The Writing Cave

Aaaaaannnddd the links for this week are:

Brain scientist Livia has wonderful (and pseudo-psychologist) tips on beta reader feedback.

Agents Kristin Nelson and Jennifer Laughran talk agency agreements.

Writer Brooke Favero has a roundup of synopsis-writing links.

Weekly Link of Awesome: from the always-awesome bookshelves of doom, literary maps.

What writing tips have you picked up this week?

Two quotes of wisdom from SCBWI-Iowa‘s spring conference came from literary agent Stephen Fraser:

“When you start to act professionally, you are a professional writer.”

and my favorite:

“A good book has a home.”

Another fantastic session at the SCBWI-Iowa conference was given by Michelle Bayuk, the Director of Marketing at Albert Whitman & Co. Not only was Michelle friendly and approachable, but she had great information about marketing your book:

• As an author, your biggest contribution is to finish the book!
• You are a member of the marketing team, not the sales team. Build relationships with your local booksellers and librarians.
• You are the best spokesperson for your book.
• New books sell old books. Keep writing.

And remember: “If you can’t describe your book in a sentence, we can’t sell it.” Editors only have a sentence or two to explain your book to the sales team. The sales team only has a sentence or two to sell the book to buyers. Keep your elevator speech updated!

It’s Wednesday again, folks, and there are some great posts out there:

Five amazing lessons from Shannon Whitney Messenger.

Is your attitude and altitude age group appropriate? (from Kidlit Central News)

So excited to see Gail Carson Levine has a new book coming out! I had to re-read ELLA ENCHANTED after seeing the news (via My Brain on Books).

This week’s Link of Awesome: Love wordplay and charts? Indexed does it again.

What other links of awesome have you found this week?

Presenting, for your Monday, another gem from the SCBWI-Iowa conference. This one comes from Candace Fleming and Eric Rohmann‘s joint presentation on picture books, but I think it applies to all forms:

“The best endings solve the problem, but don’t end the story.”

Welcome to Wednesday, everyone! A small but wonderful group of links today:

Shannon O’Donnell offers this inspiring look at failure (yes, you read that right).

Janice Hardy asks: do your words give the right first impression?

The Guide to Literary Agents blog has this year’s list of best agent blogs.

And a truly wonderful Link of Awesome for this week: A show-jumping cow (via mental_floss).

What great posts have you seen this week? More importantly, have you ever ridden a cow?

Here’s a thought for your Monday morning, courtesy of author/illustrator extraordinaire Eric Rohmann:

The Beatles only kept 3% of what they did. If you listen to all their released music, it totals about ten hours of finished product, compared to over 400 hours of takes. That doesn’t even count rehearsals.

“The majority of what you do is going to be crap.” But it’s part of the process that gets you to that finished product. Give yourself permission to suck first.

From http://donotbediscouraged.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

One of my favorite sessions at the SCBWI-Iowa conference last weekend was Wendy Delsol‘s “Rookie Season: What to Expect Throughout the Editorial Process and the First Year” (the conference was baseball-themed, helloooo Cracker Jack!). Wendy’s debut novel STORK was published last October by Candlewick Press and the sequel, FROST, is out this coming October. And if that wasn’t enough, her adult novel THE MCCLOUD HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS will be available from Berkley Books on August 2. With all that writing and editing and editing and writing, who better to share insights into the publishing process as a debut author?!

Wendy took us through the basic process of getting an agent, revision, submission to editors, revision, copy edits, did I mention revision, and finally publication and promotion. Some new-to-me pieces of advice:

• Know the hierarchy of publishers you’re targeting (managing editor, associate editor, etc.) and how many bosses to whom your editor is reporting.
• Make your own style sheet for reference. Each publishing house has their own for standard grammar, but it will help during your personal revisions if you keep track of character names and spellings, comma use, spelling of phrases and contractions, etc.
• When you get your first pass pages or galley sheets, proofread them with your copy-edited draft close by to make sure those changes got made. Also, once the book reaches this point, most publishers won’t be happy about any stylistic language changes. Eventually you have to let the text go and just be done!
• Blurbs for your book’s cover really are genuine. Wendy was only acquainted with one of the people who blurbed STORK; it wasn’t based on publisher affiliations or uber-personal connections, they just truly enjoyed the book.
• When planning a book launch or author event, be realistic. Do things on a scale where you know you can fill the seats. Why set yourself up for failure? This is the time to bring in family and friends from all parts of your life. (read more about Wendy’s launch event here)
• When people ask what they can do to help publicize your book, tell them to leave reviews on Amazon.

To learn more about Wendy and keep up to date on all her exciting news, visit her website, Twitter feed, or read her Writing Cave interview.

Anyone else have debut tips to add? Anything in your experience or on this list that surprised you?

Well folks, it’s been awhile since the last Linkfest Wednesday, so there’s plenty of awesome today:

Wordplay has great tips and tools for identifying and controlling your writing tics.

Agent Jennifer Laughran posted this round-up from her Twitter pitch contest. Excellent post for both tips and entertainment (werewolf roller derby says it all).

Livia Blackburne gives a great example of using foils to increase characterization.

A.J. takes on fantasy villains and blows my mind with analysis of Harry Potter sub-villains.

Formatting tips to make your editor love you, from Alison Janssen. Basically, learn to love the Find/Replace feature! (I never would’ve thought of the “tab” tip)

There are too many Links of Awesome to narrow down to one for the week, so enjoy a buffet:

AnnaStan’s inspiring goats.

Indexed does cheese.

Indexed does inspiration.

Best Flowchart EVER (via mental_floss)

What was your favorite link from the past few weeks?

Last weekend was an inspiring gathering of writers from all over the Midwest and we got carloads of wisdom from the SCBWI-Iowa conference  presenters. The first of my favorite quotes from the weekend:

“Writing is a confident act. Writing is a brave act.”

Katherine Tegen Books associate editor Molly O’Neill opened the conference with this reminder that creating art and putting words on the page requires a confident artist and the bravery to put your work out there. Her passion and love for children’s books was inspiring as she took us through character boot camp and a look at gripping beginnings. Catch up with Molly at her blog and on Twitter for more gems of wisdom.