Publishing Pulse for October 2, 2011

New At QueryTracker:

Congratulations to our newest success stories, Dawn Kurtagich and S.E. Sinkhorn! 

We've added two new agent to the database: Molly Reese of Einstein Thompson Agency, and Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates. Over thirty agent profiles were updated this week, so please, we beg you: before querying, make sure you check the agent's most recent guidelines. 

Publishing News:

Several agents enjoyed a Twitter conversation under the hashtag #OfferOfRep. The question: if a writer receives an offer of representation, should s/he notify agents who only have the query but no other material? The answer: some agents want to know and others don't. (If an agent has requested your manuscript, by the way, there is no question: you notify everyone with your manuscript the same day you receive an offer of representation.)

Amazon.com earnings were lower than anticipated this quarter. Amazon spokesmen weren't worried, though. They attributed the fluctuation to heavy purchases of Kindles and anticipate making it up in ebooks over the long term.

Kobo Books has announced that it will create a publishing arm of its ebook business.

Simon & Schuster, Random House and Hachette Books all give authors access to their sales data.

Around the Blogosphere:

Victoria Crispin aggregated all the stories about the implosion of Aspen Mountain Press. If you read nothing else this week, please read that and head editor Celina Summers' account.

Jessica Faust of Bookends Literary discussed the importance of genre and classifying your novel.

Publishers Weekly talks about bad book covers.

Literary Quote of the Week:

"My life has a superb cast, but I can't figure out the plot."

Thanks for reading, and until next week, keep those queries flying!

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Jane Lebak is the author of The Guardian (Thomas Nelson, 1994), Seven Archangels: Annihilation (Double-Edged Publishing, 2008) and The Boys Upstairs (MuseItUp, 2010). At Seven Angels, Four Kids, One Family, she blogs about what happens when a distracted daydreamer and a gamer geek attempt to raise four children. She is represented by the riveting Roseanne Wells of the Marianne Strong Literary Agency.