Author Speed Date

The idea of speed dating is that you get 10 minutes to sit down with a prospective date and get to know them. In that spirit, we present Author Speed Date. A quick 10 minutes for you to get to know some of our clients. Today we'd like you to meet Sally MacKenzie.

BookEnds Author Speed Date

Name (the one you’re published under): Sally MacKenzie

Speed date Bio: Sally is the USA Today bestselling author of the funny, hot, Regency-set Naked Nobility series for Kensington Zebra. She’s a graduate of the University of Notre Dame (first class of women), Cornell Law School dropout (no JD, but an MRS ;)), former federal regulation writer (Ketchup as a vegetable anyone?), recovering parent volunteer (four sons!), and current Masters swimmer (middle of the pool—more a turtle than a hare).

Web Link: www.SallyMacKenzie.net and her somewhat sporadic blog, http://sallymackenzie.blogspot.com/

Next book, pub date: The Naked King, June 7, 2011

Agent: Jessica Faust

About Me

Real Name or Pseudonym: Sally MacKenzie

Currently Reading: Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu and The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes

Next on Your Reading List: My TBR pile is mountainous but probably My One and Only by Kristan Higgins and The Complete Servant by Samuel & Sarah Adams

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Sally-MacKenzie/144131384814
Twitter: @Sally_MacKenzie

Three authors living or dead you would want to have dinner with: Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, and Christopher Hibbert, who was the coeditor of The London Encyclopaedia and the author of many other books, including a biography of King George IV

Jet-setter or armchair traveler: Armchair traveler—have you ever tried to travel with four little boys? However, now that they’re grown, we’re getting out a bit more.

Glass ½ full or ½ empty: Sort of depends what’s in the glass.

Tea or Coffee: Two cups of Maxwell House International Suisse Mocha—one in the morning and one after lunch—and gallons of decaf tea, usually Bigelow’s Spiced Chai with milk. (Yes, I am a creature of habit.)

Live to write or Write to live: Write to live. I find writing lets me explore feelings and relationships and think about things in a way I don’t when I’m not writing. It helps focus me . . . when things are going well. But if we’re talking about making a living, let me just say I’m very glad no one’s next meal depends on my writing income.

About My Writing

When (time of day) I write: Daily, but the time of day varies depending on what else is on my schedule. Exercise is a priority, so on days I go to the gym, I start writing later in the morning. Days I swim at night, I try to write first thing. I’m happiest when I get some solid work done in the morning, but, sadly, some days I write morning, afternoon, and night to get three “good” hours in or five pages, my daily goal.

Writing soundtrack: While in theory I like the idea of writing to music—seems like music might act like Pavlov’s bell on dogs and get me down to work immediately—I actually write in silence.

Character Inspirations: With the Naked series, many of my characters are friends or siblings of characters in earlier books, so I get inspiration for them from musing about their families, occupations or avocations, and life experiences. And I suspect there’s a little bit of me in all of them, even the villains.

Plot Inspirations: My characters lead me where they want to go.

Setting Inspirations: Since I write Regencies—and even as a reader, I wasn’t a fan of exotic Regency settings—I stick pretty much to London (1816-1821) or the English countryside and great houses. Until last September, I hadn’t been to England since I backpacked through with my best friend the summer after our senior year of high school, which was, ahem, a few years ago. So I rely heavily on the Internet and a stack of reference books.

Plotter (carefully plot books) or Pantser (write from the seat of my pants): To my surprise, I’m pretty much a pantser.

Email Etiquette

Email is a weird thing. It's different from the old snail-mail letters because it's an almost daily form of communication. And, as many of you know, there are rules to email etiquette, things that those of us who are savvy in email know about and those who aren't, don't. If you don't feel you're up on email etiquette, but are entering a business relationship (with editors and agents), I would suggest you bone up on what you need to know.

While I'm certainly no etiquette maven, here are some mistakes I've seen over the years, and I'm sure many of you see them as well.

1. All caps means you're yelling. Do NOT use all caps or caps lock unless you are truly angry and plan on yelling at your agent or editor. Even if we know you didn't intend to yell at us, it's hard to get your screaming voice out of our head as we're reading.

2. Subject lines are for a subject, not for the entire message. If an author types the entire message in the subject line and not in the email, I can't help but feel I'm being chastised. Like the author was angry and couldn't even reach the actual email space.

3. Speaking of subjects: If possible, make your subject relate to your email. That way, before even opening it I get a glimpse of what you're getting in touch about.

4. If possible avoid using fancy templates. They look great when you're composing your email, but they never seem to translate well in the sending. Basically, they usually just make an email difficult to read. Plain white emails with black, simple type work best for me.

5. Keep the message thread alive. Set up your email so that the message thread (the message you're replying to) remains at the bottom of the email. This is especially helpful with queries so that I know what query you're referring to, but also with client emails so that, if needed, I can take a quick perusal of the conversation.

6. Make sure your professional contacts are not included in chain email, or funny forwards.

7. If you have a spam clearance on your email, make sure to clear people you are expecting replies from. This is especially true of queries.


There are probably more tips that others can think of, but these are the common problems I most often see.

Jessica

Agent Speed Date

The idea of speed dating is that you get 10 minutes to sit down with a prospective date and get to know them. Since we're asking our clients to speed date with you, we thought it only fair that we participate too. In that spirit, we present Agent Speed Date. A quick 10 minutes for you to get to know us. Today we'd like you to meet Jessica Faust.


BookEnds Agent Speed Date

Name: Jessica Faust

Speed date bio: Proud owner, President, and Literary Agent of BookEnds, where I reign (or so I pretend) over an incredibly talented bunch of agents and represent some of the greatest authors ever.

About Me

Real Name or Pseudonym: It’s my real name.

Currently Reading: Pride and Prejudice and Wizard of Oz

Next on Your Reading List: Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator and Girl with the Steel Corset

Facebook or Twitter:
Facebook: Jessica Faust BookEnds
Twitter: BookEndsJessica

Three authors living or dead you would want to have dinner with:
**these are the hardest questions for me.
Edith Wharton
Sarah Addison Allen
Julie Child—I think mostly for the cooking

Three characters you would want to have dinner with:
Jo March
Spenser
—this is so hard. I have no clue on a #3. Should it be Anne of Green Gables or Hannibal Lector? Or . . . ? I think I’m spending far too much time on this.

Jetsetter or armchair traveler:
jetsetter

Glass ½ full or ½ empty:
½ full and then some

Tea or Coffee:
Too much coffee

Ereader or Print book:
A little of both

Morning person or Evening person:
Morning (or middle of the night, depending on how you look at it)

Working soundtrack:
Usually nothing but my typing fingers

Disappointment in a Client

I'd like to hear from one of the agents on the subject of not liking some of their clients' works. Does that make you wonder if you messed up signing the person? or can you still see the potential and feel the love even if you don't think the plot or idea is marketable?

You know, I’d be lying if I told you that agents never feel that signing a client might have been a mistake. It rarely happens, but it happens. Honestly, it usually happens because the client is miserable to work with, but that’s a blog post for another day.

I have received many books/proposals from clients that I didn’t like. In fact, not too long ago I had a conversation with a client in which she was laughing at how nice I was trying to be, but how obvious it was that I hated the book she had sent. She was right. And then we spent over an hour on the phone brainstorming new ideas and new directions for her book and, if I do say so myself, we came up with some brilliant ideas. And never once did I regret signing her.

This is exactly why agents are so picky when it comes to signing people. We need to feel passion not only for the book we’re reading but for the potential we see in an author, because there will certainly be times when we’ll see a project that we just don’t see working, but knowing what that author can do will propel us to keep working toward the next thing.

Jessica

Workshop Wednesday

By repeated request we've started Workshop Wednesday. It will definitely play out through 2011, and beyond that we'll just have to see. We've received well over 200 queries at this point, but we are choosing at random, so don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.

Dear Agent,

As I always do, the obvious reminder to use the agent's name if possible.


I would like you to consider my YA urban fantasy, THRICE-BORN, complete at 65,000 words.

Simple opening that works. I don't think you need anything fancy.


Seventeen years old Andra’s life is full. On top of dealing with the aftermath of drunken sex with the best friend whose advances she’d previously rejected, concealing the growing pain caused by her fractured soul, she also has to make a choice that will determine her standing in Octavian society. As a mere Initiate, she is powerless until she makes her Offering and chooses a Discipline: the spiritual Dyaus who sacrifice a piece of their spirit at the risk of madness, or the immoral but powerful Prithvi, who offer blood.

The first sentence is rough, very rough. In fact, I rewrote it five different ways in my head and determined it's probably best to scrap it altogether and find another way to start this paragraph. I assume, though, that what you want to say is "Seventeen-year-old Andra's life is full."

As for the rest of the paragraph, I have no idea where this is going. There's a huge disconnect between the fact that this girl had drunken sex with a friend, now has a fractured soul, and suddenly, boom, you hit me with the fact that this is set in another world. That threw me completely. In terms of the information about the drunken sex: This did not sound YA to me; there was something about this description that sounded very adult, as if it were two friends having drinks in a bar when one thing led to another. To make this work I think you need to watch the wording or explain the setup a little more. Did this happen after a high school party, after the big game, or just after a night of drinking when the parents were out of town? The problem for me is still that it sounds too contemporary and not like an urban fantasy at all.

I have no idea what Octavian society is or what this world is like. What is a mere Initiate or an Offering? There's no world building in the query, which is going to lead me to believe that there's some world building missing in your manuscript.


Andra’s life takes a dramatic turn when a mercenary Disciple attacks her astral twin, Andy, and stabs him with a cursed dagger. If she can’t destroy the spell draining his life, her brother will die in twelve hours. Complications arise as Andra finds out that the Disciple holding the spell is her best friend’s estranged mother, the Prithvian Priestess Alazne. Andra and the rest of her friends battle time, family and secrets best left buried as they risk everything to save Andy, and stumble in the middle of an assassination plot that could throw their society back into war.

I'm wondering again what having sex with her best friend has to do with anything in this story. Granted, in the manuscript it might be part of building her character, but in the query it adds nothing and there's no need for it.

"Andra's life takes a dramatic turn," but I have no idea from what. I get no sense that there was a dramatic turn, and I guess I don't get what her life was really like before. Maybe it needs to read (the entire blurb) more like this: "Andra always thought her life was full. Between studying, boys, and basketball she never felt that she could fit anything more in. Andra was a typical teenager. Typical until her twin was attacked..." This way we are shown and not told what the conflict is in this book.

I think the real problem is still that you mention a lot of things like mercenary Disciple, Offering and even Prithvian Priestess and I have no idea what any of these are or what the world is about. And ultimately that makes it really impossible for me to understand your story or your query.


Thank you for your time and attention.

Yours,




Jessica

Janet Bolin on Storytelling

Janet Bolin
Dire Threads
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Pub date: June 7, 2011
Agent: Jessica Faust


(Click to Buy)


Author Web/Blog links: www.threadvillemysteries.com/
www.killercharacters.com


Little Liars

Storytelling is an art that probably predates campfires, but why do some people become chroniclers of the truth, while others (and this includes me) . . . um . . . embroider the truth to make a good story, or at least a story that we like better?

I have a theory. The tendency to tell stories starts in childhood.

Take me. I ran up to a friend and tried, “I saw elves under the forsythia bush this morning.” This was not, of course, true, but it seemed like it could be. Would she believe me?

Her eyes opened wide. She breathed, “What were the elves like?”

Her willingness to fall for my blatant lie (notice I’m blaming her, not myself) propelled me toward a life of being less than truthful. I weaved outfits for the elves, built them tiny mushroom-shaped houses in magical forests. I gave them families, pets, gardens, and most important of all—missions they had to carry out.

And my friend always went along with me, asking, “What happened next?”

I happily created dragons, giants, sea turtles, elf-devouring plants, and/or flying furniture that, together, would make it nearly impossible for my poor beleaguered elves to accomplish their goals.

I started believing that the tales I spun were about real worlds, which meant that I wasn’t quite telling falsehoods.

My friend, now my best friend, listened and asked questions for days, weeks, months. I was lucky (depending on how you view the word “lucky”). She listened for years. She played minor parts in our elf reenactments while I took on all the major characters. I draped her in the brown dress-ups, and I donned the pretty (with dress-ups, “pretty” tends to be relative) green outfits.

I created whole worlds and at least one pint-sized person begged for more. What astonishing power!

After a while, I discovered that I couldn’t stop telling stories.

You believe me, right?

My best friend grew up to be normal (though perhaps a bit more skeptical than most), with a normal career. I grew up to become . . . oh, wait. Writers don’t exactly grow up, do we?

What about you? When you were a child, did you make up stories and games for your friends? What do you think compels people to lie for a living . . . er, sorry . . . what do you think compels people to write fiction?


Janet Bolin
Dire Threads, Berkley Prime Crime, June 7, 2011
www.ThreadvilleMysteries.com
www.KillerCharacters.com

Swag

One of the things I love about conferences is the swag, all the free fun stuff you get just for walking in the door. But after looking at all of the swag I got at this year's Romantic Times conference (this is just the stuff I got for walking in the door and attending one party), I have to wonder how beneficial swag is to the authors who hand it out.

For regular followers of the blog, this isn't a new conversation. Not even close. I've always wondered if all of those bookmarks, postcards, and pens really sell books. I'm not convinced they do. At least I've never bought a book based on the swag, and these days, bookmarks are even more useless. I try to save them, I try to use them, but they keep sliding off my ebook.

So I went through my swag and here's what I found:




Laptop-style work bag--love. Will definitely use
Two canvas shopping bags--added to the collection for grocery shopping
Pen--I can always find a use for another pen (especially a good one)
Ice scraper--if my kids don't confiscate it, it will be great for the glove compartment
Two fans--the hotel was so hot I added one to my purse
Notepads/notebooks--always good to have
Candy--tossed most, kept Werthers (yum)
Bookmarks--tossed without looking
Postcards--tossed without looking
Author bracelet--passed to kids
Books--definitely took those home
Chapter samples--kept both to read on the plane
Can cozy--love these. There's nothing better than watching a manly man drink beer from romance author's can cozy

Number of books bought based on swag--probably zero.

What about you? Swayed by swag or just overwhelmed by stuff?

Jessica

Thought for the Day

If you want an agent to read the middle chapters of the book because "that's where things get exciting," you should probably consider editing the entire book to make it all exciting.

Jessica

Erin Kellison on Writing and Support

Erin Kellison
Shadow Touch
Publisher: Kensington Zebra
Pub Date: June 1, 2011
Agent: Jessica Faust


(Click to Buy)


Fight to Write, and a Little Ruthlessness Doesn’t Hurt Either

Last December, the Martian Death Flu hit my family. Everyone was very sick for over two weeks during the holidays. The house should have been quarantined. And I was on a deadline, which meant unless I was with one of my kids, I had to be at my computer. It was insane.

Every author knows the secret to writing books. It’s not closely guarded, probably because it is so dang hard to do sometimes—okay, often. Ready? Here it is: Sit down and work until you have some word count, aka Butt in the Chair. The craft and story will come over time, but not if you don’t do the first step. Sit and stay and write.

Sounds easy. It’s actually the most difficult aspect of writing. Nothing will go as planned. My teenage babysitter (in)famously canceled on me one day (of many) “because she had a long weekend.” That still makes me laugh. Of course, the most insidious of time-wasters is the Internet. Add to that the doubts every writer combats as they face their manuscript, and suddenly it’s imperative to do laundry. Or organize the work area. Or read the paper. Anything but add words to a story.

The solution? An indomitable support system. Some writers can find that within their families, but just as many can’t. I’m very lucky in that respect. My husband is my rock. But also, without a doubt, it’s my critique partners that keep me going. As I write this blog today, Jessica has a post on Handling Critiques. The thoughts there and within the comments are dead-on about knowing your story and taking only what works for you. The post also got me thinking about what a powerhouse a good critique partner or group can be. Since critique partners are like-minded people, they understand the struggle to make progress. And they demand that you do your best work.

Of course, the chemistry and professionalism between critique partners must be there. Good critiques are constructive—highlighting what works as much as what doesn’t. My group’s goal is to preserve each writer’s voice and story, while making the text as strong and vibrant as possible. We’ve got our Circle of Truth, which we depend on for clear, uncluttered perspectives on our progress. (No pats on the head, please. This is my passion.) But also, we’ve got accountability. We must bring pages—although, I have on occasion brought only a paragraph. If life goes completely upside down for one of us, we don’t push, but otherwise . . . show me the word count. That support helps overcome so many obstacles.

Those of you with great critique partners know what I mean. For those who don’t, there are so many writers out there who want to be in a great critique group. Seek them out. It makes all the difference in the world.

I’ll finish with an extreme example of this support system in action. Last summer I had an appendectomy. One of my ruthless critique partners (love her) was on a deadline and pleaded (demanded) that I look over some of her stuff. I don’t know how savvy I was while on oxycodone, but I understood the passion for writing behind the request and did my best. And you better believe that when the Martian Death Flu hit my house, I had pages waiting for her when she got back from her vacation, for very quick turnaround, I might add. As always, she came through for me.

Workshop Wednesday

By repeated request we've started Workshop Wednesday. It will definitely play out through 2011, and beyond that we'll just have to see. We've received well over 200 queries at this point, but we are choosing at random, so don't be afraid to participate as per the guidelines in our original post.

For anyone wanting to comment, we ask that you comment in a polite and respectful manner, and we ask that you be as constructive as possible. If you can be useful to the brave souls who submitted their query and comment on the query, that's great. Please keep any anonymous tirades on publishing or other snarky comments to yourself. This is and should remain an open and safe forum for people to put themselves and their queries out there so that everyone can learn. I'm leaving comments open and open to anonymous posters, as I always have; don't make me feel the need to change that policy.

And for those who have never "met" Query Shark, get over there and do that. She's the originator of the query critique, the queen, if you will.

SunnySide Living

Billy Botsford came down for pinochle dressed in a three thousand dollar jacket and a diaper. Norm Lamppi had seen plenty of diapers at SunnySide Living – hell, he wore the damn things himself – but Armani leather, not so much. The jacket was nowhere to be found the next morning, along with Billy, who reappeared at noon sleeping like a baby in the weeds alongside the town’s water treatment plant.

Norm and his pinochle buddies smelled a rat, and after discovering that SunnySide Living doubled as a warehouse for stolen merchandise, they smelled the opportunity to make themselves some extra cash. Life became sweeter, until the three hundred pound Mr. Fish was dispatched to investigate ‘the shrinkage’. Now Norm and his octogenarian crew - one-legged Fred, oxygen-sucking Les, Johnny the farmer and addle-brained Billy - have got to set things straight before they all end up under the weeds at the water treatment plant.


It really bugs me that there is no real query here. This is a blurb, but not a professional correspondence, and it feels very jarring to me. I know it's a query, but is it? In other words, what's your point of sending this to me? Are you querying me, telling me about your published book, asking for a critique?

Email has made things simpler and less formal and I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I find it disappointing that we're losing the art of letter writing, but there's a reason for appropriate letter writing, and it's not just because it's a nice things to do. A proper query introduces what you're writing as well as yourself and gives the agent an understanding of why you're getting in touch and what you're expecting of her.

I'll start with the title. I have no idea what kind of book this is based on the title and, of course, the fact that you didn't write a proper query doesn't help this.

Your first paragraph seems really disconnected to me. I'm understanding that this is some sort of assisted living center or maybe retirement community, although those are two very different places, but the sentence starting with "The jacket" doesn't really connect with itself, frankly. So did the jacket return with Billy? If that's the case then it doesn't seem like anything is really wrong.

What made these fellows suspect something was wrong? I'm getting none of that in this. How were they going to make themselves extra cash?

Ultimately, I'm not getting a real sense of hook or story here. It's not a horrible blurb, but it's not special enough either. I can't really figure out why anyone would really want to read this or how this would stand out on bookshelves.


Jessica