My mother knows how to text message. She also recently learned how to send picture messages. This is the woman who used to make me type letters for her because she said it would take twenty seconds for me to do something that would take her an hour. Now, she types her own letters. This is technological evolution. It exists in the Dobie family, and it exists in publishing.

That's why I just don't get it when authors aren't tech-savvy-when they don't even put effort into becoming tech-savvy. We aren't a society of typewriters and snail mail anymore. The internet is king, and we must bow at its feet. Yes, you may feel fear at first, like John Conner in Terminator 2, running from the robots. But you have to realize that without this evil online empire, you-and your book-will fail.

So, you ask, how do I make friends with the information super highway?

Well, listen, dear readers, and learn.

1)    Website AND Blog: Oh, the dreaded BLOG. Wait, don't skim ahead yet. I'll start with websites. You-and your book-need a website. This website is for both of you. It introduces you to fans. It puts a face by the name, and a cover image to the book. It makes you a person, not just a name on that fancy book's cover. You will be more likely to schedule events, garner media appearances, and increase sales if you are more than just a name. You, just like your readers, have a life outside of your work, and fans like to hear about it. Onto the blog. Blogs, for those of you who live in caves, are like online journals where you can write your daily thoughts and post news and upcoming events. Again, the idea here is to make you into a person-to make you of interest. You're selling your book, but you're also selling YOU. Get a website! Do it! It's the first step to tech-savvy.

2)    Google Alerts: I love Google alerts. Sure, hypothetically, they could be used as a fancy stalker method, tracing the activities and Facebook postings of ex-boyfriends. (Not that I know anything about it….) However, more importantly, they let you know when you make news. All you have to do is go to www.google.com/alerts. This takes you to a website where you can type in words and phrases you'd like to monitor. In other words, you should type in your name and the name of your book. That way, whenever you are mentioned on the web, you'll be sent an alert. I suggest posting any received media coverage on the website (that you created already, RIGHT?) so that other people can see how important and popular you are. You can also make friends with the media by sending them thank you emails whenever they write about you. People like the words "Thank You." Use them often. Being tech-savvy means being aware of what's out there, and Google Alerts will get you there.

3)    Free Press Release Distribution Services: If your first question is "What's a press release," we have bigger issues. Press releases help keep you in the limelight. (There are about a million websites with tips on writing these. Just search "press release" online, and you'll have more info than you ever could have wanted.) Anytime something good happens, you should be writing and distributing a press release to your local media and posting the press release on your website. Then, comes the tech-savvy part. Post your press releases on free press release distribution websites. Examples would be PR.com, PRlog.com, Pressexposure.com, and many, many others. These sites allow you to post your news for free. Here's the key-let's say Joe Shmo from Idaho wants to look up something about you. He types your name into a search engine, and things pop up: your WEBSITE, your BLOG, and then, press releases. He's taken to a press release distribution site, and he reads about your recent award won, conference appearance, etc. It's an online presence. It's your online presence, and it didn't cost you a thing. The fact is, the easier you are to find online, the better your chances are of success in this new publishing world of internet and text messages. So get out there and become tech-savvy…we'll all thank you for it.

Posted by: Sara Dobie

Dear writers,

One of the most frustrating parts of my job is not being able to answer the question, "but WHY did you reject my query letter?"

In general, I feel like our process is a good one. I read 100-150 query letters a day (takes me about an hour or two every day, including weekends). I request fewer than 10 sample pages each day out of the batch. Each of those writers receives a standard form from me which basically says, "Your query letter is intriguing, please submit the first 30 pages of your work." But, what happens to all the ones on whose work we pass? They receive a standard rejection letter. Our letter reads, in short, "Thank you for submitting to our agency, but this project is not right for us."

Frequently, a writer will respond to my rejection email and ask, "Can you give me any feedback?" or "What specifically would you like to see in my work?" or something like that. Unfortunately, I don't have time to respond to these emails, nor do I have time to write up critiques on the query letter itself. And, I admit, this does frustrate me. I wish the process were more human. I wish I had time to formulate thoughts for each submission. From a business perspective though, our time and energy needs to be focused on selling and promoting the books of the clients that we have already signed. If a work doesn't fit within our parameters, then it doesn't make sense (again as a business) to invest time with it.

So, here are some tips on where to go to get critiques of your work. Since I can't do it myself, hopefully these resources can help. It's my way of adding what humanity I can to this very difficult and overwhelming process. Best wishes to all of you!!!

1) Getting a critique of your manuscript can be challenging. Try:
- local writers groups
- writing conferences (like the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference here in Colorado)
- local chapters of big writers organizations (like Romance Writers of America)
- agents will often donate a free critique to charities - donate to a charity and win a critique (like the Brenda Novak Diabetes Auction every year)
- submit your manuscript to writing contests that are being judged by agents or editors (these frequently come with critique pages)

2) Getting a critique of your query letter is a bit easier as it is shorter and requires a shorter time investment by the reader
- review evileditor.blogspot.com (a blog where an editor tears apart query letters and shows writers how to make them stronger)
- www.writers.net (great overall help for new and experienced writers)
- read Kristin's query letter help at pubrants.blogspot.com
- hold your query letter up next to the back cover of a book. That's how it should read. Does it?

Posted by: Sara Megibow

Dear writers,

I just got back from attending the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Conference. I must say—it was one of the best organized and most enjoyable conferences I have ever attended! Well done COFW!!

Here are some tips for getting the most out of a conference:

1) Work up a one sentence pitch for your manuscript. That way when someone asks you, "what are you working on" you can respond quickly. This is what I'm thinking—something along the lines of, "A 100,000 word regency romance about an honorable duke bringing his mother home to care for her in her sickness, and the lovely country nurse who moves in with her." Or, "A 75,000 word edgy young adult manuscript about a military brat starting off her senior year of high school in yet another new town and the surprising bunch of rejects who befriend her." Write it up, make it short and practice reciting it aloud.

2) Attend as much of the conference as possible. I was excited about the quality of presentations all weekend in Ohio. Even if a writer attended without a finished manuscript to pitch he or she would have learned a LOT just by attending the workshops.

3) If you do have a finished manuscript, then try to attend a pitch session with an agent. Please remember that it's not much help if the manuscript isn't finished yet. Also, it will be most beneficial to you if you pitch to an agent who represents the genre of work that you write.

4) Relax. Especially during those pitch sessions. We know you are nervous—it's okay. Take a deep breath and go for it!

5) Finally..some tools—bring business cards—I received several of them and it helped me remember who was who. Always have a pad of paper and pen or a laptop or some way of writing notes. Have access to your query letter and manuscript—workshops may be available in which you can polish your work.
 
Conferences are a great learning tool for writers—I highly recommend them! Enjoy and have fun!

Posted by: Sara Megibow

Dear writers,

Let's say you've completed your manuscript and decided that you'd like to start off on the journey of getting it published. Now, let's say you've written and polished your query letter and are ready to start sending it to literary agents. How do you find legitimate agents? Here are some tips:

1) Visit the website www.agentquery.com. At this site, you can search for agents who represent works in your genre (very important as it's pretty much an automatic no if you submit to agents who don't represent works like yours). Make a list of agents (you may have somewhere between 50 and 150 names). This is an excellent first step.

2) Next, go to the website www.aar-online.org (The Association for Authors Representation) AAR posts a list of ethical guidelines for literary agents. Not all legitimate agents are members of AAR, but it is a great cross-reference and it is also good to know what you can expect from a literary agent and what is a red flag when dealing with agents.

3) Here's a huge red flag of which to be aware. The way we make our money at an agency is to sign on clients who have written a completed manuscript in a genre that we represent. Then, we make a list of editors at publishing houses that we know are buying works in this genre. We submit the manuscript to editors and hope that many of them say "Yes, we'd love to buy this book." Only AFTER we sell the book do we take 15% of the sale. If, in your agent hunt, anyone ever asks for money upfront, it is a red flag against working with that individual or company. We do not ask for payment to review your query letter, or sample pages or full manuscript. And no one else should either. There are editing services out there that you can pay to critique your work (we don't do this), but they are not agents. So be aware. In your agent hunt you should not be asked for money!

4)  After having found a list of agents that look interesting, spend some time visiting the websites of each. Yes, it may take some time, but it is well worth it! You are looking for an agency with posted sales in your genre. In addition, it is a good sign if an agent is selling to major publishing houses on a regular basis (including a multitude of different houses so you know you have an agent with lots of contacts)

5) If you are willing to spend a little money (somewhere around $20 a month I think), then join www.publishersmarketplace.com. On this website there is a "deals" section which lists titles sold to whom by whom and for how much (ranges are given to protect writer confidentiality, but it is still helpful)
It would be a good use of time to cross reference any agents to whom you are interested in submitting and see what kinds of sales they have been making over the past 2-3 years.

6) Now you have a list—a nice, researched, referenced and double-crossed list. Go ahead and send out your query letters. The next step in the process is that agents will respond—hopefully with a request to see some sample pages or a completed manuscript (another helpful tip—their turnaround time is also usually posted on their websites. You don't have to wait in the dark). If you have multiple offers (many of our clients have), it is completely legitimate to ask for a phone conference. You may be able to make your decision based on your gut feeling toward different agents.

7) Finally, last but not least—review the agency agreement between writer and agent. Assuming you have an offer from a legitimate agent, you should be offered a business contract. Go ahead and give it a close look and ask any questions that you need to. Now you are ready to embark upon a long and glorious relationship with a legitimate agent—Congratulations!

Posted by: Sara Megibow

Dear readers,

Welcome behind the scenes! ForeWord has offered me the opportunity to blog this month about the publishing world from the view inside a literary agency. Enjoy! If you post comments here, I will do my best to respond to any questions that may come up.
 
I am the assistant (also known as “the reader”) at Nelson Literary Agency (www.nelsonagency.com). We are actively acquiring clients who write science fiction, fantasy, romance, young adult, middle grade, commercial fiction, literary fiction and memoir. As most of you probably know, a literary agent works with a writer in order to sell their manuscript to a publishing house.
 
So, if you are a writer interested in being published, you may be hunting for an agent. And, how do you attract the attention of an agent? With an outstanding query letter!!!  A query letter includes a brief bio and a short description of your work. Nelson Literary Agency receives 100 or so submissions a day (35,000 query letters in 2007). My job is to read them all, send out the standard rejection letter for those that don’t fit our agency, and ask for sample pages (the first 30 pages of the work) for those query letters that pique our interest. Sounds like fun, huh?
 
In my experience, the query letter accurately represents  the quality of a manuscript. That’s how important it is. The question writers tend to ask me is, “What are you looking for? How can I make my query letter better?” Here are some answers:
1)    DO YOUR RESEARCH! Before you send your query letter make sure you understand the submission guidelines for any agency to which you would like to submit! The vast majority of rejection letters I send out go to writers that didn’t read our website and are submitting incorrect information. For example, we accept only email queries, but some agencies want snail mail, and some agencies want synopses instead of queries, and some want the first 100 pages of the book, etc.

2)    Get a good grasp of the genre of your work. Is your work a sexy regency historical romance or a paranormal young adult fantasy? You don’t have to be able to rattle off all the genres and subgenres out there, but you should know in general where your work falls. If you feel like you need direction, here’s a suggestion: walk into a bookstore and look around. Would you think to find your book on the shelves marked “fantasy” or “mystery” or “horror” or “romance.” That’s a good place to start. If it really isn’t that easy, try this, “My book is a completed work of fiction.” That’s enough for me! The trouble is that many, many query letters I read are for self-help books, or picture books, or spy novels. We don’t represent works in any of these genres. Of course, this goes back to point number one, which is read the submission guidelines before sending in your work. But also – know your genre!

3)    Make sure your work is completed – really completed. You query letter should read like this, “I have a COMPLETED work of fantasy” or “I’d like to submit my FINISHED 100,000 word romance novel.” If interested in your query letter, my first step is to request the first 30 pages of your work. It can be very frustrating to request a work and have someone email back, “well, it’s only in it’s first draft, can I check back with you when I’m finished?” I will have gone through tens of thousands of other submissions by then and my energy will be focused on someone else. Of course, we accept works that need editing, but in general edit, polish and double check your work before starting your agent hunt.

4)    Remember to include the title of your work, your contact information (especially your email address), and your name. These are little details that help us and make your query letter more professional.

5)    The meat of your query letter should be a paragraph (or two) which we call “the pitch.” It should sound exactly like the back cover of a novel – short, exciting, engaging, descriptive. To repeat the instructions above, we don’t want a synopsis (although some agencies do), and we don’t want character profiles or chapter titles, or plot points. If you want good practice at this, pick up some of the novels in your house (or at the bookstore again) and read the back cover. Then, try to copy the energy, the focus and the length of that type of paragraph and that is exactly what I am looking for.

6)    This may seem obvious, but remember to make your query letter short. Your bio can take up a paragraph and your pitch can take up a paragraph or so. And, that’s about it. Remember that I see about a hundred of these a day, so the more professional and concise the better chance that I will ask for sample pages.

7)    Despite the fact that I just said to make it short, I do want to see details. A sentence like this is powerful: “The hero and heroine don’t realize the king has hired them to defeat a slobbering were-bear when they accept a simple call to arms at the castle.” A sentence like this is not: “The hero and heroine have many adventures.”

8)    Finally, avoid reviewing your work. This is another way of reiterating that the pitch should sound like the back cover of a book. But, sentences like this do not help promote your work, “my writing is fast and exciting,” or “this book is geared toward teenage girls,” or “the voice of the hero is authentic.” Describe your work, don’t review it.

9)    As an added bonus, here are some helpful websites for more information on query letters and the query process:

Pubrants.blogspot.com  - (Kristin’s publishing blog. She has posted the original query letters for many of our clients – talk about a great resource!)

Evileditor.blogspot.com  - (an editor posts query letters, reviews them, comments and makes changes. See the evaluation process as it happens!)

www.writers.net  -  a great online resource for writers including feedback on query letters

Posted by: Sara Megibow

In the seven years since I published my first humor book, Carpool Tunnel Syndrome, I've spent an insane amount of time just trying to market myself. I'm glad I didn't keep track of the time, since I think I'd  cry if I knew how much of my life's energy has gone into the endeavor. The Internet has made it both easier and more difficult to market yourself: there are endless web sites and blogs to contact, endless online zines on which to try to get yourself reviewed or published. And the Internet rat race just gets worse and worse, as marketing "experts" tell you you're nowhere if you aren't active on Facebook, YouTube, and Twittering all day long (but I am on Facebook, and I'm LinkedIn too). I often get tired of asking the world to pay attention to me. As fascinating as I am, even I get tired of myself.

I have spent thousands of dollars on outside PR help but my biggest impressive successes have been through my own efforts or, in the case of getting a quote from my book on the Starbucks cups, through plain luck. Paid PR help has gotten me quoted in the media several times, but nothing has caused any sustained momentum. Things that have helped have been subscribing to several book marketing and PR expert newsletters, keeping up membership in a professional online writers' forum, where I always look for news about potential outlets for my work, and look for reporters doing stories on topics I can comment on, with a funny angle.

Things would have been a lot easier if I were an expert on investing, losing weight, budget travel deals, or something similar. But it's hard to market yourself as an expert when you spend your days trying to write funny stories about the latest rodent infestations, or why bad contractors happen to good people. On the other hand, I'm too far gone to stop now.

I've also learned that you have to keep searching for your audience, the people who will relate to your voice. For years, I avoided marketing my work to Jewish publications, even though I’m Jewish, since I didn’t want to limit my audience, nor did I want to be pegged as solely a “Jewish writer.” But over time, editors of Jewish publications and web sites started coming to me – they had heard my voice and recognized it in the pieces I had sold to them. In the past two years, I’ve become a regular humor columnist for an two Jewish print magazines, the “Jewlarious” section of the web site aish.com, and started podcasting my program, "Just Off My Noodle," on the web site of a national Jewish organization. I no longer shy away from writing about this aspect of my life, as it actually widens my audience, and I can almost always adapt my work written for these outlets into more generic humor, such as for my blog on MommaSaid.net, for my email newsletter subscribers, and other media outlets.

In the past few years, I've also sold pieces to the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, Beliefnet.com, and the Los Angeles Times. Earlier, I sold humor to Woman's Day, Family Circle and Ladies' Home Journal, but these magazines have closed the door on humor, at least for now. I really don't get their reasoning. They insist that they are all about "service" articles, but if you ask me, making people laugh in a troubled world is one of the best services you can offer. If only they saw it my way!

Motivational sales people always say that "no" doesn't really mean "no," it means "not yet." I've used that gambit to follow up repeatedly with editors who have ignored me, because you just never know when something may change. I even plan to contact some of the editors at these women's magazines who have published me before to pitch myself again, adding my shiny new awards to my email sig line. After all, magazines are always retooling, and maybe I'll reach them just at the moment they are scratching their heads, thinking, "Where can we find a terrific writer who can make rodent infestations funny?" And I'll be right there!

If you write for a limited market, you absolutely must love what you do and love your topic. (Keep your day job, too.) If you aren’t getting pleasure from your work, rethink your writing emphasis. Finally, persevere and carry a thick skin. If you’ve been at this for more than 15 minutes you know editors will ignore you more often than they'll pay attention, but if you keep polishing your work and continue hunting for new, like-minded audiences, you can and will break through. It may take a while, though, so stay optimistic, be persistent, and above all, keep your sense of humor.
   

Posted by: Judy Gruen

After my first two publishing disasters, I was in no hurry to publish a third book, but it remained a longer-term goal. In the meantime, I worked on “building my platform” and refining my humor writing skills, taking them as uproariously high as possible. (I don't know why, but I fantasized about one day having a reviewer call my work “trenchant.”) I had already been sending out twice-monthly humor columns, called “Off My Noodle,” to email subscribers for a few years, which were also posted on my web site, www.judygruen.com. While no one was paying for the subscription, I rarely missed my self-imposed deadlines. I tried to sell the columns afterward, but I have weaned myself off that habit: now I only write original material for my regular paying gigs, and then adapt the columns for my email subscribers. After all, my editors want original material, not “reprints.”

After a few years, I had amassed enough Noodles (high-humor, zero carbs!) to fill another book, even after weeding out the weaker or dated material. But if selling humor is a hard sell, selling a collection of humor columns is doubly so, since I was not David Sedaris or Dave Barry. I briefly thought of changing my name to “Dave,” but feared it would confuse my friends and family. Yet I knew I would buck the odds again. True, I had shown appalling taste in publishers so far, but my persistence created undeniable momentum in my career: My first two books had won awards from the publishing industry, I still had the bragging rights over the other PR and sales successes, which I had achieved on my own. I also had begun speaking on occasion—something I knew I needed to develop as a tool to drive book sales. I was selling my work consistently to a variety of media outlets.

With hope triumphing over experience (again), I spent months re-editing the columns I chose for the book, organizing them into themed sections. It was a point of pride with me that I did not just toss everything together that I had ever sent out and slap it between two covers. This collection of what I considered my “best of, so far” became The Women's Daily Irony Supplement (which earned the Gold Award from ForeWord Magazine in the humor category for 2007).

I found an agent who loved the manuscript and shopped it around for many months, starting at the top of the publishing food chain. The reactions fell into three categories: I was very funny but my platform wasn't big enough, my platform was great but I wasn't that funny, or they already had another woman humorist in their list. After more than a dozen rejections we had to conclude that I was again looking at very small indie houses or self-publishing. I appreciated my agent's hard work, and we parted on good terms.

I took several more months before deciding what to do, because I figured if I made a third stupid mistake I'd have to kill myself, and if I did that, who would take the kids to the orthodontist? (Either that, or I could write a little memoir called, Smart Women, Foolish Publishing Choices. But who would publish that?) I emphatically did not want to go POD, yet it seemed like my only option. I settled on one POD company whose references checked out, but I still felt that POD still had too many strikes against it, and couldn't bring myself to sign the contract. One day, almost in desperation, I picked up a magazine from a consortium of indie publishers that had been collecting dust on my desk for weeks. I called the organization and asked if they could think of any member publishers who might take an interest in me. They suggested I contact Beagle Bay Books, and since I had nothing to lose, and my dog is half-beagle, I sent them an email. Jacqueline Simonds wrote back right away, which made me momentarily suspicious: if she's such a great publisher, why is she paying attention to me? I had fallen into the mindset of Groucho Marx's joke: “I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”

I shook off my concerns (after all, not only did the Simonds have a beagle, but his name was Bertie, which I knew was from P.J. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster series, which told me they appreciated literate humor. Such are the weird idiosyncrasies that form a person's decision-making.) I emailed several of their authors for references, and found only universal praise for the Simonds. Shortly after, I signed with Beagle Bay, who published The Women's Daily Irony Supplement under their Creative Minds imprint in April 2007.

Working with Beagle Bay has been a total pleasure. Finally, I was working with reliable and honest professionals who I knew had my best interests at heart. We, too, have been mystified by the failure of another PR coup—I had a quote from my book on more than 5 million Starbucks cups—to spur sales, but together we have worked to move the book forward and to help it find its rightfully larger audience. The Women's Daily Irony Supplement has also scored many publishing awards, and Jacqueline and I tried to capitalize on that by writing a funny press release called Humor Writer Achieves “Athlete's Feat”, tying it into the Summer Olympics.

I'm convinced that much of the difficulty in breaking through to a larger audience is due to the rapidly changing media environment and the drastically lessened space in newspapers and magazines for the kind of slice-of-life humor that I write. That, and the fact that I don't have my own prime-time television program. In my final blog installment, I'll write about what I've learned works, and what doesn't, in trying to promote myself in a tough niche.

Posted by: Judy Gruen

I meet another writer online whose first book is about to be published by a small house. We have an immediate rapport, and I tell her my tale of woe about my publishing disaster. She offers to tell her publisher about me. Who knows what might happen?

Here's what happened: I am about to make an even more colossal, much more costly mistake than I made by entering into a "Hey, kids! Let's make a Broadway show!" agreement with my graphic designer friend. Good thing I went to college and grad school to make me so smart.

My new writer friend connects me with her publisher, whom I will call "Bellatrix Lestrange."  Lestrange is young (too young, I wonder?), enthusiastic, has nearly a dozen titles in circulation, talks a good game, is impressed with what I achieved in PR and sales on my own. She sees I'm a hard worker, and sends a contract with a lot of bad clauses in it. I hire an agent to look at it for me, and while I get some of the bad clauses excised, I lose the most important battles.

Eager to get Carpool back in circulation, I sign the contract, give her the book for no advance whatsoever and agree to write a second book for her, also with no advance. Well, after all, publishing advances are getting smaller and smaller. If my books do well, I'll make it up on the other side, right?

In the meanwhile, my friend's book is published, riddled with errors. I worry, as Lestrange now controls the future of Carpool and my next book also. In fact, it takes me four attempts to get them to fix the typos and other mistakes that I had found in the page proofs of my second book, Till We Eat Again: Confessions of a Diet Dropout, including mistakes that were added by Lestrange's mother, who with zero qualifications whatsoever "edits" my book.

When I open the first box of Till We Eat Again, a book I loved working on and was excited beyond belief to finally see, I feel physically ill: it looks like it was produced on a 1985 dot matrix printer. I have visions of my book launch party and already feel embarrassed at taking people's money for this shabbily printed book. I hide my dismay as best I can.

The "royalty" statements are also suspiciously complicated, with columns and columns of confusing numbers. It seemed designed to obfuscate, and after hours of pouring over them, I discover dubious accounting practices, such as double-billing me for returns and weird overhead charges. I ask for clarification on the statements, but wouldn't you know it? The "accountant" is always out of town!  

Things go from bad to worse. I compare notes with other authors similarly shackled to the same publisher, and we all come to the inescapable conclusion that Lestrange has taken us all for a ride. Several of us even fly halfway across the country to appear at a legal proceeding against her brought by one of the authors. Many thousands of dollars later, I ransom my books via an intellectual property attorney, the same books that I had given away for free. It's hard to admit all my dumb mistakes publicly, but if it helps someone else be more careful, to do more homework, I'll be glad.

This was a painful way to learn that it was not enough to have met an author thrilled with her publisher when the author-publisher relationship was so new. I have since cautioned every would-be author who asks me for advice to get several references from authors who have at least a year-long relationship with a publisher before signing a contract. There is too much on the line, too much a publisher needs to show they can deliver professionally over a sustained period, before you can safely assume you're dealing with a pro.  

Now I had two books OOP, but both books had won awards for humor, I began to be invited to speak at conferences, and my fan base was growing. Like an addict, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about a third book. Good thing I have a sense of humor.
    

Posted by: Judy Gruen