By: penelope,
on 7/15/2008
Oh my goodness, I couldn’t BE more excited to share this new interview with ya’ll. I think Jenny is super duper inspiring and hope you’ll agree. She offers a lot of wonderful information in her long(ish) interview. It’s well worth setting aside 15 minutes and having a good read.
So without further ado:
Enjoy!
creatively,
penelope
By: penelope,
on 4/24/2008
Hello IFers!
It is my great pleasure to bring you another interview by a super talented fellow –Marcos Chin. His work is colorfully wondrous, compositionally spot-on, and creatively coolio. I think you’ll really enjoy his interview. It’s chock full of goodness.
A big thank you to mister Chin for sharing with us!
If you’d like to leave him a comment after reading, please do so below.
Or on the forums here.
yours in art,
penelope
By: penelope,
on 3/20/2008
Hello IF crowd!
Need some inspiration on this Thursday? You got it…
I am so excited to bring you this new interview with the amazing Yuko Shimizu! Her work has been all over the place, and that’s no surprise… she is so talented!
Check out the method behind her madness here in the interview.
Enjoy!
creatively,
penelope
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By: BookEnds, LLC,
on 8/15/2007
There seems to be a lot of discussion again about whether you should post sample pages on your Web site and tell an agent about it in your query. Obviously different agents are going to say different things on the issue, but ultimately, if your writing is good, no one is going to reject you simply because you’ve posted a chapter or two on your Web site. What they might do, however, is reject you because your entire query letter says this:
Dear Ms. Faust:
Please read my amazing new book at www.bookends-inc.com.
Signed,
Clueless Author
Your Web site is another address and promotional tool for you. Posting pages can help attract agents. I know that when I see an author’s name again and again in contest wins, on my blog, or as a conference attendee, I’m going to look for a Web site and I’m going to read any pages that are there. Never will I contact an author out of the blue if I haven’t read her work. However, if I’ve had the opportunity to read a sample chapter on her Web site, I might think it’s good enough to ask to see more.
One of the concerns I've been asked about is how a publisher feels about authors posting a chapter on the Internet. There seems to be the feeling that publishers will then consider the work published and not touch it. In other words, putting a chapter up on a web site ultimately means that you self-published the book. Not true at all. I have never had a publisher ask me if a chapter was published. In fact, most will encourage authors to promote using that tool. Should you post your entire book? I would recommend against it. Think of it as promotion. You wouldn't promote your book by posting the entire thing therefore you shouldn't promote your unpublished work any differently.
I honestly don't see any cons to posting a piece of your best writing on your Web site. It gives people the opportunity to really see what they can expect from you and, you never know.
Jessica
I had been told that publishers have a problem with this not because it affects *their* copyright - what new work doesn't need extensive revision? - but because they don't want to deal with the legal hassles of someone claiming that the unpublished work was plagiarized.
I see this as being similar to a writer's fear that providing material to critique groups (or even agents!) might be lifted, but a publisher has more power to say no. So I had been told to post a more detailed description *of* the book, but wait for publisher approval to post a sample chapter as part of a broader marketing package - that way they can unequivocally back you up that it is *your* work.
Thank you for the clarification. I had this question myself. Published authors who have lots of traffic at their websites have indicated it is better to post something other than Chapter 1, page 1 material.
That way, when the book comes out and the readers crack it open, they do not have the feeling they have read the book before.