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Featured Interview | Advertisements | Featured Article
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One Writer's Road to Publication:
Finding The Right Agent
Part I: My novel is finished
Getting to this point was a long, arduous, sometimes highly emotional, two-year process, and… the work is hardly over. Now another process begins: marketing. Getting the right agent excited enough about the manuscript to represent it.
So, while news broke that Michael Jackson was acquitted, I embarked on my agent campaign. My home office is now a clutter of crumpled query letter drafts, printouts of literary agents who I decided that I won’t target, two dead plants, and several empty Starbucks cups. There’s also an enormous stack of printouts for agents who, at first glance, looked like good matches, but who I need to research further.
I haven’t taken this finding an agent business lightly. In fact, I’ve drifted to sleep night after night with books and magazine articles on agents and marketing--anything that will arm me with the latest information. But this hasn’t come without its hazards. More than a few times, I’ve awakened to jagged neon stripes from my still-uncapped highlighter painted across my sheets and arms. And once, across the side of my face.
From a networking standpoint, I've joined two writing organizations this month and have attended one conference and three meetings. I’ve had the opportunity to meet several well-published authors and listen to a few agents during a panel discussion about the business.
I think I’m on the right path.
I’ll begin sending out query letters this weekend--with a goal of ten a week--continue to network, and adjust the plan as I learn what works and what doesn’t. I’ll also replace the plants.
Enjoy the issue. See you next month!
Jennifer Minar
Managing Editor
WritersBreak.com & Writer's Break Monthly
www.WritersBreak.com
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Q&A with Debut Novelist Martha O'Connor
Martha O'Connor is getting plenty of buzz for her intense debut, The Bitch Posse. Coined “anti-chick lit” by some, her novel centers around the bond shared by three troubled girls and delves into some intensely dark issues.
Publisher's Weekly writes: “The story fascinates even as it repels.” Marie Claire says that it's “An angsty, serious novel of lost dreams and sexual damage.” Author Edmund White goes on to say that it's a debut worthy of Joyce Carol Oates.
In this Q&A, O'Connor shares with WritersBreak.com her road to publication, what writing means to her, and answers whether being published is everything she dreamed it would be. She also shares a piece of solid advice for aspiring novelists.
Read the Interview
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If The Price Is Right
by Jenna Glatzer
 Writers are often advised never to sign "all rights" or work-for-hire contracts. I say "never" is too strong a word.
Of course, we should avoid these contracts as much as possible. After all, when we sign away our rights, we lose the ability to sell reprints, which can be a freelancer's lifeblood.
However, my policy is "if the price is right, I'll sign." A few months ago, a writer's organization proudly proclaimed that one of their members had turned down a $2/word contract because of the publication's rights-grabbing contract. I say that member was a fool.
How many places were going to reprint that article of his? I believe it was for Skiing magazine; a specialized market to say the least. He couldn't have sold to another national magazine afterwards, since almost no nationals will buy reprints of articles that have already appeared in other nationals. So, fine, he might have sold it to a few local or regional publications at drastically lower rates... but was it really worth it to turn down this assignment?
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Copyright (c) 2003-2005 Writer's Break. All rights reserved. No portion of this ezine may be reproduced without permission. All correspondence should be sent to Jennifer Minar.
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