Blog Archive

  • The Driver’s Seat (cont.)

    Aug 18, 2006

    To continue from yesterday’s post, once Christine and I agreed to work together, I immediately set to work to get her manuscript in front of as many editors as I could. My first job as Christine’s agent was to make sure that the offering editor knew I was now handling contract negotiations. My second job […]

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  • The Driver’s Seat

    Aug 17, 2006

    I’ve talked a lot about how an author should act professionally, the downside of exclusives, and mistakes I’ve seen authors make. Well, very recently I worked with an author who did everything right, and since I like to be positive every once in a while and occasionally share some good news, I asked Christine Wells […]

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  • PR for the Unpublished Writer

    Aug 16, 2006

    We started this blog thinking we could do an official Question of the Month, answering readers’ questions. But we get so many great questions that one a month doesn’t seem like enough. Instead we’re going to dissolve that idea entirely and simply try to answer reader questions whenever we get a chance. To have your […]

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  • Why the First Chapters

    Aug 15, 2006

    I spent a recent Saturday morning making a feeble attempt to go through my submission piles (and for some of you with proposals under consideration, you know what I mean by feeble) when I came across a proposal that included chapters 1, 33, and two pages of chapter 45. So frustrating! Can you imagine buying […]

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  • The Handshake Agreement

    Aug 14, 2006

    It wasn’t too long ago that all agents used a simple handshake agreement with authors rather than the signed contract. After all, it was a “gentleman’s business.” At BookEnds, most of my clients have a written agreement; there are a few, however, usually those who come to us for what is expected to be one […]

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  • Rejection

    Aug 11, 2006

    Rejection. Ugh. I understand rejection. I get rejected too, remember. Believe it or not, not every single book I send out there for publication wins the prize. So I know very well what this feels like: In fact, everyone in publishing understands rejection. Writers get rejected by agents and editors. Agents get rejected by editors. […]

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  • The Editor/Agent Lunch

    Aug 10, 2006

    Last week I had lunch with an editor, and despite the ridiculous heat in New York, I had such a fabulous time. This is an editor whom I’ve talked to on the phone a number of times, but surprisingly never met. The two and a half hours we spent together flew by through identical lunch […]

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  • Making the Pitch

    Aug 09, 2006

    A couple of people commented after my RWA post on pitches and it got me to thinking about the pitching process and what it takes to be successful. It’s very obvious that some are better at public speaking, interviews, and pitches than others, and it’s very true that I have read the greatest books, requested […]

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  • Conference Likes and Dislikes

    Aug 08, 2006

    By reader request we’ve put together a list of those things we like and dislike about conferences. Some are just plain silly, while others are things we see conferences do that either help or hurt the attendees. Whatever we’ve listed, though, is something we have experienced in one way or another. Like: A room supplied […]

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  • Inspirational Novels

    Aug 07, 2006

    One of our readers posted the folllowing comment/question last month: . . . erotica is big right now, but on the other end of the spectrum is Inspirational. I’ve recently crossed over to Inspirational romance, specifically Inspirational Chic Lit (I’d love to one day be compared to Kristin Billerbeck) and I’m still learning about the […]

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  • Titles

    Aug 04, 2006

    We all know how important a title is for a book, and it’s amazing how much time I spend trying to come up with good titles—first for the submission process and later when the publisher comes up with a new title that just plain stinks. And while we all know what a title is, do […]

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  • Finding Your Purple Cow

    Aug 03, 2006

    A recent comment to one of my posts had me thinking about marketing guru Seth Godin’s fantastic book The Purple Cow. A quick and fun read, I highly recommend everyone get a copy. In one sentence, The Purple Cow is about making yourself marketable by being remarkable. Published authors are always talking about how they […]

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