There Are No Rules - Wednesday, September 03, 2008

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)

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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)

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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Writer Mama Back-to-School Daily Giveaway
Posted by Jane

Writer's Digest author Christina Katz (our Writer Mama) has a month of giveaways in September to celebrate back to school! You can find the line up of prizes here (which includes goodies from Writer's Digest):

http://thewritermama.wordpress.com/2008/08/28/writer-mama-back-to-school-giveaway-the-2008-final-list-of-prizes/

Participants have to answer writing-career related questions to qualify for the daily drawing. Click here for the full list of rules.

Conferences/Events | Fun | General

Tuesday, September 02, 2008 9:20:41 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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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)

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Round-Up of Insightful Articles on Publishing's Future
Posted by Jane

I've spent a good portion of this week catching up on trend reading. Here's a sampling of what I've found worthwhile.

"Book Publishers: Learn From Yelp—Even Gawker" (BusinessWeek)
How book publishers can remain relevant and vital by using 2.0 technology. This has generated many responses throughout industry blogs.

"Brand Presence" (PersonaNonData)
How publishers can engage consumers directly by branding their categories, subjects, and/or authors. This is another article that has generated considerable discussion. A snippet:

Publishers are best placed to build author-centric and subject/theme-oriented websites--not sites oriented around a "brand" that isn't relevant, but those that focus attention on segments of the business that remain relevant to consumers.

"10 Reasons Not to Write Off Reading From a Screen" (thedigtalist.net)
Quick, pithy list for all writers to learn from.

"Pricing Digital Book Content: Where's the Sweet Spot?" (Reilly TOC)
The final conclusion? No one knows. But it's a fascinating discussion leading to that conclusion.

Building Readership | Digitization & New Technology | Industry News & Trends | Marketing & Self-Promotion

Thursday, August 28, 2008 5:34:25 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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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)

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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)

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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: