Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 228

If I Write a Book: Your Feedback

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About five years ago, I revised a new edition of the Beginning
Writer's Answer Book for Writer's Digest, which is in Q&A format.



A lot has changed since then.




Obviously the industry is transforming, but also my beliefs about writers and writing
have changed. (See here for my post about the
dirty secret about writing advice.)



Many writers have asked me to do another book, on about every topic imaginable. Every
time I consider it, I keep coming back to the same belief.

Most advice books—the types I think could be successful in the marketplace—ultimately
must push aside complexity and dilemma.

I don't mean to say that writers can't improve or be instructed by advice
books. Or that a writing life is something terrible and difficult.



But more and more writing advice can confuse or block people, rather than help them.
There's always conflicting advice to be found! Some writers have to (or SHOULD)
ignore advice, and do their own thing.



More writers need to learn how to think for themselves about these issues, to see
the nuance, to recognize the paradoxes they will inevitably encounter, and to filter
through what advice exists to find what is personally useful—as well as realize when or how the
information can be useful or applied, because timing can be everything.



Prescriptive methods and/or encouragements
work only some of the time, for some writers—they never work for all. The writing
itself never gets any easier, no matter how much you know or publish. The dilemmas
never go away.



But the kind of book I would like to write—or that I think writers need—doesn't offer
foolproof methods, or surefire plans. And, as such, it's probably not so marketable.

 

So what do you think? What kind of book would you like to see?

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Is It Tougher to Get Published These Days?

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Over at Writer Unboxed today, I have a guest post that tries to pin down how much
"trouble" the book publishing industry is in, and how that affects writers.



It's a highly complex issue, so my answer could be summarized as, "It depends on who
you are."



There's no doubt, though, that the industry is undergoing tremendous transformation
with the decline of bricks-and-mortar bookstores, and the adoption of e-readers and
e-books.



Go read the full post here: How
Bad Is It Really in the Publishing Industry?


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A Feast of Days (Part 3): Pitch Fest

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Photo by Michael L. Stanton




Today's guest post is by emerging writer Darrelyn Saloom, who recently attended
the Oxford Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference,
and is offering up a 4-part narrative on the experience. Darrelyn is a regular guest
here at No Rules. Follow her on Twitter or read
her previous posts.






On the thirteenth of November I woke up panicked by my surroundings. A ceiling fan
wobbled above me and my eyesight blurred just enough to turn my world into a mirage.
With no snoring husband beside me, it took a few minutes to remember I was in a hotel
room in Oxford, Mississippi. Relieved, I stretched in bed and basked in solitude.
Then a thought snatched my reprieve—I'm at the Oxford
Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference and the pitch fest is today. 




Into the shower I tried to remember the new blurb I had practiced on co-writer, Deirdre
Gogarty, last night after a reception at Memory
House, the former home of William Faulkner's brother John and his family. We had
mingled with guests, instructors, and authors in the century-old Greek revival. In
the dining room an antique table held silver trays of chocolates and sandwiches. The
bar was set up on the long and winding back porch, so we spilled from dining room
to Victorian veranda all evening.




The images of the night swooped up to greet me as I stood before the bathroom mirror
and practiced my pitch. I recalled one of the literary agents at the party telling
me I didn't need to bother standing in line to pitch her the next day. She said she
was interested in the memoir and to just send her the proposal. Such a relief! But
Deirdre and I had traveled to Oxford to pitch two literary agents. So I rushed off
to eat breakfast in a hurry to blunder my way through a day of calamity.    




Down the elevator and then a long hallway, I polished my pitch on anyone who'd listen.
Deirdre met me in the hotel's breakfast area, so we filled our plates and sat down
to discuss the day's upcoming events. While collaborating on the memoir, I learned
how Deirdre spent a lifetime struggling with shyness and knew about her unease in
social settings. As she ate, she allowed me to babble away and never interrupted my
pitiful delusion that I should do the pitching. We would go to the pitch fest together,
but I would do the talking.




We made our way to the third floor of the Overby Center and found long queues had
already bloomed, the longest one stretched in front of the agent who already requested
our proposal and the agent we came to pitch. I'd spoken to him often during the conference,
so I was surprised my palms were slick while my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.
I was digging in my bag for a cough drop when he waved and said, "No need to wait.
Just send the proposal." 




Stunned, I pulled Deirdre to the side of the crowded room and told her I needed to
practice my overly memorized pitch on a professional somebody. And that somebody had
just taken a seat. I pointed to author Dinty
W. Moore of Brevity ,
a nonfiction literary journal. He wore a long-sleeved, black shirt and beamed a welcoming
smile as we approached his table. "The agents just want us to send the proposal,"
I told him. "So I've had no opportunity to deliver my pitch. Can I practice on you?"




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Dinty W. Moore




"Sure," he said in a booming voice as he looked from me to Deirdre and back again.
"Okay," I continued. "Well, um …" A buzzing in my ears, I continued to talk but could
no longer hear my voice. Dinty Moore's smile disappeared and he tilted his head in
apparent confusion. Not a good sign. He then crossed his thick arms in front of his
wide chest and turned to Deirdre as I floated out of my body. I've done this before
but only under traumatic circumstances. 




I hovered on the ceiling and observed Deirdre's mouth move effortlessly. Next thing
I knew the affable Moore again flashed his brilliant smile. He then swung his fist
in victory. "Now that's a pitch!" he declared in a timbre born for public speaking.
The excitement of his exuberance brought me back to my body. So I added the poetic
ending that I'd lost in the humiliation of the moment. Again, I drew the tilt of his
head.  




Deirdre and I were walking back to the hotel when it dawned on me that, although shy,
she had managed to climb into a boxing ring and fight to become a world champion.
She'd been interviewed often throughout her career and had been featured in numerous
newspapers and magazines. She'd graced televised chat shows and documentaries. She
even sparred with Regis Philbin on Regis and Kathy Lee. What was I thinking?      




"So what did you say to Dinty Moore?" I asked the champ. I had to ask her because
I didn't hear a word of her pitch. The buzzing ears, the trip to the ceiling, I had
missed the selling point, the story, everything. Deirdre calmly explained that she
had told him all the things I'd been talking about for days. She had not practiced
in front of a mirror, or bombarded everyone who would listen.




She had ad libbed the whole thing.




--



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Did you know? This year Dinty W. Moore wrote a book, Crafting
the Personal Essay, with Writer's Digest. Go
check it out.




Or read an excerpt, "The
Personal (Not Private) Essay"

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Best Tweets on Holiday (Back in 2011)

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Best Tweets rests this week and next. We'll be back on Sunday, January 9!



Make sure you didn't miss these 2 roundups:



10
Best Tweets of 2010 (outside links)



My
10 Best Posts From 2010 (NO RULES posts)





















Looking for more?




Want to know about the best stuff I read each week?


Click here to subscribe
to my shared items.




Follow me on Twitter (@JaneFriedman)







List of Tweeps most
often included in weekly Best Tweets for Writers (always under development)



Follow Writer's Digest editors on Twitter: @writersdigest @brianklems @robertleebrewer @jessicastrawser @chucksambuchino @chadseibert @vanessa_lw @psexton1 @kellymesserly




Become a fan at the Writer's Digest Facebook
page (10K fans)

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My Best Posts From 2010

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Here's the very best advice I offered here at NO RULES in 2010. This can serve as
a handy guide, or share this link with writers who might be new to NO RULES. (What
a good Christmas gift, right?)



Above: my cat Zelda. She approves of this list. Plus I don't think I posted one cat
photo all year. I think there's a law that every blog needs to use at least one cat
photo each year (if not each month).





Craft & Technique

The
Biggest Bad Advice About Story Openings




Story
Openings: What Constitutes Significant/Meaningful Action?




Your No. 1 Challenge
If You're Writing a Memoir

Getting Published

How
to Ensure 75% of Agents Will Request Your Material




The
Ultimate Guide to Novel Queries




Your
Self-Help Book Should Not Be a Thinly Disguised Memoir




7
Free-to-Enter National Writing Competitions That Impact Your Career

Marketing & Promotion

The
Most Important Marketing Acronym: WIIFM




Why
Don't Publishers Market & Promote the Books They Publish?




Authors:
Build Your E-mail List—NOW

Blogs/Websites

Why
Start a Website or Blog If You Have Nothing to Promote?




What
Should Fiction Writers Blog About?




Should
You Hire Someone to Design Your Website?

Social Media

When
or Why Social Media Fails to Sell Books




Should
You Create a Facebook Fan Page? (And If So, When?)

Self-Publishing

The
No. 1 Most Important Factor for Writers Considering the Self-Pub Option




The
Best 101 on Self-Publishing + Resources




Self-Publishing
and Online Publishing Will Not Ruin Your Chances at a Traditional Deal

The Writing Life

Your
Excuses About Writing Are Vitally Important




The
Secret to Writing & Publishing That Should Be Taped to Your Wall

Industry Trends

The
3 Best Takeaways for Writers From BookExpo America

Best
Resources for Successful Writers of the Future

–––



I also started a Back
to Basics series in 2010. Click
here to see all entries in the category. I cover 101 questions like how to get
published, how to start blogging, what your rights are as a writer, and why you might
be getting rejected.



Want more? Check out The
Secrets to Publishing Success (Jane's 2009 Tough Love Guide)

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Glimmer Train Monthly News

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Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning
stories for their October Family Matters competition. This competition is held quarterly
and is open to all writers for stories about family. Word count should not exceed
12,000. (All shorter lengths welcome.) The next Family Matters competition will take
place in April. Glimmer Train's monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.  Glimmer
Train's monthly submission calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Lee Montgomery [pictured above], of Portland, OR, wins $1200 for
"Torture Techniques of North Americans." Her story will be published in the Spring
2012 issue of Glimmer Train Stories.



Second place: Graham Arnold, of Toronto, Ontario, wins $500 for "A Difference
of Nothing." His story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train
Stories, increasing his prize to $700.



Third place: Maggie Shipstead of Atherton, CA, wins $300 for "The Sadness
that Radiates from God."





A
PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.

Deadline soon approaching!


Fiction Open: January 2



Glimmer Train hosts this competition quarterly, and first place is $2000 plus publication
in the journal. It's open to all writers, no theme restrictions, and the word count
range is 2,000-20,000. Click
here for complete guidelines.




--



If you didn't know, Writer's Digest partnered with Glimmer Train to publish two compilation
volumes of the best stuff from their Writers
Ask newsletter.




Check them out: Volume
1 and Volume
2.



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10 Best Tweets of 2010

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In my estimation, here are the best and most helpful tweets (or posts) for writers
that I collected in 2010.





Craft & Technique

Overwriters
Anonymous: for fiction writers, how to avoid dreadful prose that gets you rejected

[from Editorial Ass, a traditional book publishing editor]

Urgency
vs action in your writing


[from published author Teresa Frohock, tackles issue of action-oriented openings]



7
deadly sins of prologues


[by author Kristen Lamb]

Getting Published

Top
10 reasons the editor doesn't love your book, or doesn't love what your friends,
family, and critique group loves

[from EditTorrent]



A bare
bones plot summary synopsis is boring. Include emotional twists of your characters.


[from Glen C. Strathy, freelance writer; some of the best how-to advice I've seen
on writing a synopsis]



Ultimate
Checklist for Submitting to Publishers: 10 Tests a Novel Must Pass


[from Deborah Halverson, a published author and previous editor]

Marketing & Promotion

Why
Professional Writers Need a Blog. Or Not.


[from ProBlogger; good, balanced take on blogging issue]

@problogger

The
Psychological Principle Behind Marketing Success In a Networked World


[by author Jeff Sexton]

The
secret ingredient to a powerful author platform


[by author Justine Musk]

The
Artist's Responsibility (just because you CAN publish anything, doesn't mean you
should.)

[by author Simon Pulman]

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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 12/17/10)

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I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets.
If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Want to know about the best stuff
I read each week? Click
here to subscribe to my shared items.






















Best of the Best

Self-Promotion With Integrity


@jafurtado

10 great writing posts from
2010. Worth a look.

@justinemusk



Interesting article on making it as indie musician
by OK Go's Damian Kulash - lots of lessons for authors, too


@twliterary

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

5
writers talk about their book editors


@awl



Great article explaining why editors read with an eye
out for reasons to stop reading


@BubbleCow



"I find that I know by the end of the first sentence
that I will reject"


@BubbleCow

Craft & Technique

Can a first chapter be too exciting?


@elizabethscraig



8 "Moments" You Absolutely Need to Deliver to Your Readers


@storyfix



Self-editing: 10 ways to tighten your copy


@alexisgrant



Top 5 mistakes writers make when penning sex scenes--and
a writing exercise to avoid making them

@elizabethscraig



Anatomy of a scene revision


@lydia_sharp





How to introduce your characters at the start of your novel


@p2p_editor




How JK Rowling mastered mystery in Harry Potter


@coreyjpopp

Publishing News & Trends

Don't pave that cow path: Lonely Planet's
@gusbalbontin on agility in the digital age.


@toc



The future of publishing is writeable (smaller, easier,
more personal)


@40kBooks



End Of Days For Bookstores? Not If They Can Help
It, from NPR; great quotes from @booknerdnyc + @bookpassage

@toc

Websites &
Blogging

Print
vs blog writing -- well-written article, & this is my blog find of the day


@justinemusk

Marketing and Promotion

How Timothy Ferriss
(@tferriss) hit the Amazon Bestseller List; practical tips for all writers


@GalleyCat



How To Interview & Build Relationships With The Most
"Influential" People In The World


@TheRiseToTheTop



Guide To Orchestrating A MASSIVE New Media Tour


@therisetothetop

E-Books & E-Publishing

"Breaking
the Poetry Code"(Poets need to rethink form, not force old forms into new channels.)


@glecharles

Social Media

The
One Thing About Social Media That Most People Don't Think About


@mitchjoel



How do you find the time to do all this social media
stuff?


@40kBooks



Guy Kawasaki reveals a sure way to get Facebook fans


@justinemusk

Online
Tools & Resources

Want to understand transmedia?
Here's seven people I turn to for smart insights and good conversation


@glecharles

@Broadcastr is "like Foursquare
for storytellers"


@electriclit

The Writing Life

Countdown
to December 31: Your Writing Expenses by C. Hope
Clark

@thewritermama




Laura Miller on why we love bad writing


@bookbench

Looking for more?




Want to know about the best stuff I read each week?


Click here to subscribe
to my shared items.




Follow me on Twitter (@JaneFriedman)







List of Tweeps most
often included in weekly Best Tweets for Writers (always under development)



Follow Writer's Digest editors on Twitter: @writersdigest @brianklems @robertleebrewer @jessicastrawser @chucksambuchino @chadseibert @vanessa_lw @psexton1 @kellymesserly




Become a fan at the Writer's Digest Facebook
page (10K fans)

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A Feast of Days (Part 2): Agents

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Today's guest post is by emerging writer Darrelyn Saloom, who recently attended
the Oxford Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference,
and is offering up a 4-part narrative on the experience. Darrelyn is a regular guest
here at No Rules. Follow her on Twitter or read
her previous posts. Pictured above: Plaque on the wall of the Overby Center
third-floor meeting room.






Friday, the official start of the Oxford Creative
Nonfiction Writers Conference and Workshops, I longed to attend the manuscript
session with Dinty W. Moore or the one
with Kristen Iversen.
"Making Words Cinematic" with Michael Rosenwald and
"The Personal Essay" with Lee Guitkind and Neil
White also beckoned. But the workshops occurred at the same time. It would've
been a grueling decision to make. Fortunately, the choice was moot. I knew what I
had to do. 


 


I faced my fear and signed up for "A Day with Literary Agents," which advertised:
"Renowned literary agents Jeff Kleinman and Gillian
MacKenzie will spend a day with participants covering query letters, secrets of
nonfiction book proposals, everything you need to know about working with agents and
a 'Buy this Book' role-playing workshop."




Perhaps the description should have enticed me, but only terror and dread buttered
my hotel's complimentary breakfast bagel on that chilly November morning in Oxford,
Mississippi.  


 


I'd just completed a memoir after four years and two days of collaboration. I needed
to find an agent—a problem since I don't know any literary agents and these people
I didn't know were shadowy figures who chased me in dreams. People scoffed at my fear.
I scoffed at my fear. Why did this part of the process frighten me? I'm not a shy
person. In fact, I'm a talker. I ask for directions and recommend books to strangers
in coffee shops, bookstores, and airports. I'll talk to anybody.



So, like I've done dozens of times, I resolved to face the phantoms of sleep. It helped
that I took a former world champion of women's boxing with me. Deirdre
Gogarty and I rushed off to the Overby Center third-floor meeting room on the
Ole Miss campus. We sat at a huge oval table built to seat a presidential assembly.
I steadied my hands and removed a completed proposal from my bag. Then I sat down
and promptly forgot the pitch I had rehearsed earlier as Deirdre pretended to watch
TV.   


 

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When the agents, Jeff and Gillian, arrived they seemed normal enough. (Gillian is
pictured above.) They asked us to scoot our chairs in closer for more intimacy. Great.
I was already seated near where they plopped down their briefcases. Jeff sat on his
spine with his long legs stretched out in front of him. I focused on his black slip-on
loafers, then Gillian's black pumps. I worked my way up to discover Jeff had the kind
of face aunts and grandmothers would be tempted to pinch. Gillian's features, no doubt,
attracted innumerable pinch-cheeked boys. 


 

With knowledge and humor, Jeff and Gillian doled out advice. Jeff scrolled through
his cell phone and read a few examples of bad query letters and then one that led
to a New York Times bestselling book. Gillian emphasized the need for writers to be
courteous and punctual. "No one wants to take on a troublesome client," she explained,
"no matter how salable the manuscript." This was a relief to hear because not only
am I courteous, I'm neurotically on time.   




My unfounded fear of literary agents began to subside. I took a few deep breaths and
felt my shoulders drop and my hands steady. Then I volunteered to role-play and told
Deirdre's story.




Here, I discovered the mistake in my pitch. I needed to get to the selling point of
the memoir as quickly as possible. When pitching agents, selling is primary. Story
is secondary. Not because they don't care about story, but because there is so little
time. As a writer, story is everything. I'd now have to think like a vendor and revise
my pitch. I had more work to do and little time to do it.




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We wrapped up the workshop at 4:00 p.m. In two hours Deirdre and I would attend poet Beth
Ann Fennelly's discussion of "Curiosity as A Narrative Force in Creative Nonfiction,"
then hitch a ride to Memory House for
a reception and cocktails. (Pictured above: Darrelyn Saloom discusses poetry's
inspiration on prose writers with poet Beth Ann Fennelly photo by Mike
Stranton.)




It would be a late night. And the pitch fest was the next day.

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Agents & Editors: Take This Quick Survey

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Cartoon
from Toothpaste for Dinner




I'm conducting a bit of formal research for a future blog post. I have a question
from a writer that goes something like this:

I'd like to know what happened in 2009-2010 in the
publishing world. I've heard some amazing things (30% of employees laid off, advances
down 50%, sales down), and I'd like to know what's true and what's not.

I've done some of my own research through sources like Publishers
Marketplace, Publishers Weekly, Bowker,
and BISG, but it would certainly help to get a
swath of active editors and agents to be specific about what they see happening on
the ground.



I've created a survey for agents and editors that is completely anonymous and
only 6 questions. Let's help writers understand what exactly IS happening from an
acquisitions standpoint.



Click here to take the survey.

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