Tag Archives: Editors

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.

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Editors, Markets

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Elizabeth Berg’s ESCAPING INTO THE OPEN–A Great Beginner’s Guide to Writing

Posted on March 19, 2009 | Comments Off

Take a moment and try to remember how it felt when you decided you wanted to try writing fiction by yourself for the first time.   You don’t know anything about point-of-view, story and character arcs, acts and beats, query letters and synopses, etcetera.   You had no experience with conferences or critique groups.  Everything about fiction writing was new and strange.

Elizabeth Berg’s ESCAPING INTO THE OPEN: The Art of Writing True (ISBN 978-0-06-092929-9) is a great book for those making their first tottering steps on the road of writing.   It’s the book I recommend to people who’ve expressed an interest in doing fiction writing, but have no clue where to start.

What I love most about the book are the chapters on voice (Ch. 3 ), writing exercises (Ch. 4 ), and writing with passion (ch. 5).   The book gets the reader writing on a regular basis–which is half the battle right there, since writers must write in order to get better at their craft.  I’ve seen new writers get distracted in reading too many books and sitting in too many lectures, and not doing enough writing.  I’ve been guilty of getting distracted myself, and this book got me back on track.

If you’re a more experienced fiction writer, most of the book will be “old news” to you.  However, I think Ch. 3 & 4 & 5 still have advice and guidance useful to the semi-pro (which is probably why they’re my favorites).  Struggles with voice never go away.   Here’s a favorite quote from Ch. 3 In Your Own Words:

I believe that one of your most important jobs as a writer is to be true to yourself, to honor your own notions of what you believe is important to your life and to that of others….I’m sure you’ve heard, countless times, “Write what you know.”  I would change that to “Write what you love.”  The knowledge can be learned; the passion can’t be–it’s either there or it isn’t.

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Posted in Business of writing, Craft of writing, Editors, Markets, Psychology of writing, Publishers, Submissions block, Voice, Writer's block

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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.”

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Posted in Agents, Business of writing, Editors, Markets

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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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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

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