Today’s clever short movie is called The Black Hole (less than three minutes long).
I’ll admit, I laughed at the end.
What would you have named this if you had written this short story? (A story without words.)
P Is for Preemptive Offer
It can be exciting if more than one publisher is interested in your book. The publishers gather their calculators and prepare to make their offers on the book. Depending on how many publishers are involved in the bidding process (we’ve had as many as nine at once for a property), it can quickly become complicated. (I talked about the “auction” in a previous post.) Some will bid solely …
Fun Friday – October 13, 2023
Let us watch today’s video as a metaphor for writing a book. Piece by piece. Nail by nail. And you have to know what you are doing, or it all collapses. This is why you get annoyed when people say to you, “I’m going to write a book someday,” as if it were easy. Note something about the video. Your foundation has to be absolutely correct because everything depends on it. …
A Is for Auction
When an agent has a client who is wanting to shop for the best deal available from publishers or if there is a particular project that is bound to garner significant interest from more than one publisher, the agent can hold what it called an auction. Or if a project attracts multiple offers from different publishers a “bidding war” can ensue. The word “auction” is tossed …
Fun Fridays – October 6, 2023
A language lesson in todays’ video. Enjoy! However, don’t go swimming near sharks with this group if you are English-only. One will shout, “Shark!” The others will shout, “Hi!”
E Is for Editor
Your editor can be your best friend in the industry (besides your agent, of course). Or your editor can be your worst enemy. Bad Side First An editor who doesn’t reply to your email inquiries or return your phone calls is either ignoring you on purpose or is so busy with other pressing matters they can’t get to yours. If you have this problem, make sure you didn’t create it in …
Fun Fridays – September 29, 2023
Writing to a formula is everywhere. Today’s video shows the creation of every Hollywood movie trailer without a single picture. Figure out the formula for your next book yet?
I Is for ISBN
978-0-7852-6400-2 978-1-62184-113-5 978-1-4245-6490-3 No, these are not the plays being called by a quarterback during a football game. They are the ISBN numbers on the back of three different books by three different authors. Kudos to the first person to identify the three titles in the comments below. Origins In the mid-60s, a major British bookstore chain (W.H. Smith) moved toward a …
Fun Fridays – September 22, 2023
You must turn up the volume for today’s video to appreciate the sublime ridiculousness of what you are about to see. Writers? Creativity can come from anywhere!!!
National Constitution Week
September 17-23 is National Constitution Week in the United States. Yesterday, September 17, was National Constitution Day. “It was officially enacted on August 2, 1956, by President Dwight D. Eisenhower from a congressional resolution petitioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The purpose of the observance week was to promote study and education about the constitution which was …