The Business of Writing

How a Book Gets Published
Agent Nathan Bransford gives a great, easy-to-follow description of how a book goes from finished clean copy on the author’s desk to a shiny new book on the shelves.

Ask Daphne: What about Contest Sites?
Are contests a route to get an agent? Kate Schafer Testerman says, no, not directly. She doesn’t visit contest sites looking for new authors to represent, and she doesn’t imagine that most other agents have time to do that either. I believe contests are still viable ways to gain buzz for your work, and they might be a nice entry in your query letter, though.

Passion and Confidence in Publication, Part 1 of 11
Rebecca Emrich begins a new series on the role of passion and confidence in your writing. Does your writing reflect your passion? Are you following your dream when you write, or are you simply trying a different career path?

What We Agents Talk about when We Are Talking about Auctions
Agent Kristin explains the different types of auctions that may be involved when your agent is selling your work.

Stanza and the Future of Ebooks
Author JA Konrath shares his thoughts on the format wars for digital books. He includes a bit of the history of format wars for music and video, and he concludes with his recommendations for writers who are planning how the shift to ebooks will affect them.

Craft

Dear Diary: A Bit on Journaling
Rebecca Emrich shares a conversation she and a friend had about journaling. Would-be writers have long been advised to keep a journal to build their daily writing habit and increase their skill. Do you journal? How has it helped you hone your craft?

School of Write
Writing can be an expensive undertaking, if you attend every conference, buy every writing book, and complete a master’s program in creative writing. And the expense of all of those options can be overwhelming, especially when your writing has not yet brought any income. But, agent Rachelle Gardner reminds us that learning can come cheap–there are many low-cost writing resources out there, including all of the great writer and agent blogs–and it is essential if we want to earn more money from our writing.

Revision in Action
Writer Jennifer Hubbard uses an excerpt from her own work to show how she revises. She discusses the idea of when you might want to kill a phrase you love to make your story better, which I touched on in my post about prologues on Wednesday.

Fiction

Urban Fantasy: Science Fiction’s Future?
GalleyCat looks at the bright economic prospects of the urban fantasy genre and how it might affect the rest of speculative fiction in the future. Also read the follow-up discussing the difference between urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

Writing F/F(/M) for the Female Gaze
Kristin Saell guests at Victoria Janssen’s blog to discuss how to write sex between two women that will actually appeal to straight women. The advice she offers reminds us of the importance of keeping the reader’s perspective in mind when writing. She also draws on the feminist theory of the male gaze to show why mainstream romance readers haven’t enthusiastically embraced F/F romance. After reading this, think about whether your fiction is based on reality and speaks in the language of your ideal reader.

Don’t have an ideal reader? Here are two posts that will help you understand why you need one and how to create one.

Freelancing

Job Posting: Quartet Press Editorial Positions
Quartet Press, a new romance publisher, is hiring contract content and copy editors.

60 Tips for Getting Started in Your Freelancing Business
Deb Ng shares the lessons she and other freelancers have learned the hard way. Use their combined wisdom to ensure that you start (or continue) your business on the right foot.

Which Freelance Writing Services Should You Promote the Most?
Jennifer Mattern gives tips for choosing which services you should promote on your web site and networking. Hint, you probably want to promote the services that pay your bills so you can afford to spend time doing the one’s you love. Mattern reminds us that we freelancers are first and foremost a business, and a business must be run with a balance between passion and practicality.

Platform

We’re Even Crowdsourcing Bookstore Appearances Now
GalleyCat reports on a contest being held by Melinda Blau. She is asking her Facebook friends to visit their local bookstores, ask strangers to take their pictures with her book Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don’t Seem to Matter…But Really Do, and submit them to her. Other authors have done similar contests. How can you use social media and crowdsourcing to build your platform?

Get Known Before Your Book Deal
Christina Katz shares her platform-building wisdom at the Under 30 CEO blog. Of particular interest is her answer to the question of mistakes made by writers when trying to build their platforms.

Fun Stuff

The Things They Don’t Tell You When You Sign the Contract

Very funny–and accurate–things you need to know about the writer’s life. I have been a victim of the Non-Einstein-ian contraction of the space-time continuum. Where’s Doc Brown when I need him?

Hey, Where’s the Doggies of Publishing Go?

Desperate to share photos of your dog? GalleyCat shares a few opportunities and a fun video about Dean Koontz’ dog.

More Links

Thursday Midday Link Roundup
The ladies at Dear Author post a daily collection of links about the industry that is worth adding to your Google Reader. Be warned, though, that this is an active site, so you’ll see your unread count increase quickly.

The Business of Writing

The Limits of Control
This article from the American Journalism Review provides a good synopsis of the ethics policies and guidelines major newspapers are asking their reporters to follow when using social media. Are these policies enforceable when the journalist is acting as a personal user? What decisions do you make when you interact with others using social media tools?

Who Are You Online?
Another piece exploring the personas we put out on the web. I have three Twitter accounts that I use for different purposes. @jenroland is to discuss writing and romance issues. @pccurmudgeon is to discuss pop culture. And @EdTechJen is focused on educational technology–because I thought teachers might be turned off by the occasional tweet about the peen.

Tech’s Heavyweights Put Google Books Deal in the Crosshairs
Microsoft, Yahoo, and others have come together to challenge the Google books settlement, arguing that it gives Google an unfair copyright advantage that other businesses would be unable to match.

Angela James Joins Quartet Press
Angela James has been a heavy hitter in the e-publishing segment of the romance market for a while. It was announced this week that she is joining Quartet Press, a new publishing company “founded on shared principles to create a high-quality, community-centric, and reader- and author-friendly digital publishing house,” according to its press release.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Kindle
Nathan Bransford shares his thoughts on the various e-reading options out there. He, like me, prefers using his iPhone to read books.

Lucienne Diver: Agent and Author
Lucienne Diver, who was taking pitches at the Willamette Writers conference, shares the crazy hectic life she leads as both author and agent. Of the most interest is her description of why she is not her own agent.

Craft

Your Advice Needed
Agent Janet Reid plans to meet with some beginning authors who need a lot of guidance. As such, she asked her readers to share the best advice they got when they were first starting out. And boy, did they bring it. The comments are a treasure trove of time-tested and useful tips.

Weak Verbs One and Two
Writing mentor Mary DeMuth discusses the need for strong, active verbs rather then weak, boring helper verbs.

Fiction

Does Size Matter?
At Dear Author, Janet explores the rumor of shrinking page counts. Does a shorter book mean less value for the reader? Or does it mean a higher-quality, better-edited work?

Tighten Up Your Manuscript
Agent Rachelle Gardner offers tips to help you cut your word count to fit the new, shorter mindset.

An Unusual Take on Conflict
Jennifer Hubbard shares the lessons she learned from reading Guru by Jeff Griggs. We writers often hear that conflict is an essential component of our fiction. However, Griggs suggests that the relationship between the hero and the villain is richer and more interesting than their conflict. How can you apply that idea in your writing? Will you ensure that your villain is as fleshed out as your hero? (Or, if you’re like me, will you go back to the draing board and breath more life into your protagonist?)

Freelancing

For Publishing Companies and Their Suppliers, a Surge in Bankruptcies
Many magazine publishers are in bankruptcy or will likely file bankruptcy soon. This article from Folio discusses what those bankruptcies mean for the industry. We writers need to know what it means for freelancers. Will there be an increase in freelancing opportunities as magazines more to even-more-bare-bones staffs? Or will freelance pay drop to ensure the magazines financial success?

Save Time. Organize Your Space. Now.
Freelancer Julie Steed reminds us of the importance of proper organization. Can you take a few minutes now to ensure that your writing time will be productive for at least the next few months? Why waste your precious writing time looking for pencils or paper clips?

30 Day Marketing Boot Camp
Jennifer Mattern is planning a marketing boot camp on her Query-Free Freelancer site in September. The Query-Free Freelancer is focused on helping freelancers build a business that doesn’t rely on pitching for low-paying jobs on job boards.

Platform

Writing for a Blog Tour Versus Writing for a Book
The Blood-Red Pencil has been focusing on promotion this week. Here, Marvin Wilson discusses the differences between blog tours and book writing.

Book Tours and Book Reviews: When to Give up Control
And here, guest blogger Elizabeth Spann Craig shares her experience with interviews about your book.

Promotion Routines for Writers
Finally, Camy Tang talks about her promotional tools. Her big tip for writers: Only market in ways you are comfortable with. If you can’t bear the thought of wasting time on Twitter, don’t do it. If you can’t keep to a regular posting schedule, don’t blog. If you shudder at the thought of standing in front of a classroom of writers hungry for the knowledge you can share, don’t teach.

Fun Stuff

Apparently I Like Vampire Books. Who Knew?
Amanda Brice shares her new-found love of certain vampire books with the ladies at Fictionistas. I have always loved everything vampire. How about you?

Are You a Cat or a Dog?
December Gephart shares a couple fun quizzes. In case you needed some further ways to procrastinate.

Looking for more? Andy Shackcloth presents his own list of writing posts on his site. I suggest bookmarking it or adding it to your Google Reader.