It’s fall now, and tis the season to start wrapping up loose ends before the holidays. Sure, there is always more to do but it’s also nice at this time of the year to be able to sit back a little and enjoy the fruits of our labor. This month our successes include some really fabulous reviews for our authors whose books have been flooding the shelves all summer. It’s a pleasure to share these with you — may your season be filled with equal amounts of happy news!

TIPS FROM THE SLUSH PILE by Sara Megibow
This is more of a marketing tip than a query letter tip, per se. Still, I find this to be an important step for all writers who take the business of publishing seriously. Before starting your submissions (whether to agents or directly to editors), make sure your web presence is polished and up-to-date. I know, I know — another thing to “polish” but believe me, it’s important. If I am reading sample pages that I like, the very first thing I do BEFORE asking for the full manuscript is a Google search for your website. Hopefully, you’ve included the url in your query letter but if not, I go on a hunt. No, it’s not a deal breaker if you’re not 100% web savvy, but I consider websites, blogs, etc., to be a part of the package, a part of the “resume,” so to speak. And, yes — I take it seriously.

1) If you don’t have an author website yet — get one. And get a professional one. Even if it’s a basic template, make sure it looks professional and has professional content on it.

2) If you don’t have an author blog, think seriously about starting one. Right now, blogging is a hot way to increase your own marketing. Next year maybe it will be something different, but for now, a great blog is #2 behind a great website. A few suggestions ... avoid blogging about how the book is going (i.e., avoid entries like this, “I wrote 80 pages today — yippee!” or “I am on chapter 10 and it’s giving me problems.”) The general masses aren’t going to read your blog and want to come back again and again to find out about your writing progress. Instead, have a hook or a spin to your blog. Is your book a Scottish Highland romance? Then, maybe your blog hosts some really fabulous in-depth information about Scottish clans and their histories! Also, at all costs, avoid blogging anything negative about your submission process (i.e., "so-and-so agent was SOOO rude" = oops.) This business is too small and interrelated to risk a blog entry like this - even if it was true.

3) Consider other social networking sites, but if you do — make them professional! My husband is a musician and he has had tremendous success with marketing through Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and youtube.com. So, check them out and see if they are right for you and if you have time to keep them up-to-date. If you go this route though, remember that agents and editors will probably take a look — so nix the drunken bikini shots from your last beach vacation. It’s a bummer, I know, to lose that kind of privacy and freedom. And, it’s just my opinion, but if you treat all these things like your resume instead of like your personal photo album, it’s a stronger professional representation of who you are.

4) Check out what other successful authors are doing. If all this information feels overwhelming, spend a few afternoons seeing what other people do, what kinds of information they post, what kinds of pictures, what kinds of questions they answer and what kinds of “spins” or “hooks” they use. Two great places to start — www.allycarter.com and www.sarahreesbrennan.com.

Sincerely,

Sara Megibow

WHAT’S HOT by Kristin Nelson
If one editor emails me about an interest, I make note, but I certainly don’t think it’s a candidate for making my newsletter entry for what’s hot. However, when I get two emails from two different editors from two different houses mentioning that they are looking for narrative nonfiction with heart (along the lines of DEWEY), then I’m willing to include it.

So that’s what editors are looking for as of late. And who can blame them? Animal stories are burning up the bestseller charts. And heartwarming is always good as we enter the holiday season.

THE STORY BEHIND THE SALE by Kristin Nelson
Oh, I’ve been waiting to tell this story! If you are a regular Pub Rants blog reader, then you’ve already heard this, but if you aren’t, then here’s a great tale about signing a client from a conference – the Surrey International Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, to be exact.

Janice had a ten minute pitch appointment. I’ve done hundreds of these over the years (without necessarily signing an author on as a client), so I didn’t have any particular expectation when Janice sat down across from me. But then she told me the title for her project – which was originally named The Pain Merchants. I was immediately intrigued and listened closely to her pitch. I asked for sample pages right then as well. After Janice exited the pitch area, I emailed Sara and asked her to be on the lookout for these pages. I wanted to read them as soon as they hit our electronic database.

In fact, I read them on the plane home from the conference via my Kindle. Soon after I gave her a call and signed Janice as a client. We went on to sell her trilogy for six figures. THE SHIFTER is the start of the Healing Wars series.

That was one great conference!

And in case you were wondering why the title changed, neither the US BN or Borders would carry a middle grade book with the word “pain” in the title. Whatever. Janice’s UK publisher kept the original title.

KRISTIN’S BOOK CLUB
My book club is meeting in two weeks and this time we’ve chosen the nonfiction title BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING by Malcolm Gladwell. Why did we settle on this title? Actually, for a practical reason. Several of our book club members already own the paperback but hadn’t had a chance to read it yet. In these tight economic times, it made sense to go with a title folks already had or could get easily from the library.

So, for November, we are reading about the snap judgment in a blink – a trait I imagine that most writers would prefer agents not use when reading their query letters. Grin.


ON SARA’S NIGHTSTAND
Last year while on vacation, I read MOON CALLED by Patricia Briggs. I enjoyed it so much that I sent my husband out at 10 p.m. to get the sequel for me (BLOOD BOUND). It’s a fun memory — me, sitting up in the hotel room trying to finish a good book while reading under the covers and trying to keep our toddler asleep. Then, right before all the bookstores in the area closed, I sent him out on the urgent I-must-read-more errand. I went on to read the whole series during that vacation and really enjoyed the unique take on the vampire/werewolf/shapeshifter story. So, when MOON CALLED came out this summer in graphic novel format, I went out and got a copy right away.

The graphic novel is called HOMECOMING and it’s beautiful! Of course, there were some scenes from the book that I missed (and some that were changed), but I really enjoyed being able to see the beautiful pictures and the powerful creatures come to life. If you’re up for reading an old favorite in a new format, try graphic novels — they can certainly be worth the adventure!

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