Hi Writers,
All apologies for my lack of promised, non-stop communication this week. The only admittedly lame excuse I can offer you is that I'm too cheap to pay 9.95 for Internet access in my room. But I got over it, charged the fee to the company credit card so here I am.

The BEA/ WD Books Writer's Conference went by in a fabulous whirlwind. I finally got to meet our columnist Jodi Picoult in person, as she was the keynote speaker. She's so down-to-earth, funny and extroverted and delivered a wonderful, anecdote filled talk about her writing life. She spoke about her writing process, and I have to say, she's a writer who really knows how to break down the difficult process of writing a novel into manageable parts. Her ability to demystify and distill her writing process is remarkable.

By the way, we're trying a new project this year. We videotaped Jodi's speech and several other speakers as well as audio recording many of the other speakers. And in a few weeks (exact date TBA), the sessions will be available on our website at writersdigest.com/bea so check back there for the details. I'll also announce it here, on the forum and in our e-newsletter.

I also met many of the other WD Books writers including Christina Katz, author of Writer Mama--hi Christina!

I gave a speech on breaking into magazines early in the morning, and had a great crowd. They had lots of questions, which I always appreciate when I give a talk so it's not just me going on... and then you write the query letter, and then you e-mail it... blah, blah, blah. I always prefer to have more of a conversation, so when the audience got on my wave length and started asking  questions, it went well.

But the highlight of the day by all accounts was the Agent Pitch Slam. We had a huge number of agents participate this year--more than 60 in fact, thanks to editor extraordinaire and major playa Chuck Sambuchino, editor of the WD Guide to Literary Agents 2007 (out this fall). I got to meet many of the agents as I was in charge of passing out their badges. I know many writers are intimidated by agents, but really, you couldn't ask for a more friendly, helpful group of people. And they all seemed into the pitch slam concept, although the three minute time limit presents a fun challenge to the writers and the agents. Since there were so many agents this year, the lines were quite short and many writers were pitching to five or ten agents.

I was in charge of a pitch slam room. The agents in my room were Michael Murphy, Peter Miller, Meg Leder, Sheree Bykofsky and Jackie Meyer. It went really smooth after the first ten minutes or so while we scrambled to figure out the right way to configure the room and get the lines moving in the right direction. Kevin Alexander was in there helping me keep things running, being the timer, talking to people about their pitches, trying to calm down the nerves. He was a champ, really, but I'm sure he'll tell you all about how great he was on his own blog. And don't believe it when he tells you that I slacked off toward the end and started chatting with John Warner, WD author and editor of the new WD Books humor imprint TOW Books. I can't help it, much like Jessica Rabbit, I'm a sucker for a funny guy.

Well, today is the first official day of BEA so I'm off to the show. I'm keeping notes, and picking up as many galleys as I can. The giveaways at the show are always unbelievable. For a compulsive reader, it's the equivalent of getting the keys to the candy shop.


Keep Writing,
M
(I've decided, like Macy's, to change my ticker symbol to simply "M")

Hi Writers,
You knew it had to happen. The “American Idol” concept has filtered down to the book world. Internet company MediaPredict.com is partnering with the Simon & Schuster imprint Touchstone to launch a contest wherein the public gets to vote (with $5,000 in virtual cash) on book proposals most likely to succeed.

Read about the contest in full, here:
“Touchstone Imprint of Simon & Schuster Teams with New Website Media Predict for Its Project Publish Literary Contest

And here:
“Welcome to Project Publish.”

And you may want to read The New York Times article on the contest.

Here’s a brief excerpt from the NYT piece:
“Being able to predict the performance of something is key,” said Brent Stinski, founder of Media Predict. A prediction market, he said, “is a very powerful tool.”

In the case of Media Predict, traders are not voting on the book they like best, but rather are placing bets on which they think will do well. According to Mark Gompertz, publisher of Touchstone Books, Media Predict could do for book publishing what focus groups do for soap and soda and what screening audiences do for movies.

“Since Gutenberg first printed the Bible, critics have always said publishers don’t know what they’re doing. Just throwing stuff against the wall and seeing what sticks is a crazy way to do business,” Mr. Gompertz said.


Well, the rights issues seem a little tricky here (authors allow MediaPredict to act as temporary literary agent if not already represented). But there’s no entry fee. And, of course, you can’t really argue against free.

This seems to me, though, the latest manifestation of what I wrote about in my last blog entry, which our WD forumites weren’t wild about, to say the least. Testing consumers to try and predict which books might actually sell doesn’t seem to be something writers want to believe is important or even useful.

Anyway, I’d love to know your thoughts on this contest, so drop me a line. Remember, I have $5,000 in virtual cash and I'm not afraid to use it.

Until next time…

Keep Writing,
Maria

Hi Writers,
Today, Granta magazine's once-a-decade Best of Young American Novelists issue hits newsstands.

The LA Times featured an article on the Granta list this Sunday “In these new American stories, the world speaks,” by Scott Timberg.   

There’s a lot for writers to mull over in this piece, about the emerging ethnic diversity of our young novelists, and whether novel writing is becoming a luxury for the privileged classes who can afford creative writing programs, etc.

But what really got my attention were the remarks from Lorin Stein, an editor at Farrar Straus & Giroux:

“The readership has fractured, and reads less, and spends more time e-mailing. And it makes less sense to talk about novelists now — the really creative writing is being done in other genres such as the personal essay, reportage and criticism.”

“The novel has become like landscape painting,” he said. “It’s the ‘top’ genre, but not, in real life, the main one.”

Wow, I hope this isn’t true. But looking at this list of young novelists, I can’t say they’re exactly household names.

As a lifelong reader of novels, this strikes me in a personal way. From the age of seven I’ve had my nose in a book. Beverly Cleary gave me a safe world to escape to during my parent's divorce. JD Salinger and Carson McCullers made me feel less alone through my angsty teen years and Kurt Vonnegut helped me form a worldview. Novels were essential to my upbringing and influenced me far more than newspapers, magazines, movies, MTV and Oprah combined.

Is it possible that, as Stein implies, novels are no longer culturally relevant? That they’re the “landscape paintings” of the literary world and nonfiction has taken their place? Can we get everything we need as human beings—culturally, emotionally, spiritually—from nonfiction? And what novels mattered to you?

Keep Writing,
Maria