Search Results: writers conference
| Publishing
Getting People to Read Your Book
I’ve said many times on this blog that we are all salespeople. Everyone along the chain of writing, publishing and selling books has the ultimate goal of getting the book into the hands of the end user – the reader. In order to do that, we have to sell our stuff. From the query letter…
Read More | A Writer's Life, Submitting
The Value of the Verbal Pitch
Last week in Secrets of a Great Pitch I gave you some tips about talking to agents and editors at writers’ conferences. A few people raised a good question: Why pitch verbally at all, when it’s the writing that matters? Yes, the writing matters most. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to be gained from…
Read More | About Me, Agents
Advice for Myself
Yesterday, many of you shared your fears of the verbal pitch, and some of you told stories of being treated rudely or dismissively by harried agents or editors. I’ve heard these stories before—of writers being made to feel scolded or, even worse, like losers upon leaving the meeting. Part of me wonders who would treat…
Read More | Publishing
Q4U: Learning the Biz
Like everyone else in this business, published authors included, I frequently receive emails asking for advice. Not specific advice, but sweeping, general requests for advice like: “How do I get published?” Usually the person writing has just finished writing either a novel or a memoir, and somehow they got my email address, and they want…
Read More | Agents
Random! Questions! Answered!
Over the weekend I asked my Twitter followers to send me questions. Here are some of them, with my brief answers. Kennectto asked:Do publishers sometimes accept queries and/or manuscript ideas from writers without agents? Some publishers accept unagented queries and proposals, but most of the majors don’t unless an editor met the writer at a…
Read More | Writing
Is Your MC Proactive or Reactive?
This week I’ve been writing on topics that were brought to the forefront of my mind when I was at the ACFW conference and spoke with dozens of writers about their books. Today I want to talk about your protagonist, or MC (main character). I’ll make this brief: Your MC must be proactive and make…
Read More | A Writer's Life
Your Lucky Break!
On my August 21 post about publishing myths, David commented: “The thing that worries me the most is that a vast majority of stories about finding agents I hear or read about in blogs, message boards, or authors’ websites involve some lucky break or some connection.” That’s a good point, David. Like many businesses, publishing…
Read More | A Writer's Life, Publishing
What is ICRS?
I’m spending most of this week preparing for my meetings at ICRS, so I thought I’d explain it to you in case you’re wondering. ICRS stands for International Christian Retail Show. If you’re familiar with BEA (Book Expo America), ICRS is a smaller version for the Christian publishing and retailing world. It’s a trade show,…
Read More | Marketing
The Dreaded Author Platform
Last week at the Write-To-Publish conference, the one topic that kept coming up in conversations, panels, and workshops was AUTHOR PLATFORM. Yes, the hated p-word! I explained again and again that publishing just ain’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when publishers were solely responsible for the marketing of a book. Today’s…
Read More | Submitting
A Funny Thing Happened…
On the Way to my Query Box Last week, as you know, I was away at a conference. I was responding to email the best I could on my Blackberry. I have my email structured so that queries won’t appear in the regular inbox; instead, they get filtered into the query box. They receive auto-replies…
Read More | Agents, Editing, Publishing
Which Comes First – Agent or Editor?
A lot of people think it’s a chicken-or-egg question: Do I pitch to agents or editors first? But it’s really not that hard. The truth is, if you want to sell your book to a commercial royalty-paying publisher, you’re going to need either an agent, or some kind of personal contact with editors. Since it’s…
Read More | About Me, Publishing
My Tweets from QueryDay
As you know, Friday was QueryDay on Twitter. I think it went exceptionally well. Lots of great questions from authors, lots of agents and editors chiming in with answers. An incredible wealth of information was passed around! Several people asked me to compile my tweets from the day. So here they are. Just a whole…
Read More | Submitting
Manuscript Submission Services
I always get questions about manuscript submission services like Authorlink or Writer’s Edge or Christian Manuscript Submissions. (Also known as manuscript display websites.) These are services that show your writing to agents and editors through a website and/or monthly report that displays your logline, synopsis, and a sample of your manuscript. Most of these services…
Read More | About Me
A Really Long Brain Dump
Sorry for this very long post about nothing. I don’t blame you if you want to skip this one, but I had a few things on my mind tonight that I just needed to get out. Last week I spent some time reading the AgentFail post on the Bookends, LLC blog. It’s not that I’m…
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