This week! Books! First up, we continue to live in a golden age for scammers, and Anne R. Allen has an important post about a new, more polished publishing trap: the book to film scam, where a “film scout” suggests you pay for a new screenplay or treatment so they can shop it to streaming […]
literary agents
How (and why) to personalize a query letter
Authors often gnash their teeth at the nearly-universal advice that you should personalize your query letters. It’s time consuming to research agents individually, people don’t know what to say, and there’s something about it that just rubs people the wrong way. It pays to personalize. Just do it. In this post I’ll explain why and […]
Is it OK to resend a query? (This week in books)
This week! Books! President Barack Obama’s memoir A Promised Land arrives next Tuesday, which is going to have massive reverberations in the bookselling world, not least of which because it clocks in at a hefty $45 list price. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reviewed it for the New York Times, and Smithsonian Magazine looks at where it […]
Are you willing to stand out from the crowd? (This week in books)
This week! Books! I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting these past few weeks on what’s next for my creative life and where I want to devote my energy, so this post on the Freelancers Union blog by Justine Clay was just the right thing at the right time: Are you really willing to stand […]
How to choose a pen name (This week in books)
This week! Books! First up, I had the good fortune of stopping by the Red Sneaker Writers podcast to talk about advice for the publishing journey and my work as a writing coach and consultant. Give it a listen! What’s in a pen name? In a world of social media and Google-able everything, I’m getting […]
J.K. Rowling…… (This week in books)
This week! Books! As thousands of people around the world continued protesting injustice and brutality in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and at the start of Pride month, J.K. Rowling decided to double down with views on transgender people widely seen as transphobic, first in a series of tweets, then on a more […]
