Some ideas to consider for making your book more appealing to agents and editors: Expand your niche. Sometimes agents and editors like a book but don’t think the primary audience for it is big enough. You can expand your niche by adding secondary audiences. A book for straight parents of gay teens can also…
Tag: how to
What do you bring to the table?
One of my favorite bloggers, Cal Newport, writes about how to succeed at college. And yes, I’ve been out of college for donkey’s years, so what am I doing reading his blog? I’m getting really good information on things like hard focus and how to excel. A case in point: his recent blog post — which…
Finding the time
This is the time of year when everyone else in publishing seems to take the month off and drink a lot of eggnog. I, on the other hand, always find myself scrambling to get everything done and feeling overwhelmed by the effort. Partly this is because I’m thinking, “The year is almost over! I didn’t do…
Being a professional
Today I was going to write a gentle blog post about how to conduct your relationship with your agent/potential agent, but Jessica over at Bookends beat me to it. Two of the most important things she says are, “I don’t want an author who disrespects me” and “agents are only as successful as their reputations.” …
On getting to the next level
Every single stage of my writing career has been a pain in the ass. I think the last time my love of writing was pure and unadulterated with any concept of “why does this have to be so hard?” was when I was five and the lightbulb went off in my head and suddenly I…
Doing the work
In the course of any given day, I have lots of conversations with lots of writers. A consistent theme in the past few months has revolved around “doing the work.” In fact, it’s become kind of a sign-off mantra with a friend of mine: “Okay, I’m off to Do The Work.” It can be hard to stay focused and…