Publishing

Money! Marketing! and More! Myth: It’s all about the bottom line. Truth: Yes, in the end, the publisher exists to make money. And the people who have the most say in whether your book gets published are the directors of sales and marketing. Everyone is looking for the books they can sell. And yet…those on…

Myths About Agents Myth: Agents don’t read submissions. Truth: Most agents who are accepting queries actually read and consider them. If they don’t want to read queries and they don’t need new clients, they’ll usually close to queries (like I have). Myth: Agents have reading software that scans query letters. If the query contains a…

One of the great things about the Internet is that it has made it so easy to find information. But the downside is that it’s just as easy to find misinformation. With authors, agents, and publishing people out there on blogs, loops, and forums, constantly talking with one another and often contradicting each other, it’s sometimes…

Guest Blogger: Monica Lee In celebration of the release of Erin MacPherson’s The Christian Mama’s Guide to Having a Baby, we’re doing something totally different! Monica Lee is the illustrator who created the images for the cover and the interior of the book, and I  thought it would be fun to hear about the process. Here’s Monica… As a professional illustrator,…

Yesterday I began by giving you some basics on how books start their journey towards a Hollywood movie option. Today let’s talk about how this might (or might not) apply to YOU. Will my agent shop MY book to Hollywood agents? Here’s the hard part. Because the odds are against us selling the film rights…

Let’s just start with this assumption: if you’ve written a novel or memoir, chances are you’ve dreamed of it becoming a movie. Admit it! It’s so visual, you think. So dramatic! It’s even better than [insert name of box office hit]. Hey, I agree with you! Plenty of books could make great movies, if only…

Congrats to Wendy Paine Miller! You’ve won a copy of Mary DeMuth’s 150 Quick Questions to Get Your Kids Talking. Thanks to everyone for commenting on Mary’s guest post Thursday.

Next Friday I’m teaching “Breaking Through Publishing Myths” at the Northern Colorado Writers Conference. What myths about publishing did you believe until somebody set you straight? What are some things you’ve heard about publishing that you think might be a myth? I want to address real concerns of writers out there today. And as a…

We’ve spent this week going over a few Hollywood truisms that can help writers. So now it’s your turn. As a writer, what have you learned from watching movies and television? Share your best tips… and have a great weekend! © 2011 Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent

Advice from Hollywood, part 4 Since it’s Hollywood Week, it’s only fitting that we have a lesson from American Idol’s Hollywood auditions. Just last night, Idol’s field was down to 61 performers and by the end of the show it was going to be cut to 24. The contestants’ biggest worry wasn’t their own performance…

Advice from Hollywood, part 3 In real life, it’s not what a person says that shows us who they are. It’s what they do. The content of a person’s character is revealed in action and behavior. Who a person says they are, or thinks they are, doesn’t necessarily reflect their true character. In screenwriting, the…

Advice from Hollywood, part 2 Here’s another little tidbit from my former Hollywood life. I used to be a part-time “reader” meaning I read screenplays and wrote “coverage” for the production company to help them make decisions about which scripts to pursue. You have to audition to become a reader for a production company, and I was looking…

Advice from Hollywood, part 1 Back in the early ‘90s I was an L.A. girl working in television and writing screenplays on the side. Every single Saturday morning our screenwriting group would meet at my home (50 feet off the beach—it was a rough life) and critique our weekly ten pages in excruciating detail. We took…

If you have some laundry to fold, or shoes to shine, or possibly some pencils to sharpen… whatever busy work you need to do this weekend, set your laptop next to you and play this video. It’s totally worth it. At the O’Reilly Tools of Change conference, amidst techies and marketing people and CEOs, Margaret…