Welcome to the guest blogging series, So, You Want to Work in Publishing, where publishing professionals share their personal stories of how they broke into the industry. The guest bloggers and I hope that you find our stories encouraging, informative, and helpful in your own path to a publishing career. If you’re a publishing professionalContinue reading “Want to Work in Publishing? Don’t Be Afraid to Use Your Connections!”
Tag Archives: literary agents
#1 Way to Protect Your Query Letter from an Upon-Arrival Trashcan Fate
Let me tell you a true story. It’s a horror story. A publishing horror story. The following is not for the faint of heart. I work at a social science press. We publish history, economic, sociology, psychology, and urban planning books (among others). On occasion, we publish memoirs but these books are usually the memoirsContinue reading “#1 Way to Protect Your Query Letter from an Upon-Arrival Trashcan Fate”
How Winning a Writing Contest Can Improve a Writer’s Self-Esteem
Wonderful news, folks! You are officially reading the blog of the winner of Honorable Mention in the 2011 Writer’s Digest Young Adult Fiction Competition!* According to their congratulatory email, “competition was fierce,” so I’m super proud! While first and second place comes with fame (publication of their entry in Writer’s Digest) and fortune (they wonContinue reading “How Winning a Writing Contest Can Improve a Writer’s Self-Esteem”
What To Do When Your Book Idea is Stolen and Made into a Bestseller
Monday (9:00am): Denial. Denial, denial, denial. When they clog up your email, each electronic bad news arriving one after another, providing a summary paragraph that’s startlingly similar to the plot of your own manuscript, refuse to read the: Online book reviews Goodreads monthly newsletter Barnes & Noble weekly newsletter Shelf Awareness daily newsletter Monday (9:15am): Continue reading “What To Do When Your Book Idea is Stolen and Made into a Bestseller”
The 4 Rules of Polite Simultaneous Submissions
I’ve read blog posts before where people claim that it’s “rude” or, at the very least, makes them extremely uncomfortable to simultaneously submit their writing to multiple journals or to multiple literary agents. This is ridiculous! Think about it. If you have submitted your manuscript to a single literary agent, the wait time is, perhaps,Continue reading “The 4 Rules of Polite Simultaneous Submissions”
Even Ernest Hemingway Got Rejection Letters
To make you all feel a bit better about your most recent rejection letters, to keep you amused while you wait for some more rejection letters, and to encourage you to ignore those rejection letters and keep submitting your short stories and manuscripts anyway, I thought I’d provide a link to this rather hilarious articleContinue reading “Even Ernest Hemingway Got Rejection Letters”
Patience is (Allegedly) a Virtue
I think this is more of a wives tale than a proverb, personally. What’s the longest amount of time you’ve ever waited to hear back from a journal or literary agent? How do you all stay patient? I’m going BONKERS over here. I’m still waiting on… Painted Bride Quarterly (date submitted: January 4th; what submitted:Continue reading “Patience is (Allegedly) a Virtue”
Learning the Nuts and Bolts to Getting Your Book Published
This is my understanding of the process and, thus, how I’m going about it personally. Any disagreements? Got any suggestions to add? 1. Write the Book The whole thing. Agents and publishers are only interested in completed fiction. They want to know the final word count and they want to start working on the projectContinue reading “Learning the Nuts and Bolts to Getting Your Book Published”
Poll: What Do My Rejection Letters from Literary Agents Mean?
Ever since I read Nathan Bransford’s post “Why You Are Receiving Rejection Letters,” I’ve been thinking about my own rejection letters from literary agents. I’ve been trying to decide whether I should set aside my middle-grade historical fiction manuscript and start writing a new one, or if I should persevere and stubbornly continue submitting it. Continue reading “Poll: What Do My Rejection Letters from Literary Agents Mean?”
If You’re Feeling a Little Rejected…
Read this. Why You Are Receiving Rejections “The Gust,” Willem van de Velde In the tangled morass of uncertainty that is the query process, it becomes easy to lose sight of the basics. People e-mail me every day me for feedback and suggestions on their query (which I’m unfortunately unable to provide), and want toContinue reading “If You’re Feeling a Little Rejected…”
Hannah Karena Jones 