Blog Archive
-
Query Letters, an Agent’s Perspective
Oct 24, 2008
I have spent the last two days crafting the perfect query letter. It’s painful and tedious and is driving Kim crazy because every single incarnation of my pitch paragraph is getting IM’ed to her for feedback. I think by now she probably feels she has read the proposal. Agents often tell authors that a query […]
View More -
The Power of Criticism
Oct 23, 2008
One of the most interesting things for me about writing this blog is the inside look I feel I’ve gotten into what life must be like as a writer. Granted, I’m not writing 100,000 words and putting myself out on bookshelves, but in writing the blog I have faced, like many writers, reviewers. I have […]
View More -
An Agent’s Track Record
Oct 22, 2008
This question is actually part of yesterday’s question, but I thought I would break them up for space reasons and because it gives me two days of posts instead of one. It seems like, at the end of the day, the book has to sell itself, but if that’s the case why do some agents […]
View More -
An Agent’s Responsibility
Oct 21, 2008
How much responsibility does an agent bear for a book not selling? Is a good agent – like a good query letter – simply responsible for getting the manuscript read? Are there different levels of editorial contacts that agents might have – junior vs senior – with more or less power? I guess what I’m […]
View More -
When to Put the Finishing Touches on Your Book
Oct 20, 2008
I recently received a question from an author about indexing. This particular author is working on her book and would like to include an index. Her question was at what point she should do that. Indexing is a tedious and difficult process and is one of those things you shouldn’t even begin to think about […]
View More -
A Little Downtime
Oct 17, 2008
I have about 180 to 200 equeries sitting in my inbox, a stack of requested proposals from as far back as June, and at least two client submissions still awaiting feedback. I’m behind, really far behind. On top of all of that I have contracts to review, calls to return, and everyday projects to complete. […]
View More -
Books and the Economy
Oct 16, 2008
I’ve been holding off on publishing a post on the economy and how it might affect you, since it’s something we just talked about in a July post. I think I’ve been in denial, hoping we’d all wake up from this bad dream or wake up to discover a huge jump in market points and […]
View More -
Why?
Oct 15, 2008
Why do we ask that manuscripts be double-spaced? Obviously it’s easier on the eyes, but actually it’s also easier to edit. Traditionally, copy editing has been done by hand on the page, and for editors to have the space they need to make notes, editing marks, and adjustments the lines need to be double-spaced. It […]
View More -
Just Send the Query
Oct 14, 2008
Periodically I get into an email exchange that takes on a life of its own. Inevitably it starts with someone asking for submission guidelines, which I happily reply to by sending them to the BookEnds Web site. Then suddenly I get a follow-up email asking for clarification that might say something along the lines of, […]
View More -
Picking a Genre for Your Book
Oct 13, 2008
Categories, categories. It seems that I can answer these questions a million times over; there never seems to be enough information on how to categorize a book. A recent question asked me this: What do agents mean by General Fiction? Let’s look at categories from a very basic marketing perspective. Let’s look at it from […]
View More -
Working with Agents, Part II
Oct 10, 2008
In an earlier post on Working with Agents, I talked about signing with a new agent who had once been at an established agency. What one reader pointed out, however, is that the question seemed not to be about working with an agent at a new agency, but working with a new agent at an […]
View More -
A Bittersweet Email
Oct 09, 2008
I received an email the other day that can best be described as bittersweet. The author took the time out of a busy day to simply thank me; thank me for a rejection letter/email I had sent one year earlier. Apparently, according to this writer, not all agents are as kind in their rejections, and […]
View More