Vincent Zandri's Blog, page 19
March 4, 2011
REAL TIME BLG: Leaving The Ground
Today begins a new adventure in northern Europe. Even though I spend a month or more in Florence every year, I haven't explored the northern mountain territory in quite some time, other than to
experience that agonizing up-and-down-bump-all-around flight from Frankfurt or Moscow over the Swiss Alps and down into Florence, a few times. Anyone who's not crazy about flying, trust me, take a train.
This time I land in Munich and train it to Innsbruck, Venice, Florence (to see friends and, well, party a little..), Rome, and some points south...
...Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
experience that agonizing up-and-down-bump-all-around flight from Frankfurt or Moscow over the Swiss Alps and down into Florence, a few times. Anyone who's not crazy about flying, trust me, take a train.
This time I land in Munich and train it to Innsbruck, Venice, Florence (to see friends and, well, party a little..), Rome, and some points south...
...Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
March 3, 2011
How We Write
There's a great scene in a movie called HEMINGWAY (yah, with cap letters) that came out about 20 years ago in which actor Stacey Keach plays a rough, tough, marauding Ernest Hemingway who says what he means, means what he says and is wiling to prove it with his bare-knuckle fists.
The movie also portrays Papa Hemingway sitting at a pool-side table in the backyard of his Key West home, in front of his typewriter, a bottle of whiskey handy by his side. He's got the blood stained T-shirt on from his fishing adventures on the Gulf Stream, and he's pounding away at the keys of the old Remington with muscular arms and a tight but well fed belly. All around him people are swimming and drinking and having fun. His girlfriend is also present while his wife occupies the house.
Nothing could be further from the truth...
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox....:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
The movie also portrays Papa Hemingway sitting at a pool-side table in the backyard of his Key West home, in front of his typewriter, a bottle of whiskey handy by his side. He's got the blood stained T-shirt on from his fishing adventures on the Gulf Stream, and he's pounding away at the keys of the old Remington with muscular arms and a tight but well fed belly. All around him people are swimming and drinking and having fun. His girlfriend is also present while his wife occupies the house.
Nothing could be further from the truth...
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox....:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
February 27, 2011
How to Write the "Great" Agent Query Letter
I no longer have to write query letters to agents.
That part of my life is over. I have a great agent now and plan on spending the rest of my life with him. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.
I wasn't always good at writing agent query letters. It took a lot of practice honing the essential information I needed to include in the letter and to be able to present said information on a single page. Agents hate to read more than one page and often will read no further than your first sentence. So make it a good one.
But I've spent literally hours upon hours working up query letters and getting them out to agents. Originally I did this via snail mail and the cost was astronomical. For the past decade I've been able to pretty much go through the process of query submission and agent response via email and while that has diminished the cost element, it still takes up a huge chunk of time.
Time that could be used for writing.
That said, I thought it might be a good time to give you an idea of what makes a great query letter. Notice I don't say a “good” query because in this climate of radical publishing shifts in which the Big 6 publishers in New York are slowly downsizing, giving way to a huge influx of indie presses like StoneHouse Ink and StoneGate Ink, and/or self-published authors, agents must be more choosy than ever in which clients they decide to take on and which they decide to reject.
Get the rest of this at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
That part of my life is over. I have a great agent now and plan on spending the rest of my life with him. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.
I wasn't always good at writing agent query letters. It took a lot of practice honing the essential information I needed to include in the letter and to be able to present said information on a single page. Agents hate to read more than one page and often will read no further than your first sentence. So make it a good one.
But I've spent literally hours upon hours working up query letters and getting them out to agents. Originally I did this via snail mail and the cost was astronomical. For the past decade I've been able to pretty much go through the process of query submission and agent response via email and while that has diminished the cost element, it still takes up a huge chunk of time.
Time that could be used for writing.
That said, I thought it might be a good time to give you an idea of what makes a great query letter. Notice I don't say a “good” query because in this climate of radical publishing shifts in which the Big 6 publishers in New York are slowly downsizing, giving way to a huge influx of indie presses like StoneHouse Ink and StoneGate Ink, and/or self-published authors, agents must be more choosy than ever in which clients they decide to take on and which they decide to reject.
Get the rest of this at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
February 24, 2011
Do You Miss Typewriters?
When I first got into this business, it was not uncommon to find writers who still used typewriters on a daily basis. Now, I'm talking 20 years ago. But it's a fact that back then, Jim Crumley, Robert Parker, Norman Mailer, Hunter Thompson, (hell, even Hemingway had he lived into his 80s) were using typewriters, even if they were powered electrically like the famous IBM Selectric.
'Course, all the writers I just mentioned are dead now, and so too it seems, is the typewriter.
I loved that famous picture of Papa seated at a desk in Ketchum, Idaho, looking healthy and burly, shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows, while he pounded out the manuscript that would become For Whom the Bell Tolls. To me the sound of that machine-gun clatter that only a typewriter can make is music to the soul. Especially the clatter from a manual typewriter. Back then I envisioned myself doing the same thing, typing out my stories and novels in single-extended-index-finger style on an old black Remington portable, not unlike the one Papa is using in the famous photo....
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
'Course, all the writers I just mentioned are dead now, and so too it seems, is the typewriter.
I loved that famous picture of Papa seated at a desk in Ketchum, Idaho, looking healthy and burly, shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows, while he pounded out the manuscript that would become For Whom the Bell Tolls. To me the sound of that machine-gun clatter that only a typewriter can make is music to the soul. Especially the clatter from a manual typewriter. Back then I envisioned myself doing the same thing, typing out my stories and novels in single-extended-index-finger style on an old black Remington portable, not unlike the one Papa is using in the famous photo....
Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
February 22, 2011
The Zandri Cafe of Dreams Interview
I love it when April Prohen makes me talk...she makes it hurt, and then she makes it hurt, but it hurts so good...you know?
Get it here at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/
Godchild
Get it here at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/
Godchild
February 20, 2011
GODCHILD: How to Men a Broken Heart Through your Writing!
Have you ever purposely set out to write a novel based upon your own broken heart?
I understand what it is to find solace in writing. I know what it is to find peace and escape. But at times, I also find writing better than even the best therapy session with the most expensive shrink in town.
What did Ernest Hemingway refer to as the name of his psychiatrist?
Smith Corona.
Get the rest of the story at THE VINCENT ZANDRI VOX:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
I understand what it is to find solace in writing. I know what it is to find peace and escape. But at times, I also find writing better than even the best therapy session with the most expensive shrink in town.
What did Ernest Hemingway refer to as the name of his psychiatrist?
Smith Corona.
Get the rest of the story at THE VINCENT ZANDRI VOX:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
February 18, 2011
Zandri Tells All in CRIME SPACE INTERVIEW!
...The interview you've all heard about but were too afraid to look at!!!
Check it out at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The InnocentGodchild
Check it out at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The InnocentGodchild
February 16, 2011
The End of the Book Signing Battle!
The battle is over, the bombs dropped, the shots fired, the smoke cleared, the dead lay scattered across the battlefield, the wounded picked up and carted out to the mobile hospitals. Me, I sit with my back up against the trench, face hot and dirty from the soil that sticks to my sweat, my breath beginning to even out, lit cigarette danging from trembling fingers.
Yesterday was the day I wanted to see if I could sell more books online than I could at a traditional signing. As you know, for eons, traditional signings have been an integral part of the writer's job in promoting his or her work. Remember the old stories about writers getting into their cars and traveling cross country to stop at every bookstore possible in order to "move units?"
Well, that kind of thing has not only become out-dated, it's become an anachronism in this the age of global media, internet, and social networking. Why get in the car and travel to a bookstore to move a few copies when you can move three, four, even ten times the amount by doing some social networking and pushing right from home?...
Get the rest of the rant at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
Yesterday was the day I wanted to see if I could sell more books online than I could at a traditional signing. As you know, for eons, traditional signings have been an integral part of the writer's job in promoting his or her work. Remember the old stories about writers getting into their cars and traveling cross country to stop at every bookstore possible in order to "move units?"
Well, that kind of thing has not only become out-dated, it's become an anachronism in this the age of global media, internet, and social networking. Why get in the car and travel to a bookstore to move a few copies when you can move three, four, even ten times the amount by doing some social networking and pushing right from home?...
Get the rest of the rant at The Vincent Zandri Vox: http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
February 14, 2011
DEAD SPELL Author Belinda Frisch on Indie Publishing
"Nothing in publishing—finished product or fortune—is fast, even if you do-it-yourself. The important thing is to do it the best that you can, without cutting corners."--Belinda Frisch, author of DEAD SPELL
Check out her entire guest blog at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
Check out her entire guest blog at The Vincent Zandri Vox:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
The Innocent
February 11, 2011
Are Lit Agents Necessary Anymore?
Every year a new surprise breakout author rises up from the ashes of literary despair.
In the past we've seen JK Rowling and James Frey fill the bill. But this year’s breakout author is different in some pretty remarkable aspects. Not only is she self-published, yet she works with an established literary agent. Her name is Amanda Hocking and she's a 26 year paranormal YA author who not only has one book listed on the USA Today Top 150 bestseller's List, she's got half a dozen.
Her kick assness on Kindle alone led the Chief Amazon honcho to officially declare "The fall of the paper curtain!" But it leads me to ponder something else. We all know that big publishers are no longer needed in order for an author to succeed in this business. In fact, we now know that authors like Aaron Patterson, LJ Sellers, Scott Nicholson, JA Konrath, and many others have proven that not only do you not need NYC to make money, you don't need a publisher, big or small, in order to make a very good living....like, potential millionaire kind of living. All you need is Amazon and the world's ever growing population of Kindle Kats.
....Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox!:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
In the past we've seen JK Rowling and James Frey fill the bill. But this year’s breakout author is different in some pretty remarkable aspects. Not only is she self-published, yet she works with an established literary agent. Her name is Amanda Hocking and she's a 26 year paranormal YA author who not only has one book listed on the USA Today Top 150 bestseller's List, she's got half a dozen.
Her kick assness on Kindle alone led the Chief Amazon honcho to officially declare "The fall of the paper curtain!" But it leads me to ponder something else. We all know that big publishers are no longer needed in order for an author to succeed in this business. In fact, we now know that authors like Aaron Patterson, LJ Sellers, Scott Nicholson, JA Konrath, and many others have proven that not only do you not need NYC to make money, you don't need a publisher, big or small, in order to make a very good living....like, potential millionaire kind of living. All you need is Amazon and the world's ever growing population of Kindle Kats.
....Get the rest of the scoop at The Vincent Zandri Vox!:
http://vincentzandri.blogspot.com/201...
Godchild
