Tag Archives: novella

Query Letter Workshop Reminder

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Here’s a reminder about the upcoming query letter class. The usual rate to write a query letter for a client is $295. Revisions to existing query letters often cost $225, so this workshop is a great bargain!

Did you know that your query letter is every bit as important as the opening pages of your novel? 
It’s your first opportunity to show your writing skills to a prospective agent or editor, and you need to make it count!

Laine CunninghamLaine Cunningham’s clients consistently garner attention from the nation’s top publishers and agents.

During this workshop Laine discusses the three important elements to inject into your query so you can get published. Fiction and nonfiction authors writing books, stories or articles will benefit from this class.

Location: Center for Excellence,
3803-B Computer Dr. Suite 106,
Raleigh, NC 27609
Saturday, March 9     Time:  1:30-4:30pm
Fee:  $55 (Early Bird till March 1st)/$75 after

Register TODAY!
Click the link below to register for this awesome class.
Get more information
Register Now!
I can’t make it
Laine has presented workshops and lectures for The Loft, the nation’s largest independent literary organization; the National Writer’s Union; The Writer’s Workshop in Asheville and writing conferences across the country. If you want to learn how to impress an agent or editor, I will see you there!
Cheers,

 

 
Alice Osborn
Write from the Inside Out

What Book Publishers Can Learn from the Music Industry

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The New York Times, in the article Music Industry Sales Rise, and Digital Revenue Gets the Credit, noted that revenues rose for the first time since 1999 for the music industry. The industry was hit hard by the availability of downloads, which became popular earlier than e-books. 

The lesson book publishers can learn is that e-books are not destroying their own market. Instead, they’re just providing readers with a new format.

Historically, the same thing happened when movies threatened the radio shows people relied on until then for entertainment.

Now book publishers are changing the pace at which they respond to new technologies. They have to become more nimble than ever before in order to ensure that their market share is distributed across new and old formats. Some publishers, who at first thought e-books were a fluke or were simply not worth investing in, are pulling as much as 27% of their annual profits from the sale of e-books.

Print is not dead. It’s simply now electronic ink!

Resource

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Here’s an article on a writing instructor who was stalked by a student.

Writers of crime fiction, mysteries, thrillers and suspense novels can turn to real-world experiences such as these for insight into their characters. In this case, since the victim is an author, the experience is presented especially well. The psychology of both victim and stalker is important to understand when you’re aim is to create real characters.

Historic Details

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Here’s an article discussing the historic facts and fiction of several recent movies.

Even if you’re writing historic fiction, you do have some leeway to change things. Consider whether the changes will enhance the story or the character development. If they will, generally it’s all right to make some adjustments to actual fact.

Author as Entrepreneur

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Here’s an article listing the 10 aspects of every entrepreneur. Every one of these applies to authors.

1. Passion. This is the sole driving force that will keep you moving through tough work days, endless rewrites, rejections, and deals that fall through at the last minute.

2. When you’re writing, you’re thinking about your idea…all the time.

3. You know that any issue in your piece is an opportunity to make it stronger.

4. Every new piece you work on is better than the one that came before.

5. There are no guarantees in publishing but you keep writing anyway.

6. You are social enough to network but know when to sit in the chair and be alone with your writing.

7. You know your strengths…and that means you also know where you are weak…and you get help from others with those weak areas.

8. You know your limits. You can’t write a book in a day. You can’t work on more than a few things at once. You pick the most important and get them done.

9. You are energized by writing. You are energized by talking about writing. You are energized by reading this blog!

10. You get something back from your work. It might be a paycheck. It might be a “thank you” from a reader whose hunger you fed particularly well. Both put something back into you.

Rejections

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For anyone who needs a laugh about all those “good” rejections they’ve been getting, check out this blog post.

Funding

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If you’ve ever considered funding a project through Kickstarter or similar site, check out this article. It talks about the community involvement and personal connections needed to create a successful campaign.

Writing About Real People

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When I read this essay from a memoir author, I recalled how often asked about work that involves real people. Often for memoir and biography authors, the question arises about whether to include events that would cause someone else pain. Even novelists and short story writers can face the same concerns when they mine their lives for material.

The pain can be as simple as a little embarrassment over a minor slip to revealing criminal activities. Remember that I’m not talking about legal aspects of the work; the question here is only about whether to write about things that will cause someone else pain.

Your truth is your truth. If you are driven to write your truth, there’s a reason for it. Honor that reason. Honor your truth.

Yes, that can be the difficult road to take. But writing in and of itself isn’t an easy pathway. The truth is often ugly, even harsh. It still shines because that is the nature of truth.

The Backlist

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Ever wonders what happens to books that are no longer in the forefront of readers’ minds yet don’t go out of print? They’re on the publisher’s backlist. Usually anything more than a year old (and sometimes things less than 12 months old) are backlisted.

Think of it as a backwater where the already scant marketing assistance is even more rare. Yet if you want to get your hands on the rights so you can self-publish it and market it yourself, you’ll often meet opposition.

Here’s an interesting take on a trend to buy up backlists and redistribute them with fresh vigor.

Used E-Books

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Amazon announced that it’s poised to start reselling used e-books in this article by Publisher’s Weekly. This is a tricky thing…e-books don’t have a physical presence so it’s difficult to ensure that the copies aren’t pirated.

And of course it’s problematic because it means authors get cut out of yet another revenue stream.

On the up side, of course, every sale means another reader who might become loyal enough to buy your latest the moment it comes out…as a freshly pressed e-book, not a used copy.

What do you think of this trend?

Travel into a Novel

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In recent years, several books set in beautiful or popular places have had “book tours” build up around them. Not book tours where authors show up but tours where readers travel to the places mentioned in their favorite novels.

Now a start-up business is working to make that process easier to implement. Click here for the article.

Link

Remember that post about how the closings of B&N could create new opportunities for indie bookstores? I said in a comment that the bookstores should remember to keep focused on creating a gathering space by offering community events that are based around different kinds of books.

Here’s an article from The Atlantic about libraries doing exactly that. They’re even redesigning their interiors to provide more meeting space.

Books bring people together. They always have. The faster indies focus on connecting people in their communities, the faster their sales will grow and the happier authors will be because they’re appreciated in a real, meaningful manner.

Query Letters

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I work on query letters for a variety of fiction and nonfiction book authors. Every query has to have the following:
1. A great tagline. This is a single sentence that sums up the conflict and the protagonist’s journey. It’s one of the toughest things to get right…but it’s the grabber that keeps agents and publishers reading your query.

2. A short description of the book. This is 2 or 3 paragraphs long. Although it contains some plot highlights, it’s really about the character’s journey. The conflict and any antagonist come into play enough to enhance the protagonist’s journey…and you have to give an idea of how it ends.

3. A paragraph about you. This of course includes your credentials like other publication credits (even if unpaid) and editorial work at a newspaper or magazine. It should also include any awards your work has won. Also tell them why you wrote the book. The human connection is important!

4. Information on the current market trends that support your book, the manuscript’s length, it’s category and/or genre, and the fact that it’s finished. If you have a sequel or are already working on the next unrelated novel, they need to know that, too. They want to sign career authors, not flashes in the pan!

Let me know if I can help with your query letter.

5 for the Writer’s Bucket List

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Here’s a list from Writer’s Digest listing 5 things for your bucket list.

When I posted this to Facebook (find Writer’s Resource under CreationToContract), I noted that I liked the “Do something bizarre” tip best.

Also of interest is the “Self-publish something” tip. They’re not necessarily talking about a book, either. Blog posts, ezine submissions, and other short bits can be great for the author’s soul. And enhance your platform. And provide potential readers of your books with another way to find out about you.

An unbeatable combination!

Link

Read this interesting article, one author’s take on how distraction can work for the creative process.