Hope you have a great Thanksgiving next week!
Blog
But My Critique Group Likes It!
Over the years, I have received this comment from frustrated authors when a work didn’t hit the mark with me. As someone who penned many books in the past myself, I understand and sympathize with these authors. However, this argument will almost never get an author another read of the same manuscript — at least in my office. This is because though they are important, crit groups …
What’s Your First Line?
Listen! Do you hear it? It’s been there all month, echoing in the background. The sound of hundreds of thousands of fingers tap-tap-tapping away. Yes, it’s here again: NaNoWriMo! That grand adventure of joining with other writers worldwide from November 1-30 to uplift and encourage each other as you write a novel in a month. A full novel. In one month. Sound impossible? Well, I confess I’ve never …
Déjà Vu All Over Again – Indie (AND) Traditional Publishing
The discussion of indie versus traditional publishing has been bothering me lately. I know it is still a relatively new issue that everyone involved in publishing needs to sort out, but what has been bothering me is that I know I have heard this kind of discussion before and could not think when. After much brain-racking, it finally dawned on me. It was in the 1980’s when personal computers were …
Heartsong’s Publishing Legacy
Last week, as mentioned in Tamela’s wonderful tribute, Harlequin announced that the Heartsong Presents imprint is going to be shuttered. Heartsong Presents has been primarily a “direct-to-consumer” book club which published romance titles with a specifically Christian message. {And last week I joked about how things can change on Tuesday… This announcement came on …
Farewell to Heartsong
Earlier this week I received a call from Kathy Davis, acquisitions editor for Harlequin Heartsong Presents. She told me I was the first agent she called. Unfortunately, she had bad news. Heartsong Presents as a line will cease publication next year. I was sorry to learn that Kathy will also be looking for another position. A caring and competent editor, Kathy will surely find a soft place to …
Interviews Made Easy
Writers had a lot of things going for them, but, generally speaking, there is one thing that can work against them when it comes to doing interviews… Writers tend to be introverts. So why does that work against you? Well, most interviewers will tell you that the #1 thing they avoid is dead space. You know, those painful moments of utter silence when nobody can think of anything to say. Or when …
Standing for Something
When Al Ries and Jack Trout published their classic marketing book Positioning in 1981, the concept of the book and the single-word title became a white-hot marketing buzzword, much in the same way as “platform” is today. I am not going to dig into that classic business title today or come up with a complicated analysis of positioning, but I can say this, if you want to do a brilliant piece of …
Another Day, Another Change
It is a long standing joke that if you think you know what a publisher is looking for, wait for Tuesday. Why? Because in one meeting everything can change. Suddenly they are looking for Texas NASCAR Romance but using an Urban Fantasy setting. Acquisitions often reflect the editorial and marketing staff of a particular publisher. And that too is another area of change. Tuesday… This past Tuesday …