Publishing Pulse 3/5/10

Celebrations!!
We want to shout out a huge congrats to our own Mary Lindsey who signed with Philomel/Penguin this week!! Here's her Publisher's Marketplace announcement:

Mary Lindsey's debut Shattered Souls, a dark and dangerous forbidden love story about a Speaker who helps lingering ghosts pass to the spirit world and the Protector who has pledged to serve her, to Jill Santopolo at Philomel, by Ammi-Joan Paquette of Erin Murphy Literary Agency (World).

CONGRATS MARY!!

Cool Stuff:

Recently Mark McVeigh conducted 15-minute skype interviews with authors. Kelly Polark and Sharon Mayhew shared their experiences. It's sort of fun to hear what Mark had to say.

Chuck Sambuchino, blog author over at Guide to Literary Agents, has agreed to answer your questions about agents. He's being hosted at Lisa Amowitz's blog (who was a runner-up in the last Lucky Agent contest! Congrats, Lisa!), so head over there to leave your questions for him.

Also, he's hosting another Dear Lucky Agent contest on his blog. This time the genres include paranormal romance and urban fantasy. And hey! The agent judge? The fabulous Joanna Volpe.

I love getting the inside scoop anywhere I can. Author Kiersten White posted some cool stuff about her editor Erica Sussman at Harper Teen. There's info about trends, editing, what she wishes authors knew, and more. Check it out!

Contests:

There seems to be a plethora of blog contests going on all the time. There's no way I could highlight every one of them here. But Weronika Janczuk has one going on right now that is priceless. She's a slush reader for a literary agent, so she knows her stuff. Check this post for full details. And follow her blog, because I bet she's going to have a few more tricks up her sleeve. Oh! And it ends in only a few hours, so enter quick!

Carolina Valdez Miller has put up some links to more cool contests. VR Barkowski has quite the list going on in her sidebar. I highly recommend skipping over there!

Book bloggers are also a great place to win free books and connect with the writing/reading community.

And well, I've got a giveaway for autographed books coming up (Monday) on my blog and Suzy's joining me this time around with an amazing prize package of her own. So come over to our blogs next week (or now) to join in the fun!

Have a fabulous weekend! Catcha on the flip side.

Publishing Pulse 11/20/09

New Literary Agents:


Amy Burkhardt at Kimberley Cameron & Associates. From their website: "She represents both fiction and nonfiction projects for the adult market. In fiction, she looks for literary and commercial fiction, upmarket women's fiction, mysteries with a twist or an unusual protagonist, and historical fiction. In nonfiction, she seeks narrative nonfiction and memoirs as well as prescriptive nonfiction written by experts in their field. She has a soft spot for lifestyle, humor, food, and current events topics."

Lina Sion at Global Literary Management. "Her focus at the agency is to represent authors of Middle Grade and Young Adult fiction."

Stacy Carlock at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. "She is interested in character driven stories that deal with women’s issues (both fiction and non-fiction). She is also interested in spiritual stories that come from being real. She is always into a great page turning beach read - particularly legal thrillers with complex and interesting lead characters and just good fun reads. She loves business books that encourage and develop people skills and ethical awareness."

Serafina Clarke at Burkeman and Clarke Literary Agency. "We handle fiction and general non-fiction, children’s books and scripts for film, television and theatre."

Adriann Ranta at Wolf Literary Services, LLC. "She is most interested in realistic, true-to-life stories with conflicts based in the real world. She likes edgy, dark, challenging voices, unique settings, and everyman stories told with a new spin."

Guichard Cadet at Seredipity Literary Agency. "Guichard is looking to represent a balanced mix of fiction and non fiction but is not interested in magical realism, fantasy or science fiction. He has a special affinity for pop culture, sports and Caribbean themed titles."


Contests, Happenings, Etc.

The fine folks at St. Martins are hosting a new adult contest. From their blog: “We are actively looking for great, new, cutting edge fiction with protagonists who are slightly older than YA and can appeal to an adult audience. Since twenty-somethings are devouring YA, St. Martin’s Press is seeking fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an “older YA” or “new adult.” The deadline is TODAY, so get your pitch entered fast!

Delacorte First Young Adult Novel contest: Submissions due December 31.

Dragon Moon Press is calling for submissions in “Fantasy, Science Fiction and Gentle Horror.” Read the details here. Don't send submissions until December 1.

Literary agent Jenny Rappaport is closed to submissions. Read more here.


Inspiring Things To Read:

Alice Pope, editor of Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market, is calling for queries for her upcoming Novel and Short Story Writer’s Market book. Click here for details.

Alice also did a fantastic post this week on social networking, and just what you need to be doing. Check it out.

I found this glossary of publishing terms on Janet Reid’s blog. Pretty funny, so check it out!
 

The whole Harlequin self-publishing announcement exploded this week. Reactions have been up all over the place, but here are a couple of my favorites. From Dear Author. Kristin Nelson gives us the possible fallout from the announcement here.

Have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Publishing Pulse 9/18/09

I have some great news for all writers who are in need of a killer query. Our own Elana Johnson, who is known in our circle as a query goddess, has penned an ebook that will help you write your best query. This came after many, many people contacted her asking for help with their queries. (Ahem - including yours truly!)

For more information about Elana's book, click this link: From the Query to the Call. Also, check out the Query Ninja for a fun look at a real query that has been karate-chopped to smithereens and then reassembled into something stellar.

In publishing news, agent Ted Malawer, formerly of Firebrand Literary Agency, has joined Upstart Crow Literary. Mr. Malawer specializes in Children's Fiction, and is particularly looking for Middle Grade and Young Adult. Check out this interview on the Guide to Literary Agents blog.

Win a pitch session with Deirdre Knight of The Knight Agency. There are some conditions, so read here for all the info.

Leisure Books has put out a call for "Fresh Blood." If you have a finished horror novel of 80-90 thousand words, this contest may be your lucky break. The winner will receive a contract for publication in Leisure's 2011 line-up. Contest deadline is September 30th, so be sure to enter soon!

Lady Glamis, a staunch supporter of the QueryTracker blog from its inception, has announced a contest over at the Literary Lab. Be sure to keep an eye on their site - lots of fun prizes await you!

Happy Friday, everyone. I wish you a restful weekend with plenty of time for writing.

Suzy

Publishing Pulse 9/11/09

New and Updated Agents:
Literary agent Terry Burns was added to QT’s database as an agent for Harline Literary. Mr. Burns is looking for a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, so check out his profile.

Did you know Patrick updates agent profiles regularly? *sheepish grin * I didn’t. I’ve been checking for new agents weekly, but I had no idea I could simply scroll down and there would be a list of agents that have recently updated their profiles, genres, mailing addresses, how they accept submissions, and/or websites and links. Since August 2, 34 agents have been updated. Thanks Pat!



Hot Publishing Links: 

Chuck on the Guide to Literary Agents blog has started an Author 101 Series with “What Agents Hate.”

Check it out. There is a similar list here, transcribed from a keynote address given by Wendy Loggia at a SCBWI conference on why your manuscript got rejected. Valuable information for any author looking to find success in publishing.

And this one, a “Blast from the Past” post by Hallie Ephron.

I found The Ten Commandments of Blogging quite informative, well-written with just the right amount of humor, and absolutely true. Thanks Pimp My Novel!

Worried about your biography? Your lack of publishing credits? Read this post by Jessica Faust to ease the panic.

Thinking you can write full-time? Read this post by Rachelle Gardner to really examine the issue. Oh, and this one too.

If you missed Nathan Bransford’s Writer Appreciation Week, go back and check it out. I especially liked this post on the pre-published writer.

Have a great week!

Researching Literary Agents

We’ve spent some time on the blog discussing query letters, synopses, elevator pitches, genres, and manuscript formatting.

Let’s say you’ve done all that. You’ve written a great novel, ran it through a critique buddy or two, polished the query letter, all of it.

What next?

Researching literary agents, of course.

I think this step actually starts way back at the beginning and you should do it in bits and pieces as you prepare to query. No matter how you do it, just make sure you do. After all, you want to place your novel with an agent that will A) be a good match for you personality-wise B) likes your genre C) has contacts in your genre and D) has the best possibility of garnering a request from the query letter.

Thus, you must research.

Now, if you know me, I actually despise research—except for researching agents. I find this kind of research hopeful, because I know that I can find the literary agents that will be the best ones to query for my work. Here’s a few tips for making this process a little easier.

1. Search by genre. There is absolutely no point in querying agents who don’t represent your genre. It’s a colossal waste of your time—and theirs. Using the main QueryTracker site, this is easy, easy, easy.


Simply find your genre in the drop down menu and click search.

2. Once you’ve identified agents according to genre, find out all you can about them. On the "Overview & User Comments" tab, I can see everything I need to research the agent. For Kae Tienstra, there is her email address, a website listed, a blog, links to Publisher’s Marketplace, AgentQuery, AAR, Preditors & Editors, methods of submitting, the whole nine yards.


I typically open all of these links at once by clicking on them and letting them load in their own window. Then I systematically read each one, checking for the following:

o Submission Guidelines
o What they’re looking for
o Response times
o Anything else I think would help identify Kae as an agent I want to query.

Another thing I check on QueryTracker: the user comments. I can see experiences from people who have queried this agent before. And if you’re a premium member, you can run all kinds of reports about query response times, request rates and agents with similar tastes.

3. Now I’m 95% sure that I want to query Kae. One more thing I always do: a Google search with the words, “interview with literary agent XXX”. This is a good way to further discover if the agent you’re researching is looking for a book like yours. We’ve done two interviews with literary agents (Anna Webman and Beth Fleisher) as well as a reposting of Ginger Clark’s interview. Cynthia Leitich Smith does several interviews each month with literary agents on her blog, Cynsations. The Guide to Literary Agents blog is also a terrific resource for interviews and what specific agents are looking for.

Now that I know I want to query Kae, I prepare the first paragraph of my query letter. I tend to try to find something personal about each agent to begin the query with. This is where the blog I’ve been reading or the interview I’ve found comes in. My first line is usually something like this: “In an interview you gave on the Cynsations blog, you said you were looking for “teen protagonists with a strong voice”. Because of this, I believe you would be interested in my young adult novel, XXX.”

Then I launch into my hook, query, sinker. The agent knows I’ve done my research, and that I’m not spamming every agent in AgentLand with the same email.


I think many times, aspiring authors will only complete step number one, and search by genre. I don’t think this is enough. I think you owe it to yourself and to the agents you’re querying to do more than that. Read their websites and blogs. Familiarize yourself with their sales records and what they’re selling. Find out everything you can about the agent and their agency (forum discussions, following them on Twitter, reading books by authors they represent) before you hit send or affix that postage stamp.

Researching agents should not be skipped. It’s as important as the query letter. And we all know how important that is. A fabulous query letter is worthless unless you get it in front of the right agents. So roll up those sleeves, and do your research!