Blog Archive
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What Constitutes a Title?
Jul 13, 2009
What constitutes whether or not you are a writer or an author? An unpublished reader preparing business cards for a writers conference recently asked this question, and while it never dawned on me to do a blog post about it, it is something that has often niggled at the back of my mind when speaking […]
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Rhetorical Questions
Jul 10, 2009
Have you ever wondered what would happen if an agent’s answer to your rhetorical question was no? Or how rhetorical questions are really just filler and tell a reader nothing about your book? Have you thought about the fact that query letters should be informative and substantive and rhetorical questions are neither of those? Agent […]
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The Trouble with “Respond By” Times
Jul 09, 2009
One of the more frequent complaints I see from unagented authors is that agents seem to rarely respond to proposals and manuscripts in the time frames specified on our Web sites and I can certainly understand your frustration. From my side of things, you have no idea how many times I am told by an […]
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How Do you Know?
Jul 08, 2009
I think one of the biggest fears of authors reading agent blogs, those who do their research and diligently learn about the business and about agents, is the fear of picking the wrong agent anyway. Sure you can conduct your interviews, ask around and talk to an agent before signing on the dotted line, but […]
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Help a Girl Out
Jul 07, 2009
It seems that often enough an author makes the agent work so hard that it’s not worth the effort. For example, instead of a query letter, I simply get a one-sentence description and a link to a web site that really includes very little information about the book. For some reason I’m still interested, so […]
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The Meaning of Different
Jul 06, 2009
Let’s pretend for a minute that you’re an ice cream maker. Your job is to create delicious, interesting and unique flavors for the Yummy Ice Cream ice cream company. Of course the goal is to come up with something different, but it is also to keep your job, and that means to come up with […]
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Trust Yourself
Jul 03, 2009
I was wandering around the Internet this week reading and catching up on blog posts written by my colleagues and the one thing that really struck me, in all the advice we’re giving and the guidance we’re providing, is that the key to all of this is you really have to trust yourself. Simply because […]
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Fiction with Nonfiction Characters
Jul 02, 2009
Can one write a story with historical figures with plotlines involving these characters including historical truths as well as substantial fictional elements? And if so when submitting it does one say it is a fictional story based on true characters…or do you just leave it alone? Absolutely! In fact, I think the best historical fiction […]
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Waiting by the Phone
Jul 01, 2009
In February I attended a writer’s conference, pitched to an agent and he asked for my full MS. We had a very pleasant and positive meeting. Eight weeks later I followed up and he quickly and warmly replied that he’d get to it ASAP. Two weeks later I contacted him again because another agent requested […]
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More Thoughts on Re-Pitching Agents
Jun 30, 2009
I’ve always taught that if you have made significant changes to your book for one reason or another you should definitely consider re-pitching agents. I’m sure there are plenty who cringe when hearing me give that advice, but the truth is, what do you really have to lose? The one thing that always strikes me, […]
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Publishing Tip #1
Jun 29, 2009
Do not query until you’ve at least started writing the book. It’s a disturbing trend lately, but I’m getting a lot of queries from people who have an idea and “plan to start writing soon” or are “about 5,000 words into it.” I know people are excited and I would suspect that any of you […]
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Definition of Query
Jun 26, 2009
According to Dictionary.com the definition of a query as it relates to publishing is: an inquiry from a writer to an editor of a magazine, newspaper, etc., regarding the acceptability of or interest in an idea for an article, news story, or the like: usually presented in the form of a letter that outlines or […]
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