Tag Archives: Agents

Laura Resnick’s REJECTION, ROMANCE & ROYALTIES

Posted on November 18, 2009 | Comments Off

I think what I value most about Laura Resnick’s essays in REJECTION, ROMANCE, & ROYALTIES: THE WACKY WORLD OF A WORKING WRITER is her brutal honesty.   This is not an essay collection for the faint of heart.

Let me provide an example from her essay “Passion” in the book:

Editors have told me that my advance is more than I’m worth; my work isn’t that good; I should write more like so-and-so; my work is “shit;” I don’t know how to write; my work is an “insult” to them; and I don’t “appreciate” them enough.   Agents have told me that I’m “not worth” their time; my query is an insult to them; I’m “self-destructive” (based on my choosing to fire that agent); they “hate” my work; and I’m lazy (I wrote a mere 1,400 pages that year).

Resnick covers a variety of topics in her essays, such as writer’s block, editors & agents, contracts, readers, horror stories about publishing, horror stories about book tours, nerves, cash flow, rejections, etc..

Because this is a collection of essays, certain thoughts get repeated over and over.   This becomes a mild irritant if one sits down to read the book in one sitting.  I found it better to stop for the day after reading four to five essays.

Resnick makes her living as a fiction writer, and she does not spare the reader details about the ugly side of the business.  However, she also has a wicked sense of humor.  Here’s a sample from “It Can Happen Here–And Often Does:”

Trish Jensen, writing under the pseudonym Trish Graves, sold them a novel called Just This Once in which the hero, among other things, mentors a teenage boy, steering him away from street gangs and toward organized sports.  So you can imagine the author’s shock when, upon reading her galleys, she discovered that the editor had changed the boy into a raccoon.

(I think I speak for everyone here when I say, “What?”)

You’ll have to read the essay to find out if the novel was published with the raccoon character change.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Craft of writing, Editors, Learning the craft of writing, Markets, Psychology of writing, Publishers, Reviewers, Writer's block

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Learning About Publishing Contracts

Posted on August 2, 2009 | Comments Off

I’ve met writers who refuse to learn the basics of a publishing contract, or who skip reading the entire thing before signing.   This always drives me crazy, because they’ve just signed a legally binding document that could result in all kinds of heartbreak because they wouldn’t accept that publishing is a business, like any other business.  You can get sued.  You can go bankrupt.  You can discover that you can’t exploit certain rights to your work because you signed away all the rights when you shouldn’t have.

A publishing contract is a business contract.   If you sell your writing to a publisher, congratulations, you’re now a small business of one.   And if you sign a bad contract, you can be dealing with the repercussions for decades.  Or out of business entirely.   Doing the writing is art, selling the writing is a business.

So, where to start learning the business law basics a freelance writer needs to know?   I started with the THE WRITER’S LEGAL GUIDE:  AN AUTHOR’S GUILD DESK REFERENCE, THIRD EDITION by Tad Crawford & Kay Murray.  Get the most recent edition to read since publishing law and technology change quickly.  This book provides a great summary of the business law a freelance writer needs to know, from copyright to publishing contracts to agent-author agreements to IRS tax law.  By the time I finished this book, I felt I had a good understanding of the legal basics.

There’s another book to consider reading next, even though it’s from 1999–KIRSCH’S GUIDE TO THE BOOK CONTRACT by Jonathan Kirsch.  Kirsch is a practicing attorney in publishing law, and he had lots of valuable anecdotes and examples to provide as he went through an entire sample publishing contract.

For both books, I found it best to read 10 pages or so, and then stop for a few hours.  The legal matters can be mentally tiring to wade through quickly.  Also, there were times it was helpful to mull over a newly learned fact or law before moving onwards.

Some writer organizations have sample contracts you can look at or lectures about contracts at their national conference.  Definitely check to see if any organization you are a member of provides such services.  Also, sometimes Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch do a contracts & copyright workshop.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Copyright, Editors

Tagged , , , , , ,

Jennifer Crusie on Finding an Editor or Agent

Posted on July 9, 2009 | Comments Off

Back in 2005 Jennifer Crusie wrote an essay each month that gave advice to writers on editors, agents, publishing, and the writer’s life for the ROMANCE WRITER’S REPORT (the magazine for the Romance Writers of America).   Her advice was blunt and pithy, and it has stayed fresh in my mind.   She’s posted those terrific essays, as well as others, on her website under For Writers.

Under the Publishing subcategory of For Writers, you will find her advice on planning your career, and finding an editor or agent. Make sure to read her essay IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU before STALKING THE WILD EDITOR: HOW TO GET PUBLISHED, MAYBE or THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM: HOW TO FIND YOUR PERFECT AGENT.   Let me provide an excerpt from IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU that explains why you need know yourself:

A good agent will look at your work and love it for what it is and foster your vision by making suggestions that enhance the story you need to tell. A bad agent will look at your work and make suggestions that fit the trends of the time. The only way you’ll know the difference is if you know what your story is.

But knowing your story, yourself as writer, is not enough because once you sell a story, you take on a second career, this one in publishing. Writing and publishing are two entirely separate things, and you need to know who you are in both.

If you have the time, read all of the essays in the Publishing subcategory.  Plan to set aside thirty minutes a day for a week or two to sit quietly with a notepad and Crusie’s essays, writing down answers to the questions Crusie asks you consider before you approach editors or agents.

Also, hidden away at the bottom of the For Writers page is a great essay on dealing with jealousy, GREEN IS NOT YOUR COLOR.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Editors, Markets

Tagged , , , ,

LIFE AFTER AGENTS and other fun posts

Posted on June 13, 2009 | Comments Off

Dean Wesley Smith has started a fun series of thought experiments inspired by The History Channel’s “Life After…” series. So far he’s done LIFE AFTER RETURNS and LIFE AFTER AGENTS. Definitely check his essays out for fresh insights into the publishing industry.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Editors, Publishers

Tagged , ,

Agent Joe Regal has fascinating post at Kristin Nelson’s Pub Rants

Posted on March 12, 2009 | Comments Off

Literary agent Joe Regal has posted on agent Kristin Nelson’s blog Pub Rants about the $4.8 million sale of the second completed novel of Audrey Niffenegger’s (author of the THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE).  I encourage you to go over there and read both of his posts when you get the chance.  Here’s a short excerpt:

The key takeaway here is simple: write the best book you can and then sell it. Arguments that “she could take her time to write her second book because the mortgage was covered” are way off the mark….In Audrey’s case, she kept her day job for years after publication of TTW; she was careful to live in a way that put the ability to do her work her way, on her schedule, before any other material needs. She protected her priorities.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Markets

Tagged , ,

Query rates to agents and editors are up

Posted on March 1, 2009 | Comments Off

If you’ve been following sites like Galleycat or Nathan Bransford, you’ll already know that query rates by writers are up, WAY UP, these last three months.  Bransford is calling it “the Great Query Flood of ’09.” What it means for writers is that editors and agents are getting swamped to the point of being unable to respond back unless they want to see more your work.

So if you don’t hear back, these days you can assume the answer is “no.”

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Editors, Markets

Tagged , , ,

Publishing Industry Gossip: Absolute Write Water Cooler, Galleycat, and Publisher’s Weekly

Posted on February 20, 2009 | Comments Off

If you decide to sell your work, you’ll have to get familiar with the publishing industry.  A few weeks back I blogged about doing a thorough background check of a potential agent or publisher to make sure they’re not a scammer (or just plain incompetent), and forgot to mention the helpful forums at Absolute Write Water Cooler (you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the search tool).  Do a search on the forum content using the name of the person or company you want to investigate.  I’ve noticed that the Writer Beware bloggers hang out there on occasion.

To keep up with publishing industry gossip, I find Publisher’s Weekly and Galleycat useful.   You can also sign up for free daily or weekly e-newsletters from Publisher’s Weekly.

My one piece of advice in using these three websites is to wait until the end of your workday to visit them, instead of first thing in the morning. It’s too easy to get distracted or start fretting about the economy when you should be focusing on your writing instead.  Save them as a reward for a productive day.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contests, Editors, Markets, Publishers, Scams

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Kristin Nelson, Literary Agent and Blogger

Posted on January 25, 2009 | 3 Comments

I found out about literary agent Kristin Nelson’s blog Pub Rants while reading Miss Snark’s comments.

You have to scroll down on the blog quite a ways, but if you look on the right-hand side of the website you will find a series of posts labeled “Agent Kristin’s Agenting 101 Blogs” and “Agent Kristin’s Blog Pitch Workshop” that are definitely worth reading. And she uses labels (hurrah!), so there’s a section where you can have fun hunting for topics such as “author panic” :-) .

She also posts what she is hearing from editors and publishers as far as the kind of stories they wish they saw more of in the submissions pile, and what they’re being inundated with.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contracts, Copyright, Editors, Markets, Publishers

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Avoiding Scams in Publishing-Writer Beware and Preditors & Editors

Posted on January 16, 2009 | Comments Off

Just in case someone stumbles onto this blog who isn’t already aware of the rip-off artists out there, I’m going to blog about scams.

If you keep these four key points in mind, it’ll help protect you from most of the scammers you’ll run into who prey on new writers:

1)  Money flows from the editor and publisher to you, not from you to them.  Little to no money should flow from you to an agent.  I strongly advise reading the essay on agent fees at Writer Beware to get a sense of what a legitimate fee is and what it is not.

2)  Do a background check of any agent, editor, writer’s contest program, or publisher you’re thinking of signing a contract with.   What’s their track record like?  How long have they been around?  Thanks to Google, and websites like Preditors & Editors and Writer Beware this is easy to do.

3) If you decide to self-publish, you are now a small publishing company of one.  There are good e-book services, print-on-demand services, and traditional printers out there, but there are also sleazy companies that grossly overcharge newbie writers and/or  have unreasonable contracts.  You need to put on your CEO hat, and research your industry to find out what the reasonable costs of production are.  You need to learn about contracts, copyright, distribution, and marketing.  You need to find and hire a good freelance editor to go over your work.

4) If it sounds too good or too easy to be true, it probably is.

Any writer can benefit from taking the time to read the various articles at Writer Beware about the common practices, pitfalls, and controversies of the publishing industry.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contests, Contracts, Editors, Publishers, Scams

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent and Blogger

Posted on December 30, 2008 | Comments Off

I like to visit Nathan Bransford’s blog to keep tabs on the publishing industry (he does a helpful post on Fridays of the important publishing news of the week). Plus, he’s written long blogs on the business aspects of writing–such as query letters, writing a synopsis, manuscript formatting, et cetera.

He runs a writing contest at least once a year. He just finished a “first paragraphs” contest, with 6 finalists chosen from over 1300 entries. He wrote a long post about how he came about choosing the finalists. In reading his post (December 15, 2008), one can get a quick and dirty education on how literary agents think as they’re wading through submissions.

I also enjoy his sense of humor.

Comments Off

Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Contests, Contracts, Markets

Tagged , , , ,