QueryTracker Blog

This is all great, but why am I reading this?

noreply@blogger.com (Jane | @janelebak) — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:34:00 +0000

I'm critiquing a manuscript right now that's very good from a technical perspective. The writer knows her stuff, isn't making a lot of mistakes in terms of character or description, could marginally improve on some aspects, and has a firm command of sentence structure and language usage. We've had some exciting passages and characters struggling for their lives. But I have no idea why I'm reading this story.

Authors sometimes develop tunnel vision. To take a shot at an easy target (sigh) one of my critique partners asked me straight up, "What's the relationship between the main character and her mother supposed to be?" What kind of question is that? To me it was beyond obvious how the mother felt about the daughter and how the daughter felt about the mother. To me. It's not properly evoked in the manuscript, and so to everyone else, it was an unsettling bit of vagueness, and my critique partner is correct. It needs to be remedied (do you love my use of the passive voice there? Can you tell I'm reluctant to go back and edit?)

I couldn't see it myself because I knew what I meant. I suspect it's the same for the writer I'm critiquing now, and in case it's the same for you, here are some questions to ask yourself.

Is the main conflict of the story reflected in the first thirty pages? I'm not talking about jumping right in with all the juicy stuff you're rightly holding back until the proper time to reveal, but your actual story question. Let's go back to Star Wars (the first film) where our introduction to Luke shows us someone who feels oppressed by his circumstances, feels restless, feels he could do better, and is being held back by the constraints of the man serving as his father figure. We've already seen the Empire in action. Even without Lucas stopping the film to say "Wouldn't it be great if this restless, ambitious spirit could be put to use helping the Rebellion?" we feel that's the direction the story has to take.

Imagine if you just started with Luke going to town with his friends and drinking a beer, getting into a bar fight, tossing a quarter to an intergallactic beggar, repairing a broken droid he finds by the side of the road, chatting with a space trader... All the while he could be dropping hints that he's restless and his uncle is holding him back, and maybe we'd know there are Stormtroopers around. It could be exciting and well-written, but without the larger context of why any of this matters, we won't have a sense of where Luke is headed, and therefore where the story is headed.

You may think it's obvious what shape the story is going to take, or that your characters are pawns of the oppressive Evil Empire, or that your main character needs to develop self-confidence, but make sure it actually is. Go back into the text and actually highlight for yourself that the clues are there.

You have to telegraph the main conflict of the story in your opening. Keep it understated, but include it. Your young magician is going to need to overcome his past? Fine. In the opening chapters, show a way in which that unspecified past is holding him back.

Let's say you're reading a novel that opens with a mom and her seven-year-old child over dinner. There's no father or husband at dinner, and this appears to be their norm. Okay. Well, you can look at the cover or the category and figure out it's a romance, so probably the woman is going to meet someone and fall in love. But you're a bit directionless unless something happens during the dinner to tell us what is the obstacle to meeting someone and falling in love.

Child: "Oh, I forgot. We had a substitute for the afternoon. Mr. Miller got called out all of a sudden."
Mom: "Yeah. Probably fooling around with the school secretary."
Child: "What?"
Mom: "Nothing. Did you like the sub?"

Gee, she's bitter. Is that her past speaking? Was it the child's father who cheated, maybe her own father? Also, she doesn't mind talking right over her child's level of understanding -- was she treated with lack of respect as a child? Or is she just starved for adult conversation?

These are the tidbits we need in order to form a coherent world view within the story. We're also going to need to know how this woman fits into her society, how her situation compares to those around her, how being single impacts her life and her child's life. Maybe it's beneficial to her to remain single because she's getting a barrel of money every month in alimony -- but show all this. Let us know what's holding her back and what's propelling her forward.

In Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need, Blake Snyder goes one further, and suggests you state the story's theme in the opening scene. We need a signpost so we know where we're headed. And yes, this works with my general aversion to opening a story with an explosion of action. We need to care, and before we can care, we need to know why we care.

If you're on the road and you pass a sign that says Boston - 60 you have your direction, your time, your expectations. It does the same to telegraph the protagonist's hidden need and give a hint at the general problems of the world he's in. Once we know where your story is taking us, we're happy to come along for the ride.

---

Jane Lebak is the author of The Wrong Enemy. She has four kids, three cats, two books in print, and one husband. She lives in the Swamp and spends her time either writing books or knitting socks. At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four kids. If you want to make her rich and famous, please contact the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency.

Rejection: #1 Cause of Writers' Neurosis

noreply@blogger.com (Ash Krafton | @ashkrafton) — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:53:00 +0000

Rejection.

It's a cruel beast, one that strikes through the heart of even the most stalwart person. Writers must be gluttons for punishment because our profession, by nature, is fraught with rejection. I've been asking for it myself for years now, as I've queried agents and editors and publishers while submitting my non-novel stuff around to everyone who'll read it. I've heard "no" more times than I can count.

And it never gets easier, not even when the no's are accompanied by apologies and compliments and offers to try again with something new. Even the form rejects hurt, making us think--what, I'm not good enough to reject personally? And how about the ones that say this is good but it doesn't fit my list/this issue/our publication? It's still a no. And it bugs us.

All these no's make it hideously easy for writers to doubt themselves. I used to wonder sometimes why I hadn't developed a complex. I wonder today if, in fact, I have.

Like most working writers (I hope so, at least) I have an email compulsion. I need to check and re-check and re-check often, hoping for a return on a query or a submission. I even developed a sort of separation anxiety since my day job is a twelve-hour shift without Internet. It had become so difficult to endure the day job-email blackout that I got a data plan on my phone. (And then I got a new phone because it was too hard to read mail on my Crackberry. Go figure.)

One day, my way out of work, I downloaded my mail to find new messages. Yay! I had that tiny thrill of happy-happy that momentarily satisfies my email compulsion. Even better when I saw two emails from a journal I'd submitted to back in October.

Of course, doubt strangled my excitement and the first thing I thought was, Oh great. Rejections. And sure enough, the first one was a form rejection. Boo.

Why bother checking the other right now? I thought. After all, it wasn't like the other had a subject that read BUT THIS ONE WE LOVED! Being a sadist, however, I decided to read it and get it over with, so at the first stop light, I hit retrieve. By the time the light changed, I'd noticed it was still downloading.

Fantastic, I thought. So much for painlessly ripping off that Band-Aid. The connection was murderously slow. Figures. This rejection was really going to make me work for it. I canceled the download and started over as I headed over the mountain. Fifteen minutes later, though, it was still only half downloaded.

What the heck? Curiosity consumed me. I pulled over onto the side of the road and checked the file size of the rejection. Eight MB. Ok. I checked the other one. Thirty-two hundred. Ooooo-kay. Which could mean…maybe not a rejection after all. I couldn't do anything about it, being in a low signal area, so I stowed my phone in my purse and resumed my drive home.

Here's where the whole I-think-I-have-a-complex comes in. I instantly began to doubt it could be good news. But I didn't have just any old doubt. Oh, no. This was Writer's Doubt to the nth degree.

Over the course of the next ten minutes, I went through a series of stages of doubt that ranged from maybe it's a form rejection and a copy of their newsletter to maybe it's a rejection and a copy of their submission guidelines with a warning to follow them next time. By the time I got home, I'd reached the confidence-crippling final stage of it's got to be a list of reasons why they're rejecting it accompanied by a wav. file of all the editors chanting YOU SUCK! YOU SUCK!

It took a while to get up the nerve to turn on my laptop and actually read the message. My heart was in my throat and my anxiety was so palpable the dog hid under the table and whined.

Stupid doubt. My poetry submission had been accepted and the email contained the contract.

Whew. Talk about dodging a bullet. I chuckled and sank bonelessly onto the couch, promising myself that, next time, I won't doubt myself to the point of neurosis.

But eh, who am I kidding? I may write fiction but I can't kid myself into believing that fantasy.

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who, despite having a Time Turner under her couch and three different sonic screwdrivers in her purse, still encounters difficulty with time management. Visit Ash's blog at www.ash-krafton.blogspot.com for news on her urban fantasy series The Books of the Demimonde (Pink Narcissus Press). Book Two "Blood Rush" was released May 2013. Currently, her urban fantasy novella "Stranger at the Hell Gate" (The Wild Rose Press) is available on Amazon's KDP Select.

Publishing Pulse for 5/17/13

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Pinneo) — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Success Story

Please congratulate Naomi Hughes on her recent success at finding an agent! You can read her interview here.

Quick Tip

Agents and publishers are gearing up for Book Expo America. Response times are likely to slow down until it's over.

Around the Internet

Consumer spending on books in 2012 was up 6.9% over 2011! (**flings confetti into the air**) Come on, economy. You can do it.

As reported on GalleyCat, the Department of Justice looked at eBook pricing before and after agency pricing took effect with five key publishers in April 2010. Very interesting reading, here.

Flying in the face of "write what you know," a 29 year old Chinese American from Queens is making waves with his novel about Mississippi. And the author has never been to Mississippi.

Sarah Pinneo is a novelist, food writer and book publicity specialist. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.

Catching Up with Our Now-Published Contest Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Kaufman | @CMKaufman) — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Amy Sue Nathan was one of the five winners in our April 2010 contest with agent Jason Yarn. She went on to become one of Jason's clients, and her first novel, The Glass Wives, came out yesterday. We're pleased to be able to find out how far she's come since our last interview with her!

Tell us a little bit about your novel and where people can learn more about it and where they can get it.

THE GLASS WIVES is about Evie Glass, a divorced mom whose ex-husband dies suddenly leaving her the only parent of ten-year-old twins. Then, when Evie finds she’s strapped for cash, she takes in her ex’s widow and baby, so they can share living expenses and childcare. Troubled by this decision, Evie’s friends and family try to intervene, forcing Evie to walk out on long-time friendships until the widow causes a ruckus of her own. That’s when Evie has to decide who she can trust, and what really makes a family.

On May 14th THE GLASS WIVES became available in bookstores (indies and Barnes & Noble) as well as at Target stores. It's also available online everywhere books are sold.

What inspired you to write The Glass Wives? Where did the idea for this story come from?

Like my main character, Evie, I’m a divorced mom in a suburb where everyone is married. And like Evie, my ex-husband passed away suddenly. When I divorced, I felt that some people were uncomfortable having a single mom for a friend. When my ex-husband died, well, they just didn’t know what to do with me, or my kids. We didn’t fit into any of the fixed suburban circles and frankly, I think the sadness in our lives overwhelmed them. Writing this novel allowed me to put this kind of discomfort—and its ramifications—on display and show that families are equal no matter their parts, and that the term broken home is outdated. There may be a few cracks in our walls, but broken? No way.

The sales aspect of writing—producing a good pitch and query and providing a great excerpt—can be very challenging for some writers. How did you learn to produce such catchy material? Were there any particular resources you used?

I have always belonged to writing groups and online forums, but I'd say in the years leading up to up querying my novel, the best resource was Backspace, where traditionally published authors (Karen Dionne, Randy Susan Meyers, Keith Cronin, and A.S. King, for example) and a few literary agents, were kind enough to give me tips, guidance, and advice that I always took to heart.

Do you have a writing routine?

When I'm on track I write fiction in the morning and non-fiction—essays, blog posts, interview questions, and interview answers (like these)—in the afternoon and evening. Working at home and being a single mom means I have to be flexible. Today my daughter had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so I did my fiction writing in the afternoon. But my preference will always be morning. I'm an early bird!

What is the single best piece of writing advice you've ever gotten?

Recently, while working on the beginning of my new novel, I kept thinking about best-seller trends and what my editor would be looking for. I considered fitting elements like magical realism or a heated romance, into my new story. And then Therese Walsh, author of The Last Will of Moira Leahy and co-founder of Writer Unboxed told me something very simple: separate the craft from the business. I wrote it on a sticky note and stuck it to my computer. She was right. I couldn’t worry about whether the book would sell, all I could do, at that moment, was to tell the story I needed to tell. And for me that story does not include zombies or a hot shirtless hero. At least not today.

What has been the hardest or most surprising thing you've learned on the journey between the time Jason began submitting to editors and your publication date?

That patience in publishing is not simply a virtue, it's a necessity.

What is the most important (or surprising) thing you've learned about publicity as you near your publication date? Do you have any advice for others on publicity?

I've learned there's no such thing as too much publicity. I'm not sure about "any publicity is good publicity" adage, but we'll see! My advice would be to seize every opportunity to build relationships with readers and other writers because in the long run that will go farther than hundreds of "buy my book" tweets.

Are you working on any new projects? Can you tell us anything about them?

Absolutely! I'm always working on a few things, and right now I'm writing a novel about a blogger who tells lies online and keeps secrets in real life and what happen to make her finally truth. I'm also jotting down notes for two more book ideas I'm excited about. I know if I don't write down my ideas I'll lose them. Sometimes my best scenes are written on the backs of envelopes or napkins while I'm standing in the kitchen or parked in a parking lot!

Visit Amy Sue Nathan on her website, Twitter @AmySueNathan, or Facebook!

Out of Context

noreply@blogger.com (Stina Lindenblatt) — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

by Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL

©Stina Lindenblatt

Two weeks ago, I wrote a post that resulted in a level of interest and comment that I never expected. One of the individuals in question pointed out that her conversation on Twitter was taken out of context, which is one of the unfortunate problems of social media. But the situation led me to think about the issue, one that we all face at one time or another. The question is: how do you make the most of it?

As readers, we see things taken out of context all the time when it comes to books. You might pick up a book in which a major reviewer has stated on the cover, “The imagery is a glorious treat for all the senses.” Wow, pretty impressive, and if you love great imagery, you might buy the book. What the author cleverly avoided was to include the rest of the five hundred word review in which the reviewer trashed the book. We see it all the time. As readers, this is where we become victims of things taken out of context. But as authors, those snippets can be a great tool for promoting your book.

In my past life, I was a drug rep (not to be confused with a drug dealer, thank you). Pharmaceutical companies (like many other industries) are notorious for taking things out of context. In Canada, there are rules against highlighting passages in medical reprints and showing quotes out of context, but that hasn’t stopped reps from still pointing them out. And do you think they point out the conclusion that shows all the drugs in the study had the same efficacy and safety profile? No, they point out some tiny quote that makes their drug look superior.

Now, I worked for a company that took a different approach. They preferred we travelled the rockier high road. So instead, we donned our fire-fighter suits and tried to stomp out the fires. Unfortunately, the competition hired more reps than we had for a given drug, so we were never successful in stamping all the fires out, and the devastation was never pretty. I learned it’s a waste of time trying to do this. You’re better off letting things slide and focus on your own brilliance. People move on and what was taken out of context will soon be forgotten, unless you make a big deal of it. Take the opportunity to show your strengths instead of fighting back. Focus on the good, not the negative.

While no one wants to be quoted out of context, there’s not much you can do about it if it happens. Just remember, the odds are greater that it will happen if you say something on social media. This is especially true with Twitter. We’re supposed to be writing our books. We’re not supposed to be spending hours upon hours reading every single tweet to make sure we understand the entire conversation. Often we don’t see the entire conversation because the tweet wasn’t linked to the rest of it, and thousands of other tweets were published between the two.

The best thing you can do is watch what you say, and remember your intended meaning might be lost if your wording means something different to the other individual, based on their own personal experiences. Again, this is a weakness of social media. You might be having a conversation with one person, but that person isn’t the only one reading the tweet. Not everyone is going to get what you’re saying, and it could end up being taken the wrong way.

Have you ever had to deal with something you said being taken out of context? What did you do about it?

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes young adult and new adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog.

Author Daphne Uviller on Asking for Blurbs

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Pinneo) — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:24:00 +0000

Daphne Uviller’s novels (SUPER IN THE CITY and HOTEL NO TELL) manage to be at once both smart and hilarious. If you haven't read them, you should do so. Right now. Not only is Daphne herself both smart and hilarious, she has tackled a subject which terrifies so many authors (including me): Blurb Acquisition. —Sarah P.

By: Daphne Uviller

You’re scanning books on the New Arrivals table of a bookstore (in this scenario, the end of civilization as we know it hasn’t yet arrived). You rapidly pick up and put down volumes, your neurons going slightly haywire over how to make sense of the crowd of titles begging for your attention, each of them desperate to take you out to dinner and a movie, maybe get to second base if you’d only give them a second glance.

Are you the type to be seduced by a cover? A first line? Do you go the Biblical route, letting the book fall open to a random page, and wait for soulful connection to leap forth?

Or do you read the blurbs?

Really? Huh. Tell me now. Is it the name of the blurber that attracts you? Or the title of her own book? Is it the phrase “New York Times bestseller” next to his name? Surely it isn’t the actual blurb itself. You don’t actually get around to reading that, do you?

Tina Fey is famous enough that she could afford to mock the entire blurb phenomenon on the jacket of Bossypants (“Totally worth it.” —Trees) and, like the rest of that book, she carried it off with self-deprecating humor. But the rest of us must use every last tool in the shed to promote our books, and the process of self-abasement begins long before your book jacket is even designed.

Scene II:
You’re sitting with your editor at a midtown Manhattan restaurant and you’re just so excited that someone is paying for your lunch and that you can say things like “lunch with my editor” that you don’t think to dread the awkward conversation about to unfold.

You’re each armed with a list of potential blurbers. On yours, some are friends who have published books who will almost definitely do you this favor; some are biggish names that friends of yours might ask on your behalf; and some are pie-in-the-sky reaches.

Yes, it’s your college application process, relived in all its horror.

Your editor goes first. She suggests a well-known writer who is in her stable and therefore (theoretically) easy to get. Alas, you’ve never heard of this well-known writer, but you don’t want to admit that you’re so unaware of your fellow writers, and, in particular, your editor’s other writers, so you feign excitement and hopefulness. “That would be AWESOME.”

Then you say, nervously snapping your breadsticks, what about, hee-hee, this is crazy, oh my god, I’d be so psyched, Nora Ephron? And your editor dutifully scribbles something in her notes, and now it’s her turn to feign excitement and hopefulness. “Wow. That would be just...wow. I’ll see what we can do.”

With those out of the way, you turn to reality. “My friend came out with her first novel last year, and I blurbed her book, so she’d probably blurb mine.”

Great, great! What else?

“Um, well, this other friend, her book was serious literary fiction, not at all the same genre as mine, but she was a New York Times bestseller—”

“ASK her!”

So Hotel No Tell is blurbed entirely by kind friends: Jenny Nelson (author of Georgia’s Kitchen, which I blurbed) was well-matched to my book in terms of genre. Then I have Janice Y.K. Lee, who managed to complete her New York Times best-selling novel The Piano Teacher in small part because I made her meet me for writing dates, so I think she felt obligated. I’m extremely proud of my books, but I bet Janice was a little embarrassed. My publisher put her blurb on the front cover.

Then we alit on new territory: Hollywood. I remembered that I have friends who have written movies, funny movies. Movies that were actually made and released. Hey, this was interesting... And so, to my great delight, I have a perfect blurb by the writers of Dinner for Schmucks. These kind, talented men were, not to put too fine a point on it, fresh meat. That is, not too tapped out by dozens of previous requests to groan at mine. I think, I think, they actually enjoyed the task.

Years ago, after she’d established a rock-solid writing career but before summiting the Everest that was Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert promised me, “If you write a novel, I will blurb it. Remember that when you need incentive to keep working.” I finished my first novel just as the world was in the midst of its EPL frenzy. I gave Liz the option of backing out of her promise, telling her I understood that her name was now a commodity to be protected.

Forty-eight hours after she received the manuscript, she e-mailed me her blurb. My agent was able to put it on the manuscript of Super in the City before we sent it out to editors. It was rejected by seven houses before it was accepted, but I’m convinced that her blurb got my manuscript to the tops of editors’ piles.

There are writers known as “blurb whores” – people who will blurb just about anything with pages, and I think this is an outrageous stigma. What these generous people are doing is sharing their fame and good fortune, trying to extend it to help you, the newbie writer.

I hope one day to be well-enough-established that my skimmed name and praise on the back of a book jacket would be of some help to another writer.

Sarah: Thank you Daphne! Can I ask you a question? If you could ban any three adjectives from all future book blurbs, which ones would you choose?

Daphne: "Thoroughly enjoyable," "entertaining." And "readable." Because they damn with unoriginal praise.

Sarah: Ah, yes. Sort of like calling a wine "drinkable." Although... having a glass of drinkable wine while asking for blurbs is probably a good call.

Daphne: Indeed.

This post originally appeared on Blurb is a Verb, the book publicity blog. You may also be interested in How to Ask for a Blurb (Even When You're Intimidated).

Do I Need a Literary Agent?

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Kaufman | @CMKaufman) — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve gotten several questions via email recently asking me about how to go about finding good literary agents, so I’m working on a series of posts about figuring out if you need an agent, whether you’re ready to start querying, finding a reputable agent, and choosing someone who really “gets” your work. Of course, QueryTracker.net will help you through all of the stages I’m going to discuss, and fellow QT blogger Jane Lebak recently wrote a great post on How to Use the QueryTracker Site.

Base image: DragonTash

Do I Need a Literary Agent?

Though the role of literary agents is changing, there are at least a couple of reasons you may want one. First, they are well-connected in publishing, which means they may be able to open doors you can’t open yourself. Second, they are experts on the publishing business, including negotiating contracts.

Literary agents have traditionally been the gatekeepers between the writer and publishers. There are an awful lot of people who would like to get published, which can leave publishing houses inundated. For this reason, the biggest publishers closed their doors to unsolicited materials. Literary agents provide a screening process, weeding out all but the very best of the material that is submitted to them.

Statistics vary, but most agents say they reject between 95% and 99% of what crosses their desks. (If you’re interested in a particular agent’s statistics, QueryTracker provides detailed information on how often each agent in the database responds positively—with a request for more material, for example—vs. negatively, as is the case with a rejection.)

Agents develop relationships with publisher editors who are interested in the types of material that agent represents. So when Agent X approaches Publisher Y to say that the editor should take a look at Writer A’s manuscript, the editor is open to learning more.

As publishing experts, agents know the market well. They know what is selling, to whom, and why. They may know about markets you’ve never heard of, and they know how much editors are paying for particular types of manuscripts. They can also negotiate contracts (which include when, how, and how much the writer will be paid) and can act as a go-between with the writer and the publisher, especially if something goes wrong or the writer needs some help. [Edit: A reader notes that agents can also help negotiate foreign rights and film rights.] Usually they can negotiate better contract terms for you, both by knowing what they want removed from publishing contracts and by knowing what should be added or changed. You pay for this service by giving your agent a percentage of everything you earn (usually 15% - 20%), but particularly if the agent negotiates better terms than you could negotiate yourself, their work may proverbially pay for itself. It is in a reputable agent’s interest for you to make as much money as possible, because that's the only way they get paid!

Some agents represent a book or a series of books only; other agents represent the author. Many writers prefer to work with the latter type, as these relationships tend to be longer-term and often include help with their writerly career—improving manuscripts, trying out new ideas, and so on.

So when would you not use an agent? If you are self-publishing, you probably won't use an agent. Also, some writers decide (even if they have worked with an agent or agents in the past) that they are happier or more comfortable going it alone. They prefer to approach small publishers directly and are comfortable negotiating their own contracts (or hiring an attorney familiar with literary contracts just to review a proposed contract).

Because good agents are picky about who and what they represent, some authors get so focused on finding an agent that they forget that not all agents are equal. First, not all “literary agents” are legitimate or reputable. Second, all of us get along better with some people than others. It’s important to find someone who “gets” you and your work. I’ll be exploring these issues in upcoming posts.

Carolyn Kaufman, PsyD's book, THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGY: How to Write Accurately About Psychological Disorders, Clinical Treatment, and Human Behavior helps writers avoid common misconceptions and inaccuracies and "get the psych right" in their stories. You can learn more about The Writer's Guide to Psychology, check out Dr. K's blog on Psychology Today, or follow her on Facebook!

Publishing Pulse for May 2nd, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Jane | @janelebak) — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:57:00 +0000

New At QueryTracker:

This week we've added one new agent profile and updated two. Publishing is a fluid industry, so always make sure you double-check every agent's website or Publisher's Marketplace page before sending your query.

If you're a QueryTracker premium member, then you can be notified whenever an agent or publisher profile is added or updated. If you're not a premium member, you can just check for yourself.

Today is Good Friday for Orthodox Christians. If you're celebrating the Easter holidays, have a peaceful and holy weekend.

Publishing News:

Hachette will now make its ebooks available to libraries.

Amazon's first quarter sales are up 22% while net income is down.

One year later...TOR announces the results of going DRM-free. No discernible increase in piracy.

Around the Blogosphere:

The problem with "revealing" information that's already been revealed in your back cover copy.

11 signs you're meant to be a writer.

Wrinkles in time: how to handle flashbacks.

Closure and stakes for your character.

A judge for a literary contest shares the most common error in novels.

Literary Quote of the Week:

"The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Thanks for stopping by, and keep sending those queries!

---

Jane Lebak is the author of The Wrong Enemy. She has four kids, three cats, two books in print, and one husband. She lives in the Swamp and spends her time either writing books or knitting socks. At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four kids. If you want to make her rich and famous, please contact the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency.

Watching…Waiting…Writing.

noreply@blogger.com (Ash Krafton | @ashkrafton) — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:00:00 +0000

A few months ago, I watched a video with the well-known indie author CJ Lyons from a February writers event held at www.IndieReCon.org. She talked about what it takes to really break out as a sustainable writer: in her words, it's not your first book that makes it…but rather the fourth or fifth.

That's pretty straightforward stuff. Real numbers. It's kind of EXACTLY the data we needed. It's just a little intimidating.

Four or five books? Hard to accept that as a real goal when you are querying for the first time with your first book. Finishing a book---settling on a final draft, putting down the red pen, writing THE END (and meaning it this time)--that was a tremendous accomplishment in itself. It's so difficult to absorb the idea that we have to do this three or four more times before we see a measurable success.

A tad bit frustrating, isn't it?

Many of us come across QueryTracker.net because we've decided that our project is worth being published. We are committing ourselves to the scary unknowns of a crowded business but we HAVE NO PATIENCE. We expect to query our dream agent, get a lightning fast response full of praise and accolades, and go from agent contract to publishing contract in the time it takes to spin around three times and throw a pinch of salt over our shoulders.

We've read the stories that pop up here and there about these sorts of lightning-strike successes. The
reality is that the overwhelming majority of us are in for a much longer process.

It's tough to reset our expectations but this is where patience comes in--and we are going to need a lot of it. It's also a perfect time to consider our long-term goals. If you can keep the bigger numbers in mind, then you can use it to your advantage: write your next book, and the wait won't be such a drag.

Distraction Equals Opportunity

Writing your next book will help you manage the frustration and the itch of waiting. I am the Empress of Distractions (in fact, writing this post is a distraction from writing my current book) so I've learned to use distraction to my advantage. When I was querying my first book, I wrote poetry and short fiction as a means of combating writer's block. I'd take all the bits and pieces that were worth saving and wrote publishable pieces around them. Without realizing exactly what I was doing, I was learning patience by distracting myself from the wait--and I also improved my craft and built a published bio in the meantime.

The point is: writers need to write. A writer should spend more time getting words down than getting the word out. Books sell--and those books need to be written. There is no better time to embark on a new writing adventure than the moment after we’ve finished patting ourselves on the back for completing the last. (And, if you are wacky like me, you'll be writing more than one book at a time, hopping back and forth between Word documents as the mood strikes.)

Forward, March!

Yes, it is a wonderful place to be in life: finished manuscript in hand, agents' email addresses and Twitter feeds up on the screen, your polished query in the cut-and-paste file, ready for the inserting and the tweaking and the sending. It is a wonderful place to be when you can finally mail out the book and wait for the inbox to ping with responses. But imagine: a wonderful life awaits the writing writer who perseveres and keeps writing. Each book is better than the last because we learn along the way. By the time we hit our fourth or fifth book, we'll have arrived at mastery of the craft.

Enjoy the moment while you are querying. You've earned it because you've worked hard for it. However, now it’s time to think about the future. When a prospective agent asks you if you have anything else to send over or inquires about your long term goals, you'll want to be ready with a viable list. Considering a series? Have a few ideas for stand-alones? Start thinking about those next books…and start writing them now.

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who, despite having a Time Turner under her couch and three different sonic screwdrivers in her purse, still encounters difficulty with time management. Visit Ash's blog at www.ash-krafton.blogspot.com for news on her urban fantasy series The Books of the Demimonde (Pink Narcissus Press). Book Two "Blood Rush" will be released May 14, 2013. Currently, her urban fantasy novella "Stranger at the Hell Gate" (The Wild Rose Press) is available on Amazon's KDP Select.

Agent Stalking

noreply@blogger.com (Stina Lindenblatt) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

by Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL

Source

You’ve finished the final edits to your manuscript, and your query has garnered great feedback. Now you’re ready to query.

Or are you?

You’ve identified your initial list of agents you want to query, and they all represent your genre. Except, how do you know if these are the right agents for YOU?

Every year, hundreds of writers land representation with agents. And a year later, many of these professional relationships end. Some writers fire their agents. And some agents, to the surprise of the writer, fire their client. Reasons for these terminated relationships vary. Many could have been avoided with prior research.

So, how do you learn more about your potential dream agent without asking the FBI to do a background search (which they won’t do unless said literary agent is on the FBI’s most wanted list)? You stalk them*. But I don’t mean “stalk” them on Twitter two days before you query them. That’s too late. You need to start several weeks in advance, sooner if possible.

Here’s why.

Two weeks ago, an agent (Agent #1) tweeted that she was interested in New Adult books. She explained what she was specifically looking for. This is great information to know if you’re querying a New Adult novel (or will be), since it’s not mentioned on her website.

Agent #2 read this tweet and responded. He complained that writers are asking him about this category at conferences. It was obvious from his tweet that he has low opinion of the category. Good to know if you’re writing YA (which he represents) and NA books. Now you know not to query him if you want an agent who will represent all your books.

Agent #1 replied and explained that she didn’t get the category, either, but she was willing to check it out.

Red Flag #1

Why would you want an agent who doesn’t “get” your genre? How would she be the best advocate for it? That’s like letting a surgeon who doesn’t “get” the function of your pancreas perform surgery on it. You want someone who not only gets your genre, she understands what criteria readers expect to see.

Now, if you really like this agent, because you’ve “stalked” her for a while, and you decide to query her, the above information is important. If she offers representation, you can ask her what books she’s read in your genre and what she liked about them. If she has only read two, you’ve got a problem. Also, make sure she does understand the genre. For example, if you queried her for your NA novel and she tells you NA is really YA erotica, then you need to keep looking. This is not the right agent for you. She’s clueless about the genre.

Or, you might not care either way and decide to sign with her. But at least you’ve made an informed decision.

Let’s get back to the Twitter conversation between the two agents.

Agent #2 tweeted back that he hoped Agent #1 enjoyed the porn that would now fill her inbox.

Red Flag #2

I have no idea how Agent #1 felt about the condescending tweet, but it upset the individual who emailed me the conversation. It showed a lack of respect toward a colleague in the industry. Plus Agent #2 was miles out of the football stadium when he referred to New Adult stories as porn. What is ironic is that his attitude mirrors those of individuals who try to impose book bans on certain children’s and Young Adult books, and this includes some of his clients' books.

For some writers, the agent’s comments aren’t an issue. But for those individuals who don’t tolerate this level of disrespect and close-mindedness, it’s best to delete him from your list. He might not be the best agent for you, because his tweets could be an indication of how he treats his clients and others in the industry.

If you decide to query him, you would do well to check if any of his clients have left him and find out why. The more you know about the agent before you make a decision to sign with him (should he offer you representation), the more likely your client-agent relationship will be long term.

As you can see from the conversation between the two agents, it’s important to start your agent research early. Otherwise, you’ll miss vital information that could impact you in the long term and have a negative (or positive) effect on your writing career.

Are you following agents through any social media sites? What is your primary reason for doing so?

*Stalking in this sense means the legal kind done through social networking. I’m not referring the kind of stalking that will put you on the NYPD’s radar and land you in jail.

I hope this post is a good reminder why it’s important to filter your thoughts when using social media sites. You don’t want to say something that could damage your reputation.

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes young adult and new adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog.

Publishing Pulse for April 26, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Pinneo) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Around the Internet

A brand new literary prize, The Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction will be awarded to author Don DeLillo.

World Book Night was this past Tuesday, and 500,000 free books were given out across several countries. Did you participate? If you'd like to be a World Book Night giver next year, follow the project here.

GalleyCat reported this week, from info found in Amazon's financial filings, that the Amazon Kindle Prime lending library now contains more than 300,000 titles. Publishing business nerds might also like to note that Amazon's quarterly sales were up a healthy 22% over the same period last year. But net income was down. (Translation: economy 1, bottom line 0.)

Sarah Pinneo is a novelist, food writer and book publicity specialist. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.

What’s the Difference Between a Freelance Editor and a Literary Agent?

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Kaufman | @CMKaufman) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Guest blogger Kate Epstein

Today's guest post is by Kate Epstein, who is both a literary agent and a freelance editor. Here she helps you understand how the two are different, when you should seek out each one, and why it's still true that you will directly pay a legitimate freelance editor, but never a legitimate literary agent.

A key similarity between freelance editors and literary agents is that both typically edit manuscripts. Years ago literary agents did less editing, and the need for a freelance editor was less urgent, because acquiring editors at book publishers had time to edit. A few acquiring editors still do, but for at least 15 years there’s been an axiom that “editors don’t edit.” It’s come to rest with others to do that.

Enter freelance editors and literary agents. Someone like me, who’d rather edit than do almost anything else, is a good fit for either function. Yet every writer should know the differences between a freelance editor and a literary agent, and when to seek out each.

1. One you pay directly…one you should never pay directly. Reputable agents don’t send you a bill. They don’t have to. If you have a reputable agent, she’ll do what she thinks makes sense to get you a publisher and take her money as a commission out of whatever the publisher pays you. The more you earn, the more she earns. She may well edit your manuscript (if you write fiction, she’s almost certain to) to try and increase your chances, but she doesn’t bill you for editing time (or reading time, for that matter). But an editor will charge you for her time and effort in improving your manuscript, and that may mean she has more time to improve your work.

Most other distinctions between editors and literary agents stem from this basic distinction as to how each gets paid.

2. Freelance editors may not bring other expertise to the table. While many editors have a background in other positions in book publishing, a freelance editor’s job is to know how to improve your manuscript, nothing more. A literary agent must also have expertise in what sells, relationships with acquiring editors, and the expertise to negotiate your contract. She needs all those to make her business work. A freelance editor needn’t bring all this to the table. This specialization can be a strength--she concentrates her energy on improving manuscripts. But it also means that her opinion as to whether your project will sell to a publisher (or to consumers) may not be much use to you. Not only do freelance editors not need expertise in this area; they may tell you what they think you want to hear. Literary agents hurt people’s feelings all the time and they’re less likely to shrink from that.

3. An editor may take you on when an agent will not. Editors can take on projects without regard for their commercial potential. They can take on projects that have commercial potential, but that don’t make sense for an agent because they’ll take too much time. If your manuscript isn’t ready for a literary agent, an editor may be able to help you to get it ready.

4. An editor really does work for you. A literary agent works…with you. I don’t believe that this distinction should make a huge difference, because in any case the relationship between you and another professional should be based on mutual respect, especially when it comes to something you care about as much as your writing--respect for one another’s feelings and opinions, but also respect for one another’s time and resources. But the tenor of the relationship with a literary agent and with a freelance editor really does sound quite different.

One upshot of all of this is that you should never plan to turn your freelance editor into a literary agent. Some people actively agent and edit--including me. Personally, I don’t take on projects as a literary agent in any category that I will edit. Turning your freelance editor into your literary agent is a little like turning your therapist into your boyfriend (if less illegal). While an ethical person can be someone’s therapist or freelance editor and someone else’s boyfriend or literary agent, an ethical person doesn’t try to be both to anyone, as the transformation from one to the other can involve exploitation.

Yet, just as a therapist might make you better at having a boyfriend, a freelance editor might make you more ready to have a literary agent, and a publisher, and a wide readership. You can learn a lot about writing from a freelance editor, because she has the time to teach. And that’s a good thing.

Kate Epstein offers editing services at EpsteinWords, www.epsteinwords.com. She also offers literary agent services to crafts authors at www.epsteinliterary.com.

Know Your Best Alternative

noreply@blogger.com (Jane | @janelebak) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

"Have you ever heard of BATNA?" said my Patient Husband.

I had no idea what kind of acronym this was, since it seems every aspect of my life has its own shorthand. It turns out this is a management and negotiating term: the Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement. It also turns out everyone needs to have one.

Let's back up a bit. You're querying a manuscript and an Agent, Annie Awesome, calls to offer representation. You hit it off on the phone, and she sends you her agency contract. But in that contract, you find something you don't feel comfortable with. What do you do?

It's not time to panic. It's not a question of either signing over your soul or losing your publishing dreams. Instead, it's a question of negotiating.

Business negotiation has taken on something of a pejorative meaning lately, the idea that each party seeks to protect its interests while feasting on the hearts of their business associates. That's not going to be true in an agent-client relationship, nor in an editor-author relationship.

Instead let's reframe the idea of negotiation: you and Agent Annie Awesome both want the same things, and in the long run, neither of you benefits if either one of you is contractually abused. What you're working out are the details.

It's true that every so often you'll hear a horror story about an agent who dropped her brand-new client because the client asked a few questions. I think the real truth in those cases is that the agent is a lousy agent, and I say that because agenting is all about negotiating. Questions are part of negotiation.

If an agent cannot negotiate, she is not a good agent. If an agent cannot negotiate with you when she wants you to become her client, then how is she going to negotiate with potential editors?

So when you find a problem with the contract offered to you by an agent or an editor, steel yourself to negotiate. It's fine. Agents are good at negotiating. But first, figure out your BATNA.

The "best alternative to a negotiated agreement" is what you're going to do if you and the other party do not enter into an agreement at all.

It's your Plan B, to some extent, although it's more sophisticated than that. In the case of Agent Annie Awesome, your BATNA might be to continue querying other agents, since now you know you can attract an agent's attention. Your BATNA may be to self-publish your manuscript or to market it to editors yourself. Figure out what that is, its benefits and drawbacks.

And here's the key: when you negotiate, you should never settle for anything less than your BATNA. There's no reason to. If you can achieve a specific good without the other party, then you don't need to pair with them in order to achieve less.

Obviously your BATNA is stronger if you also have an offer from Agent Spencer Spectacular, but the object isn't to pit one agency against the other. The object is to reach an agreement both you and your future agent can live with.

The other thing you need to do is figure out the other party's BATNA. Agent Annie Awesome's BATNA is in all likelihood to let you go and sign a different client. But remember that she loved your manuscript enough to want to be a part of its future. Also, she believes she can make money off your manuscript. Therefore she's got some incentive to use her skills as a negotiator to solve any problems you have with the contract.

I know sometimes writers are a little socially awkard (and I'm their poster child), but reassure yourself: this is not adversarial.

Explain the aspect of the contract you take issue with. Explain your reservations. Ask for the change you want to the contract, keeping in mind that the agent or editor is going to have specific needs as well. Doing this will help you solve your problem with the contract in such a way that it doesn't create a problem for the other party.

Negotiating should be about meeting both parties' needs in such a way that both are satisfied with the outcome. Many agency and publisher contracts, for example, have a paragraph in which the author indemnifies the agency or publisher against actions committed by the author. That's fine. They seldom contain a reverse paragraph, in which the agency or publisher indemnifies the author. I've asked in each of my contracts for mutual indemnification, and every time, the other party has agreed this is perfectly fair.

Keep in mind that if there's one paragraph in your contract where you read and hope it will never come to bear -- it's going to.

The key here is not to settle for less than your BATNA. If your BATNA is to continue querying, then don't reluctantly lock yourself into a five-year contract with an agency. If your BATNA is to self-publish, don't sign with a small press that withholds royalties until their operating expenses have been recouped. Know your BATNA, and keep that in mind before you sign.

(For more about BATNA and negotiation, check out Fisher and Ury's book Getting to YES. As an added bonus, my Patient Husband tells me that from the spine side, it looks like Getting TOYS.)

---

Jane Lebak is the author of The Wrong Enemy. She has four kids, three cats, two books in print, and one husband. She lives in the Swamp and spends her time either writing books or brokering peace between warring children. At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four kids. If you want to make her rich and famous, please come up with your BATNA and negotiate with the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency.

Publishing Pulse: April 19, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Ash Krafton | @ashkrafton) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:47:00 +0000

This Week at Query Tracker

The profiles of several agents were updated this week. Please make sure you double-check every agent's website or Publisher's Marketplace page before querying.

Success!

Congratulations to the writers who recently signed with agents…Holly VanDyne and Richard Pearson! And to the writers who are thisclose to signing: keep up the hard work. We look forward to seeing your success stories.

Ready to write your own success story?

If you're a QueryTracker member (membership is free) you can view the database of more than 1200 agent and publisher profiles. Premium Members can be notified whenever an agent or publisher is added or updates their profile, in addition to receiving access to several other enviable features.

And remember--you'll reach success when you find the agent who is perfect for your work. Be sure to read each agent's profile carefully and visit other links such as company websites and blogs. Follow them on social media sites and get a feeling for what they really want. The better you know the agent, the better you will know if they are the right representative for your work. Blindly querying agents without regard for their guidelines or repped genres will only delay the process--not only for you but for other writers.

Using QueryTracker.net will help you become a well-informed querying writer. Use the resources to your advantage and seek the fastest, straightest path to finding your ideal agent today.

The Indie Writer-Agent Cooperative

Many traditionally published authors are choosing to self-publish follow-up works--and some are doing it with the help of their literary agencies.

The Twitter Feeds

Publishers Weekly ‏@PublishersWkly

NYC teacher becomes toast of publishing world overnight at LBF | Page Six http://pwne.ws/13klCYp

CJ Lyons ‏@cjlyonswriter

RT @sourcebooks: . @draccah There has never been more opportunity in book publishing than there is today #pclive

Janice Hardy ‏@Janice_Hardy

How to Survive and Thrive in the Publishing House Slush Pile http://dld.bz/cy4MQ via @romanceuniv

PublishingSpy ‏@PublishingSpy

How to Get Your Second Job in Publishing http://shar.es/JCciN via @sharethis http://ow.ly/2wfwkJ

Joanna Penn ‏@thecreativepenn

Self Publishing A Book: 7 Mistakes Of Indie Authors and How you can fix them http://bit.ly/xOvJgV

The Bloggity Blogs

Rachelle Gardner talks about writers and their potential--if they had the courage.

Kristin Nelson blogs (from her new blog location) on the New Adult "trend" and why it may not be new at all--it's chick lit with no holding back.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who, despite having a Time Turner under her couch and three different sonic screwdrivers in her purse, still encounters difficulty with time management. Visit Ash's blog at www.ash-krafton.blogspot.com for news on her urban fantasy series The Books of the Demimonde (Pink Narcissus Press). Book Two "Blood Rush" will be released May 14, 2013. Currently, her urban fantasy novella "Stranger at the Hell Gate (The Wild Rose Press) is available on Amazon's KDP Select.

Five Dialogue Dilemmas to Avoid

noreply@blogger.com (Stina Lindenblatt) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

by Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL

Not long ago, I read a self-published novel that drove me crazy. I enjoyed the story and liked the characters, but the author made several mistakes with her dialogue, again and again and again. It didn’t happen every time she wrote dialogue, so she did know what she was doing. Just chalk it up to sloppy proofreading (and the lack of a copy editor).

The mistakes were inexcusable, but they are a good reminder to scour your manuscript to ensure they don’t exist. Some of them are easily missed if you are not paying attention.

1. “I’m hungry.” She whispered.

The question I’m wondering after reading this is what did the character whisper? The author incorrectly punctuated the dialogue. It should have read: “I’m hungry,” she whispered.

2. “I’m hungry,” she frowned.

Frowning is a physical action. It doesn’t describe how the dialogue was spoken. Again, this is a case of incorrect punctuation. The correct ways to write it would be:

“I’m hungry,” she said, frowning.

“I’m hungry.” She frowned.

In the first sentence, the character is frowning at the same time as she spoke. In the second situation, the character spoke then frowned. You can’t laugh, frown, smack, or wink dialogue. You can yell and whisper dialogue. You can say dialogue with a laugh (“I’m hungry,” she said with a laugh). And you can say dialogue low so that no one else can hear you. Whenever you use a dialogue tag that isn’t said, make sure it really is a dialogue tag and not a physical beat.

3. “Fine.” I spat, jumping up.

When I first read the sentence, I wondered if the character had spat at the other character or if she had spat at the ground. Again, this is example of improper punctuation. The above sentence means something different to what the author had intended: “Fine,” I spat, jumping up.

4. “I’m losing!?!”

The above abuse of punctuation is fine for comics, text messages, and blog comments. It is not appropriate in dialogue. In the above example, the author would use the question mark and show (not tell) that the character is surprised that she’s losing.

5. “I’m not sure that’s—“

The second quotation mark is backwards. The easiest way to avoid this is type a random letter after the dash-em and then the quotation mark. The correct form will appear. Delete the letter and you’re golden.

To avoid missing these errors in your manuscript when you edit, go through the draft once, reading only for dialogue and dialogue tags. This way, you will be more likely to catch the errors than if you are paying attention to a different element, and hoping to notice your typos. If you read the first three chapters and find you are frequently making these mistakes, you can guarantee the rest of the story is riddled with them, too.

Are there any errors in dialogue mechanics that you’ve seen that drive you crazy or that you struggle with?

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes young adult and new adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and can be found hanging out on her blog.

"You Should Do a Book Trailer"

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Pinneo) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:30:00 +0000

I love this post from author Keith Cronin, because it demonstrates both the variety of pressures new authors face, but also the harnessing of some very personal strengths found underneath his own roof. Making a book trailer is not for everyone, but here's how one author turned his publicity effort into a creative work of love. And then saw results.
—Sarah P.

By Keith Cronin

As the date of my book launch approached, I kept hearing this advice:

"You should do a book trailer."

Great, now authors are supposed to be movie directors, too? Wonderful. We'll just add that to our constantly growing to-do list, along with blogging, Facebooking, tweeting, chirping, and various other animal noises. Oh, and we'll do this even though there still isn't quantifiable data proving that all this stuff actually helps sell books.

Still, I'd been planning to take a shot at creating a homegrown book trailer. After all, my life partner Luna Jade is a multimedia artist with solid video editing chops, so at least I could probably get this done on the cheap. And I like to think I'm a pretty creative guy, with a good eye. How hard could making a two-minute video be?

Answer: pretty freaking hard.

When I tried to storyboard it, I kept hitting a brick wall. Everything I came up with made my book seem like either a medical thriller or some movie-of-the-week tearjerker. This is not surprising, since my book is about two young stroke victims, and is set mostly in a hospital. But my book is actually pretty funny. So how do I capture that aspect, while showing images of hospital corridors and physical therapy sessions? Finally I gave up, consoling myself that nobody had proven that book trailers actually work.

"You should do a book trailer."

This time it was Luna talking to me, while we were eating dinner. I explained that I had tried, but kept getting nowhere. And that given the number of truly awful book trailers out there (which could be the topic of a whole 'nother article), I didn't want to put out something I wasn't genuinely excited about.

"What if I wrote a song for it?" she asked. Now, this was interesting. Among her many talents, Luna is a professional singer/songwriter, and has a pretty sweet home recording studio. And she had read and loved my book, so she "got" what the book was about. Who better to capture my story?

As I began to mull this over, she started ad-libbing some lyric ideas, and immediately captured one of the metaphors I'd used in the book. I loved the initial couplet she had just reeled off, which ultimately became the first two lines of the finished song. Sitting at the table we started brainstorming about the mood and lyrical content of the song, and agreed that it might be cool to try to find a climactic place in the song to include the phrase "me again" (the title of my book), as long as it didn't seem forced or corny.

Inspired, she wrote the words and melody in a single day, and I have to say, the song sounded great. And her inspiration was contagious: suddenly I had a rush of ideas for how the video could flow.

I had storyboarded some corporate training videos, so I had some experience in combining images and timed narration. And during my abortive earlier attempts at brainstorming the trailer, I had at least isolated the three things I wanted the video to accomplish: I wanted to show that my book was funny, that it was emotional, and that there was a sense of hope to the story.

This last part was important to me, because I was finding that when I described my novel to people, they'd often say, "Wow, that sounds depressing." While there are some powerfully sad moments in the book, there is also a steadfast humor and underlying optimism. But in early drafts of my storyboards, between all the medical imagery and ominous phrases describing the problems my characters faced, I could see how the book seemed like a downer.

Having identified those goals, it was time to figure out how to achieve them. To capture the humor, I decided to start the video with the opening passage of the book, which has a nice punch line to it. The emotional part was easier to capture: we simply began listing the problems the characters faced, while the slow, plaintive beginning of Luna's song played underneath the onscreen captions. Finally, the third part: showing some hope. If you study many movie trailers, you'll notice that they often show another dimension of the story by abruptly changing the mood of the music. So that's what we did: I specifically asked Luna to try to develop a song with a slow opening, that would suddenly transition into something more upbeat. I gotta say, she knocked it out of the park. You can see and hear the final result below.

Yeah, but will it sell books?

I have no idea. But the initial feedback I've received has been compelling:

It changed some bloggers' minds. Several literary bloggers have publicly commented that while they usually feel "meh" about trailers, this one actually made them want to read the book.
It got at least one member of my publishing house's sales force fired up about the book. She wrote to me after seeing the trailer, raving about it and promising to read the book right away, which was quite a compliment given the size of the catalog she represents. A sales rep who has actually read the book she's pitching is a powerful ally indeed.
It secured me at least one review. I started including a link to the trailer in my pitch letters to the big review sites, and one reviewer wrote back right away, saying, "The book trailer definitely has me interested, and I'd like to read this for review." Score!

Based on that, the trailer has already provided ample return on my investment. True, we did put a lot of time into it, but the only real cost was for the two pieces of stock video footage used in the first half of the video. And hey, even if it never sells a single book, I still ended up with a theme song for my novel, which is pretty darn cool.

But at a personal level, this was also an extremely rewarding experience. After Luna's initial offer to write a song, the two of us fell into a collaborative back-and-forth that was thrilling to experience. Luna and I are each other's biggest supporters, and we've made music together before. But we had never before collaborated in this way, and together we really did achieve something that felt greater than the sum of its parts. It was a real lesson in how inspiration can snowball when you put two minds (and hearts) together.

So if you can analyze and identify which aspects of your book you want to capture in a promotional video, and have the time and resources to find and assemble images and music (or some artistic acquaintances to assist in that task), who knows? Maybe all this is telling you something:

You should do a book trailer.

Sarah Pinneo is a novelist, food writer and book publicity specialist. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.

Publishing Pulse: 4/12/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Kaufman | @CMKaufman) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Over on Adventures in Children's Publishing is a wonderful post by Lynn Joseph on including diversity in your novels. She writes about the fears many writers have of telling stories about people who are different than them, and provides some tips on writing authentically about other cultures.

Nebula Award-winning author Nancy Kress talks about her days in the slush pile, and gives you some tips to get out in How to Get Out of the Slush Pile!

If your Muse has gone on Spring Break, Novel Rocket has a few helpful tips. One of them involves chocolate!

Jane Friedman gives you some advice on How to Use Pinterest as a Writer. I also have to include this slightly-older post by Erin MacPherson: Don't Think of Pinterest as Social Media.

What are agents really looking for when they check out an unsolicited manuscript? Here's an agent roundup that tells you!

When is the best time to get your novel critiqued? Jody Hedlund helps you figure out who you should have take a look, and when.

And finally--when it's time to launch your book, you want to make a big splash. Check out this article on Making Your Book Launch Stand Out.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you next week!

How to use the QueryTracker site

noreply@blogger.com (Jane | @janelebak) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

It's been a while since we talked about the nuts and bolts of the QueryTracker website, so let's go over that again.

When you first being querying, it seems there are a million-zillion literary agents, and you're not sure how to handle it (other than preparing yourself to query a hundred.)

But you're armed. You've written your book and edited it. You've got a sparkling query letter that's been critiqued to a high shine over at the QueryTracker forum. In anticipation of following the directions, you've got a synopsis at the ready. Now all you need to do is query some agents.

Right, all million-zillion of them. Or maybe slightly fewer. Where to start?

Well, since I'm blogging for QueryTracker...you use QueryTracker. Login to your free account over at http://querytracker.net and check out how this works.

Under the "agents" menu it says "Search for agents." Click there. Presumably you know your genre, so that's the best place to start. Select your genre from the pull-down menu and click to search.

I picked Women's Fiction for my search criteria, and the database gave me 325 agents, listed in alphabetical order by agency name. Since you don't intend to query all of them today, this needs to be narrowed down a bit. Fortunately, you can narrow them down right off the bat: the ones who aren't open to queries have a red circle-slash in the information visible on the search results. You can check the box to remove those from your search results ("only show agents who are open to queries") and now we're down to 272 agents. That's still too many.

The data displays for you how agents prefer to be queried: email? snail mail? both? Look through the list for names you recognize and agencies you recognize. You can save as many agents as you want to your list of agents to query by clicking the box in the first column. These have now been saved to "my list" (er, your list.) You can come back to them later, and the names will all be saved in one place.

Now go under "reports" and look at the "top 10 reports." You'll see the names of the ten most requesting agents, the ten most queried agents, and so on. When you're just starting out, the idea is to familiarize yourself with the names. Pick an agent and click on her name to view her report.

On the first page of the agent's report is a link to the agent's website, if the agent has one. Click on that and read the website (it will open in a new window). Do you like the agent? Good. Keep that window open so you'll know how the agent prefers to be queried, but also go back to the agent's QT report. On the left you'll see a box with the name of your project,a nd beneath that, "Add the agent to my query list." Check the box.

Click on the "genres" tab to find out what genres the agent represents.

Go to "reports." The default report is "queries sent" and "all time." If you pull down the report type option, you'll get "query replies." Click on "generate report" and see what comes up. This report tells you how many QT users have queried this particular agent and what sort of responses they've received: a full request, a partial request, a rejection, or no response. This information tells you how actively this agent is looking for clients. It also tells you whether you should expect a rejection from this agent or whether no response means no.

The other reports will give you information about how quickly an agent responds, whether they typically request fulls or partials, how quickly they respond to requested submissions, and will even break down the agent's responses by genre. How cool is that?

How is QT obtaining this information? When a QT user decides to query this agent, she clicks on the box to put the agent on her query list. She indicates when she queried the agent. When she gets a response, she marks it off. And the site compiles more data every time someone uses it.

Over time, with all your queries compiled on "My Query List," you'll be able to keep track of whom you queried, when you queried them, and how they responded. Moreover, your data will be concatenated with everyone else's in order to detect trends.

Also, with the information on the agent's profile all in one place, it's easy to find the agent's website, the agent's twitter account, the agent's Publisher's Marketplace page, what genres they represent, and in many cases, other writers have pasted the text of their form letter query into the comments so you can verify that the personal-seeming rejection letter is really their form.

Effective querying means knowing which agents you want to query and making sure you get to all of the ones on your list. Having all the information in one place was the best help in finding my own agent.

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Stalking the Muse

noreply@blogger.com (Ash Krafton | @ashkrafton) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 15:32:00 +0000

Sounds ominous, doesn’t it? It should. My muse is evading me and I’m beginning to wonder if it has assumed an alias and a disguise and maybe even moved away. Who knows. Lucky for me, I have no compunction against stalking. It’s a skill I developed, like most females, in junior high. Most females get over it. I, however, am more frugal and maintain that no skill is a bad skill.

I haven’t had to stalk any one for more than two decades now but I try to keep in practice. Never know when a good stalking is in order. Sadly, there are few opportunities to put it into use these days. Real stalking is technically harassment and often leads to charges being pressed. Something like that would be bad.

I’ve decided to put my stalking skills to good use once more. I’ve begun focusing on a most elusive quarry: my muse.

I’ve read all sorts of blogs and articles loaded with advice on where to find inspiration. However, nobody does work for no good reason. It’s nice to find inspiration but it is essential to know why we seek it in the first place.

What drives us to look for the muse? What makes a writer sit down and write? We’ve read tales of writers who have burning voices inside them, clamoring to be heard. People who have experienced amazing things and have a burning need to share it with the world. So many inspirational and uplifting reasons. Many of us hope to relate to those admirable writers and assume their reasons for writing are similar to our own.

Not me. I’ll admit it. My driving forces are more practical and much less professional but nonetheless effective:

1) Envy. That’s right. Envy of the success of others is a wonderful source of inspiration for writers. Back when I started and I was still humbled and amazed that I could even be considered worthy of publication, I used to Google myself as a way to congratulate myself on the work I’ve done. That’s not enough anymore. Now, I Google other writers. I compare how many more pages of Google hits they have. I see which markets have accepted them and I push myself to produce work worthy of being accepted there as well. Envy helps me to focus on getting my own work out on submission. You can’t succeed if you don’t try. Jealousy makes you try harder.

2) Praise. Hunger for praise is another excellent driving force. I’m a mom and a pharmacist. Praise doesn’t go too far in either job. Good job on the laundry, mom. I love the way you vacuumed the living room. Or: Way to go counting those pills, miss. Thanks for billing my insurance. See how limp that is? Who can thrive on that drivel? My German Shepherd gets more praise than I do (and cookies. She gets cookies.) I’m a writer. I need affirmation. It’s what pushes me to enter contests. I have over a dozen entries out at the moment, with at least a dozen more planned. Will I win them all? Heck, no. I’m not delusional. But those contest judges give feedback and more often than not, it’s positive. When a judge comments “lol” on my manuscript, I get shivers. They are just feeding my addiction and my need to be loved. God bless them all.

3) Bills. Boy, do I got ‘em. Mortgage, car, a crazy cable bill thanks to my DVR and my loyalty to HBO’s True Blood and Game of Thrones. I tried getting rid of the things that don’t seem as important but the husband says phone and sewer and electric are things we absolutely have to keep. Likewise, my children insist on food and clothing. Whatever. Since the bills don’t want to go away, I must keep writing. Someday I’ll actually earn enough to pay a bill with it. As long as there is hope, there is reason to persevere.

4) Conceit. Yep, I said it. Every writer feels it. It is what makes us sit down and write: the unwavering belief that we can tell it better than anyone else. If we set out to write under the conviction that we sucked, we wouldn’t waste our time. Our belief in ourselves drives us to go out and face new challenges and take on new quests. Writers just tend to be stuck-up about it.

5) Opportunity to vent. Self-explanatory. I’m a speculative fiction writer. This reason also includes the area of cheap therapy. I once had a poem accepted that I wrote about a panic attack I had the day before. Thank you, day job, for making me a nervous wreck and for giving me another Google hit. And thank you, wonderful world of retail, for inspiring me to be a better writer of horror. My customers have no idea what I day-dream about when I’m ringing out their toothpaste. Mu-hahahahaha.

The list could probably go on but, honestly, my husband will kill me if he knew my reasons for writing were so petty. He thinks I derive a deep sense of personal satisfaction by expressive my innate creativity. What a loveable goofball. I suppose as long as he doesn’t have to post bail, he’ll be okay with me stalking my muse. Worst case, I use it as a human shield when the critics come after me.

Seek out your own reasons to be inspired and may your muse go along with you willingly. Stalking can be such an extreme measure.

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who occasionally does track down her muse. Visit Ash's blog at www.ash-krafton.blogspot.com for news on her urban fantasy series The Books of the Demimonde (Pink Narcissus Press). Book Two "Blood Rush" will be released May 14, 2013. Also, her urban fantasy novella "Stranger at the Hell Gate (The Wild Rose Press) is available on Amazon.

The Publishing Pulse: April 5th, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Stina Lindenblatt) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

This week, New Adult was added to the Querytracker database. It’s currently a work in progress since New Adult has only recently been accepted as a genre. Agents are slowly getting onboard as editors eagerly tell them what they’re looking for.

If you’re unsure what New Adult is, please read this post. And if you hear of an agent looking for NA and who isn’t on the database, please let Pat know so he can update the list. Thanks!

Around the Internet

Author and film critic Roger Ebert dies at 70 after a long battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed.

How to ethically find images for your author site.

Agent Janet Reid shares three things not to do in a query. And here are four more things to avoid.

Agent Mary Kole talked about putting the cart before the horse in queries.

Agent Kristin Nelson shared her thoughts on indie-agent partners.

Givecustomers what they want? (via agent Rachelle Gardner)

The foolish writer and the wise. Which are you? (via Writer Unboxed)

Answers to thirteen questions you’re too afraid to ask literary agents. (via Writers Digest)

You’ve signed with an agent, now what? (via author Natalie Whipple)

Have a great weekend!

Stina Lindenblatt @StinaLL writes young adult and new adult novels. In her spare time, she’s a photographer and blogging addict, and can be found hanging out on her blog.

My Kindergartener Teaches Me A Lesson In Productivity

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Pinneo) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Prolific Fiction Writers at Work

I have two little boys, 6 and 8. When they’re not busy at school, they spend the whole day pretending. My husband and I have shared many a loaded glance over the ridiculousness of their results. Yesterday, for example, they were half turtle, half man. This was inspired when one of them threw a towel over the other one, and the pretending didn’t let up for more than thirty minutes. The low point was when they nearly came to blows over who had the better towel / shell, until one of them remarked “you know, turtles can visit other turtles inside their shells. It’s like a play date.”

Meanwhile, on those rare occasions when the house is quiet, I sit fuming at my laptop trying to put out a few hundred words of fiction. When perfectly formed dialog and drama don’t flow readily through the keyboard, I get twitchy.

I’ve never transcribed my children before, but I’m guessing they produce several thousand words of fiction an hour. Compare and contrast to my skimpy birthed-by-fire paragraphs. So which of us is wiser?

When I hit the biggest roadblocks to producing fiction, it’s always when I’ve misplaced the best writing advice I’ve ever read—Anne Lamott’s concept of shitty first drafts. Chapter Three of her classic Bird by Bird is the only text on writing that I ever force into anyone’s path. Not only does Lamott give you permission to write shitty first drafts, she actually manages to prove that it’s an essential part of the writing process.

This is how it’s supposed to work: sit back down in front of that blank page, and go ahead and write a scene that feels as lively and realistic as a couple of Barbie dolls talking to one another in plastic dolly voices.

Take several deep breaths and remind yourself that it’s okay.

Once you shove your characters around like a couple of action figures, you’ll be able to see the scene for what it is. Slowly and at great personal cost, those bits of dialog and suggestion will be combed and fluffed into a living, breathing moment that will not sound ridiculous. It will be free of half-terrapin-half-kindergartener moments.

But this magic can only happen if you free yourself to sound ridiculous, to spit clichés onto the page like so many crumbs under my young son’s chair, and clean it up later.

As I type this, I can hear that the game in the other room has changed. My younger son has just declared “I’m half squid, half dolphin, half jaguar and half horse.” The fiction is still going strong, but someone should really teach that child about fractions.

Sarah Pinneo is a novelist, food writer and book publicity specialist. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.

Cloud Storage for Writers: Comparison & Caveats

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn Kaufman | @CMKaufman) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve written about backing up your writing files, and I have two words to define the revolution since then: cloud storage.

What Is Cloud Storage and Why Would I Want It?

You probably keep a folder filled with manuscript/s on whichever computer you do the most writing. But if something happens to that computer (or that folder), recovering the data may be difficult or even impossible. So most writers back up their writing in some way—some keep a copy of things on a flash drive, for example, while others regularly email their manuscripts to themselves.

But these days there’s an additional alternative called cloud storage, which refers to online file storage. (The “cloud” is basically the internet.) And not only does cloud storage back your documents up on a regular basis, it gives you access to your files from any computer or device on which you install the company’s software. In other words, your files exist in a location you will always be able to access barring an inability to get online or the collapse of the internet.

Some cloud storage services also offer features like:

Version Tracking: This allows you to recover an older version of a file if you accidentally write over it or delete it.
Collaboration: This collaboration option allows more than one person to contribute to the same document (without sharing the same password and identity).
Public File Sharing: If for some reason you want to share particular files with the public, some services have this option.

How Much Does Cloud Storage Cost?

Most cloud storage providers offer 2GB – 5GB worth of free storage, which is plenty for most writers, even if they’re prolific. (Pictures and videos take up a lot of space; written files take up very little.) Of course, if you want more storage than that, it’s available from all of the services for a variety of monthly fees.

Security and Privacy

This is where things get tough. If your stuff isn’t just on your computer, how much control do you really have over it?

The answer is, writer beware. It varies widely from cloud storage service to cloud storage service.

On the scary end the mega brand-name clouds, such as Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Dropbox, and Microsoft SkyDrive, have privacy policies that basically give the companies the right to use your material in any way they deem appropriate. Though all of them claim that they will only do this to support their Services, there’s enough wiggle room to make some legal nitpickers very nervous. (Note: These services may work fine for for people who wish to back up things besides original creative works. I use both Dropbox and Google Drive for day job purposes.)

For most cloud services, though, the privacy policy extends as far as the law will allow. That is, if there’s a reasonable cause to believe you’re infringing on someone’s copyright (including DMCA) or otherwise breaking the law, the company will comply with authorities. Now, assuming you’re not planning to break the law (please don’t), that shouldn’t be an issue.

The real potential problem in these situations that employees may be able to sift through your stuff at will. Dropbox in particular has been criticized for this. In other words, if a Dropbox employee decides to look at your stuff, there are no rules in the company to prevent it.

Mozy, on the other hand, has a privacy commitment that no one will ever access your files for any reason other than legal purposes.

Finally, there are companies that offer individual private encryption keys. This is a special key that only you (and, of course, anyone you share it with) can use. A private encryption key means that nobody can get into your account for any reason, including subpoena, except you. SpiderOak is particularly known for their “zero knowledge” policy, which means they neither know what’s in your account nor have any way to access it, including under subpoena. SpiderOak accounts are automatically protected by private encryption keys.

Services like iDriveSync and Mozy also offer optional private encryption keys, which gives them the same level of security as SpiderOak accounts.

The only problem with private encryption keys is that if you lose your password (i.e. your key), nobody can reset it for you. The account cannot be opened, ever, by anyone. The account is that secure.* So this approach is great for paranoid folks…as long as they have really reliable memories.

Writing Software Cloud Integration

Writing software like Scrivener and yWriter create a folder on your hard drive that contains all the different parts of your project. If you keep your project in the cloud storage application that sits on your computer/s, your Scrivener files will also be synced on each computer you’re using.

The only thing to be careful of (as Scrivener warns in its documentation), is if you start working on a project that isn’t yet fully synced from another computer. So you just have to be sure your cloud service’s automatic syncing to the current computer is done before you start working on your project on a new computer. That also means that while it’s okay to have different people collaborating on a writing software project, it’s crucial that only one person edits at a time. That person must then close the writing software on their end for the other person to be able to use it.

Operating Systems and Apps

Most if not all cloud services are accessible not only through a web page, but also on both Windows and OS X (for Macintosh) computers. However, some services can also run on Android, iOS (iPad and iPhone), and—rarely—Linux.

Comparison Chart

Finally, I’ve created a chart below to compare nine of the big cloud storage services. (There are certainly others out there, like Wuala (another highly rated zero knowledge provider) and Cubby, but my chart was getting too big. However, you can always check out the comparison chart of thirteen different services that The Verge put together in April of 2012.)

Though for creative works I would probably steer away from the big-name services (Apple iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft SkyDrive) for the security reasons noted above, services like Mozy, SpiderOak, and iDriveSync offer nice privacy options as well as other useful features for writers.

* Please note that this information is current to the best of my knowledge as of the date of this post.

	Box	Dropbox	Google Drive	Apple iCloud	iDriveSync	Mozy	Microsoft Skydrive	SpiderOak	SugarSync
Free Storage	5 GB	2 GB	5 GB	5 GB	10 GB	2 GB	7 GB	2 GB	5 GB
Version tracking	11 versions	30 days	30 days	No	30 versions	30 days	25 versions	No	5 versions
Public file share	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Collaboration	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Private key	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Developers only
When can someone look at your files?	DMCA; Legal reasons	Employees can access; DMCA; Legal reasons	Google can use your files any way they want	Apple can use your files any way they want	Their discretion for legal issues; Never if you use private key	They "never use [access] to sift through customer data"; Never if you use private key	Microsoft can use your files any way they want	Never; Zero knowledge	Any info “required by law”
Windows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
OS X	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Linux	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Android	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
iOS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Web	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Other problems	Weaker encryption for personal accts	Hacked July 2012		Errors with Mountain Lion; Syncing issues		Users report backup errors

Do you use a cloud storage service? Which one? What are its pros and cons?

* Many people store extra-sensitive information like master password lists, social security numbers, and credit card information in the cloud, which is why some hackers target cloud storage services. As you can see from the post above, storing sensitive personal data in the cloud usually isn't a good idea unless you have a private encryption key. While many of the cloud services boast the same level of encryption as banks and secure online password managers, and while a private key offers you an extra level of security, you should still be aware that regardless of how secure your cloud is, anything accessible via the internet has the potential to be hacked.

Publishing Pulse for March 29, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Jane | @janelebak) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:00:00 +0000

New At QueryTracker:

This week we've added one agent profile and updated six (two of whom appear to be no longer agenting). Are you querying one of them? Always make sure you double-check every agent's website or Publisher's Marketplace page before sending your query.

If you're a QueryTracker premium member, then you can be notified whenever an agent or publisher profile is added or updated. If you're not a premium member, you can just check for yourself.

Today is Good Friday for many Christian denominations. If you're celebrating the Easter holidays, have a peaceful and holy weekend.

Publishing News:

"Oddest Title Of The Year Award" goes to Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop. (I'm kind of disappointed they didn't go with How Tea Cosies Changed The World. I could totally knit a tea cosy. It would match my iPod cosy.)

Malala Yousafzai, a teenager shot in the face for standing up to the Taliban, will publish her memoir with Little, Brown.

Around the Blogosphere:

Author David Farland administers a kick in the pants: how to be prolific.

Does your story open with a shock, or with a seduction?

One cause of unsatisfying writing: ping-pong dialogue.

Via Kristin Nelson: seven queries, seven rejections.

Literary Quote of the Week:

"In writing, plot is Soylent Green -- it's made of people. Meaning, plot is the sequence of events created largely by the characters." -Chuck Wendig

Thanks for stopping by, and keep sending those queries!

---

KDP Select: What Do Authors Think?

noreply@blogger.com (Ash Krafton | @ashkrafton) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0000

I'm a hybrid author.

I suppose that means a few different things. After completing my first novel, I embarked on an agent search--and you probably know the length of eternities between each agent reply. In order to keep my mind (and my inbox) busy, I wrote and submitted short fiction and poetry. Eventually, my short work was available in both print and electronic formats (and even a podcast or two).

My first novel was published traditionally by a small press (the team of which became my book's best friend). I'm also self-published as well: last year I created anthologies of my previously-published short stories and published them through both Smashwords and Amazon's KDP.

So, yeah. Hybrid. (And, considering my reliance on technology, I suppose I'm even the plug-in kind.) Although I'd only been writing "professionally" since 2008, I've tried almost everything at least once and, if I hadn't tried it yet, I'm probably seriously thinking about it.

I'm grateful to be traditionally published because honestly, it's a lot less work. I'd rather spend my time writing than publishing, if I can. Plus, I really value the relationships I've created with my editors. I like myself okay but, when acting as my own editor, it's just not the same.

However, there's a project in my WIP folder that I have set aside to become my first previously-unpublished story. I did the right thing by hiring professionals to edit and proof it, and am working with a graphic designer for a cover. Then there is the matter of how I'm going to publish it.

My gut was pressing me toward the KDP Select program. I'd have the same ease of publishing I experienced when publishing my anthologies and I had a rudimentary understanding of the payout structure, the whole exclusive-for-ninety-days thing, and the heralded glorious free day promotions. I figured once my other projects simmered down, I could take my time and really look into it.

This week, one of my publishers notified me that my July release is going on KDPS. Due to the 90-day exclusivity period, they've decided to put it up on Kindle early so that the three month period is over before they release and sell it on the publisher's website.

When I say "put it up on Kindle early" I mean "in the next few days.

Of course, I panicked. I have a book release this week and never knew about it! Kind of feels like a couch-bound cardio workout when you get news like that. After a moment of frantic emailing and texting, I took a big swig of Irish Breakfast and got to work researching what I thought I had months to do: the KDP Select.

Amazon puts it all out there right on their website. What I wanted to know was more personal: what do other authors think of the Select program?

Hitting the ~~Books~~ Blogs

When I sat down to begin my intense research, the first article I found was How Amazon's KDP Select Saved My Book. You would think with a title like that, it'd be a good article. Well, let me tell you: it was exactly the sort of feedback I'd hoped to find. Here was an author whose sales had flat lined. The KDP Select program turned out to be an AED*, resurrecting sales and downloads and sending them heavenward. Best of all, David Kazzie describes what happened after his free days. He still enjoyed an immense success with the program. His sacrifice for the exclusivity? Pretty much nothing. He'd sold only one copy on B&N leading up to that so it was a no-brainer.

Ok, that's one author's opinion. Although it's the one I wanted to hear, I figured I better keep reading. That's when I came across this post on the Huff Po. In Amazon: To KDP Select, Or Not? Jim Kukral surveyed several authors. There wasn't unanimous agreement, but enough positive response to make me feel good about my (and my publisher's) decision to go KDP Select.

There has to be a dark side to all this happy sunshine, right? I appreciated Victoria Strauss' article The Fine Print of Amazon's New KDP Select Program because it explains the payoff structure. This article was written in 2011--and I have yet to compare it word for word, number for number to the current guidelines--but it still breaks the main sections down and explains what it all means for the author.

Plenty of good reason she wrote this for the Writer Beware website. It's not a dark side, per se, but a serious one--authors enrolling in the KDP Select are signing a contract and every author had better understand what they are signing.

It's also important to remember how important promotion is to the success of your KDP Select's free days. Those free days are the program's sweetest plum and can be a huge missed opportunity if not promoted right. Author Kirkus MacGowan wrote about what he would have done better in his article My Experience with KDP Select. I think that is what is causing me the most amount of anxiety: the constraints of my day-job are absolutely the largest obstacle to my promotional activities.

And The ~~Beat~~ Blogs Go On

I am fairly confident that I can keep right on finding article after article on the pro's and con's of the KDP Select program. I'm also fairly confident that the KDPS is still a great way to launch (or re-launch) a book.

Maybe I've failed to mention one of the most important aspects about the whole thing--for me, anyway. It's a chance to get my book in front of thousands of people. That day job I mentioned? I'll probably work there until I keel over, so it's not like I'm counting on KDP to be my one way ticket to economic stability.

Rather, it's my one way ticket into thousands of e-readers. That's what I want--my book loaded into a Kindle, waiting for the moment a person spies the cover graphic and dives in. I want my work to be on bookshelves, real and virtual. I want to be a click away from a hungry reader.

KDP Select promises me that opportunity. Now, it's up to me to make it work.

Ash Krafton is a speculative fiction writer who, despite having a Time Turner under her couch and three different sonic screwdrivers in her purse, still encounters difficulty with time management. Visit Ash's blog at www.ash-krafton.blogspot.com for news on her urban fantasy series The Books of the Demimonde (Pink Narcissus Press). Book Two "Blood Rush" will be released May 14, 2013, the same day her urban fantasy novella "Stranger at the Hell Gate (The Wild Rose Press) goes free with Amazon's KDP Select.

A Character By Any Other Name

noreply@blogger.com (Sarah Pinneo) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:30:00 +0000

New moms are forgiven for choosing awkward or overly popular baby names. Until you stand on that playground, you really have no idea that your child will not be able to pronounce "Ellison" until well after his fifth birthday, or predict that little Ava will share her name with two others in her class. After kid #1, we wise up.

Repetitive authors, what is your excuse? I have seen the name Gray or Grayson in ten different novels this month. (That is, unfortunately, no exaggeration.) There can only be two possible explanations: either authors are subconsciously imbued with 50 Shades sales figure envy, or worse--the imitation is intentional.

Granted, naming characters is not easy. Every time I name one, the new name jumps off the page like a counterfeit interloper until I've typed it at least a hundred times.

One way to make a character unique is to invent a name. But that's risky too.

My kids' recent obsession with Star Wars has brought a host of unpronounceable names to the family dinner table. It's difficult to say Count Dooku with a straight face. Ditto Qui-Gon Jinn. Not only are those characters' names awkward on the tongue, but both spellings violate English language expectations. For example, "ook" in English usually rhymes with "book" not "puke." And "Gon" leaves us similarly guessing as to whether the O should be a short or long vowel.

Yet some authors have perfect pitch. J.K. Rowling is a naming master. When we first meet Harry Potter, we learn that "his hair simply grew that way--all over the place." She's subtly merged a homonym physical characteristic of her hero with his appearance, and all before we get a sense of him. She loves using adjective suggestions in naming. The Dursleys live in Little Whinging (whining). Professor Snape seems to blend "snap" and "snake" and "cape" into one offensive bundle. Flitwick. Hufflepuff. Muggle. So colorful! How does the lady do it?

And what, if anything, can we learn from our favorite literary naming masters, without copying them? For the truly flummoxed, consider these two time-tested ideas:

1. Action is Good

When a verb or adjective is used as a name, the character takes on a gleam of action immediately. Luke Skywalker, for example, is a very memorable and actionable name. Write down some attributes of your character, and then squint at the things you've written. Is there a name in there somewhere? There are a surprising number of verb names out there in the ether, even in common names. Lance. Walker. Harper. Chase. And that's just for starters.

In Colleen Hoover's very successful book HOPELESS, the perfect boyfriend's name is Holder. And it is the perfect descriptor of his character. (Although I should point out that Ms. Hoover is another Grayson offender, but at least she gives it to a secondary character.)

2. Keep Looking, Seek Help

If you're just stuck for inspiration, there are two websites I find invaluable. Nymbler is meant for parents-to-be to brainstorm baby names. But unlike other baby naming websites, this one will generate a bunch of "similar" names from those you type in. So if you're tempted by an over-popular name, put it into their algorithm and see if something just as wonderful pops out.

Also, if you just need to be realistic, and aren't sure which baby names were popular in, say, 1996, the social security administration is happy to help you. During my birth year (not 1996, unfortunately), Sarah was the 58th most popular girl's name. Jennifer / Michelle / Lisa were the top 3 that year.

Let us feel, authors, that your hero and heroine are unique yet believable. Go forth and name well!

Sarah Pinneo is a novelist, food writer and book publicity specialist. Her most recent book is Julia’s Child. Follow her on twitter at @SarahPinneo.