Monday, January 30, 2012

Latinas Unite

Er...can I join too? Not Latina but...nevermind. 

Our authors Rosa Gil and Carmen Vazquez have written a FANTASTIC book called THE MARIA PARADOX, now available as an ebook for the first time.

It's a unique self-help guide for Hispanic women aimed at finding ways to reconcile traditions from Latin heritage with the sometimes-very-different culture here in the States. And it's filled with self-help exercises and practical advice, so basically you can't lose.

Like it?? Well Click it!

Friday, January 27, 2012

New Author Promo Idea

Use your Twitter bios as a "flash" query. You know how Flash Fiction is a full story in about 50 - 200 words (which, by the way, is a great writing exercise)?

Yeah. Do that, but a query, in your bio. It's like the ultimate log line challenge, and it just might get you noticed.

Some log line theory and examples: http://www.screenplayers.net/loglines.html

Monday, January 23, 2012

#AskAgent

Questions are open from Noon EST until 3pm EST. Ask away in the comments!

Friday, January 20, 2012

I'm looking for a few good novella-ists

I know this sounds crazy. But please query me your novellas.

What exactly is a novella, you ask?
  • It's a complete story with a full plot and a beginning, a middle, and an end.
  • It's between 25,000 and 50,000 words.
  • It's any genre, any category, although many tend to be literary in nature. Either that or genre like horror, fantasy, or sci-fi.
What is it not? 
  • Half a book or some sort of serialization.
  • Less demanding than a novel in terms of craft and character development. Or query writing, for that matter.
If you do query a novella, following EXACTLY my guidelines for submitting fiction (including how you format your subject line). But before the word "Query" in your subject line, write the word Novella. I'll see it faster that way.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

You Scratch Lorena Dureau's Back, I'll Scratch Yours...

This contest is closed!

As you all know, Lowenstein Associates is very involved with new publishing mechanisms. We're glad to say that we've gotten a huge number of formerly out-of-print books up and selling in the last six months or so on Amazon with more retailers to come soon.

So, let's celebrate! At the bottom of this post are links to several of our authors' books. Choose one or more author and repost those same links that you find here on this blog in any TWO places on the internet (for instance, your blog and a tweet) BETWEEN NOW (THURSDAY) AND MIDNIGHT EST ON SUNDAY.

Do it, and I'll give you a query critique. Yep.

The more places you post or the more you engage (say, you see another person's tweet about this and retweet it), the more detailed I'll be in my critique. Please post any questions in the comments!

Here's how to get the critique:

  1. Do your posting. Remember, no fewer than two places on the web.
  2. Send an email with ONLY the following in the subject line: Ebook Celebration to assistant[AT]bookhaven[DOT]com No punctuation, no project title, no nothing except those two words with that exact capitalization. 
  3. At the top, paste links to the places you've posted these books.
  4. Below that, paste your query letter ONLY. No Pages.
I'll respond by February 19th. I reserve the right to not respond if any of the above rules are not followed. :)

Our guests of honor:


  • Deborah Camp (A mix of contemporary and Old West Historical romances...over 40 coming in the near future, but here is a list of 10 or so available now)
  • Lorena Dureau (Historical Romance: American Colonial South and West. Very Sexy)
  • Dan Streib (thrillers with a James-Bond-meets-Anderson-Cooper main character)
  • Barbara Keesling (her too-hot-to-blog nonfiction is here, here, and here)

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Open to Queries! BUT...

I expect lots of pent-up query action in the next few weeks, so bear with me...but also, BRING IT ON! :)

My submission guidelines are here and below. If you don't follow them...oooooh I'll be so mad.

For fiction, please send a one-page query letter, along with the first ten pages pasted in the body of the message by email to assistant@bookhaven.com. If nonfiction, please send a one-page query letter, a table of contents, and, if available, a proposal pasted into the body of the email to assistant@bookhaven.comPlease put the word QUERY and the title of your project in the subject field of your email and address it to the agent of your choice. Please do not send an attachment as the message will be deleted without being read and no reply will be sent. We reply to all queries and generally send a response within 4-6 weeks.


Saturday, January 7, 2012

Agent Wish List

In preparation for my imminent OPENING TO QUERIES (NOT NOW. But soon.), I thought I'd share with you, in no particular order, what I'd love to see this year. If you're not on this list, I'll be mad if you don't query me anyway and knock my sox off with something I didn't even see coming.
  • Something historical set in Asia.
  • SOMETHING SET IN INDIA I DON'T CARE WHEN!
  • Snark! So much snark. Nonfiction snark, too.
  • A beautifully written (literary) piece of crime fiction a la Tom Franklin's CROOKED LETTER CROOKED LETTER or Alice LaPlante's TURN OF MIND.
  • Bloggers! With lots of followers!
  • Nonfiction about people doing cool and innovative things that change the way the world works.
  • Adult Romance...not like XXX adult...you know what I mean.
  • Commercial women's fiction with smart, snarky (again), damaged protagonists who don't get swept off their feet but instead decide to make some change for the better (or worse)...and also find love. Then choose love.
  • Rock and Roll
  • Ballerinas
  • All of the -punks
  • SPACE
  • In my YA and Adult fiction: something that hearkens back to early Steven King or grown-up Mary Downing Hahn (or regular Downing Hahn, but MG). Horror, baby!
  • Gorgeously imagined settings for fantasies and sci-fis that bend all the rules, for Adults and YA, but especially in MG. Don't set it in an England-esque land. Just don't!
  • A travelogue...with some stellar established blogging/journalism platform.
  • A thriller that actually thrills me.
  • Books that tell me something true about the way we are and how we got that way. 
What I am NOT into:
  • Civil War Era books (I dunno. Just never flipped my switch)
  • Things where people are abused as children and continues to form the central narrative of their adulthood.
  • Picture Books
  • Novellas
  • Poetry (this is the only poetry I've ever liked)
  • Story Collections
  • Standard post-apocalyptic "just survive" or "bad government" books. Something more, please!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Agent Exclusives

Querying is a gauntlet. We all know that. For all the information out there about how to query (like here and here for instance), queries are still a major bugaboo for the writing community. I don't blame ya. They're hard. 

But even harder than querying is knowing what to do when you get something other than a form rejection in response.

It might be a simple request for a full, which is great! He/She liked it, really liked it!

But agents are often reluctant to sign an author off that full that you send them. They want "Revisions." Many people request those revisions before offering rep. I do because writing is a very different skill set than revising, and I want to see your revising muscles in action before signing you up. 

More and more, agents are asking for these revisions on an exclusive basis because, naturally, we don't want all our hard editorial work wasted if you abandon us, cold and alone, for someone else...with our carefully thought out edits.

But be careful. Recognize that the agent is taking a voluntary risk by doing that editorial work without officially signing you. You aren't beholden to him/her, and you don't have to stop everything else because they gave you notes. If someone asks for an exclusive but you're still awaiting word from Dream Agent, it's OK to say no to that exclusive.You are only required to be transparent and professional, so if someone else asks for revisions too, you should let Agent 1 know about it, and tell Agent 2 where you are with Agent 1.

If the revisions conflict, well, that's the risk you took in querying multiple agents at the same time (which I support).

If the agent likes your work enough, they'll carry on even if you won't give them an exclusive. If they say nevermind, well, you were waiting for Dream Agent anyway.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

#AskAgent

It's Thursday! That means it's Ask Agent time. Questions will be open from NOON UNTIL THREE PM EST. Feel free to ask anything.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Still Closed To Queries

So, we'd decided that we were going to be back open to queries on the first. And I am proud to announce that I currently have 0 unread queries in my inbox, a huge achievement considering how many I had in May of this year.

However, I still have about 15 requested manuscripts that I need to work through and I think that it's best if I take one more week to take care of those before I open to the influx of queries that will descend upon me whence I reopen.

So, if you sent me a query any time since I've been at Lowenstein Associates, you should have heard from me. If you haven't heard, you can requery when I reopen next week. If you haven't heard back about a requested manuscript, you will between now and next Monday.

I've also responded to all submissions stemming from my Writer's Digest webinar in November.

Happy New Year!