Entries Tagged 'Agents' ↓

A fantastic day of professional development for writers today at Brisbane Writers Festival. As promised to delegates, Emma Rusher has provided a fantastic Q&A guide for authors to develop a strong and effective pitch for their manuscript.

After a weekend of amazing MWF author panels, parties, and spontaneous kaffee klatches, I have found a spare half hour to share the rest of the highlights from Friday’s The Whole Shebang professional development workshop for writers.

The fun part for me was presenting some hot-off-the-press results from AWM’s survey of Australian literary agents. More about that next week…

Firstly, I need to add to the last post about publishers. Whole Shebangers also heard from Laurie Steed and Zoe Dattner of SPUNC (Small Press Underground Networking Community). A resident organisation of The Wheeler Centre, the relatively young SPUNC works tirelessly to strengthen and promote small publishers – and this is great news for Australian writers and readers. The diversity of niche and independent publishers of SPUNC (currently 73 members strong, and growing) means that aspiring writers have a greater chance of finding a publisher who believes in their work and can help them connect with their audience. Australia is blessed to have such a vibrant and multi-faceted publishing industry, and SPUNC ensures that writers and readers are aware of the wealth of books beyond those published by the top tier houses.

Whole Shebangers were fortunate to learn about the role of literary agents from Clare Forster. Formerly with Penguin for 17 years and now representing Curtis Brown in Melbourne, two of Clare’s authors were recently nominated for The Age literary prize. Forster began by emphasizing just how small this integral sector of the publishing industry is, with just 17 members of the Australian Literary Agents Association, plus some others who are non-affiliated. But as Forster pointed out, not every author needs an agent: an author with a great non-fiction project and a popular blog is likely to get a direct commission from a publisher.

Forster presented some of the services that agents should , and should not, provide. Agents DO: Read widely, and ’stand shoulder to shoulder with publishers to lobby for and protect Australian authors’. Agents DON’T: charge for reading, fail to disclose finances, or intervene with a good author-publisher relationship.

Forster also set some homework for the writers present:

•    Find 20 good published books and read them: the kind of book you’d like to write, or you’d like your book to sit next to in a bookstore.
•    Find a good narrative or story: with a beginning, middle, and end – with drama, scenario, and exchange – outline what it is that you want to say and how you can say it uniquely.
•    Find a voice: develop clarity and distinctiveness of expression.
•    Develop your style: whether it is plain and understated or vivid and pyrotechnic; get good at listening to style and voice.
•    Use bum glue (as Bryce Courtenay calls it).
•    Read and revise your own work – completing and printing, reading and revising each draft. Take the lead from Thea Astley, who would only submit her 8th draft – writers need ‘pausation’ (Ruth Cracknell’s term) to consider our own work afresh.

The last highlights I will share are from fiction author, arts grant-writer and Writing Race guest, Tom Cho. Tom began by assuring us that if an author meets the eligibility requirements, has a strong project, and uses some grant-writing basics, then they were in with a chance to gain funding to support their work. He also emphasized the usefulness of grant writing in helping you clarify your ideas – it gets you thinking clearly and logically about the steps, goals, reasons for your work. His main tips were to:

•    Always speak to someone at the funding body before you apply to check you fit eligibility criteria.
•    Write to the selection criteria.
•    Include all the info – communicate what’s in your head to your audience
•    Get feedback from rejections

Cho recommends a few websites to help you get started: Australia Council, Australian Society of Authors, Artshub, and GrantsLINK.

The Wheeler Centre, established through a generous endowment by the former owners of the Lonely Planet, includes a number of organisations working alongside each other as part of Melbourne’s City of Literature initiative: the Victorian Writers Centre, Emerging Writers Festival, SPUNC, Express Media, Melbourne Writers Festival, Overload Poetry Festival, Melbourne PEN, and the Australian Poetry Collective (the latter to merge with the NSW Poets’ Union next year to become Australian Poetry). Each resident org gave a short presentation to Whole Shebangers about their key goals and activities. The Wheeler Centre, located in the State Library of Victoria, certainly provided a great venue for an incredible day of professional development for writers.

Tasty treats for your Friday brain…

From the noteworthy: ‘Vanity’ Press goes digital

Writer Karen McQuestion spent nearly a decade trying without success to persuade a New York publisher to print one of her books. In July, the 49-year-old mother of three decided to publish it herself, online…

To the informative: Author Platform

It has never been more crucial for authors to play a major part in marketing themselves – but it has also never been easier…

To the freaking hilarious: SlushPile Hell

A grumpy literary agent wades through query fails…

Have a great weekend of writing, folks. Then join us next Tuesday at the Writing Race with special guest, Lee Battersby!

There’s something in the air, can you feel it? Writers everywhere are planning, focussed, determined, motivated…

I call it the NaNo Effect. Even if you’re not signed up to write a novel this November, the impetus to write is everywhere around you. It’s a vortex, sucking you in to a wonderful world of words on the page and social writing fun.

AWMonline is running extra Writing Races with loads of special guests. Subscribers, log in this Sunday 3-4pm to write alongside the science fiction short story writer, Peter M. Ball, whose novella Horn was published with Twelfth Planet Press this year. He’s kooky and charming and full of good ideas about how to get those words on the page – and he’s madly finishing off a novella in time to start a NaNo project!

Peter M. Ball with Spokesbear

Then next Tuesday 7-9pm we are getting really adventurous, launching into a cross-platform world of social writing fun at Digital Pizza. If you’re in Brisbane, call QWC 07 3839 1243 to book your seat. If you prefer the online world, join us for this special two-hour Writing Race, with Captains Kim Wilkins and Trent Jamieson, and special guest Racer Kate Morton!

Perhaps, as Liz Sinclair explains to Angela Meyer, you can use this month of frenzied writing to raise funds for your writing project or another good cause. Technology is rendering old business models for content producers obsolete, so maybe writers will need to get used to taking their wares to market themselves; artisans at online markets ftw!

And for insight into how the other half lives, check out this fantastic blog by Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent. Offering straightforward and practical advice on the process of getting an agent, this post demonstrates the quality that is not often attributed to Agents, but which frequently strikes me as being there in abundance: heart.

Have a great writing weekend, folks.

Speakeasy Top Clicks for the Week…

• Pool your Ideas and win an internship with ABC Radio National! This month you can mash up, tweak, or remix some Creative Commons content for fun and prizes.
• Know your copyrights: A new listing with AWMonline has training relevant to all writers.
• Queryfail, where agents tweet author queries doomed for rejection. It’s a real Snark’s playpen, but funny and educational. See a summary here.
• Booklovers and geeks alike can graph your journey through the world of books with bkkeepr - but are you really ready to measure the velocity of your reading? Like LibraryThing, it’s integrated with Twitter.
• *Chuckle* The Clam before the Storm. Proofreading tips: Auto-correct and Find users beware! (A couple of my writerly friends take great pride when they reach that point in their manuscripts where the error message pops up "There are too many spelling and grammatical errors in this document to continue displaying them." Power to the peeps!!)

Wishing you a productive writing weekend, folks. And remember, Friday is funday. Celebrate today with a toasted felafel roll for lunch; I find nothing else will do.

     AWMonline has run live forums with both Australian and international agents, and they have been unanimous in advising writers to read, read, and read some more. There’s no better way to know your craft, know your genre, and know your market.

The development of e-books means readers are faced with expanding choices of not only what to read, but how.

For those who still like their books on paper, here are some cool things to make reading comfy, easy, and fun – especially for those of us who have RSI from all our writing. (Excuse the product plugs – rest assured, I’m not getting any kickbacks!)

I swear by the book seat - it’s like a bean bag for your book with a strap to keep it open. It’s perfect for hands-free reading, but not very portable. For one-handed, take-anywhere reading, I want to try the thumb thing. And there are a squillion readling lights available, including these two: the flex neck for a clip-on reading light with style, and this kids reading light with digital timer – it’s designed to encourage recalacitrant readers to read for a minimum time, but I can definitely see it come in handy setting limits on my own night-time reading.

But then, I need to read more than I need to sleep.

Many readers have gone digital, notably Nathan Bransford, literary agent, and Kate Eltham, QWC CEO and writer. I guess I could live without books-on-paper (cut to scene of desperate woman standing atop a windswept cliff, 1984 edition of The Mists of Avalon clutched to her heaving breast). But what about bookshelves? Bookshelves maketh the home, and they’re not there to house dusty bric-a-brac, people. They’re meant for books.

And what about our favourite independent booksellers in Australia (gleebooks, Readings, Brisbane’s Better Bookshops…)? We are fortunate to have so many surviving and thriving when treasured ones overseas are going, going, gone. There’s still a place for independent booksellers in the world of digital publishing, but it’s a different place.

Sigh. Kindle and Sony Reader do look good. I could read whenever, wherever, no seats and things and lights required. Even, now, on my iphone.

So, writers – there’s lots of options, gadgets aplenty, and definitely no excuses. Want to be the best writer you can be? Then read, read, and read some more!

     Vampirates! (Kudos to author Justin Somper for thinking up the coolest concept ever).

But I don’t mean the sort of vampirates that roam the seas of Captain Somper’s imagination. I mean the ones that roam the world of publishing, leaving a trail of exsanguinated writers in their wake. We all know about poetry.com (note I do not include a hotlink to their site), where, as jb puts it, every kiddie wins a prize.

An AWMonline subscriber narrowly escaped the grasping talons of a publishing vampirate this week. In attempting to contact a reputable Australian literary agent online, with one slip of the keyboard they found themself (yes, I’m taking liberties with the singular they, but it’s so handily gender-neutral and anonymous) being lured down a dark alley towards a dastardly deal. Fortunately they kept their wits about them, and bolted once they realised the offer was all just too easy… like slipping into a dreamworld where a writer’s fond wish to be published can be made real in a blink, and for such a reasonable fee…

Just to be clear: austlit.com is highly reputable, but auslit.com (without the first "t") is a link farm that may direct you to places inhabited by fanged beasties in tricorn hats, (whereas austlit.edu.au is awesome). Check before you click, my friends, check before you click. It’s best to investigate the bona fides of any literary agent before dealing with them.

Fortunately, there are heroes are in our midst, brandishing long stakes carved from the planks of wisdom’s ghostships. Look up an agent’s code of practice at the Australian Literary Agents Association. Check the listings at Preditors & Editors. Follow the link in our blogroll to Writer Beware. Contact your local community legal centre. (Btw, QWC is still collecting your letters of support to assist the Arts Law Centre in getting an audience with the Queensland Premier to put their case).

I’ve also had recent cause to grrrrrrrrr at cybersquatters. Laws are developing to evict people who are maliciously profiteering by holding on to your perfect domain name, but the laws are just too complex (= expensive) for us mere mortals to implement.

Ever been bitten by a publishing vampirate? Step inside this candlelit room, sit upon our dusty velvet armchair, and tell us your tale…

     More from "procrastination.com.hey-you!" for those of us stuck in the twitter-facebook-wordpress feedback loop. See these tips on how to make writer’s block work for you…

But if, like me, you’re not willing to surrender your passport to the digital world, have you voted for your fave literary blog yet? The Weblog Awards are here again.

I write fiction, but this article on how to write a nonfiction book proposal is so good I had to read it. Twice.

Does this post seem like a grab-bag of tidbits? Oh, you’re so perceptive! The reality of managing the back end of a website with thousands of subscribers and listees is hitting me this week. Or maybe it’s just that city living is eating my brain…

     There’s an opportunity until the 15th of this month to submit the first chapter of your best, completed novel as part of the Query Holiday at Firebrand Literary. These are truly folks after my own heart: their idea of a good holiday is reading upwards of 200 submissions a day (presumably while sipping exotic beverages on a banana lounge by the beach somewhere). They cover a fairly wide range of YA, non-fic, and spec-fic titles, plus children’s and illustrated titles. You can follow the adventures of one of their agents involved at www.twitter.com/nadiacornier.

Craphound has written a helpful writers’ guide to surviving and thriving amidst the technological temptations that assail us when we front up to the keyboard. Read Cory’s article for ideas to improve your writing routines. It’s great stuff, although I must admit, I sometimes break the rules and do a quick fact-check online in the middle of a writing session – if I have the luxury of a few hours to write, it can help me immerse myself in the topic of my wild imaginings.

What about you .. Any top tips to add? Does internet access help or hinder your writing?

Money is money is money. Small royalties aside, if you are making money as an author then kudos to you, my friend. Do you want to know a good way to make more money as an author? Be a celebrity author.

There has been a minor blogging furor over reports that American comedian Sarah Silverman is to receive an advance of $2.5 million dollars while Jerry Seinfeld’s book proposal has received bids of $7 to $8 million dollars (I thought the publishing industry was struggling?). Moonrat breaks the number’s down for you – "let’s pretend the royalties are a flat 15% and cut out any escalator. Let’s also assume the book is $24.95. Seems fair, right? That means Jerry Seinfeld will earn back $3.74 toward his advance with each copy purchased by a consumer. That means that for his advance to earn out, he’d have to sell 1,871,658 copies of his book in the first year for the advance to earn out."

The CEO of Trident Media (Silverman and Seinfeld are their clients) has responded to the comments saying "[How is it any different] if you’re talking about a name-brand fiction author? Do you think it’s wrong for a publisher to spend a lot of money on Dan Brown or John Grisham or James Patterson? It’s the same thing".

Not really Mr CEO. Dan Brown and friends are writers that are celebrities. Not the other way round (especially when most celebrities that are "writers" have a handy-dandy ghostwriter to help them out).  Why don’t they increase author royalties rather than the advances? Does the money spent on books about Seinfeld give publishers a chance to fund an unknown writer? Any ghostwriters (or published authors) out there want to shed a bit of light on this?

In other news, Nathan Bransford is away from his blog at the moment, but he has a bevy of guest bloggers with some really interesting things to say. Go and check it out.