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:
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
The series on Query Letters that got your attention and why is a must read for all writers.
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
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? : )
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.
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
And definitely anything on how-to write a query letter!
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.
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.
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.
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
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)
Jessica, I think you did a series on the parts of a contract and what they meant. I loved that.
Great idea and useful - thanks
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
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