Blog Archive
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Signing Contracts Without an Agent
May 28, 2008
I’m about to sign a book contract with a mid-size nonfiction publisher. The book could easily sell to a larger publisher b/c of its mainstream appeal and large target audiences (and my platform). However, I am confident that this publisher knows how to sell in this area, and I’d rather have long-term sales and see […]
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Revisions Before Representation
May 27, 2008
I recently received a question and long explanation from a reader. Rather than reprint the entire question, I’m going to try to summarize as best I can. Ultimately this writer was told by an agent’s assistant that they (she and Agent) really liked Writer’s novel, but felt it would need some work. The assistant went […]
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It’s Been Two Years
May 23, 2008
I was just reminded that next week is the second anniversary of the BookEnds Blog. Not only is it hard to believe it’s been two years, but it’s hard to believe I still have things left to say. I just want to take a minute to acknowledge all the writers and readers who have followed […]
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J. B. Stanley on Mystery Writing
May 22, 2008
J. B. Stanley Chili Con Corpses Publisher: Midnight Ink Pub date: January 2008 Agent: Jessica Faust (Click to Buy) Author Web/Blog links: www.jbstanley.com, www.cozychicks.com, www.cozychicksblog.com/ Mystery writers have so much fun! We do oddball research that can range from how a .22-caliber gun shoots at close range to the Latin names of cattle vaccines to […]
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Defining and Honoring Writing Mentors
May 21, 2008
I thought this was a really interesting question and one I suspect my readers can answer better than I can. . . . I need a definition of “What is a Writing Mentor.” I write Romance, Mystery, and Suspense and have had a critique partner and mentor for the past 4 years. I belong to […]
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Formatting Guidelines
May 20, 2008
When authors are getting ready to submit to agents, I see a lot of them who get caught up in what’s really too ridiculous to stress over, and that’s formatting. Listen, folks, follow the simple term paper formatting rules you had to follow in high school or college and you’ll be fine. But for those […]
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Now the Good Stuff
May 19, 2008
Thank you everyone who participated in my venting blog post. It was fascinating, disheartening, frustrating, and just sad to read what many of you had to say. And it’s given me a lot of material to write for future posts. Points to address, topics to discuss, and hopefully inspiration to dole out. I’ve also learned […]
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Lessons Learned from the BookEnds 100-Word Contest
May 16, 2008
First, let me take care of a little post-contest business. Surprisingly, we’re still waiting on quite a few winners to send us their material for critique. We’re guessing there’s some furious writing and polishing going on. We’d like to request, however, that all winners’ materials be e-mailed to our blog account by June 15th. This […]
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A Change of Punctuation
May 15, 2008
I recently received the following question from a reader and it made me think of the style in which we write: My question is about the dialogue dash. I love it. I write historical fiction, and I love the way the dialogue dash (instead of quotation marks) gives the speech a ‘foreign language’ nuance. Quotes […]
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A Time to Vent
May 14, 2008
As authors you have to listen to it all the time, agents and editors venting and ranting about everything you do wrong and all of the ways you irritate us. Well, now it’s your turn. I’m going to give you an open forum to tell your agent and editor horror stories, to ask kindly that […]
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How to Advertise “Editability”
May 13, 2008
The lines between “mainstream” and “sensual” seem to be blurring these days, as more “mainstream” books include steamy scenes that just get racier as time passes. When I write, I have to decide how far to take the steamy scenes, if I don’t just close the bedroom door. But I’m never averse to stepping up […]
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How Do “Bad Books” Get Published?
May 12, 2008
I received this question recently: I just don’t understand how so many “bad” books make it to the shelves. I might realize how they squeeze past the safeguard of the query, even slightly shrug at skipping through the synopsis, but how do they escape the steel claws of the agent, much less the probing publisher? […]
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