Blog Archive
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What to Write Next
Apr 07, 2008
Conventional wisdom seems to be that while a writer has their book out on submission to agents/publishers they should be working on their next book. But what should the next book be? Should it be the next book in the series they’ve envisioned, or should it be an entirely new book (because if the first […]
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The Endless Circle of Fiction Writing
Apr 04, 2008
I received the following question from a reader, and it’s really one of the many reasons why I admire authors and always try to respect every query and submission I receive (even though it might not always feel that way from your end. . . .). When writing fiction, as an unpublished writer, how do […]
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The Place of Reviews in the Writer’s Universe
Apr 03, 2008
Sally MacKenzie The Naked Gentleman Publisher: Zebra Pub date: March 2008 Agent: Jessica Faust (Click to Buy) A review of my April release, The Naked Gentleman, just showed up in my inbox. I considered deleting it unread. Reviews are a fact of the published author’s life. We may not like them, but we need them. […]
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What Is Narrative Nonfiction? and Thoughts on Memoirs
Apr 02, 2008
I was asked recently to explain what narrative nonfiction is. A good question. When most agents discuss the difference between submitting nonfiction and fiction, they are usually discussing non-narrative nonfiction. If you are writing narrative nonfiction the submission process is usually the same as fiction, the agent would expect that your book is complete or […]
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Coming to the Party
Apr 01, 2008
Some time ago I wrote about the nonfiction submission process, and in my example I gave a respond-by date, letting editors know that I was hoping to hear of their interest by a certain date. Well, one wise reader asked what happens next. What do you do when you have more than one publisher interested, […]
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Conference Etiquette
Mar 31, 2008
Conferences are a lot of work for agents and a lot of pressure for authors, and very frequently I’m asked questions about how authors should and can approach agents in various situations. I know we’ve chatted about what to do in an elevator or at a pitch appointment (which I’ll touch on again), but how […]
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Thriller/Suspense Honorable Mentions
Mar 28, 2008
As usual, everyone did a great job in this category, but there were a few more entries that really stood out for us. . . . Jessica’s picks: Anonymous 10:59am — Secondary Targets MCAS Cherry PointPresent Day To say that General Michael Hendricks’ days were numbered was not necessarily accurate. Hours–maybe. Seconds–probably. Days–doubtful. Midnight had […]
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A Thriller/Suspense Winner . . . and the Women’s Fiction Contest!
Mar 27, 2008
It became clear in the thriller/suspense contest that some of the contestants are either not really reading the rules or choosing not to follow them. Unfortunately, this caused a bit of a problem for Jessica and me when we judged the contest. We went through and made our list of top picks. We agreed on […]
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You Do Judge a Book by Its Cover
Mar 26, 2008
In my post on Is Good Writing Really Enough, many of you were wonderfully honest about what leads you to buy a new book by an unknown author. I have to admit, I was surprised by how many said that the title of a book and/or its cover were two of the leading reasons why […]
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This Book Won’t Sell
Mar 25, 2008
A comment on a recent blog post grabbed my attention. In my blog post on Is Good Writing Really Enough, Eric made a really interesting comment about how agents and editors know that a book won’t sell. It seems that publishing professionals use those words all the time, but Eric questioned how we could really […]
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Multiple Submissions within the Same Agency
Mar 24, 2008
Or maybe I should have titled this “The Trouble with Email Submissions.” There’s been a new and frustrating phenomenon lately, and that’s authors who are submitting the same work to all three BookEnds agents. I suppose in the grand scheme of things it’s no skin off your teeth and only irritating to us, but here’s […]
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Freakishly Unresponsive, Mysteriously Silent, Information-Withholding, Possibly Jekyll-and-Hydeish, Raging-Headache-Inducing, No Good, Very Bad
Mar 21, 2008
The title comes straight from the questioner herself. It’s so brilliant I had to use it . . . Here’s the deal. I received a question from a reader in which she’s dying to fire her agent. She really wants to fire her agent, but said agent won’t answer her phone calls or emails . […]
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