Belletrinsic

by Robb Grindstaff

What I’ve learned about writing would fill a book. But a guest post on Michelle’s blog will have to do for now. First, a quick recap of my fiction journey thus far.

My second grade teacher asked all her students what they wanted to be when we grew up. I said, “An author.” I have no idea where that came from. Obviously something had been brewing in that little still-developing brain. She asked me, “What have you written?” I said, “Nothing yet. I’m not grown up yet.” She said, “You’re not an author until you’ve written something.”

So I went home and wrote something. A story, fit on a single page. Perhaps I invented flash fiction but didn’t get the credit. I showed my mom, who gushed over it and said what a wonderful story it was and what a great writer I was. My first review. She posted it on the fridge. My first publication. I’d never been prouder.

This continued, but by high school I realized there weren’t a lot of paying jobs for writers. I took journalism and joined the school newspaper—a paying career until I sold my first best seller. Went to college and majored in journalism. Went to work for a newspaper. Got married. Had kids. Got a mortgage. Writing fiction sort of fell by the wayside as life took over.

Good thing. I needed some life experiences before knowing how to write any fiction that might resonate with readers other than my mom.

Then, kids almost grown, an additional twenty years of life, and the fiction bug bit again. Bit hard. I began writing a novel.

The story flowed out of my fingertips. The character took over my mind. The thrill, the obsession, the joy of writing changed my life from that point forward.

I had almost finished the novel, and I’d read lots of articles about finding an agent and getting published. Read books on the subject. Researched agents. Attended a writers’ conference. Pitched my book to an agent at the conference.

Lesson #1: Do not pitch an agent until you’ve finished writing the book. He loved the pitch, wanted to see the opening chapters. I sent him the opening chapters, emailed about midnight that evening. Figured I had a few weeks to finish writing the novel. He emailed back at five a.m. wanting to see the whole manuscript. I finished writing it that weekend.

Lesson #2: When you’ve finished writing your novel, you’ve just begun. It’s not a novel. It’s a first draft. I didn’t realize that. I thought it had fallen perfectly onto the page the first time.

I joined a writers group to learn more about writing, the craft and the business of getting published. An incredible bunch of writers, all of genres I never read. I learned more from this group in a year than I knew was possible. How to build a world from the fantasy writers. How to stir the emotions from the romance writers. How to build suspense from the mystery writers. How to shock and surprise from the horror writers.

Lesson #3: Associate with other writers. You need the camaraderie of those who share the passion. Non-writers cannot understand what goes on inside your mind.

Lesson #4: Read outside your genre. It broadens your scope of writing tools.

Lesson #5: Learn to take critique and criticism from other writers. Don’t just look for people to tell you how wonderful you are or you’ll never get better. And when the criticism really starts to get under your skin and make you a bit defensive, even angry, that’s a good time to really listen carefully. It’s probably hitting close to home. Thank them for ripping your soul to shreds. It needs it if it’s going to improve.

I revised and edited and rewrote based on feedback from the writers group. I queried more agents. And more. Some form rejections. Several asked for partial chapters and a synopsis. Quite a few asked for the full manuscript. I got glowing letters back saying how great it was, how the character was mesmerizing, the writing impressive, the story compelling, but . . .

Lesson #6: Learn to accept rejection and not let your emotions go on a rollercoaster ride (a partial, I’m excited; a full, I’m deliriously happy; a rejection, I’m depressed to the point of never writing again). Allow yourself a reasonable amount of emotion for a reasonable amount of time, wallow in it, and then move on. Keep querying.

I joined an online writers community for more feedback. I learned how to participate in an online group. I learned what, and who, to avoid in online groups. I made some writer friends for life whom I’ve never met in person.

Lesson #7: Be judicious with online groups, and with what you allow yourself to say. Your words online live forever and can be searched by prospective employers and agents.

While still querying my first novel, I’ve been writing my second. I found it amazing how much better my writing is—from word choice to character arc to plot development to scene-setting to the novel’s organization, pace and flow. I didn’t realize how much I had learned about the craft of writing during the writing and revision of my first novel. Beta readers often say something to the effect of, “I liked Carry Me Away, but I love Hannah’s Voice. Have you finished it yet?”

Lesson #8: Keep writing something new while querying the finished work. It keeps honing your skills and keeps your creative juices flowing, which helps to offset the emotional rollercoaster of queries and rejections. You might even realize that your second book is so much better than your first that maybe your first isn’t as great as you thought it was. Maybe your first book will never be published. Or your second. But with each novel you write, your art is honed and your craft is polished. Many of the greatest writers we know today wrote several novels before ever getting one published, and often that was after dozens or even hundreds of rejections. Why should it be any easier for you?

Lesson #9: Never, ever, ever give up.

You need to write. Your soul requires it of you. And there are readers out there waiting to read what you have to say. They need to read it. As soon as you learn to write it the way it’s meant to be written.

Lesson #10: Looking back on the journey thus far and how much I’ve learned about writing, I realize this: what I have yet to learn about writing would fill a library.

Robb Grindstaff is managing editor of an international English-language daily newspaper. He writes short stories and novels, and does freelance fiction editing. http://tiny.cc/RobbWriter

by Sarah Burningham

So, you want to get your book reviewed on some blogs. Here’s a step-by-step guide with tips for reaching out to bloggers and making good connections.

As an author, you should:

• Read blogs. Lots of them. Every day.
• Make a list of the blogs you particularly like and the ones you think actually fit with your book. Note that these might be two different categories. Be brutally honest with yourself. Just because you like baking pies doesn’t mean that a baking blog is going to review your memoir of horse racing.
• Comment on the blogs you find. Know them inside and out. (I use my google reader to help filter everything in to one place so it’s easy for me to read my favorite blogs daily.)
• Then, and only then, can you approach them for a review. Email the blogger, address him/her by name, and say why your book is a fit for the blog, in one short paragraph or less. Short and sweet! Include a link to your site and more info on your book.
• No matter what, do not send a form letter. And don’t mass email or bcc. Would you want to be blind copied as part of a mass mailing? Neither does a blogger.
• Be nice. This goes a long way with anyone, including bloggers. Treat them like you would any journalist or reporter who is considering your book.
• Ask for the blogger’s feedback. And then, listen to that feedback. Even if you think you are the next James Joyce, not everyone will feel the same way, and that’s ok.  You have to have thick skin to be an author.
• If a blogger doesn’t respond, wait for a week to ten days before emailing again. Don’t just re-send the same pitch. Write a new email and mention that you sent something back on (enter date here). Be sincere!
• But…waiting and sending a follow-up email does not open the door for going back again and again. NO STALKING! In the same way that form letters make you annoying, stalking is another hint that you can’t be taken seriously. If a blogger is interested, he or she will get back to you after you’ve made 2 thoughtful attempts at contact. If you haven’t heard back, the blogger is probably just not that into you.
• When a blogger does get back to you, get a review copy of your book in the mail, stat. Don’t make anyone wait. Hit the post office that day and let the blogger know the book is on its way.
• In the meantime, keep the conversation alive by participating. Keep reading the blog. Keep commenting. You shouldn’t be reading the blog just to get a review. Consider this a real relationship. The blogger will notice and appreciate it.
• When the review goes up, thank the blogger. Send the link out to your readers by posting it on your website, on Twitter, on Facebook. Share the love and get some traffic for that blog!
• And finally, now that you have a good relationship with the blogger, keep it that way. Never – I repeat, Never – add a blogger (or anyone else, frankly) to your mailing list. Not even your mother.

Sarah Burningham founded Little Bird, a boutique public relations and marketing firm that blurs the lines of old and new media to develop creative platforms for authors and brands. Most recently, she was the Associate Director of Marketing for HarperStudio where she managed the marketing and publicity campaigns for a number of successful titles. In addition to her publishing experience, Sarah has written two of her own books, How to Raise Your Parents and Boyology.

Checking for Commas, by Jennifer Adams Grillone

When people find out I’m a book editor for a living, I can’t tell you how many of them say, “Oh, so you read through stuff and check for commas?” or some version of that. As important as a correctly placed comma may be, it is such a small part of what I do. So I thought I’d write about a fairly typical day in my life as an editor.

Head out on my forty-minute commute to the office. Stop for Dr. Pepper at my local gas station—caffeine a definite prerequisite for job. Arrive at work. Sort through forty-two emails, deleting those for male enhancement products. One nice email from a friend, one funny or smartass or flirtatious email from a coworker, and at least two emails indicating imminent disaster on book projects. Deal with disaster-is-pending emails, which takes a couple of hours. Check out Shelf Awareness, New York Times, and Publisher’s Weekly. Note more layoffs in book industry and another bookstore closed, along with more major magazines that have folded. Look for trends. Wonder when people will be sick of cupcakes.

Acquisitions meeting. Four different people have ten different opinions about what should be published and when. Try to come to some common ground in order to offer contracts to authors for books. Hope people haven’t read the latest article that says the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife got a $5 million dollar advance for her second book. Know I will be explaining to unknown, first-time authors with books written to niche markets that their audience, print run, and sales in no way resemble a New York Times fiction best-seller, though God knows we all wish they did.

Review index for another editor and help finish her training on indexing. Word automatic sort option is a good thing.

Lunch with my favorite photographer at a restaurant where he’s done the photos for the table topper menus. Talk about his trip to the Cayman Islands, my job, and the publishing industry shifting to the digital world. Will print magazines still exist in ten years? Will printed books? Remind myself that book publishing is an art, that it has never really been a good way to make money, that we are part of this anachronistic world because we love it.

Back at office, call author to see if they have adjusted to new trim size for their book. Larger discussion with team has taken place on whether market can bear the book at $24.99 instead of $19.99.

Angry email from agent on why their client has not been paid on delivery and acceptance of materials. After researching, appears all materials have not been delivered and are therefore not accepted.

Review printer proofs on four titles in a little gift book series. Check text, printing quality, and color. Must be turned in twenty-four hours to make up for late schedule, when editorial couldn’t decide if we wanted the books illustrated with original art or designed with more patterns and graphic elements. Decided on the latter, which I think is the correct choice in this case.

Hunker down for some real cookbook editing time. This involves making sure the instructions make sense, that the ingredients are listed in the order they appear in the instructions, that consistent measurements are used (1/2 cup shredded cheese, 1/2 cup cheese, shredded, 8 ounces grated cheese, etc.), that if the title of the recipe is Chocolate Delight it actually has chocolate in it, and so forth. Check readability, clarity, structure, grammar, spelling. Ten pages an hour is good progress and industry standard. Oh yeah, and check for commas.

Fairly mellow day in that I did not have to talk any authors or designers off a cliff, tell a photographer they had to reshoot a whole round of images, tell an author their book has been pushed out a whole year to a different publication season, tell an author they can’t have the title they wanted for the book, argue with sales about a price point or package for a title, meet with my supervisor to discuss the twenty-two things not finished on my to-do list instead of the two that are, or get yelled at by any variety of someones because emotions are high and deadlines are tight and people care about their books and don’t you know this has been their whole life for the past ten years goddammit!

At the very end of the day, a finished book is delivered. Take it out of the box and hold it in my hands. Smell that new-book inky smell, run my fingers over the spot gloss varnish on the front of the cover, see that the purple headband perfectly matches the tiny purple stripes we designed for the endsheets. I am holding a beautiful object that has taken years to create—from an idea, to an author I paired it with, to negotiating a contract, to commissioning the photography, to helping style the photos, to coaching the writing, to working with the designer on multiple rounds of layouts, to picking the cover image, to deciding it’s a jacketless hardback, to figuring out the pricing and budgets and margins, to looking at every single word on every single page multiple times. I have made a book. A thought or idea or little flash of insight is now a physical object in my hand. I’ve helped create something real and something beautiful and something that will last. Nothing beats that. It’s even worth checking for commas.

Jennifer Adams Grillone is the author of seven books and has worked as a writer and editor for fifteen years. She is currently senior editor for the publisher Gibbs Smith, where she manages the cookbook line. You can see books she had edited and books she has written by visiting her website at www.jennifergrillone.com

Bree Despain is a wonderful writer from my home state of Utah whom I met her several weeks ago at a local writers conference. She shared some great insights into getting her agent, which I thought would be a great benefit to all of you. Her debut novel, The Dark Divine, will be released December 22 by Egmont USA. (It’s on my list of books to pre-order. It looks deliciously scary.)

The Dark Divine

How Bree Beat the Odds and Landed an Agent, by Bree Despain

When attending writing conferences, whether as a guest or panelist, I am often asked the same question—how did you get an agent? The quick answer is I sent queries to agents and one of them decided to give me a shot. But that’s not exactly helpful.

The long answer, however, is much more detailed, and I think more of what people are looking for when they ask me this question. So here we go . . . this is how I did it:

*Actually before we begin I want to give a little disclaimer. If you decide to follow the same path I did, please be sure your full manuscript is ready to go out before you start querying agents.  The worst thing that could happen is an agent you queried asks for your full manuscript, and you either don’t have it to give because you are not done with it, or you are in the middle of your own revisions and are not prepared to send it. (Yes, this IS worse than rejection).

Part One: Doing the homework.

I often frequented the blue boards on Verla Kay writers forum to connect with other writers and authors trying to get published. While there I came across a post telling me about a website called AgentQuery.com, which is basically a database of all the different literary agents. I used this site to do a targeted search for literary agents that would be a good fit for my manuscript. I searched for agents that were actively looking to build their client list, accepted online queries, specialized in YA fiction, and had a fondness for paranormal romance.

The search brought up small blurbs on each of the agents that fit my criteria with links to their agency websites, articles written by or about them, and additional info about their submission requirements. After sifting through the results I compiled a list of my top 15 or so, and started my research by reading all the articles linked to their profiles. I was then able to narrow it down to my top 8 agents that I thought would be a good fit for my book and a good fit for me. Then I double checked all of their websites for submissions guidelines to make sure they hadn’t changed from what AgentQuery.com reported. Now I knew who I wanted to query and how to query them . . . but I still needed the query letter.

Part Two: Writing the query.

Writing a query letter always freaked me out. I still don’t think  I’m really much of an expert at writing one. So, I turned to the experts and everyone else I could for help. After writing my first draft, I realized it was waaaaaay too long. So I had my husband (who had read my manuscript) help me revise it. Then I sent that version to my two writers groups (who had also read the manuscript) seeking their input and guidance. This really helped me eliminate details that were not necessary.

I also relied heavily on other resources. I especially liked agent Nathan Bransford’s blog (http://blog.nathanbransford.com). He has a section called “The Essentials” where he outlines the basic formula for a good query letter as well as other helpful tips on formatting, etc. He has also posted some examples of good query letters with explanations of why they are good. Very helpful. Also good for a laugh.

Part Three: The process.

(Ok, so this part might go on for a bit, so I apologize in advance if it gets long.) Right, so I’d done my homework, found my top choice agents, and written/revised/revised/revised/revised a query letter, and now it was time to start sending my queries. I set a goal of sending out at least one query a day for seven days before taking a break and moving on to my second round of submissions.  Here’s how it went: