Conde Nast magazines like Wired, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair have a new contract that changes the film option agreement (think about films based on articles like Argo, Brokeback Mountain, and Eat Pray Love This article warn writers about some of the pitfalls.
Very good overview article on thinking about your writing career. When the time is right, my clients and I discuss the business aspects of writing. This ranges from our first contact when they’re wondering whether their work is marketable to considering their audience’s needs during editing or rewriting. When the final product is done, we then discuss market trends that will impact their choice of agents and publishers.
Publishing is a business and, as the author, you must consider yourself the CEO of your book. From start to finish—the germ of a book idea to publication (and beyond)—you must take charge. If you make good business decisions, you will surely experience greater success. If not, then, you could be one of the nearly 78 percent of authors who fail.
Writing the Perfect Query Letter with Laine Cunningham, presented by Alice Osborn
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
Registration: Click here
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. Make it count! Make it shine! A good query letter should make that editor and agent want to read your material…and it should grab their hearts in the thirty seconds or so they give each query in their pile. In this class, publishing consultant and owner of the Writer’s Resource Laine Cunningham will discuss 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.
Laine Cunningham’s clients consistently garner attention from the nation’s top publishers and agents. Several of her clients’ books have been shopped around Hollywood and have received film options. She has been quoted on CNN Money, Media Bistro, and The Writer Magazine for her opinion on the end of the Harry Potter series, the “Oprah Effect,” and Sarah Palin’s ghostwriter. She 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.
Article about the author of books that were made into films starring Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Some critics said the fact that he wrote in many categories meant he never honed his skills in any one genre. Agree or disagree?
http://nyti.ms/VWvkey
Great look at two brothers, the sons of Frank Rich and Gail Winston, and their own paths as writers.
When my first novel, Message Stick, was selected for the James Jones Fellowship, I met his daughter. She was kind enough to take me along to view some of her father’s archives, a moment that was reflective and moving. She has written about this same journey at different times of her life. Look up her essays and memoirs for more.
Here’s a roundup of multiple literary magazines from Treehouse.
This article from Review Review is probably familiar to those of you who write short stories. Too often authors hear from agents and publishers that their collection is fantastic in so many ways…but they aren’t interested unless the author also has a novel.
I’ve sponsored a writing contest for the last four years. When I first approached the literary magazine that administers the contest, the publisher and senior editor both agreed that short story collections, linked or not, would be accepted and encouraged as submissions.
Last year a collection won first place, and in previous years, collections have placed second, third, or as honorable mention. The Blotter and I are very clear in our support of short stories as viable, living art.
BUILDING AN AUTHOR PLATFORM
When: Saturday, January 19, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Where: Downtown Thai Restaurant, 202 W. Fourth St.
Register: http://www.wswriters.org/creative-seminar
Cost: $30 (members) / $40 (non-members) (lunch included)
Dena Harris and Chris Laney will help you build your author brand in a seminar that could be critical to your writing career. Sponsored by the Winston-Salem Writers.
PAMLICO WRITERS CONFERENCE
When: Saturday, March 2
Where: Washington Civic Center, 116 N. Gladden St.
Information: Marni Graff, bluevirgin.graff@gmail.com
Writing in Our Time is the conference theme. The Saturday conference keynote speaker will be Bland Simpson, Kenan Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing at UNC-Chapel Hill. An author and playwright/composer/lyricist, he is a longtime member of the Tony Award-winning Red Clay Ramblers and is a recipient of the North Carolina Award in Fine Arts (2005), the state’s highest civilian honor. The conference will start with a panel discussion on Publishing in our Time. Three morning and three afternoon writing workshops/lectures will follow, each with timely writing themes. Leading local and area writers will participate in the discussion and host the working sessions. A box lunch will be served before the keynote speech. A Pamlico Writers Competition awards ceremony and reception will be held at 6:30 pm following the conference.
The 2013 Carolina Writers Conference
The Anson County Writers’ Club and South Piedmont Community College are pleased to announce the 2013 presenters: Robert Dunn, Marjorie Hudson and Robert Macomber.
More on the trending of literary magazines: growth and shrinkage.
From Hubpages:
Recently I found a master list of online literary magazines I had printed out in 2005, and I wondered how many of them were still in action.
Here’s good news on the magazine front from The Guardian newspaper.
The death of journalism has been grossly exaggerated, according to a band of ambitious young New York writers and editors who are shaking up the publishing world
The New York Times has a great article about how some self-publishers are making it. Nowadays authors have two general routes to follow: sending to traditional publishing houses or self-publishing. Often I recommend that my clients take both paths at once. That recommendation can depend on the genre in which they’re writing but for many, it reduces the time and frustration of publishing.
Quite an interesting look into book sales in India. They’re nearly all pirated copies. And yet the demand is really of note. In one of the poorest countries in the world, books are so important there are whole industries dedicated to providing them one title at a time, one street sale at a time.
Some basics to remember when planning your submissions here.
Writer's Resource/Sunspot Lit 