghouse for information, the Boston Globe has some incredible photos, and #iranelection on Twitter is chaotic but has been full of realtime news, circulation of proxy server addresses for use by Iranians, successful schemes to jam official state websites, and eyewitness reports from the ground.

And the videos speak for themselves:

This Week in Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:35:00 +0000

First up, unless you have been living under a rock (or somewhere other than the US of A), you probably know that today is the premiere of "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta, which just got a terrific review in the NY Times. On the other hand, you may not know that it is based on a classic urban thriller by John Godey that is truly awesome and gripping and a great look at 1970s NYC and whose tie-in rights may have been sold by a certain agent whose blog you happen to be reading. Please buy the book or e-book!

Meanwhile, a busy link week in the publishing industry.

Jeff Abbott pointed me to a really cool site that shows writers in the spaces where they write. I'm always fascinated by the writing process, and this is a cool inside look.

Ever wondered why new books (and DVDs and music) come out on Tuesdays? Me too. The Millions investigates. (via Book Bench)

Former Random House CEO Peter Olson is back with an essay about e-book pricing and, among many points, he argues that demand should drive the price point for e-books (not any relation to print prices) and also argues that publishers are not sharing enough e-book revenue with authors. To which authors and agents say: THANK YOU. (Via Pub Lunch [subscription])

HarperStudio recently spotlighted a cool interactive map of New York's literary landmarks, which did not at all make me nostalgic for living in NYC. Nope. Not. At. All.

The millionth English word was invented!! Do you know what it was? "Web 2.0". Which is, um, two words. Or, if you want to be specific, a word and two numbers and a punctuation mark. That were already invented. Way to go, people who decided what the millionth word was. (via Neil Vogler)

In agent advice news, if you've written more than one novel but none are published, is the fifth one you're written still "your first novel" for the purposes of the query? Janet Reid says yes, and I agree.

Meanwhile, Jessica Faust tackles a tough topic. Surely in a free country everyone who wants to write should write. But should everyone seek publication?

And some funny stuff this week: first, what can books learn from the movies? Among other things: more suspenseful music, that's what. (via Christopher Ryan).

And finally, thanks to Nikki Duncan for passing along a hilarious comic about life as an acquisitions editor (or, really, agent).

Have a great weekend!

Writing Advice Database

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:46:00 +0000

Before You Start

How to format your manuscript
It's important to have a good premise...
But execution is more important than originality
Are you the right person to write that book? (nonfiction)
Why you shouldn't follow trends
Can you turn your blog into a book?
Novels with disaffected male protagonists are common; it's important to make yours really stand out
Should you write in first person or third person?
Are you sure you want to genre hop?
Do you have a plot?
You Tell Me responses: What are your favorite books on writing?

The Writing Process

The limits of verisimilitude
What is pacing?
Is your dialogue stilted?
Is there such a thing as being too controversial?
Avoiding non-said/asked dialogue tags
How to work with a co-writer
Your characters have to have the power to make a choice for that choice to resonate
You should probably go easy on the similes
The importance of complexity, as demonstrated by The Wire
Character and plot are inseparable
Are you sure you want to begin with dialogue?
Is your protagonist sufficiently sympathetic?
Does your novel have enough conflict?
You Tell Me responses: What makes for good dialogue?
Do you (and your readers) know what your characters want?
You Tell Me responses: What is the best writing advice you've received?
You Tell Me responses: What is the worst writing advice you've received?

Revising

You Tell Me responses: When do you follow/ignore advice about your writing?
You Tell me responses: How do you revise?
You Tell me responses: How do you know when your novel is finished?
Comprehensive revision checklist

Genres and Classification

What makes literary fiction literary?
The difference between young adult and adult fiction
Commercial fiction isn't quite a genre
Book club fiction
The difference between mysteries, suspense, and thrillers
When in doubt, go with the section of a bookstore your book would be categorized in

Staying sane during the writing/publishing process

When should you give up?
The perils of overconfidence
It's not you, it's the odds
You Tell Me responses: how do you deal with writer's block?
Dealing with negativity
Dealing with frustration
You Tell Me responses: How do you handle rejections?
10 Commandments for the happy writer

You Tell Me: How Do You Know When Your Novel is Really Finished?

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:11:00 +0000

Very quickly in the comment thread from yesterday's post on revisions, Rick Daley raised an interesting revision checklist question: "Can you sit back and read through it without a compulsive need to continue changing it?"

This got me to thinking: when do you know you're finished with revisions?

When a writer is faced with a possibly infinite task, when do you close the computer and say, "I'm done?" And do you have any strategies for resisting a premature declaration of completion?

Revision Checklist

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 17:41:00 +0000

- Does the main plot arc initiate close enough to the beginning that you won't lose the reader?
- Does your protagonist alternate between up and down moments, with the most intense towards the end?
- Are you able to trace the major plot arcs throughout the book? Do they have up and down moments?
- Do you have enough conflict?
- Does the reader see both the best and worst characteristics of your main characters?
- Do your characters have backstories and histories? Do these impact the plot?
- Is the pacing correct for your genre? Is it consistent?
- Is your voice consistent? Is it overly chatty or sarcastic?
- Is the tense completely consistent? Is the perspective consistent?
- Is there sufficient description that your reader feels grounded in the characters' world?
- Is there too much description? (David R. Slayton)
- Are momentous events given the weight they deserve?
- Look closely at each chapter. If you can take out a chapter and the plot will still make sense, is it really necessary? Should some events be folded in with others?
- Do the relationships between your characters develop and change and become more complicated as the book goes on?
- What do your characters want? Is it apparent to the reader? Do they have both conscious and unconscious motivations?
- Do you know what your writing tics are? Do you overuse adverbs, metaphors, facial expressions, non-"said" dialogue tags, or interjections? Have you removed them?
- Do you overuse certain words or phrases? Is your word choice perfect throughout?
- Does your book come to a completely satisfying conclusion? Does it feel rushed?
- Do your main characters emerge from the book irrevocably changed?
- Are your characters distinguishable? Does it make sense to combine minor characters? (Kiersten)
- Do each of your scenes make dramatic sense on their own as well as move the overall plot forward? (Pete Peterson)

Please add your own in the comments section and I'll continue to update the post with the best suggestions.

This is a Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:26:00 +0000

I briefly mentioned this in a previous post, but I have to be honest that it's mildly alarming how many queries I receive that misuse the word "blog." I've seen everything from "the webpostings on your Blogsite" to "your blogspot on your website." People are personalizing, which is great, but... word people should not be misusing words.

Now, before I get accused of sarcasm for writing this post: this is not sarcasm. Some people need this info, and hopefully this will clear things up.

Let's drill down a bit into the different words and usage. OED, eat your heart out:

The whole shebang: it's a blog, singular. It's not blogs or a blogger or a blogsite or a blogpsot. Just: blog. Or, if you want to get fancy, weblog, only no one really says that. Example: "I read your blog."

An individual entry on the blog: a post. Example: "I loathed your post on rhetorical questions, but I'm submitting to you anyway." ("Entry" is interchangeable with "post." Thanks, Scott).

Multiple entries on the blog: posts. Example: "Thank you for your posts on The Hills, which were deeply philosophically illuminating."

Proper usage of the word "blogs": Blogs, plural, refers to different blogs at different sites. Example: "I like to procrastinate by reading as many publishing industry blogs as possible."

Blog as a verb: Blogging as an overall activity is "to blog." Example: I blog, you blog, we blog, they blog. (thanks to Charlie for suggestion this addition). However, to add something specific to your blog you can either use the past tense of "blog" or "post." Example: "I posted an entry on blogging" or "I blogged about blogging today." (thanks to Kate)

A person who blogs: A blogger. Example: "He is a wild and crazy blogger."

And with that, I'll conclude this webposting.

This Week in Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (Nathan Bransford) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:50:00 +0000

This week in publishing: Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose!

First up, regulars around these parts may know Hannah Moskowitz as a sometimes commenter and very talented author of the soon-to-be-published BREAK, which you may know from its appearance as one of the queries in Be An Agent For a Day. You may (and I think you will) be pleased to know that Hannah just received a starred Booklist review! They gush: "For those with a taste for the macabre and an aversion to the sentimental, it’s hard not to be taken in by the book’s strong central relationships….[Break] is like a one-man Fight Club, and it could find nearly as many ardent followers." Not only that, I'm told Hannah was recently voted prom queen at her high school (seriously). Hannah, you are basically the coolest person ever.

BEA was last weekend! If you need to experience it vicariously you can't do better than Publishers Lunch TV, which has a veritable cornucopia* of videos and interviews. Very cool. (*My college roommate made it a goal to include the words "veritable cornucopia" in every single paper he wrote. He succeeded. Seriously, it was like climbing Everest.)

If you want a glimpse into the author/editor relationship you really couldn't do better than The Elegant Variation's feature of Susan Bell's essay on revising THE GREAT GATSBY. Part I is here. Seriously awesome.

Mark Twain wasn't such a fan of his contemporary James Fenimore Cooper, author of LAST OF THE MOHICANS, and he savaged him with a list of writing tips that Cooper violated. My favorite are: "8. Use the right word, not its second cousin." and "3. The personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others." Haha.

In agent advice news, Rachelle Gardner has a great post on how to fire your agent. If you're considering it, it's a must-read. I'll just say: communication, communication, communication. Talk to your agent. Talk to them. Don't let things fester.

Veteran editor Brenda Bowen is the latest veteran editor to become an agent. I wish her luck, but not TOO much luck because I need some clients too you know.

In an apparent GalleyCat Exclusive, they report an upcoming mini-e-reader device. Congrats to GalleyCat on the scoop, but just a word of unsolicited for the creators of the device: you may want to tell more people than just GalleyCat that it will be on sale soon. I'm just sayin'.

Via Maud Newton comes the news that Google is considering selling eBooks. Is your head spinning yet about how quickly the book landscape is changing or did it just go ahead and explode already?

As some have noted in the comments section, beloved author David Eddings passed away this week. Very sad.

The awesome Cynthia Leitich Smith interviewed my awesome colleague Tracy Marhini this week. Awesomeness all around. Or, as the kids say, "Awes." (They probably stopped saying that years ago).

Publishing Dictionary (noun) 1. An awesome post by Jessica Faust demystifying the many confusing terms in the publishing business. 2. Required reading.

My client Jennifer Hubbard has some more really great writing advice: sometimes your character has to be a jerk.

And finally, reader Richard King pointed me to a Washington Post blog post about the reputation the male sort have with reading fiction. As in: men have a reputation for not reading fiction. Come on, gents, can this be true?

Have a great weekend!