Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 231

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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How Valuable Is Second Guessing?

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I've been holding onto the following quote for a long time, wondering at how true
it is, or isn't.

when you feel insecure about something you are doing
… that vulnerability means that you are doing the right thing and when you watch that
… the part when you started second-guessing … that is likely the best part … same
goes for writing and photos of yourself.

It's from Raymi, and you
can read the full interview with her here.



Here's my difficulty: I've always admired the people who know exactly what it is they're
about, or what they want to do. And whatever IT is, IT powers (or overpowers) everything
else, any other disappointments or losses. IT offers meaning, and there's no second-guessing
as to the meaning of IT.



Raymi refers to second-guessing as something related to vulnerability—and true, it's
necessary to face vulnerabilities or fears in connection to creative work. (Think
of The
War of Art by Steven Pressfield.)



But does second-guessing always mean vulnerability, though? Sometimes second-guessing
is about challenging yourself—to have humility and to realize you need to improve
and grow.




How can we distinguish between second-guessing that is valuable, and second-guessing
that is wheel spinning?



What's your take on this?

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An Agency Offers Paid Services—With Strings Attached

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I've written frequently on agents and innovation of their model, twice for Writer's
Digest, and twice for Digital Book World:



The Evolution of the Literary
Agent (Writer's Digest, August 2010)

Agents
Need to Develop Alternative Models (DBW, June 2010)

The
Changing Agent-Author Relationship (DBW, February 2010)



The Future
Role of Agents (Writer's Digest, September 2009)

Also, here's a Q&A with Jungle Red Writers, "How
Literary Agents Are Adapting to Survive."




Point is, this is an issue I watch and talk to people about.



So it was with some enthusiasm that I initially read news of literary agency Curtis
Brown UK offering a writing school,
hosted at their offices. According to their site, they'll launch with a 3-month novel-writing
course, open to 15 writers. Courses will be taught by published authors (one is a
Curtis Brown agent).



They are charging 1,600 pounds, which in my mind is a fair and reasonable fee for
the apparent quality of what they are offering.



But there are strings attached, which in my mind is unconscionable considering that
this is a FEE-based service. The site says in
the FAQ:

Students will be asked to sign a covenant covering
the "ground-rules" of the course which are crucial to the successful and happy operation
of Curtis Brown Creative.

Then, in
the application itself:

If
I am offered and choose to accept a place on a CBC writing course, I agree to submit
my novel to Curtis Brown when it is ready for submission, and will give Curtis Brown
an exclusive six week opportunity to read and consider before sending to any other
agencies or publishers

Excuse me?




Undoubtedly, any unpublished, unagented writer would be thrilled to be considered
by Curtis Brown UK. But an imperative to submit to them? An exclusive 6-week opportunity?



If you're going to charge someone, then charge them, and leave them obligation free.
Why should writers be further beholden to Curtis Brown UK after the course is over?
I hope this practice does not become widespread at agencies who start pay-based services
for writers.






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When (or Why) Social Media Fails to Sell Books

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There are countless articles/posts out there, by professionals as well as established
authors, that claim social media has had no (or marginal) impact on their sales or
success.



Such posts then get trumpeted by writers everywhere who feel like online marketing
and promotion responsibilities have been shoved down their throats (and look for every
affirmation that such efforts are a waste of time).



When I do muster the energy to start an online argument on this issue, eventually
I'm asked to provide hard evidence that social media activities lead to significant
book sales—and I DO have such evidence, but it always fails to convince. People have
already made up their minds.



But here's the bigger problem with asking for evidence:


Social media isn't something you employ only and just when you're ready to sell. If
that's your plan, then YES, you will fail magnificently. You will be ineffective when
people can smell you shilling a mile away—when you show up only when it benefits you,
when you have no interest in the channel/medium other than personal, short-term gain.



Social media is about developing relationships and a readership over the long term
that helps bolster your entire career (and sales too).



When people claim that social media hasn't worked for them, I can usually guess why—because
I see it used wrong EVERY day, very directly (because it lands in my inbox or social
media stream).



Here are scenarios when social media DOESN'T work to sell books.



You send Facebook messages or updates that plead: "Like my page!" or yell some version
of "Pay attention to me!" WHY should I pay attention? Why do I care? What's in it
for me? (Go
see this post for more on this important question.)



You tweet only to push your book, and that's clearly the only reason you're on Twitter. As
I mentioned in this interview, authors who get on Twitter because they've been
told they should are automatically bound to fail. Stay off it, please, unless you're
there for the relationships, or to inform others (not to sell them).



You send out mass e-mails or social media press releases asking me to do something
that benefits you and your book. Again, why do I care? What value are you providing
to me? How is this important right now? How about offering me an
informative guest post on my blog instead? Or a
free manifesto with helpful tips? Or a
piece of entertainment?




Your blog or site just focuses on selling books, and not providing anything of value
beyond informing people how to buy your book.



Maybe you're not committing flagrant online self-promotion sins. The next question
to ask is how patient you are. I talk to writers who get discouraged if they don't
see results in a week, a month, half a year.




It takes longer than that. Don't expect to have an immediate impact.



There are many personal anecdotes I can share about the difference social media has
made in my life—many that I can't air in a public forum like this, but I would share
with you over a bourbon. (Catch me
at a conference.)



But here's at least one anecdote.



I opened my Twitter account in May 2008.

I started meaningfully using the Twitter account in fall 2008. (It took me that long
to wake up to its potential. This is often the case with any new tool.)



Publishers
Weekly mentioned me as someone influential on Twitter in May 2010, two years later.



Someone of importance read that article, Googled me, found
my website, and 3 months later, offered me a wonderful opportunity (an opportunity
I'll disclose later, in spring 2011).

I didn't start my Twitter account intending for #4 to happen. And #4 might not have
happened if I didn't have a solid and discoverable website that expanded
on who I am.



All of these online pieces work together and reinforce one another—which is another
important thing people forget when arguing social media doesn't work.



So. Your social media involvement and platform building won't work as a one-time effort
(though, of course, you might have a specific campaign for a specific book that's
very strategic, which is excellent).




You have to be consistent and focused over the course of your career.




Most importantly, it has to be about more than selling books—or whatever your goal
might be. It has to be about what you stand for, and who you are. (Go
read Justine Musk's great post on this.)



Otherwise you will fail.



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

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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

The secret ingredient to a powerful
author platform


@justinemusk

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

An agent on common problems he sees in query
letters that fail


@elizabethscraig



Excel For Authors – Agent and Editor Research


@elizabethscraig



Do agents remember things they've rejected?


@Kid_Lit



The 2 Non-Artistic Professions Running the Artistic World
of Contemporary Fiction


@BubbleCow

Craft & Technique

Looking for gaps in your story? Ask yourself
these 8 questions


@inkyelbows



Writerisms and other Sins: A Writer's Shortcut to Stronger
Writing


@AdviceToWriters

Publishing News & Trends

Things I Thought at BookCamp, But
Did Not Say (my thoughts were similar, some spoken)

@jasonashlock

@glecharles



Practical advice on how to use Kickstarter to fund
your publishing project


@GalleyCat



"Knowledge isn't power without context" Thoughts on
Authors, Bookscan, and Amazon


@sarahw

@jasonashlock

Self-Publishing
and E-Publishing

Top
5 discussion forums for self-publishers


@JFbookman




Single father & self-published fantasy author
went from poverty to earning $18,000 a quarter


@GalleyCat



Poetry e-book made New Yorker's 11 Best Poetry Books
of 2010 list; find out how the e-book was made


@eBookNewser

Marketing and Promotion

Facebook
Marketing in 6 Steps: "People want to join something that identifies them."


@marketingsherpa



On community. creating intimate spaces in a digital
world. great post by @gwenbell


@justinemusk



This is handselling now. (Reduce friction, eliminate
obstacles to discovery and purchase.)


@glecharles

@MoriahJovan

Social Media

My
Top 5 list for writers to follow


@robertleebrewer

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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There's No Rule That Says You Get Steadily Better

A guy who once thought he'd be a poet (then realized years later how bad his work was) decided to make a documentary about bad writing.

He interviews more than a dozen established writers, including people like Margaret Atwood, Steve Almond, David Sedaris, and Lee Gutkind. (The title of this post is a direct quote from Atwood.)





The documentary isn't currently enjoying wide distribution, but there are some wonderful
moments in the trailer. Watch below, and/or visit
the site for "Bad Writing: The Movie."




Hat tip to one of my writing students, Brett
Valls, for finding and sharing this with me.












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Give Your Writing the Gift of Structure & Discipline

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I loved school growing up. I didn't know it then, but I thrived on the structure and
discipline of study. I always felt more productive when in school. (Work later served
the same purpose—feelings of creativity and productivity.)



But I have exactly the opposite inclinations in my personal life. No structure, no
restrictions, no discipline; leaf blowing in the wind, moving with the stream, going
wherever the mood takes you.



(Which is why it is probably so very dangerous for me to be without a formal office
or job! But that's a blog post for my personal site.)



So, when I want to get serious about an endeavor, I have to set up a structure or
a system to hold me accountable. Even if it's something I'm passionate about, I can't
leave it to my whims, desires, or However-Whenever-Whatever mantras.



And I was struck by the universality of this as I served as executive editor of NOVEL
IN 30 DAYS, a special Writer's Digest publication that will hit newsstands in
mid-January 2011.



One of the reasons novel-writing systems are so popular (why NaNoWriMo is
so popular!) is that you have to dedicate yourself—you have to really commit yourself—to
accomplishing something.



I
used to think that obsessing over commitment was silly—that it did not free you
at all—but I'm changing my mind.




(Find some more
thoughts here, as well as here;
this is an issue where I keep a healthy internal debate going.)



Teaching at a university is transforming how I see the issue, too. Playing free and
loose with a class will result in sloppy student work. While everyone wants the freedom
to be creative, we also need expectations set, for which we're then held accountable.




Which is why I want to share this message with you:


If you want to accomplish something in your writing life, you have to set up a structure
if you want to succeed. Maybe it's morning pages, maybe it's a weekly word count goal,
maybe it's sitting down for 15 minutes at least one time a day, even if nothing gets
written.



But somehow, you have to decide and commit, or else you're not serious about it. And
(maybe worst of all), other people won't take you seriously, either.

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