On November 17th, Harlequin announced they were starting a line of self published book called Harlequin Horizon.  Their site said, “The intent behind creating Harlequin Horizons is to give more aspiring romance writers and women’s fiction writers the opportunity to publish their books and achieve their dreams without going through the submission process with a traditional publishing house.”

 

This started a big stir in the industry.  Bestselling author Nora Roberts was among those who voiced their concerns and Harlequin romance authors were not happy about being confused with self-published authors.  The Romance Writers of America’s declared that the publisher would no longer be eligible for certain resources at the organizations conference. 

 

The Science Fiction Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America also issued statements criticizing the new venture.  The SFWA’s concern was that the new venture’s “sole purpose appears to be the enrichment of the corporate coffers at the expense of aspiring writers.”  They declared that “NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA.”

 

The MWA had even broader concerns, saying that they wrote to Harlequin on November 9 to express dismay over a separate paid offer, the “eHarlequin Manuscript Critique Service,” suggesting the “removing mention of this for-pay service entirely from its manuscript submission guidelines, clearly identifying any mention of this program as paid advertisement, and, adding prominent disclaimers that this venture was totally unaffiliated with the editorial side of Harlequin, and that paying for this service is not a factor in the consideration of manuscripts.”

 

The blogs are buzzing, too.  While Harlequin has not altered the self-publishing offering itself, they are removing the name Harlequin from the line.

CEO Donna Hayes expressed surprise and dismay at the industry reaction.  Nora Roberts said, “Taking the Harlequin name off is important, but it doesn’t address what Horizons is, or all those links on their website, or directing rejected authors to Horizons as another channel to publication, and so on.”

Here are some great blog entries:

John Scalzi’s Whatever Blog:  Harlequin, If You’re Not Going To Act Like a Real Publisher – We’re Not going to Treat You Like One

Janet Reid, Literary Agent Blog:  C’mon Harlequin, Don’t Blow Smoke Up Our Asterisk

Michael Hyatt’s blog – Leading the Way:  Why Agents May Be Opposed To Self-Publishing

Publisher’s Weekly:

Many authors think, “Whew, I wrote, I revised and I managed to get a contract, now my job is done.”  Wrong!  Now your job is just beginning.  Even if you aren’t a person who likes the limelight, you have an obligation to yourself and your publisher to do everything you can do to make your book a success.  Heck, you do want another contract, right?  Well, that’s not going to happen unless you put every effort into making your book a success.  Oh, I guess, once you get to the Richard Peck or Jerry Spinelli level, you can sit back and relax with the security of knowing that your fans will automatically flock to the bookstores the day your new book comes out.  But for the rest of us, we need to work to push our way up to that spot where the Peck’s and Spinelli’s are sitting at their desk writing.

Hopefully, you have already been developing a database of names by attending conferences, joining associations and volunteering to do things, but if you haven’t, now is the time to start. You need to start creating your own noise.  Postcards, flyers, bookmarks, and a well designed website is a good start, but you need to go further.  Most authors think of radio and TV, but feel they would never be able to get that job done, so they never try.  I say, go for it.  They both can be had.

A guest spot on a local radio or TV show can get the word out about your book to thousands of consumers and that is definitely worth your effort.  Now the question is:  What steps do I take to make it happen?

Well first, stay up on the news. Listen to the radio, read newspapers, watch TV. Has something happen that could tie in with your book?  Example:  Trains play a big role in your story and a big train crash occurs in your area.  You may be able to peak the interest of a radio broadcaster by pitching how your story ties in and how his or her listeners would be interested in the things, you learned about trains while researching your book.   Maybe your main character pole dances and a new study comes out about the risks of heart disease for Americans gaining too much weight; that would open the door for you to talk about the health benefits of pole dancing.  Once you have an angle or tie-in to a current news story, put together a press release that positions you as an expert on this issue and sells them on why they should have you as a guest.  You need to pitch your expertise as a solution to a problem that’s making news.

Local radio shows on the 250-watt or 1,000-watt AM stations are a great place to start. Internet radio is becoming more popular and could be another good venue to try.  Weekend programs radio shows usually are looking for guests.  For TV go after your local morning news programs or weekend lifestyle segments.  Community-access cable can be relatively easy to get on and will provide you with experience.  This would be a good way to build up your confidence on camera.  A New Jersey SCBWI member, Johan Dahan landed her very own local TV show by pitching herself and her dog to a cable TV director who was running between studio buildings.

          Most TV interviews are going to be very short — three to five minutes at most — so you really must know your message before you go on the air.  PRACTICE!  The more interviews you do, the more buzz you will build.  Talk radio interviews typically are done from your home or office, so that part is easy.  You’ll want to make yourself available at a moment’s notice, day or night, because anytime you’re on the air, you’re going to boost your book’s visibility and sales.

Media is all about entertainment, so remember you need to sparkle on air. Enthusiasm speaks loud and clear, so in order to keep the audience attentive you need to maintain a high level of interest throughout the interview.  You want to be both informative and entertaining, not boring. Do that and you’ll find the host jumping in to help you promote your message.  So when you do have an interview, close your office door, turn off your cell phone, then relax and be yourself. After your first appearance, don’t be too hard on yourself. No one bats a home run the first time at the plate. Just try to be as comfortable as possible and as prepared as you can be, then enjoy yourself.

Reprint from Sprouts Magazine, written by Kathy Temean ©2008

Tara Lazar says:

Sharpen those pencils, open a Word document, grab a crayon. It doesn’t matter what you use, what matters is that you get an initial idea down. You might get such a great idea you can’t help but write the story immediately, or you might just record the first entry in this month’s idea file and leave it for a future burst of creativity.

Everyone who takes the December 1st PiBoIdMo pledge (“I do solemly swear that I have 30 ideas stashed in a Word doc, doodled in a notebook, or scrawled on the back of grocery receipts”) will be placed in a random drawing for a grand prize:

A literary agent will review your best five ideas and suggest the picture book concepts worth pursuing.  The agent will tell you if an idea has been done before or if it’s unique and well-suited to today’s market. Then the writing is up to you. This isn’t a critique, but simply an agent’s best professional opinion regarding which ideas are worth your time. And time is gold in this industry.

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, there’s THREE grand prizes!

One winner will be assigned to Jill Corcoran of Herman Agency Inc.,one will be shipped off to Lauren E. MacLeod of Strothman Agency, and the third gets Elana Roth of Caren Johnson Literary Agency. Thanks to the agents for their time (remember, time=gold) and expertise!

So, as you’re formulating your ideas this month, make an effort to flesh them out. The agents will want at least a sentence about each concept. You can only send five ideas if you win a grand prize, so polish them like you would a trophy! A grand prize trophy!

December 1st: Take the PiBoIdMo “30 ideas in 30 days” pledge
December 4th: Grand prize winners chosen at random from pool of pledgers, receive agent assignment
December 7th: Grand prize winners must contact agent by today
December 14th: Grand prize winners receive feedback by today (this date subject to change)

Great idea!  If you are just seeing this today, you have to play catch-up.  You need 30 ideas by the end of the month.  If you haven’t checked out Tara Lazar’s blog you should.  I call her the Queen of Blogging.

And Remember to write down some ideas and visit Tara on December 1st and take the pledge.  I thought of five today.   Kathy

Today on Twitter Agent Rachelle Gardner said, “Frustrates me how many people “mass query” without regard to who reps what. And they’re not reading my tweets either!”  This made me visit her blog and got me thinking that I should remind writers to do their homework, before sending something out – not only to agents, but to editors, too.  Work smarter, not harder.  It doesn’t take too much time to do a little research before you send something out to an editor or agent.  I thought Rachelle had some good points on her blog.  Here is what she says:

First and foremost, I’m looking for writers who are ready for publication. This means: You have NOT simply sent me the first draft of the first book you’ve ever written, but rather you’ve studied the craft of writing, read books about it, taken classes or workshops, and honestly approached writing as the serious art, craft, and business that it is. You’ve taken the time to get objective feedback on your book or proposal, and revised and polished accordingly. You’ve read a lot about the publishing industry to find out how it works (on the hundreds of blogs, websites and books readily available). You’ve researched agents and tried to find the ones who might fit the type of work you’re doing.

Her area of focus is the Christian Market.  She is looking for books that don’t contradict a Christian worldview.  

What she is NOT looking for?
→ Novellas or short format fiction
→ Poetry
→ Short stories
→ Screenplays
→ Graphic novels
→ Children’s picture books.
→ Science fiction or fantasy for any age.
→ Anything that contradicts a Christian worldview.
→ Personal stories of overcoming adversity… unless your story has built-in marketing potential and an obvious media hook.
Kids:
NO children’s, middle grade, or YA books until further notice.

Now-a-days there is no excuse for not checking someone out before submitting to them, so do your homework.  It will help you to become successful in what you want to accomplish.  Read the rest of what has Rachelle has to say at: http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-women-want.html

Hope you found this helpful,

Kathy

On Sunday Agent Scott Treimel joined a small group of writers in Princeton, NJ to discuss the elements of novel writing by going through the first ten pages and synopsis for the 15 people attending.  I wish we had made this a two-day event, since Scott is a wealth of knowledge and the day ended with so much more to kick around.  Anyone who has met Scott knows he does not pull any punches, but that is exactly what you need when you want to make your novel the best it can be.

I thought I would share two of the books, he thought we should have on our bookshelf.  The first one is THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE by Strunk and White.  The book begins with eleven “Elementary Rules of Usage,” then continues with eleven more “Elementary Rules of Composition,” and eleven “Matters of Form.” Each is presented as a brief statement followed by another sentence or two of explanation and a few clarifying examples. This  compilation fills only thirty-eight pages, yet covers ninety percent of good writing fundamentals. Another nice feature of the book is an alphabetical listing of commonly misused words and expressions.  At the end of the book there is an essay on “An Approach to Style” with a list of twenty-one “Reminders.”  Well, worth the price of $7.95 for this 56 page book on Amazon.

The second book he recommended is STEERING THE CRAFT by Ursula K. LeGuin.  She likens writing to “steering a craft,” and as one reads through the book, one has the sense of floating down a river, with the waves of Le Guin’s words lapping at one’s craft. Le Guin veers sharply from the mainstream of contemporary writing manuals by challenging their very definition of story. While it is common to “conflate story with conflict,” Le Guin writes, she finds that limiting. “Story is change,” she says. While that change may be the result of conflict, it is just as likely to evolve from “relating, finding, losing, bearing, discovering, [or] parting.” Le Guin demonstrates this complexity with well-hewn excerpts from the works of such writers as Jane Austen, Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charlotte Brontë, and especially Virginia Woolf. The many aspects of fine fiction writing Le Guin addresses here include the role of the narrative sentence (its “chief duty [is] to lead to the next sentence–to keep the story going”); avoiding exposition doldrums (“break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build the story with”); and the concept of “crowding and leaping.” While prose should be “crowded with sensations, meanings, and implications,” don’t forget that “what you leave out is infinitely more than what you leave in.”

She also includes a handful of clever writing exercises.  This 180 page book sells for $10.17.  Both books may already be on your book shelf already.  If they are, dust them off and if they aren’t, put them on your holiday wish list.

The one thing that Scott beat all of us up about, was omitting needless words.  They were everywhere.  We all hear that all the time, but apparently we need to put a big sign in our offices that screams, “OMIT USELESS WORDS!”

Of course if you are doing NaNoWriMo, wait until the end of the month to cut – then be ruthless.

Kathy

Erica Sussman, Editor, HarperCollins Children’s Books joined us in Princeton on October 25th for the NJSCBWI Mentoring Workshop.  I thought I would share a little about Erica with you.

www.harpercollinschildrens.com  www.harperteen.com    

 Bio:  Erica is an editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she acquires and edits middle grade (tween) and teen novels. She is the editor of the #1 bestselling Warriors series by Erin Hunter, and works with Aprilynne Pike, the nationally bestselling author of Wings. She also edits books by Joseph Bruchac, Jill Kargman, and Carrie Karasyov, and series including Magic Pony Carousel by Poppy Shire and My Sister the Vampire by Sienna Mercer. She is also closely involved with the Little House program.  Erica is interested in Middle Grade (especially girl focused,) Young Adult, Paranormal, Fantasy, and Edgy books.

Children’s Writing Mentoring Workshop

Date:  January 17, 2010

Where:  Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ

Editors and Agent Mentors:

Allison Wortche, Asst. Editor, Knopf and Crown
Adriana Dominguez, Agent, Full Circle Literary
Kelly K. Smith, Senior Editor, Children’s Dept. Sterling Publishing

Price:  $195 – includes continential breakfast, lunch and one-on-one critique with mentor

Registration Form – http://www.newjerseyscbwi.com/forms/mentorform-100117.pdf

DEADLINE: December 13th, 2009 to register and submit.

Submit:  First 30 pages and short (1-2 pgs) synopsis for Middle Grade and Young Adult. Send full text for Picture Books. 

More Details:  http://www.newjerseyscbwi.com/events/mentoring%20workshop%20description.pdf

Hope you can join us.

Kathy

Harper Children’s executive editor Susan Rich has joined Little, Brown Children’s in the new position of editor-at-large.  She will edit a new series from Lemony Snicket, the YA novel by Daniel Handler, and other titles. 

Laura Swerdloff has joined Sterling as an editor. She was previously an associate editor at Broadway.

At St. Martin’s, Alyse Diamond has been promoted to editor, continuing to report to Kathy Huck. Her focus since 2005 has been on nonfiction, though she also acquired a middle-grade fiction series.

Daniel Nayeri will join Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Clarion imprint as editor at the end of the month. He has worked as a children’s librarian, a literary agent, and an in-house and freelance editor–and is the coauthor of the YA novel, Another Faust.

1. Observe and listen to how people talk.  If you are writing for young children, find a place where you can sit and listen.  Libraries have special events for young children.  Talk to the children’s librarian to see if you can sit in and observe.  Talk to a friend who has children the same age as your characters.  Perhaps you can wrangle an invitation to a party.  Make sure you take lots of notes.  Author Carolyn Mackler writes for teen.  One of the things she attributes to her success is finding a coffee shop where teens hang out after school.  She makes a point of getting a table before school lets out and waits with her journal ready to take notes on what they say and how they say it – what they wear and how they look.
2. Make it real.  People use slang.  They use contractions.  They don’t always talk in full sentences and even when they do, we don’t need to include all of it.  Edit out the filler words and speech that doesn’t contribute to your plot in some way. 
3. Break up dialogue with action.  Just as long paragraphs with lots of information dumped in about past happenings drags down a story, so does endless dialogue.  Break it up with text that shows the reader physical things going on.  The person pauses and looks over her glasses and says something else.  The girl talks, flips her hair and continues talking.
4. Don’t Overdo Dialogue tags.  Try to stick to “he said/she said”.  Getting too creative with your tags draws attention away from your dialogue and that is what needs to be the focus.  In the revision process look for all the places where you can remove “He said/she said.”  If only two people are talking you don’t need to use a tag on every exchange.
5. Don’t go overboard with slang and profanity.  They can be distracting and you run the risk of alienating your reader.
6. Stay clear of dialect.  Unless you are from a certain area, region or country, you shouldn’t try to write in that dialect.  To write more than a few sentences requires the expertise of someone from the region who is familiar with all the terms, inflections and meanings.  Consider your readers.  The different meanings, phonetic spelling and dropped endings can slow the story, make it harder to read and become irritating.  In fact you could lose the reader all together.

Hope this gives you some ideas to improve your dialogue.  Let me know. 

Kathy

Anton Chekhov is famous for writing in 1889, “One must not put a rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it.”  This can be applied to every character and event in your story, no matter what genre you are writing.

1.   Starting out by making an outline of your plot can help you keep out irrelevant characters and incidents.  It can also help you to notice when things are in wrong places or not needed at all.  This time spent up front could save you a lot of time in the future.

2.   Kick off your novel with a bang.  You want to hook your readers right away.  Making an outline will help you with this, by keeping you focused on moving your story forward.

3.   Be Careful of Flashbacks. An outline will help you see if there is a better way to tell your story.

4.   Quickly accelerate your story to a level of action.  (remember story arc.)

5.   Don’t explain everything.  Let your story tell itself.  Many writers will dump all their background information in one place.  Better to work it into your story.  You’ve heard it time and time again – Show, Don’t tell. 

6.   Let your characters speak through dialogue.  Include sounds, smells, visual details, and things only your main character could see.

7.   A writer needs to create characters that we (the reader) cares about.  If we don’t, then our reader will not want to make the journey with them.  The reader needs to identify with your main character or somehow care about their quest.  Your characters need to change and develop over the course of the book.  Even your villains need to be interesting.

8.   As you create those wonderful characters, remember to have them interact with moments of drama and suspense.  You need to keep the intensity rising, then sustain a high pitch, before leveling off and gradually come down to earth.  (Story arc, again.)

9.   Remember to give your ending an emotionally satisfying closure.

10. When you finish writing, read your manuscript aloud to help you decide how to revise.

NaNoWriMo writers – How’s it going?  Maybe you can use this at the end of the month.

Kathy