The Pope Announces His Resignation – First time this has happened in nearly 600 years. The last time was in 1415. Put that in historical perspective…Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. Martin Luther was born in 1483. This is a really big deal in Church history whether you are Catholic or not.

Lawsuit Threatened by Attorney Representing Author and Publisher of Bestselling book ‘The Harbinger - Read this article. Some of the darker side of the publishing world.

Bookish – A New Website to Help Recommend Books – This launched last week to much fanfare. Took two years to develop. Try it out. It works fairly well. EXCEPT the selections are limited, for now, to only the catalogs of the major publishers involved. For example I couldn’t find Frances Chan. One analyst gives reasons why it will survive and why it won’t.   (By the way, don’t forget NovelCrossing.com which helps you find your next Christian novel to read. A very well done recommendation site.)

Copyright Controversy Just Won’t Go Away – If you care about protecting your intellectual property you owe it to yourself to stay informed on the various issues and changes afoot.

Amazon Coins Coming in May – Fascinating press release from Amazon. A way to keep money within their own eco-system and avoid bank fees and other issues. Like I said, “Fascinating.”

Seven Productivity Myths, Debunked by Science (and Common Sense) – Alan Henry looks at various theories of getting things done, like “Getting up early is more productive.”

How Big is the Universe? – Watch this short six minute video attempting to explain the massive distances in the galaxy. At the 5:30 mark the scientist makes a comparison to a grain of sand. Our God is a big God.

by Steve Laube

It happens. Despite all efforts and good intentions not every proposal we shop will end up being contracted by a major publisher. Of course our agency tries our best to keep that from happening. We carefully choose which projects and authors we represent. And our success rate is extremely high.

But that success rate is not 100%.

Here are a few examples of projects that I represented in past years that did not sell to a major publisher.

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A little bit of culture for your Friday viewing. Introducing ballet master Rudolph Nureyev and Swine Lake via “The Muppet Show.”
Three minutes of parody and hilarity!

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by Tamela Hancock Murray

What are you doing to counter and grow from the ongoing changes in the marketing of books?

I don’t look at the changes as something to counter, but opportunities to reach an ever-increasing audience with excellent books. I am becoming more savvy about social media, because effective marketing by publishers is becoming more reliant on this new phenomena. I am working more directly with marketing people than in the past.

As you know from reading this blog and keeping up  with industry news, few authors have the luxury today of holing up at home, churning out books, without ever interacting with fans. Today, fans expect to find their favorite authors on the Internet. For example, authors should consider becoming active on Twitter. By active, I mean offer a status update at least once or twice a day.

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by Karen Ball

As we’ve been discussing over the last few blogs, switching hats from writing to editing can be a bit…challenging. In fact, it can make you feel like your poor head is about to explode! However, you can make the process easier by following the tips from last week’s blog by not letting the editor and writer come out to play at the same time, and by giving yourself time away from the scene/chapter/manuscript you just finished.

But when you’ve done both of those, and it’s time to get into the edit, how do you make sure you catch the real issues? How do you edit your own work? This week and next, we’ll look at six tools you can use to do that with excellence and ease.

Tip #1: Accept Your Limitations. It’s a simple fact, friends: we’ll never be able to edit our own work as well as we edit others’ writing. We see so much more when we read what others have written than we tend to see in our own work. That’s normal, and it’s okay.

Tip #2: Make A Checklist Of Your Weaknesses. We all have them, those little bugaboos that slip into everything we write. Things we seem blind to when we’re writing, and can too often overlook when we’re editing. So how to be sure we’re catching the places where we’re weak?

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Shocking Copyright Grab by School System – Anything a student writes as part of a class is owned, forever, by the school? So if a kid invents the idea of a better FedEx as part of a school project the school owns the idea. Or if he writes the first pages of what becomes later, the next “Harry Potter,” the school owns the idea. (?!) Unbelievable.

Christian Writers Guild Adds Publishing Division – The linked Publishers Weekly article quote me accurately. This is a logical next step in the services the Guild provides. Not sure why so many in the writing community are up in arms over it. If someone wants to pay for all services from editing to printing at least CWG is an honorable company that will do what they say they will do.

10 Tips for Looking Professional Online – If you are new to this industry please read this article by Burcu Akyol. I guarantee that an agent or an editor will look you up online as part of their evaluation of your proposal.

Become a Storyteller – A half hour interview with Eugene Peterson from 2007 that is worth every minute, whether you write fiction or non-fiction. Highly recommended.

150,000 Animal Sounds Now Online – Cornell University’s ornithology department went live with all this incredible audio and video. Click here for what I sound like when I’m negotiating (American Alligator).

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by Steve Laube

Today’s headline sounds like a blinding flash of the obvious but you’d be surprised how many writers are not careful about the agreements they sign. Those with a literary agent have that business partner who will review their book contracts, that is a given. But what about their magazine article or online article contracts?

Earlier this month the Condé Nast organization, which includes Wired, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, surprised their freelance writers with a new agreement that has Condé Nast controlling the film and television rights on articles published by their magazines, with a cap on the revenue paid to the writer. Why? Because past articles turned into big box office hits like “Argo,” “Eat Pray Love,” and “Brokeback Mountain.”

This contractual assertion has put writers in a bind because they do not want to lose the chance to writer for these prestigious magazines.

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A delightful Disney animated short film (8.5 minutes long) that has been nominated for an Oscar.
Note that not a single word is spoken and yet volumes are being said.
Enjoy!

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by Tamela Hancock Murray

More questions!

How are the revolutionary changes in the publishing industry affecting your effectiveness as an agent?

I believe literary agents are needed more than ever because the landscape has become increasingly bumpy for writers. For example, we have been working with publishing house contracts regarding digital issues and how they affect the definition of out-of-print and  how authors will be compensated for digital rights. Clauses that might have generated yawns five years ago, today are scrutinized and reworked with new technology and formats in mind. These are not simple issues and having a skilled literary agent negotiating your contract is critical. In addition we have clients at the forefront in digital-first publishing, with contracts from Zondervan, Cook and Tyndale, to name three. This model is being heavily scrutinized on both sides of the table.

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by Karen Ball

As we saw in my post last week, there are any number of ways a manuscript can go wrong. Hard enough to write a novel, but then to have to dig in and edit it yourself? That’s especially tough. So here are some tips to help you be the best editor you can be.

Don’t let the editor out to play too soon

Writing and editing are very different functions for the brain. Writing is a creative process; editing, logical and detail-oriented. When writing, we need to let ourselves forget the rules and coax the story to life. When editing, we must embrace the rules as a solid foundation to help us strengthen what’s landed on the page. I’ve seen so many writers almost drive themselves crazy by trying to edit as they write, which ends up making them second-guess everything. And freezes the story in its tracks.

Puts me in mind of one of my favorite pens (pictured below). It’s a two-tip pen—black ink at one end, red at the other. The body of the pen is made of two colors of wood, one with black tones, one with red. One end for writing, the other for editing. The pen works great—so long as I only use one end at a time! Trying to edit and write at the same time would be like grabbing the pen at both ends: totally ineffectual.

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