Blog Archive
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Publishing: A Business or Personal Preferences?
Aug 20, 2007
In my blog post on Getting Your Work in the Right Hands, a commenter asked the following: Aren’t agents in the business of finding books that will make them money; sussing out what will appeal to the end user? Are editors like agents, i.e. do they choose books based on their personal likes, dislikes and […]
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Handling an Unagented Offer from a Publisher
Aug 17, 2007
Recently I got a call from an author asking advice for a friend of hers. The friend had received an offer from a publisher and was unagented, and while she was over the moon, she was also in a panic. What to do? What to do? I covered this topic once before here, but it […]
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Revealing Your True Identity
Aug 16, 2007
I talked in an earlier post about sticking to a pseudonym. Once you have one it should be the name you use on all of your correspondence, conference name tags, and even when introducing yourself to people. After my post, though, a couple of readers were curious to know when an author should reveal her […]
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Contracts 101: More on Advances
Aug 15, 2007
I received a couple of great questions on my first Contracts 101: Advances post yesterday that I think are worth a follow-up. One reader pointed out that while agents will tell you to get the highest advance you can, publishers will go on and on about how that can be a mistake. Let me clarify […]
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Author Web Sites and Queries
Aug 15, 2007
There seems to be a lot of discussion again about whether you should post sample pages on your Web site and tell an agent about it in your query. Obviously different agents are going to say different things on the issue, but ultimately, if your writing is good, no one is going to reject you […]
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Tuesday in August
Aug 14, 2007
It’s been a while since I’ve done a day in the life post so I thought I’d check in. The last two weeks have actually been painfully quiet. You can definitely tell it’s August and everyone is on vacation. I’ve been having periodic conversations with editors about various things, but other than that I’ve been […]
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Contracts 101: Advance
Aug 14, 2007
As requested, I’m going to start a contract workshop. Now and then I’ll do a post explaining some (probably not all) contract terms that you might want to be aware of. And what they mean. Since this is our first day of class I want to break you in easy and begin with the advance. […]
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The Book You Couldn’t Let Go
Aug 13, 2007
I hope we’ve all had one. That book that implanted itself into your heart. The one that when you finished you just sat there holding it, wishing it hadn’t ended, still caught up in its emotion and afraid that if you move the feeling will go away. Although it’s been years since I’ve read it, […]
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Question About Hooks
Aug 10, 2007
I recently entered a “hook” contest in which I was advised to rewrite mine to focus on just one of three major characters. This bothered me a great deal—I feel it is dishonest. The three characters’ plots intertwine by the end, and they all get equal playing time. Why send a hook that focuses on […]
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Elizabeth Joy Arnold on Luck, Perseverence, and Talent
Aug 09, 2007
Elizabeth Joy Arnold Pieces of My Sister’s Life Publisher: Bantam Pub date: July 2007 Agent: Kim Lionetti (Click to Buy) Author Web site: www.ElizabethJoyArnold.com. My debut novel tells the story of identical twin sisters, Kerry and Eve, whose childhood is upended when they learn that what they both want is a future only one of […]
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Questions for BookEnds?
Aug 08, 2007
I’ve been getting a lot of email questions from blog readers and want to thank you all for your input. As you all know, I try to keep up on reading your comments and answering them the best I can, but there are definitely times when I miss things. So if you ever have a […]
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A Look at E-Publishing
Aug 08, 2007
I received a comment last week with a list of questions about e-publishing, and while I do represent a number of authors with an e-pub background I’m afraid I don’t know a great deal about e-publishers. Usually my clients handle their own e-books while I worry about NYC. But in an effort to answer all […]
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