Monday, February 23, 2015

Kim's 2015 Wish List


Every January we have a meeting at BookEnds discussing our goals for the coming year and reviewing our performance over the previous one.  We talk about how many books we sold, how many new clients we brought on, and how we can grow even more in the near future.  These meetings always get me motivated, and make me stop and think about just what I want to see on my client list and how I can make it happen.

So this is my wish list for 2015.    Help me make it happen!

1)   I’d like to start attending more conferences again.  I backed off on them quite a bit while my kids were young, but now I’m ready to dive back in.  I’m specifically interested in attending conferences with romance, mystery and YA writers, and speaking at RWA chapter meetings.  Contact me at klionetti@bookends-inc.com if you are looking for faculty for an upcoming conference.
 2)   I’m hungry for some emotional women’s fiction with a strong romantic element.   Something along the lines of JoJo Moyes.  I love her books because they’re unputdownable, but also very affecting.
 3)   Similarly, I’d like to see more intense, emotional YA and NA.  I’ve been seeing a lot of great NA lately with electric romantic chemistry (that doesn’t necessarily mean super explicit, but I’m okay with steamy).  Chemistry isn’t always the easiest thing to convey on the page, so when it’s done right, I can’t stop reading!  I especially like angsty characters.
 4)   Historical Romance.  It breaks my heart that historicals are a tougher sell these days, but they’re still my first love.  I’m not giving up on them.  It’s the first thing I want to pick up when I’m reading for pleasure.  When I have some screen time, I’m usually rewatching “Outlander”, “The Tudors”, or any one of the BBC Jane Austen productions.  And I’ve watched every “Jane Eyre” production at least 3 times.  I continue to look for strong new voices in historical romance.  I’m particularly interested in Regencies, Victorians and Scottish.  I just know that more readers will come back to them.
 5)   I’d like to grow my social media platform.  I’ve been very inconsistent on Twitter and Facebook.  My presence is sporadic.  I’m really going to work on contributing more regularly.  That said, I want my tweets/statuses to be meaningful and relevant.  I’m too busy working with my clients to tweet my every move.  What kind of agent tweets would you like to see more of?


Look forward to hearing from you!  I’ll keep you posted on how I do with my wish list!

--Kim
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7 comments:

Carolyn Chambers Clark said...

Thanks for your informative email. I especially liked that you were specific about the kind of novels on your wish list.

I'm sending you a query about my YA intense and emotional relationship and hope it's something you'll like.

Please add more information to your Tweets about where you are in your reading of queries and partials so we who have queried will have a better idea of when to expect a response. Any writing tips you have would also be great as Tweets.

2:35 PM, February 23, 2015
Kim Lionetti said...

Thanks for the feedback Carolyn! I've read all queries received before this weekend, so you should have an answer soon!

Will definitely keep your suggestions in mind.

4:32 PM, February 23, 2015
DLM said...

So close, and yet so far ... I write historical but romance is not the focus unfortunately. This does remind me, though, I've had the pause button down a bit too long on my query list!

7:27 PM, February 23, 2015
Stacy Couch said...

Thanks for letting us know your wish list! I'd love to see more about what you are reading in your Tweets too. Shout-outs, especially to particular books, would give me an idea what you like--and would help bulk up my own reading list. :)

9:13 PM, February 23, 2015
Unknown said...

So glad to see I'm not the only "Jane Eyre" fan out there. I have my favorite movie version downloaded on my Kindle for easy access! As far as twitter goes, I'm always interested in helpful articles. If you ever run onto useful information such as market projections, workshops, or advice for writers, tweet it and I'd be sure to check it out! Thanks, Julie

10:41 AM, February 24, 2015
Wendy Qualls said...

I can only speak to the Twitter part of your Wish List, but as an author who's been doing the "I'd like to find an agent" thing for a while . . .

I love it when agents are on Twitter. I love it when they actually tweet about real things. I hate it when their only tweets are clients' releases, because that's not what I (and I assume most other of their followers) are there for - we're following as fellow members of the industry, not potential customers.

From the "searching for an agent" perspective, Twitter is AMAZINGLY helpful to new authors. I can look through an agent's Twitter stream to see who has a good sense of humor, who complains all the time, who is friends with who else in the industry, who makes fun of slush pile letters in a way which will embarrass the authors when they recognize their work, etc. #MSWL is nice and all, but I'm really looking for a longer-term interest in my genre, so when I query you I can mention "I saw yesterday that you were looking for pirate historical romances . . ."

In the more immediate sense, Twitter is also great for things like

- "I'm caught up on queries until X date"
- "I'll be at the such-and-such conference"
- "I'm closed/open to queries until X date"
and other ephemeral information that might not always be up to date in various blog posts and databases.

So yeah - I don't really do Facebook, but I LOVE Twitter as a social media platform because it's so versatile. I do follow you on there and would love to see you there more!

11:59 PM, March 03, 2015
Cassie Knight said...

Kim, I'm so bummed! I wish I would have seen this before I filled up agents for the Emerald City Writer's Conference. Maybe you'll be inclined for October 2016. :) Welcome "back"!

4:07 PM, March 17, 2015

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