Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 229

Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 1/14/11)

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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.




Quick plug for online classes this month:



On Jan. 20, I'm teaching: 3
Secrets to Selling Your Nonfiction Book, includes a critique of your query letter
or book hook (up to 300 words)







Best of Best

Is the Query System Dying?


@jodyhedlund



Are These Filter Words Weakening Your Fiction?


@writeitsideways

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

10 reasons your novel isn't getting published


@chuckwendig




How soon do you query another project (esp. for picture books)?


@Kid_Lit



Queries: How Much To Sell Yourself?


@Kid_Lit



Should you resurrect an abandoned novel or start a new
one?


@Writeitsideways



How an endorsement can help land your book deal


@BubbleCow



Are you too old or too remotely located to be published? Thought
provoking post from @nicolamorgan


@dirtywhitecandy

Craft & Technique

Your manuscript is worse than you think,
but has way more potential than you think


@victoriamixon




Tips for high concept writing


@elizabethscraig



Three Ways Writers Evolve Over Time


@menwithpens



First Vs. Third: Point of View and Character Development


@elizabethscraig



Top 10 Storyfix posts of 2010. worth checking out.


@justinemusk



Editor @BrianKlems offers tips on when it is &
isn't ok to use the names of the deceased in fiction


@inkyelbows

Publishing News & Trends

The Agent's Role in Today's Digital Book
World by @Kid_Lit

@DigiBookWorld



Six e-Book Trends to Watch in 2011


@michaelhyatt

Self-Publishing and E-Publishing

The top ebook self-publishers


@teleread



Great set of resources for anyone considering self-publishing


@BubbleCow



Two self-published authors' paths to commercial
success


@victoriastrauss



Great articles for self-publishers from the past week


@JFbookman

Marketing & Promotion

How To Create A Podcast


@thecreativepenn




How publishers & authors can use Quora, the rapidly
growing, question-based social network


@GalleyCat

Social Media

Read it and tweet: @sarahsalway's top
Twitter tips for authors


@publishingtalk



100 Twitter Feeds That Will Improve Your
Writing


@Quotes4Writers

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 @psexton1 @kellymesserly




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

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My Session Picks for the Writer's Digest Conference

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If you're attending the WD conference next
week in New York, there will be an embarrassment of programming riches to choose from.



Here are my session picks based on what you're hoping to get out of the conference.
(There's still time to register, and you can register on-site. Use my speaker code, WDspeaker,
to get $70 off.)






FOR EVERYONE

Friday's Opening Address by Richard Curtis


Not to be missed. Curtis is a sage voice amidst the noise, and a longtime agent. The
title of his talk is "The
Future of Publishing: Don't Give Up on Books."




Friday
Evening Pitch Practice with Chuck Sambuchino


Mandatory for anyone pitching on Saturday.




Branding Yourself by Dan Blank


I can't think of a better person in the industry to talk on this topic than Dan. This
is a rare and valuable opportunity for writers to get some of the best wisdom out
there on marketing and community building.



3
Hurdles to Publishing Success No One Tells Your About by Phil Sexton


The publisher of Writer's Digest—and a man with experience across sales, marketing,
editorial, AND authorship—draws back the curtain on the inner workings of the publishing
industry.



Keynote Address by Richard Nash


Nash is one of the most inspiring speakers in the publishing industry. If you haven't
already fallen in love with him, you will after this address, titled "How
to Be an Author in a World Where Everyone Is a Writer."

FOR WRITERS WORKING ON A MANUSCRIPT

Putting
Fire in Your Fiction by Don Maass


Don's a master at teaching novelists. Your hand will get tired from taking so many
notes.



Building
the Perfect Plot by James Scott Bell


Bell's book on plot is among the bestsellers in the writing advice category. That's
because his instruction on the topic is second to none.



The
Art of the Page Turner by Hallie Ephron


One thing you might not know about Hallie is that, aside from being an award-winning
novelist, she also has a teaching background. You will walk out of her session having
learned something critical about keeping readers glued to the page.




Showing vs. Telling by Laurie Alberts


The old adage, "Show, don't tell" is wrong. Find out why from an experienced novelist.



Revision:
Learn How to Love It by James Scott Bell


Only James Scott Bell could turn a thing that most writers hate into something that
you can attack with confidence—and yes, even a bit of love.



Creating
a Backstory by Hallie Ephron


Use backstory to make a reader care about a character (rather than slow down the story).

FOR WRITERS TRYING TO GET TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED

Ask
the Agents panel


Get the inside scoop before you pitch



10
Things You Must Know to Craft a Query by Janet Reid


The infamous Query Shark teaches you how to write a kick-ass query.



Panel:
The Big Picture on Social Media Strategy


Holy Moses! This is the hardest hitting set of panelists you will EVER find on the
topic of social media. Almost a requirement for everyone attending the conference.



Book
or Bestseller: What Will You Choose? by Patricia V. Davis


Get advice on how to view the whole of your career, from a woman who has hard-won
experience in the trenches.



Success
Strategies and Systems for Writing & Selling More by Sage Cohen


The lovely and inspiring (and productive!) Sage Cohen offers 10 ways to exponentially
increase the results and rewards of your writing life.

FOR THE ENTREPRENEURIAL & BUSINESS-MINDED

Your
Publishing Options by Jane Friedman


I review the pros and cons of the major publishing options available to you (from
traditional to DIY to electronic), and how to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses
you bring to the publishing world.



Panel:
DIY Publishing (Self-Publishing)


If you're considering the DIY/self-pub path, this panel will identify pros and cons
and major pitfalls to avoid.



Kindle
Publishing Workshop by April Hamilton


This is a detailed and technical walk-through of how to get your work on the Kindle
(without a publisher).



Panel:
E-Publishing and Multimedia Options


There's more to your career than just print. This panel discusses how to e-publish
in a smart and profitable way, and also how to use other multimedia formats such as
podcasts, videocasts, and apps.



Panel:
Successfully Promoting Your Book


I promise you this panel will be full of personality, wit, and damn good advice.

Hope to see you there!

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Get Your Nonfiction Query Critiqued By Me

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Next week, I'm
teaching an online class on landing a nonfiction book deal. The registration fee
($79) includes a critique of your query letter or hook, up to 300 words.



If you're ready to pitch your project or send out a proposal package, this is an excellent
opportunity to find out how an industry professional would evaluate your work. I point
out red flags in hooks/queries, how to express your platform convincingly, and what
factors really matter to getting a book deal.



A past attendee said of this session:

It was chock-full of useful info for aspiring nonfiction
writers. … All of the information was at a level of directness. It was very powerful.

What else will you learn?



Learn the basics of nonfiction book proposal writing—smart authors never write the
book first, they always write a proposal.

Why self-help/memoir hybrid works almost always get rejected.

The types of memoirs that can and do sell today.

How a book proposal needs to be approached like a business plan to be successful.

Why the marketability of your idea (or the strength of your platform) is more important
than the quality of your writing.

I also leave time for Q&A; any questions not answered during the live session
receive a follow-up in writing. Go ahead—try and stump me. If you have questions about
your project that you can't find the answers to, I can help.



Hope to see you there. Click
here for more info and links to register.


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Have High Expectations for Yourself

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I'm honored & privileged to be included in a round-up of advice on how to beat
back low expectations and live an audacious life.



You can click here to read
all 19 tips.




Here's mine:

If you want to make a change in your life, you need
to own the change and declare to yourself (and to the world, if you must) exactly
what you are, right at this moment.



Too many people think they have to go through a long, arduous process of "working"
on themselves, or that they have to prove to others they've changed. If you want to
be bold, then you can be whatever it is you want at the very moment you decide it.
It's our own fear or lack of self-confidence that prevents us from taking ownership
TODAY of who we want to become—or who we want to BE from this moment onward.

In true editor fashion, I'd like to go back and amend what I said. I
want to clarify: "If you want to be bold, then act exactly like whomever you want
to be, at the moment you decide it."



If we want to be a writer, then we act like writers. (We write.)

If we want to be more active (or healthy), then we act the way healthy people act.

If we want to be less anxious people, then we act in ways that reduce our anxiety.

What I don't mean to say is that you can just be whatever you want by
declaring it. (E.g., you can be an expert on XYZ just by saying so.)



Rather, I'm thinking in terms of how we often wish we would behave or
act in a certain way, or admire qualities, in other people, that we wish we
had.




And so we just keep on wishing and hoping. Sometimes we don't commit, or sometimes
we think we have to go through a long and arduous journey in order to meaningfully
change.



In this, I have to admit to being a disciple of Alan Watts' view:

You may almost be sure, then, that some kind of
clericalism, some kind of highly refined spiritual racket, is at work when stress
is laid upon the suffering and discipline, the endurance and the willpower … trying
to pretend to oneself that a life of constant self-frustration is in fact great spiritual
attainment.

Or, looked at from another point of view:

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it." (Goethe)

When we think too much (or question too much) whether we can do something
or change something, rest assured it's probably better to just go do it (or change
it). Or: Fail, and become all the wiser for it.



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Pitch Your Work at the Writer's Digest Conference

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Next week, the annual Writer's Digest
Conference will convene again in the heart of New York City. It includes an extensive
pitch slam offering an opportunity to pitch your work to agents (more than 50 are
attending)—speed dating style.



I'll also be there to present the following:



Your
Publishing Options: Should you pursue self-publishing, try to get the attention
of a large publisher, or set your sights on a small press? I objectively present the
options and how to decide based on your career goals.



Panel:
E-Publishing and Multimedia Options: E-reading is here, and it's not going away.
So what does it all mean for you personally? Here's your chance to ask your questions
and find out.



Panel:
DIY Publishing: This session breaks down in great detail the many paths you can
take and how to be successful at each. What are the benefits? What are the limitations?
What are the dangers?

If you haven't yet registered, you can still do so, either in advance or on-site. Use
my speaker code, WDspeaker, to get $70 off.

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The Evolution of How I Use Twitter

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I've written several lengthy posts on
how writers can use Facebook to platform build.



I've said very little about Twitter use.



That's because it's so difficult to give advice on how to use Twitter that would apply
to everybody.



So much depends on:



What type of audience you'd like to reach and how (or whether) they use Twitter

Whether you intend on being a source of information or using it for conversations


Where you're at in your career and how many followers you have

My philosophy about Twitter tends to align with the opinions expressed in this article, "Twitter
Is NOT a Social Network." In it, a Twitter exec says:

Twitter is for news. Twitter is for content. Twitter
is for information.

And that's how I use it.




I'm sure you've noticed my weekly
Twitter round-ups by now. It's not about Twitter, but about great content I find
through Twitter.



Since I started the weekly round-ups, I've gone from a few hundred followers to 40,000
followers. How did I get so many followers?



I'm extremely focused in what I tweet out.

Nearly every tweet links to information that's valuable—or offers a link to a new
blog post.

I only tweet a few times a day unless I'm live-tweeting an event.

The weekly Twitter round-ups bring more attention to my presence.

Twitter started including me on "top people to follow" lists related to books/literature
(probably due to the 4 previous tactics).



That strategy hasn't changed since I joined Twitter in May 2008.



But I've had to change my approach in following people and information on Twitter.
Here are the stages I experienced:



When I first started using Twitter, I followed everyone who followed me.



At some point, that became too time-consuming. So I only followed people who directly
engaged with me on Twitter, or who RT'd me, or who otherwise mentioned me.

Finally, I stopped following even those people who were, it hurts to say, immensely
kind. (Remember: I still get to have conversations with those people on Twitter even
if I don't follow them.)

By stage 3, I was following about 3,000 people, and it became meaningless to follow
anyone else. Why? Because there was far too much information in my stream and I had
to stop looking at it.



So I resorted to Twitter
lists, RSS feeds, and Yahoo Pipes to
scrape information (tweets) from the people who I really needed to follow—to keep
up with the industry and to report on best tweets.



Unfortunately, this has meant that my live Twitter conversation is fairly limited,
even though I keep an eye on Twitter throughout the day. It puts the burden on other
people to initiate conversations with me. I've always felt guilty about this.



So Now I'm at Stage 4


I actively unfollow dozens of people every week, in a slow march toward a manageable
number of people to follow. Why bother now, you might ask?



This is critical: There are now tools (third-party applications) that use who
you follow on Twitter to generate valuable content mash-ups.



Two popular examples include:



Paper.li


Flipboard


If I want to make the most of these tools, then I have to follow only those people
who use Twitter in about the same way I do: To spread valuable information.



Perhaps more important: Because these tools can create content that the larger
public can tap into and follow, then it becomes imperative that I'm selective
with the people I follow. Otherwise the content that's generated becomes a meaningless
hash.



No one wants to ostracize their followers, but for the good of the many, it seems
necessary to focus the following list. (Certainly Twitter lists are supposed to perform
this function in part, but I'll leave that discussion for another day.)



I welcome your thoughts, especially from those who have been using Twitter since 2008.

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Make It Memorable: What Does That Mean?

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One my favorite pasttimes these days is pondering the kind of writing advice that
can actually hurt writers—usually by becoming a cliche, without offering a
deep understanding of a complex issue.




Here's an excellent cliche explained and presented by Lee Martin, in
the most recent Glimmer Train bulletin:

"Make it memorable," the editor of a respected literary
journal told me when he came to visit Arkansas and to critique student manuscripts.
That was the thing that made a story jump out of the slush pile and onto the pages
of a lit journal. Something memorable that just wouldn't get out of a reader's head.



My problem was I thought the memorable was only located in the plot. I'd yet to learn
to appreciate the more subtle shadings of characters as they created and then moved
through the intricacies of their lives. I needed to be paying less attention to what
happened and more attention to the characters involved.

Go read the entire piece, "Make
It Memorable."

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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 1/7/11)

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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

The Top 10 Fiction Writing Articles of
2010


@BubbleCow



"I've sold over 185,000 books since April 15." Amanda
Hocking on e-publishing.


@sarahw



Lessons Learned From Tim Ferriss' Book Launch


@thecreativepenn

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

Here's
a post I did on word counts after consulting with a number of US trade book editors

@colleenlindsay



When Publishing Dreams Become a Nightmare - the
author's perspective on my blog

@RachelleGardner



Freelance Writer Rates: Who Pays the Most Online?


@AdviceToWriters

Craft & Technique

The Contradictory
Nature of Great Fiction


@40kBooks



5 situations where it's better to tell than show in your
fiction


@io9



Five Words You Can Cut


@AdviceToWriters



A Writer's Plot Board: Getting organized


@4kidlit



Great series on self-editing, this week contextual editing [by
@ChuckWendig]

@BubbleCow

Publishing News & Trends

10
Biggest Predictions for the Future of Book Publishing


@thecreativepenn



Fantastic essay on the nature of the web. Read this
now: "The Web Is a Customer Service Medium"


@andrewsavikas



What lies ahead in publishing: @timoreilly on the
influence of ebooks and why notions of "publisher" should change.


@toc

Marketing and Promotion

A Market Of One via @mitchjoel
(remember re ebook protestations!)


@thecreativepenn



Drop the Pen, Grab a Hammer: Building the Writer's
Platform


@ChuckWendig




Book marketing mistakes: great series from @bookbuzzr:
No 1 – No Tag Line for Book or Author

@dirtywhitecandy



Creating An Author Brand: Why It's Not Really About the
Book


@elizabethscraig



YouTube trends manager offers tips & new tools for
book trailer makers


@GalleyCat

Self-Publishing & E-Publishing

Do
authors make good publishers? Agent Richard Curtis said no, J.A. Konrath answered
back [see comments on post for link to Konrath's response]

@publisherswkly



TechDirt asks: Have We Reached A Tipping Point Where
Self-Publishing Is Better Than Getting A Book Deal?


@PublishersWkly



Author Devon Glenn shares lessons learned while reaching
her @kickstarter goal this week


@GalleyCat

Websites & Blogging

Very
interesting thoughts on the value of blogging vs Twitter


@DanBlank



How to Create an Engaging and Effective Bio Page for
Your Blog or Website


@elizabethscraig

Social Media

8
Sentences to Immediately Cut From Your Twitter Bio


@elizabethscraig



The Counter-intuitive Nature of Social Media Influence. Sometimes
Up is Down & Down is Up

@elizabethscraig



Case Study: How Twitter propelled @sarahsalway's republished
book up the Kindle charts


@publishingtalk

Online
Tools & Resources

Best
of the Best: Character, Plot, Dialogue and Structure


@4kidlit



Resources for Authors Traveling To Book Clubs & Schools


@elizabethscraig

The Writing Life

J.K.
Rowling on Failure And Imagination


@jonathanfields



Why slow, long-form thought & writing is thriving in
a world of Tweets


@pomeranian99

@nickbilton

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)



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




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

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Writing Memoir: Art vs. Confessional

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Continuing with the theme of memoir this week, Susan Cushman (pictured above) is
today's guest on NO RULES. Like
Darrelyn Saloom, Susan was deeply impacted by the reading of Robert Goolrick at
the Oxford Creative Nonfiction Conference.



Susan will be a new monthly guest blogger, so please offer her a warm welcome. You
can also find Susan over at A Good
Blog Is Hard to Find and Pen
and Palette.




--



A couple of years ago, during a manuscript critique workshop I was attending in Oxford,
Mississippi, workshop leader Scott
Morris (Waiting for April, The Total View of Taftly) said something
I will never forget:

A memoir must be artful and not just real. Yes,
you've lived it—the abuse, the loss, the suffering—now you have to get up and above
it, distance yourself, and spin a good yarn. You've got to create art from
what you lived.

It's not that he was being insensitive to the painful stories that were
so courageously shared by the new writers at the workshop—he genuinely cared about
what we had lived through. But he wasn't there in the role of therapist. He was there
to help us become better writers. "We write to reclaim a part of our life," he
said, "but it has to be about the art."




There are plenty of opportunities to talk about the trauma in your life, if that's
what you want to do. If you're into public confession, you can get paid to air your
dirty laundry on talk shows. If it's healing you're after, there are the traditional
and private venues like the psychologist's office and the church confessional. If
you believe you just have to write about what happened to you, go ahead.




But don't try to get it published, unless you do the hard work of spinning that
painful experience into the golden threads of an artful memoir.




My favorite memoirists have all done this well: Mary Karr has mined a rough childhood
for three brilliantly written volumes: The Liar's Club, Cherry and Lit.
Augusten Burroughs has carried his horrific story through nearly a half dozen books.
Haven Kimmel's A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch were
anything but sappy confessionals. And Kim Michelle Richardson's heartbreaking story
of abuse at the hands of priests and nuns at the Catholic orphanage where she grew
up— The Unbreakable Child —reads
more like a novel than a revenge piece. (Although her attorney has certainly called
Rome into account.)



In November I was down in Oxford (Mississippi) again—this time as co-director of the
2010 Creative Nonfiction Conference—when I was treated to yet another unveiling of
a memoir masterpiece.




I hadn't even read his work yet when I introduced Robert
Goolrick as one of the panelists for our afternoon session. He was going to be
signing and reading from his memoir, The
End of the World As We Know It , later that evening at Off Square Books.




I had no idea what I was in for. I sat near the front so that I could take pictures
for my blog, but I almost had to leave before it was over, for fear of disturbing
the others who had come to hear him. You see, I was bawling during most of his reading.
People were passing me tissues. A new acquaintance put her arm around me supportively.




Goolrick was raped by his father "just once" when he was a small boy and his father
was drunk. His memoir describes, in the most powerful, dark, poetic prose I've ever
read on the subject, the ongoing affects on the soul of the person who is violated
in this way:

If you don't receive love from the ones who are
meant to love you, you will never stop looking for it, like an amputee who never stops
missing his leg, like the ex-smoker who wants a cigarette after lunch fifteen years
later.




It sounds trite. It's true. You will look for it in objects that you buy without want.
You will look for it in faces you do not desire. You will look for it in expensive
hotel rooms, in the careful attentiveness of the men and women who change the sheets
every day, who bring you pots of tea and thinly sliced lemon and treat you with false
deference. …




You will look for it in shop girls and the kind of sad and splendid men who sell you
clothing. You will look for it and you will never find it. You will not find a trace.

If you haven't guessed by now, I was sexually abused. First, by my grandfather
when I was a young girl. And later by others in my young adult life. And yes, I've
spent many hours talking with therapists and priests and other victims of abuse, and
no, I'm not okay. If Goolrick is right, I may never be okay.




And yet I found it darkly comforting, listening to him read these words that explain
why he decided to tell his story:

I tell it because there is an ache in my
heart for the imagined beauty of a life I haven't had, from which I have been locked
out, and it never goes away.

Writing his memoir didn't heal Goolrick's pain, but he certainly did
"get up and above it" and what he wrote is art of the highest caliber.




My writing critique group will probably be the only people ever to read all eighteen
chapters of the memoir I spent two years writing. Just as it was beginning to vaguely
resemble art, I realized I wasn't willing to go public with it, and so I abandoned
it for fiction. Maybe there, in the writing of a novel, I can find "the imagined beauty
of a life I haven't had."

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Limited Offer: Get Started Writing in 2011

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I'm often asked by absolutely new writers: How do I get started?



In honor of the new year, Writer's Digest is offering a
comprehensive package of tools, for a limited time, that helps answer that question.



This package includes:



An independent study writing workshop, based on a best-selling online course offered
from Writer's Digest



First
Draft in 30 Days




From
First Draft to Finished Novel




Writer's
Digest Weekly Planner




Your
Very First Page webinar (presented by yours truly)



Keys
to Great Writing




Writing
Basics magazine (a special Writer's Digest issue)





If you bought all of these items a la carte, the price would be nearly $500. Right
now, you can get it for $140 (70% off).

 

Only 100 are available, and when they're gone, they're gone! Click
here to find out more.






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