Blog Archive
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Choosing a Title
Sep 18, 2009
It’s never easy, is it? You spend months and months writing and then months more revising. You finally get the book finished, feel good about it and are now sitting down to write your query, and of course your next book, and that’s when you realize that, yes, your title is important too and slapping […]
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Reading for Pleasure
Sep 17, 2009
I’m always asked whether or not I actually read books for pleasure or if it’s all about work. First let me clarify that I really dislike this phrase and should probably change it to “reading in my spare time,” but it loses a little something in that translation. I dislike the phrase because it implies […]
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Writer’s Block
Sep 16, 2009
I’m currently working on a humor project about writer’s block. One of the characters is an agent. I’m just looking for some perspective as to how an agent might deal with a formerly successful writer that hasn’t been able to write anything in a couple years. What would be the realistic way in which to […]
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Writing the Rules
Sep 15, 2009
Is there ever any defense for writing memoir narrative in the present tense? Recently an editor and I were talking about the romance market when she told me she was getting a number of romance submissions written in first person, which she didn’t think worked. She felt that romance should always be written in third […]
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Computer-Generated Responses
Sep 14, 2009
I’m sure this recent submission question, sent to the blog questions account, came primarily out of frustration, but it presents a question that I would like to clear up. On Saturday at 4:10 pm I submitted an e-mail query to you and on Sunday morning, 10:09 am, I received the following rejection response, obviously program-generated: […]
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Working Seven Days a Week
Sep 11, 2009
Agents often discuss how much we need to work just to keep up on the emails we’re getting. You’ve heard it before, so I won’t go too far into it, but frequently our job takes us into the wee hours of the night or the early hours of morning (depends on whether the agent is […]
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My Favorite Books
Sep 10, 2009
I’m frequently asked by readers, or by anyone really, what I would consider my favorite books, and I have to admit I’ve never been good at favorites. When asked who my best friend is I always have a list, my favorite color changes with my mood, and as for favorite books, movies or songs, well, […]
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The Importance of Writing Credits
Sep 09, 2009
I hear from a lot of fiction writers concerned about writing credits. You’ve been told over time that in order to get published you need to build writing credits or are concerned that when it comes to your query you don’t have much to add in terms of your bio. Don’t worry about it. Everyone […]
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How Close Am I?
Sep 08, 2009
I currently have a manuscript under submission with an agent. After reviewing the manuscript the first time, the agent had good things to say about my writing and my main character but ultimately felt it would do better with a female protagonist in the YA genre. So, I asked if she would be interested in […]
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Happy Labor Day!
Sep 04, 2009
The BookEnds offices will be closed Friday through Monday in observance of Labor Day. Have a great weekend and we’ll be back Tuesday with a new post.
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Translation Rights
Sep 03, 2009
Would a bilingual writer be permitted to do his/her own translation? If so, how would this change the royalties or publishing process for foreign publication? I can’t answer definitively whether or not you’d be able to do a translation yourself because that would depend entirely on the publisher. Certainly, if we are selling foreign rights, […]
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Product Placement in Books
Sep 02, 2009
What are the guidelines for product placement in manuscripts? Are there any restrictions to using trademarked brand names or is it just better to leave them out all together? To the best of my knowledge there are no restrictions. You might need to add either a trademark or copyright symbol, depending on how the product […]
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