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 Wednesday, September 03, 2008
The Differences Between Imprints at Book Publishers
Posted by Jane
There's a great post (that will become a series) at Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind that explains the differences between imprints at book publishers. Must-read material for aspiring book authors (and hey, for agents and people inside the industry too!). A snippet: Something else that might help would be to take Thomas Dunne's name
off of any minotaur titles they acquire, because I'm sorry, which
imprint is it? Or is it St. Martin's? Way too much confusion, please
pick one (which would be Minotaur, of course.) As for Thomas Dunne Books,
um, well....I think of small titles that make money on the library
market? To be fair, Dunne's been around publishing for something like
40 years and the "something for everybody" attitude worked in a world
of single-digit television channels. Now, not so much. Will the name
survive when Dunne retires? Somehow I doubt it.
Click here to visit the full post. Getting Published | Industry News & Trends
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 2:23:08 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Some Things About Writing Never Change (e.g, Huge Army of Disappointed Scribblers)
Posted by Jane
This week I received a great message from an attendee of the Sacramento State Workshop, where I was a workshop presenter a few weeks ago. ( You can find my recap of the workshop here.) Teresa Fleming says: … please don't apologize for the times you have to be discouraging. It's for the best, you know. Of course, you should also know this is coming from someone who: (1) has no memoir plans, and (2) spent a couple of decades in the banking business. (Really, Ms. Smith, I am doing you a favor declining your million-dollar request for a loan to open a fuzzy-cheese-head-car-airfreshener-thingy business.) To close, here are a few quotes for fun. I do a bit of volunteer smoothreading (sort of like proofreading but more relaxed) for Distributed Proofreaders / Project Gutenberg. The day before your presentation, I finished a smoothy on a short book titled If You Don't Write Fiction by Charles Phelps Cushing (1920). Here are a couple of my favorites—some things don't change much, huh?
A huge army of disappointed scribblers have followed that haphazard plan of battle. They would know better than to try to market crates of eggs to a shoe store, but they see nothing equally absurd in shipping a popular science article to the Atlantic Monthly or an "uplift" essay to the Smart Set. They paper their walls with rejection slips, fill up a trunk with returned manuscripts and pose before their sympathetic friends as martyrs. … Which is to say that novelists and magazine fiction writers are accused of becoming more concerned about how their stories will film than about how the manuscripts will grade as pieces of literature. To get a yarn into print is still worth while because this enhances its value in the eyes of the producers of motion pictures. But the author's real goal is "no longer good writing, so much as remunerative picture possibilities."
Many thanks to Teresa for sharing a little bit of the 1920's writing advice! ( You can download the entire text from Google.) Stay tuned for a few excerpts from Writer's Digest titles from that era. (Yes, Writer's Digest did exist in the Roaring Twenties, and much of the advice we give has remained the same!) Fun | General | Getting Published
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 1:38:37 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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 Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Writer Mama Back-to-School Daily Giveaway
Posted by Jane
Conferences/Events | Fun | General
Tuesday, September 02, 2008 9:20:41 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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 Friday, August 29, 2008
Student's for McCain
Posted by Jane
Here's a big OOPS that WDB editor Lauren Mosko uncovered this morning from John McCain's online store. She says, "Wonder how long before someone alerts them and they take it down ...?"  Fun
Friday, August 29, 2008 9:36:29 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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 Thursday, August 28, 2008
 Wednesday, August 27, 2008
News From Glimmer Train
Posted by Jane
Glimmer Train just announced the winners of their June Fiction Open competition. All winners will be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories. First place ($2,000)Shimon Tanaka (San Francisco, CA) “The Suit” Second place ($1,000)Christine Sneed (Evanston, IL) "Twelve + Twelve" Third place ($600)Horatio Potter (Wilsall, MT) “Summer Help” A PDF of the top 25 winners can be found here. This quarterly competition is open to all writers and all themes (word count range is 2,000–20,000). Submissions may be sent for the September Fiction Open using the Glimmer Train online submissions system at www.glimmertrain.org. Also: Very Short Fiction contest (deadline soon approaching! August 31)Glimmer Train hosts this contest twice a year, and first place is a very generous $1,200 plus publication in the journal. It's open to all writers, but stories cannot exceed 3,000 words. According to the site, it is rare for a piece of 500 words or less to be selected. Click here for complete guidelines.If you didn't know, Writer's Digest partnered with Glimmer Train to publish two compilation volumes of the best stuff from their Writers Ask newsletter. Be sure to check them out.  General | Getting Published
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 3:16:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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 Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Take Our Quick Survey on Writing and Critique Groups
Posted by Jane
As you might've read late last week, Writer's Digest wants to know your thoughts on participating in writing groups and critique groups. Have you ever been part of an active critique group? Did your writing improve? Would you buy a book on the subject? Take this short 10-question survey, and let us know what you think! https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Y6cvGHFtAdXoJbVL1rSNzg_3d_3d
So far, the comments we've received through various blog postings have been excellent. After reviewing the comments, it appears a useful book would include the following features, benefits, or information: The Basics - The difference between writers' groups and critique groups
- Open groups vs. closed groups; other types of groups; ideal group size
- How to start a group; how to run a group; multiple techniques/strategies for hosting
- How to develop ground rules for a group
- Compatibility between group members (skill level, genre, etc)
- How to be a productive member
- How to avoid "bad" groups and find "good" groups; questions to ask a group before joining
- Typical bad experiences and how to avoid them
- Handling conflict and other communication skills
- Questionnaires for forming groups and finding the "right" members
- How to shake up a group that's gone stagnant
Critiquing - When listening/encouragement are more important than a critique
- How to go beyond "I like it" or "I don't like it"
- How to adapt feedback to the level of writer you're critiquing
- Multiple techniques for critiquing; guidelines for different types of critiques
- How to receive or listen to critiques; questions to ask your critiquers
- How to incorporate feedback into your work; judging your own work
- Critique checklists
Other - Joining online groups vs. local/regional groups
- Case studies or profiles of successful groups
- Exercises/prompts for different types or levels of group; adapting prompts for group use
- How do you find a group that's the right fit for you? Or how does one find a group, period?
- Provide a directory or "match" service?
Craft & Technique | General
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 3:32:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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 Monday, August 25, 2008
When Cakes Go Horribly Wrong
Posted by Jane
A little bit of fun at the office today: Someone on the team discovered Cake Wrecks, a site featuring terrible and horrible (and sometimes morally objectionable) cake decorations. Categories of "wrecks" include: Beyond Bizarre, Close-Your-Eyes, Creative Grammar, Creepy, Just Funny, Mithspellings, and Oh-So-Ugly. A few of my favorites:  Looks like the e-mail message didn't translate so well.  Hard to imagine placing the order for (or decorating) this cake.  I guess there's never a bad reason to have cake? Fun
Monday, August 25, 2008 4:40:55 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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 Friday, August 22, 2008
Podcast Interview With Lee Lofland
Posted by Jane
Craft & Technique | New Titles From F+W
Friday, August 22, 2008 3:20:12 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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Woman Arrested for Not Returning Library Books
Posted by Jane
In case you thought librarians were softies, check out this news story from Milwaukee television. (Thanks to Melissa for the link!)  Fun
Friday, August 22, 2008 3:07:29 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) Trackback
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