Thursday, June 04, 2009

BookEnds Must Reads

Hello, faithful readers. I could use your help today. I’ve been thinking that it might be useful (and you tell me if I’m right) to have a section on the side of the blog entitled "Must Reads"—those blog posts you’ve found most useful that new writers could easily access to learn the basics, or sometimes not so basics, about the business.

I know that over the years a few of you have mentioned saving or printing certain posts for review later, and that’s what I’m thinking of. Those are the must reads. So if you could, in the comments section, share the names of the posts you think are must reads. I’m going to put my intern to work (and my webmaster, too, of course) to prepare a links section based on the most popular posts.

Thanks!

Jessica

23 comments:

Keri Ford said...

Hey, Jessica. I book-marked this one sometime ago:

Questions To Ask Before Signing With An Agent

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2007/04/questions-to-ask-before-signing-with.html

JESSJORDAN said...

I agree with Keri's post 100%. I'm not at that stage yet, but the Q's for an agent post was great, and I would love if, once I do hit that level, this post was easy to reference.

Laurel said...

You had two on word counts that I found very helpful:

Why I Reject

and

Word Count Rules

I think newbie writers don't realize that the importance of word count is often an economic issue simply because the publisher doesn't want the expense of a big honkin' book no matter how good the story is. Wouldn't it suck to write a great book and scare everybody off with a word count that's just 10K too high?

Janet Reid did a helpful post on how to calculate word count, as well. Lots of us don't know that you can't just use the word count tool in Word.

Anonymous said...

Whenever a discussion on query letters comes up I reccomend people read your post on putting the conflict in your query letter:
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2007/03/give-me-conflict.html#links

And this one about pitch lines that don’t work:
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2007/01/pitch-lines-that-dont-work.html#links


Cheers, Julie Rowe

Dawn Maria said...

I'm a newer reader to your blog. Is there something about how to research agents? When you really start looking for one, there aren't as many looking for your genre as you'd think. It's seems like agents still get queries addressed to Dear Agent, or for genres the agent doesn't represent, so I think so advice on what to do before you query would be a must read.

Unknown said...

I'm new to your blog and think this would be really useful - and much appreciated.

I found this link really useful - on log lines:

http://edittorrent.blogspot.com/2009/04/how-to-put-it-together-into-one-neat.html

Marilynn Byerly said...

I write a blog for writers. Here are the blog article links I've shared from this blog.

QUERY LETTERS HOW TO:  Agent Jessica Faust of Bookends has a series of blog posts on query letters that got her attention.  The letters are included, and she tells about why the letter worked. 

The letter posts start here:

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/01/query-letter-by-karen-macinerney.html

THE BOOK PROPOSAL, FICTION Agent Jessica Faust explains the book proposal, a.k.a. the partial, used to sell your book to an agent or publisher.
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-book-proposal-for-fiction.html


THE

BOOK PROPOSAL, NON-FICTION Jessica Faust explains the book proposal for non-fiction. 
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-book-proposal-for-nonfiction.html

MARKETS: Agent Jessica Faust discusses Harlequin's more mainstream and non-romance lines in her blog.

http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2008/11/market-news.html

KJ said...

The non-fiction proposal one (http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-book-proposal-for-nonfiction.html) Marilynn mentions is so fantastic, I send it to potential authors all the time.

I also have your publishing dictionary saved http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2008/08/publishing-dictionary.html, it's a really good basic list.

-Katherine Arathoon

Erin M. Hartshorn said...

I, too, have the "Questions to Ask Before Signing With An Agent" post bookmarked.

Also, "What Can Authors Do to Sell Books" (http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/03/what-can-authors-do-to-sell-books.html) -- not that I'm there yet, but I bookmarked it for when I am.

Anonymous said...

The series on Query Letters that got your attention and why is a must read for all writers.

carly said...

Your post on women's fiction regarding definitions and guidelines was particularly helpful.


Women's Fiction: May 19, 2009
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/05/womens-fiction.html

Robena Grant said...

Last October you posted about picking a genre for your book. I found it extremely helpful and went looking for it a few weeks ago, also read up on some of your other posts concerning genre.

With RWA National coming up and having a couple of pitch appointments I'm trying hard to get a handle on exactly what I do write. My stories always seem to have elements of mystery, crime, romance, yet are not dark enough to be called romantic suspense. I still don't know what to call them, romantic adventure? : )

Stacia said...

This one, absolutely:


http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2007/06/bad-agent.html


I've posted this link and referenced this post more places than I can count.

Unknown said...

I poked around the blog for about ten or fifteen minutes and this is my list based on your previous entries:

Anatomy of a Book Deal, November 25, 2008

Contracts 101, September 13, 2007

A Publishing Dictionary, August 21, 2008

Stages of Editing, August 07, 2008

Sally MacKenzie: Some Thoughts on Choosing an Agent,April 28, 2009

The Easy Writer, April 13, 2009

Rolling with the Punches, February 04, 2009

Discussions with Your Agent, August 18, 2008

Dissecting the Form Rejection Letter, January 30, 2009

Be Careful of Assumptions, January 15, 2009

Unknown said...

And definitely anything on how-to write a query letter!

Anonymous said...

Anything regarding querying process. Folks always like those. The string of posts you had analyzing queries was particularly good. The most recent 'what I'm looking for' post would be good as well.

Ryan S. Kinsgrove said...

I think that would be a fabulous idea. I've not read through some of the other posts you've put up, but I know that Nathan Bransfords FAQs section on his blog has helped me out a great deal.

Anonymous said...

I found every post on the BookEnds blogs helpful. I still reference them. I also found the articles by Ann Marble under 'romance' on writing-world.com very useful. Alan Rinzler, Nathan Bradsford and PubRants are also great sources.

Anonymous said...

Alan Rinzler's blog articles:
Ask the editor-8 tips for finding your voice
Ask the editor-7 techniques for a dynamite plot
Falling in love with your characters
How successful writers keep up their confidence

Lisa Katzenberger said...

Ooh, I love a fun homework assignment! Here's a list of posts I've saved in my Bloglines feed. Some of them have already been mentioned, but I'll list them again to stuff the ballot box.

Nov 4 08
(http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2008/11/when-reading-submissions.html)

Nov 25 08
(http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2008/11/anatomy-of-book-deal.html)

Jan 05 09
(http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-book-proposal-for-nonfiction.html)

Any of the mid-January posts on what makes a good query letter.

Feb 04 09
(http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/02/rolling-with-punches.html)

Feb 09 09
(http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/02/synopsis.html)

Anonymous said...

Jessica, I think you did a series on the parts of a contract and what they meant. I loved that.

Miss Mapp said...

Great idea and useful - thanks

haleigh said...

Great idea Jessica! There are two recent posts I've saved that I keep going back to:

Agnet's Tastes
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2009/01/agents-taste.html

and
Author Questionnaire regarding marketing
http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/2008/12/author-questionnaire.html