La Vie en Prose

Avoiding Misogyny In Your Query Letter

2012-02-28T00:11:00.001-05:00

If you're presenting me with a piece of fiction that you've written, I expect that there will be a certain level of intentionality there. You made it up, after all. All the choices are yours...you made the characters who and how they are for a reason. Right? Please?

For the most part, un-intentioned characters--characters who feel like afterthoughts--are problematic simply because, well I expect that there won't be anything in there that feels like an afterthought. A tight, well-written novel is inherently thought-out.

But then there are times where character feels a bit random and flat, and the problem is bigger, at least for me. This character is the woman who sort of inexplicably loves some guy...a deadbeat or even a former abuser, who also tends to be the main character. And she just makes me go...What? Seriously? Why is this girl such a moron?

Same goes for a main character who just can't BEAT the women off of him. Really? Can't you get across his badassness in a more original, non-80s way?

This is not to say that this isn't something that happens. All the time. Women (and Men) love people who aren't good for them. Men (and women) are irresistible. But if you're putting these things into a novel, they better serve a purpose and feel intentional. Because otherwise I'm just going to think you're some creep misogynist. And no one wants that.

</rant>

Is an Agent Worth It? Doing the Math

2012-02-07T22:25:00.000-05:00

Full Disclosure: There will be no math in this post, or on this blog, ever, if I can help it (except for that one P&L post).

It's the holy grail, right? You bypass that ol' agent game and go straight to the source! Simon! Or Random! Or Harper...ahem.

This is what it looks like if Simon (not necessarily the publisher in question) gets his hands on you and I'm not in the middle.

Makin' Facebook Fancy

2012-02-07T10:25:00.000-05:00

DO YOU KNOW how hard it is to integrate custom code into a Facebook page? VERY. Particularly if you're sort of making up/Googling the code as you go along. Which, most of the time, I am/do. But pretty well, I must say.

Working to customize Facebook is like that rule with chefs: you know that they're leaving at least one ingredient out if they agree to tell you a recipe--the most important one, usually. Yeah. That's what Facebook's instructions are like for coding on their platform.

But, just to prove that stubbornness and several sleeves of Ritz crackers will get you just about anywhere, behold. My custom Exclusive Excerpt tab for THE MARIA PARADOX. http://on.fb.me/wKPrOO

A Great Overview of How To Use Twitter...and Have a Job

2012-02-02T17:39:00.000-05:00

I hope this sheds light on the fact that, while a lot of tweets from me and mine are organic, many are also posted ahead of time so that the pressure's off me during the busy work day. I'm not slacking. I'm maximizing.

Which means you can't use "no time" as an excuse not to self-promote anymore. :)

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/5-twitter-secrets-to-become-highly-visible-in-your-niche_b7645

Viva Maria Contest!

2012-02-01T16:13:00.001-05:00

You've probably noticed that I've been feeling very sassy and Latina lately here on ze blog. That'e because our authors, Carmen Vazquez and Rosa Gil, have a new ebook out: THE MARIA PARADOX (confetti!)

We had such a great time with this other contest that I thought I'd repeat for our friend Maria. But the stakes are going to be much, much higher.

The prize: Query critique, first 30 page critique, and a 20 minute Skype call.

Tha's right.

Here's how to get it:

Like and/or send people to like The Maria Paradox fanpage on Facebook.
Follow and/or send people to follow The Maria Paradox on Twitter
Blog, tweet, post on Facebook about either of the above or about the Maria Paradox ebook (use this link: http://bit.ly/yDClFm)

Keep track of where you post/tweet/blog about the book--please help these authors promote their Facebook and Twitter pages.

There will be THREE WINNERS. How do you win? Well, you do the best job. That means posting/reposting the most amount of times, and in the largest variety of ways or places. Maybe reaching out to friends' blogs to reblog your blog post or...I dunno. Up to you. :) I've pasted a Press Release at the bottom of this post that you can copy and paste/send to friends for blog posts.

To Enter:

Do your posting. Remember, you have SEVEN days. Pace yourself.
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.
Paste your links to the places you've posted these links and/or where you've had others reblog, repost, or retweet.

The contest will be open for one full week, from tomorrow, February 2 - February 9.

Any posts/reposts will be counted between those days. But remember, variety and number of people reached is more important than volume! Retweeting yourself seven times won't get you a win.

Sound hard? Well, it's a competition! :)

I'll look over the entries, decide on the winners, and get back in touch about sending your materials and scheduling your call by March 31.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

*****PRESS RELEASE FOR BLOG POSTS (feel free to copy)*****

THE MARIA PARADOX, written by Drs. Rosa Gil and Carmen Vazquez, is a unique self-help guide for Hispanic women and the men who love them.

The authors challenge the machismo-reinforcing idea of “marianismo,” a centuries-old belief system that in effect tells Latinas: "Don't forget a woman's subservient place; never put your own needs first; sex is for making babies.”

Filled with self-help exercises, this clearly written manual offers practical advice on how to build support networks, overcome passivity, forge career paths, change or get out of abusive relationships and increase sexual fulfillment.

Filled with real-life success stories and wise, compassionate advice, THE MARIA PARADOX details how Latinas can enjoy the best of both worlds.

The book can be purchased from all major online retailers. The authors can also be found on Twitter and on Facebook.

Latinas Unite

2012-01-30T21:14:00.001-05:00

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!

FACEBOOK!

Liked it?? Well buy it!

Click here for all retailers!

New Author Promo Idea

2012-01-27T13:25:00.000-05:00

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

Great Post from Veronica Roth on Author Intent

2012-01-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

Check it:

http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/what-project-runway-taught-me-about.html

#AskAgent

2012-01-23T08:06:00.001-05:00

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

I'm looking for a few good novella-ists

2012-01-20T15:00:00.000-05:00

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.

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

2012-01-19T12:57:00.003-05:00

This contest is still open, until I say it's not anymore!

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:

Do your posting. Remember, no fewer than two places on the web.
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.
At the top, paste links to the places you've posted these books.
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)

Open to Queries! BUT...

2012-01-08T08:00:00.001-05:00

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.com. Please 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.

Agent Wish List

2012-01-07T10:00:00.003-05:00

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!

Agent Exclusives

2012-01-06T08:46:00.002-05:00

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.

#AskAgent

2012-01-05T10:36:00.002-05:00

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.

Still Closed To Queries

2012-01-02T01:04:00.000-05:00

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!

#AskAgent Goodbye 2011 Edition!

2011-12-28T11:00:00.001-05:00

Ask away! Questions are totally up to you. You can ask in the comments section between noon and 3 EST today.

Writer's New Year Resolutions

2011-12-27T17:20:00.000-05:00

What are your writerly new year's resolutions for 2012?

I mean, not that it'll matter since the world is going to end next year (kidding...but, you know). :)

How To Get A Job In Publishing

2011-12-13T09:00:00.002-05:00

When I got out of college and decided I wanted to do that publishing stuff, I liked some weird fiction. Fiction that, however artistically valuable it's now been decided to be (cough...30 years post-publication), would never ever be mistaken for "commercially viable."

That's why I have some empathy for people like the ones detailed in this NYT article. They're young, more than likely brilliant, and they love writing. Maybe their own, definitely others'. And they can't get a job in publishing.

These job seekers, not to mention the NYT, sort of likes to talk a lot about the "publishing establishment" as this big bad elitist enclave of insular haters. And that's why these brilliant, writing-loving people are having trouble getting publishing jobs.

But you know what? That is a big fat load of stuff-that-also-fills-crocks.

And I know, because I would have made prime member of one of those classics-and-poetry reading clubs where people complain about The Publishing Establishment. But I was lucky. I got a job in publishing (a luck-filled story for another time), and I learned real, real quick that publishing is about loving the classics--but about knowing today's market and today's publishing landscape. And did I mention I was lucky?

This is a business. As much as every single person I've ever met that works in publishing LOVES writing and LOVES authors and loves art, they are also people who do relentless market research and read two or three published books every week (almost).

Now, the people in this particular article might not even want to be a part of the publishing industry...shoot. They might not want to be a part of any establishment. They seem happy, which is great. But, for people that do want to be in publishing, the industry (which is also full of art, if not exclusively):

Put down the Sartre and read some Suzanne Collins. Read Malcolm Gladwell and the new political nonfiction. Find out what categories you love and read what's coming out now.

Honestly, you'll be leaps and bounds ahead of your peers when you walk into an internship interview.

How to Read Your Beta Readers

2011-12-11T10:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, I wrote a post about when to query your manuscript.

But astute #AskAgent participant pointed out something else: It's hard to incorporate advice when all the beta readers say different things.

This is true! And agents face this all the time, too. When subbing a client's book to editors, we frequently get completely conflicting feedback from the different editors: I LOVED the worldbuilding! The worldbuilding just wasn't there...what do you believe?

The truth is it's good when everyone is saying different things. It means that there's nothing glaring that you're missing. And, if all of the feedback is generally very positive, it means the book is probably pretty ready to go.

Beware, though, that you don't try to make consistent feedback into divergent feedback. If all of the critiques coming back are character related (the voice isn't right, they feel flat, they annoy me, she doesn't feel real--all technically "different things"), it means that character is NOT working. It might mean it's up to you to put your finger on exactly why, but your Betas are telling you something useful.

Look for trends in your beta feedback in the following major areas:

Character
Worldbuilding
Pace
Plot
Tone

When Is My Manuscript Ready To Query?

2011-12-10T13:10:00.000-05:00

One of the excellent contributors to #AskAgent yesterday asked about what state a manuscript must be in before being sent out to query agents. My response is this: you should feel like the book could go to print tomorrow.

And, of course, everyone feels like their book is perfection. That's why they wrote it that way. But an astute writer understands that a whole team is involved in sending a book out into the world. Agents and editors edit and write kickass pitches to sell first the editor and then the sales team on the book.

So, not having HarperCollins' editorial staff on hand (unless you do...and if so call me), you have to do your best to replicate that team. So having beta reader feedback is essential. Using available resources to perfect your pitch (query) is essential. In short, yeah. You put some work in beyond typing "The End." A skeleton model of this looks thusly:

Finish the book.
Let it sit for a week
Reread the book, correct inevitable glaring things.
Send to beta readers.
Consider reader feedback and incorporate. This take humility, which you will need in spades.
Let it sit for a week.
Reread, re-edit. Perhaps send to your most trusted Beta.
Reread one more time.
Query!

Time away from a book is really important in the editing process so that you don't get buried in knowing how it's supposed to read. Fresh eyes.

Take these steps and you'll not only be querying a damn fine manuscript, but you'll be leaps ahead of the people who don't do this work. Don't you want that?

#AskAgent

2011-12-08T11:22:00.002-05:00

OK, time for the next AskAgent! Questions are open from NOON TO 4PM EST.

Have at it!

Are there any billionaires out there?

2011-12-06T15:46:00.001-05:00

I would like to do a funny, tongue-in-cheek "How To Be A 1%er" book.

Have your people call my people.

The Occupy Wall Street Generation

2011-12-01T16:23:00.000-05:00

Well, this is totally off topic, but what do you guys think of this? The article is hilarious, but also has a lot of good insight about what's going on these days. In a nutshell:

"We talk a lot on this site about how geek culture has taken over the mainstream and I worry that another part of geek culture -- the social awkwardness and inability to deal with social settings -- is also going to become the norm. We've slowly killed off most of the activities where kids get together with other kids and have fun (and in the process, learn how to interact)."

Read more: 5 Ways We Ruined the Occupy Wall Street Generation | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-ruined-occupy-wall-street-generation_p2/#ixzz1fJvdOYcc

Jennifer "The Brilliant" Laughran on "The Market"

2011-11-21T12:32:00.000-05:00

Wondering if "there's a market" for what you're writing? You'll want to read Children's agent Jennifer Laughran's (aka Literaticat) post on the topic. It's here:

http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2010/06/theres-always-market-for-awesome.html

A Very Special #AskAgent

2011-11-17T15:27:00.000-05:00

Well, today was my Writer's Digest webinar on self-publishing and its relationship to traditional publishing! I had a great time, I hope everyone else did as well. I think you can buy a copy or something even if you didn't see it live, so check out Writer's Digest's website.

At the end of the webinar, there was question time. I want to dedicate today's #AskAgent (open a lot longer than normal!) to questions that you didn't think of during the webinar! And if you didn't attend the webinar, don't worry. Ask your questions on other topics as well!

RULES!

Questions are open from 3:30 pm EST (now) to 3:30 pm EST tomorrow (Friday)

I'll answer questions by the end of the weekend.

The Tweakers: Steve Jobs and Writers

2011-11-16T10:56:00.003-05:00

I read a very, very excellent article by Malcolm Gladwell last night on the train home. It was about our recently departed Einstein of Design (he would have hated that), Steve Jobs.

Gladwell points out that there are two types (well, for our purposes) of genius: the Creators and the Tweakers.

The creators make huge innovations. Come up with things that have never been done before. The Tweakers, well, "tweak." Tweakers make the "micro inventions necessary to make macro inventions highly productive and remunerative." In other words, tweakers take the big bangs and, with a series of small, well-placed sparks, make a bigger one.

I think this is relevant to writing, in the sense that writers live in fear of not being original. Fearful of that old adage: "There are no new stories."

Gladwell points out, and I agree, that small innovations are as important as the earthshaking ones--can, in fact, be the earthshaking ones.

So write what you're writing, and don't worry that J.R.R Tolkein did it first. You're doing it different. Shoot, you might do it better. (Just don't tell me that in your query)

No Response Means No. Rawr.

2011-11-15T22:00:00.001-05:00

I'm just going to say a couple of things about all of this No Response Means No/Querying nonsense.

To all of you that are thinking "FORM REJECTIONS TAKE 3 SECONDS YOU LAZY LOUTS": Try 3 seconds...multiplied by hundreds of queries. Every day. That I'm handling at 9 pm. After working all day...not on queries.
No agent has ever argued against multiple submissions.
I'm one of those crazies that actually responds to all of my queries. I have an ungodly number backed up. I work on them every single day. And I have interns who work on them. 3 seconds is not nothing.

But, shoot, if you're still fed up with us, there's always self-publishing, on which I'm teaching a Writer's Digest webinar tomorrow at 1pm. And I'll be offering a critique...to which I promise to respond. Sign up here: http://bit.ly/uM6wOI

Query Etiquette

2011-11-14T14:27:00.000-05:00

A lot of people ask me how long they should wait after a rejection to requery the rejecting agent.

That timeframe depends on what you'd be querying when you do requery. A new project? A new draft of the old?

If it's the latter, a new draft of an already-queried book, I'd say you should wait at least a year. And in that time you should be revising and using beta readers to figure out how the book can be made genuinely better. We all know my opinions on too-quick revision. (If not, read the #AskAgent archives)

If it's a new project, I say you can requery immediately, so long as the book is ready. Meaning it's been read, revised, read by beta readers, revised, let sit, revised again, and then queried.

A different project, for me, is a fresh start.

Writer's Digest Webinar: Self-Publishing

2011-11-12T20:22:00.002-05:00

I'll be giving a webinar through Writer's Digest on Thursday, November 17th, about self-publishing.

We'll cover everything you could possibly want to know: the strategy behind self-publishing, its relationship to traditional publishing (aka will it help you get signed or published), file formats, different platforms to use, metadata, etc. etc. etc.!!

And just for icing, there'll also be question time and a guaranteed critique from me. Sign up here:

http://www.writersdigestshop.com/product/when-how-to-self-publish-webinar/

See you there!!

We're Back!! #Ask Agent 9

2011-11-10T10:43:00.002-05:00

After a bye-week for the Backspace Conference (which was awesome, by the way!), we're back for #AskAgent!!

What's on your mind?

Questions are open from noon to 3 EST.

Book Trailers

2011-11-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

Today, the LA Times did a story about book trailers: their blockbuster-like budgets and their ability to sell books the way movie trailers sell tickets.

I don't know, though. I've enjoyed the book trailers I've seen, but I wonder if they really have an effect on sales.

What do you think? Has a book trailer convinced you to throw down at the cash register? Share your favorites in the comments!

Why Janet Reid Is My Idol and Should Be Yours

2011-11-03T09:12:00.001-04:00

This post, right here, on platform.

Also, I'm at the BACKSPACE CONFERENCE OF AMAZING today and tomorrow.

Conference 101: Pitch Sessions

2011-11-02T10:00:00.000-04:00

Easily the most terrifying thing about the conference. But before you decide to sneak in some mini bottles, consider this. Pitches are hard because they ask you to verbally represent a written medium. You're taken way out of your element--so don't beat yourself up.

You're going to a writer's conference. It's actually a bit unfair to ask you to take something that's hard enough to do well: write a query, and convert it to something even harder: an elevator pitch.

Elevator pitches are definitely good to have. They're particularly helpful when talking to other authors and finding beta readers, because they keep you concise. And at some point, you're probably going to have to whip out that short verbal pitch, so don't discount it.

But at a writer's conference, your main goal is to learn (not, as we've covered, to get signed). The verbal pitch is important, but more important is your written pitch. Your query.

When you sit down to pitch, you should have copies of three things (all with contact information):

Your query
The first five pages of your book
Your synopsis

When you sit down, have the query out and start like this:

"Hi, thanks so much for taking the time. I've got a [CATEGORY] [GENRE] complete at [WORDCOUNT] called [TITLE] for you today, and I have my query here as well, just in case."

Then start into your pitch. It should be only two sentences maximum, and in the first sentence you should name your main character and the main problem. Then, STOP TALKING. The agent or editor will then give the session some direction by asking for the information that's most important to them. Or they might read over your query. Either way, the pressure's off of you after those first two or three sentences:

Sentence including wordcount, title, category, and genre
Sentence or two (max) that names the main character and presents the main conflict

The synopsis and first five page are there just in case. If the editor or agent really seems enthused (beyond requesting a full--that's not so uncommon) ask if they'd like to take the pages or synopsis with them. Most of the time, they'll say no. But you never know, right?

Conference 101: Working the Room

2011-10-31T21:41:00.000-04:00

So, there you are. You've found the hotel, your room, your conference check-in packet, your name tag, and the bar.

Especially if you haven't come with a writing group or friends, fear of making connections can really hamstring your conference experience. But now that you know, based on our last post, what you're there for (and what you're NOT there for) at a conference, you can rest a little easier.

In approaching anyone at a conference, first and foremost, read nametags. They will give you not only the person's name, but also what category they fall in--are they an agent or an editor, for instance. Just this simple info-gathering tactic will protect you from a lot of foot-in-mouth moments. There are three types at a conference:

Editors:

Editors are likely at the conference to network with agents--to find out what agented projects are in the pipeline--than to sign content straight from the author (not that that couldn't happen!). So don't pitch an editor unless you're sitting in a pitch session...and even then know that they're ultimately gonna want an agent involved before they really commit to anything. If you're agented and you ask an editor about your project that your agent sent to them...your agent will kill you. Outside of pitch sessions, stay on more general topics like pop culture or favorite books that have come out (the better if it's the editor's!!).

Agents

Agents are definitely at the conference to network with editors, but we're also interested in connecting directly with authors and their writing.

That being said, we'd definitely rather chat with you in the bar about pop culture or clients' books or the publishing industry than your personal projects. It's just not cool to be put on the spot when everyone is there to hang out. If we're not in a pitch session or a panel, we're off the clock. We just want to meet you, cocktail party style, not be interviewed. STAY AWAY FROM PITCHING unless you're in a pitch session. Period.

Other Authors

Ah, authors. Your kind. Around your fellow author folk, you can let down your hair and talk writing. Talk about your project, your hang-ups, your frustrations (be careful, though, about naming names...particularly if the frustrating agent/editor is there!). Writing is probably the most productive topic you can talk about with your other writers. A major goal of conferences should be to walk out with some Beta Readers. Only way to do that is to find other writers who write and read your genre. So open up!

There's always a feeling that you have to connect with editors and agents at a conference--that you're going in order to circumvent those cumbersome mechanisms that the peons have to go through: queries, submissions, waiting. You've got a direct line to pitch the crap out of your book, right!? Well, yes and no.

You should never, never pitch an editor or agent unless you're in a pitch session...or they literally say "I'd really love to hear about a such-and-such project RIGHT NOW!" And you're writing that! And it's ready! And you're agented.

When you do pitch an agent or editor, you're probably going to get requests. Not only is it just hard to say no right to someone's face, but it's also just better safe than sorry! Even if you don't get a bunch of business cards, you're guaranteed to walk out of there with a lot more insight into the industry and your pitch is gonna be improved.

Conference 101: Know Before You Go

2011-10-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

Prior to a writer's conference, it's natural to feel overwhelmed. Most authors go to conferences with a sense of "Do-or-Die": pitch your heart out and get signed or...well...something terrible will happen. There's a sense that there are people at a conference that could make or break your writer self and the pressure is immense.

I encourage you to take a different, more laid-back approach to conferences. Here's the number one reason why:

Agents and editors don't go to a conference specifically to find new clients.

It's true. Here's why. There are other, better mechanisms in place for finding new clients. For agents, that's the query. It gives an agent time to read your pages, Google you, etc. Get a full picture of the project and of the client. For editors, it's the agent. There's a reason that most houses don't accept unsolicited manuscripts, and being at a conference doesn't mean you'll jump that policy.

The mechanisms already in place for connecting authors, agents, and editors actually benefit the author, too, by providing you a way to pitch your work in the format you're comfortable in: writing. True, some of you are as comfortable speaking about your work, but for the most part people find verbally pitching a book really, really hard. It's not an ideal way to present your work (more on this later).

So go to your conference more focused on networking than getting signed (which will for-sure not happen to you at the conference). Get to know agents and editors, exchanging Twitter handles, finding other writers that might for critique groups for you.

Go to the conference armed with the following research, and you'll be well-prepared to network:

Check out the photos of the various faculty at the conference. This is so you can say Hi with confidence if you find yourself in an elevator with them.
Find the agents and editors that will be at the conference on Twitter and follow them.
Have a book in mind that each editor worked on, that you would like to talk to them about--a list of books might be in his or her bio on the conference website, or you can find it on Publisher's Marketplace if you're a member.
Pick a client whose work you like from each agent's list and do some research on that author and his or her books. If you can't find a client you like, that's probably not the agent you want to be chatting up.
Take a look at blogs like Galley Cat and Media Bistro in the weeks leading up to the conference. Know what's going on in the publishing world.
Who are the major author guests at the conference? Take a look at their blogs and books in case you get a chance to chat.

Doing the above will ensure that you have a head start on conference conversations, and that you will come across as a well-informed publishing aspirant. If all you can talk about is yourself and your book, you're not going to get much out of the organic connections that are there to be made in a conference setting.

Getting The Most Out Of Conferences

2011-10-24T18:04:00.000-04:00

Conference season lite has started, and there will only be more throughout the Winter and Spring, so I figured I'd do a little series on what the best practices are for a conference. For reference, I'll be attending:

Backspace Writer's Conference November 3 - 4 2011
Oklahoma Writer's Federation May 5 - 3 2012
DFW Writer's Conference May 19 & 20 2012

And I'm also going to be teaching a webinar for Writer's Digest sometime this winter. More on that soon!

For our first installment, I thought I'd start with why one even goes to a writer's conference. What's the point? Does anyone actually get signed off of a pitch session???

Well, maybe. It's hard to say whether verbal pitch sessions are really all that great for authors...more on that in subsequent posts. But conferences are excellent places to get other things accomplished: to ask industry people the questions to which you can't find answers. To talk face-to-face with people with whom you have chatted here and there on Facebook or Twitter or via email. To find Beta Readers.

Conferences are excellent resources for your writing career...even if you don't come out of it with any new insights on your craft (although I bet you do). Panels and impromptu conversations at conferences give you a better handle on the Industry as a whole, which makes you a more astute and appealing queryer to agents or a more prepared self-publishing candidate. They're also amazing networking events.

I highly recommend them!

In the next few days, we'll address how to go in to a conference well prepared, how to deal with pitch sessions, how to work the room, and how to go to panels. Any specific questions leaping out at you already?? I'll try to tailor the posts.

New Form Rejection

2011-10-21T12:27:00.003-04:00

#AskAgent 8

2011-10-20T10:26:00.000-04:00

It's Thursday! Ask me anything!

Questions are open from noon to 3pm EST today.

Wanna read other #AskAgents?

Jumping The Gun

2011-10-18T17:57:00.000-04:00

One of the most important skills to develop as an author, particularly an unsigned one (i.e. my favorite type of author) is patience.

patience

It's a beautiful word. It's nigh perfect. It sort of takes a long time to say, too, which sort of fits. Am I hyperanalyzing here? Perhaps.

But I can't explain how much better and easier your writerly career will go if you also treasure this virtue. Do your research. Give that manuscript one more week to sit, so that you can read it one more time with fresh eyes. Take care with your queries so that the list of agents is right, you have your personalization planned, and you make a good impression. If you're think about going the self-pub route, get all the information and plan out what your journey will look like.

You'll be glad you did.

Closed To Queries

2011-10-16T15:29:00.001-04:00

You've probably heard it out in the Twitter-fueled gossip farms: I'm closing to queries starting 10/15 (yesterday). All queries received after I've closed will receive an automated response telling you what I'm telling you here: I'm closed to queries, please requery after the first of next year.

So what that means for you if:

You already queried in the past: your query will be responded to within four-to-six weeks of your sending it. If you believe your query should have already received a response, JUST WAIT. If you send a follow-up now you'll just get the closed auto response. If you still haven't received a response in 2012, requery then.
You've queried yesterday or today: if you don't get the automated message, you snuck in! Your query will get a response in four-to-six weeks. If you did get the automated message, you missed the closed date--please requery in 2012!!
You were planning to query in the near future: You will (I hope) requery in 2012 or someone else will snap you up in the meantime, to my eternal sadness.
You were planning to query in 2012: You're go! Keep polishing your query and manuscript and we'll talk soon!!

Other rules:

DO NOT respond to the automated response. Any replies cluttering up the inbox will make it harder to clean things out and will make it more likely that I have to extend my closed-to-queries-ness.
We won't hesitate to mark as spam anyone who repeatedly responds to the auto response or is in anyway abusive--expressing frustration, telling us we're missing out on the next big bestseller, etc. That means we won't read your query next year. Or ever.
Don't worry! I have plenty of room on my list, and that space will still be there in 2012! We'll speak then.

Closing to queries now is going to allow me to focus on client projects in the last quarter of this year. It'll also allow me to speed up response times next year. Thanks!

#AskAgent 7

2011-10-13T17:04:00.002-04:00

I'm late to #AskAgent because I was writing an ed letter. :) Sorry!

Questions will be open 6pm to 9pm EST this week. I'll answer manana!

Facebook as Promo

2011-10-10T18:49:00.000-04:00

Authors are encouraged to establish an "online presence" these days, and that typically consists of some combination of a Facebook page, Twitter, and a blog (not always all three).

I think Facebook is the most difficult of those three to do well, because it takes a lot of effort to maintain the multiple types of media (photos, videos, wall posts) needed to make a Facebook page seem active, and also because it's hard to find the tipping point where your fans start engaging with your page and sharing it, which gives you viral marketing, which is where Facebook outpaces all other social media platforms.

How have you been using Facebook, if you have. What's been the best and worst part? Are there any Facebook pages that you think are really getting it right?

#AskAgent 6

2011-10-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

If you're enjoying these, make sure that you search #AskAgent on Twitter...or if you have general questions for the agent community, use the hashtag! It will help agents see your question on Twitter, one of the most amazingest information tools in the universe.

And now to our little #AskAgent! Questions will be open from noon until 3pm EST and they'll be answered by Friday. Anything's game, even project-specific questions.

Be sure to read the #AskAgent Archive:

We need to talk about Beta Readers

2011-10-05T15:25:00.000-04:00

I love the "off-the-page" opportunities afforded to books. New things are happening every day! But I never lose sight (as I hope you don't either) of the fact that books are first and foremost about writing. Writing stories.

These stories might take different forms: images, video, etc. etc. etc...but they are first of all stories. And there are some things about writing stories that will never change.

Stories have to have good pace. The characters have to feel real and deep. The tone has to fit the subject matter. The writing has to be beautiful or fantastic or funny or lively enough to pull someone all the way through your thriller.

All those things take a lot of editing. These will never ever come together all on the first go. And the one universal truth about editing is that you can't edit yourself. Just trust me. You can't!

You're too close to the writing and to the story. Meaning it all makes sense to you because you conceived it all. But how about what your readers will perceive? The only way to find out is to have readers read it.

Please, please get Beta Readers. Please get them before you query me and please listen to them. If they tell you to change something, consider it! If they tell you something and then it's corroborated, REALLY consider making the change. If nothing else, it'll be good for you to feel what it's like to change something because others perceived a flaw--something you'll be doing a lot of if you get agented and get an editor.

Don't know how to find Betas? Leave a comment with your genre and category and we'll see what we can do here for ya. Got opinions about Betas? Leave those too!

I just had the best idea for a mystery/crime novel plot

2011-10-03T21:39:00.000-04:00

So. What if the serial killer kills his/her wife/husband and then hires our private eye main character to solve the case. THEN the serial killer kills all the suspects as the main character discovers them and presents them to the client/serial killer (I guess as client updates or something? This part is your job).

SO THE SERIAL KILLER IS THE LAST PERSON CONNECTED TO THE KILLING LEFT ALIVE AND THE PRIVATE EYE MAIN CHARACTER FIGURES IT OUT BUT ALSO HAS TO FIND A WAY TO NOT LET THE SERIAL KILLER KNOW HE/SHE KNOWS!!!

ok, that's free. Go with it!

When is it right to self-publish?

2011-09-30T09:53:00.003-04:00

It's probably one of the hardest decisions authors today face. Both sides, legacy and self-publishing, have benefits, and there's absolutely no way to predict results until you're knee deep in either choice.

My advice is, if you ever might maybe-perhaps-one-day want to be traditionally published, query exhaustively before going to self-pub. Self-publishing can really complicate getting an agent (see why here). If you're sticking it to the man by self-publishing, that's cool. Don't query, too, though. They're separate paths; until you sell a million copies you've got to step on to one or the other.

But saying "suck it" to traditional publishing (or agents) might not be why one self-publishes. You might be *fine* with traditional publishing. You might be torn, feeling discouraged after a bunch of form rejections from a book that, by many unbiased accounts is PRETTY DARN GOOD. So when do you take the plunge, call it quits, and go self-publish?

Actually, wait. there's one caveat first: No one should self-publish without expecting it to be a lot of work. Without having an active online presence, a slammin' cover (peer edit, just like with your writing), and a marketing plan of your own design or someone else's. Books don't just sell. Ever.

If you fall into one of the following categories, self-pub might just be the best route for you:

You're writing what's in bookstores right now and you're getting form rejections. If you're seeing books that are suspiciously like yours come out right now, it means that they were being bought a year ago. Unless you think you've got a pretty substantial twist or a really new take (be real) you might be better off self-publishing it.***
You're writing significantly shorter or longer than traditional wordcounts.
You're writing poetry without the platform of some amazing prizes and journal publications.
You're writing a memoir with neither a strong platform nor a "third act"--something that happens as a result of what happened to you that makes yours a more universal story: legislation that was enacted or overturned, for instance. This does not go, however, for other types of nonfiction (in my opinion).
You're writing extremely graphic violence or sex. Or both.

*** The relates the most to young adult fiction. People seem to be jumping on that bandwagon with stuff that's past its prime: dystopians, vampires, werewolves, angels.

The reasoning here is that there may very well be an audience for your book, but that might also be a very small audience or one that's not easily reached by the typical event-oriented marketing that publishers do. Therefore, an agent might also have a hard time finding an editor to buy it. If you sell a billion copies, you'll be laughing all the way to the bank because you found the audience no one else was willing to.

However. This does not give you license to not edit. You still should have a writing group or beta readers of people who write and read in your genre. You should still listen to them. They ARE your audience. Let them judge your cover, too (PLEASE).

Anything else that's prompted anyone to self-publish?

#AskAgent 5

2011-09-29T11:38:00.000-04:00

#AskAgent time again!

You know the rules: questions are open from noon until 3pm EST, answered by tomorrow evening. The topic (although feel free to ask whatever, including questions about specific projects!) is revision. Thanks for playing!

Submission Guidelines

2011-09-26T01:15:00.000-04:00

Nothing is more frustrating than authors who query without following submission guidelines. The wrong subject line means your email isn't filtered properly and my response is delayed--sometimes meaning we miss out on ever getting a chance to work together at all. People send their query as an attachment, with no information about the project in the body of the email...and no, I don't click unsolicited links or attachments. Not many agents (read: nearly 0) do.

But the worst of all is when I get a well-crafted query with the right subject line with a good idea...and no pages pasted into the email.

Seeing the writing is so important, and it can remedy many common query faults, at least for me. If the story doesn't quite make sense or it sounds like something I'm seeing too much of, seeing great writing will always, always give me pause and make me reconsider rejecting.

So submission guidelines aren't just because agents are ego-maniacs who demand that you jump through a lot of hoops. We take great care with our query inboxes to keep them organized and responses quick. And, even more importantly, we want to give you as many chances as possible to get our attention: query and pages.

#AskAgent 4

2011-09-22T11:00:00.001-04:00

Welcome to our fourth #AskAgent! This is a weekly Thursday feature on ze blog that has a Tuesday night equivalent on Twitter (just search "#AskAgent"). I think today we should talk about agent function. What we do in various scenarios, from contract negotiation to self-publishing consultation.

Rules are as always: questions are open from noon until 3 EST, I'll try to get them answered by Friday night.

Finish Your Manuscript

2011-09-20T11:10:00.001-04:00

One of my phenomenal interns emailed me this morning and asked if it was OK to read only the partial of this manuscript that she thought looked really good.

"Why don't you read the full, if it looks so good?" I asked, drooling at the prospect of something kicka$$ soon to cross my desk.

"Oh, he hasn't finished the book yet." She replied.

Me:

Y'all finish your books before getting our hopes all up and stuff! This goes for all fiction and for memoirs. Finish the book, let it sit a couple days, edit it, have beta readers read it, and take their suggestions to heart. Let it sit a couple more days, do one last pass, THEN send.

If that seems like a lot of work, consider the competition. There are authors out there that are doing that, and they get signed. And then they go out on submission faster because they've done work on the book. And then your agent feels happy because they didn't have to re-write the book for you.

I'm going to do my job: find editors that will want this book and sell the crap out of it. Hell, I like editing, so we'll do some of that too. But don't you cop out on your job. You should be of the (honest, corroborated) opinion that your book is ready to sell THE DAY you query it. Get used to editing. You'll do a lot of it.

Just a note, nonfiction can be pitched and sold on proposal and a sample chapter. So that's a different case. Nonfiction authors do their pre-query work on the platform side.

Synopsis Monday

2011-09-19T13:22:00.000-04:00

It's Monday, which is bad enough, but I'm also working furiously on some series synopses for a couple of backlist series that we're sending to digital publishers to be published as ebooks. One is a Western series, which is difficult to sell these days but which did quite well in the 80s and 90s; I think we'll see them have new life as ebooks. The synopsis is hard to write, though!

Anyone out there working on synopses? Do you hate them? Love them (crazies)?

Kathleen Ortiz has a great breakdown of how to do them well.

My Cover Art

2011-09-16T14:09:00.001-04:00

I made these covers, for Mary Mackey's Earthsong Trilogy, soon to be re-released as ebooks (yay!!). They're Jean M. Auel-esque (pre)historical romances. She has a bunch of other awesome books, most recently Widow's War (Civil War era women's fiction) and Sugar Zone, a collection of poetry.

I guess I sort of do this freelance now, because I really liked the project. Just letting everyone know. if you're interested in commissioning me for cover art, email me at proseblog[@]gmail[dot]com.

I am proud of these covers. If you hate them, please don't say anything. :)

I also did this cover, for Sukie Miller's nonfiction book AfterDeath, available here.

Ask Agent #3

2011-09-15T12:00:00.002-04:00

Here we are again! It's our third ask agent. The topic is, loosely, etiquette. But you're free to ask whatever you want! Rules are as usual: no personal questions and no abuse. Questions about your own projects are welcome.

Questions are open from noon until 3pm EST and everything will be answered by tomorrow at midnight.

GO!

How to Get Twitter Followers

2011-09-13T10:00:00.001-04:00

I've noticed a rash of "so-and-so is trying to get ## more followers by the end of the day! Go follow her/him!" tweets recently.

Why is this happening?

I've seen others taunting people: "I'll post XYZ picture if I get ## more followers!"

This is so completely backwards. Posting interesting content will cause people to want to follow you. Interesting content is not a weapon. It goes against everything organic about social media to use it to taunt people into following you. And those people are probably not going to return to your feed, so I hope you don't intend to ever use it to tell them anything else.

Twitter and Facebook followings are built over time, not crammed into one or two "follower drives." What sort of artificial timeline is making people do this all of a sudden??

Traditionally, marketing centered around "events" (hence Event Marketing). So, say, a book launch. A very clever marketer would arrange a series of appearances or reviews or other buzz-generating items slightly before, on, and after, a certain date.

Social media--the internet in general, really--is making Event Marketing a thing of the past. Which is not to say that it's not useful or that no one does it anymore. It still has its applications. But crafting an online presence is not meant to serve one date (although a good presence will give you a strong platform when there is a specific piece of info you need to disseminate). You have to create a reason for people to want to add you to the noise of the Interwebz, so make an effort. Followers drives ain't it.

Networking

2011-09-12T17:02:00.000-04:00

It never ceases to amaze me how powerful randomness is. How one seemingly random occurrence can be related to other recent random occurrences and how fast the randomness synergy adds up to something wonderful.

For instance, my love affair with StumbleUpon has brought me two clients. I set aside 20 minutes every day to use it. If nothing else, I see some really cool stuff and it gives me fresh fodder for my social media accounts. Sometimes I even find things to pass along to my authors for their social media accounts.

There's so much information available to us these days. It can be so overwhelming, but if you just let randomness take over (in moderation) you might be surprised at the benefits.

#AskAgent 2

2011-09-01T12:00:00.002-04:00

OK, topic today will loosely be self-publishing, since that's what we've been talking about this week. But feel free to ask anything, even if it pertains to your own project, so long as it's not a personal question for me.

Questions close at 3pm today, Thursday, EST. I will answer by Friday night...I hope. (I'm travelling this Labor Day weekend)

Go for it!

Self-Publishing: Where's the Marketing?

2011-08-31T14:09:00.002-04:00

I can't tell you how often I see queries in my inbox that start "I self-published my book ___, but I am frustrated/underwhelmed with the sales and now I need an agent to take it to the next level."

They need someone to boost sales for them and teach them how to market. A publicist. Not an agent.

Agents do more marketing all the time as the landscape shifts (me more than many--I like it). But this is done for clients--people for whom we have sold a book. Any marketing assistance would be supplemental to the function of selling the book (the only thing, incidentally, for which an agent is traditionally paid--on commission). If you've already gotten the book published, you've essentially done the agent's primary job.

As I said in the previous posts in our self-publishing series, legacy/traditional publishing and self-publishing are different paths. If you're looking to move between these paths make sure you're realistic about how much you expect the other system to bend over backwards to accommodate you.

Agents functioning primarily as a publicist is just not going to happen. We sell: foreign, print, audio, etc. etc., and we want to do so for self-published authors too. But you've got to sell those copies yourself first.

Tomorrow's #AskAgent!

Self-Publishing Mechanics

2011-08-30T12:34:00.000-04:00

Most agents and editors agree that 5,000 is the minimum number of copies a self-published book has to sell in order to be considered a viable choice for a traditional publishing deal. This within 6 months or fewer, in order to be really eye-catching.

That is a lot of copies.

It seems sort of unreasonable, really, if you don't know why a book has to sell that many. Honestly, one thousand copies, essentially sold by hand, while holding down a full-time job, should impress pretty much anyone. And in truth, it is impressive!

But you're not trying to impress a person. You're trying to impress a Profit and Loss Statement (a P&L: example here). This financial statement is used to project profits for a publishing house. In the case of debut writers, the "Revenue" section is guess work, based on how books like theirs have sold. In the case of non-debut writers, it's based on their actual past sales numbers. If the "Revenue" doesn't exceed expenses, book 2 (or 3 or whatever) is in trouble.

The P&L is one of the most common causes of a book getting turned down by a house, particularly in the case of authors who were first published by a small house or self-published. It's the P&L that agents have in mind when they say that you must have 5,000 copies sold in order to be considered for a traditional publishing deal.

Self-Publishing vs Traditional Publishing

2011-08-29T14:36:00.000-04:00

Agents wear all sorts of hats these days, but it's important to remember the first hat any agent wears (or should wear) and that's to sell books to publishers.

Which means self-publishing and traditional publishing diverge very fundamentally.

If you've published your book in any way, whether it's on your blog for free, as an ebook, or through a small press, you've essentially taken over the agent's job. Many do this to great satisfaction. Most, though, find themselves frustrated and feeling duped without representation.

Of course, some self-published authors get leveraged into traditional deals with publishers, but these are few and far between and the mechanics are complicated (more later this week). There is about a 1% chance that your self-publishing experience will look anything like John Locke's.

If you're hoping to be published traditionally, the best way to get there is traditionally. Query agents. Revise for agents. Attend conferences. Do research. Get an Agent. Get a Book Deal.

If you exhaust that avenue, and no one is smart enough to see you've written a bestseller, then self-publish (this is almost universally better than signing with a small press, believe it or not, because you keep ALL your rights--meaning you can sell them later if a big publisher is interested).

If you self-publish and then try to query agents, you will universally get "No" unless you've sold in excess of 5,000 copies. This is not an opinion of mine, it's the fact of the matter. An agent cannot leverage print rights on a self-published book without sales numbers to back it up. As a debut author, querying agents, you have no sales numbers and no one expects you to. You're a debut. But once you're published, even if you do it yourself, publishers need to see some $treet cred.

Queries of a different sort...

2011-08-26T12:27:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was so much fun that I vote it become a Thursday institution on this blog. All those in favor? All those opposed? OK. It's settled.

Thanks so much for all the questions, everyone, and let's tune in next week for a discussion of self-/indie publishing and the relationship to traditional/agented publishing. Are they symbiotic? Mutually exclusive? The basics are covered in yesterday's comments section, so take a look there if you're wondering. But does anyone have any follow ups to yesterday's discussion of the matter? Let's make sure I answer them next week!!

Yay collaboration!

#AskAgent

2011-08-25T16:17:00.001-04:00

Let's have question time. You can ask anything for the next two hours and I promise I'll answer it before midnight tomorrow (so end of the day Friday). Yes, questions about your projects are OK, but let's keep it general: word count for a particular category (or look here), character age, whether a character name is distracting. We're not editing (although maybe you'll find a good beta reader!), so don't post excerpts. Know also that this is public--don't post anything that you might not like the answer to (so no marriage proposals, please) or that might cross the "too personal" line!

Some of you will probably have awesome questions that are too complex to answer in the comments--for those, I'll do blog posts in the coming weeks.

Use good judgment, please, so that I want to do this again. :)

Questions open now until 6:15 pm EST.

Word Counts

2011-08-24T11:05:00.000-04:00

Approximate word count ranges for major categories are:

General Adult/Women's Fiction: 60-90K
Thrillers: 80-100K
Fantasy/SciFi: 80-low 100K
Young Adult: 60-85K (more for the scifi/fantasy/paranormal brethren)
Middle Grade: 40-60K (ditto)

I wonder if, with media being constantly condensed (shorter blog posts, headlines in lieu of full news reports, 140-character updates), readers will start to be less tolerant of longer books?

I've heard some rumblings about this, and I think there is definitely some trend here toward bite-sized media in all forms. But then I hear about all of the cool additions being made to books these days (like soundtracks), and I wonder if the changing face of media isn't going to make for richer multi-sensory experiences, even as some things, like word count, change.

Then I wonder if I'm really going to like all the add-ons all that much. So, you know.

What do you think?

Is your book melodramatic?

2011-08-19T12:40:00.000-04:00

How does one know when his or her writing crosses the line from emotionally compelling to just too much?

For me, it's often in "the twist." Something that's merely intense veers into soap opera territory when an author adds that one. more. thing. The twist in these cases is often highly salacious or verboten rather than subtle and surprising.

For instance: pregnant terminally ill main character discovers she has to solve a murder--of her baby daddy.

Or: Small town guy realizes he's gay and must face coming out to his Bible-belt family and friends--but then his father dies in a plow accident and CAN HE REALLY RISK TEARING HIS FAMILY APART MORE?? Oh, and then he discovers his father's stash of child porn when going through his effects.

No joke, those were in my inbox.

Trust yourself, writers. The above stories have great hearts: facing one's own death as a new one is starting. Navigating prejudice of those close to you. Tell those stories; you don't have to throw the kitchen sink in, too.

QR Codes

2011-08-17T14:00:00.000-04:00

A few months back, I posted about my favorite things as a way to talk about Quick Response codes, like the one below which will take you to the post in question:

Today there was a neat article in Publishing Perspectives about how these codes are being used to enhance print books, which I think is brilliant. For instance, Bill Cameron's COUNTY LINE (Tyrus Books) has QR Codes that link to discussion guides, an author video, and even a deleted scene. Our own Gordon Thomas' next edition of GIDEON'S SPIES, about the Israeli intelligence force Mossad, will include a QR code that links you to his blog for between-book updates.

What do you think?

Self Publishing: I Wanna Know

2011-08-16T09:57:00.001-04:00

Yesterday there was a link circulating around the pub-peeps Twitter-verse (along with commentary ranging from outrage to profanity) to an offer from Publish America.

(BE-EFFING-WARE!! THEY ARE EVIL AND ONLY WANT YOUR SOUL AND $$)

The link took you to a buy page: pay $49 and Publish America (my fingers burn to type it) will show your book to J.K. Rowling and "ask her what she thinks."

To me, this just sounds insane. Completely implausible. But I empathize with writers, and I sort of see how PA gets people. The suggestion that something might get an author published is a powerful thing.

I know this, too, because I see so many queries that start out "I self-published with _____ but the experience was not what I expected (or) I am disappointed (or) they totally jerked me around." And my heart goes out to these people! Because often that project is shot--without serious sales numbers (5K+) an agent will have a very difficult time leveraging a self-pubbed book for print sale.

So I want to ask you guys. What offers entice you/your compatriots to pay the $49, to sign a contract without representation? Is it resentment toward the Publishing Establishment? Snazzily worded pitches from the self-pub companies? What value do you see in the self-publishing world, in having to do it all on your own??

Further, what do you want to know from the Publishing Establishment? Does it make sense that agents cite such a high number of sales before a self-pubbed project is valuable for the traditional publishing world?

My instinct is that there was a lot of "Eff the Man" talk about a year ago. The sad stories I'm seeing in my inbox now are the result of the early adopters of self-publishing getting burned; the backlash. I feel now that there's a more cautious view of self-publishing: that it's a dangerous, potentially career-harming move if not done correctly, with a lot of back-end work. But then I still get emails asking what the point of an agent is...so I dunno.

MUST READ Online Marketing Post from Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation

2011-08-15T13:00:00.000-04:00

It's sometimes hard to talk about online marketing because every book and every campaign is so different. The strategy changes 100% with each new project. It's easier to talk about what not to do, but that'll only get you so far.

Case studies, man. Case studies is where it's at.

Here's a great one from Joanna Stampfel-Volpe's client Boy Sees Hearts.

Online Author Marketing: Your Book Is Pubbing!

2011-08-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

You're living the dream, man. An agent, a book deal...now your book is about to come out!

This is going to be AWESOME.

Publishers dedicate marketing and publicity staff to your book, with their biggest push focused around the launch. It's called "event marketing" in the industry.

What that means is that there's one big push, but no long term marketing strategy for the book...and this is where most authors (and some agents) get really grouchy. ("They're not doing anything anymore!")

But before we start Publisher bashing, as is so en vogue these days, consider that just as your book had some launch-time marketing (galleys printed, an ad somewhere, etc.) the next book on that publicist's list has to get the same attention. The publisher has to move on.

Which means that, at this stage, your own marketing efforts have to get more aggressive and your strategy more sophisticated. In post one, we talked about building the foundation of your online presence. On Tuesday, about focusing your online strategy. At this stage, you should focus on marrying your marketing foundation (blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) with specific marketing strategy.

This means getting creative. Your goal should be to keep your book(s) on people's minds in the online space, where attention spans are notoriously short.

This is not done by "selling" your book.

As you've no doubt heard before, broadcasting "BUY MY BOOK" is a quick way to get ignored. Create value for your audience--by being funny, like Maureen Johnson, finding interesting images on Flickr, or marrying your writing interests with something broader, as Sarah Fine does with psychology and YA literature.

Keep them coming back for your digital content and persona (separate from your book) and they'll get your book news (new releases, discounted ebooks, etc.) too. Organically piqued interest has a much greater chance of generating sales and word-of-mouth advertising.

Yes, this "online stuff" takes time. Or money (you can certainly pay some very talented professionals to do this for you). The online space has become a hugely important marketing and sales environment. If you choose to ignore that online space, you risk dooming your book to the "Launch and Fizzle" pattern so many books fall into.

Online Author Marketing: Agented!

2011-08-09T15:45:00.000-04:00

You may have been an unagented writer before, just trying to build a basic online brand (see yesterday's post) but now...

YOU DID IT!

You landed an agent. Nice work! You've got a blog with a few followers and you've done some guest posts here and there for other bloggers who've even returned the favor. You may have figured out The Twitter. The two platforms, through cross-linking, support one another.

Things feel a lot more concrete than they did when you were just hammering away at different projects. You've got one to really focus on, with some in the wings (your agent hopes).

Now that you have something specific to promote, whether sold or unsold, you should reevaluate your online strategy and perhaps expand into new platforms. Hopefully your agent can help you. For instance:

Are you writing nonfiction as an expert in some area? You could join Quora and start answering questions there--it's a great way to build platform.
Facebook. This is more complicated because everyone thinks they know how to do The Facebook. Most people have a Facebook page of some sort, but few have one that's really effective in building an online brand, (see here for some details). Think of a strategy for Facebook: what are you promoting? A single title? A series? You as an author?
Flickr. If you're an artist or illustrator, Flickr is a great place to showcase your work and build stories--supplemental, perhaps, to your book--in a new way.

There are many more ways to build an online brand; your agent can and should help you with this strategy, although you shouldn't expect them to do it for you. If you're too busy for social media, see here. Apply to all social media platforms.

A word on oversharing: you're going on submission now. It's a nervewracking experience for all involved and it can be really frustrating. Don't blog about it. Don't tweet it. Don't write angsty poetry about it and post it to your Tumblr. Don't.

So in the agented stage you get an online presence with a little more flair, guided by your agent. You've also got a more focused message, since you'll have a project to promote. Go get 'em!

Online Author Marketing: Pre-Agent

2011-08-07T23:37:00.000-04:00

On Friday, I participated in an amazing interactive interview on Krista Van Dolzer's Mother. Write. (Repeat.) Blog. One of the questions asked, concerning author online marketing, was too complex to discuss in the comments section:

How can a writer get the most out of the Internet at each stage of the writing journey (pre-agent, post-agent, pre-book release, post-book release)?

Since we couldn't talk about it on Friday, it'll be the subject of a series on the blog this week.

First, we'll cover pre-agent online marketing and platform-building tactics.

Since your online presence is the foundation for your online marketing in the future, you should have a strategy before you just jump on Blogger. What brand are you trying to build? What other people are already talking about what you want to? How can you possibly collaborate with them? Unfortunately, blogging about "your writing process" or "your publishing journey" is not going to cut it if you really want to build a following--too many are already doing it. For tips on blog topics, check out this post here (and the surrounding posts).

I suggest a blog and a twitter account as a good online foundation for an aspiring writer.

You don't have to be super active on Twitter as soon as you sign up. Go ahead and find 20 or 30 people to follow--a mix of writers you admire, agents, editors, and non-publishing people--and just lurk. Listen to conversations, jump in where you feel like you have something to say. As you get more comfortable with the platform, you can tweet more. A fully active account should be tweeting no fewer than three times a day.

The hashtags #askagent and #yalitchat are examples of ways to find others interested in the things you're writing about: both agents/editors and beta writers. You can search those terms on Twitter and read the transcripts of the chats, which are always full of great info.

A blog is another good way to get started building an online presence. As you'll see as you get your feet wet with Twitter, the writerly blogosphere is incredibly interconnected. Bloggers guest post, start series together, and share thoughts on books they loved (And hated). But here more than anywhere else you have to worry about oversharing.

Many writers serialize their work on their blogs. I cannot encourage you strongly enough to avoid that. Authors nearly always list "getting an agent" as the reason they put "teasers" on their blogs. But there is already a mechanism for showing your work to agents: the query. Trust that process; it is highly unlikely that an agent will just stumble on your blog. They usually find it by clicking links in a query. So why put it on the blog?

If you choose to do so anyway you may put yourself breach of the warranties and indemnities clause of the publishing contract that you haven't even signed yet. I like Krista's strategy: she has a widget on her sidebar that lists a logline for her book. That's interesting without crossing any lines. Kathleen Ortiz has a great author website post here that lists website elements you should focus on.

You should try to post about twice a week on your blog--a link with a caption is still a post, but try to make a habit of producing real content--between 100 and 400 words.

So what do you think? Any questions? Tomorrow we'll talk about changes you should make once you're an agented writer.

If nothing happens...

2011-08-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

First line in a query today:

"What happens when everyone expects the apocalypse--and nothing happens."

Well, this agent stops reading, for one. If you say the words "nothing happens" in your query you're just sinking yourself.

Your query should tell me what happens. Not what doesn't.

Meredith in the ATL

2011-08-02T12:06:00.000-04:00

The Atlantic, that is.

I'm honored to be featured with some much more impressive names than my own in an article about YA literature, growing up, and what "art" means anymore at TheAtlantic.com.

Oh, all right. I'll bite.

2011-07-27T15:51:00.001-04:00

So, there's this blog post over here that was pretty incendiary re: Agents and their "money grabs" with authors who are self-publishing and using the agency to do so.

It was a...something...enough blog post to make a bunch of agents really mad in a "NU UH!" Sort of way. Like in a way that just makes one shake one's head and think "you just. don't. get it."

One thing she said struck me as particularly "not getting it," here:

But they don’t know the right answers in self-publishing. There isn’t an agent out there that has the savvy that Bella Andre, Joe Konrath, and Amanda Hocking have in self-publishing. Not a one.

This woman points out that authors are talking about agents and "what they're doing." I wish authors would stop talking about their agents and start talking to them (just in general, actually)--ask questions about how things will be done and ask the agent to explain commission break-downs if there are increases. If nothing else, you have a good resource on this blog (here, here, here, here, and here on this topic, among others).

You have no excuse to not have intelligent questions on this process--ask them of your agent. And if you're feeling squeamish and, by god, if you feel like the agent you're talking to is a sleaze or a moron, go elsewhere. Or publish online yourself; we're lucky to exist in a world where that is totally possible.

BUT.

Know also that knowledge of the self-publishing process is NOT step one. It's like Step .75. You get your book online and then what?

Amanda Hocking sold books by marketing books, and she researched marketing on Agent and Publishing Industry sites (and, by the way, is agented with a traditional book deal). All the moguls of self-publishing that people hold up as leaders of the MOVEMENT self-published and then spent thousands of hours, if not dollars, marketing the books.

If marketing is overlooked, whether you self-publish or you're going through an agency or ePublisher, there had better be marketing in place or all the "self-publishing savvy" in the world isn't going to get that book sold.

Agents know marketing. Just as many as are setting up publishing arms are setting up marketing initiatives to compliment them. And that is worth 15% just in and of itself.

It's an agent's full time job to deal with their clients' books, and it's not most author's full time jobs. It's a huge sacrifice that may never pay off, something, incidentally, that agents know well,

since we don't get paid until you do.

Writing Process

2011-07-27T15:33:00.000-04:00

Writers out there, you baffle me.

I was at Books of Wonder last night for the launch of the DELIGHTFUL Arlaina Tibensky's AND THEN THINGS FALL APART, her literary-reference-and-comedy-filled YA contemporary.

She was answering questions and, as is wont to happen when writers get in a room together, someone asked her about how she writes, and how her characters develop. Charmingly, she said that her characters develop through her "making them do things." That they just sort of spring up one day, "wearing a cute little outfit." She also said that her book, once she gets an ending in mind, just sort of comes out, moving somehow in the direction of that ending.

Of course, for me, a non-writer, that all sounds very strange. Of course the characters don't literally spring up one day--you have to write them. But it's interesting shorthand for how it feels when a story is just right.

How does it feel for you? How, in the WORLD do you do it!?

Agencies with Separate Publishing Divisions

2011-07-25T14:49:00.000-04:00

I got word recently that yet another agency has decided to set up a side-project to handle "ePublishing." This division will not serve (1) clients self-publishing themselves (no commission taken) or (2) clients who bring the agency ready-to-upload files that the agency then uploads and monitors for royalties/earnings (15% commission taken). It's for (3)clients for whom the agency will handle all aspects of the epublishing.

Sounds alright, right? That's got to be a lot of work!

Except when you consider what actually goes in to converting and publishing a book online.

Unless the agency has undergone some MAJOR personnel changes and hired cover designers and converters, the work of converting and designing the cover of the ebook will be done by outside freelancers.

AKA the agency has a list of a couple of people they know who convert books and/or design covers and they send your book to them, get it back a couple weeks later, then proceed as with client-type (2).

The agency has probably done extensive work on these projects, even the ones that are self-published, and even tried to sell it in many cases. They've certainly earned their 15%. But I'd be hard to convince that the agency is earning more than that 15%.

You should be hard to convince, too.

Ask a lot of questions before signing up for anything that involves more than a standard commission. Who's doing the work? Who's paying them? Get the facts, and you may feel that an increased commission is justified...or you might not.

Wha...?

2011-07-22T13:27:00.000-04:00

Response to a form rejection in the slush today:

___

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Regretfully, I am unable to accept your rejection at this time.

Despite what might sound like a cocky attitude, I am, to the contrary, quite unique in that I have until recently refused to allow myself to be certain about any of the major areas of life. It has been my observation that most others are absolutely certain by the time they are twenty years old of their beliefs toward themselves, other indivdiduals and groups, religion, politics, relationships, social issues and everything else in life.

___

This makes little sense, as did the next several paragraphs on...some stuff. Then there was a note that let me know that the book was 90% ready to go and how I probably didn't see much of that.

Jaw. Drop. All this has done is inflate the count on my inbox. Please don't respond to form rejections. I know they seem callous, but with literally thousands of queries to read, they're necessary if I'm going to reassure you that your query was read. By a real person.

Sending me a response (and a long one at that) is just annoying, unfortunately--even a thank you is just upping that "Unread" count.

I interrupt this broadcast...

2011-07-13T13:36:00.001-04:00

OK, OK. We will get back to Facebook. But I just wanted to say real quick:

I TOLD YOU SO.

(I'm still telling you so)

Facebook: Importance

2011-07-11T20:00:00.000-04:00

Facebook is the mother of all Social Media networks. Building a presence there is harder than on other platforms because Facebook utilizes all of the content that you might put on other platforms: pictures, blog-like notes, and tweet-like status updates.

Facebook has also really blossomed in the last little while. E-commerce through Facebook is starting to pick up (Facebook as another online retailer?? You want to be there). With one-in-every-eight online minutes spent on Facebook, some are saying that Facebook is the internet. It's the new "mall." A one-stop shop for shopping, news, friends' updates, and entertainment.

But isn't Facebook just for the kids? I mean isn't just for college students to post, then untag that pic of them doing a kegstand?

No.

Here're some stats to illustrate:

Facebook has 750,000,000 users worldwide, 350,000,000 (50%) of which log in every day.
The average user has about 130 friends. That means that if you have a Fan Page with 50 fans, you're actually reaching, on average, about 5000 people every time you post.
Facebook is second only to Google in terms of daily traffic.
Over 50% of Facebook users are over the age of 35. There are about 30 million users in that age range just in the US.
Books are the third most-liked products on Facebook, after Movies and TV shows (wompwomp)

Most shockingly:

57% of people--all people--say that they talk more to their friends/family members online than they do in real life.

Bottom line, get on Facebook. But know, before you do, that Facebook isn't magic, any more than anything else online. You have to be smart about planning a strategy.

In the next post, we address how you should get on Facebook. Posting schedules, types of content, and the like.

Anyone out there already on Facebook as a Fan Page, not a personal Profile?

Sources:

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

http://www.pcworld.com/article/197431/google_names_facebook_most_visited_site.html

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6128/The-Ultimate-List-100-Facebook-Statistics-Infographics.aspx

http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/facebook-statistics-stats-facts-2011/

Facebook: Profile vs Page

2011-07-01T10:32:00.000-04:00

In the comments section of the How-to-Social-Media yesterday, I saw someone reference "scrolling down to see vacation pics." They were talking about a Facebook profile page--where people can request and be approved to be your friend. But if we're talking about building your online brand, we're not talking about a Profile page.

Most people have a Profile page to connect with friends and family. It is NOT the type of page you want to set up as your "author" or public page.

If you're setting up any sort of public page: for your book, for you as an author, or any other sort of professional type thing, you want to set up a Facebook Fan Page. The differences:

People just click "Like" to gain access to a page; they don't have to be approved the way you would a friend request on your Profile page.
Your content should be related, although it doesn't have to strictly revolve around, the product or service you set the page up to promote. This means no personal pictures, no vacation uploads from your phone after your third mai-tai.

And Fan Pages, like a Profile Page, have some of the same tools to make your life easier:

You can import a personal blog, so that when the blog updates so does your Facebook.
All the same types of content is supported--you can add photos of, say, your book cover or a video of a reading or signing.
You can link out to your website or to a buy link for whatever you're promoting.
There is a "Wall" section where you and your followers can interact publicly, as well as messages where you can communicate privately.

Go here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to create your Facebook Fan Page--BUT WAIT.

Make sure you're doing so at the right time. If you don't have a book out in the next year (similar timeframe for other products: if you're not launching within a year, don't jump the gun), you probably don't want to start promoting it now--potential buyers will get fatigued. Twitter is a better, lower-commitment place to start if you're a couple of years out (we'll get to more on that).

Over the next few posts, we'll be talking more about Facebook, how to use it, and what its future looks like for commercial use. Stay tuned!!

Author Marketing: Do It Yourself

2011-06-30T12:39:00.000-04:00

A social media/online presence is pretty much required these days, no matter what product you're hawking. But it can feel very, very overwhelming and often useless. No one wants to invest ALL THAT effort only to feel like it was wasted.

I had a meeting yesterday with an author who was reluctant to start the "Online Stuff" because it felt to him like a time drain (although by any standard he was very open to the stuff, just had questions). We talked through some tools, like Hootsuite, that can make your social media life fit right into your life-life.

By spending 30 minutes once a week pre-scheduling tweets using Hootsuite and Facebook posts, you guarantee that those channels will be active even if you get busy. It also frees you up to scan your accounts a couple of times a day to find someone to talk to or retweet organically. So you get the best of both worlds: content without having to devote time each day with real-time content as you've got a second.

Try out some of the tools out there. You'll find they make social media accessible on any time budget. MediaBistro's daily email has great news when a new one comes out.

Patience is a virtue.

2011-06-27T12:09:00.001-04:00

I've corresponded recently with several authors who had good projects. They weren't ready to go out, but they were getting there. After requesting fulls, these authors came back and told me they had already signed a contract of some sort with small presses, but that they were querying A) another project or B) the subrights or C) a continuation of the series under contract with the small press.

My reaction can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s

Once a book has been published, whether by an indie press or online (both valid options!!) your road to a traditional publishing deal, should you later choose to see one, gets either a lot easier or a lot harder. Easier if you sell 10K+ copies of e- or p-book. Harder if you don't. Those sales numbers will follow you, and no, agents can't just leave out that it was previously published because that will violate the Warranties and Indemnities section of the contract you might sign with a publisher.

Further, the contracts that these authors signed would never have passed an agent's muster--one never defined which rights the publisher held, meaning that at any time they could veto anything else the book might become. It means royalty splits weren't defined. It means that you're at the pub's mercy. I couldn't take on a project tied up like that, even if it was a slam dunk.

The worst part, in one case, was that the author had been querying no time at all. Like 3 weeks or something. But she got the offer and just went ahead without an agent and, unfortunately, that impatience may have prevented her from getting a better deal.

If you don't want an agent, that's fine. But the truth is that most authors seem to say they don't want an agent, because that's in vogue, and act on that by signing with a publisher or self-pubbing. Then many decide they do want an agent. But if you've chosen to come to an agent in the middle, rather than at the beginning of your career, you're probably bringing baggage to the table.

My suspicion is that authors get that offer, and IT'S A REAL (if small!) PUBLISHER! and they just sign. Or they throw up their hands and THEY'RE GOING TO BE THE NEXT AMANDA HOCKING. And the decision may be a little rash. But by then, it's too late for an agent to get in the game.

If you get interest from a publisher, give the agents you've queried a chance to jump on you!! Tell them. Especially if it's only been a month. Because once you're published, you're published--even if it's poorly.

Contest Winners!

2011-06-23T16:03:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone that entered!!! This was a fun one to judge; some of you really got building the story around the last line. It's hard to start with one piece of a story and make something cohesive happen, without anything feeling tacked on or convenient. Since most of us get our ideas for books in pieces--A BRILLIANT FIRST LINE--I thought it'd be a good exercise. Hope you liked it!!

So, the results:

First VERY honorable mention was Rachel Levine at 4:59. I was rolling on the floor. SO funny. The last line wasn't quite organically integrated, though. Verrry close; great job!!

Second HM is Gabriela at 7:32. The writing was tight and the back-and-forth was really nice. The last line felt natural...but I thought it more a snippet of a (very well written) scene than a full story.

And, the winners. Yes, yes, there are 2!! In no order:

Tofu2 at 5:29 with a sweet, poignant short that was perhaps the most complete story of the bunch. Well done!!

AND

Rachel Levine at 4:59 with a hysterical nod at those most clammorous demanders of their pound of flesh. Great references, and I loved that you captured the Crackberry aid in just a couple of lines.

Tofu and Rachel, email me at proseblog[@]gmail[dot]com with your addresses; I'll send you your books! (Or, if you want a query or first 10 pages critiqued, we can do that).

If you queried me at FinePrint Literary Management (for Janet)

2011-06-22T13:24:00.000-04:00

I haven't responded to everyone who was in touch with me at FPLM. I know, you're wondering where the heck I've gotten to and whether I even remember you because we were like this!! True! and I really liked your book! I am getting to it.

If, in the meantime, you've done any of the following:

Gotten an agent.
Signed with a publisher.
Requeried Janet and gotten a request from her.

Please let me know. If you've got a success story and want to share it publicly here, please do!! I'd love to hear. If you want to email me directly about SOMETHING YOU SUBMITTED WHILE I WAS AT FPLM, do so at the blog email: proseblog[@]theGoogleemail[dot]com. If you email to ask anything regarding an open submission here at Lowenstein, please do so at the assistant[@]bookhaven[dot]com email--re-forward your original Lowenstein query so that the whole thing is together, please.

Just as a note, if you have any of those bullet points happen at any point in any query process, you should tell all agents it affects. Just FYI.

Thanks for your patience, everyone!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

2011-06-22T10:45:00.001-04:00

Results will be posted here on Friday.

Well, that was heavy.

2011-06-20T16:13:00.000-04:00

In light of our sort of heavy discussion re: ebook ethics the last couple of days, I thought we'd have a writing contest to cleanse ze palette! Enter in the comment section.

The rules:

Entries don't open until 6pm tonight, Monday June 20th.
Entries close tomorrow, Tuesday June 21, at 6pm.
100 words or fewer.
This sentence must be the final sentence in your story:

I felt sorry, after that, but still I couldn't bring myself to cross the room.

It must be a story.

The Prize (1):

Based on your story's tone and content, I'll select a book from my personal library (ARCs and real books included) and send it to you! If you would really rather have a query critique or the first 10 pages workshopped or something, I'll do that...but you do know that the only way to really improve your writing in general is to read, right?

GO!

Down and Dirty Wrap Up

2011-06-20T14:33:00.000-04:00

Sort of. I mean it's not like we'll never talk about this stuff again.

A colleague sent me this article: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/aaa-will-not-expel-agents-turned-publishers.html, which I think dovetails nicely with what we talked about Thursday and Friday of last week.

Note particularly the president of AAA's last statement:

"There are certain activities that our code of conduct explicitly prohibits and the practice of agencies offering their authors a way to market their books directly to the reader is not one of them..."

Well, certainlyt. In fact, we'd encourage the marketing of these books directly to readers. Now, how about the question at hand: publishing the book...?

A disappointing side-step of the issue, if you ask me.

Down and Dirty Ethics of Digital Publishing

2011-06-17T17:52:00.000-04:00

OK, full disclosure: yesterday's post wasn't *just* a general knowledge "Hey, you should know this, just because!!" post.

Reading that post and understanding what's outlined there is vital for understanding *this* post. So...I'll wait. :)

Now that we're all on the same page:

I'm sure you've heard of the new companies popping up as independent digital publishers. Some are actually integrated into agencies.

Independent ePublishers typically have 50-50 royalty splits and handle new covers, conversions, etc. Most (now at least) do this front-end work for no money down, without an advance. I think this is pretty fair, although there is certainly room for improvement (but that's another post).

Today I discuss the latter--agencies getting into the ebook business. Many people have an immediate negative reaction:

agencies shouldn't be publishers. It's an inherent conflict of interest (how can someone negotiate against herself in your best interest?). But if agencies aren't allowed to epublish on their authors' behalf, then how can they, for instance, put an out-of-print backlist online, which is in their client's best interest?

Are they forced to go with one of the indie ePublishers, even if, for whatever reason, they don't think it's best?

The issue is more complicated than just "Agencies should never publish." And to get to the bottom of that, you have to get at the financials: who's getting paid for what.

In a traditional publishing deal, the author pays both sides: the publisher takes a revenue split on sales (your royalty rate is the other portion of this split) and the agent takes a standard 15% commission on the gross (total amount before taxes) of all monies received.

The publisher gets paid for publishing the book, the agent gets paid for working on the book, getting it sold, and monitoring the publication and sales forever.

So let's say the backlist is small, and it's better to leave out the ePublisher, do the conversion through a freelancer, and get a 70% royalty for the author (in their best interest!) by publishing directly with Amazon, etc. The agency handles everything. Of course, they should still get their 15% commission. They got the book sold in the first place, and they're facilitating the ebook.

But I've heard of agencies, here and abroad, taking a 50% instead of 15% cut in the name of all the "extra work" they're doing on the ebook. To someone who doesn't know the steps (unlike you who does know the steps), that probably sounds reasonable. Who the heck knows how HTML works, anyway?! It's probably some sort of voodoo.

Those agencies seem to be saying "pay us 35% for publishing this ebook, and, of course, we're still entitled to our 15% for working on and getting the book sold in the first place." So a cut for a "Publisher" function and one for an "Agency" function. This is where we cross the ethical line, in my opinion.

There's no publisher involved.

"But," you might say, "don't they deserve some more dough for the extra work they're doing that a publisher normally would?"

Well, back to yesterday's post: There are 6 steps (roughly) to getting an ebook online. 3 of those are probably going to be done by a freelancer (the conversion). Your agency, unless they've made some big personnel changes recently, is probably going to contract this work out. After all, they've had a full-time gig being agents for some time now; more than likely they don't have time to integrate ebook coding themselves.

So, you should be paying the freelancer, not the agency, for the conversion. A simple referral to a freelancer doesn't justify a 35% cut of sales (forever).

Step 4, the upload, takes vigilance and attention to detail, but it's a one-time deal. And it takes about 30 minutes. I've heard of and support agencies charging a (small) flat fee to perform this service, but a 200%+ higher commission rate?...not so much.

Step 5 is a step that agencies already do for all of your books. Monitor sales and royalties. So that definitely doesn't justify 35% more money--or any more money.

The final step, marketing, is and always will be a split labor. I do foresee agencies charging to do marketing for their authors. We are, after all, really good sales people. But marketing services should not affect commission rates, which are tied to sale of books only. (Marketing helps sales of books, but it is not sales of books)

So 50% of the process is done by someone else, 16.67% is one-time "extra work" for the agency, 16.67% is what they've always done, and 16.67% may not be done at all by the agency, and isn't related to sales, which are what we typically commission. I'll leave you to make the final decision, but that doesn't sound like it adds up to a 50% cut for the agency.

Agencies stand to make money on the sales of books. There are opportunities for agencies to provide new services to their clients in the marketing arena: setting up and managing a social media presence, for instance. And for those, they should certainly be paid.

But the publication of clients' books online should not be considered a new revenue stream for agencies. Royalties, sales, are an agency's revenue stream. It's not that agencies shouldn't facilitate the publication of clients' books online, it's that they shouldn't be paid as publishers.

A client's book going into ebook format is the same, for an agency, as having the book come out in mass market (as far as commission). Someone gets it into the new format and the agent monitors the publication and sales, and continues to take 15% for services rendered.

And, dash it all, we still have to figure out the marketing.

Down and Dirty Anatomy of Digital Publishing

2011-06-15T18:01:00.001-04:00

Ebooks.

Did your eyes glazed over? I don't blame you; there is pretty tangled system of information out there on the topic, and more options pop up daily for how to make your cool million publishing online.

But it's important to realize that you are not without allies in this (in fact, that's the whole point of having an agent, but that's another post). It's also important to realize that you have to learn. At least a little. "Print Only" publishing does NOT exist anymore--unless you're doing it yourself. I've summed up the process here in this novella-length post as a launchpad for your own research.

The problem with ebook illiteracy is circular and (at least) twofold:

If you don't know what the steps of the process are, it's incredibly easy to get taken advantage of.

BUT

There's a "shut-off" reaction to a lot of things Information Technology. The thought is "There's no way I will understand this." So then you never do.

Over a year ago, I literally didn't know what an HTML tag was (and if you're like "What the heck is that?" that's OK--you don't have to know; that's not the point of this post). It took me 60 hours to code my first ebook (now it takes me...significantly less). Somehow (Youtube and w3schools.com) I figured it out, and if that's the case then you certainly could too. If nothing else, you will definitely understand what I'm about to tell you. And it's in your best interest to know.

Here follows a very bare bones step-by-step of what it takes to put a book online:

Is the book available in a .doc format? If not, it needs to be. If yes, go to #2.

This is primarily of concern with backlist books which were never digitized--they're only in printed form. If this is the case, the book has to be scanned and converted through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) into a Word document (or a PDF, which will be converted to a Word doc).

Convert the Word doc into an HTML file and, in an HTML editor (not Word), do your formatting.

Here, in the HTML file, is where you'll do your formatting and yes, unfortunately, you have to do it in plain, hand-coded HTML. There are programs out there, such as inDesign, which can facilitate this process as long as you're coding a plain novel. But if you're dealing with any hyperlinking or index or anything remotely complicated, I'm afraid you're looking at hand-coding. inDesign allows you to export as an ePub file.

Don't forget that you need a unique ISBN (separate from any print edition of the book published by someone else--like a publisher) and a copyright page (a list here of what MUST appear on the copyright page).

Convert the coded HTML file into a .mobi file and a .epub file.

These are the only two file types you need in order to put your book on every platform you can think of (and some you can’t). .Mobi is for Amazon/Kindle, .ePub is for everything else.This process is automated via MobiPocket (.mobi) and programs like Calibre (.epub).

Upload!

There are a couple of ways to do this, and it will take relatively little time. I've used Smashwords.com in my freelancing to some success (Smashwords also allows you to publish across pretty much every major platform--Apple, Amazon, Borders, etc.--from one place). You can get a free ISBN from Smashwords as a part of the publication process or you can pay for a "premium ISBN," which I'm not sure would do you any good.

Monitor your sales and royalties.

You can set up payment via Paypal or, at least with Amazon, you can be paid with paper checks. Paypal does charge fees, so Smashwords (for instance) will pass that on to you. For Smashwords, it's a $10 fee. Also, most places will report, but not pay, if earnings are less than a certain amount ($75 in a lot of cases).

Market (we don't have to get in to that here, but for godssakes don't forget it needs to be done!.

So that's it. It's not impossible, but it is labor intensive, time consuming (especially the conversion process), and, My GOD is it frustrating at times. You may suddenly realize that publishers do a lot more than just mess up somehow when they're publishing a book. A lot more.

More than likely, if you're looking to put titles online you're going to use a freelance coder for your conversion. Or you're begging to spend 60 hours coding your first ebook. Things to consider:

Ask to see some books they've done to get a sense of their skill level.
Be sure to sign something (both of you) that states what formats they will convert to (they should do both .mobi and .epub for you) and set a deadline.
Make sure they're going to deliver you the files without claiming ownership of any "design" (there shouldn't be any if we're talking straight conversion) or content. This must be explicitly stated in the agreement!
Don't be afraid to lobby for a payment schedule so you're not paying it all up front and to keep the freelancer on deadline. 1/2 on signing, 1/2 on delivery would be a standard way to divide it.

Be careful, authors. Do research, and take your time. There is so much more to the process--more nuances and anomalies that I could write coherently here.

In the comments section, please let loose on questions, or share your pitfalls/anomalies with others. It's so important that authors understand the process of ebook publication, even if they don't understand the mechanics (which is OK!). It's particularly important on this blog, because I'll be posting about the ethics of ebook agreements, especially as related to agencies now acting as publishers, tomorrow.

Grand Opening!

2011-06-09T10:30:00.000-04:00

So, you know those stores that have been open for months and then put up a banner that says GRAND OPENING and you sort of cock your head to the side...because it's been open, right? but then you walk inside anyway to see if there are any good sales?

This is sort of like that.

I'm officially opening to queries here at Lowenstein Associates. Here's what I'm looking for:

Meredith is interested in a wide range of engaging fiction for all ages, including literary fiction, women’s fiction, thrillers and crime. She is open to science fiction and fantasy that has something new to offer the genres. ENDER’S GAME is her favorite book, so we’ll leave it at that. She does not represent early readers or children’s picture books. Nor does she like children, particularly.

For both nonfiction and fiction, Meredith considers more than just the print possibilities. Projects that lend themselves to apps, enhanced ebooks, and other fresh ways to tell stories are especially appealing.

You can find info on how and where to query on the "Query" tab. Because I'm big on that logic stuff.

I don't agree, Mr. Swift.

2011-06-08T12:06:00.000-04:00

Today, this was in my blog reader feed. It's a quote from Graham Swift (Wish You Were Here) about the writing process and what novels can and cannot mean for their readers:

"There's no such thing as the contemporary novel. Before I seem the complete reactionary, let me add that I've happily joined in many discussions about 'the contemporary novel' where what that usually, unproblematically means is novels that have appeared recently or may appear soon. But the novel that's contemporary in the sense of being wholly 'of now' is an impossibility, if only because novels may take years to write, so the 'now' with which they begin will be defunct by the time they're finished. Nonetheless, the idea of the novel that's wholly of now persists. There's an undeniable thrill in seeing what's most current in our lives offered back to us in fictional guise, but it soon dates and it's never enough."

I don't know about this. Yes, many novels take years--even decades--to write. But some don't some are written in a matter of weeks, days. Some, as illustrated by the (painfully bad) cell-phone novels that came out of Japan a while back, are written in hours, with dozens of authors.

It seems to me like Mr. Swift is talking about a very narrowly defined definition of a novel. I think he's missing the fact that stories are literally being told in real time today, if no other place than on Twitter or through our Facebook status updates. As he's defining it, sure, I don't think you can call a novel contemporary (again, as he's defining the word). But contemporary writing is happening all the time!

Writers out there, have you felt the kind of frustration Mr. Swift talks about?

BEA Day 1

2011-05-25T10:10:00.000-04:00

I had so much fun walking around--in many ways, BEA feels like a big party for publishing people, particularly agents. Agents sort of get a pass to sit in panels, network, and, of course, swag.

This has been my experience in the past, but it certainly wasn't yesterday. As foreign rights director, I had to have, like "meetings." With some delightful publishers from Japan. Of particular interest were innovations that the publisher NHK (the BBC of Japan) is working on to bring ebooks to the Japanese market.

There's currently no hardware for reading ebooks in Japan. Consensus seems to be that this is because Japanese people are not interested in a dedicated reader device--something that only reads ebooks. It's a complaint that Western readers had, too but got over, and that is now being solved by WiFi and 3G readers. And the stupid iPad.

Instead of trying to get readers to adopt new hardware, NHK is working on a platform in mobile app form (it's only in Japanese so far, drat) that will allow people to tweet or post to facebook (and other social media sites, I'm sure) right from their reading environment--from their Kindle for iPhone app, for instance. So they can have their reader+ on their phone. The challenge will be getting people to read on a phone, but I'm seeing more of that even over here.

May be reiventing a couple wheels there, but it's an interesting approach. Our discussion centered on whether people even want that capability. These days, escape from social media and social _______ seem to be the main draws to reading for most.

Interesting...

2011-05-09T14:01:00.001-04:00

...relationship between book, short fiction, and TV series. Of course, it doesn't hurt if you're Elmore Leonard, either. Read about it here.

I think we're going to see a lot more of this type of reverse- or laterally engineered content. Where a book idea may come from an idea for a screen or teleplay, spawning app or enhanced ebook ideas, etc. I also think it's going to change how we think about packaging a book for sale, whether to an editor behind the scenes or in public on the B&N table or web.

Hmm...

Newz

2011-05-04T15:00:00.000-04:00

The past few weeks have been filled with much excitement, sadness, ~~thoughts of world domination~~, anxiety, ~~hair tearing~~, ~~flung projectiles~~, and some flowers. And birthdays, but that's neither here nor there.

What I'm trying to tell you is there have been, as Kafka would say, "developments."

I'm not working--ahem. Excuse me. *clears throat* I'm...*pause*, *squeezes* bridge of nose*

Janet torments me from afar now, and let's just leave it at that.

I'm sad to announce the above, but also very excited to announce that I started this week at Lowenstein Associates, where I will be Digital Strategist and Foreign Rights Manager. I'm also building my own list (details to come--I'm not open to submissions just yet).

More to come!

Spring Contest Winners!

2011-04-25T15:50:00.000-04:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the blog contest last week!! There were so many good ones--apparently a lot of you suffer from seasonal allergies! My non-sniffly heart goes out to you.

Without further ado, the Shortlist (no particular order):

Honorable Mentions go to:

Julia @ 2:57

Blue @ 3:05

Beck @ 4:04

Tracey @ 5:42

A specific HM goes to:

Alwyn @ 4:04 for best written...but not *exactly* a story.

Jeff @ 5:56 for the best MerBear speculation.

TPoelle @2:24 for the best flashback inducer.

Kaleen @8:28 for the best non-allergy-related use of pollen.

And the winners (also in no particular order)!!

Rachel Searles @ 1:13

I splash my face with cold water from the tap and sink to the green tiles. The audition was brutal.

Outside, the sky is darkening with a spring storm. Jeté, pirouette, again, plié, jump!

Tucked in my legwarmer is my secret ingredient, my snowy dynamite. It clings to my fingers like pollen. I lick it off, savoring the bitter taste, electric jolt, and get up to do the dance again.

Sprunty @ 9:08

“The pollen is carried to the flower…”

“God Mom, this is embarrassing. No one still uses the birds and the bees.” Her daughter rolled her green eyes to the sky and huffed.

The wide-eyed awe and admiration were long gone. She knew she’d jumped the shark at the Justin Bieber concert when she pretended to like it. It was all downhill from there.

A glass of water pressed against her lips while thinking of a better way. A deep inhale filled her lungs with years of wisdom ready to be released.

“Just don’t do it.”

Christina @ 5:42

Dan drew the dingy up. The rain made it hard to tell where the sky started and the water began. It had been that way with him and Jane. Hard to tell where one stopped and the other started.

He coughed as he jumped onto the dock and tied up. Pollen had made Jane cough. Dust and cold weather had too. Mostly two packs a day had made her cough, but at the time it seemed churlish to say so.

He should have been churlish, Dan thought, as he lifted the empty green jar out of the dingy.

Winners, please email me at proseblog[at]gmail[dot]com for prize claiming!!

Like?

2011-04-21T23:38:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot of talk recently about the New Yorker's "shockingly successful" Facebook "Like" experiment in the last week or so.

The experiment was meant to test audience engagement: how much will your audience go through to get to your content? Because let's face it everything online is low-investment. In an environment where your audience is just casually browsing for perhaps a few minutes at a time, even expecting them to stop long enough to click a link or a Like is asking a lot. It's why people are so skeptical of paywalls like those put up by the Times (which has an awesome ad campaign, by the way).

So the New Yorker put a story written by Jonathan Franzen about David Foster Wallace up on their Facebook fan page (which has about 220,000 fans). It gained about 17,000 "likes" while it was up. Impressive! Very!

Until you consider that's (and I'm rounding up here) 8% of their fans. And these were the big guns. The names are huge, appeal to their audience, and DFW's new novel just came out. This was the perfect storm for "likes."

We say that 10% engagement of one's audience indicates a successful online presence (measured by action taken--"like" clicked, retweets, comments left). And one of the most famous brands in the world got 8%. What does this mean?

I think it means, first and foremost, that 10% is not as attainable a figure as it might at first appear. It also means that any audience engagement is impressive.

Most importantly, it means that you have to be really specific in your goals. What do you want your audience to do? You have literally one shot: the vast majority of The New Yorker's fans would click "like" once (to become a fan) but not twice, no matter the prize.

So get specific about your goals. If it's just to make friends, that's totally OK! That's the building stage. Later, you can mobilize those fans who've grown to trust you for more specific goals.

Happy Spring!

2011-04-20T13:45:00.000-04:00

My lovely blog followers, 'tis Spring. I lived in the South my whole life before coming to NYC. We never really got all that excited about Spring, because it was...not that different from any other season.

But here, Spring is a huge deal. HUGE. Let's celebrate. Writing contest.

Write a story using 100 words or fewer. Include the following words in the story:

Water
Sky
Green
Jump
Pollen

Winners are eligible for one of the following:

A reduced-price ebook conversion ($250)

A query critique (umm...free)

First 5 pages "when would I stop reading evaluation" (also...free)

Contest closes in 24 hours. Please note, at the end of your entry, which prize you're interested in.

I'm not sure how many winners there'll be. :) It's Spring, after all.

You Got Tha Power

2011-04-19T22:41:00.000-04:00

I met tonight with an incredibly bubbly, bright, talented, idea-filled young woman to discuss a couple of projects, both book-related and non (hope to be able to tell you all about her very, very soon!!). At the end of our conversation, she asked "So, hypothetically, what happens if no one (as in publishers) wants this?"

*blink*

"Well, we do it ourselves," I answered.

The way that content is being produced and consumed is at such an exciting crossroads. This of course doesn't apply only to books--at all. But I actually think that's one of the most exciting parts. Written words, video, still images, drawings...the list goes on. It can all be integrated. The ways you can tell your story are literally limitless.

Don't be scared. Find professionals to collaborate with; blazing a new trail is always about finding the right people to do the right jobs. But don't be scared.

Anatomy of a Fiction Platform

2011-04-15T14:09:00.000-04:00

You thought you'd dodged this bullet, didn't you? heh.

Oh, novelists, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news (although I'll remind you not to shoot the messenger), but you should take a look at your platform, just like those nonfiction writers.

Is platform in any way essential to fiction the way it is to non? NO. I'll be clear on that. Fiction is sold on the story and the writing. And the economic viability. :) Platform, for novelists, is a bonus. (Nonfiction writers, see yesterday's post stat).

So if a nonfiction "Platform" means convincing editors and agents 1. why you're the best person to write a book and 2. that there's a large audience already eager to read on the subject, what does platform mean for novelists? Answers would be 1. because I thought of it first and 2. Um...everyone wants this! Of course!

And those answers aren't helpful. Platform, for fiction writers, is more about demonstrating that there are people out there who like you. Who think you're funny, say. Or people who find you engaging. Check out Chuck Wendig and Maureen Johnson on Twitter for examples of people who do this really well. Copy them. (sort of serious)

Fiction queries are 100% focused on the novel: who's the main character, what's the big choice they're facing (See Query Shark if you're at all unclear on what a query should do). You don't have to mention your 2K Twitter or blog followers in your query.

But agents will Google you. They will find your 2K Twitter followers and your popular blog (in email queries, at the bottom where you write your contact info, you can include these links, too). They, and the editors to which they pitch your book, will be impressed that you've gone out there and started talking with what will become your audience.

Anatomy of a Non-Fiction Platform

2011-04-14T10:28:00.000-04:00

Platform is central to an agent's and editor's decision to take on a nonfiction project. When you query with nonfiction, it's OK to use up to half of the letter (about 250 words) with discussion of your platform--whereas with fiction we expect about two sentences (20 words) of author background.

The most effective breakdown I've ever seen of nonfiction platform (here) is into its external and internal components. 1. Why you? and 2. Who already cares?

Question one is about you and your past. Your resume. Are you an expert? How long have you been involved in this area? Who has recognized or employed you because of your expertise? Have you taught? Where have you presented or been interviewed? Your local newspaper in Small Town, Indiana is, unfortunately, not a viable element of this section of your self-pitch. The answers to this question have to be immediately recognizable to the reader.

Also evaluated with question 1: Can you write? Your pitch letter (which, as I've said, should include an overview of your platform) has to be compelling. You should convince me you're answering a question I have--even if I didn't know I had it before reading your pitch.

Question two: Who already cares? is about audience. The one you've already got slathering at your heels. It's not enough to assure the agent that you will gain x number of Twitter followers or implement such-and-such plan. Anything that refers to the future, unless it's something you've already been slated to do (I will appear on Good Morning America on this date!!), it doesn't constitute platform. It's too speculative.

If you speak to 50,000 people a year in x number of invited speaking engagements, that's platform. If you have a mailing list of 2,000 (the more the merrier, of course). If your radio show has weekly listeners in the top 5 markets--or, if you're on internet radio, the metrics will be different (by the way, Internet radio is getting big. You should look into it.). Where have your articles been published?

The bottom line: it's numbers.

Twitter is an insanely useful tool for building an audience and connecting with people who will publish or feature you. More than it is a social network, as originally billed, Twitter is an information amplifier. You tweet, someone retweets, an just because of these two actions your link or tidbit could be, theoretically, reaching thousands. Becoming a follower is a low-investment action. All you have to do is be useful once to get someone to follow.

So if you're an expert in an area, start Tweeting about it first. Link to already-established blogs. If you've driven enough traffic to them, perhaps you could apply for a guest-post spot on grounds that you'll bring readers--that you already have done so.

Bit.ly is a link shortener that also counts clicks. So you can see, out of the total number of clicks a link got throughout the whole internet, how many came from you. It can be compelling data. It could get you published. It could get you platform.

How have you gone about starting a platform? Anyone succeeded in gaining the numerical swag to start querying a nonfiction project?

Platform

2011-04-13T11:40:00.000-04:00

It's that dreaded word. Unfair, limiting, gatekeeping word. We hatessss it, precious.

Well, actually, no we don't. In fact, it's probably safe to say that the only ones who hate platform are the ones who don't have platform. It's high school and the head cheerleader's new perm all over again.

Frustration is easy to understand, though. Platform is harder than ever to acquire with the rise of the Internet and particularly with the rise of blogs. When we set up blog tours for our authors, blogs with one or two hundred followers are considered successful, places that will make good potential blog tour "stops." In the unbelievably noisy Internet age, a couple hundred people professing to listen to your noise is fairly impressive.

But what does that translate to as far as platform?

Platform, as it applies to publishing, is about whom you impress with your numbers. Publishers. And, unfortunately, a couple hundred isn't going to cut it. To get publishers' attention, regardless of whether you're debuting or a self-pubber trying to transition to print, you have to command the attention of thousands.

The definition of "publisher" is not as hard and fast as it once was, though. That affects your platform strategy. We'll finish out the week with a short series, covering the anatomy of a non-fiction and a fiction (no, you novelists haven't escaped this scourge) tomorrow and Friday.