Blog Archive
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My Grammar Handicap
Feb 17, 2010
Once, long ago, I ran into an old high school English teacher at a cocktail party. She was thrilled to see me and wanted to spend some time just catching up and, of course, she wanted to pitch her book to me. The first thing this English teacher asked when we finally had the chance […]
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Quoting Rejection Letters
Feb 16, 2010
I don’t care who wrote it, I don’t care if it was an editor, an agent, or another author. Do not, ever, quote a rejection letter in your query. I just received a query in which the author said, Your Best Friend from Top Literary Agency called my book, “a beautifully written book similar to […]
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Formatting Guidelines
Feb 15, 2010
I recently received a partial request (first fifty pages) from a legitimate agency, but the submission guidelines and personal request never stated if the partial should be double or single spaced to include the exact fifty pages. I wanted to know if I should double space the pages just in case, since I am sending […]
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Happy Valentine’s Day
Feb 12, 2010
With Valentine’s Day on Sunday, does that mean we get a whole weekend to celebrate? Well, we certainly think so, but as agents and authors of romance, there’s nothing we believe in more than celebrating love. And who better to talk about romance than the authors who specialize in it. . . . I guess […]
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Wrong Genre
Feb 11, 2010
I have written three nonfiction books in which I have gotten good feedback for. The only problem is that when I look at the feedback they all say the same thing. Great ideas, great writing but wrong genre even though the agents submission guidelines say self-help nonfiction. What am I doing wrong? (your agency is […]
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Obtaining Permissions
Feb 10, 2010
I did a blog post a while back about using poetry and music in your work. In that blog a lot of people had questions about how you go about getting permission and whether or not you need an agent to do so and whether or not it’s an agent’s job to obtain permissions for […]
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There are No Absolutes
Feb 09, 2010
I was concerned about a statement I read on an agent’s website: “Fiction by unknown authors is almost impossible to sell these days.” Following that, she also went on to say: “As a rule, I no longer take mysteries, thrillers or historical novels from unknown authors because publishers won’t buy them.” Since my novels are […]
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Should I Run?
Feb 08, 2010
I was recently offered representation by a one person boutique agency that doesn’t handle alot of clients. I came across her via referral from an editor who I contacted about editing my book proposal. We exchanged some emails and everything seemed fine. Then one day, she mentioned that she thought my story would not only […]
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Amazon v. Macmillan
Feb 05, 2010
By now you all should be keeping updated on the Amazon v. Macmillan battle. If you aren’t, you should be. For those of you who are published this will eventually affect your sales, how your books are priced, and the money you make. For those hoping to be published, knowledge is power. Earlier this week […]
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Age and Publishing
Feb 04, 2010
Can i realistically expect to write a fantasy novel with a fairly standard Tolkienesque type of plot, as a first book, probably submitting to an agent when i’m around seventeen? First let me answer the question as you’ve written it, and then let me answer the question I think you meant to ask. I think […]
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The Sign of a Real Pro
Feb 03, 2010
Any of you who follow me on Twitter have heard me say this before: the sign of a good writer isn’t the first draft or even the second or third or fifth, but how well revisions are handled, each and every time they need to be handled. Many of you probably know by now that […]
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It’s Not All About You
Feb 02, 2010
I used to know this incredible narcissist. She was convinced that all of her “funny” stories were fodder for everyone else to share and would frequently ask, when meeting new people, what stories I hadn’t yet told them about her. The truth was the stories I shared weren’t even close to the stories she was […]
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