Agents, editors, and publishers receive queries every day from professors, scholars, clinicians and other academics who say they have a great idea for a trade book based on their research, thesis, journal article or latest discoveries from the lab or clinic. Sharp editors also scour the daily … [Read more...]
The blog for writers
The Book Deal
YA writer lands 2 multi-book deals: How she did it
She grew up in a tiny Mormon town in Idaho (pop 841,) she writes poetry, reads kids' books and says she avoids the internet as much as she possibly can. Kristen Tracy sold her first book in 2006 to Simon and Schuster. The title was Lost It, a story about a girl losing her virginity underneath a … [Read more...]
How self publishing can lead to a real book deal
A successfully self-published book can propel you down the road to a book contract at a commercial publishing house. That's the truth of the matter, despite the worries I hear from writers that self-publishing could doom their hopes of ever landing a real book deal. Don't listen to those … [Read more...]
YA is red hot: Tips from 3 top agents
Psst! Wanna write a scorcher for the booming YA market? OK, here's the secret: The first thing you need to do is create an authentic, quirky, true-to-life voice. The story and characterizations in Young Adult fiction are crucial too, of course, but the most important element is that … [Read more...]
Hooks that snag great book deals
I can't help smiling when I read a good hook. When it happens, it's a rush, a little like falling in love. The hook -- those critical initial sentences of a query letter from an author, or the opening of the book proposal itself -- are the first and most important words that agents and acquiring … [Read more...]
Writing a memoir: 7 tips for defeating your inner critic
"Writing a memoir is an act of courage. Be brave. It means exposing who you really are, which is hard to do, even to yourself." That advice comes from a conversation I had recently with Linda Joy Myers, Ph.D., President of the National Association of Memoir Writers. She's the author of a new … [Read more...]
Publishers desperately seeking insanely great debut novelists
"Everybody's looking for the next big thing -- a work of great literary fiction from an unknown writer who's never been published." That's according to Jay Schaefer, an editor-at-large at Workman Publishers in New York City and its subsidiary, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, North … [Read more...]
Ask the editor: The top 5 secrets to getting a book deal
Q: I haven't had any luck finding a publisher for my book. What's the secret to getting in the door? A: Here's my advice on how you can beat the odds and overcome the biggest reasons most books get rejected. But first, I'd like to give you an idea of what it's like behind the scenes at a … [Read more...]
Why book publishers love short stories
Short story collections are big business. Thousands of anthologies are in print with many more published each year. A quick look at Amazon shows 29,000 story collections listed. Of those, more than 3,500 are anthologies of stories by a single author. That may surprise some short story writers, … [Read more...]
Ask the editor: Help! I can’t seem to finish my book
Q : Everyone says I need to wrap up my manuscript and stop writing already. But I'm really stuck. Any advice? A : This isn't unusual. You may have taken a wrong turn early in the story as a result of poor planning. Or you may have painted yourself into a corner. Or you could be suffering from … [Read more...]
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