Blog Archive

  • Discussions with Your Agent

    Aug 18, 2008

    When you’ve signed a client and are submitting his/her work to editors, at what point do you want to hear about the writer’s other ideas? When do you want to see proposals for them or want them to start working on other books? Or do you want to exhaust all avenues with the book on […]

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  • I Dedicate This To . . .

    Aug 15, 2008

    Every month I get a new stack of books from publishers, books my clients have written. I’m always so excited to see these books in final form and thrilled for the authors. Well, confession time, the first thing I do when getting each book is admire the cover and spine, flip through the pages to […]

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  • Clients with Previously Rejected Material

    Aug 14, 2008

    I think I’ve told you more than once that many of my clients had been previously rejected by me. They had voices I loved, but the first book just didn’t pan out. Thank goodness they kept at it, because it’s so thrilling to me to take on a new client, especially when she’d previously written […]

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  • The Danger of Publishing Blogs

    Aug 13, 2008

    I was reading through some of the posts on my own blog as well as those of my colleagues and started to think about some of the dangers to authors that can occur because of these blogs. Oftentimes we are asked to give advice, guidance, or further explanation as to some of the biggest causes […]

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  • The Stigma of Changing Agents

    Aug 12, 2008

    I’m often asked how an author should handle the process and logistics of changing agents, but rarely am I asked about the stigma jumping agents can cause, and lucky for you, this is something I’ve never thought of. A reader recently emailed to ask if leaving an agent makes it more difficult to find another […]

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  • Personalized Rejections from Editors

    Aug 11, 2008

    By popular demand I’m going to address how authors can and should handle personalized rejection letters from editors. Since there was some confusion in an earlier post, let me explain that in this case what I really mean is revision rejection letters, or rejection letters with editorial suggestions. I apologize for the confusion, but I […]

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  • You Have an Agent . . . Now What

    Aug 08, 2008

    A reader recently expressed frustration that there is so much information on the Internet about querying and how to do so properly, but so little about what to do next. What happens once the author-agent relationship is established and what can you do if problems arise? Now, I’ve written a number of posts on how […]

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  • Stages of Editing

    Aug 07, 2008

    Once the publishing contract is finalized, one of the first questions debut authors ask is what’s next. A very valid question and one I’m afraid I often forget to explain. After all, editing and publishing has been my life for 15 years; it’s sometimes hard to remember what others might not know. This explanation of […]

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  • Are You Too Explicit

    Aug 06, 2008

    I received a question from a writer of women’s fiction asking if she needed to tell agents up front, in the query, that she has a few explicit sex scenes in her book. She had a couple of concerns: one was what was the line between “hot” and “explicit,” and the other was that her […]

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  • Until You Walk a Mile in My Shoes

    Aug 05, 2008

    One of the things I try to do on this blog is give you an honest look at the agent’s side of things, including why I often reject some of the many queries I receive. Unfortunately, while I can be as honest with you as possible, there is no way for you to really know […]

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  • Writer Beware, BookEnds Style

    Aug 04, 2008

    I just had a very interesting experience with a submission. After reading over the query and determining that there were many reasons the book wasn’t right for me, I sent along my standard email rejection. One I hope is kind, yet honest. The author, in a clear fit of anger, sent back a reply stating […]

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  • Saturday’s Report from the RWA Front

    Aug 02, 2008

    Yesterday started out as one miss after another for me and for those of you who I put out I am deeply, deeply sorry. I’m an early riser, always have been, so when at conference I like to get going as early as possible. My first appointment was for breakfast with a client. I had […]

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