AuthorPlanet

A sweet spot between traditional and self-publishing

Query Letters #2: That First Sentence (or, Writers, it’s Attitude Adjustment Time)

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Don Corleone

Query Letter Scans--It's Strictly Business

This is the Second Entry in Our

Literary Agents. Do. Not. Have. To. Read. Your. Query Letter.

I write this so stridently to reduce your anxiety.

Time and again I run into unpublished writers who believe, sincerely, that the literary agent’s job is to read and respond to to their unsolicited queries. This is NOT the agent’s reality.  The lit agent’s job is to effectively and collaboratively guide the careers of the clients who have hired her to represent them.  She is paid for this work, either [Read more…]

Query Letters: Jody’s Seven Goals

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relaxing woman

Don't Sweat the Query

Query letters.  Yet again.

Holy smokes there’s a lot of query letter advice out here on the World Wide Web.   

And like everything in information-overload-land, that’s good and bad–it’s terrific for writers to have easy access to models and thoughtful counsel, but at the same time I’m a little concerned about the stressing out I see–the agony over each detail in each query; and the stridency of the dogma.  As in, “All query letters must start with x, end with y, and never, never include Popsicles.” 

Query letters are crucial, don’t get me wrong.  And yes, each book pitch does have to include some standard elements, like, well, the title of the book. 

But ultimately each letter is as individual as the book that is being pitched and the author who is writing it.  So rather than trying to fit your query into someone else’s mold, I suggest you sit back, take a deep breath, scribble out a quick rough draft, and [Read more…]

The Big Year Becomes a Movie

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The Big Year by Mark Obmascik

Fantastic Read: THE BIG YEAR

So what’s it like when a literary agent represents a book that becomes a major movie? 

Ummm, well…I have a poster.  And, to be fair, although movie money for book people isn’t what movie money is for movie people, I’ve got no complaints.  But that money came and went a long time ago–Jack Black isn’t giving my kids guitar lessons, Owen Wilson hasn’t asked me out to dinner, and Steve Martin [Read more…]

New York Times Says Publishers are Terrified

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The mind boggles, sometimes, at the unnecessary hyperbole in writings about the publishing industry , especially online.  I’ll do my best to temper the frenzy I see with the facts I know.

Today: wacko omissions from The New York Times and the mind-boggling mixup by the National Book Awards  (who got book titles confused & included the wrong book when [Read more…]

Digital Book Proposals: Jody’s Five Keys

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Digital book proposals are here to stay, and while I kicked and screamed about it for quite a while, at some point about a year ago I decided to take it as my own personal challenge.  I pride myself on thinking like as an editor as well as thinking like an agent, so I said to my editor-self: “What’s different about how you experience a book proposal when you’re reading it on a Kindle?”  And I answered, “Wow, I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s actually a pretty different feeling!”  

I checked out my hypothesis at BEA last spring with a very official survey (“Hey, editor friend, do you react differently to a printout than to a digital proposal?”  Answer: “Well, [Read more…]

Book Proposals Go Digital #1

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 Book proposals are read on Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers, and that should mean something to you if you’re writing or selling nonfiction.  

I will explain.

When I picture myself in any of my three corporate book publishing editorial jobs I always see a multicolored stack of two-pocket folders in a wire basket on one corner of my desk.  I often knew which proposals were from which agent by the color of the folder.  Smart move, I thought, so I copied it when I opened my agency.  I hoped the book editors who were now on the other side of my desk would move the “Jody Rein navy blue” folders to the top of their “read” piles, as I had done with literary agents whose taste I paticularly respected. I’ve been known to be painstaking in preparing the physical presentation from books sold through my agency, even going to far as to hand-stick little gold sparkly stars on the label of a proposal for a satirical work.  Just before packing the proposals into their 25 or 30 Fed Ex packages (score one big advantage for email), I would sit at my desk and stare at a the proposal, open and closed, complete with my pitch letter snuggled into the right hand pocket.  I’d rifle through the pages as presented, attempting to channel my old editor self into the physical interaction with the pitch–it did make a difference (we are all human, after all).

Now–throw that all out the window.

Proposals are now almost exclusively sent, and [Read more…]

The True Cost of Cheap Ebooks

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Self publishing advocates clamor for cheap cheap cheap when it comes to ebooks.  The argument goes, basically, just look at the costs!  I can put an ebook online for less than $500; in fact, I can pop it up on Amazon or BN.com for free!  There’s no paper; there’s no binding; there’s no production.  Why not make all books accessible to the masses, price them low as possible and make books truly a medium of the people, by the people and for the people?

Why not?

Because in doing so you destroy what you love.

Even Jeffrey Trachtenberg, in his WSJ article today about the “less expensive” nature of digitized books that is already zooming around the Twitterverse misses the point. Mike Shatzkin comes much closer to my point of view, but perhaps with less personal investment.  This feels personal to me, this devaluing of the medium in which I’ve invested a lifetime.  

I believe in equality and fair play in access to education, health care and opportunity.  I believe in innovation and forward-thinking.  And I believe that not all books, and not all writers are created equal.  

Whether by natural gift or by many years of hard work and schooling, the work of those relatively rare writers once filtered through to the public only by traditional publishers** still  deserve to be lauded, paid, promoted, edited and wrapped in a package that signifies something special.  Cheap ebooks leave no room to pay for this, and level not only the playing field, but the stands and the bleachers and even the parking lot.  Everyone plays…and everyone loses.

(Here’s my comment on the article.)

**A clarification–I also believe the large corporations that turned a lovely little industry populated by many small & mid-size publishers  into the current “Big Six” behemoth landscape  do indeed close the doors to many deserving authors.  Self publishing and small presses are now necessities.  But driving down ebook prices for all is not the answer.  

In Praise of Rarifying Books (Sort of)

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Holy smokes, have I just endorsed book censorship?  Yes– and no! 

Steve Himmer, in his lovely essay “Making Room for Readers” on the fab TheMillions, advocates aggressively encouraging children to read, and removing any barriers that can be seen as “rarifying” the book.

I disagree.  Huh???

OK.  I agree with the first part: a book-encouraging environment is necessary to raise readers—but I’m not so sure I buy the negative interpretation of the obstacles Mr. Himmer found in his way.

Because I’m all for obstacles in book publishing and constraints on reading—if those obstacles and constraints reinforce the essential value… [Read more…]