Blog Archive
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Market News
Jul 29, 2009
There is no doubt that the economy has had a huge impact on publishing. Too many editors to count have been laid off and publishers are publicly announcing that they are cutting back on the number of books they are acquiring and subsequently intend to publish. What I’ve noticed most however is that even those […]
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Genre
Jul 28, 2009
There’s often a lot of angst from authors about which genre their books might fall into and how to categorize a book when pitching to agents and editors. Let me tell you a little secret. This is not critical to the rejection or acceptance of your book. In fact, it barely matters. The reason agents […]
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Providing Feedback
Jul 27, 2009
When do agents, if ever, “owe” an author feedback? Should an agent who has asked to read a full manuscript always be required to provide constructive, personal feedback as to why the book didn’t work for her? What about an agent who has asked for a partial? Do the same rules apply? Is an agent […]
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Word Count
Jul 24, 2009
I swear I must get a question a week relating to word count. It’s an endless discussion here, on the blogs of other agents and on writing loops and boards, so while I’ve posted on this before I’m going to try to make this the complete guide to word count post, everything you need to […]
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I Stop Reading When
Jul 23, 2009
I’ll confess, I stole this idea from Janet Reid, but it’s a brilliant post and one that I think might be a little different for every agent. So what about a query letter results in an instant, or near instant, rejection? Here we go…. 1. Every single agent on earth is included in the “to” […]
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What to Ask Who
Jul 22, 2009
What are questions for your agent, and what are questions for your editor? I don’t want to step on my agent’s toes by circumventing her, but at the same time, I don’t want to make her work harder for her 15% than I have to. If, for example, I want to know whether a book […]
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Stand Proud
Jul 21, 2009
Lately there has been a rash of queries that start out by saying things like, “Since this is my first query it’s very likely I’m getting it all wrong” or “I’m not the strongest writer in the world” or “I know how busy you are so I hope you can take the time to read […]
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Good Enough Is Never Enough
Jul 20, 2009
I don’t believe in the words “it’s good enough” because I will tell you right now that if you ever say to your agent, your critique partner, or your editor that “it’s good enough,” it’s not. Nothing should ever go out on submission or be dropped into the hands of your editor until you deem […]
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RWA–Friday–Publishing News
Jul 17, 2009
Yesterday I told you about my panel with Abby Zidle from Pocket, agent Kevan Lyon, Deb Werksman from Sourcebooks, Tracy Ferrell from Harlequin and agent Emmanuelle Alspaugh (today I corrected all spellings. ouch.) and mentioned that the one common theme I’m hearing at the conference, from editors and agents alike, is that publishing is struggling […]
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RWA–Thursday–Publishing News
Jul 16, 2009
It’s never any good to start your first full day of a conference exhausted. Kim is mainlining coffee as we speak. Apparently we were given the loudest room in the hotel. There’s something outside of our window that sounds like a train or a large box truck that “drives by” every three minutes and sometime […]
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The Romance of the Train
Jul 15, 2009
As you read this Kim and I are boarding Amtrak for Washington, D.C.’s, Union Station. Today is the start of the RWA National conference and I love that I get to take the most romantic form of transportation to get there. There’s something about a train that just calms, relaxes, and excites me. Have you […]
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Passion Isn’t Everything
Jul 14, 2009
All the time you hear about agents who reject a book because we simply aren’t passionate enough about it. Certainly this reasoning has incited numerous discussions on this and other blogs from authors who couldn’t care less whether or not an agent feels passion, but just wants someone to sell the book. I’ve even seen […]
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