Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 238

The Power of an E-mail Network (10 Years in the Making)

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My Q&A with Hyla Molander—on her
success finding readers with Scribd—sparked many people to contact me about their
success too in using the site.



However, even before Hyla, I had met Ransom
Stephens, who is further along in his journey. His novel, The
God Patent, was recently released in print from Vox
Novus, after reaching the Scribd E-Novel Top 10 in 2009.




Here's Ransom's story. I think it illustrates the benefits that come with experimentation,
being first to a new platform...

4 Ways to Improve Narrative Drive in Your Story

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Today's guest post comes to you from historical novelist Sara
Sheridan, who appeared twice this week at the Edinburgh
International Book Festival and is about to join the Society of Authors Committee
for Scotland.




Here she posts from Edinburgh, summarizing her masterclass on Narrative Drive,
part of the innovative Nuts and Bolts series for aspiring writers at the Festival.




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Put simply, the most important thing about your manuscript, in terms of it getting
published, is th...

How to Ensure 75% of Agents Will Request Your Material

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While attending the Midwest Writers Workshop, I posted a summary of a talk given
by Marcus Sakey and John Gilstrap. Sakey
advised that query letters, if any good, would result in a 75% "send me something"
response.




I had no idea what a bomb I was throwing by tweeting and blogging that principle.
Thus, I asked Marcus to write a guest post further elaborating on it. Here he is!




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About two weeks ago I pissed a lot of you off.



I was attending the Midwest Writers Workshop at
the ...

Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 8/13/10)

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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.




Quick plug for upcoming Writer's
Digest online classes:




An
Insider's Guide to Landing a Book Deal, by publishing insider Alan
Rinzler




How
to Land an Agent, by Chuck
Sambuchino (our most popular webinar on finding an agent)

I'm Finally on the Cover of Writer's Digest

It's a tradition at Writer's Digest that when a staffer departs, they receive the Writer's Digest cover celebrity treatment.

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I recently accepted the post of visiting professor at the University
of Cincinnati, teaching e-media. It's a full-time teaching gig, though, so it
means stepping down from my position at Writer's Digest.



However, I'm keeping a contributor role—which means I'll still be blogging right here,
as well as contributing in other ways to the writing community. So don'...

Your Online Presence Can't Just Be a Gimmick (Or: Using Twitter Meaningfully While Unpublished)

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Today's Q&A is with Johanna
Harness, the founder of the #amwriting
community, which started on Twitter, but this group's activities extend far beyond
Twitter. I find Johanna to be a phenomenal example of an aspiring writer using social
media in a meaningful way. Read on!




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You're well-known as the founder of the #amwriting
hashtag. There's now a full community surrounding this hashtag (2,000 writers),
complete with Amazon Store and CafePress
merchandise.




While this community...

From Self-Published Author to 3-Book Deal: The Story of Kiera Cass

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Today's Q&A is with YA novelist Kiera Cass.
I received an excellent tip from 4KidLit that
Kiera had scored a 3-book deal with HarperTeen after self-publishing her first YA
novel, The
Siren, with iUniverse. Read on to find out more.




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I love that your bio on your homepage says,
"History is the storyteller's major. Don't be tricked into English." I majored in
creative writing during college and while I don't necessarily regret it, there are
so many other interesting things to...

5 Ways to Use Book Trailers to Drive Sales

Book trailers are one form of marketing that I've heard very few success
stories about. So I asked Darcy
Pattison, author of The Book Trailer
Manual , to share tips on how book trailers can be used as part of an effective
book marketing and promotion campaign.



If the idea of book trailers is new to you, you might want to take a look at these
articles and examples of trailers:



Why
Make a Book Trailer? Do They Work? (Arielle Ford, Huffington Post)



How
to Make a Book Trailer (some...

Online Marketing for Authors: Interactions Are Personal, Not Business

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Today's post offers up a Q&A with Mary
L. Tabor, who published her first book after the age of 60. I became interested
in her story because of her writing success later in life, and also because she chose
to blog her second book, a memoir, on sex
after sixty. Read on for excellent insights!






I'm often asked by people of, let's say, "advanced" age,
whether or not there is age discrimination when it comes to writing and getting published.
Thoughts on this?

The proof is in the...

Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 8/6/10)

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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.




Quick plug for upcoming Writer's
Digest online classes:




This week! Critique
series: Query Letters, by agent Rachelle
Gardner. Includes guaranteed critique of your 1-page query by Rachelle!





An
Insider's Guide to Landing a...