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 Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Writer's Digest TV: Interview with David Baldacci
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
If there's one thing I've learned from spending time with all the thriller writers at ThrillerFest 08, it's that the adage, "write what you know" holds little merit.
Here's another short Q&A I did with David Baldacci, in which he discusses the merits of writing what you don't know.
Keep Writing,
Maria
the writing life | WritersDigest.tv | writing conferences | writing technique
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 6:55:24 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) 
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Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Writer's Digest TV: Sandra Brown
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, Remember back last month when I was at ThrillerFest, the great writing conference/party thrown by the International Thriller Writers? Well, I got the chance to do some video interviews with a few thriller luminaries, including the amazing Sandra Brown. So here's a a short (around 4 minutes) Q&A I did with Sandra, in which I ask the brilliant question: So how do you get to be Thriller Master anyway, do you have to kill someone! (I don't think Diane Sawyer has anything to worry about). Keep Writing, Maria
the writing life | writing conferences | writing technique | WritersDigest.tv | Inspiration
Wednesday, August 06, 2008 7:22:17 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
More on simultaneous submissions to agents
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, Since there were so many comments and questions about the Brad Thor post on simultaneous submissions to agents, I asked my favorite agent expert, Chuck Sambuchino, of the Guide to Literary Agents to give us his take on the issue. Here's Chuck: First of all, I have to disagree with Brad's comment that agents hate simultaneous submissions. They are the norm, and most agents accept that they are not the only one receiving a specific query. So all of these comments here with people saying "I agree with Brad" are right!
Indeed, don't put your eggs in one basket. It's silly. But just as bad as putting your eggs in one basket is querying TOO MANY agents - such as 100. You're showing you haven't done any research. You should have about 5 "ideal" agents and maybe 25 total "possibilities" after doing some research and reading. Send queries out in waves. Query your top five. If none say yes, try the next five, and so on. The more vigorous research you do, the fewer possible agents you will have on your list, but the payoff is that you will be able to impress those agents you DO query by showing WHY you picked them out of the bunch. That goes a long way.
Next, know that "multiple submissions" and "simultaneous submissions" arenot the same thing. The former is when you send several works (or queries) to the same agent at the same time. Perhaps a script manager wanted to seeall the screenplays you had in your arsenal, for example. The latter is what we're talking about here - querying multiple agents at once.
All that said, yes - do know that some agents request an "exclusive" look at your work, but these are rarer than you may think. It's up to you as to whether you want to agree. You're getting a close read of your work, but your hands are tied, so to speak. Requesting an exclusive is much more common when an agent requests a full manuscript than just when we're talkingabout queries. So you should be OK sending out plenty of queries, but then you'll run into exclusive requests when they want to see a partial or the full work.
Good luck.
Chuck Sambuchino
Editor, Guide to Literary Agents
guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog
Keep Writing, Maria
publishing news and views | the writing life
Tuesday, August 05, 2008 4:09:19 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, August 04, 2008
Announcing: WD Live author interviews
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
Writer's Digest is pleased to announce the debut of WD Live, a series of free live video interviews with top-name authors from ThrillerFest 2008.
Just to give you a taste of what's to come, here's an entertaining segment with authors Steve Berry, Brad Thor and James Rollins, discussing how they quietly began writing each others characters into their respective books.
We'll be rolling out more in the next few weeks, so stay tuned! And, as always, I'd love your feedback.
Keep Writing,
Maria
the writing life | Writer's Digest news | writing conferences
Monday, August 04, 2008 9:53:29 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Brad Thor on simultaneous submissions
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, I'm in the middle of transcribing a lengthy Q&A with Brad Thor ( The Last Patriot) for the December issue of Writer's Digest and I thought what he had to say about literary agents was quite interesting for going against the grain of traditional publishing wisdom (this is unedited, direct from a transcript): I know agents hate hearing this, but the single agent submission process is so un-businesslike, and this stuff about well you should only pitch one agent at a time and wait to hear back—that’s BS. I really don’t believe in that. I tell people, put together the strongest best package you can. Why should you wait months to hear back from an agent only to be told no, and then you have to wait a few more months. It’s ridiculous. I had agents lose my submissions, take forever to get to it and I thought, you know what, this is ridiculous. I’m not doing this just because this is the rules that they’ve set up for themselves. I thought, they’re not going to know if I’m submitting to multiple places. And what happens with agents when they’re submitting you’re book? They try to start a bidding war! They’re not going to wait onesie, twosie, at every publishing house to see what they think. Authors should do multiple submissions to agents. I mean, that’s the way the business world works and whether or not the industry likes it or not, they can’t stop you from submitting to multiple agents and you know what? If an agent misses out on you because they took too long with your query letter, tough luck for them. It will be a smart, savvy agent who recognizes your talent, who snaps you up. And I really believe that.
So, what do you think about multiple submissions to agents? Keep Writing, Maria
publishing news and views | the writing life
Thursday, July 31, 2008 10:02:10 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
We're going to Maui!
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, It's my great pleasure to announce our sponsorship of the 2008 Maui Writers Conference, which this year is on the road to Honolulu. Brian and I will be there for three full days over the Labor Day holiday, August 29-September 1 reporting live from the conference via this blog and our e-newsletter. So stay tuned, and if you can get yourself to the Maui Writers Conference, I can promise you won't regret it--this is one of the premiere writing events of the year! Tell me, who looks more Hawaiian, me or Brian? Check out the poll on the WD forum or leave comments here. Mahalo. Keep Writing, Maria  
writing conferences
Tuesday, July 29, 2008 2:58:27 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
From fired to inspired?
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
I've been attending a lot of writing conferences recently and in listening to keynote speeches I've noticed an odd correlation in the first-published stories of many writers.
Just off the top of my head, I can name three bestselling authors who cite being fired as the impetus to write and sell their first book.
• Lee Child lost his job with the BBC and soon after wrote and sold his first Jack Reacher novel.
• Sandra Brown wrote her first novel after being fired from her TV reporter position.
• Laurell K. Hamilton was downsized from her job with IBM when she decided to give the writing thing a real crack.
Anyway, don't go off and tell your boss off, this is merely an unscientific observation, but I have started to wonder if "fired" leads to "inspired." What do you think?
Keep Writing,
Maria
the writing life
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 4:57:45 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, July 18, 2008
Mary Feuer's New York trip to meet agents
Posted by Maria
Hi Writers, Remember last month when I was blogging about my trip to New York to accompany our annual contest winners to meet literary agents? I asked our winners to sum up the experience for me, and here's Mary Feuer's experience in her own words:
It's hard to believe it's been an entire month since we were in New York. Time has been more than flying over here on the Left Coast--I think it's passing the speed of light. I apologize for not writing my promised blog sooner, but I have an excuse: I've been busy shooting my original web series, "With the Angels," for Strike.TV.
Anyway, it's never too late to share observations with the blogosphere, where words seem to live forever, so here are mine.
Let me say up front that I think tag-team pitching should be the standard. Having Alegra (and of course Maria) there, being able to bounce off of someone after getting out of a particularly interesting or challenging pitch, made the whole thing not only less stressful but - dare I say it? fun. The chats we had in cabs or walking down sidewalks in between meetings about each others work were probably the best, most enlightening moments of the trip for me: I felt, by the end of two days, that Alegra, Maria, and I had become collaborators, a de facto writing group strolling the streets of New York. It was a nice feeling.
What impressed me most over the course of our two days of meetings was the way in which both Alegra's and my pitches subtly and not-so-subtly changed with feedback and discussion. I could almost feel that lightbulb go off over my head, and see it go off over Alegra's, when a challenging or insightful question was asked. I know I reconsidered the story I was planning to tell more than once, each time getting a deeper understanding of what's important about it to me.
Ultimately, though, our agent meetings reinforced and illustrated one of the most fundamental truths of what we do: writing, and all creative pursuits, are so completely, totally subjective, even on the business end. One agent would tell us to forget the idea of "literary fiction"--would just reject that moniker wholesale--and then the next would tell with absolute certainty that literary fiction was all the rage. One would respond to the more plot-driven aspects of a story, and the next would be nudging us toward a character study. The lesson, for me, was: Write what excites YOU. Chances are it will excite someone else--you'll just have to find the right someone else. And if it doesn't, that's what rewriting is for!
The New York trip made me thirsty for the kind of immersion, the kind of without-a-net high fiction gives me. It made me want to wish plunge right into my novel, but unfortunately, more immediate concerns have already pushed it to the sidelines of my mind.
Still, coming back to Los Angeles, back to my life, I realize how lucky I am that I make my living writing. it's not always the most satisfying stuff, or the deepest, or the closest to my heart, but still.. I get paid to put words in a certain order, an order that makes them mine no matter who's signing the check. That's an incredible gift. Thanks to Writer's Digest for letting me live out one more part of that fairy tale life, even if only for a few days.
I'll keep you posted on Mary and Alegra's progress in getting their novels published!
Keep Writing,
Maria
the writing life | Writer's Digest news
Friday, July 18, 2008 7:12:18 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The final thrill
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, If you want to get more of an idea of what ThrillerFest was all about, here are my (almost daily) newsletters that went out to our e-newsletter subscriber list during and just after the conference. So, if you didn't get enough thrills already, here are links to even more from ThrillerFest ’08. If you’d like to sign up to receive e-newsletters from Writer’s Digest, you can find a sign-up link on writersdigest.com. ThrillerFest Day 1 ThrillerFest Day 2
ThrillerFest Day 3Keep Writing, Maria p.s. I'm getting ready to head out to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference in Seattle. I'll be doing more blogging from that conference so be sure to check back.
Writer's Digest news | writing conferences
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 6:28:20 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Monday, July 14, 2008
...and the thrills go on!
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
I hope you've enjoyed coming along the wild ride of ThrillerFest with me. I'm back in Cincinnati and wanted to thank all of the great people at ThrillerFest for putting on such a fabulous conference and for inviting Writer's Digest to co-sponsor their event.
Since I don't often get to post visuals, it's been really fun to hone my photojournalism skills, and I have a few more photos to share with you today.
I had the best time with Steve Berry, Brad Thor and James Rollins: Three bestselling novelists and also friends who write each others characters into their books. Also of note: Thor, whose book is currently leading the NYT bestseller lists with The Last Patriot, is under heavy security because he's had a fatwa declared against him due to his novel's questioning of the origins of Islam.
Here's a picture of me with David Baldacci, taken just after I interviewed him. He is just the nicest, most intelligent and eloquent person--well deserved of his phenomenal success. He also was honored with the Silver Bullet Award at ThrillerFest for his work with the advancement of literacy.
And finally, here's a picture of me at the award's banquet and two of the attendees who won seats at our table: Joan Johnston and Andrew Marino. You may recognize Joan as the author of 50 novels, with 10 million copies of her books in print!
There will be video streaming of many of the best sessions from Thrillerfest available on writersdigest.com starting August 1, so be sure to check back soon!
Keep Writing,
Maria
  
Writer's Digest news | writing conferences
Monday, July 14, 2008 6:21:50 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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