Rachelle Gardner
| Publishing, Q4U
Is It the Economy?
Yesterday I was chatting with my friend, literary agent Sandra Bishop, and we found ourselves pondering whether it was our imaginations, or have the number of incoming queries really skyrocketed over the last couple of months? We’re both receiving incredible numbers, and as my post yesterday illustrated, most of them are simply not ready for…
Read More | Submitting
What Not To Say (part 87)
I was watching American Idol last night (duh) and the judges were bringing contestants in one after the other and telling them either “You made it through” or “You’re out.” That’s how it feels when I’m going through my query box, reading them one after the other. You’re in, you’re out. Just like contestants on…
Read More | Agents
YA & Middle Grade Fiction
Stephanie Reed wrote: A fellow CBA children’s author and I heard that, because there are already so many good mainstream children’s novels, there’s not much need for CBA children’s novels. Do you agree? And if so, please tell me how great mainstream novels and great CBA novels for adults have peacefully co-existed for years. My…
Read More | Agents
Ask the Agent: A Matter of Time
I always get questions about how long the publishing process takes. Of course, the biggest question is why does it take so long? My answer: it just does. There are a lot of reasons, but even if I tell you the reasons, it won’t change anything. It won’t make you happier about the length of…
Read More | Agents, Writing
Ask the Agent: Writing in Multiple Genres
One of the most common questions I receive is: Can I write books in more than one genre? Well, sure, write whatever you want! Can I write books in multiple genres and expect to build a successful publishing career? No. A lot of people have asked me this question, and they don’t understand my answer.…
Read More | Publishing
Special Sunday Extra
Thanks For Participating! I’m pretty stunned by the plethora of responses to Friday’s post. Who says we’re not supposed to talk about politics or religion? Apparently everyone likes to talk about it. I appreciate the numerous well-expressed thoughts you shared. Thanks for the conversation! I’d like to thank Michael N. Marcus, who so kindly gave…
Read More | About Me
My Not-So-Secret Identity
So yesterday I got an interesting email from a guy who wondered why my Blogger profile identifies me as a Christian. He wrote, in part: Are you hoping that the fact that you are not a Jew, Hindu, Muslim or atheist will influence people to read your blog, or to turn away? Are you trying…
Read More | Self-Publishing
Self-Publishing is an Option, Not a Stepping Stone
Seems I opened up a can o’ worms or two with my post yesterday. I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll do my best to clear up a couple of things. There were some questions about whether self-publishing would ever lose its stigma. Truthfully, I don’t think the stigma will fade until most self…
Read More | Publishing
Chicken Little, Go Home!
The publishing sky isn’t falling! At least not as far as I can tell. Last week there was some good news from the publishing world: Amazon’s revenue beat forecasts and jumped 18% in the third quarter of 2008 compared to the year before. (Read the article.) Fiction reading apparently had a significant increase from 2002…
Read More | Submitting
An Embarrassment of Riches
Wow, that was an amazing discussion yesterday on the writer’s passion. Thanks for contributing! If you haven’t read all the comments from yesterday, you really should. They offer an incredible amount of invaluable advice and encouragement. And speaking of passion! It’s showing up in my inbox in the form of queries about 10 to 20…
Read More | A Writer's Life, Q4U, Writing
The Passion of the Writer
I have just come from a superbowl party after watching that AMAZING game. Apologies to all you sports haters, but I am going to use a football metaphor in today’s post. You know I love pop culture – and the superbowl is about as pop as it gets. And wasn’t that an EXCITING last few…
Read More | Publishing
Friday Fun Day…and Your Turn to Talk
It’s Friday and I am one tired puppy. I’m not even going to rant today… YOU are. But first, a few odds and ends. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little weary of all the bad news recently (especially the economy). To put things in perspective, here’s a quote from John Wesley in…
Read More | About Me, Publishing
On Being a Twitterbug
Phew! Those last three days of posts were intense! I enjoyed talking with you about elevator pitches, but I gotta tell ya, that was a lot of work. So today’s post will be brief. I want to say a few words about my new favorite way to waste boatloads of time stay connected with people.…
Read More | Submitting
The Elevator Pitch, Third Floor
I hope you’re learning something from this 3-day tutorial on elevator pitches. (I promise, agents and editors will appreciate your efforts!) Today let’s talk about the process of crafting the elevator pitch. I think your best chance for success is to take it seriously as a multi-step process (because I know you have nothing else…
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