Here's a peak at what I'm reading right now:
The suicide index : putting my father's death in order / Joan Wickersham.
Blue genes : a memoir of loss and survival / Christopher Lukas.
Old friend from far away : the practice of writing memoir / Natalie Goldberg.
The chocolate jewel case : a chocoholic mystery / JoAnna Carl.
First draft in 30 days : a novel writer's system for building a complete and cohesive manuscript / Karen Wiesner.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Dilettante
My husband teased me the other day by calling me a dilettante when it comes to my writing. Like all jokes, it had a grain of truth in it. Actually, more than just a grain. In the past three months, I've gone from editing my memoir to finishing my mystery to polishing my YA novel and, finally, to writing a picture book.
I know that the rule is that you should write what you love to read. The truth is that I love to read everything! So this feeds into my writing anxiety -- am I doing the best thing by working on whatever it is I'm working on at the moment? Do I need to focus more? I suspect that the answer is "yes" to both questions.
I know that the rule is that you should write what you love to read. The truth is that I love to read everything! So this feeds into my writing anxiety -- am I doing the best thing by working on whatever it is I'm working on at the moment? Do I need to focus more? I suspect that the answer is "yes" to both questions.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Marketing Weekend
No matter what business you're in, you have to learn how to sell yourself. I'm a lot better at this when I'm at a corporate interview than when I'm trying to sell a book because of the normal attachments to a creative work. After all, when I go for an interview for a technical writing job, I know that the company expects a certain set of skills or personality and I have to prove that I'm capable of fulfilling their needs. With a book, I have no idea what specific things the agent or publisher is looking to acquire, what they're sick of seeing. Plus, my book is finished. It's not like I can put some sort of spin on it to convince them that it's what they want. Finally, it's something I created! I won't go so far as to say that my books are like my baby, but it is a lot more personal.
When you're looking for a new job, it takes a lot of time -- it's often said that finding a new job is a full-time job. Trying to find an agent or a publisher can be the same way. Once I get in the zone of researching people to compose that perfect, individualized letter, I can't stop. I want to know everything about all of the people on my list (which usually starts with just a couple, and grows to close to 100, depending on genre).
Many agents today accept queries via email, which is wonderful and terrible. It's great to get a quick response, especially considering that about a third of my queries still feel like they go out into the ether. A fair number of agents still say, "We'll respond if we're interested." The trouble with quick responses is that I immediately want to send out another submission. I like to have at least 5 queries out at once (obviously, only to people who accept simultaneous submissions). This brings out my obsessive side. If I let myself submit another query for every quick rejection, I'll never actually write anything new!
So I've established the first weekend of every month as a marketing weekend. I set different goals for the two books that I'm currently trying to sell: 5 agent queries and X submissions to publishers who don't require agent representation. Publishers take a lot longer to respond to submissions than agents, so that number can be anywhere from 0-3.
This weekend is a little different, however. Word on the street is that nothing gets done in publishing between Thanksgiving and New Year's. So instead of submitting queries, I'm going to post my mystery query letter to a new workgroup I've joined. Hopefully, by Jan. 2 I'll have a better letter!
When you're looking for a new job, it takes a lot of time -- it's often said that finding a new job is a full-time job. Trying to find an agent or a publisher can be the same way. Once I get in the zone of researching people to compose that perfect, individualized letter, I can't stop. I want to know everything about all of the people on my list (which usually starts with just a couple, and grows to close to 100, depending on genre).
Many agents today accept queries via email, which is wonderful and terrible. It's great to get a quick response, especially considering that about a third of my queries still feel like they go out into the ether. A fair number of agents still say, "We'll respond if we're interested." The trouble with quick responses is that I immediately want to send out another submission. I like to have at least 5 queries out at once (obviously, only to people who accept simultaneous submissions). This brings out my obsessive side. If I let myself submit another query for every quick rejection, I'll never actually write anything new!
So I've established the first weekend of every month as a marketing weekend. I set different goals for the two books that I'm currently trying to sell: 5 agent queries and X submissions to publishers who don't require agent representation. Publishers take a lot longer to respond to submissions than agents, so that number can be anywhere from 0-3.
This weekend is a little different, however. Word on the street is that nothing gets done in publishing between Thanksgiving and New Year's. So instead of submitting queries, I'm going to post my mystery query letter to a new workgroup I've joined. Hopefully, by Jan. 2 I'll have a better letter!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
How Mysteries Saved Me, Although Now I'm Writing a Picture Book
When I finished graduate school I thought I'd never want to read a book again. And I certainly never wanted to write another word. This was my ... 1/3-life crisis? Let's hope I live that long!
My first "book" was a picture book about Hello Kitty (I was 4 years old -- I knew nothing about intellectual property back then) that I dictated to my mother. After I became literate, I still wanted to dictate to her because her handwriting was better ... yeah, she wasn't having that after a while. Around the same age I remember staring at the pages in books, willing the black text to make sense because I wanted to read so badly.
But after graduation, all I knew was that I wanted to be somewhere, anywhere other than where I was. And my job was deadly boring. So I picked up an audiobook of M.C. Beaton's Death of a Dreamer to play at work and remembered why I loved to read.
Then I found a copy of James Frey's How to Write a Damn Good Mystery and realized I should give it a try. I'd always loved mysteries, but had been writing and trying (unsuccessfully) to publish children's books for about 10 years.
I finished my first cozy mystery two months ago and am currently workshopping it. I'm also plotting my next cozy.
But today I spent my writing hours reworking a picture book that I've wanted to write for a long time. It's based on the first middle-grade book I ever wrote (which, although I didn't realize it at the time, was a mystery!) that I think will be much better off as a picture book.
Of course, I'm besieged by the typical-of-me doubts: am I wasting my time? Am I just procrastinating?
Right now my mantra is: trust the process. Right now I feel the fire burning for the picture book. So tomorrow it's back to the picture book, and I will definitely get back to the mystery soon.
My first "book" was a picture book about Hello Kitty (I was 4 years old -- I knew nothing about intellectual property back then) that I dictated to my mother. After I became literate, I still wanted to dictate to her because her handwriting was better ... yeah, she wasn't having that after a while. Around the same age I remember staring at the pages in books, willing the black text to make sense because I wanted to read so badly.
But after graduation, all I knew was that I wanted to be somewhere, anywhere other than where I was. And my job was deadly boring. So I picked up an audiobook of M.C. Beaton's Death of a Dreamer to play at work and remembered why I loved to read.
Then I found a copy of James Frey's How to Write a Damn Good Mystery and realized I should give it a try. I'd always loved mysteries, but had been writing and trying (unsuccessfully) to publish children's books for about 10 years.
I finished my first cozy mystery two months ago and am currently workshopping it. I'm also plotting my next cozy.
But today I spent my writing hours reworking a picture book that I've wanted to write for a long time. It's based on the first middle-grade book I ever wrote (which, although I didn't realize it at the time, was a mystery!) that I think will be much better off as a picture book.
Of course, I'm besieged by the typical-of-me doubts: am I wasting my time? Am I just procrastinating?
Right now my mantra is: trust the process. Right now I feel the fire burning for the picture book. So tomorrow it's back to the picture book, and I will definitely get back to the mystery soon.
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