blogger: Cynthia Ruchti
Writers spend innumerable hours, bags of M&Ms (or baby carrots, but let’s be real), and cups of coffee/tea refining proposals before they’re sent to an agent to send to an editor. 
Later that afternoon, the agent sends …
proposals
Story–The Common Ground Between Fiction and Nonfiction
Story–The Common Ground Between Fiction and Nonfiction
By Cynthia Ruchti
In a January 16, 2011 post for Psychology Today, Dr. Pamela B. Rutledge expounded on “The Psychological Power of Storytelling.” She focused on the concept as it relates to changes …
Story–The Common Ground Between Fiction and NonfictionRead More
4 Steps to Writing a Novella
Blogger: Michelle Ule
Filling in for Janet Grant who is traveling.
Novellas are the rage these days and many people are writing them or putting together collections. I’ve got four tips here for how to write a novella, based on …
How Do You know Your Submission is Ready?
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
One of the most difficult things for a writer is to close the file on a book or a proposal and declare it ready. Almost as hard as prying it out of their clenched fingers at a …
A Subtle Technique
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Once in a while I hear a scathing author criticism of his agent, “He just sat on my manuscript.” Most clients expect that when we receive their proposal we turn it around and get it right out. …
Pre-Writing Marketing: In-House
Blogger: Michelle Ule
Sitting in both today and tomorrow for the traveling Janet and for Wendy.
Over the next two days I’m going to talk about the marketing you do before you start writing. Today we’ll start with in your …
Fatal Submission Mistakes
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
I sense much submission angst out there in writer land. I think a quiz is in order to help you identify some of the fatal submission mistakes a writer might inadvertently make.
Take the quiz and then …
The Psychology of Submission Timing
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Recently I found myself explaining to a client that I am in a bit of a press to get submissions out. “I feel like I only have six good weeks until every publisher sort of mentally shuts …
Competing for Readers
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
One of the parts of the proposal that often stymies writers is the competitive analysis section. That’s where the writer is asked to tell what books are similar to his, while highlighting why his offers a different …
The Publishing Quest: Hurry Up and Wait
Blogger: Wendy Lawton
If you are a planner, no career is tougher than that of a published writer. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could sketch out a timeline? In a perfect world it might look something like …