Let me 'splain. No, there is to much. Let me sum up... (with goals updates!)

I have so much blog fodder that it almost hurts to blow it all at once. But, here goes:

First, I just finished sending out four email queries. Yay! I still have six snail mail queries to send, but those shall wait until Monday. How did this come about since you've been avoiding actually sending queries for months now, you ask?

Well... last weekend when I went to the mountains, I took my draft of WIP on a USB key (my laptop screen broke so I was using JP's laptop). Of course, on day 1 I realized the file on the USB was corrupt. So much for a weekend of working on WIP! So I decided that I'd just man up and make the final changes in hard copy. And as soon as I thought those words, my chest seemed to tighten.

Because once I made those last pesky changes, I was done. I had to send out WIP.

So I spent the rest of the weekend avoiding anything having to do with WIP.** And I realized that I've seriously been dragging my feet for fear of submitting. Which is strange because I have NEVER been afraid of submitting before.

Still I had my plan: I would be submitting by Labor Day. Why Labor Day? Because I quit my job a week ago!*** This means that not only have I had a ton of free time recently, but also that I would have a full 1.5 weeks of time off before starting the new job (the day after Labor Day). What better time to play at being a full time writer and taking my time polishing revisions, sending queries?

Then the wrench. I got a fish-slap email mid-week that basically told me to please please please get on with it. And JP echoed the sentiment. And I thought, "they're right." JP pointed out that while I'd zoomed through revisions 1 and 2, I was seriously dragging feet on this round. He also pointed out how ironic this was seeing as how I'd queried, and sent a partial, of my last book to an agent when it wasn't even close to being written, much less revised. He pointed out that I'd swung too far to the other end of the spectrum.

How true. So I decided I'd send all my queries on Friday (today). I reasoned that I would still have at least a week before any requests came in, and during that time I could finish up the revisions. Especially since the majority of work was typing in changes I'd made on the hard copy.

I set to work. I made notecards of each agent with pertinent information.**** I wrote pithy personalized intro paragraphs for each agent (and again got fish-slapped for letting those hinder my forward movement).

And then, a truly amazing thing happened: I got a request for the full manuscript!

So, in addition to getting the query stuff together, I now had to get cracking on typing in those revisions -- I did not want to keep this agent waiting! Still, I was pretty certain I could get all queries out on Friday.

As always happens, a thing or two came up at the end of the week, something that took top priority (and was my pleasure to do). So I didn't get the synopsis revised quite the way I want it to, and I didn't buy envelopes. For that reason, I'm not *quite* ready to send out to a few agents.

But that's ok. What's an extra day when I get to take the time to make sure I'm totally happy with my submission package? So many people made fun of me for the insane way I fretted over my query letter, but in the end, I love it. It's been tweaked just the way I want it. Sure, no one else will notice the difference between the last draft and the final draft, but I do. And it gives me that little bit of extra confidence.

Hence, I have big goals for this weekend:

1. celebrate the start of submissions
2. finish typing in revisions on WIP
3. re-write a scene on WIP; layer in a thing or two
   
4. send full of WIP to agent (hurrah!)
5. finish revising synopsis
6. obsessively check email since one agent I queried has a very very very fast turn-around
   
7. send partial to agent who requested on Saturday!
   
8. send rest of queries (6 queries left to send)
9. um... more celebration?!

So there you have it. The longest summation ever :) When I look back on it, it's been a very full but very very wonderful week. It will also be a full weekend. Wish me luck!

PS: Ack, and squeee on starting submissions!!!!!!!!
__________________

* Nevertheless, amazing weekend!

** We even stayed an extra day, deciding on Saturday to ditch work on Monday. How great is that?

*** Yes, I have a new one - going from litigation to trusts & estates, which I've always loved.

**** In case you're curious: name, agency info, contact info, what they want (query, synopsis, pages, etc), and anything helpful to know (who they rep, if they hate rhetorical questions at the beginning of a query, their response time, their blog address, etc.)

The Query Letter: like an interview - be specific! (updated already!)

There's so much good advice out there about how to write a query letter. I think my favorite has to be Diana's who suggest having a CP write the blurb for you since they have more distance from the minute details of the story. Naturally, this is my favorite advice because it is the one that gets me out of having to struggle through the actual writing of the pitch :) (I'm really only partially kidding, while I did struggle and struggle and struggle to craft a pitch, Diana tossed her thoughts at me and it was dead on point -- cutting through all the details that were just clogging my attempts).

I'm sure most of y'all know all the resources out there available to the query writer. There are author articles on how to craft it, and there are also agents out there who actually post query letters (or pitches/hooks) and critiques. Miss Snark's crapometer, for example. Rachel Vater often does this.* So does Evil Editor, and authors have even held their own hook critiques at FFF (Fangs, Fur & Fey).

I've read through tons of these. Not only to find out what people are writing about, but to discern how agents read pitches (and natch, they all read them differently). One common piece of advice oft repeated is: be specific.

This didn't really hit home until I read this query and critique on agent Nathan Bransford's blog.** As he says, it's a fine query letter. And the comments themselves have lots of great critiques. I give big props to the author who allowed Nathan to use her letter as an example, and I wish her luck. But the biggest thing I realized in reading her query was the lack of details. About her main character, Pat, she writes "As a devastating accident further pulls him into the lives of those around him and Pat makes a shocking decision..." and I'm thinking -- what accident? What shocking decision? The accident and decision are clearly important to the story, why describe them so generically?

Seriously, reading this query letter was like opening my eyes, again. I really wanted to know these details, because without them there was just no way I could make any kind of judgment on the book itself. Imagine the effect on the query if rather than writing "devastating accident" she wrote one of the following:

• he leaves a child in the car when he goes to work on a hot day
• a bridge collapses during rush hour
• a student on the campus (this is set at UNC) opens fire on a classroom
• he forgets to turn off the stove and the house burns down
• he leaves confidential information out on his desk and gets fired, his company investigated by the FBI.
  
• he leaves the gate to the yard open and a child's dog gets out and is hit by a car.

I mean, what scope of accident are we talking about here? Personal? Community-wide? State-wide? Country-wide? Each of these different options would take the story in immensely different directions. It lets us know how big the conflict is, what the stakes of the story are.

Think of how many books out there can be summarized: a man and woman meet, overcome obstacles and fall in love. This is the most generic plot for a romance novel there is. Would you request pages? Probably not. You have to put in the details - you have to make this book about THIS hero and THIS heroine and THESE obstacles. You have to describe your book in such a way that there is absolutely NO WAY that it will be confused with another plot. Then you'll know you've taken your query about of the generic and into the specific.

That's when an agent can actually consider the merits of your pitch. Does it mean you'll get a request? Nope. But it does mean that at least the agent can judge your actual book, your actual plot, your specific idea and not just reject you because she can't get a handle on what it is you're writing.

Sometimes I think of query letter writing like an interview. You have to go in there, do your best, but show them who you really are. They know what they want and if they say no, it's because they know better than you do what works for them and what doesn't. But the key is that you have to show them who YOU are, not just some cardboard cutout of a interviewee. I know that when I'm interviewing people, those that stand out show me their personality, show me more than just a law student looking for a job. That's what you have to do with a query letter -- get beyond the generic (law student) and get to the specifics (law student who worked at the coroner's office and writes romance novels in her free time).

***UPDATE***

Since I originally wrote this, Nathan has added another query critique which is very much on point. As part of his crit, he writes:

And then the details of the plot and relationships that make up the rest of the query really could have happened anywhere. They aren't infused with the uniqueness of the setting, which they could have been if they were attached to details that convey that uniqueness. If your selling point is your setting, nearly every event you describe should build on that selling point.

Exactly! Be specific, show off those details! So for those of you who have successfully written queries, do you think details are important? Will a good premise trump details? What details of your own letters do you think made your hook stand out?

_______________
* look around March 27, 2007 - that looks to be the end of her slew of hook crits. She also posts recaps of her slush pile and what grabbed her or didn't grab her. Excellent way to learn her tastes if anyone is thinking of querying her!

** Nathan critiques query letters on his blog every now and again. In fact, there's a crit of one up this week.

Email submission question(s) and other stuff...

As Erica points out, I mentioned on the Manuscript Mavens blog (in a comment) that I equated querying with interviewing and that I'd written a post on point but just hadn't actually posted said post. Well, you're gonna have to wait until next week until I post it because I still have to put in links and whatnots and right now I'm on a strict deadline: leaving for a long weekend in the mountains in just a little bit. So I'll be blog silent over the weekend (which, really, I guess isn't that different from when I am here and just lazy...).

This weekend will be a writing retreat of sorts for JP and I -- the mountains are always so inspiring! Although, since JP is hooked on Harry Potter, it might be a revision-input weekend for me and a reading weekend for him. Either way, utter relaxation!

So here are my submission question(s) (because we all know I love to sweat the details)... it's about emailing query letters. I'm assuming you cut and paste the query letter into the email and, like a business email, you put all your contact info right after you 'sign' your name. Then I'm assuming you do something like write FIRST FIVE PAGES in all caps and paste those in and then do the same with the SYNOPSIS (I want to put the pages first, I think they're my strength). I'm also assuming that you single space these things, but put in a double space (ie extra blank line) between paragraphs (for everything: query, pages, synopsis).

My first question: is that right? Am I supposed to format the email query differently? What do y'all do?

My second question: fear of gobblety-gook.* What I mean are, those weird symbols that show up in some emails where there should be a quotation mark or something else. How do I avoid this? Cut and paste from plain text? Convert the email to plain text? Don't email from Outlook? My account is gmail - does that add/delete any strange stuff? I'm just nervous here because Miss Snark used to harp on this issue and I'm not sure how to avoid it.

My third question: If they ask for 5 pages, can I just flub and send 5 pages and a few lines? I mean, they won't be able to tell... heck, what if those 5 pages cut off mid-sentence?**

My last question: anything else I should be thinking about with email submissions? Any tips, tricks of the trade, anything you can see that I'm missing? Did I just miss all those articles on the web directly on point?

I know, these are such minor things. And trust me, I really really am not one to overly sweat the small stuff (some sweating is appropriate). But the last thing I need/want is to get dinged for something stupid like sending an email with weird symbols if there was something simple I could have done to get rid of them.

Thanks for the help y'all! I can't wait to hear y'all's thoughts!

______
* Many of you may not know that "gobblety-gook" is actually a legal term such as "make sure that associate does not give you a memo filled with gobblety-gook"

** if that were the case I'd just finish the paragraph. But what about for snail mail submissions - do you just cut off mid-page when the guidelines say to send the first 5 pages? Or do you cut off the start of that dangling paragraph so there's a clean ending?

Still a blog slacker (Now with Updates!)

The funny thing about being a blog slacker is that I actually have a ton of posts that I've written during breaks in the day and emailed to myself. But I've been too lazy to edit them to put links in. Seriously, how lame is that? At some point I just may give up and present link-free posts. Especially since most of the people and books that I link to in my posts are already in the sidebar.

Anyways, I'm home sick from work today. Supposed to be resting. Over the weekend I had some severe pains in my lower right abdomen (not a good quadrant for pain) and went to the doctor on Monday afternoon (I didn't have a doc in town yet, so getting an appt took some finagling). Well, he ordered a CT scan STAT and off JP and I went to the hospital (which was in the middle of a code red -- not very reassuring) whereupon he read Harry Potter VI and I read the last in Golden Compass Trilogy as I drank my radioactive lemonade and had IV's put in with more radioactive juice. All that fun stuff.

Many hours later I was cleared for appendicitis and other maladies I can barely pronounce. But the doctor still doesn't know what's causing the problem. So here I am at home today, hoping that this rest will help.

Natch my laptop is broken (screen isn't working for some reason and I was too much of a wimp this past weekend to take advantage of tax-free days to buy a new one) but I have a fab external screen to work off of if need be (and I can pilfer JP's laptop when he's at work). Of course, that's the cart before the horse. Right now I'm still revising WIP on paper. I only have about 100 pages left to do.

Hmmmm... home all day, 100 pages left to revise. Coincidence? I think not! Onwards, friends!

_______

***UPDATE!***

Seriously, doesn't two posts in one day at least start the journey to my rise from blogger slackdom?

I'm reporting in to announce that I've finished that round of revisions I mentioned above. Hurrah! Natch, while I thought this would be a "light" revision on paper, it was most definitely not. The pages are rife with red ink. So lots of edits to now type in (boo hiss!). Also, there are a few places where things really need to be changed and moved and those will have to wait for another final final revision (boo hiss). Oh, and I kept forgetting about that stupid dog again so now I have one revision that is dedicated to putting that dog in all the scenes. Sigh.

This does not, however, delay my agent time table. I still feel that I'll be sending out letters in the next few weeks. I have the agent list done, the agents researched, the query letter ready, and the synopsis almost in final draft. I just have to make sure that if I got requests, I'd be able to turn the ms around same day. And I still should have some good time to work on these things coming up...

I'm amazed at how long it took to hammer out those revisions today. Seriously. Time absolutely flew by, but still. A full day of work to get 100 pages revised. And some of those scenes needed no work (others, OTH...).

Oh, and I had to work around this, which was not easy: I know it is an odd angle, but notice that he is on a stack of pages, on the computer, and batting at the pages I'm editing. Helpful little beast, eh? He gets away with a lot because he's cute.

Anyways, yay for reaching today's goal, boo for pushing the finish line farther away, yay for still getting closer to submission time!

Everything's comin' up Milhouse!

Usual disclaimer: sorry for not writing more. It's been a fantabulous week around here. First, I bought my first rug off eBay (you would not believe the deals) and it arrived on Thursday. Looks amazing and the cats are still going nuts (they cannot help but shimmy and wallow all over it, see pics to the right - that would be my cat with no shame* in the middle and JP's cat sniffing around the edges). Even now, when I pass the living room and catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye I get a little shimmer of excitement. I feel so adult having a real rug! Natch, now we need adult furniture to go with it...

Unfortunately, I can't really talk about the other great news. But just soas y'all aren't thinking I got an agent or something like that, I haven't even begun to submit WIP so hold your horses. My great news has to do with my other professional life. Can't really talk about it, but it does look like I'll have some time in the next few weeks to finish polishing up WIP and submitting it. Woot!

But the best news of all is that my CP and friend Erica just signed with an agent. I cannot express how thrilled and excited I am by this news. First of all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE her book Trevor and the Tooth Fairy. I read it in one night. Literally, I kept saying I had to go to bed and I could not for the life of me put it down. Erica totally knows how to ratchet tension and up consequences. I was constantly amazed how she could continually make life difficult for her characters. I have wanted to share this book far and wide, I know so many people who would love to read it and I can't wait until it sells so everyone can have as much fun reading it as I did. Second of all, Erica is a total inspiration. She's been writing for a while, studying the craft and writing about it, and this year she set a goal of getting an agent.

And boy did she go after that goal. She did her research, polished the letter, and sent it out. She approached it all like a pro, even muscling through setbacks. She has worked so hard to be where she is, and she so so so deserves it. Even though I had nothing to do with her getting to where she is, I'm still so proud.

So it's been a banner week! The next few weeks will be interesting, but I hope that in three weeks I can announce that WIP is officially done and out the door... this is a goal I definitely intend to keep!

How about y'all? What fun, great, exciting news do y'all have to share?
___________
* seriously, you should click on that picture. It gets even worse when you can get a close up of my cat.

A new winner!

I've drawn a new winner for the Secret Society Girl give-away: DIANE (posted at 3:51). Yay! Shoot me an email at quitclaim [at] gmail.com to claim your prize!

Sorry to not post more, but I'm hitting the road to go meet my new niece :) I promise that this week will be fun filled blogging!

Real quick...

Hey Kiki - I still haven't heard from you about your book win. Just in case there's something going wrong with my email, drop me a comment here to let me know you're trying to contact me and we'll figure it out. On Friday, if I haven't heard from you I'll redraw another name.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

My apologies

I'm sorry for the lack of blogging recently - lots going on in my non-writing life and for some reason my computer is acting up (screen going dark for no reason at all...). Hopefully, with all the Nationals hoopla, y'all haven't noticed my absence.

First order of business: Kiki - I still haven't heard from you! Email me at quitclaim [at] gmail.com (that's quit as in "quit your job" and claim as in "I claim you as my own") to claim (haha) your signed copy of Secret Society Girl. For the rest of y'all waiting on books - sorry for the delay, totally my bad!!

I'm still plugging away on revisions. I find that it's so easy to get overwhelmed and hard to figure out where to start. Right now I have tons of comments in the ms itself, and I don't really know how to move on to the next step. Man, I feel like a broken record on this blog. At least I have my first round list of agents put together.

Natch, today I watched a series of bad horror movies while JP worked. I tried to resist, but couldn't stand being in the other room while a flick dubbed The Reeker was on. Seriously. The Reeker.

Anyone got some good scoop from Nationals?

Nationals Advice: be a friend

As I'm sure y'all know with all the internet chatter these days that RWA (Romance Writers of America) is having their national convention this week in Dallas. Originally, I was signed up to go but then bowed out for various reasons. While I hate to miss the excitement and hanging out with so many writers (and friends), ultimately I'm glad I made the decision I did (I decided to put that money towards a few smaller conferences during the year).

With nationals approaching, there's been tons of great advice about what to do, what not to do, etc etc. I highly recommend Erica's series of posts on point as well as Blogging National - a blog compiling various blogs about nationals.

I had this whole post planned with my own advice, but after thinking about it, I realized I only had one big thought on the topic: be nice and find that writer who looks lost, alone, scared, and go up and introduce yourself, ask her* to join you for lunch or whatever. Think about if that were you in that corner and be that person you'd want to come help you out.**

Last year I knew so few people, and those that I did barely know had really great friends that they only saw during this one conference and already had plans with. I have to say that during that first night I felt very alone and it took everything I had to take myself downstairs and attend the first few events alone, just putting myself out there. And I'm generally not a shy person! I was very lucky that I ran into Kelly R. at the chick lit cocktail hour early on and that she and TARA basically adopted me (and me them, hence why I'm a member -- they're just such cool women!). I also met another aspiring author who knew some people, but not many, and we became fast friends - meeting up for events like the awards ceremony and dinner out.

Everyone at nationals is there because they love to write and are dedicated to it (else they wouldn't be there - nationals can be a huge commitment). So automatically everyone there has something in common, something to talk about and to spark a conversation.

Be the savior of someone's day and be their friend. I'm not saying you gotta be besties, but if you see someone looking tentative around the bar, invite them into your big group. Talk to the person next to you at the workshops or include them in your conversation if they seem interested. Just try to make sure everyone feels included in the weekend, that's my advice :)

___________
* I say her rather than him or her because I've found that the men seem to stick out so much that lots of people easily chat with them -- at least from my observation.

** This is, in fact, my rule for all social gatherings: to make sure no one feels left out.

Update light...

Hello world! Yes, I am back from my sojourn South. It was not NEARLY long enough. My vacay in a nutshell: sleep, eat, drink, read, sleep, crab, lay about, read, soak in the sun, sit on the dock, crab, sleep, drink, eat, repeat repeat, repeat. I didn't even bother pulling out my computer, didn't think about work or WIP.

So today I'm jumping back in with both feet. I have my "command station" set up, as JP calls it, and am diving into revisions. Right now I'm tranferring and incorporating line edits and comments into one document. Then, I plan to make a list of all global comments and a list of how to fix the issues. Then I'll read back through (on hard copy) making the changes. Then, once those are put back in, I'll hopefully have a final draft! Remember, my goal is to start querying July 23!

I'll write more later. For now I just wanted to check in, post today's goals, and leave you with a picture we took at the beach house last fall during an especially high tide at night under a full moon (it was amazing):

Updates and Thanks!

Just wanted to re-announce the winners: Kiki and Heather, send an email to quitclaim [at] gmail.com to claim your books!

As for how my weekend goals went... well, here's the thing. I'm not good with last minute change. And I'd already planned on a weekend of sloth and girlie movies since JP wouldn't be around. I did make the edits on the first section of WIP, though. And then I watched The Holiday (ok), Stomp the Yard (I love any movie with dancing) and Catch and Release (which I actually really really liked). I also mowed the lawn, mangled part of the driveway grass with the new edger (turns out, edging is harder than it looks which is why I was afraid to try it out in the front yard where everyone would see me) and killed lots and lots and lots of weeds. I also read On Chesil Beach. So a full weekend nonetheless.

The big news is that JP's case settled (after his side handed the other a stinging and unexpected quasi-defeat) and so we are off to the beach today. Hurrah!! That means sun and sleep and booze and crabbing and reading and revising WIP and yay yay yay!

My other big news (at least in my life) is that I got the critiques back from Diana and she too loved WIP! And then proceeded to tell me all of the plot points I'd dropped, which I really needed to hear (turns out, if you ignore the plots, they won't go away!). Now I have all the crits back from my beta readers and feel sufficiently removed from WIP so that I can dive back in and really get it good. Right now my goal is to start submitting it July 23 (to avoid post RWA crush).

This is the first time I've ever had something substantial of mine critiqued by someone who isn't living with me.* And as I said before, it's scary to put yourself out there like that. I was relieved that they both loved it, impressed with the depth of their thoughts, and just flat out honored by the amount of effort they put into something that wasn't theirs (karma baby). What's interesting is that there was some overlap between their comments, but by and large they all touched on different aspects of the story. And thankfully, they don't contradict each other! Just thinking about their comments makes me shiver with excitement and say "yes, that is so right and when I make that change I know it will all click into place even more."

So I wanted to send out a big thanks to Diana and Erica for being such great friends, for taking the time to critique my WIP and for all of their hard work in helping out writers everywhere with their blogs, their advice, and their dedication to the community. Y'all rock!

And now I'm off to the beach! See y'all on Sunday or Monday!

______
* I was going to say sleeping with me, but my mother reads this blog.

Winners and Weekend Goals!

So sorry for the delay in announcing the winners! I had to wait for my independent name picker (i.e. JP) and he's preparing for a trial and has been MIA recently (yes, in the end it wasn't my trial that kept us from our week at the beach, but his trial. Go figure!).

Anyway, I was so thrilled to have so many entries -- Thanks and welcome to all the new readers!! The two names JP drew from the hat are:

HEATHER and KIKI

Congratulations Heather and Kiki! The first one to email me at quitclaim [at] gmail.com gets their choice between the books! So email me and I'll arrange to get y'all's books to you!

For those of you who haven't visited my blog a lot (or ever before the contest) let me introduce you to my weekend goals. A while back, as a way to get accountability in my writing, I started to post my weekend goals and then updates on whether I accomplished anything. Well, I've been a bit slack and it's high time I get back into it.*

This morning I got my WIP back from Erica who did a kick-butt critique on it. I mean, she really dug in and made tons of wonderful and spot-on comments (even though I'm sure this was not really the type of book she was expecting!). Thanks Erica!! I'm still all giddy because she wrote in her email that she loves this story. LOVES THIS STORY!! YAY!!! I've gotten really great positive feedback from Diana (who's also muscling her way through WIP right now) but no one other than JP has every actually read the end before. So I was quite tense and scared and nail-bitey fearing that everything fell apart after the first 20k. But Erica loves this story! She even put in an exclamation point in her email :)

Of course, she found some plot problems (less plot problems and more "would they really do this?" stuff), some places where the heroine is too stupid to live, stuff like that. And she was right. But the good news is that it's fixable. It will take work, but I'm excited about it - because she brought up really good points and I know this is going to make WIP better.

So y'all can guess what my goal is for this weekend: start making edits on WIP based on Erica's crits! Yay!

I'm hoping to get the "easy" edits done by Tuesday because there's a good chance that JP's trial will be done then and we can still make it down to the beach. I'm hoping to be able to print out WIP and take it with me for another read (or I may wait for Diana's crits before reading it again -- right now I think I have some good distance and I'm afraid of reading it again before getting her thoughts and then not having distance.**)

Right now, I'm sitting on my couch with the wooden front door open so I can see out the glass door to the front yard. The air has that green tint to it - you know, that odd darkness of a storm creeping into the evening. The cats have been fighting over who gets to look out the door at whatever happens to be hopping, crawling, or darting across our yard. And the cicadas (or chucharras as my mom calls them) are going to town. To me, that is summer: the buzzsaw chirrups of chucharras in that odd slant of dusk.

So, what about y'all? What goals are you working towards?

_______
* y'all may notice I'm late in posting my goals. Naturally, that is because I knew I'd have to do something if I posted them and so I put of posting them so I could put off doing stuff. This is all about procrastination, after all...

** Yes, yes, way overthinking.

Guest Blogging!

Hey all! Today my post is over at the Manuscript Mavens: come say hi and get another chance at free books!

I'll be drawing the names of our own winners this evening, so keep those comments rolling!

ARCs

First off - wow! Lots of comments! Keep them coming and I'll choose a winner on Friday!

On to the blog post...

A while back a bunch of people were talking about ARCs - Advanced Reader Copies - and I thought I would finally weigh in with my opinion. These are the books that are sent out to reviewers, friends, bookstores, etc., before the book is officially published in order to generate buzz. Generally they're paperback, all the ones I have are trade size, and they look like what the final product will look like (except in some cases when they change the cover design after printing the ARCs). These are promotional materials, printed up before the book is really finished so often times they might have small errors, typos, etc. A lot of them have stats on the back for how the publisher plans on promoting the book. These ARCs are not intended to be sold, to even hit the open market and some are even stamped to that effect in big letters on the cover. Lots of these ARCs end up on the internet for sale anyway - you'll find tons on eBay.

There are lots of good reasons for people to be upset about this. First, it's an unfinished product - the ARC form is not the final form - what writer wants their drafts floating around on the open market? Second (and perhaps this should have been first) they're not supposed to be sold. Third, these are often sold for less than cover price and before the "real" book comes out, so people buy these instead of the "real" book thus causing the author to lose a sale (that sale will never be counted towards the authors numbers, nor with he or she get paid for it). Fourth, some people are concerned with false-advertising - that the purchaser won't know they're getting and ARC rather than the "real" thing. Fifth, in some instances the ARC purchaser can spoil a well-kept secret (I think I remember reading something about the main characters in JD Robb's In Death books having a baby and people were bidding outrageously on the ARCs to find out the sex and name or something).

However, I do think there can be some positives to ARC sales. For some readers, an ARC can be like a collector's item. If that reader is truly a fan, they'll likely buy the "real" book in addition to the ARC. Furthermore, if they're that big of a fan, they're the type to talk your book up to their friends -- they become little publicizing machines in your favor. To that end, I think I'll always hesitate condemning anyone who buys an ARC - you don't want to tic off a big fan like that! Even if they don't buy your book but only get the ARC, they're still likely to push your book on others who will buy the book -- some who might not have otherwise.

I guess for me it all comes down to the intent of the ARC buyer. If they respect the author, I think I'm OK with it. And to me respect means that they're not going to spoil the plot for others, they're not going to intentionally deprive the author of a sale (either by purchasing the book themselves or getting their friends to do so), and they recognize that they're buying an ARC, not the book. I'm not OK with people buying ARCs only because they're cheaper and faster with no regard to what they're doing to the author. So I guess it's pretty easy to see where I fall in the debate (though I'm always willing to change my opinion if convinced I'm wrong).

And yes, I've bought ARCs. In fact, I started thinking about this topic again because I just got an ARC in the mail. This is a book I didn't even know existed until I read about it on another author's blog about how he'd picked up a copy of BEA. As soon as I read what the book was about I NEEDED IT (it actually is very relevant to my WIP, but also just way too cool). It comes out in two weeks, but I couldn't wait. So I waited for it to pop up on eBay and paid cover price or more for it (more, actually, with shipping). I've already pre-ordered the "real" book -- I'm not about to let this author lose a sale because of my impatience.* And you better believe I'll be hocking this book to all my friends.

The only thing that gums me up a bit is the fact that someone is profiting from this sale. That someone got this ARC through BEA or is a reviewer or works in a bookstore and they just made some easy cash because of me. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Interestingly, Patricia Wood turned the ARC of her debut Lottery into a collector's item. She publicizes when ARCs go up on eBay and tells the buyer to send it to her and she'll autograph it. These ARCs have sold for WAY over cover price because of that. But again, only a BIG fan will buy above cover price - and those are readers you want.

So what are y'all's thoughts on ARCs? Ever bought them? Do you think I'm right? Wrong? A little of both?

________
* I always buy the "real" book even when I buy an ARC. And really, I've only bought a few ARCs.

Free Books... Get Yer Free Books!

Yes, you read it right, I'm giving away books. Four to be exact. A copy of Secret Society Girl and Under the Rose here this week and another copy of Secret Society Girl and Under the Rose at the Manuscript Mavens starting at the end of the week. And if you guys really impress me, then I may feel compelled to give away more :)

What prompts this you may ask? It's the debut* of my dear friend Diana's second book, Under the Rose. It is, in a word, fantabulous. There is no sophomore slump here, let me tell you. Under the Rose grabs you and won't let go. I loved this book. Diana didn't rest on her laurels, didn't recycle old jokes and old plots like so many sequels do. Nope, Under the Rose is fresh, indulgent, and raises the stakes even more. Diana knows how to keep the reader on her toes, how to satisfy us but keep us wanting more.

The bottom line is that Diana wrote a damn good entertaining book. A book I couldn't put down. I was reading it on the plane and it landed and I refused to get off until I finished it. Yes, this book is that good: enough to keep you on a plane even when you've landed and reached the gate.

And because I love this series so much, and because I think that Diana deserves every praise she gets, I'm happy to spread the word on how good these books are. To that end, I'm giving away one signed copy of Secret Society Girl and one signed copy of Under the Rose.

How do you win? Easy - just comment on my blog this week. Any comment, any day. At the end of the week I'll draw two names and announce the winners. If, for some reason, you want to comment but not be entered in the drawing, or you want to be entered in the drawing for one book but not the other, just mention that in the comments or email me at quitclaim [at] gmail.com.

Remember, if you don't win here, there will be another chance when I give away another copy of Secret Society Girl and Under the Rose as the guest blogger at Manuscript Mavens this Friday.

Congratulations Diana on a fun and fantastic book - when do I get to read the next one?!?

_____
* is it still a debut when it is their second book? I mean, it is the debut of the book - correct?

Stay Tuned...

Yes, I've been silent. I've had my reasons (and, no, unfortunately, they have nothing to do with writing but other life issues - all good things I promise). But just so y'all know, this week I plan on being a lot more active because - I'm giving away free books! Yes, stay tuned because soon I will be posting the books and how to win them!

Also, I'm looking for good book recommendations. I'm going to the beach for a week and need lots and lots and lots to read. Right now I've been digging YA, especially Spec Fic YA, but I'm open to anything. Bonus points for apocalypse stuff, that always has a spot in my heart :)

Be back soon!

Moving on (and whingeing)

So I've been whingeing a lot in private recently. It's pretty repetitive and goes something like this: "but what if they don't like the whole book and it sucks and I suck and then I have to come up with another idea to write but I love the last one and I'll never be able to do anything as good again, sigh, gasp, moan" and repeat. JP, bless his heart, has gotten used to it. And he tries to help, telling me the right things but in the end he's a writer too and so he knows how I feel.

Because there's not much I can do right now about the "what if they don't like it" aspect of my whingeing, I've been focusing on the "what do I do now" part. I've been casting about for ideas, trying to find my place. I've posted before about how much I enjoy YA and I'm pretty sure that's where I want to stay. But what I've had to face recently, which was quite a revelation for me, is that I've been writing speculative fiction. This excites JP to no end since he is also a spec fic writer and credits himself for my genre shift (he probably does deserve credit since my recent WIP is written in a world he created).

Let me tell you, though, writing spec fic opens up so many doors! When I was writing romance I at least had a basic premise: man and woman, get them together by the end. There are a gazillion ways to write that book, and it's not as easy as I make it sound (and I don't mean to make it sound easy). But at least there's a starting point! I even wrote contemp romance which means it was set in the here and now. With spec fic it could be set anywhere, any time, no rules, all rules -- it seems anything at all goes!!

For the past week I would mutter things like "vampires... done and not my thing... fairies... being done and by great authors... werewolves... I don't have the passion for it... future space epic...." and on and on and on. Part of my problem is that I haven't read enough in the genre to know what's taboo (or done to death) and what's not. Part of my problem is that I'm not sure how far to push the limits, how creative to get?

Then JP reminded me of a story idea I'd come up with about a year ago. Before WIP even (so maybe even two years ago...). It's an idea based totally on a vision. And I love the vision. But that's all I had for a while - that vision. And then JP and I started playing around with it. And then on Friday I had this total revelation (which I would share but it involves details of WIP which I'm not ready to share yet) and the new idea started to fall into place. I realized that I do want a hero and heroine, I love the tension of romance. I think I know the final scene (rare for me to know how it ends) and I'm not quite sure where it starts (though I may have a first line that's been kicking around in my brain). I know the general sense of the plot, but it is going to take a LOT of work. I don't think it will be like WIP where I just sit down and wonder "what shall I write about today?" and then have 2k pour out. I think this new one will take some structuring, some *gasp* plotting. Who knows if it will stick, if it will work. But I'm pretty darn excited about it. I think it's pretty original (though how I'd know since I haven't read widely in scec fic is beyond me). So I think I'll kick the idea around as I put the finishing touches on WIP. I'll poke at the plot, research, see what I come up with.

It's just a relief to have something to play with. To realize that maybe I can come up with another story idea, another world.

What about y'all? How do you feel when it's time to start on the next project? How do you formulate your ideas and develop them?

I'd sell if only...

Diana has a wonderful series on her blog right now which is basically a primer on writing. She goes into detail on all of the basic industry terms and demystifies a lot of them (like what's really important when formatting a manuscript). It's a really useful series and even if you know it all already, it's nice just to get a little refresher.

One of the points that she makes that I think cannot be made enough is that writers tend to focus on things that don't matter. As someone who is starting on querying, I understand how easy it is to be tempted by these things. To wonder if I'd have a better shot at publishing if I just submitted in Courier, to wonder if my page count is too high/too low and I should re-count my pages by some other method (like 250xpage count) to see if that's a better count for me.

But these things don't matter - what matters is the writing. Diana said something else on her blog recently that really really resonated with me: "People often ask if it's difficult to find an agent. The truth is, if you have the right book, finding an agent is a relatively straightforward process. If you don't, it's very very very very hard." You know, sometimes you just hear something that gets you in the gut. This was one of those.

It's not about whether you put an extra space between paragraphs in your query letter (I do) and then indent (I do as well). It's about the book. It's not about whether you put your contact information on the front page of the manuscript in the bottom left or top right corner, it's about the writing (and you do need the contact info somewhere!)

And yet it is so easy to focus on those little things, those things that don't matter. It reminds me of a story I heard once about the managers of a corporation putting together a $100 million budget.* The parsed out millions on salaries, marketing, legal fees, etc. And then it came down to the last $500 dollars and they started to bicker over 1 ply toilet paper or 2 ply, whether to use plastic cups in the break room or paper. All of these tiny little things that really were a drop in the bucket of that massive budget. But to the managers, these were numbers that were fathomable, and within their control. These were numbers they dealt with in their every day lives. They felt a sense of control with these numbers that they didn't feel with the massive millions.

I think writers get that way. Yes you can control your writing, but you can't control whether the agent likes it. And so sometimes we focus way too much on the little things. Font, location of page numbers, how to sign off the query letter, whether to thank the agent or not.

To a certain extent, having started doing a lot of in depth agent research, I can understand this. There are some agents out there who are picky about what they want and how they want it (which they have every right to be). But they are so adamant about how they want things that sometimes it reads that submitting any other way is incorrect (the first line of your query letter isn't the hook? Bad! Your plot summary in the query is more than one paragraph? Bad!). These agents make it easy to worry, make us second guess the way we go about things (one agent said that the double space between paragraphs in a query letter is unprofessional - that's exactly how our entire law firm of 400+ attorneys format our letters).

But the key is not to despair. Do the research. If the agent doesn't like that extra space, take it out in that letter. If the agent wants the plot in only one paragraph, get it done (although I doubt that agent will toss a query for a really cool book simply because the plot was summarized in three paragraphs). If the agent doesn't generally like quest stories (Rachel Vater) make sure that you don't describe yours as such. I've been pleasantly surprised at just how much information on agent preferences you can find online (through their blogs, through interview on loops - especially absolutewrite.com which doesn't require registration to read).

Now, just as you can get too worried about nit-picky formatting, it can be similarly easy to turn that obsession to determining an agent's likes and dislikes. I mean, the internet is huge and sometimes there's a ton out there on agent preference (for example, Rachel Vater did a version of the crapometer on her site** and you could spend a whole lotta time weeding through that). On the one hand, if Rachel Vater is your #1 pick for agent, then read on. Get to know her - her style, her likes and dislikes. You'd be amazed at how much you can pick up about an agent and his or her personality by reading through their blog for a while - I even think you can get a good sense of whether you'd be a good fit. But should you devote a ton of your time to that sort of in-depth research for 80 or 100 agents? Maybe. But at the same time, you could just be using such research as a reason to stave of the inevitable: suck it up, send out the query letter (following their guidelines, of course).

Remember that in the end, it's about the writing. Make it easy for the agent to focus on your writing. This means present it clearly, concisely, giving the agent all the information they need to make an informed decision. Follow their rules, get to know your top choices. And then press send or let those letters drop into the PO box. Then get started on the next one!

Easier said than done, right?
________________

* Yes, it occurs to me that it prob. isn't the managers putting together the budget, but that's not the point of the story so stop being nit picky

** I'd link it but it's multiple posts. Go back to March '07 and you'll find them all.

Weekend Goals recap

Here I am to recap my progress on this weekend's goals. My main goal was to input all the revisions that JP has made on WIP. So far he's read about 2/3 of WIP and I've put in all the minor changes (word choice, misspellings, grammar, etc). I didn't make any substantive changes because I'm waiting to hear back from my beta readers first. But already I can see there's a section that will need a little bit of attention. Nothing big, but a little changing around perhaps. Fingers crossed my beta readers like it! :)

I also spent Saturday surfing the internet for articles on querying and drafting the synopsis. I think that's one of my ways to procrastinate: read as many articles/blogs as I can on point. There's some great stuff out there, but ultimately you just have to suck it up and sit down and write. So I drafted a basic synopsis that I'll have to put aside for a while before editing and put a query letter together (thank goodness for the help of wonderful friends like Diana!) I've done some preliminary agent research so now it's just time to start putting everything together and polishing. Eep!

All in all it was a great weekend. I guess the next step is to start thinking about what I want to write next. Now that is a scary thought!

How was everyone else's weekend?

Weekend Goals

Y'all know the drill - every weekend I like to post my goals so that I have someone to answer to if I make them or not. This weekend my goal is to finish another round of revisions. JP has been incredible this week, reading his poor little heart out.* The good news is that he seems to lose track of time and has a hard time putting it down. The other good news is that he's got a lot of great corrections/suggestions. The bad news is that he found some things that I managed to forget not to change/make clear before sending the last draft out to my beta readers. Thankfully they're so busy they haven't had too much of a chance to really dig into said draft.

So my goal is to implement his corrections on Saturday and have this turned back around to my beta readers by Saturday night.

What might complicate things slightly is that the trial is now officially starting on Monday (thank all that is good and holy). This means that there is a good chance I might have to work this weekend. It's been eerily quiet thus far and I'm worried it's just the calm before the storm.

Thankfully I've already had a G&T or two tonight so there will be no litigating for me in the next few hours!

But the best news of all - and what this ultimately boils down to - is that this trial should be done in a few weeks. Which means I should get a little bit of my life back. Which means I should be able to finish this sucker up and get her sent out. Yipes!

Currently my tentative goal for having first round of query letters out is June 30. I leave the next day for a week at the beach and it sure would be nice to have this thing done. Plus, I can't think of another way to forget about the waiting game. But that goal is just tentative right now - it all depends on my work, my wonderful beta-readers, etc.

What are y'all's weekend goals?

_____________
* seriously, I could go on and one about how awesome he is but that is for another post. Also, did I mention he made another "sale"? One of his short stories was just short-listed for an anthology. Fingers crossed the whole anthology sells!