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Sunday, February 21, 2010 10:44:41 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2] Trackback

1. Philippa Burgess: You need to win the hearts and minds of people before you win any dollars. Philippa gave a terrific (standing-room only) presentation on how authors can brand themselves. This particular tip conveys how important it is to build an audience interested in what you have to say before attempting to sell a book (to editors, agents, or readers).
2. Alan Rinzler: Early intervention is really critical for a writer to get good feedback (from a professional, not family/friends). This was the most often repeated advice, and longtime editor Rinzler made a passionate and convincing case for it. (So did Patricia Davis, through the metaphor of a three-eyed baby.)
   
3. (First tweeted by @Frannydink): Steve Berry, who has now sold 10 million books, was rejected 85 times before he sold first book. Speaks for itself. Later Berry commented that 10 revisions is not enough. More like 60 is what he recommends.
   
4. Agent Ted Weinstein: Writers, think of yourself as multimedia empire - as a producer (in charge of your own success). Depending on or waiting for publishers to create an audience or readership for you is likely to end in failure.
5. Patricia Davis: Critical - Writers shouldn't randomly blog but blog on material geared toward (book) target audience. I'm just as guilty as the next person when I tell writers vaguely to get a "blog," without really explaining how or when it is meaningful. Patricia did a great job explaining how a blog can be helpful when you're writing material that appeals to your core audience (those people who ultimately want to read your books—not editors/agents).
   

Thursday, February 18, 2010 4:36:19 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [6] Trackback

First place: Stephanie Soileau (pictured above), of San Francisco, CA, wins $2000 for “Chemiere Caminada.”  Her story will be published in the Spring 2011 issue of Glimmer Train Stories, out in February 2011.

Second place: Diane Chang, of Chicago, IL, wins $1000 for “The Teacher and the Revolution.”  Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories.
 
Third place: Naama Goldstein, of Allston, MA, wins $600 for “Stronghold.”

Thursday, February 18, 2010 4:29:59 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] Trackback

I get so many proposals from people who want to do books that explore the fear and self-doubt associated with writing and creativity. And, while it’s true that there’s a certain amount of fear associated with any large undertaking, I remain absolutely unconvinced that dwelling on it or snuggling up with it is all that helpful to the creative process.

So, when people ask me what I love most about Book in a Month by Victoria Schmidt, I tell them the truth: It’s a light-hearted yet thorough guide to novel writing that helps you stay goal-oriented and upbeat about your writing progress.

The book shows you how to:

• Set realistic goals and monitor your progress
• Select a story topic that will continue to inspire you throughout the writing process
• Quickly outline your entire story so that you have a clear idea of how your plot and characters are going to develop before you start writing
• Draft each act of your story by focusing on specific turning points
• Keep track of the areas you want to revise without losing your momentum in the middle of your story
• Relax and have fun—you are, after all, doing something you love

The heart of this book, though, is dedicated to its exclusive 30-day novel writing system. Comprehensive instruction and detailed interactive worksheets (click here to download PDFs) guide you through the whole process from that first story summary to that memorable closing line.

Writing a book is hard work, and you certainly may run into a few rough patches from time to time, but the trick is to keep moving. Here are 4 tips on making time to write from the book.

Click here to buy the book from our Shop, or add it to your wishlist.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 10:09:12 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1] Trackback

This is the story of a man who can talk PUBLISHING without ever referencing a compelling story, plot, worldbuilding, background, character arc, or any of the things that matter to us readers and writers.

From Andrew R. Malkin's perspective, publishing isn't about "compelling stories" at all.

At most, he mentions one author's name—and without a word about what delicious, beloved characters this author has made famous! He never talks about the fascinating relationships among characters, the drama, the penetrating themes or pithy language as sources of the success of his own efforts to market them.

This is a description of a "characters welcome" character, a career marketer, a kind of person that a writer never, ever, encounters, but upon whom a writer's career depends!

The writer deals with the Agent, the Agent deals with the Editor, the Editor deals with her Managing Editor or Committee -- the book is contracted, edited, copy edited, designed, assigned a cover -- turned over to publicity (some writers get to know their publicist; most don't) -- and then some layers beyond that publicist, the property reaches this man's hands where it lives or dies without having been read by most of the people who packaged the product.

It doesn't matter how COMPELLING your story is or how marvelously smooth the craftsmanship when this man causes success or failure of the book.

The same multi-layered business model structure is used by TV and film industries, eventually causing films to live or die at the box office on the expertise of a man just like this one.

This is the structure of the "Fiction Delivery System" the very existence of which is hidden from the writer. The writer is never trained in how to leverage the existence of these decision makers upon whom his/her destiny depends. The reader/viewer never hears about these people.

Read this man's career carefully.

…

Read that blog entry describing his history and his shift into the electronic book publishing industry and you may come to understand better "what" is happening to ebook publishing as the big guys take over, and why they do what they do despite anything we can do or be or become.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010 5:26:04 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [7] Trackback

I do not doubt there is an audience for your work. However, that doesn't equate to an agent being able to sell it.

This analogy may not be fair, but think of it this way: Would you send your plays directly to Broadway for consideration? No, you use your connections first to gain traction, and do things locally/regionally first.

Writers think New York publishing is something that should be easier to break into, easier maybe than Broadway or Hollywood. Yet the Big Six have the same commercial standards as these other venues–now more than ever.

Consider the qualities of your work that make it a tough sell:

• literary
• crime (genre that is overpublished and overpitched)
• epistolary (a big drawback, doesn't fit any bestseller model that I know of)
• white-male protagonist, written by a white male (I'm sorry, this does make it more difficult; women dominate publishing as both readers and decision makers)

It's pretty much a given that no agent will see commercial potential in your work in the current market. That means you need someone to fall head over heels for your work, and work against trend to get it published. How frequently does this happen? Well, think how often it happens to you—both in your personal and professional life. How often do you find someone who you simply MUST evangelize to everyone you know and risk your reputation on?

Right now, you're in the same boat as most talented writers I meet: struggling to get noticed and not really suited to do anything but write. Don't think you deserve to be published easier or faster— everyone else has that sense of entitlement, too.

What are you going to do to set yourself apart? Be distinctive? More passionate? Only you can say.

But don't write another story about killing an editor.

Monday, February 08, 2010 1:15:35 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2] Trackback

• Who most consistently offers the best writing advice on Twitter?
• Who is most likely to share links that are helpful in your writing life?
• Who creates meaning in your Twitterstream instead of noise?

• Comment on this blog post—be sure to include Twitter handle of person you are nominating and an example of a recent Tweet
  

• Give me a shout-out on Twitter with the Twitter handle of the person you'd like to nominate

Sunday, February 07, 2010 9:21:55 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [8] Trackback

In our boyhood, my big brother, Sam, dug pieces of coal and scrap lumber from the red mud so my mother could heat a borrowed house. In the 1970s, he quit school to load boxcars with one hundred-pound sacks of clay and lime. He shoveled gravel and sand into the backs of flatbed trucks, cut pulpwood, and broke down truck tires with a chisel and a five-pound sledge. Then, he gave me a running start away from all of it.

A hundred times, it seemed, I slouched at the shoulder of some trash-strewn highway in northeastern Alabama, the hood up on a wore-out car, waiting for him to come and get me going again. I was always on my way to some writing job, some frivolous work, something you could do all day and not even get any grease under your nails.

He would pull up in his old Chevrolet pickup, hand me a flashlight—it always seemed I broke down in the dark—and go to work. He would pull wrenches and yank on alternators and water pumps till he peeled the skin off his knuckles, blood mixing with grime until I flipped my clip-on tie over one shoulder and reached in with my free hand, to help. “Quit,” he would hiss. “You’ll get dirty.”

Friday, February 05, 2010 9:43:34 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [15] Trackback

How to Get a Book Deal While Avoiding the Slush Pile
This is my guest post over at Writer Unboxed, discussing the so-called "death of the slush pile" as reported by the Wall Street Journal.


The Future of Agents & Book Contracts
While attending Digital Book World, I covered the three panels featuring literary agents and publishers. Check out these recaps—essential reading for both aspiring writers and already-published authors.


Free Webinars on Publishing Industry
Speaking of Digital Book World, every week Guy Gonzalez hosts a roundtable discussion on industry news. Go and educate yourself—for free!

For those who need a little bit of lower level advice, mark your calendars for the next free Q&A webinar with Writer's Digest editors: May 13 at 1p EST. The event fills up within hours of opening registration; subscribe to our e-newsletter to be among the first to know when you can sign up.


Paid Services on WritersMarket.com
For the first time ever, we've created a section of WritersMarket.com that is absolutely free for everyone to use: Paid Services. This section includes our editorially vetted listings on competitions/contests, events, and organizations, plus we're also now gathering new listings on self-publishing services, professional editorial services, educational programs, and software. This area is still new and growing, but go check it out and let us know what you think.


2010 Writer's Digest Editors' Intensives
If you're looking for professional feedback on your work, we've now set the dates for our intensives this year: March 13-14 and September 11-12. Find out more here. Or read Darrelyn Saloom's post on the event here.


VIP Program
You might recall my excitement about the launch of this program in fall 2009. Now I'm proud to announce it's available internationally. VIP is by far one of the best deals Writer's Digest has ever offered. Go check it out.

Thursday, February 04, 2010 3:38:13 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2] Trackback

All the Potter books have a major disturbance, one that readers can relate to.

• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
• Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
• Description by Monica Wood
• Plot by Ansen Dibell
• Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
• Conflict, Action, and Suspense by William Noble

Thursday, February 04, 2010 12:24:39 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] Trackback

Some stories require multiple POVs, but slush-pile fiction often switches POV inappropriately.

• Lisa discovers a dead body in the trunk of her car.
• Lt. Manning takes over the investigation into the mysterious corpse.
• George, Lisa’s estranged husband, has an argument with Lisa about letting strangers place dead bodies in her automobile.
• A nameless individual sits in a dark room, planning a gruesome crime.
• Dr. Trace performs an autopsy on the previously-mentioned corpse.
• Chief of Police Henries gives Lt. Manning a dressing down over poorly prepared paperwork.
• Timmy, who works at Squeaky-Clean Car Detailing, experiences emotional trauma as he cleans out the trunk of Lisa’s car.
• Alexander is jogging at night when he is attacked, kidnapped, tortured, and finally killed.

If asked to boil the above synopsis down to a single sentence, the best we could do would be, “It’s a story about some murders that occur within a community.”

For most beginning writers, though, trying to build a story around our synopsis would be disastrous.

Using a single, dedicated POV character brings with it many benefits, and it is certainly one of the strengths of the Potter series.

Because we identify with Neo and his buddies, we see in them freedom fighters rather than terrorists. This is the (rather frightening) power that POV has.

• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
• Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
• Description by Monica Wood
• Plot by Ansen Dibell
• Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
• Conflict, Action, and Suspense by William Noble

Wednesday, February 03, 2010 10:06:41 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] Trackback

• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
• Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
• Description by Monica Wood
• Plot by Ansen Dibell
• Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
• Conflict, Action, and Suspense by William Noble

Tuesday, February 02, 2010 10:11:19 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] Trackback

Still, the fact remains that there are many more bad titles than good ones. I've seen some jaw-droppingly awful titles, often from very gifted writers. And I'm not just talking about my students: The Great Gatsby is an inspired title, one for the ages, but keep in mind it wasn't Fitzergerald's idea. He wanted to call the novel Trimalchio in West Egg, which sounds like something Dr. Seuss might have dreamed up for the Playboy channel. An early version of Portnoy's Complaint was called A Jewish Patient Begins His Analysis. At various times, Catch-22 was called Catch-18, Catch-11, Catch-14, and Catch-17. And some classic novels have stood the test of time, despite having terrible titles. (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, for example, never fails to make me giggle.

• DM Gordon, On Multiple Drafts
• Terrence Chang, Rejection
  

Monday, February 01, 2010 2:37:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] Trackback

• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
• Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
• Description by Monica Wood
• Plot by Ansen Dibell
• Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
• Conflict, Action, and Suspense by William Noble

Monday, February 01, 2010 9:52:36 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0] Trackback