Publishing Pulse 3/6/09

New Agents on QueryTracker:

Carrie Howland - Donadio & Olson, Inc.

Alanna Ramirez - Trident Media Group, LLC

Brendan Deneen - FinePrint Literary Management

Literary Agents:

The Web site Editor Unleashed, which is run by former WD editor Maria Schneider, is hosting a live forum chat with agent Michael Bourret of the Dystel & Goderich Literary Agency.

The chat goes down from 1-2 p.m., on Wednesday, March 11. Visit the EU Web site here. If you're writing juvenile fiction and have a question that no one can seem to answer, this is a perfect place to ask it!

Michael's interests: "a wide range of books, from middle grade and young adult fiction, to arts and entertainment, to serious nonfiction. He is a politics and news junkie, as well as a connoisseur of fine wine and reality television."

Colleen Lindsay started the first Query Fail on twitter. It was fun to watch all the tweets come through from the various agents, publishers, and authors. Check out her post on it here (oh, and see all those people on twitter? Baaaa...).

Fun Things To Win:

We all know that as important to writing is reading. I think I spend more money on books than anything else in my entertainment budget. So what's better than reading books? Reading FREE books. I'm sure there are scads of contests scattered across the Internet. My addiction is so severe that I usually rely on a handful of blogs to keep me in the loop.

Win a signed copy of Charles de Lint's THE MYSTERY OF GRACE. I totally entered.

Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of TANTALIZE and ETERNAL, runs one of the best blogs on the planet. She lists giveaways, author interviews, and much more almost every day. Click here to enter to win NEVER TRUST A DEAD MAN by Vivian Vande Velde (say that three times fast!).

Enter to win ETERNAL by Cynthia Leitich Smith, who also gives a great interview. In fact, this blog (In Bed With Books) has tons of giveaways, so check it out.

Other Interesting Tidbits:

1. Blogging is a fun way to "get yourself out there." Heather did a post this week on using Google Reader to follow the blogs you like. Do you want to become one of those people other people follow? (If you can follow that sentence, you deserve some sort of prize.) If you do, you need to blog. Not sure what to blog about?

Well, a couple of us QTBloggers have started doing a Work in Progress Wednesday. Mine from this week is here. Archetype posted here. The real inspiration came from Kate Karyus Quinn on her blog. If you're a blogger/writer wondering what you can post about (believe me, I've been there), try posting a Work in Progress Wednesday! There's nothing like giving a report, receiving positive comments and encouragement, and just the sheer thrill of blogging, of course. If you like, post your blog address in the comments. I'm always looking for new blogs to follow and read. (I've tried clicking on the tiny heads in our sidebar, but some of you have more than one blog!)

2. There is something in the works for Monday that I think you're going to love. Last Monday, we opened up the blog in our first Open Mic Monday. If you didn't get a chance to ask a question, please do! We want this blog to be for you. Lady Glamis asked a question about showing vs. telling. And the five of us have been cooking up something special to answer her question...don't miss it!

3. One last thing: You may have noticed our sweet, new graphics telling you a little more about the QTBloggers. We did an introductory post when we first took over the blog, but our readership has grown so much since then. So now, at the end of each post, you can see us and read a little bit about us. We'd like to get to know you too! Leave us a comment with a little tidbit about yourself. What genre do you write? Where are you in the querying stage? How long have you been writing? Who is your favorite author? Or maybe you're a random-fact person like me and just want to pontificate on the awesomeness of say, ginger ale. Go for it! We'd love to hear from you.