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There are some great links this week folks!
Joe Konrath posted these thoughts on publicity, which I found helpful whether you’re considering traditional publishing or self publishing. Especially loved the quotes at the end.
Jody Hedlund explores the balance between showing and telling.
Brief but important words from Shannon O’Donnell: is your story a story? (plus a cute cat picture, always worth a click-through!)
These tips on body language from Laura Pauling are timely reminders as I combat excessive eye rolling in my WIP.
This week’s Link of Awesome comes via bookshelves of doom: how your American Girl doll shaped your life. I’ll admit it, I got Felicity because I love the American Revolution and always wanted red hair. Anyone else care to weigh in?
Some much-needed inspiration this week:
Shoshana Flax gives great tips on writing humor for middle grade readers in this guest post on Anna Staniszewski’s blog.
From the Mixed Up Files has a list of May middle grade releases and it’s going to be a huge month. Penderwicks, Gail Carson Levine, Jacob Wonderbar, oh my!
Important words on practice, perseverance, and taste via Janet Reid.
There’s a very important Link of Awesome this week: Guys Lit Wire is holding their annual book fair, this year to benefit Ballou Senior High School in Washington D.C. Please please please click through and donate.
Aaaaaannnddd the links for this week are:
Brain scientist Livia has wonderful (and pseudo-psychologist) tips on beta reader feedback.
Agents Kristin Nelson and Jennifer Laughran talk agency agreements.
Writer Brooke Favero has a roundup of synopsis-writing links.
Weekly Link of Awesome: from the always-awesome bookshelves of doom, literary maps.
What writing tips have you picked up this week?
It’s Wednesday again, folks, and there are some great posts out there:
Five amazing lessons from Shannon Whitney Messenger.
Is your attitude and altitude age group appropriate? (from Kidlit Central News)
So excited to see Gail Carson Levine has a new book coming out! I had to re-read ELLA ENCHANTED after seeing the news (via My Brain on Books).
This week’s Link of Awesome: Love wordplay and charts? Indexed does it again.
What other links of awesome have you found this week?
Welcome to Wednesday, everyone! A small but wonderful group of links today:
Shannon O’Donnell offers this inspiring look at failure (yes, you read that right).
Janice Hardy asks: do your words give the right first impression?
The Guide to Literary Agents blog has this year’s list of best agent blogs.
And a truly wonderful Link of Awesome for this week: A show-jumping cow (via mental_floss).
What great posts have you seen this week? More importantly, have you ever ridden a cow?
One of my favorite sessions at the SCBWI-Iowa conference last weekend was Wendy Delsol‘s “Rookie Season: What to Expect Throughout the Editorial Process and the First Year” (the conference was baseball-themed, helloooo Cracker Jack!). Wendy’s debut novel STORK was published last October by Candlewick Press and the sequel, FROST, is out this coming October. And if that wasn’t enough, her adult novel THE MCCLOUD HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS will be available from Berkley Books on August 2. With all that writing and editing and editing and writing, who better to share insights into the publishing process as a debut author?!
Wendy took us through the basic process of getting an agent, revision, submission to editors, revision, copy edits, did I mention revision, and finally publication and promotion. Some new-to-me pieces of advice:
- Know the hierarchy of publishers you’re targeting (managing editor, associate editor, etc.) and how many bosses to whom your editor is reporting.
- Make your own style sheet for reference. Each publishing house has their own for standard grammar, but it will help during your personal revisions if you keep track of character names and spellings, comma use, spelling of phrases and contractions, etc.
- When you get your first pass pages or galley sheets, proofread them with your copy-edited draft close by to make sure those changes got made. Also, once the book reaches this point, most publishers won’t be happy about any stylistic language changes. Eventually you have to let the text go and just be done!
- Blurbs for your book’s cover really are genuine. Wendy was only acquainted with one of the people who blurbed STORK; it wasn’t based on publisher affiliations or uber-personal connections, they just truly enjoyed the book.
- When planning a book launch or author event, be realistic. Do things on a scale where you know you can fill the seats. Why set yourself up for failure? This is the time to bring in family and friends from all parts of your life. (read more about Wendy’s launch event here)
- When people ask what they can do to help publicize your book, tell them to leave reviews on Amazon.
To learn more about Wendy and keep up to date on all her exciting news, visit her website, Twitter feed, or read her Writing Cave interview.
Anyone else have debut tips to add? Anything in your experience or on this list that surprised you?
3 Comments on Debut Author Tips from Wendy Delsol, last added: 4/10/2011
Well folks, it’s been awhile since the last Linkfest Wednesday, so there’s plenty of awesome today:
Wordplay has great tips and tools for identifying and controlling your writing tics.
Agent Jennifer Laughran posted this round-up from her Twitter pitch contest. Excellent post for both tips and entertainment (werewolf roller derby says it all).
Livia Blackburne gives a great example of using foils to increase characterization.
A.J. takes on fantasy villains and blows my mind with analysis of Harry Potter sub-villains.
Formatting tips to make your editor love you, from Alison Janssen. Basically, learn to love the Find/Replace feature! (I never would’ve thought of the “tab” tip)
There are too many Links of Awesome to narrow down to one for the week, so enjoy a buffet:
AnnaStan’s inspiring goats.
Indexed does cheese.
Indexed does inspiration.
Best Flowchart EVER (via mental_floss)
What was your favorite link from the past few weeks?
Hugging the Ames library for last year's challenge
It’s that time of year again! Well, yes, Final Four time. And SCBWI-Iowa conference time. But I’m specifically talking about the Blogger’s Library Lovin’ Challenge.
The brain-child of author Jennifer Hubbard, the challenge is a week-long celebration of libraries and giving by bloggers all over the Internet. Last year’s challenge raised over $5,000 for local libraries, plus pledges of books and other items, and this year should be even bigger.
Because libraries are important. I worked as a page during high school. I volunteered at a public library after college. I remember weekly trips during childhood, I remember waiting for the phone call telling me the book on hold had arrived, and I remember wanting to read every book in the children’s section (still working on it).
So here’s the deal: for every library lovin’ commenter on this post between now and midnight (Central Standard Time) on Friday, April 1 (no foolin’), I will donate $1.00 to the Robert W. Barlow Memorial Library in Iowa Falls, IA, up to an amount of $100.00 total. It’s simple: you comment, I cough up the money. Talk about your favorite library, what makes it awesome, a favorite book find, a childhood memory, or even just “I love libraries.”
My pledge is “per commenter”—so if a single person leaves 50 comments, that still only counts once (although my WordPress stats will look fantastic). But you can do more by spreading the word … please link to this post, tweet about it, mention it on Facebook, etc. To raise money for more libraries, visit the blogs of others participating in this challenge:
http://writerjenn.livejournal.com/234087.html
Thanks in advance for spreading the awesome on behalf of libraries everywhere! I’ll see you in the comments.
11 Comments on Library Lovin’ Challenge, last added: 3/28/2011
2 Comments on Linkfest Wednesday, last added: 3/9/2011
Thanks for the links! The Joe Konrath post was especially interesting. I’m not sure I quite agree with everything he had to say, but it certainly got me thinking!
Exactly
I thought there were some interesting parallels between types of publishing, but some stuff was obviously geared toward ebooks from his experience. Thanks, Anna!