Weekly Roundup 2/6/09

This is a mish-mash of random stuff. I'll try to organize it for you. But don't hold your breath.

Contests:

HarperCollins is calling for short stories. Check out their post that lists all the details.

Authoress over at Miss Snark's First Victim is at it again. Her monthly Secret Agent contest opens on Monday. Check here for a list of genres, and here for the rules to enter.

Pulse SPRING FLING Contest. I found this on Lisa McMann's blog. She's the author of WAKE, and her second book, FADE is one you can win. To enter, simply send an email to pulsespringfling@gmail.com with the words Pulse Spring Fling! in the subject line and answer the question, "Who is your favorite fictional couple?" in the body of the email.

One entry per person, US residents only. Contest begins January 1, 2009 and ends February 14, 2009. Winners will be announced Monday, March 2nd, with prizes delivered mid-March.

Click the image to see more.
Agent/Publishing Industry posts I liked and thought you might like, too:

I have fallen in love with The Blood Red Pencil blog. They have some great things going on over there. My favorite one in the past couple of weeks is this one on beginning your novel. Everyone agonizes over the beginning. Read it. Use it. Write it.

I know this is a bit old (from January), but I find it interesting to keep up on things going on in the publishing business. I don't read much from Publisher's Weekly, but it is a great place to get information. I like the book reviews and occasionally browse the deals so I can see what's being sold RIGHT NOW. This article on the end of publishing as we know it made Nathan Bransford's blog, and that made me sit up and take notice. I still think we should all go for that agent, that big publishing house. That's still my goal, anyway. Everyone must decide for themselves the route they will take. What's yours?

I also loved this post by Jessica Faust about the rejection letter. So many of us say, "If I only knew what to fix, I'd fix it!" The rejection letters we get don't give us anything specific to fix. In reality, it may just not be for that agent.

Great post by Agent Rachelle Gardner about passion. Everyone needs passion in their writing. And commas. How to merge the two? Check out the post.

Since I can't attend the SCBWI Conference, I like seeing posts from people who can. This one brought some hope to a bleak economy and other slow publishing news. Children's writers, take heart!

Things worth noting:

QueryTracker.net saw it's 100th success story! How exciting!

Because I like to Twitter, and apparently so do some industry folks. Check them out. You might also want to check this post for how to use Twitter for what you want.

Literary Agent stuff:

This post by Chuck Sambuchino over at the Guide to Literary Agents blog announced that Gary Heidt and Ellen Pepus have teamed up and started a new literary agency, Signature Literary. They both represent a range of fiction and non-fiction genres, so check them out. In fact, I love pretty much everything Chuck posts over there. If you haven't added his blog to your reader, you should.

We have so much planned for next week! A series on critique groups, tips for a manuscript tune-up and more! Stay tuned. Same QueryTracker time, same QueryTracker blog. Have a happy writing weekend!