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Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Amanda Leuck of Spencerhill Associates) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

 
About Amanda: Amanda Leuck started her career  in various facets of the media, including work on a TV talk show, at a fashion magazine, as a print journalist, and as an on-air traffic reporter. After graduating from New York University, Amanda went on to study literacy and literature at the post-graduate level. It was then that she developed a passion for the publishing industry. Amanda started at Spencerhill Associates as an editorial assistant, and was promoted to agent in August 2014. Her Twitter handle is @MandiLeone.

(Learn why “Keep Moving Forward” may be the best advice for writers everywhere.)

Amanda is seeking: strong, character-driven stories, written with an unforgettable voice. She’s looking for literary and commercial YA, new adult fiction, urban fantasy, and romance in all genres, including edgy romantic suspense, contemporary and paranormal with a fresh twist.

How to submit: Send all submissions to submission [at] spencerhillassociates.com. Send the query letter in the body of the email. Address the query to Amanda. Include the pitch, and information about past publishing credits in the letter. Attach a detailed synopsis, and attach the first three chapter in .doc, rtf or txt format to the email.

(How long should a synopsis be? Is shorter or longer better?)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• How I Got My Literary Agent: Kirstin Chen (Fiction).
• Pros and Cons of Getting a Creative Writing MFA.
• Agent Spotlight: Lara Perkins (Andrea Brown Literary Agency) seeks YA, MG and Picture Books.
• Good Stories Have The Same Bone Structure.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

How do you hook an agent right away, keep them hooked, and make the most of your new publishing relationship? In this Boot Camp starting March 23, 2015, “How to Find and Keep a Literary Agent,” you’ll learn how to get a literary agent’s attention through a great submission, and also how to navigate the process of working successfully with an agent. You’ll also work with an agent online (the instructing agents are from Sandra Dijkstra Literary) to review and refine your all-important query letter and the first 5 pages of your novel. As always, seats in the boot camp are limited, and many WD camps sell out — so consider signing up sooner rather than later. The March 23 camp is a great opportunity to get professional feedback on your writing.

This Boot Camp will cover a range of important questions:

— What keeps an agent reading? What makes writing jump off the page?
— What are the most common Chapter 1 mistakes that make them stop reviewing your submission?
— What are the steps you need to give your query and manuscript the best possible shot?
— What are the turn-on’s and turn-offs when it comes to queries?
— How do agents make judgment calls?
— And much more.

With real-life examples of queries that do and don’t work, you will learn how you can refine your own query letter and get an agent to request your novel.The world of literary agencies can be an intimidating place. You’ll be lead through the inner-workings of finding the perfect literary agent, working with an agent and how to get the most out of your relationship. See what a day in the life of an agent looks like, and get tips about how to find your perfect author-agent match that will result in a successful partnership.

The best part is that you’ll be working directly with a knowledgeable and experienced agent, who will provide feedback specific to your work. (Sign up for the boot camp here.)

Here’s how it works:

On March 23, you will gain access to a special 60-minute online tutorial presented by agents at the Dijkstra Literary Agency. It will explain the submission process of submitting to an agent, what they find appealing in a query letter and what an author-agent relationship looks like from the inside. You will also be notified by email which agent you’ll be working with Monday afternoon.

From 11:00 am to 1:00 pm (PT) on both March 24 and March 25, instructors will be available to answer questions and provide additional feedback via the Writer’s Digest University message boards. Only registered students can access these boards. You’ll also be able to ask question of your fellow students. Feel free to share your work and gain support from your peers.

After listening to the presentation and participating in the discussion sessions, you’ll be able to revise your query & first 5 double-spaced pages as necessary. Then, you’ll email those pages directly to Jill Marr, Elise Capron, Thao Le, Jessica Watterson, or Roz Foster, by the end of the day on Thursday, March 26. They will spend 15 days reviewing their assigned critiques and providing feedback as to what works and what doesn’t.

Please note that any one of the instructing agents may ask for additional pages if the initial submission shows serious promise. (Sign up for the boot camp here.)

In addition to feedback from instructing agents, attendees will also receive:

— Download of “An Agent’s Tips on Story Structures that Sell,” an on-demand webinar by Andrea Hurst
1-year subscription to the WritersMarket.com literary agent database

PLEASE NOTE: No Additional discounts are available. All sales are final. If you have a preferred agent you would like to work with, please notify WDU after registering.

RECAP ON DATES:

Monday, March 23 – Access to Tutorial
March 24 and March 25 – Blackboard Discussion 11 am to 1 pm (PT)
Thursday, March 26 – Materials due to agents
April 9 – All critiqued materials due back to attendees

About the Instructors:

ELISE CAPRON is an acquiring agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. She also manages the SDLA office and works closely with Sandra Dijkstra on author development and management. She is most interested in serious, character-driven literary fiction and well-written narrative non-fiction (particularly serious history with a good story).

A graduate of Emerson College, Elise holds a BFA in Writing, Literature and Publishing, and served on the editorial staff of the Emerson Review for several years. She interned at Harcourt and the Dijkstra Agency before joining the agency full-time in late 2003.

Elise is interested in fiction that has unforgettable writing, a terrific narrative voice/tone, and memorable characters. She loves novels with an unusual or eccentric edge and is drawn to stories she has never heard before. She aims to work with writers who are getting their work published regularly in magazines and who have a realistic sense of the market and their audience. Some of Elise’s recent and soon-to-be-published fiction titles include Tiphanie Yanique’s Land of Love and Drowning (Riverhead) andHow to Escape from a Leper Colony (Graywolf); Courtney Brkic’s The First Rule of Swimming(Little, Brown); Rachel Toor’s On The Road to Find Out (FSG); Jonathon Keats’ The Book of the Unknown (Random House); Rikki Ducornet’s Netsuke (Coffee House Press); Maureen McHugh’sAfter the Apocalypse(Small Beer Press), which was picked as a “Top 10 Best of the Year” byPublishers Weekly; Ali Liebegott’s The IHOP Papers (Carroll & Graf); Peter Plate’sSoon the Rest Will Fall (Seven Stories Press); and more.

On the non-fiction front, Elise is looking for fascinating true stories told in a compelling way. Currently, Elise is especially interested in working with up-and-coming scholars (particularly historians) who are looking to transition from the academic market to a trade readership. Some of Elise’s recent and soon-to-be-published non-fiction titles include Jack Shuler’s The Thirteenth Turn: A History of the Noose (Public Affairs) andBlood and Bone: Truth and Reconciliation in a Southern Town (University of South Carolina Press); Leo Braudy’s Haunted; Jane Vandenburgh’s The Wrong Dog Dream: A True Romance (Counterpoint); Jonathon Keats’ Forged: Why Fakes Are the Great Art of Our Age (Oxford University Press); Cynthia Barnett’s Blue Is the New Green: An American Water Ethic(Beacon); Billy Smith’s Ship of Death: The Voyage That Changed the Atlantic World (Yale); and more.

Please note that Elise is specifically not interested in: fantasy, young-adult/middle-grade, picture books, romance, sci-fi, business books, cookbooks, poetry, religious/spiritual books, screenplays, or self-help. And while she is interested in narrative non-fiction, please note that she takes on very little memoir.

JILL MARR is an acquiring agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

She graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing and a minor in History. She has a strong Internet and media background and nearly 15 years of publishing experience. She wrote features and ads forPages, the literary magazine for people who love books, and continues to write book ads for publishing houses, magazine pieces, and promotional features for television.

After writing ad copy and features for published books for years, she knows how to find the “hook” and sell it.

Jill is interested in commercial fiction, with an emphasis on mysteries, thrillers, romantic suspense and horror, women’s commercial fiction and historical fiction. She is also looking for non-fiction by authors who are getting their work published regularly and who have a realistic sense of the market and their audience. Jill is looking for non-fiction projects in the areas of history, sports, politics, current events, self-help, cookbooks, memoir, health & nutrition, pop culture, humor and music.

Some of Jill’s recent and soon-to-be-published non-fiction includes the Travel Channel’s Nick Groff’s Chasing Spirits (NAL); Maybe We’ll Have You Back (Skyhorse) by actor Fred Stoller; Get Over It (Seal Press) by Christina Pesoli; Doulas A. Wissing’s Funding Our Enemy(Prometheus Books); Why We Love Serial Killers (Skyhorse) by Scott Bonn;America’s Greatest “Failing” School(Nation Books) by journalist Kristina Rizga; Don’t Lick the Minivan (Skyhorse) by Leanne Shirtliffe; William Jones’More Than the Dream: The Untold Story of the March on Washington (Norton);Rocking the Pink(Seal Press) by singer-songwriter Laura Roppé; Stop Reading Baby Books (Skyhorse) by JJ Keith;Drunks: America’s Search for Sobriety by Christopher Finan; andArgyle Armada: Life with America’s Top Pro Cycling Team (VeloPress) by Mark Johnson.

Some of Jill’s new and upcoming fiction includes Bloodman and American Woman (Thomas & Mercer) by Robert Pobi; Reckless Disregard(Seven Stories Press) by Robert Rotstein; Three Souls (HarperCollins) by Janie Chang;Madam(Plume) by Cari Lynne and Kellie Martin; The Cordell Logan thriller series (The Permanent Press) by David Freed; Benefit of the Doubt (Tor/Forge) by Neal Griffin; Garbo’s Last Stand (Entranced) by Jon Miller; The Crossroads thriller series (Thomas & Mercer) by Eyre Price; The Dog Year (Berkley) by Ann Garvin; The Change Your Name Store (Sky Pony Press) by Leanne Shirliffe; and the Jaden Terrell series that includes the Shamus Award nomineeRacing the Devil and A Cup Full of Midnight (The Permanent Press).

Please note that Jill is specificallynot interested in:YA, children’s books, sci-fi, romance or anything involving unicorns.

ROZ FOSTER is an acquiring agent at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. She works from New York.

She has a B.A. in English Literature from UC San Diego, studied philosophy for a year at the University of Sheffield, U.K., and earned her M.A. in English, with an emphasis in composition & rhetoric and creative writing, from Portland State University. At PSU, she taught writing in exchange for tuition. She’s been learning French since 2009.

Roz spent over five years as a qualitative researcher in high-tech consumer products marketing. In 2008, she co-founded a web design company for which she provided non-profit organizations with audience-focused market research, project planning, and digital design. She joined SDLA in 2013.

Roz is interested in non-fiction in the areas of cultural studies, sociology, business, history, politics, current affairs, science and design. She looks for driven, narrative storytelling and sharp concepts that have the potential to transcend their primary audience. She’s also interested in literary and commercial fiction, literary YA with crossover potential for the adult market, and literary sci-fi. In fiction, she looks for a resonant, lively voice; rich, irresistible language; characters with compelling development arcs; and a mastery of dramatic structure. Across the board, she’s looking for books that make her feel like the author is tuned into a rising revolution — cultural, political, literary, or what not — that’s about to burst on the scene.

Please note that Roz is specifically not interested in: sports, cookbooks, screenplays, poetry, romance, fantasy, or children’s books.

THAO LE joined the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency in 2011. She handles finances and select contracts and is also an agent.

Thao is looking for adult sci-fi/fantasy/horror, NA (new adult), YA (young adult), and MG (middle grade). She enjoys both gritty, dark narratives and fantastically quirky stories. She is also looking for light-hearted, funny, and moving contemporary YAs with a raw, authentic teen voice. She’s particularly drawn to memorable characters, smart-mouthed dialogue, strong plots, and tight writing. Her favorite books are ones that reimagine familiar tales and tropes in a completely fresh new way and she has a soft spot for multicultural stories and lush settings.

Recent sales include: Katherine Harbour’s fantasy THORN JACK (Harper Voyager), Lisa Freeman’s surf YA novel HONEY GIRL (Sky Pony Press), IPPY Award-winning S.K. Falls’ new adult novel ONE LAST SONG (Forever Yours), James Kendley’s paranormal thriller THE DROWNING GOD (Harper Voyager Impulse), Wendy Spinale’s steampunk Peter Pan retelling EVERLAND (Scholastic), and Kathryn Tanquary’s middle grade fantasy THE NIGHT PARADE (Sourcebooks).

Thao is not looking for: biographies, business books, cookbooks, memoirs, picture books, poetry, religious/spiritual books, screenplays, self-help, short stories, or travel books.

JESSICA WATTERSON graduated from the University of California at Irvine with a degree in Sociocultural Anthropology and English. Jessica has made books a serious part of her life for many years. Jessica is most interested in all subgenres of adult and new adult romance, and women’s fiction. She is looking for heartfelt and unique romance that will instantly draw a reader in and keep them hooked.

(Sign up for the boot camp here.)

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Victoria Selvaggio of Jennifer De Chiara Literary) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

 
About Victoria: Victoria A. Selvaggio joins The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency as an Associate Agent with a strong background in business ownership and over six years of actively working as a volunteer and Regional Advisor for SCBWI: Northern Ohio.  Drawn to the publishing scene first as an author writing all genres, with her most recent publication in the 2015 Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market, Vicki’s passion for honing the craft carried over into reading manuscripts for the agency. Currently, she is excited to read compelling manuscripts that will resonate with her long after she’s done.

(Hate writing synopses? Here are nuts & bolts pointers for you.)

She is seeking: “I am currently looking for all genres (lyrical picture books, middle grade and young adult fiction, new adult, mysteries, suspense, thrillers, paranormal, fantasy, narrative nonfiction, adult fiction), but find I’m drawn to middle grade and young adult. I especially love thrillers and all elements of weird, creepy stuff. If it’s out of the box, and it will make me think and think, long after I’m done reading, send it to me. On the flip side, I yearn for books that make me laugh, cry and wonder about the world.”

How to submit: Please e-mail a query to vselvaggio [at] windstream.net. Put “Query” in the subject line of your e-mail. For queries regarding children’s and adult fiction, please send the first twenty pages in the body of your e-mail, along with a one-paragraph bio and a one-paragraph synopsis.

For queries regarding a nonfiction book, please attach the entire proposal as a Word document (the proposal should include a sample chapter), along with a one-paragraph bio and a one-paragraph synopsis of your book in the body of your email.

“I usually respond within three to six months. If you haven’t received a response after six months, feel free to query me again.”

(Do you need different agents if you write multiple genres?)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• 5 Networking Tips for Writers.
• Agent Amy Tannenbaum reps new adult, romance, and women’s fiction.
• Bring More Authenticity to Your Historical Novel: 11 Ideas.
• What It’s Like to Work With a Publishing House Editor on Your Book.
• Agent Andy Ross puts out a call for queries.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” ― Toni Morrison

I’ve always loved Morrison’s saying. The idea that everyone has the potential to write his or her own favorite book is an appealing one, and it’s natural that writers will want to write the kind of books they like to read. But it’s not always as simple as that. What if you enjoy reading about courtroom dramas, and you’re not a lawyer or a judge? What if you love the idea of creating layers to your novel by using architecture, but you’re not an architect?

How do you write the book you want to read if you’re not an expert in the field? Here are a few tricks I learned while writing my debut novel, THE SECRETS OF MIDWIVES:

Column by Sally Hepworth. A graduate of Monash University, Melbourne,
Australia, Sally started writing novels after the birth of her first child. She has
lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the U.K.,
and Canada, and she now writes full-time from her home in Melbourne,
where she lives with her husband and two young children. Her debut US
novel is THE SECRETS OF MIDWIVES (St. Martin’s, Feb. 2015), a novel
about three generations of midwives that author Liane Moriarty described
as “women’s fiction at its finest.” Connect with Sally on Twitter.

1) Start by making a list of ALL the elements in the book you want to read

The book you want to read is more than just ‘courtroom drama’ or ‘architecture’ or ‘midwives’. While planning your novel, think about all the things that excite you when you read. Do you like a bit of romance? Some mystery? An unforeseen plot twist? (Remember: It’s okay to have more than one of these in your novel, in fact, it’s a good idea). Look at your favorite books and see what they have in common. Ask yourself: what drives the plot in the books I like to read?

Once you have your answers, make a list.

It will look something like this:
–    Mystery
–    Menace
–    High stakes – death?
–    Romance

This list will become your roadmap to writing the book you want to read. And once you have your roadmap…

2) If you are not an expert in your chosen topic, read widely

The best way to sound like you know what you’re talking about is to know what you’re talking about. In preparation for writing your novel, read as widely as you can about your topic—fiction and non-fiction—until the terminology and practices become second nature. As you read, keep your list (point 1) at the forefront of your mind, making notes of how you can incorporate what you’ve learned to create mystery and menace, heighten the stakes, and test the romances you’ve created.

(When can you finally call yourself a writer?)

3) Enlist an expert

Books are a wonderful start when researching a topic, but nothing will ever beat a flesh and blood expert. If you already know that person, wonderful. If not, don’t panic. I’ve found that when I tell people I am writing a novel, they are generally happy to answer my questions as long as I am respectful of their time. I always follow up with a small gift or note of thanks (particularly important if you want to ask them again.)

4) Stop talking to your experts

When it’s time to start the actual writing, focus on the story. If you’ve immersed yourself in enough research you’ll be surprised by how much knowledge you’ll bring to the page. Now is not the time to double-check the type of gasoline your protagonist’s car would take or what kind of plants would grow in the garden at this time of year. Write the scene as best as you can and mark areas with an X that need to be followed up on or fact-checked. And remember, when it comes down to it, you’re writing a novel not a text-book. Readers will forgive you for making a few mistakes if your novel is gripping enough.

5) Don’t lose sight of what your book is really about

Sometimes, in an attempt to jam everything on your list into your book, your plot can start to feel random. But the book you want to read should be bigger than its topic, or the sum of its plot points. The theme is what your book is really about…in effect, it is the glue that holds your novel together. Sometimes the theme presents itself right away, and other times you don’t see it until the second or third draft. Regardless of timing, when your theme emerges, grab it and use it to add meaning and layers to your plot. And when your plot is more than what happens next, guess what? You have a novel. Maybe even a great one. Maybe even the book you want to read.

(Should You Sign With a New Literary Agent? Know the Pros and Cons)

This guest column is a supplement to the
“Breaking In” (debut authors) feature of this author
in Writer’s Digest magazine. Are you a subscriber
yet? If not, get a discounted one-year sub here.

I (Chuck) Will Instruct At These Great Writing Events Soon:

• Oct. 24, 2014: Atlanta Writers Fall Conference (Atlanta, GA)
• Feb. 6, 2015: Kentucky Writers Conference (Louisville, KY)
• Feb. 7, 2015: Tennessee Writers Conference (Nashville, KY)
• Feb. 20, 2015: Portland Writing Workshop (Portland, OR)
• Feb. 21, 2015: Seattle Writers Workshop (Seattle, WA)
• March 27-28, 2015: Chesapeake Writing Conferences (Baltimore and DC)
• April 17-18, 2015: Carolina Writing Workshop Conferences (Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC)
• May 15, 2015: Milwaukee Writers Conference (Milwaukee, WI)
• May 16, 2015: Chicago Writers Workshop (Chicago, IL)
• June 25-28, 2015: Jackson Hole Writers Conference (Jackson Hole, WY)
• July 31- Aug. 2, 2015: Writer’s Digest Conference East (New York, NY)
• October 2015: Books by the Banks Book Festival (Cincinnati, OH)

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

I’ve been selling books for more than fifteen years and learning to write novels even longer. Of all the author readings and Q&A sessions I’ve hosted (and attended), one of the most common questions among beginning writers, even curious readers, is this: Do you start with an outline?

You’ve heard the pros and cons. An outline helps organize your thoughts and prevents you from spinning your wheels and traveling down dead-end storylines. The flipside, of course, is that constructing an outline boxes you in and limits the possibility of discovery, which is the most creative and rewarding part of writing.

Column by Jamie Kornegay, author of SOIL, to be released March 10,
2015, from Simon & Schuster. The book, a combination of literary suspense
and Southern gothic, was called “gripping” and “haunting” by Kirkus Reviews.
He lives in the Mississippi Delta, where he runs an independent bookstore,
Turnrow Book Co. Connect with him on Twitter — @JamieKornegay.

First, it’s important to note that there are no ironclad rules to novel writing. Every writer works differently and stumbles upon his or her preferred method through trial and error. The novel, rather than writing advisers, should tell you what it needs.

The traditional term paper outline, with its Roman numerals and letters, is helpful to organize a finite amount of information, but a novel is more amorphous. I couldn’t begin to collect a novel’s potential in an outline, though I certainly understand the impulse. There’s something terrifying about the blank page and its stark white emptiness. What could you put there that anyone would want to read?

It’s only natural that a writer would wish to escape such a daunting task. If an outline is a way to get the paper dirty, then go for it. Just remember that those first scratchings are exploration. Don’t lock yourself into a story that you haven’t discovered through hard work. The wheel-spinning and dead ends and wasted time are part of discovering what your book is about, and if you bypass that, you’re opting for ease and convenience over depth of storytelling. Nothing worthwhile comes easy.

After the spark of an idea, the fuel for your story is character. If you don’t yet know the character as intimately as you know your best friends, then how can you decide what that character will do when matched with the conflicts of the novel?

While imagining your characters, you will naturally develop scenes and storylines and bits of history. Once these begin to accumulate, then you have something to attach to an outline. For me, an outline is an expression of the novel’s structure, which gradually reveals itself, like hacking a totem out of simple log.

My first published novel, Soil, began like many other books – with a single image. I was driving past flooded farmland and saw a stump sticking out of the muck. For a fleeting moment, I thought it was a corpse. What if it had been? That would be a nightmare to deal with. I began to imagine a landowner happening upon the body, growing scared and paranoid.  He might worry about becoming a suspect. What if he didn’t tell anyone, just got rid of it? How would he cover it up completely, taking every precaution so that no trace of it would be discovered? This kind of morbid daydreaming is the stuff of novels.

I reasoned out creative answers to my own tough questions. I slowly began to understand the main character, his motivations and obsessions. I wrote wasted pages and dead ends galore. Eventually I found the right path. I could feel the story gaining traction as new characters arrived and ideas poured forth. It was time to make the outline.

I kept my outline informal, intuitive. I used the outline almost like flypaper to trap scenes and ideas that were coming quicker than words, as my characters were finally alive and could make their own decisions about the story.

The outline helped me negotiate the tricky framework of Soil, which is told somewhat out of sequence. It’s one of my favorite aspects of the book. The structure came out of a desire to maintain that initial sense of mystery I felt after discovering the “body” in the field, all the hows and whys and the slow discovery of my characters’ secrets and motivations.

The novel is divided into five sections comprised of several chapters each. Each section opens with a strange, hopefully compelling episode, and then goes back in time to reveal how the characters reached this point. I thought this looping effect generated a nice suspense, and it also informed the deeper themes of Soil, specifically the cycles of nature and our inevitable return to the earth. If I did my job right, then the complicated structure should not present a stumbling block to the reader. It took careful planning, and my own specially designed outline.

The book I’m currently working on has a linear structure, told over the course of a week. Each chapter is a day, and understanding that from the outset allows me to work out of sequence easily, depending of what inspiration strikes me or what I find during my day-to-day life to steal and apply to the novel.

Just remember that an outline shouldn’t decide the story, your characters do that. An outline is where you string up the pieces to see the big picture and make your novel is a coherent whole.

This guest column is a supplement to the
“Breaking In” (debut authors) feature of this author
in Writer’s Digest magazine. Are you a subscriber
yet? If not, get a discounted one-year sub here.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Ask Not What Your Readers Can Do For You.
• 3 Good Things About Disturbing Fiction.
• Happily Ever After: Romances Aren’t Meant To Be Reality TV.
• Agent Spotlight: Cate Hart (Corvisiero Literary Agency) seeks YA, MG, Romance and select Erotica and LGBT.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

This is a recurring column I’m calling “7 Things I’ve Learned So Far,” where writers (this installment written by Samuél L. Barrantes, author of SLIM AND THE BEAST) at any stage of their career can talk about writing advice and instruction as well as how they possibly got their book agent — by sharing seven things they’ve learned along their writing journey that they wish they knew at the beginning.

Samuél L. Barrantes is an essayist and novelist from Chapel Hill,
North Carolina. His work has appeared in Paris Lit Up Magazine,
SLAM Magazine, and The International Forum for Logotherapy. He
is a specialist in Viktor Frankl’s philosophy and the Three Viennese
Schools of Psychotherapy. He currently lives in Paris. His debut
novel is SLIM AND THE BEAST, part Mark Twain, part Coen Brothers.
Connect with him on Twitter or on Facebook.

1. Harness Failure. When I thought I wanted to “be a writer” I applied to fourteen MFA programs. When I got my fourteenth rejection letter, I knew I had a choice: Would I let this be a sign that I wasn’t cut out to be a writer? Or was I going to use it as motivation to get down to actually writing? Writing isn’t something you are, it’s something you do. And the only way to get good at something is to practice. A lot. This has become somewhat of a trope in the literary world, but you really have to harness failure every night. “Success” is a ridiculous word that doesn’t mean anything to me—success, at this point in my life, is trying to write every night. After fourteen MFA rejection letters, I decided I would still finish my first novel, which is a hodgepodge of words I can’t stand to look at now. But I finished it—it didn’t finish me—and it led me to the second novel, Slim and The Beast. And fourteen drafts later, I was finally proud. (Fourteen drafts, fourteen MFA rejections … maybe that should be a new rule).

2. Be Wary of Workshops and Literary Communities. In my experience, most writer groups and “literary communities”—spoken words, workshops, etc.—are great places to meet writers, but are less helpful for the act of writing itself. This isn’t to say these communities aren’t beneficial, just that they have never helped me write. The most “successful” writers (and by successful I mean getting the words down) are too busy writing to care what others think or about “being seen.” Writing is deeply personal and also paradoxical: although you spend thousands of hours by yourself, you have to separate your words from your own ego.

So when you surround yourself with competing egos, where publication and pedigree always become part of the conversation, you end up feeling like a salesman who doesn’t quite know what he’s selling. I always think about Hemingway’s response to a question about the “group feeling” of Paris in the twenties: “There was no group feeling. We had respect for each other.” And this respect, I think, comes from knowing that writers need to be alone, time to write. So workshops and communities are great to exchange ideas, but too often they feed the ego and distract from writing.

(How to be a literary agent’s dream client.)

3. Writing = Re-Writing. I used to have a romantic notion of writing as a frenzy of creativity, where the words poured out of me, the Muses singing by my side. But the truth is writing is as much about editing and re-writing as it is about creation. You really have to love what you’re working on to stick with it. I think of the first draft as the sculptor’s block of cold stone—there is something there, buried within, but the sculptor spends years chiseling away.  For example, I cut approximately 35,000 words between the first and final drafts of Slim and The Beast, with countless rewording and revising throughout.

4. Discipline Breeds Discipline. When I first started writing with intent, I made myself a promise: three days a week, 2,000 words/day. This grew to four days a week, and now it is at five. This doesn’t necessarily mean all of those words are related to the novel I am working on, but it does mean that I berate myself if I don’t reach my goal. This is masochistic, maybe, but it is also essential—writing is as much of a choice as it is a “calling,” so I constantly ask myself the question: “If I don’t write today, then when?” But discipline breeds discipline, so whether it comes to eating healthier, doing pushups, playing piano or reading, if I don’t set routines for myself, everything falls to the wayside. This is why it is impossible for me to write when traveling, perhaps, because I lose track of all of my daily routines. The biggest challenge for a writer isn’t the writing itself but sitting down to write. No book has ever helped me more in realizing this than Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art.

5. Keep Human!  One of the dangers of “practice makes perfect” and lesson #3 is that you can end up in a robotic-type lifestyle that leaves you creatively barren. One of my favorite “rules of writing” is from Henry Miller: “Keep Human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.” When I reach a point where I’m mentally exhausted—or if I simply can’t create that night—I’ve learned to step back and leave the land fallow, so to speak. Miller points out that when you can’t create you can still work: meeting people, sitting in the park, watching Seinfeld, playing music, drinking wine on the river—all of these experiences are part of the writing process. Since my favorite kind of writing is about the human experience, it’s important to remain open to the goings on outside in order to try and immortalize them on the page.

6. Wisdom Isn’t Communicable. One of the biggest detriments of having a liberal arts education is you come out thinking you’re smart and interesting. But no one cares, nor should you. Pedigree means nothing. The more you try and “prove” to the reader what you know or how good you are at emulating Foster-Wallacean sentences, the worse your writing becomes, period. In Herman Hesse’s Siddartha, this is stated perfectly: “One can find [wisdom], live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”  Avoiding didactic writing is an ongoing challenge for me because of the dangerous dictum “write what you know.” For a long time I thought this mean intellect versus experience, because academic writing is so often concerned with how much you understand about a given theory. Of course, the best writing communicates philosophy without ever once mentioning the philosopher that said it, and I’ve spent years trying to get away from academic writing in my fiction.

(Read tips on writing a query letter.)

7. Write Because You Love. There is an incredible poem by Charles Bukowski called So, You Want To Be A Writer. For the first few years, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be a writer, or if I wanted to write. But once again, writing isn’t something you are, it’s something you do. And if you’re doing it to “be something,” the best advice is to stop. The only reason I put on my headphones, turn off the Wi-Fi, listen to ambient sounds (usually a thunderstorm, beach waves, or noisli) and sit down to write is because if I didn’t do it, I’d feel shittier the next day. In the same way I need to read for my own well-being, or how I get antsy when I don’t play music for a while, I write because it makes me happy. We don’t ask people on the basketball court “why?” or if that guy in the nightclub wants to become a professional dancer. It’s not about proving something to anyone, especially yourself. Like with everything, in the end all that matters is you write because you love.

Agent Donald Maass, who is also an author
himself, is one of the top instructors nationwide
on crafting quality fiction. His recent guide,
The Fire in Fiction, shows how to compose
a novel that will get agents/editors to keep reading.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Rena Rossner (The Deborah Harris Agency) seeks Children’s, Fiction, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy.
• How I Got My Literary Agent: Elizabeth Blackwell (Fiction, Fantasy).
• 3 Ways Military Service Has Made Me A Better Writer.
• 6 Steps To Seeing Your Book Published.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Heather Flaherty of The Bent Agency) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Heather Flaherty of The Bent Agency: “I grew up in Massachusetts, between Boston and the Cape, and started working in New York City as a playwright during college. This pushed me towards English as a focus, and after a lot of country-hopping in my early twenties, I wound up finally beginning my publishing career in editorial, specifically at Random House in the UK. That’s also where I became a YA and children’s literary scout, which finally landed me back in NYC, consulting with foreign publishers and Hollywood regarding what the next big book will be. Now as an agent, I’m thrilled to turn my focus on growing authors for that same success.”

(How long should a synopsis be? Is shorter or longer better?)

She is seeking: authors who write children’s, middle grade, and young adult fiction and nonfiction, as well as select new adult fiction, and pop-culture or humorous nonfiction.

“Currently I’m looking for YA fiction across-the-board, though my heart does sway towards issue-related YA with humor and heart – not depressing, or mopey. I also love love love hard, punchy, contemporary YA that’s got no hesitations when it comes to crazy. I’m also always up for seeing contemporary stories with sci-fi or fantasy elements, as well as a clever respin of an old or classic tale. And then, lastly, really good horror and ghost stories… not gory-for-gory’s sake or overly disgusting, but cringing, dark, bloody twisted, and even lovely. That said, the one thing I love above all else in a YA novel, regardless of sub-genre, is a strong and specific character voice. A real person, not another ‘everygirl.’ As for the middle grade I’m looking for, I want it stark, honest, and even dark; either contemporary or period, as long as it’s accessible. Coming-of-age stories, dealing-with-difficulty stories, witness stories (adult issues seen through the child’s p.o.v kinda thing), anything that makes you want to hold the narrator’s hand… for your own comfort, as well as their’s. I am also ok with these stories having slight magical or fantasy elements as well – as long as they’re subtle. In new adult, I like to see story… not just romance and/or erotica. For me, it should pretty much be a great YA novel for an older audience. On the nonfiction side, I’m looking for strong teen memoirs about overcoming crushing situations. ”

How to submit: Review The Bent Agency’s updated submissions guidelines online, and then e-mail flahertyqueries [at] thebentagency.com.

(How successful should a blog be before agents/editors will take notice?)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Andy Kifer (Gernert Company) seeks Literary, Sci-Fi, Thrillers & Nonfiction.
• 5 Things To Look For In A Critique Partner.
• It Starts With A Good Book.
• How I Got My Literary Agent: Natalia Sylvester (Fiction).
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Sarah Nagel of Writers House) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Sarah: Sarah Nagel joined Writers House in 2011 to work with Senior Vice President, Merrilee Heifetz and is now actively building her own client list. Previously, Sarah was a media lawyer in London and graduated with two separate degrees in English Language and Literature, and Law. Follow Sarah on Twitter: @SarahNagel14.

(How can writers compose an exciting Chapter 1?)

She is seeking: Sarah is looking for psychological thrillers (those that mess with your head rather than high speed cross-country chases), horror, mystery, suspense and literary fiction. Sarah is especially interested in strong character-driven fiction and stories that explore the dynamics of a dysfunctional family unit / relationships. Sarah also represents realistic Young Adult and Middle Grade with a hint of magical realism. On the nonfiction side, Sarah is interested in medical ethics, true crime, humor books and memoir with a distinctive narrative voice with a universal resonance. Sarah is not looking for straight sci-fi, high fantasy, romance or picture books.

How to submit: “I accept e-mail queries and will usually respond within 4-6 weeks. Please submit your query, including the first ten (10) pages of your manuscript pasted into the body of the e-mail (no attachments please!), to snagel [at] writershouse.com with “QUERY FOR SARAH NAGEL: [TITLE OF MANUSCRIPT]” in the subject line. Please do not query multiple Writers House agents simultaneously.”

(Can you re-query an agent after she’s rejected you in the past?)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Madeleine Clark (Sterling Lord) seeks YA, Thrillers, Literary and Nonfiction.
• Using Exercise To Kickstart Your Creativity.
• How I Got My Literary Agent: Kristi Belcamino (Crime Fiction).
• Author John Searles Proves Nice Guys Finish First.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

As many writers know, agents and editors won’t give your work more than ten pages or so to make an impact. If you haven’t got them hooked by then, it’s a safe bet you won’t be asked for more material. Make sure you’ve got the kind of opening they’re looking for! In this invaluable weekend event, you’ll get to work with an agent online to review and refine the first ten pages of your novel. You’ll learn what keeps an agent reading, what are the most common mistakes that make them stop, and the steps you need to take to correct them. The best part is that you’ll be working directly with an agent, who will provide feedback specific to your work.

It’s all part of the recurring popular Agent One-on-One Boot Camp called “Your First 10 Pages.” Sign up by the end of the day, Feb. 20, 2015. It’s taught by the agents at Talcott Notch Literary.

Here’s how it works:

On Friday morning, Feb. 20, you will gain access to a special 60-minute online tutorial presented by agent and editor Paula Munier. It will help you clarify what you should be looking for in your work. You will also be notified by email which agent you’ll be working with on Friday. (All times noted are Eastern Time).

After listening to the presentation, you’ll spend Friday evening revising your first ten pages as necessary, given the guidelines provided in the presentation, and you’ll email those pages directly to Paula or one of four additional agents from Talcott Notch Literary, including Gina Panettieri, Rachael Dugas, and Jessica Negron, by Saturday morning at 10:00 AM (ET). They will spend all day Saturday reviewing their assigned pages and providing feedback as to what works and what doesn’t. (Sign up for the boot camp here.)

All pages with notes will be returned to participants by the next Saturday (Feb 28). Throughout the next 36 hours, you’ll work to revise your pages based on the agent’s specific feedback. From 1:00 to 4:00 PM on March 1st, Paula, Gina, Rachael, and Saba will be available to answer questions and provide additional feedback via the Writer’s Digest University message boards. Only registered students can access these boards. You’ll also be able to ask question of your fellow students. Feel free to share your work and gain support from your peers.

By 10:00 PM (ET) Sunday night on March 1st, you’ll return your final revised pages to your assigned agent for review. They will spend the next week reading the revised submissions assigned to them, and will provide a final brief one-or-two sentence critique of your progress no later than March 8th. Please note that any one of them may ask for additional pages if the initial submission shows serious promise.

*Please note that all attendees should have the first 10 pages of their novel finished and ready to submit to the agent prior to the beginning of the event. (Sign up for the boot camp here.)

In addition to feedback from Paula, Gina, Rachael, or Saba, attendees will also receive:

— A download of “An Agent’s Tips on Story Structures that Sell,” an on-demand webinar by Andrea Hurst
— 1-year subscription to the WritersMarket.com literary agent database

All sales are final. No additional discounts can be applied.

About the Agents:

Gina Panettieri is President of Talcott Notch Literary Services, and has worked as an agent for more than 20 years. She currently represents a full range of adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction, with an emphasis in fiction on YA, MG, mystery, fantasy, women’s fiction, horror and paranormal. In nonfiction, she is particularly seeking memoir, business, cooking, health and fitness, pop science, medicine, true crime and current events. Some of her clients include Nancy Holzner, author of the new Deadtown urban fantasy series from Berkley/Ace Science Fiction, Annabella Bloom, author of the Wild and Wanton edition romance hybrid classics Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights (Adams Media), Dr. Karyn Purvis, author of the bestselling and multi-award winning adoption book, The Connected Child (McGraw-Hill), and author and media personality, Dr. Seth Meyers. She currently represents an eclectic range of writers, encompassing everyone from a former head of Security and Intelligence for NATO Europe, to CEOs of major corporations and Deans of major medical schools, to stay-at-home writer moms and amazingly talented teens. Gina speaks at many conferences and writing events throughout the country on the subjects of securing an agent and getting published. Her agency website is talcottnotch.net

Paula Munier, Senior Literary Agent & Content Strategist at Talcott Notch Literary, has broad experience creating and marketing exceptional content in all formats across all markets for such media giants as Disney, Gannett, Greenspun Media Group, and Quayside. She began her career as a journalist, and along the way added editor, acquisitions specialist, digital content manager, and publishing executive to her repertoire. Before joining Talcott Notch, she served as the Director of Innovation and Acquisitions for Adams Media, a division of F&W Media, where she headed up the acquisitions team responsible for creating, curating, and producing both fiction and nonfiction for print, ebook, eshort, and direct-to-ebook formats. (Sign up for the boot camp here.)

Although she represents all kinds of projects, right now she’s looking for crime fiction, women’s fiction, romance, New Adult, YA, and middle grade fiction, as well as nonfiction in the areas of pop culture, health & wellness, cooking, self-help, pop psych, New Age, inspirational, technology, science, and writing. As a new agent she’s making her first deals now, including the New Adult trilogy, The Registry by Shannon Stoker, which sold for six figures to HarperCollins. She’s also just sold mystery, thriller, and self-help. Paula is very involved with the mystery community, having served four terms as President of the New England chapter of Mystery Writers of America as well as on the MWA board. (She’s currently VP of that organization.) She’s also served as both co-chair and Agents and Editors chair on the New England Crime Bake committee for seven years and counting. And she’s an active member of Sisters in Crime.

Saba Sulaiman is the newest member of Talcott Notch Literary Services. She joined the team after working as an editorial intern at Sourcebooks, where she worked primarily on their romance line. She holds a BA from Wellesley College and an MA from the University of Chicago, where she studied modern Persian literature. She’s looking primarily to build her Middle Grade and Young Adult lists, and is particularly interested in contemporary realistic stories. She’s also actively seeking category romance (all subgenres except paranormal), literary, upmarket, and commercial fiction, tightly plotted, character-driven psychological thrillers, and cozy mysteries à la Agatha Christie.

Rachael Dugas joined Talcott Notch Literary in 2011. During her tenure as associate agent, Rachael has judged contests and attended conferences in New York and beyond, working with groups such as Writer’s Digest, ASJA, YA Lit Chat, the National Publicity Summit, and the Hampton Roads Writers. Recent sales include titles in young adult and romance to imprints at Hachette, Perseus, and Month 9 Books. Rachael is a former Sourcebooks editorial intern and a proud Ithaca College graduate. She welcomes fiction submissions in the following categories: YA, MG, women’s fiction, contemporary and historical romance, historical fiction, and general commercial fiction. Her non-fiction wishlist includes memoir with an amazing voice and cookbooks or performing arts-related books with outstanding platforms.

Sign up for the boot camp here.

While working on my book Process: The Writing Lives of Great Authors, I found that even for the best writers in the world, getting started can be the hardest part. Here’s how 5 great authors found what they needed to get started on their very first novels…

(16 things to do prior to sending your work out to agents & editors.)

Column by Sarah Stodola, author of PROCESS: THE WRITING LIVES OF GREAT AUTHORS. She has contributed to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, and Awl, as well as Condé Nast Traveler and Slate, among others publications. She founded the literary journal Me Three and served as an adjunct scholar for Lapham’s Quarterly. Sarah is currently the editorial director of Strolby.

1. Toni Morrison

The Spark: A Writing Group

Morrison was a 35-year-old professor at Howard University when she joined a writing group just for fun. It soon became clear that she couldn’t remain in the group unless she actually wrote something, so she began toying with a story based on an African American girl she remembered from elementary school, who had proclaimed her wish to have blue eyes. Not too long after, Morrison divorced and moved to Syracuse, where she had few friends. To pass the time, she brought the story from her writing group back out and began expanding it into a novel. Five years after she started, Morrison had completed The Bluest Eye.

2. David Foster Wallace

The Spark: A Comment by his Girlfriend

A college girlfriend mentioned to Wallace one night that she’d rather be a character in a book than a real person. The comment hit Wallace, and he found himself turning it over and over in his mind, trying to figure out exactly what she’d meant by it. He pondered the difference between a fictional character and a real-life person, and how language could play a part in shaping our understanding of both. The idea became the catalyst for a story that developed over the course of Wallace’s final year at Amherst College into The Broom of the System, a novel about a woman who doesn’t believe in her own reality. Wallace turned the novel in as his senior thesis and a couple years later, it was published.

3. Zadie Smith

The Spark: The Turn of the Millennium

Fully anticipating a career in academia, the 20-year-old Zadie Smith nevertheless set out to write a novel about a man who comes out of the 20th century in a positive way. She worked on what eventually became White Teeth during her last couple of years at Cambridge University (“when everybody else was getting drunk,” she told The Rumpus in an interview), finishing most of it before she graduated. She showed it to a trusted group of five or so friends periodically along the way, readers she says were crucial in the development of the book. Like Wallace, Smith’s first novel came out when she was just 24.

(Excellent Tips on Writing a Query Letter.)

4. Ernest Hemingway

The Spark: A Trip to Spain

After stints as both a newspaper reporter in Kansas City and Red Cross ambulance driver in wartime Italy, Hemingway returned home just long enough to get married and gather his thoughts. Then he moved to Paris, where his fiction ambitions began in earnest. He showed promise, but nothing more, until a fateful trip to Spain with friends to take in the bullfights. The idea for The Sun Also Rises came to him and he got started before the group even began the return leg of the journey; indeed, the characters in the novel were based closely on those friends who had joined Hemingway on that particular trip. The novel spewed forth—Hemingway claimed to have averaged 2,000 words per day while working on the first draft—and he finished it in well under a year.

5. Joan Didion

The Spark: A Newspaper Blurb

A young Didion came across a newspaper article while working at Vogue in New York City and feeling homesick for her native California. It was a mere blurb about a man charged with killing his farm’s foreman in the Carolinas, but the image stuck. She relocated it to California and turned it into the seminal scene for a novel, which she worked on at night in a sublet Upper West Side apartment. With half the book written, she sent it off to publishers, the lucky 13th of which accepted it and paid her a small advance to write the last half. Run, River came out with Didion was 28 years old.

Hook agents, editors and readers immediately.
Check out Les Edgerton’s guide, HOOKED, to
learn about how your fiction can pull readers in.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• 10 Keys to Becoming a Successful Writer: An Agent Spills Secrets.
• Agent Spotlight: Clelia Gore (Martin Literary Management) seeks Young Adult and Middle Grade.
• How I Found My Literary Agent: Sara Polsky (young adult fiction).
• Polish Your Work Before Submitting: 6 Revision Tips.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

Middle Grade books are generally defined as being books for children aged 8-12…. and at the moment, these books are hot-hot-hot. From the commercial successes of titles like DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and Rick Riordan’s LIGHTNING THIEF saga, to more “literary” award-winning fare, it seems most publishers are seeking the next great Middle Grade success story. But middle grade is also a tough category to write for. Much of what appears in the slush pile is cheesy or derivative, or just lacks “spark.” So what makes a great Middle Grade novel? What is selling? What are agents and editors looking for? And how can you make your book stand out and shine?

In this live webinar, “Writing and Selling Middle Grade Fiction,” instructor and literary agent Jennifer Laughran (of Andrea Brown Literary) will talk about what’s happening in the exciting Middle Grade market, as well as examine some recently published titles to see what they got right. She’ll also talk revision tips and tricks to help you take your work-in-progress to the next level. It all happens at 1 p.m., EST, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2014, and lasts 90 minutes.

ABOUT THE CRITIQUE

All registrants are invited to submit EITHER the query letter OR the first 500 words of their complete / work-in-progress middle grade novel for critique. All submissions are guaranteed a written critique by literary agent Jennifer Laughran. Jennifer reserves the right to request more writing from attendees by e-mail following the event, if she deems the writing excellent.

Please Note: Even if you can’t attend the live webinar, registering for this live version will enable you to receive the On Demand webinar and a personal critique of your material. Purchasing the On Demand version after the live event will not include a critique.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

— What’s selling in Middle Grade… and what just isn’t.
— The all-important “Hook”, and what “High Concept” looks like
— Finding the elusive Middle Grade Voice
— Common mistakes of Middle Grade submissions
— Overused beginnings and clichés that can drag down a work
— How to polish your work and stand out from the slush pile
— What “core curriculum” guidelines for schools might mean for your book. Sign up for the webinar here.

INSTRUCTOR

Jennifer Laughran is a senior agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, the oldest children’s-only agency in the US. Before she joined the agency in 2008, she spent about a decade as a children’s book buyer and event coordinator for various successful bookstores. Her many years of experience in the children’s book field have made her one of the top kid’s book agents working today. She reps picture books through YA, but has a particular love for Middle Grade novels — the warmer and funnier the better. Clients include Daniel Pinkwater, Kate Messner, Jo Whittemore, Linda Urban, and many debut authors whose names you’ll know soon!

Sign up for the Jan 22 webinar here.

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Caitie Flum of Liza Dawson Associates) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Caitie: Caitie Flum joined Liza Dawson Associates in July 2014 as assistant and audio rights manager. She graduated from Hofstra University in 2009 with a BA in English with a concentration in publishing studies. Caitie interned at Hachette Book Group and Writers House. She was an Editorial Assistant then Coordinator for Bookspan, where she worked on several clubs including the Book-of-the-Month Club, The Good Cook, and the Children’s Book-of-the-Month Club. She is taking on her own clients in 2015. Caitie grew up in Ohio where she developed her love of reading everything she could get her hands on. She lives in New Jersey with her husband where, in her free time, she can be found cooking, reading, going to the theater, or intensely playing board games.

(Hear a dozen agents explain exactly what they want to see the slush pile. See if your work is a match.)

Caitie is seeking: Commercial and upmarket fiction with great characters and superb writing, especially historical fiction, mysteries/thrillers of all kinds, magical realism, and book club fiction.

“In historical fiction, I would love to see unusual perspectives and stories told in a unique way. I am eager for police procedurals, cozy mysteries, psychological thrillers, and amateur sleuths, especially those with series potential. I love book club/women’s fiction that shows characters that have made the hard or unpredictable choice or are funny yet poignant stories. Please send me books of all these genres that have diversity!

“I am looking for Young Adult and New Adult projects, particularly romance, historical fiction, mysteries and thrillers, and contemporary books with diverse characters.

“In nonfiction, I am looking for memoirs that make people look at the world differently, narrative nonfiction that’s impossible to put down, books on pop culture, theater, current events, women’s issues, and humor.

“I am not looking for science fiction, fantasy, westerns, military fiction, self-help, science, middle grade, or picture books.”


How to submit to Caitie: Email your query in the body of the e-mail to querycaitie [at] lizadawsonassociates.com.

(How can writers compose an exciting Chapter 1?)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• How To Write Middle Grade Horror: 7 Tips.
• Agent Spotlight: Taylor Haggerty (Waxman Leavell Literary Agency) seeks YA, Historical Fiction and Historical Romance.
• How To Critique A Friend’s Writing.
• Agent Spotlight: Allison Hunter (Inkwell Management) seeks Literary and Commercial Fiction and Nonfiction.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

This series is called “Successful Queries” and I’m posting actual query letter examples that succeeded in getting writers signed with agents. In addition to posting these query letter samples, we will also get to hear thoughts from the writer’s literary agent as to why the letter worked.

The 71st installment in this series is with agent Suzie Townsend (New Leaf Literary) for Makiia Lucier‘s historical young adult debut, A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR (HMH Books for Young Readers, March 2014). The book received both a School Library Journal Starred Review and a Library Media Connection Starred Review. It was named as a 2014 ABC Best Books for Children Selection, a 2014 ‘Indies Introduce New Voices’ Selection, a 2014 Publishers Lunch ‘Buzz Books’ Selection, and a Spring 2014 Kids’ Indie Next Pick.

(How many literary agents should a writer send their work to?)

Dear Ms. Townsend:

In the fall of 1918, Cleo Berry is completing her studies at St. Helen’s Hall, one of the oldest boarding schools in Portland, Oregon. When soldiers arrive at nearby Camp Lewis, they transport the Spanish Influenza, a mysterious strain of flu that strikes down young men and women with swift, shocking brutality.

Schools, churches, and theaters are shut down. Cleo disobeys her headmistress’s quarantine order, choosing to wait out the epidemic, and her family’s impending return, in the relative safety of their empty home. But it isn’t long before the Red Cross launches a plea for volunteers. For deeply personal reasons, Cleo finds she cannot ignore the call for help.

Her duties are clear — to search the neighborhoods and report cases of influenza to the grand auditorium, which has been transformed into an emergency hospital. There Cleo meets Lieutenant Edmund Parrish, a medical student who bears the permanent scars of war. In the coming weeks, the death toll mounts, and reality sets in. There is little help forthcoming from an overworked medical staff and a strained ambulance service. If Cleo is to help save lives, she must find the courage to navigate alone in a city turned ominous with fear.

A DEATH-STRUCK YEAR is a young adult historical novel, complete at 56,000 words.

My articles have appeared in the Portland Oregonian, Bookmarks Magazine, and Library Journal. I have a BA in journalism from the University of Oregon and an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where I studied literature for children. Additionally, I am a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators.

I have attached my complete manuscript. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
Makiia Lucier

COMMENTARY FROM AGENT SUZIE TOWNSEND:

Now, historical YA is actually pretty tough. It’s tough to get the teenage sensibility just right while also staying true to the historical time period. As a result, I was wary when I realized it was historical YA. I wasn’t opposed to it, but it wasn’t something I was looking for either. For me to take on a historical project it would have to be something with amazing characters and really great plot and outstanding writing.

Then I got this query.

Here’s what I loved about it:

First: Spanish Influenza! I love that this is a time period I haven’t seen too many times before, but at the same time there’s a high stakes backdrop. (And can I say that when I read this for the first time, I was constantly freaking out when someone sneezed next to me on the subway.)

I also was really struck by the writing and pacing in this query. Makiia introduces the stakes (the flu that kills!) and then she sets up Cleo’s personal experience with it in a way that gradually built the sense of urgency. I felt so grabbed by the “personal reasons” (why would she put herself in danger!?) and this Lieutenant with scars of war (I admit I sort of love a guy with emotional baggage–at least in books).

I read the manuscript and loved it. There were parts that made me weep and of course, Edmund is rather swoony, and Cleo…I just loved her.

I wasn’t the only one. I sold this to Harcourt Children’s. The book is one of the ABA picks for New Voices.

(Book Payments and Royalties — Your Questions Answered.)

Don’t let your submission be rejected for
improper formatting. The third edition of
Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript
has more than 100 examples of queries,
synopses, proposals, book text, and more.
Buy it online here at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Caitlen Rubino Bradway (LKG Agency) seeks Middle Grade and Young Adult.
• Gospel of Combat: How Fight Scenes Feed Your Story.
• Re-Vision? Easier Said Than Seen.
• Agent Spotlight: Rebecca Podos (Rees Literary Agency) seeks YA, New Adult and Narrative Nonfiction.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

My newest writing reference book, GET A LITERARY AGENT, is finally out from Writer’s Digest Books! As the book subtitle says. it’s a complete guide to securing representation for your books. This book has been a long time coming, and it’s a small labor of love, so I’m excited to share it with you now.

Every year, I edit the Guide to Literary Agents, which is essentially a huge database of agents — who they are, what they seek, how to submit, etc. It’s got good instructional articles upfront, but it could have so many more if space would simply allow. That’s why Writer’s Digest Books came to me a while back and said, “Why not compile everything you know about getting an agent into one book? And while you’re at it, loop in advice and opinions from active literary agents — at least 100 of them.” And thus GET A LITERARY AGENT was born. I’ll explain more about the guide in a moment, but first — the giveaway!

GIVEAWAY: I am giving away 3 copies of GET A LITERARY AGENT to random commenters. Simply comment on this blog post anytime before the end of Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. If you want to be entered 3 times instead of once in the contest, simply share this tweet about this giveaway: There’s a Book Giveaway going on at @WritersDigest for the new guide, GET A LITERARY AGENT: http://tinyurl.com/qyfm65r via @chucksambuchino. Make sure you leave my handle in there so I can see you tweeted it. And include your own Twitter handle below in your comment if you tweeted it.

TWO BIG REASONS TO BUY THE BOOK:

1. More than 100 literary agents offer advice and guidance in its pages. For this book, I wanted to create something that brought together tips and instruction from as many places as possible. That meant getting tons of literary agents to chime in on all topics. It’s their advice that drives this book. It’s them chiming in on query letter pet peeves. It’s them chiming in on the difference between romance and women’s fiction. It’s them chiming in on why agents reject your work after reading the first chapter. They’re offering advice through every section of the book.

2. The book truly is a one-stop resource. I try to cover everything that you’d possibly need to know when seeking a literary agent. If you’re just starting out on your writing journey, the book is an ideal for you because it addresses the entire process of submitting your book to agents for consideration. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing — nonfiction, fiction, books for adults, books by kids, self-published books — GET A LITERARY AGENT addresses your concerns.

THIS BOOK WILL TEACH YOU THE FOLLOWING:

• What literary agents do on a daily basis, and what they can do for you
• How to polish/revise your own writing and understand when you can stop rewriting your work and finally submit with confidence
• How to find the most agents to query through researching both books and the Internet
• What word count guidelines (low and high) may make some agents balk at your submission
• How to write a compelling query letter that gets attention
• How to write an effective synopsis that conveys your plot
• How to write a thorough nonfiction book proposal that makes your title seem timely and interesting
• Several ways to contact literary agents that don’t involve a query letter
• The pros and cons of signing with a new literary agent
• How many agents to submit to at one time
• How to prepare a complete Submission Checklist to consult before sending out your work
• How to write an interesting Chapter 1 that pulls agents (and readers) in quickly
• The basics of writer platform and marketing yourself
• How requests for an exclusive submission work
• What questions to ask an interested agent when they call you
• How to work well with an agent and foster a long-term, multi-book relationship
• How to tell what genre you’re writing in
• How to get a literary agent interested in a self-published book
• And much more! Buy the book here!

GIVEAWAY: I am giving away 3 copies of GET A LITERARY AGENT to random commenters. Simply comment on this blog post anytime before the end of Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. If you want to be entered 3 times instead of once in the contest, simply share this tweet about this giveaway: There’s a Book Giveaway going on at @WritersDigest for the new guide, GET A LITERARY AGENT: http://tinyurl.com/qyfm65r via @chucksambuchino. Make sure you leave my handle in there so I can see you tweeted it. And include your own Twitter handle below in your comment if you tweeted it.

About Amanda: Amanda Panitch was recently promoted from agency assistant to associate agent at Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. Before joining LMQ in 2012, she interned at Writers House and attended The George Washington University and New York University’s Summer Publishing Institute. A writer herself, her first novel, Damage Done, will be released in July from Random House Books for Young Readers. Follow her on Twitter: @AmandaPanitch

She is seeking: Young adult and middle grade only. In particular, she’d love to find a high fantasy set in a non-Western inspired setting. Other concepts she’d love to see in her inbox include a dark psychological thriller, a quirky mystery, a gorgeous literary contemporary, historical fiction set in a place or time not often explored in fiction, or anything featuring food as a main element. She is also drawn to generational spaceships, unreliable narrators, magical realism, the pre-Columbian Americas, the Amazon, close sibling relationships, and slow-burning romances.

How to submit: Submit your query, including the first five to 10 pages of your manuscript pasted into the body of the email (no attachments) to amanda [at] lmqlit.com. Include the word “Query” in the subject line.

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Madeleine Clark (Sterling Lord) seeks YA, Thrillers, Literary and Nonfiction.
• Using Exercise To Kickstart Your Creativity.
• How I Got My Literary Agent: Kristi Belcamino (Crime Fiction).
• Author John Searles Proves Nice Guys Finish First.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

(The column excerpted from WRITE AWAY: A YEAR OF
MUSINGS AND MOTIVATION FOR WRITERS)

6 IMPOSSIBLE THINGS (by Jenny)

It’s the New Year, and the blogosphere is teeming with resolutions. Last year, so much—well, let’s call it “debris”—hit the fan that we’re all ready for a clean, fresh start. And I think this national January pastime of resolution-making is particularly compelling for writers. Starting a new project, completing an old one, editing, querying, classes, conferences—we have no shortage of goal-worthy pursuits.

I usually make resolutions. This year, however, I’m trying something different, inspired by Tim Burton’s reimagining of Alice in Wonderland. Early in the movie, when Alice remarks to her stick-in-the-mud potential fiancé that she wonders what it would be like to fly, he asks her why she would spend time thinking of such an impossible thing. She can’t imagine why she wouldn’t and tells him that her late father sometimes believed in six impossible things even before breakfast.

Near the end of the movie, as Alice battles the ferocious Jabberwocky, she gathers her courage by reminding herself to believe in six impossible things. “One: there’s a potion that can make you shrink. Two: and a cake that can make you grow. Three: animals can talk. Four: cats can disappear. Five: there’s a place called Wonderland. Six: I can slay the Jabberwocky.”

She does slay the beast. Then she returns to tell the dull Seamus that she won’t marry him. Instead, she embarks on an exciting new business adventure with her father’s friend. Inspired by Alice’s moxie, I’ve decided that instead of making resolutions this year, I will believe in six impossible things every day before breakfast. For example:

1. Chocolate can make me thin
2. I can win a million dollars just by using my Discover Card
3. My kitchen can stay clean for longer than five minutes
4. I can master time management
5. With the right shampoo, my hair can look like Jennifer Aniston’s
6. I can vanquish the dreaded slush pile like my own personal Jabberwocky.

My rational mind knows that the odds of these things happening might not be in my favor—and probably a kajillion-to-one for #2—but there’s something very liberating about giving myself permission to be open to the idea that anything can happen. As Alice’s father says, “The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible.” What impossible things will you believe in this year?

Kerrie Flanagan is the Director of Northern Colorado Writers, an accomplished freelance writer, author and publisher. Her articles have appeared in the 2015 Children’s Writers and Illustrator’s Market, as well as the past four Writer’s Markets,Writer’s Digest and The Writer. She is the author of three books and the founder of Hot Chocolate Press. Jenny Sundstedt is a member of Northern Colorado Writers (NCW) and serves on the creative team for the annual NCW Writer’s Conference. She writes long and short fiction, essays, overly ambitious to-do lists, and since 2010, has been a regular contributor to the NCW blog, The Writing Bug. Their book, WRITE AWAY, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Nook and Kobo. The book combines monthly insightful and humorous stories with tips, tools and interactions that encourage writers to reflect on where they are and where they want to be. Here are two essays from the book for you to enjoy.

MOVING BEYOND WANT (by Kerrie)

Those who become successful writers are not always the most talented ones, but they are always the ones who did not give up. They pushed through the tough times, they passed those who dropped out, and they made the decision to cross the finish line.

Someone told me that what you want becomes irrelevant without a decision. This is so true when it comes to writing. I come across people all the time who say they want to be writers. They talk about all the things they want to write, or all the novels they want to finish. But they never do anything about it.

There are so many things I want. I want to spend a year in Alaska, I want to see the Northern Lights, I want to attend the Book Expo of America, I want to publish a short story… Are all of these things possible for me? Of course they are. I just need to make a decision to stop wanting and to start doing.

Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen created the Chicken Soup for the Soul empire. This would not have happened if they hadn’t decided to publish the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book. They also decided that NOT publishing it was NOT an option. So, they persevered. They didn’t quit after 20, 50, 100 publishers said no. When someone said “no,” Jack and Mark would say, “next.” After 123 rejections, Heath Communications gave them the yes they had been waiting for. They have now sold over 100 million Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

Is this the year you will move beyond wanting to write and make the decision to actually be a writer? Are you willing to do what it takes to finish that novel, write that article, start that blog, or find an agent? Are you ready to invest time in your writing, have confidence in your abilities, and push through to the finish line? If so, this is going to be a great year for you.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Writing is More Passion Than Talent.
• Agent Spotlight: Laura Zats (Red Sofa Literary) seeks YA, MG, Romance and Fiction.
• Introvert’s Guide to Attending Conferences.
• Selling A Manuscript Is Like Falling In Love.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

There is nothing that jolts a reader out of a sense of place and time more effectively than using a modern voice for a Victorian heroine, no matter how richly detailed the description of her gorgeous crinoline and pantalets.  “I need my own space,” certainly informs the reader that your heroine is upset, so upset she must be alone.  But any young woman from the 1800s was more likely to murmur: “I have some letters to write.” And before her startled beau has a chance to respond, has left the room back rigid with outrage.  Authenticity enhances atmosphere and keeps the reader in the world you have created for them. Otherwise you are writing a costume drama set in 21st century America. Here are five ways to take your readers back in time and keep them there…

GIVEAWAY: Tessa is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

Column by Tessa Arlen, the daughter of a British diplomat, who lived
in or visited her parents in Singapore, Cairo, Berlin, the Persian Gulf,
Beijing, Delhi and Warsaw by the time she was sixteen. She lives in
Washington. She now lives in Washington, DC. Her first novel is
DEATH OF A DISHONORABLE GENTLEMAN (Minotaur, Jan. 2015),
which Publishers Weekly described as “Lively… Mystery fans eager for
yet another look at the quasi-feudal system that prevailed in England before
WWI will be most rewarded.” Library Journal said “Readers of this debut
set in Edwardian England will feel as though they’ve stepped into an
episode of Downton Abbey, complete with murder and intrigue
upstairs and downstairs.” Connect with Tessa on Twitter.

1. A passion for the period. Become familiar with the time you are writing about: eat, sleep and breathe it. What time in history is popular for fiction?  It doesn’t matter. There are thousands of historical novels about the Tudor period, but there is always room for one more if you are prepared to dig to find other perspectives on Henry VIII’s reign – other than his interminable love-life and his tendency to execute wives that disappointed. Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies are a testament not only to her diligent, painstaking research but to her decision to reverse our perceptions of two of the Tudor court of Henry VIII’s bad-boys: Thomas Cromwell and Cardinal Wolsey. She made them sympathetic, loyal men who struggled to do their best for their monarch in trying times, while keeping the events that took place contextually accurate. Mantel created an entirely new perspective on a well-used period in history.

(What are the BEST writers’ conferences to attend?)

2. Complete Immersion is the name of the game. When you are compiling your reading list for research add several works of fiction contemporary to the time you are writing about. This will help you tune in to the way people expressed themselves and what they were interested in.  If possible listen to music that was played at this time, read the plays that were performed and find out about the period’s pastimes and hobbies.  English Victorians for example loved to play parlor games that were often rowdy and boisterous with names like Clumps and Dumb Crambo! The politics of the age are a huge indicator as to what was going on in the world you want to your reader to experience. Find out what people ate according to their station in life.   Nothing makes mediaeval history come alive more vividly than describing a feast in sumptuous detail:  “They feasted on roasted swans, geese, heron and quail. A peacock was cooked and then reassembled in its feathers. There were meat pies and fish tarts, and thick soups of Egerdouce and Bukkeanade.”  From Aliki’s Mediaeval Feast. Far more exotic than another description of the dress your heroine wore to the banquet! Collect photographs and prints of the time period, the houses they lived in, the clothes they wore and have them around you as you plan your story.

3. Homework before play. No matter how intriguing the plot you are cooking up and you can’t wait to tell this wonderful story, do your research before you start writing. Once you are a master of your subject you are less likely to commit horrendous mistakes like inadvertently describe someone happily pedaling their bicycle down a lane in 1830. Not everyone will know that you mistakenly invented the peddle-bicycle in 1830 instead of 1869 – but those who do will be infuriated and they might write a review in Goodreads telling everyone that your knowledge of the 1830s is sketchy! It took me days to find out how fast a motor car could go in 1912, and I am sure no one really cared that the top speed for a two-seater Bugatti was 60 mph, but I cared and it kept me on point.  Accurate research is a habit.

4. On writing Brit-speak. If you are writing about English history subscribe to the Oxford English Dictionary on-line and you will be able to check the first usage of a word and whether it is of N. American origin or English or Scots. So much less in keeping to say:  “He landed his Farman airplane on a grassy field, four miles outside of Oxford.” When the English referred to these contraptions as aeroplanes in 1912.  Or: “He ran up the steps to the stoop of a London row-house.” Rather than: “He ran up the steps to the portico of a terraced house in London.” And be aware that in Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales they use the same basic vocabulary but often use different colloquialisms. If you are writing about the British aristocracy two very useful books to have in your library are Burke’s Peerage and Debrett’s. This way you can research the ranks of the aristocracy for accuracy when creating your upper-crust characters and not call a baron: Sir Esmond.

(9 Tips on How to Write a Query Letter)

5. Real people. A wonderful way to keep your time period authentic is to include both historical and imagined people, places and events without informing the reader which is real. Try including a historical figure if he or she was involved in whatever kind of situation or political movement the novel is about. This will help create a strong sense of time and place and allow the reader to see the issues that were relevant to the time you are writing about. If you have several historical figures you can give each of them a brief bio at the back of your novel under Historical Notes.

Beware! Historical research is addictive! In the years it took me to research and write the first book in my Lady Montfort historical mystery series: DEATH OF A DISHONORABLE GENTLEMAN, I began to find the other-world of the early 1900s a far more attractive place than the one we inhabit today. But that is the delight of writing historical fiction.

GIVEAWAY: Tessa is excited to give away a free copy of her novel to a random commenter. Comment within 2 weeks; winners must live in Canada/US to receive the book by mail. You can win a blog contest even if you’ve won before. (Please note that comments may take a little while to appear; this is normal).

This guest column is a supplement to the
“Breaking In” (debut authors) feature of this author
in Writer’s Digest magazine. Are you a subscriber
yet? If not, get a discounted one-year sub here.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• How I Got My Literary Agent: Steve Weddle (Literary Fiction).
• Between Acceptance and Print: What Happens After You Sell Your Book.
• Agent Spotlight: Katie Reed (Andrea Hurst & Associates) seeks YA, Fiction and Nonfiction.
• Successful Queries: Agent Adriann Ranta and “Not A Drop To Drink.”
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Kirsten Carleton of Waxman Leavell Literary Agency) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Kirsten: Before joining Waxman Leavell in 2014, Kirsten worked at Sobel Weber Associates. She holds a B.A. in English with a Creative Writing concentration from Amherst College, and a Graduate Certificate in Publishing from the Columbia Publishing Course. Follow her on Twitter: @kirstencarleton

(The skinny on why to sign with a new/newer literary agent.)

Kirsten is seeking: Upmarket young adult, speculative, and literary fiction with strong characters and storytelling. She’s particularly interested in novels that bend and blur genres; literary takes on high concept worldbuilding; diverse characters in stories that are not just about diversity; antiheroes she find herself rooting for; characters with drive and passion; girls and women in STEM fields; settings outside the US/Europe; well-researched historical settings; YA noir/thriller/mystery; stories that introduces her to a new subculture and makes her feel like a native. She is not interested in horror, romance, erotica, poetry, or picture books.

How to submit: Send a query letter with the first five to ten pages of your manuscript in the body of the email only to kirstensubmit [at] waxmanleavell.com.

(Is it best to query all your target agents at once? — or just a few to start?)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• 10 Keys to Becoming a Successful Writer: An Agent Spills Secrets.
• Agent Spotlight: Clelia Gore (Martin Literary Management) seeks Young Adult and Middle Grade.
• How I Found My Literary Agent: Sara Polsky (young adult fiction).
• Polish Your Work Before Submitting: 6 Revision Tips.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Cynthia Kane of Capital Talent Agency) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Cynthia: “I’ve been involved in the publishing industry for more than ten years. I have worked as a Development Editor for different publishing houses and individual authors and have seen more than 100 titles to market. I worked with Michael Gross, New York Times best-selling author, as a researcher on 740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building and Rogues Gallery: The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum. I have also written for national and international publications and have served as a writing instructor at the Writopia Lab in Washington, DC, and have run several writing workshops at public libraries in the area and Politics & Prose Bookstore. I received my B.A. in Literature from Bard College and M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College.

(Learn how to start your novel strong.)

“The new literary division of Capital Talent Agency is a wonderful home for authors who are looking for a supportive and hands-on agency. We want nothing more than to see our authors achieve their dreams, and we do everything we can to make that happen.”

She is seeking: young adult, children’s, nonfiction, memoir, commercial fiction (but no science fiction or fantasy).

How to contact: “Submissions should be sent to literary.submissions [at] capitaltalentagency.com. We accept submissions only by e-mail. We do not accept queries via postal mail or fax. For fiction and nonfiction submissions, send a query letter in the body of your e-mail. Attachments will not be opened. Please note that while we consider each query seriously, we are unable to respond to all of them. We endeavor to respond within six weeks to projects that interest us.”

(Are you writing middle grade, edgy paranormal, women’s fiction or sci-fi? Read about agents seeking your query.)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: Renee Nyen (KT Literary) seeks Young Adult and Middle Grade.
• Successful Queries: Literary Agent Allison Hunter and “A Royal Pain.”
• Writing From Multiple POV’S; Sometimes The Story Demands It.
• Agent Spotlight: Mary Kreinke (Sterling Lord Literistic) seeks YA, Literary Fiction and Nonfiction.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Leon Husock of L. Perkins Agency) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Leon: Prior to joining the L. Perkins Agency, Leon was an associate agent at Anderson Literary Management. He has a BA in Literature from Bard College and attended the Columbia Publishing Course. Leon is actively building his client list. Follow him on Twitter: @leonhusock.

(Why writers who don’t have a basic website are hurting their chances of success.)

He is seeking: He has a particular interest in science fiction & fantasy, young adult and middle-grade novels filled with strong characters and original premises, but keeps an open mind for anything that catches his eye. He is also looking for historical fiction set in the 20th century, particularly the 1980s or earlier. He is not interested in nonfiction at this time.

How to contact: E-query him at leon [at] lperkinsagency.com.

(Do you need multiple literary agents if you write different genres?)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

I (Chuck) Will Instruct At These Great Writing Events Soon:

• Oct. 24, 2014: Atlanta Writers Fall Conference (Atlanta, GA)
• Feb. 6, 2015: Kentucky Writers Conference (Louisville, KY)
• Feb. 7, 2015: Tennessee Writers Conference (Nashville, KY)
• Feb. 20, 2015: Portland Writing Workshop (Portland, OR)
• Feb. 21, 2015: Seattle Writers Workshop (Seattle, WA)
• March 27-28, 2015: Chesapeake Writing Conferences (Baltimore and DC)
• April 17-18, 2015: Carolina Writing Workshop Conferences (Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC)
• May 15, 2015: Milwaukee Writers Conference (Milwaukee, WI)
• May 16, 2015: Chicago Writers Workshop (Chicago, IL)
• June 25-28, 2015: Jackson Hole Writers Conference (Jackson Hole, WY)
• July 31- Aug. 2, 2015: Writer’s Digest Conference East (New York, NY)
• October 2015: Books by the Banks Book Festival (Cincinnati, OH)

Your new complete and updated instructional guide
to finding an agent is finally here: The 2015 book
GET A LITERARY AGENT shares advice from more
than 110 literary agents who share advice on querying,
craft, the submission process, researching agents, and
much more. Filled with all the advice you’ll ever need to
find an agent, this resource makes a great partner book to
the agent database, Guide to Literary Agents.

When your submission materials – a query letter, synopsis, manuscript, or book proposal – arrive in an agent’s inbox, they land among hundreds of others. At that point, one of two things will happen. Either the agent (or the agent’s assistant) will like the submission and request more materials, or they will reply with a rejection.

Authors who get rejected tend to fall in one of two categories when submitting materials: they try too hard, or not enough. This all-new Writer’s Digest Boot Camp, “How to Craft Query Letters & Submission Materials That Get Noticed,” is designed to help you streamline your submission materials to stand out in a good way. It all starts on Jan. 20, 2015.

Attendees will learn how to write a dynamite query letter, tackle a one-page synopsis (for fiction) and a book proposal (for nonfiction). The instructing literary agents will also explain the importance of author platform in addition to basic etiquette in dealing with an agent and manuscript basics.

Lastly, all attendees will have an opportunity to interact one-on-one with an agent and submit ten double-spaced pages of materials (in any combination–query, synopsis, book proposal, first pages of your manuscript) for valuable feedback provided by successful literary agents.

Here’s How It Works:

On January 20, you will gain access to a special 60-minute online tutorial presented by literary agents Kimberley Cameron and Elizabeth Kracht. This tutorial will provide nuts & bolts advice on how to help you streamline your submission materials—including the query letter, novel synopsis, nonfiction book proposal, and first pages.

After listening to the presentation, attendees will spend the next two days revising materials as necessary. Following the tutorial, writers will have two days in which to log onto the discussion session and ask your assigned agent critiquer questions related to revising your materials. The agents will be available for a discussion session from 1-3 p.m. (PT) on both Wednesday, January 21 and Thursday, January 22. By end of day (11:59 p.m., PT) on Friday, January 23, attendees will submit up to 10 double-spaced pages for review to their assigned agents.

For the submission, you will send in the first 10 pages of your double-spaced manuscript and a query letter for review. You are also welcome to send a synopsis, if you want to include it in the first ten pages (i.e., 1 page synopsis + first 9 pages of the manuscript). The query letter is separate and does not count as part of the first ten.

(Sign up for the boot camp here.)

The agents will spend fifteen days reviewing all assigned pages, provide relevant feedback and offer suggestions to help attendees improve upon them. The agents reserve the right to request more materials if they feel a strong connection to the work and want to read more.

Only registered students can access the discussion session. You’ll also be able to ask questions of your fellow students. Feel free to share your work and gain support from your peers.

Please note that any one of the agents may ask for additional pages if the initial submission shows serious promise.

In addition to feedback from agents, attendees will also receive:

Download of “Everything You Need to Know About Literary Agents,” an on-demand webinar by WD editor Chuck Sambuchino
1-year subscription to the WritersMarket.com literary agent database

DATE BREAKDOWN

Tuesday, Jan. 20th: Online Tutorials
Wednesday, Jan. 21st: Agent Q&A 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM (PT)
Thursday, Jan. 22nd: Agent Q&A 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM (PT)
Friday, Jan. 23rd: Writers Submit Materials
Saturday, Feb. 7th: Agent Critiques Due

AGENT INSTRUCTORS

KIMBERLEY CAMERON

Kimberley was educated at Marlborough School for Girls in Los Angeles, Humboldt State University, and Mount St. Mary’s College. She began her literary career as an agent trainee at the Marjel de Lauer Agency in association with Jay Garon in New York and worked for several years at MGM developing books for motion pictures. She was the co-founder of Knightsbridge Publishing Company with offices in New York and Los Angeles.

In 1993 Kimberley became partners with Dorris Halsey of The Reece Halsey Agency, founded in 1957. Among its clients have been Aldous Huxley, William Faulkner, Upton Sinclair, and Henry Miller. She opened Reece Halsey North in 1995 and Reece Halsey Paris in 2006. In 2009 the agency became Kimberley Cameron & Associates.

Kimberley resides and works from Tiburon, California and Paris, France, with many visits to New York to make the rounds of editorial offices. She is looking for exceptional writing in any field, particularly writing that touches the heart, and makes us feel something. She’s been successful with many different genres, and especially loves the thrill of securing representation for debut authors. She represents both fiction and nonfiction manuscripts, with the exception of romance, children’s books and screenplays.

NO: Romance, Children’s, Nonfiction, Fantasy

YES: Science Fiction, Horror, Mysteries, Thrillers, Women’s, Historical

ELIZABETH KRACHT

Elizabeth Kracht represents both literary and commercial fiction as well as nonfiction, and brings to the agency experience as a former acquisitions editor, freelance publicist and writer.

Elizabeth’s career in publishing took root in Puerto Rico where she completed her BA in English and worked as a copyeditor for an English-language newspaper. When she returned to the mainland she found her “vein of gold” in book publishing. She thrives on working closely with authors and researching the potential market for new books.

Elizabeth’s eclectic life experience drives her interests. She appreciates writing that has depth, an introspective voice or that offers wisdom for contemporary living. Having lived in cities such as New York, San Francisco and San Juan, Puerto Rico, she is compelled by urban and multicultural themes and loves settings that are characters unto themselves.

In fiction, she represents literary, commercial, women’s, thrillers, mysteries, and YA with crossover appeal. She is intrigued by untrustworthy narrators, tragic tales of class and circumstance, and identifies with flawed yet sterling characters. In nonfiction, she particularly loves memoir and other narrative nonfiction projects that contribute to the well-being of the self or others in addition to niche projects that fill holes in the market, offer a fresh approach, or make her laugh. She also has a soft spot for nonfiction heroic pet stories.

NO: Fantasy, Science Fiction

YES: Women’s, Historical, Mysteries, Thrillers, Nonfiction (all types)

MARY MOORE

Marystarted her career in publishing as a writer. She graduated from Mills College with an MFA in Creative Writing. After freelancing for two years as an editor and writer in non-literary sectors, she began an internship with Kimberley Cameron & Associates with the desire to learn more about the literary business for her own writing. During the internship she discovered a passion for helping others develop their manuscripts. Now she balances three jobs: writer, editor, and agent, and finds that the experience in each helps and supports the other. She is looking for unusual fantasy, grounded science-fiction, and atypical romance. Strong female characters and unique cultures especially catch her eye. Although she will not consider most non-fiction, stories about traditional dance or pagan culture may interest her. Above all, she is looking for writing that sweeps her away.

NO: Nonfiction

YES: Fantasy! Science Fiction, Mysteries, Thrillers, Historical, Women’s

(Sign up for the boot camp here.)

I love interview debut authors when I can. It’s important that aspiring authors be able to see their journeys to publication, so they can understand what they did right & wrong along the way. This interview is with Thomas Lee, author of the nonfiction business guide REBUILDING EMPIRES (Palgrave Macmillan Trade, Dec. 2014).

Thomas Lee is a nationally-recognized business journalist whose work has appeared across the country, including the Star Tribune (Minneapolis), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Seattle Times, Xconomy.com, MedCityNews.com, and China Daily USA. In 2013, Lee won the Gerald R. Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism Award, the highest honor for a business journalist. He currently is a business columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.

What is the book’s genre/category?

Nonfiction business.

Please describe what the story/book is about.

Rebuilding Empires describes how big box retailers like Best Buy and Target will adapt to the digital age.

What was the time frame for writing this book? 

I started writing Rebuilding Empires in September 2013 and took a three month unpaid leave of absence from my job as business reporter at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. During my time reporting the book, I took trips to Nashville to attend a Best Buy store managers conference and then to Dallas for a Best Buy video game tournament played on the jumbotron at AT&T Stadium where the Cowboys play. In January, while finishing the book, I took a new job at the San Francisco Chronicle. So I obviously had a lot on my plate with a new job, new home, and my first book to complete.

How did you find your agent?

I found my agent John Willig at the Writers Digest East Conference in New York in February 2013. I attended the pitch slam and spoke to eight agents. All eight expressed interest in the project and I ultimately chose John.

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

What were your 1-2 biggest learning experience(s) or surprise(s) throughout the publishing process?

Believe it or not, I found the writing and editing process of the book to be relatively easy, partly I suppose because of my background as a journalist. But I was surprised by the conservative nature of the publishing business, that a good deal of the economic risk of the project falls on the author. People should realize that an author is not only selling a project to the publisher but selling himself/herself. That the author must do most of the promotion and develop a marketing strategy, using every single contact and platform at his/her disposal.

Looking back, what did you do right that helped you break in?

It sounds like a cliche but just taking the initiative is probably the biggest factor that allowed me to succeed. I’m pretty sure there are plenty of journalists out there who are way more talented than myself and who want to write books. But many of them don’t take the risk and actually do the damn thing.

On that note, what would you have done differently if you could do it again?

I can always be more organized and disciplined in the writing process.

Did you have a platform in place?  On this topic, what are you doing the build a platform and gain readership?

Since I am a journalist, I already have a natural platform in place. I’ve been using my column at the San Francisco Chronicle to promote the book. I also enjoy a deep list of connections within the news media to help get the word out about Rebuilding Empires. I’ve already done a lot of interviews with radio and television stations so I’m pretty comfortable in front of the camera or behind the microphone.

Website(s)?

You can find the book on Amazon here

And a little about me here.

Favorite movie?

I have many favorite movies: Inception, The Dark Knight Returns, Birdman to name of few.

Best piece(s) of writing advice we haven’t discussed?

Always use active verbs. Avoid passive voice if you can.

Something personal about you people may be surprised to know?

I guess you can say I’m an amateur actor: I performed in The King and I and Into the Woods in the Twin Cities.

What’s next?

A second book I hope!

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• Agent Spotlight: John Weber (Serendipity Literary) seeks Young Adult and Middle Grade.
• 5 Opportunities to Increase Your Writing Productivity (Without Actually Writing).
• Never Let An Idea Get Away.
• How I Got My Literary Agent: Robert Owens (Fiction).
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Heather Alexander of Pippin Properties) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Heather: Heather came into publishing through editorial at Dial, working with such authors as Jenny Martin, Vin Vogel, Scott McCormick, and Jeanne Ryan. After six years at Penguin, she was asked a very interesting question: had she ever considered becoming an agent? Many discussions later, she accepted a position at Pippin Properties, where she is building her roster of authors and illustrators, including A. N. Kang, Darren Farrell, and Jennifer Goldfinger. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherAlexand

(Do writers need MORE than one literary agent?)

Heather is seeking: Picture books, middle grade, YA, and literary graphic novels. Specifically quirky picture books with a strong emotional core, middle grade about a moment that changes a kid forever, and beautifully written YA. She enjoys contemporary, historical, funny, high stakes, gothic style horror, and magical realism, but not high fantasy, medieval, or time travel. She favors literary over commercial and as an agent, she is excited to develop new talent and help shape careers, which is what she loves to do best.

How to submit: Send a query addressed to Heather via email along with your first chapter of your manuscript or the entire picture book in the body of the email to info [at] pippinproperties.com. Please include a short synopsis of the work(s), your background and/or publishing history, and anything else you think is relevant. No attachments, please.

(What makes an agent more likely to sign one client vs. another?)

Writing books/novels for kids & teens? There are hundreds
of publishers, agents and other markets listed in the
latest Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market.
Buy it online at a discount.

Other writing/publishing articles & links for you:

• How To Write Middle Grade Horror: 7 Tips.
• Agent Spotlight: Taylor Haggerty (Waxman Leavell Literary Agency) seeks YA, Historical Fiction and Historical Romance.
• How To Critique A Friend’s Writing.
• Agent Spotlight: Allison Hunter (Inkwell Management) seeks Literary and Commercial Fiction and Nonfiction.
• Follow Chuck Sambuchino on Twitter or find him on Facebook. Learn all about his writing guides on how to get published, how to find a literary agent, and writing a query letter.

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.

For this live webinar, “Slush Pile Showdown: How to Make Your Submission Stand Out,” literary agents Barbara Poelle and Holly Root are pulling back the curtain and showing you exactly what goes on when an agent reads your query. In their simulated slush pile, they will critique submitted queries live and give insights into which ones stand out and why, how queries could be improved, and common pitfalls to avoid. You’ll get a peek into what it’s like to be an agent sitting down, hoping to strike gold in the slush pile, and learn how to make your submission stand out. Your query is your first introduction to the world, so join us for a fun, kind-spirited but honest look at how to get noticed, get requested, and get signed!

It all happens at 1 p.m., EST, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2014, and lasts 90 minutes. All registrants are guaranteed a query critique, whether you choose to have it evaluated live or after the event. Learn more about the webinar here. (Note that agent Barbara Poelle has signed several writers after meeting them through WD webinars.)

ABOUT THE CRITIQUE

All registrants are invited to submit a one-page query letter, plus the first page of the manuscript (300 words or less) for critique. If you would like your materials to be critiqued LIVE during the webinar, they must be received before 5pm EST Tuesday, December 16th. All submitted materials are guaranteed a written critique by Root and Poelle, and we’ll cover as many query + page submissions as possible in live critique during the webinar.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

— How to craft a query that will get attention
— Why querying isn’t a useless evil exercise in torture
— Common missteps and how to avoid them
— What agents are looking for when they read
— Which “rules” really matter and which ones are matters of opinion
— What it’s like to be an agent reading through submissions
— If your query is ready for prime time
— What to do if your query isn’t ready. Sign up for the webinar here.

INSTRUCTORS

Holly Root is a literary agent at Waxman Leavell Literary Agency who represents adult fiction, select nonfiction, and novels for children and teens; she is not seeking picture book clients or screenwriting clients. She heads up a Los Angeles office for the New York City-based Waxman Leavell Agency. Visit her online at www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/hroot, www.waxmanleavell.com, and www.twitter.com/hroot.

Barbara Poelle is Vice President at Irene Goodman Literary Agency representing fiction for teens and adults. Her roster trends toward thriller and suspenseful women’s fiction as well as mystery, young adult and horror. Barbara also writes a monthly Q&A column for Writer’s Digest magazine and has previously signed three clients from attendees of her Writer’s Digest webinars. Visit www.irenegoodman.com to learn more.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

— Anyone interested in how the query process works
— Writers who want a professional opinion on their query’s strengths and weaknesses
— Writers whose queries aren’t getting the responses they want
— Writers wondering if their query is ready to go
— Writers who want a professional critique by a literary agent
— Anyone with questions about writing queries or the process of querying literary agents

HOW DOES THE CRITIQUE WORK?

All registrants are invited to submit a one-page query letter, plus the first page of the manuscript (300 words or less) for critique. If you would like your materials to be critiqued LIVE during the webinar, they must be received before 5pm EST Tuesday, December 16th. All submitted materials are guaranteed a written critique by Root and Poelle, and we’ll cover as many query + page submissions as possible in live critique during the webinar. Instructions on how to submit your work are sent after you have purchased the webinar and officially register in Go-to-Webinar. When you have registered in GTW, you will receive a confirmation email from [email protected], which contains the information you need to access the live webinar AND the Critique Submission Instructions.

Sign up for the Dec. 18 webinar here!

Reminder: New literary agents (with this spotlight featuring Dan Balow of Steve Laube Literary Agency) are golden opportunities for new writers because each one is a literary agent who is likely building his or her client list.

About Dan: Dan is a 30-year veteran of the Christian publishing industry. He was former director of marketing for Tyndale House Publishers. Beginning in 1995, he led the publisher’s marketing team for the successful Jerry Jenkins-Tim LaHaye Left Behind series, becoming director of business development for the series (which has sold more than 60 million copies to date). In 2002, he added the role of director of international publishing until leaving Tyndale in 2006. After stints as publisher for two audio book companies and some publisher consulting, Dan joined the Steve Laube agency in 2013. His publishing background is the business side rather than editorial, best for authors who need help navigating the shifting sands of publishing. A graduate of Wheaton College, he lives with his wife Carol, in Wheaton, Illinois. Together they have four grown children and one grandchild. Follow him on Twitter at @danbalow or through the agency blog at www.stevelaube.com where he posts every Tuesday.

(How many literary agents should a writer send their work to?)

Dan is seeking: Mostly nonfiction for the Christian market, but represents a select number of novelists working in Christian historical, contemporary, Biblical, and futuristic genres.

How to submit: Email a query to Dan through his assistant at vseem [at] stevelaube.com. A submission process and form is available at the Steve Laube Agency website at http://www.stevelaube.com/guidelines/

Upcoming conferences: Chicago Writing Workshop, May 16, 2015

(Book Payments and Royalties — Your Questions Answered.)

The biggest literary agent database anywhere
is the Guide to Literary Agents. Pick up the
most recent updated edition online at a discount.

I (Chuck) Will Instruct At These Great Writing Events Soon:

• Oct. 24, 2014: Atlanta Writers Fall Conference (Atlanta, GA)
• Feb. 6, 2015: Kentucky Writers Conference (Louisville, KY)
• Feb. 7, 2015: Tennessee Writers Conference (Nashville, KY)
• Feb. 20, 2015: Portland Writing Workshop (Portland, OR)
• Feb. 21, 2015: Seattle Writers Workshop (Seattle, WA)
• March 27-28, 2015: Chesapeake Writing Conferences (Baltimore and DC)
• April 17-18, 2015: Carolina Writing Workshop Conferences (Charlotte, NC and Columbia, SC)
• May 15, 2015: Milwaukee Writers Conference (Milwaukee, WI)
• May 16, 2015: Chicago Writers Workshop (Chicago, IL)
• June 25-28, 2015: Jackson Hole Writers Conference (Jackson Hole, WY)
• July 31- Aug. 2, 2015: Writer’s Digest Conference East (New York, NY)
• October 2015: Books by the Banks Book Festival (Cincinnati, OH)

Want to build your visibility and sell more books?
Create Your Writer Platform shows you how to
promote yourself and your books through social
media, public speaking, article writing, branding,
and more. Order the book from WD at a discount.