I’ve been going through a reading spurt lately, after I finished the third (and hefty) Eragon book, Brisingr, and I’ve noticed that you can’t judge the validity of the “rules” of writing based on what’s selling in stores. There are plenty of “rules” that we hear when we’re just starting. I put the word in…
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I’ve written about this a few times before, and the more I read about query letters, the more I see that spending time making your query perfect is as important as time spent making your manuscript perfect. Literary agent Nathan Bransford had a post this week about working with new agents and in it, a link to…
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I know. I was AWOL last week. Sorry. Actually, I was in Oahu promoting the Sir Newton Color Me Hawaii book. It was an impromtu trip, so I didn’t have time to set up too many events and get good marketing around them. But I did do two retailer events and spent the rest of the…
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Today we’re welcoming Elizabeth Fournier to Day By Day Writer. Elizabeth wrote her All Men Are Cremated Equal: My 77 Blind Dates balanced between a day job and new marriage and self-published it. She has quite a colorful working background, as she says on her website: “Elizabeth is currently the voice of the autopsy exhibit in the…
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Once I finally had a query letter I was happy with, it was time to write a synopsis. In the past, I had thought it would be easier to do it the other way around — write a 4- to 6-page synopsis of my novel, then write the 1- to 3- paragraph query blurb; work…
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Yes, I was one of the many who saw Star Trek this weekend. And, apart from a few holes, it was good, very entertaining and lots of fun, especially if you’re a fan of the franchise and can appreciate the references. But one of the best parts of the movie is the surprises. J.J. Abrams is…
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Firstly, a side-note. What do you think about the slight design change on the blog? Ok, it was a small change, and you might not notice. But what do you think of the little flowers in the nav bar? I love the little flowers. Ok, now onto writing… Yay! I have a query letter. After…
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In my blog reading the last few days I’ve noticed a number of agents talking about people sending them query letters that are in their “do not represent” genre list, or writers sending multiple query letters after they’ve received a rejection. A few days ago, Jessica Faust at BookEnds agency posted a message entitled Please…
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I’ve done three drafts of my query letter and lots of tweaks in between, and I still feel as flummoxed as when I first started. My husband says I should be having fun with it. I have fun when I’m writing my novel and it shows. I should have the same fun with the query.…
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A few years ago, when I started getting serious about writing books for children, I got a few ideas for picture books and, in between working on my novel, I wrote one. Picture books are shorter, I figured, and wouldn’t take me as long. WRONG! Of course, I didn’t know that then. I wrote, researched picture book…
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