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Volume Five
Honored and
Surprised Another Writing Movie Who are our readers? Back from the Lake The Lazarus File Movies for Writers I Hate This Too Many Writing Groups Word Count Guidelines And the Winner is- I'm Getting Mighty
Concerned Introducing
Mark Littleton A Good Writing Question Rekindling Your Dream We're Talking Pain Here 5th Annual
Best Southwest Bookfest Please Read More! An Online Writing
Conference How
Many Websites Do I Have? Profanity in Print
Introducing New Clients Why Do We Write? Learning to Query at
a Little League Game Writers write . . . period! Speechless –
silencing the Christians Formatting can get a submission tossed! Standing out from the
Crowd Publishing
is a Dance Life
in the Middle
Just got the word that I am one of ten agents nominated for the American Christian Writers Agent of the Year award. Surprised would be an understatement. Looking at the list of those nominated I have no expectations of winning as the other nominees include some of the best in the business. But like they say in the Academy Awards, just being nominated is an honor.
I don't know who submitted me of course. To make the list it was probably more than one and I would guess a couple of my clients. I've made a nomination myself so I know it's more than just tossing in a name, but requires actually writing up a paper making the case for why we think the person is deserving. That's a lot of work and knowing that makes me even more grateful.
My clients and I are a tight knit little group. We don't relate to one another as agent and client as much as we are a little writing community. We pray for each other's success, share contacts and leads, and rejoice any time one of us has good fortune. I don't happen to believe it causes jealousy for one client to know another has had success (well, maybe a little) but instead helps keep spirits up as we all share whatever success any of us have.
This is even more meaningful as two others from our agency are among the ten, our leader, Joyce Hart, and Tamela Hancock Murray. I'm lucky to be working with these terrific ladies and I'm not at all surprised to see them nominated. It just shows how very author-oriented our agency is.
And to those who nominated me, whoever you are, thanks . . . it means a lot to me.
We just finished watching "Stranger than Fiction" with Will Ferrell. This qualifies as an excellent movie for writers on several levels. First it is a very pointed study in plot development, since we hear the voice of the narrator (author) chronicling each plot development one item at a time. It is further accented as a literary professor (Dustin Hoffman) dissects the plot and the development as he tries to help Ferrell understand.
Because we do hear the voice of the narrator it is an excellent study of how narration works. When we are hearing the narrator it is easy to see the difference between showing and telling. In this case we understand because it isn't either or but rather showing AND telling.
On another level we see a writer, in this case a very famous one, who deals with writers block and tries to get past it. It shows the extremes she is willing to go to in order to get into the story and feel rather than think about where her story needs to go.
Finally the story makes an interesting statement about empathy between the writer and the story. How would it change what we write if the words that came out of our typewriter really changed peoples lives and real people had to actually live the story we are crafting. Another writer's movie, "Delirious" with John Candy takes a humorous look at this same subject, but that is a subject for another review.
I don't know that I would review this movie highly for someone seeking general entertainment value, but as a movie for writers I would call it excellent.
I just had a nice discussion with a lady on this topic. Submission guidelines may ask for it in different ways, it may ask for comparables, may ask questions about the market, but what editors and agents really want to know is if we know who our readers are. Too often that question is answered by "all females from 18-93." That's no answer at all. All writers want to sell their books to everybody, that's a given.
The best way to answer it, of course, is to say our last five books have each sold over 200,000 copies, that'll do it. But for those of us who can't do that, we have to define it in a way that the editor or agent can understand and relate to. The next best way to the previous example is to find three or four writers that we are very sure sells books to the very same readers we are writing for. We shouldn't say we write like them, that we are any better or any worse, in fact we don't even have to be writing very similar stuff if we can just make a convincing case that we are writing for the same readers.
The lady I was talking to said she had never thought about it. Maybe it's just me, but I can't see doing anything without knowing who I'm doing it for and what their likes and dislikes might be. As a writer I know who my target readership is, I know what writers are selling to them and how well they are selling. I do know when books aimed at that reader group do well and when they may not do as well and I have my own ideas on what might make a book stronger or weaker in that market. A writer who demonstrates this sort of knowledge of who their readers are and what they want is very attractive to an editor or agent.
I told her when I looked at a proposal I saw this and other things, things that told me how strong a package I'd have to pitch if I represented them. And if the package looks strong then I'm really excited to see how strong the writing is that goes with it.
Back from the
Lake Bob Sandlin, terrific place for a writers conference. It was the North East Texas Writers Organization (NETWO) and it was their annual conference.
It was well organized, had a great faculty, over 100 in attendance, and as I said the surroundings were an awesome setting for a conference. Four of my clients were there, Jory Sherman, Vickie Phelps, Pam Kumpe, and Jim Callan. Jim is also a conference leader and has been instrumental in putting it on for years. I got to visit with them briefly, but not as much as I would have liked.
My part on the program was a Q & A panel which seemed to go well. I was booked solid with interviews and found some promising possibilities that I will pursue further. It was a nice quiet environment to do a little work in as well. I talked with an editor and believe we have a clients second book with that publisher sold if they like the manuscript that is nearing completion.
I learned that another client, Michelle Buckman, is a Christy finalist. I don't represent "Maggie Come Lately," the book that was nominated. I just represent her younger work, but I'm still very proud of her. Two other Hartline clients are finalists as well. I received requests for full reads on three other clients where my pitch hit a nerve. That's always a good sign.
All in all it was a very good conference. It's nearly time
now to go to the Colorado Christian Writers Conference in
I took the afternoon off, I openly admit it. I finished working up a proposal to submit on one of my clients, a really hard one, and I treated myself to reading a book. I chose one from a client, Donn Taylor, who has a new mystery coming out soon from Moody.
The Lazarus File grabbed me right on the first page just like it was supposed to. I found myself invested in the main character, Mark Daniel, immediately and found myself concerned as he was drawn deeply into danger and intrigue spying on South American Drug Lords. Still grieving over a wife lost quite some time before he resisted falling for the beautiful and wealthy Sol Roca. Resisted for so long that I was starting to find myself saying, "You idiot, your wife is gone, what's the matter with you?"
But nothing was easy in this book, not romance, not his assignment as twists and turns kept putting him in more and more danger. Nobody was quite who they seemed and his agency support and contacts kept dwindling until there seemed to be nobody anyone could trust. Still he was driven by duty, by a desire to keep his promises, first to his dead wife, and to the country he served even if it seemed to abandon him.
This was one great book and I recommend it highly, and if you like it, wait until you see Rhapsody in Red.
Last night we watched "Murder 101" with Pierce Brosnen. He was a college professor lecturing on how to write a murder mystery even as the steps he was lecturing on was happening to him in real life. It's an excellent writer's movie and has now gone on my list of DVD's that I want to acquire as MOVIES FOR WRITERS. [story structure]
"Deathtrap" with Michael Cain and Christopher Reeves has been on the list a long time. I got to see it off Broadway and a road show version as well as the movie. In it, an old experienced writer (Cain) is undergoing writers block and is attempting to steal the work of Reeves (and kill him) as he mentors him. The mentoring is great for writers watching, but the amazing constant plot reversals is the real lesson. [plot reversals]
"Sixth Sense" made the list when I was so thoroughly fooled by the plot resolution and had to immediately watch it again to see if I had been fooled all along or if they had simply lied to me. Going back the clues are all there, they simply push me gently to make false assumptions, which I did. This technique would add virtually any Alfred Hitchcock picture to the list. [endings]
"Adaptation" with Nicholas Cage and Meryl Streep is a story of a writer hired to adapt a bestselling book to the screen only to find it is absolutely un-filmable. The insights of the writer in the movie is terrific for those struggling with the craft. [storyline]
"Delirious" with John Candy is a
study in rewrites. "Stranger than Fiction" with
Will Ferrell is a study in narration (that only he can hear) and really shows
us what the text we write (as opposed to dialogue and action) really is to the
reader. [narration] "Funny Farm" with
Some other movies that make various top ten lists for movies for writers include "All the Presidents Men," "Almost Famous," "Capote," "Factotum," "Frida," "The Hours," (Saundra and I hosted the author of that bestseller at a conference although we didn't really care for the book and haven't seen the movie) and "Stone Reader". Some of these I have seen (or read the book) and some I haven't.
I spend my day immersed in writing or writing-related tasks. To "turn it off" I have to watch something that can get my mind off it. If I can do that and still learn something about my craft, more the better. I've decided I am going to collect these DVD's and be on the lookout for more.
That's seven on my own personal top ten lists. I'll post a review as I screen others to complete my list. Some of those mentioned in the "other movie" section above are good writing movies but more for journalists in my opinion.
Yesterday we were sitting out on the deck in shorts, cooking out, watching rabbits play out in the field. Today it is 40 degrees with a biting cold 30 mph north wind. It just keeps see-sawing this way. It's a wonder everybody doesn't have a cold.
Has to do with the jet stream. If it come across the country up high it's a fence and our weather is wonderful. If it comes dipping down toward us it takes whatever is in the high rockies and brings it right down on us. Even in the summer time that's never warm.
It doesn't bring moisture either. We're having a really dry year, and high winds and no moisture means grass fires. We nearly burned up last year and if we don't start getting some rain are in danger of doing it again. There have already been a number of small fires.
Oh well, it isn't like I can do anything about the weather. Nothing but pray for rain anyway. If anybody wants to help with that all prayers are appreciated. That does mean more concentrated time getting submissions out on behalf of my clients (over 160 and still working them up), getting caught up on queries people are sending me (nothing over a couple of weeks old) and finding enough blocks of times to read those full manuscripts that I've asked for. I like to have a solid block of time I can address to one of those, I can't give it the attention they deserve trying to read one in pieces.
Of course I have some conferences coming up and that will stack me up again in all probability. The NE Texas Writers Organization at Lake Bob Sandlin next weekend, the Catholic Writers Conference Online May 2-9, CCWC at Estes Park CO May 14-17, The East Texas Christian Writers in Marshall TX June 6-7, ICRS in Orlando FL July 13-17, the Oregon Christian Writers in Portland OR July 28-31, The Texas Writers in Houston Aug 1-2 (yes these two are very tight), ACFW in Minneapolis, and the Glorieta Christian Writers Conference in Glorieta NM. Maybe we'll get a chance to meet up at one of them.
Kind of a pointless little rambling today, but it's what's happening around here.
Often my blog comes from when I take the time to make
a detailed response to a topic on a writing list. In this case it was the
American Christian Fiction Writers group, and the topic was whether Christian
writers diluted their testimony by spreading themselves too thin by being in
too many groups. Terrific comment and after a little thought I made the
following response:
I think there is a difference between maintaining a
presence on a list, directory or writing community for the purpose of increased
visibility and contact points and going over and hanging out there. I have a
presence at a substantial number of places but seldom go to most of them unless
I get a notification of a message or a friend request. I actively participate at
only a couple of places (this being one of them) and even then I pick and
choose based on the subject line and whether it is a subject that interests me
or not. However I do watch WHAT is being discussed all over the boards as the
current topics of interest in various writing communities can tell me a lot
about what is going on in writing in general. Do I shortchange some of these by
not participating more? Probably. In return, however, with as broad an exposure
to what is going on in such a wide sampling I can often be a resource when I do
feel drawn into a discussion.
In groups of any size less than 20% of its membership
carries any discussion. The interesting thing is the makeup of this 20% is
constantly changing depending on the topic being discussed. I don't believe it
bothers people that over 80% are lurking at any given time as long as they know
they are out there and can give valuable input if the situation arises. I don't
see this as a problem of Christians trying to spread themselves too thin, unless
they are trying to be active participants in these groups all the time.
We have to be good stewards of our time, but as
writers we have to have visibility. As an agent the visibility is even more
important. The choices we make on how to spend that time regulating online time
versus gaining visibility to me do not depend on the number of places available
to me to participate, but how much time I commit to it and where. That is much
more driven by what is going on where and whether I can meaningfully contribute
than anything else.
Just my two cents worth.
I keep being asked what are the word count guidelines for this or that genre. The best answer is what is called for in the submission guidelines of the particular publisher it is being aimed at. But life is never that simple and some publishers just don't post their word count guidelines.
I have made an effort to pull together some very basic numbers simply as a guideline to help people get a handle on the word counts within certain genres. I tried to use the most credible sources I could find, and when those sources did not agree I did a range that would include both. I welcome input on these items as I consider this to still be a work in progress:
Chapter book (6-8 yr) 5-25,000
words
Middle Reader (8-12) 25-40,000
words
Young Adult (12-18) 40-75,000
words
(middle reader and YA kids like to
read about characters a couple of years older than they are)
Novelette – 7,500–20,000 words
Novella 20-30,000 words
Short Contemporary 50,000-60,000
words
Long Contemporary 70,000-80,000
words
Mass Market paperback (western,
SF, Fantasy, etc) 75-90,000 words
Short Historical /Mainstream 90-100,000 words
Romance novel 90-100,000 words
Long Historical/ Mainstream
108,000-120,000
On first time novel authors publishers tend to want between 80-100,000 words. A person submitting above what they are looking for, should consider that each 10,000 words over the guideline is a 10% increase in print costs, and publishers are not into paying more money on unproven writers.
Congratulations to
all Genesis finalists, but I'm particularly proud of two of my clients, Jane Thornton who is a finalist in two
categories and Susan Miura, who is a
finalist as well. Genesis is a program through which the American Christian
Fiction Writers recognizes promising emerging fiction writers in a number of
categories, and become a finalist is in itself a significant honor. We'll be
pulling for these ladies as we await the naming of the Genesis winners at the
Annual Conference in
In different
competition, the Amazon / Publisher's Weekly Breakthrough novel competition was
a place three other clients stood out. In that event 5000 submissions were
chosen from all of those submitted to be considered. Three clients, Caron Guillo, Graham Garrision, and Linda
Apple made it to the semi-finals, and Caron made the top 100. Jory Sherman and Frank Roderous have won "Spur Awards" which is the
highest recognition the Western Writers of America can bestow and Jory was a
Pulitzer nominee.
Earlier Tammy Barley placed in the Golden Rose Contest,
and Annette Irby finaled in Genesis.
What is
significant about this? When we get out of school and start trying to get a job
the first thing they want to know is if we have any experience, want to see a
resume. It's the same with writing. On a query or cover letter they want to see
a paragraph that shows we can write, can meet a deadline and produce work.
Being recognized in a significant competition can be a good credit to
accomplish this until we get stronger credits. Is it as good a having a
published book with good sales? Of course not. But it is a good writing credit
if the competition if one that is recognized. We've all seen little contests of
one sort or another where people take turns giving each other awards so they
can be 'award winning writers'. Some of these actually hurt more than help.
I encourage my
clients to seek this type of recognition and use good results in their writing
credits. Like those kids seeking a job fresh out of school we use the best credits
we have available to us, replacing them with stronger credits as we have them.
The resume grows and gets stronger, then curiously it begins to get short as
the credits get strong enough. Shorter and shorter until finally it simply says
. . . "My name is Stephen King."
I've had this subject on my mind, and it seems everywhere I
turn something else adds to my consternation. We've all been hearing about this
new course that Oprah Winfrey is doing. It is unabashed blasphemy in the guise
of a marital program. It's a perversion of truth where Satan can use Oprah's
huge platform to reach the Women of
We've been watching "Silencing the Christians" on
Saturday nights (you can see all of the programs at http://www.silencingchristians.com
) and as they are going through the many
and increasing number of persecutions of Christians, we are astonished as to
the degree that our First Amendment Rights are being threatened.
We have leaders in office and
running for office with un-disguised anti-Christian and anti-morality
sentiments. We have terrorists all over the world who openly admit their
purpose is our complete eradication.
I've been doing my daily Bible
readings in the book of Deuteronomy, where Moses is warning the children of
Israel by saying in 28:15, "But it
will come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God,
to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee
this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee." Was
he just talking about them? What were the curses he was talking about.
A few sound very familiar: Illness (how about all these new strains of
things our antibiotics don’t seem to work on any more, or aids for that
matter), drought we can sure relate to or flooding as the opposite pole of
that. It says "ye shalt build a
house and not dwell therein" (that call to mind the mortgage crisis?).
Maybe the scariest part is verse
36: "The Lord shall bring thee and
thy king which thou shall set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor
thy fathers have known and there shall thou serve other gods, wood and stone."
This is surely turning into a country our fathers wouldn't have recognized, and
all sorts of new forms of religion are springing up all over as we talk about
the "king" or President we would set over us..
Or verse 49: "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee
from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation
whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which
shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young."
Still think Moses was just talking to the people who were there with him at the
time? When
But did we wake up? Apparently
not, we continue to get worse. This nation needs prayer as never before, and it
needs Christians speaking up.
Hi, Terry, I read your musings today on Deuteronomy, chapter 28 and was reminded of 1 Corinthians 10:11, which says of the Old Testament Israelites: “Now these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” I think you’re right on, brother. We need to pray and we need to be about the work of our Lord.
Blessings upon you, sir.
Andy Van Loenen
I'm
pleased to introduce multi-published writer and former Literary Agent Mark
Littleton as a client. He is a graduate of
He has written for numerous publications including Reader's Digest, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Evening Sun, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Moody Monthly, Today's Christian Woman, Discipleship Journal, Leadership, Sunday Digest, Power for Living, Zelos, as well as many others. He is also the author of over eighty-nine books which have collectively sold over one million copies, including:
Beefin' Up, Real Feed for Amazing Grazing: A Teen Devotional(Multnomah, 1990) -- nominated for the Gold Medallion Award, 1990.
Sports Heroes Series-- books for boys,8-13 (Zondervan, 1995-1996 and 2002-2003). Zondervan bestsellers.
Light
the Torch, Pass the Flame ,Father’s Day gift book -- (with Jeanette
Littleton) --
The NIRV Kids’ Devotional, for preteens (Zondervan, 1998). CBA Children’s BESTSELLER’S list, 1999.
The Edge Devotional Bible(Zonderkidz,2003).
The 100 Most Important Verses for Women(W, 2005).
101 Amazing Truths About Jesus You Probably Didn’t Know(Howard, 2007).
More books for children, teens and
adults are scheduled for 2007-2009.
>> Terry, I always wonder how serious the people
really are
that don't do their research and follow submission guidelines.
Andi
That's a very good comment, and my answer is they may be very serious about their writing but have no interest at all in the business end. They expect to get an agent and have them handle all the business or send it to an editor who will come rushing to their door and offer them an obscene amount of money for the privilege of taking it from there.
The real world answer is we have to be serious about the business and promotion, it isn't all about the writing. There are some wonderful books that will never be significantly published (87% of everything written to be exact) and in most cases it is not about the quality of the writing but about what people do with the project after it is written. Significant publishing takes a huge amount of time and patience. Even those who opt out of trying to be traditionally published soon find out it shortens the time element but not the business end. Someone who self-publishes, or POD publishes or electronic publishes or another form is increasing, not decreasing the business end. Most of the time they are assuming all of the business end. In today's marketplace we can get a book in print by some method in a couple of months. What happens then is all about sales and distribution and promotion . . . business. Any of these forms of getting a book out can be a valid strategy assuming the person is making the right decision for them and knows what to do and how to do the business end.
We spend a huge amount of time talking about our craft, how to make the writing better, but unfortunately we don't spend nearly enough talking about the business end. I've had over 1000 submissions over the past 12 months and on well over half it was clear they had not researched the submission guidelines which I have to assume means they haven't followed guidelines on anything they have submitted. That usually means rejection no matter where they are submitting. They are wasting a huge amont of time and money doing these mass-mailing submissions, time that if invested in researching markets and targeting who they should be approaching AND WHY would be much more productive for them.
I have people tell me that some of the things I am asking for in the submission guidelines are things they want an agent to tell them. Everything I request has a reason as in submission guidelines others have on their sites. I want to know what the author knows about them, and they will tell me volumes about how professional they are. I get a surprising number that say "I have read your submission guidelines, but . . ." Anything that completes that sentence is sure to get on my bad side. They are in essence saying they know more about my business than I do, and that may be true, but if it is then they don't need me, do they?
Trish Porter just signed her contract with Bridge-Logos for "Rekindling Your Dream" with an early 2009 publication date. Trish knows about building a new fire under an old dream. Years after being a member of the 1988 Olympic Team, Trish decided she wasn't through – she came back to take six National Masters Championships, three World National Masters Championships, and is the current World Masters record holder.
Her book shows how she threw fresh logs on the fire and how women today can rekindle their own dreams.
My own good news is after hurting my back the x-rays don't
show any major problems and it is just a matter of applying heat and ice and try
not to do anything to get in the Lord's way as He repairs it. Hopefully that'll
be before the eighth when I have a library program set in Dimmitt
In May I'm on faculty for the Christian Writers Conference
in
I enjoyed the Best Southwest Bookfest. The four libraries putting it on did a terrific job. So what's the deal about pain?
There was a lady getting some heavy boxes of books out of her trunk and I jumped in to help like my mama taught me. One box was too heavy and I turned wrong with it. I locked my back up big time. I got good comments on the two sessions I did and the main Q &A at the end, so hopefully I did a decent job even though I was in serious pain. Went over to take a couple of Advil at the water fountain and couldn't straighten back up.
I made it part way home and spent the night. Locked up again the following morning when I tried to pick my boots up off the floor. This is really entertaining people, fortunately Saundra is a massage therapist and I'm sure she'll get me straightened out.
Friday evening was a pleasant dinner that featured a dramatic Narrative by Catherine Whitman. Superbly acted and featuring brief segments of song in a low, resonant voice that was absolutely beautiful, it was an awesome presentation. I got to see some writing friends, including meeting some I had only talked to online at ACFW and Shoutlife. Nice to put faces to them. And of course one of my clients, Jane Thornton, was there but we didn't get to spend enough time together.
So it was a kind of good news, bad news sort of thing. They put on a great conference, had some really fine presenters, and I very much enjoyed it even if I am paying for it by laying on a heating pad sucking down advils. Hey, we all have to suffer for our craft, right?
Saundra tells me I simply HAVE to start making allowances for my age and quit doing stuff like this. Now there's a bitter pill to swallow.
5th
Annual Best
Some of you may live in the Dallas-Fort Worth or
The event is put on by the libraries of the Best Southwest
Area of the Dallas Metroplex. This would be Zula B. Wylie Library in Cedar
Hill, The Desoto Public Library, The Duncanville Public Library, The Lancaster
Veterans Memorial Library and the
I've already had several DFW area writers say they'll see me there, which is great. There is a Thursday night kickoff at 6:30pm entitled "Booked on Crime: Working Together for Justice," and features Authors Diane Fanning and Kerry Max Cook plus Dr. John W. Stickels and Dallas County DA Craig Watkins. This event is free to the public.
There are fee-based writing seminars during the day on Friday entitled "Mind Gym – Writing From a Place of Passion with Lorey Hayes, both an am and pm session. An afternoon session only is set for "From Idea to Print: The Making of the Ghost of Hampton Court" with Martha Hannah and Larry Dowell. Friday evening is dinner with the authors including a presentation by Catherine Whiteman.
On Saturday there is a smorgasbord of one hour workshops including two sessions of me doing an "Agent Q & A." The final session is a panel comprised of faculty members. I hope to see some of you there.
.
Our Job as a writer is simple – please read more.
To make the reader read the next word, the next sentence, to finish the page. We have to make them go to the next page, finish the chapter and finish the book. We are constantly saying "please read more." Actually in the long run we want people to read every thing we write and to want more.
We want it all, gluttonous, unashamed, if we take the time to write it we NEED each word to be read and we want people to NEED to read them just as much. We should never simply hope that it happens, we should leave the reader no choice and force them to turn that first page, to force them to keep reading.
I like to see stories start with a bit of action that causes the reader to have to go on down in the story to see how it completes. Or to raise a question that isn't immediately answered, curiosity that is not satisfied, etc. Objective number one is just that simple. There is a psychological commitment that occurs when someone turns the first page on a book. They are committing to read.
It's a temporary commitment, however and to keep them going we have to get them where they care about the characters as quickly as possible if it is a character-driven tale, or about where the story is going if it is plot-driven. Objective number two once we have gotten a temporary commitment to read is to push them down into the story and reinforce that commitment.
The final objective is to continue to move the story forward, keeping the reader firmly anchored in it until we produce the coveted result, where they really NEED to keep reading. After all, as a writer what we really need is for them to "please read more."
A writing friend asked me if
I would be on faculty for an online writing conference May 2nd –
9th. They call it a 'virtual conference,' and the idea intrigued me. A full
week conference conducted through a forum with discussion groups, workshops,
and chats. Interesting idea put on by the Catholic Writers Guild, and this is
the first year they have done it. No, I'm not Catholic, but I guess they
figured as long as I was willing to work that they would overlook that little
fact. This will be a valuable alternative to some who want to go to a writing
conference but simply can't afford the travel, lodging and conference fees. The
fees for this conference are a real bargain, zero, and it is open to all levels
and genres, fiction and nonfiction alike.
So how is it going to work?
This is how my section of it will work: I'll take
queries and proposals from participants, and we will do it both publicly and
privately. How can it be both? I asked participants to post their query letter
that they want to use to get me to take a proposal in the workshop. That way we
can talk about and learn from each other's query letters.
A proposal is too large to post there of course and in response to the query
letter I will respond privately about the submission of the proposal. Normally
I would not invite a proposal from a query letter if it was a genre I did not
represent, or a market that I'm not working in. However, for the purposes of
the conference I will accept a proposal even if I know going in that it isn't a
fit for me and will give feedback on the proposal. Since our submission
guidelines ask for a proposal to contain the first three chapters of a work I
will also give feedback on how well I feel it opens. How much of this we do
publicly will I suppose depend on how many get them to me during the time we
are working in this forum.
I posted it early in case some want to begin working on proposals, indicating
the submission guidelines are at www.hartlineliterary.com and
a really good checklist to insure the actual manuscript is ready to submit is
under the agent tab at my website, www.terryburns.net. If you aren't
sure about how to get started, there are a couple of free resources I'll offer
at my website. First is the writing library where there are hundreds of writing
links catalogued and there are a number of resources on queries and proposals
there. Second is the short blog I do each day or two, which are catalogued in
the blog archive. There are a lot of interesting topics touched on there you
may find of help.
I may talk about proposals in the group as well as a learning experience for
all, but if I do will not identify the author or use specifics from the work. I
always hear at workshops that people are afraid to ask "dumb
questions." I assured them that there is no such thing as long as the
person asking genuinely wants to know the answer. To find out more about this
conference the website is http://conference.catholicwritersguild.org/index.php
The question was asked on a group, "How many websites do I have?" I only have one website, www.terryburns.net, but that's not really all of the story. I'm part of the agency website at www.hartlineliterary.com
I have pages at authorsden.com, shoutlife.com, shelfari, myspace, jacketflap, edgy Christian Fiction Lovers, Facebook, Bookmarketing Network, Amazon, Echelon Press, Good Reads, WritersCafe.org, that I can think of right at present. In addition to these full pages I am in directories that point to my website at Crossmap, Baptist Top 1000, Top 1000 Christian Sites, Christian Family Links, Cross Daily, Christians Unite.com Top Christian Sites, Best of the West, Oaktree Village, The Internet Writing Workshop, Western Authors, ACFW Directory, Western Writers of America, Western Authors, Will Write 4 Food, SCBWI Directory, Panhandle Professional Writers, etc. Links to these are on my webpage.
In addition to author pages
and directories, I participate in groups such as ACFW online and
When I first set up a website I took the trouble to apply to and be accepted by DMOZ, the open directory project. At the time this volunteer rating group was the key element to becoming listed well on the major search engines, and it was a difficult task to get into it. I don't think it is that important now, but I suspect it still plays a strong factor in keeping my site well placed in search returns. I have a simple little homemade site that I designed and maintain myself and there's no reason that it should be approaching 3 million hits with over 400,000 unique visitors except for that early DMOZ link followed by working hard to get as much internet presence as I could, changing content daily and using strategies designed to pull traffic to the site.
Clients go to the site often because they can learn a lot about what I am thinking and doing (even though I communicate with all my clients at least weekly). It interests me that many who query me obviously have spent time on my site looking at my blog and my blog archives and have done an excellent job of tailoring the pitch to me personally. I do that with editors and houses that I am pitching as well. It pays to use the sites people have up to familiarize ourselves with them before we try a pitch.
This presence is fairly small next to some others that I can think of who have raised internet presence to an art form.
This is a topic of conversation with writers all of the time, particularly Christian writers. Many believe that strong emotions simply cannot be shown without it, or that really bad men can't be portrayed without it. I agree, bad men use bad language, and I show that all the time. But I never use the language, I simply show them doing it. People know what the words are, they don't need me to spell it out for them, they just want to see the emotions and the body language, to see the people using the language.
But people disagree with me, I get that. So there is a more pragmatic argument. Most Christian publishers simply will not take a book that contains profanity, graphic sex or violence. This seems to anger the people who feel that is taking realism out of the books. They miss the point. Christian publishers are trying to walk the line between taking on relevant, current subjects, and presenting them in such a way that they are appearing to condone the behavior. Showing people in a book using bad language is being realistic, but using the language itself is an appearance of condoning the behavior.
Shouldn't we as Christian writers be looking at it the same way? Shouldn't we be wanting to get as much realism as possible into our work without at any point be appearing to condone what we are presenting in our writing? Shouldn't we want to take on the tough subjects without glamorizing any inappropriate behavior?
Secular publishing houses don't have to worry about trying to walk this line. As an agent I have a very low tolerance for inappropriate material and don't want to have my name attached to it. I am quite frankly more worried about my Christian witness than about making another publishing deal. The Bible is very clear about our being a stumbling block for others and I surely don't want to do that even if it is a work I didn't create myself.
I guess what I'm saying is we talk about whether these things are or are not needed in a work, and that discussion could go on ad ifinitum, but the bottom line is we are ruling out an entire market if we do it, the fastest growing market in the industry today. Can we tell the story just as well without it? I think so. So why turn these readers and publishing houses off if it isn't necessary?
Randall M. Mooney is a new client, but did a great job of introducing himself on his own blog. Take a look at his shoutlife blog today.
Also coming on board are two double spur award winners,
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Jory Sherman has been a full-time writer for over forty
years, began his writing career as a poet in
The market for westerns is soft. That means editors aren't buying many. A group of western writers I interface with have been talking about this with several saying they weren't sure they wanted to try to write them any more. Keep in mind this group has bibliographies up well in the hundreds. The discussion has been enlightening. One writer summed up the thoughts of many when he said:
"Now I don't know about the rest of this crowd, but I for one write for the love of writing. And I write westerns for the love of the American west. I write for the love of Bob Steele and Hoot Gibson and Randolph Scott and John Wayne, those people who birthed my imagination back when a bent stick could be a blazing six-gun and my old dog a faithful steed. I write, I suppose, because I've never really grown up."
I love westerns too, always have. I haven't tried to write traditional westerns because I came to the party late and I knew it. I've had some small success in writing some in the time period for the Christian market, and I'm trying to reach out to some new readers of the old west with a YA series. That's a tough sell too.
But is that why I write? No, that's why I have written in that time period, for the love of it. The long answer of why I write is on my website, under the writing testimony link. The short answer to why I do what writing I still do, and my efforts to help other writers get their words out is very simple. After much soul-searching and foot-dragging, I believe God has asked me to do it, and until I am relieved from one or both tasks I'll continue to do it.
Some write to achieve recognition, some for financial gain, some because they have words on their heart and nothing will do but to get them out. A secular writer who doesn't sell books well up in the five figures does not impress the mainstream publishing industry. A Christian writer who makes only a single sale but that sale changes someone's life would be considered a success. Having said that, I don't know a single Christian writer (including myself) who only wants a single sale. We all want to get our words in as many hands as possible, and sales is how we measure how well we are doing that. I write out of love and obedience . . .
. . . why do you write?
Learning to
query at a little league game!!
I went to a little league tournament over the weekend to watch my grandson play. As I watched the drama unfold on an elemental level I realized I was learning some things about the query process as well.
The first game they fought it out with my grandson pitching,
but then had a bad inning with some fielding errors plus a pitch that hung up
on him and a big old boy parked it up somewhere up around
The following day they still weren't showing much, then one of their lead-off batters put one over the fence. Suddenly they were alive again, fought like tigers and took the game. In the 4th game they had to again face a team who had already beaten them but this time fought them to a standstill and only lost by one run. No shame in that.
Like that team losing their enthusiasm after a hard loss a writer may hit that same wall with a mailbox full of rejections. A rejection is one person's opinion. All it means is a project does not fit the markets the editor or agent is trying to find something for right at that point in time. Of course, too many rejections may mean the project may need to be revisited particularly if some good input has been received along the way. It can also mean we are trying to take a minor league work into the major leagues.
It's like when the team ran into that really good ball club. They didn't have a chance, but I would have liked to see them try that one with their top pitchers and fresh players. They probably would still be overmatched, but would have had a shot at it. We can see that in writing too where a writer who has had success in small presses hit the big houses going up against stronger writers and where the editors want so much stronger stories. Have to come with our best pitching and our strongest game to play in that league. Average won't get it.
That's the way it works for a writer too. Continuing to stay
in the game, one solid hit can give us what we need to keep going, even when it
gets tougher. We kept telling
No telling what a guy can learn at a little league game.
What does it take to be a writer? Apply the lower portion of our anatomy to a chair and start producing words. That's it. A writer is someone that is committed to writing, and actively doing it.
What does it take to be a published writer? Get our words out into the marketplace where they are readily available to the reading public. The "readily available" is the key, the more places it is available the better.
What does it take to be a significantly published author? Our words in the hands of the reading public in quantities that would be considered credible by publishing industry professionals. How is this measured? In sales, or in shorter work in publications that have circulation that would be considered credible by publishing industry professionals.
There's nothing subjective about this, it's quantifiable. It's quantifiable not by how the book was published or by who, not by how we think it is being received, but how we realistically answer these questions. Hard, solid numbers.
I'm lucky to be working with a terrific group of writers. I sent out an update today of what everybody is doing, and no surprise here, they're all working on new project, cranking out new words, or actively revising work that is out making the rounds taking advantage of feedback we're getting back. They're reading and when they find something that is a comparable for their work, they share that info with me. We're a team, not just one on one, but as a group.
What does it take to move from just being a writer and becoming a significantly published writer? Talent, for sure, but a lot of talented people don't make the cut. Patience and persistence is what makes it happen, learning and growing in our craft, understanding that at any point in time there may be only one 'right' place for our work and doing what is necessary to make that connection.
So bottom line, what do writers do? They write.
Speechless –
silencing the Christians
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Formatting can
get a submission tossed!
On an online group, a writer
said she was having dots show up for spaces, arrows for tabs, return marks for
hard returns, ¶ marks for paragraphs, etc. She wanted to know how to turn them
off. I leave mine on all the time, even when I'm reading other people's work.
It makes formatting problems jump out at me, and as I read submissions I fix
them as I go. It's a habit. It does slow me down, sure, and it's probably
something a lot of agents don't do, I don't know, but I can't help it. However,
it does tend to slow me down where I pay closer attention to the work. I took
speed reading in high school, have kept it up over the years, and I can really
rip down through text if I want to.
If I lose interest in a
submission that I'm reading, or decide it isn't right for us I quit where I am,
and the editing that I've done as I go is tossed. If I do like it I'm well on
my way to having a cleaner manuscript to submit. If an editor opens up a
manuscript I send them and have their formatting turned on, I want it to look
crisp and clean. That means it looks great with the formatting off too. For
example, I know tab indents are acceptable, but I like to replace them with
formatting, the manuscript looks 200% better and more professional.
I try to get clients to
improve some formatting habits and use the copy I've gone through if they want
to make changes so I don't have to do it again. It is a bit annoying to spend
several hours reading and formatting only to have someone make some needed
corrections on the original copy rather than the formatted copy and I have to
do it all over again. I could better use that time researching markets and
doing submissions. I really do need to quit doing so much of this as I read and
start sending it back for the author to fix. Habits die hard.
The checklist that I use is
online at http://www.terryburns.net/Submit.htm
and I automatically check for these items as I read. You see, my estimation of
a writer goes up significantly if I'm reading their submission and find I'm not
having to do much formatting or finding typos and extra spaces stuck in all over
the place. I know an editor feels this way as well and when they are reading a
clean submission that doesn't seem to require as much editing, they concentrate
more on the plot and the storyline. That's what I want and why I try to make
anything I send to an editor as clean as possible.
If a submission is too jacked
up I'm likely to decide it isn't ready to submit at all, and that author had
better pull me into the story fast and keep me there to stay in the game.
It's always a good thing to stand out from the crowd, right? Good at conferences and when we meet editors and at signings where we need to attract customers. It's good in establishing visibility and getting our names remembered. In publishing, being remembered is a very good thing.
But is it always good? Actually not. There is one area in publishing where standing out is not good. Sending in proposals or manuscripts with fancy fonts or bells and whistles to make it stand out is not good. For editors and agents it is usually a sign that they are dealing with a new writer even before they read a word.
Why is this? The pros don't have time to do this. They produce and sent a nice, clean manuscript or proposal that is businesslike and professional. They all look alike and all carefully follow the submission guidelines for the place they are submitting to, because that's what pros do.
This is one place where it is not good to stand out, to use different size fonts or color or stick happy little stickers on them. It isn't good to email a query or proposal if they don't want them, or to send a hard copy if the guidelines say they don't want them. The whole proposal or manuscript, cover page and all, should be the same standard font, 12 point type. There's no sin in being a new writer, but we don't want to alert those evaluating manuscripts to that fact ahead of time. We want them to think they are looking at a pro submission and be pleasantly surprised when they discover it is a new writer.
There is an exception in a proposal. A sell sheet can be as creative as we want to be. One page, attention getting header and short and to the point enticing narrative. This is a pure promotional item and can stand out.
I have a checklist of things to look for in a standard submission at my website, http://www.terryburns.net/Submit.htm that I use and anyone else is welcome to use. Sometimes something on this checklist will conflict with something on a particular publishers submission guidelines and those guidelines are what should always be followed. However, the checklist will produce a standard formatted document that will in most cases be accepted as a professional submission. It's a work in progress and anytime I find out something that I should have had on this checklist I add it.
Standing out? It's good to know when we should and when we shouldn't.
In my last blog I talked about the difference in a publisher's view of the market and the author's view, how they can differ and how that makes us feel. It's like a dance, where the publishers are the only ones who really know the steps. It's working with various publishers and trying to find a fit between what they want to buy and what various authors I represent have to sell.
How do we go about that? The pitch is the easy part. It takes me an hour or so to work up and submit a good pitch or proposal. The hard part is targeting who it should go to. For each submission there are hours of work spent looking at markets, looking at current published offerings to see if they suggest an opportunity, watching industry news, assimilating data from friends, clients and fellow agents in our agency. Targeting is the hard part and consumes the most time.
Just picking a name out of the market guide is like throwing darts blindfolded. It's a waste of postage. I need to know the specific editor that I'm pitching and why I think they are the right person for the project. It helps if it's an editor that I've established a relationship with. The reasons that make me think the editor is the right one to pitch is probably the exact thing that editor needs to hear in the pitch.
A lot of my clients are proactive as well, reading books that can suggest opportunities and passing on things that they hear that can be helpful intel. The more eyes watching the industry the better. In my little band it's a team effort, not only sharing information, but encouraging one another, rejoicing in each other's successes and commiserating over any setbacks.
We like it that way.
It's my job, to be the middleman between a client and an editor. And it can get interesting having to do that. I have several clients who are very sure that they are writing exactly what readers want to read and have significant feedback to prove it. Then they get a turndown from an editor or a request that they do some modification to their work that they are very sure is not what their reader base wishes to see. Often they are positive the editor is wrong.
I understand this. In the writing side of my life I've felt that a lot myself. The clients would like me to go to bat and try to convince the editor that they are wrong. But are they? Publishing houses are constantly doing market surveys, constantly sampling to see what they need to be publishing.
That makes no sense, how can both be right? How can both have numbers to back up what they think? By definition doesn't one have to be wrong? Not really, why do so many people think the Harry Potter books were the greatest thing since sliced bread and another group takes such a strong and proactive stance against them?
It's a difference in reader bases that somebody is trying to serve. I do know that it's tilting at windmills to try and convince publishers to go against their sales figures and market research. That time is far better spent trying to find that place where the work does fit in its present configuration, or to alter the work so it fits what a particular editor is looking for if we can and if we are given the opportunity to do so. It's their money and they get to say what they will buy and publish.