Archive for the ‘Publication’ Category
The Key to Writing that Sells
Sunday, December 4th, 2011
Hemingway said that there is no such thing as writing, only rewriting. What he meant is that we cannot expect any first draft to be good writing. Those occasions when it does come out fabulous right off the bat are rare and magical. Even professional writers like Stephen King have to rewrite and revise several times before their manuscripts are ready for publication. If you’d like your writing to be publishable, come to this workshop and learn the tricks that the professionals know in order to polish your writing until it shines. Through discussion, reviewing sample pieces, and in-class writing exercises, novelist and writing teacher Evon Davis will raise your writing up to the next level.| Price: | $39 Member $20 optional materials fee payable in class | |
| Class # | Class Dates | Area of town |
| 2096H | One Sun., 1-4 p.m. 12/11 | CFU LOWRY: Near 1st & Quebec |
To register, click on the Class Number link.
Countdown to the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
The conference kicks off with a Friday night banquet on September 9th. It’s a great way for writers to mingle with others in their profession, talk about writing, and network.
And of course, it’s a great place to meet editors and agents… and hopefully get one’s novel picked up for publication!
When You Query an Agent or Editor
Monday, January 31st, 2011
I’m posting on this topic and including the link below for a couple of reasons: 1) because I need it myself as I may query this agency in the future when they open to submissions again
2) because several people in my writing workshops have asked me about the submission process and the best advice I can give is this:
Writing a book is a huge undertaking. Getting it published is just as much work (if not more). The best way to get noticed is to do a lot of research on the subject. In my opinion, one of the best ways to do research is to thoroughly read everything related to the agent/agency you hope to query — read their website, their blogs, interviews, meet them at a conference if possible — when you query an agent, you’re asking for a contractual relationship, like marriage. Know to whom you are about to propose marriage.
Then follow their guideline to a “t”. This link gives some “no-no’s” based on common mistakes they see. Many agents offer posts like this on their websites and blogs:
I’ve often noticed an irritated tone in posts like these and I don’t blame them. It’s like if you were dating hundreds of people, looking for the one, or interviewing hundreds of people in order to hire an employee. If you post very clearly what you want, then get people taking up your time and energy who obviously made no effort to find out what you wanted or give you what you asked for… even at the most rudimentary level…
This quote sums it up:
“This web site is full of useful information that is there to help you in targeting your submissions correctly. Why is it that some folks can’t be bothered to read it? Those same folks expect us to read their work!”
Part of the reason I empathize with them is because I sometimes fear my query will be lost in the sea of queries. I once read a book by an agent who said only about 10% of submissions are even publishable.
When the time comes, I want you all to be in that 10%, not in the other 90%.
I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you need leads on researching agents and publishers. I’m happy to help since I’m already doing research for myself; it’s easy to pass it along to you.
