Richard Curtis in a recent EReads post asks a provocative question: Do authors make good publishers? The question is in the context of ebooks, keep that in mind.

They point to high-profile authors who have tried this route this year: Cory Doctorow, Seth Godwin and J.A. Conrath. Curtis concludes that the services of a publisher are valuable.

As he quotes Doctorow, “With a Little Help has helped me realize something: whatever I do next, I don’t want to be in charge of all these moving parts. I can’t be both a Zen, let-it-all-happen-at-its-own-pace writer and an aggressive, deadline-pushing publisher. If I were realistically going to keep up this publishing stuff, I would need to outsource every task that requires the virtues inherent in agents, editors, sales, marketing, distribution and retail, especially that willingness to tithe a large portion of my working day to logistics, follow-ups, and calls.”

Here Conrath however, takes issue with Curtis’ conclusion, reporting, “In December, I made over $24,000 self-publishing, and I’m currently averaging $1300 per day. But I’m far from the only one doing well.”

He then lists many authors with sales figures of over 1000 ebooks in December and concludes that you should self-publish.

May you always Find your Way!

What do you think? Know anyone successfully selling ebooks? Ready to move toward self-publishing? Or, like Doctorow, do you still appreciate the professional team of a publisher?

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

How to Write a Query Letter

I’m attending a retreat this weekend and we are supposed to bring a query letter for critique. In preparation, I’ve read a variety of articles about “how to write a successful query letter” and found the best available on the internet today.

Basics

1. How to Write a Query A classic 3-paragraph query letter. Great examples of hooks.





2. How to Write a Query Letter Great list of Do-Nots and a good sample query included.
3. How to Write a Successful Query. Covers the essentials, plus Hooks to Avoid.
4. Rites of Submission: Cover Letters and Query Letters. Details the differences and similarities between cover and query letters.
5. Tara K. Harper, FAQ: Query Letters Reminder to consider the audience (publisher, editor, or agent) and the type of manuscript you have written (novel, magazine piece, etc.)
6. How to write a query letter. With only 25 words for each major section of a query letter, this one gives you a solid skeleton for your query.
7. Stepping Onto the Query-Go-Round, pt. 1: Content First of a 4-part series on query letters, including a successful letter, notes on tracking queries and more.
8. What’s NOT a Query Letter. Send out these queries at your own risk.
9. How to Write a Great Query Letter: Inside Tips & Techniques for Success. FREE eBook from agent, Noah Lukeman, on the topic of queries.

Sample Query Letters

10. How To Query an Agent
11. How to Write a Great Query Letter: An Example that Worked. Example from a Scholastic Editor.
12. Sample Query Letter. An annotated sample query letter.
13. I’m All Done, Now What? Writing a Query Letter. A query letter is taken through several revisions.
14. The Complete Nobody’s Guide to Query Letters The query letter as a cold-call selling technique. Example of a successful query.
15. P&E: Sample Novel Query Letter. Basic annotations, but good.

Sending a Digital or Email Query Letter?

16. Query Letter Subject Lines: Act Now!! Get It While It Lasts!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Introduced first in 2007, authors debuting children’s books have formed a cooperative effort to market their novels. Last year, I featured many of the stories of how the 2k8 Novels Were Revised. This is part of the ongoing stories from the Class of 2k9 authors and how they went about revising their novels.

From Creative Writing Class to Publication

Guest Post by
Donna St. Cyr
www.donnastcyr.com

The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate

Inspiration. I began writing this story as an assignment for my writing class. My children had given me the idea by their daily antics (that’s how many of my stories are born). The final assignment for this class was to submit something that was around ten chapters in length. The instructor loved what I sent and encouraged me to finish and pursue publication with it.

Outline provides initial vision. Before I started the actual writing, I brainstormed how I might want the story to look, creating a pathfinder to give me some plot possibilities. It’s an action/adventure fantasy, so it really is a pretty plot-driven story. After I sketched the story out, I began writing. It didn’t take long for me to pitch the original outline and begin writing from the hip, so to speak. I was glad, however, that I’d started with the outline because it gave me a vision for the story, even though that vision changed as I wrote.

One and a half-years to a full draft. I have a nasty habit of revising as I go, so every time I wrote a chapter or two, I’d edit it right away. After that, I’d send it out to my critique group. These actions took care of many of my line edits and helped me with plot inconsistencies and pointing out spots where my narrative was too much “tell” and not enough “show”. To write the entire manuscript and revise it through my critique group took about a year to a year and a half.

Six months revising. When I felt like I’d finished the story, I sent it back through my critique group, looking specifically for “big picture” items. Some of the things we concentrated on during the second round of edits included character action and language that was consistent through the story, consistency through the plotline, holes in the story that needed to be filled in, places where the action sagged, and depth of characters. This took another six months or so and I felt pretty good about the manuscript by that point, so I started subbing it out to publishers.

Acceptance! I’d sent the story out five times – with five rejections – before I saw a call for manuscripts of Verla Kay’s Children’s Writers and Illustrators Message Board. I thought my story fit Blooming Tree’s expectations, so I sent it in. About four months later I received a call – acceptance – YAY! I thought I was done ——— NOT!

Revise for Editor. My editor told me the story was not yet finished. It needed more action, more depth of character and more EVERYTHING! This was probably the most difficult point in the revision process for me. I really wanted to be finished, but I took a good hard look at the manuscript and realized she was right. The story wasn’t finished. I found some new characters (some of my favorites) and some more adventures my main characters needed to experience. After this revision was finished, my editor asked for one more small revision. This was mostly more of the same types of things my critique buddies had helped me with. After that came the copy edits. What amazed me was how many typos are still in a manuscript after it’s been edited six times. I think we still had 30 or so things to fix. After the copy edits were completed, I really was DONE ——— with the writing, that is. The marketing and promotion has just begun.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

What is the biggest mistake made when submitting a picture book to a publisher?

You do NOT need to find an illustrator

The question most often asked is this: “How do I find an illustrator for my book?”

You don’t. The publisher chooses the illustrator.
In fact, you cut your chances of selling in half, if you try to team up with an illustrator and submit a package. The editor may love the text, but not the art; or, love the art, but not the text. Either way, you get a no.

Reputable trade publishers do not want you to find an illustrator, or pay for an illustrator, or do anything more than provide illustration possibilities in your text.

After an editor decides to publish your picture book, they decide on likely illustrators by looking at factors like these:

1. Style. What sort of style seems best for this story? watercolor v. pastels? Modern v. traditional? Perhaps, collage?
2. . . .
3. . . .

Like You, the Publisher Wants to Sell Books

Always, the publisher is looking for ways to improve sales of your book by matching it with the best illustrator.

How to Write a Children’s Picture Book A Fiction Notes Ebook 110 pages packed with information. Everything in one, easy-to-read format. Instant access!







Goodreads Book Giveaway



Wisdom, the Midway Albatross

by Darcy Pattison

Giveaway ends March 11, 2012.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win
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