Posts Tagged ‘opinion’

You tell us: what do you read on?

Angela James | September 12th, 2011

It’s always fascinating to me to listen to people talk about what they read on, when they’re reading digital books. Everyone has a different idea of what the “perfect” device is. I read on a number of different devices, because I’m fortunate to have that option.

I read most frequently on my iPhone, because it’s convenient and I always have it with me. I have a number of reading apps on it, and I utilize a good portion of them (Kindle, Kobo, Stanza, & nook are the main ones). Also, I can dim the screen enough that the light is unobtrusive in a darkened bedroom, when my husband is sleeping.

However, when I’m traveling and I don’t want to run down my phone battery with extra usage, I switch to reading on the Kindle. I have to admit, it makes it easy to do so because of the 0n-board shopping, synchronized reading places, and ability to mail myself documents (like submissions).

Yet I also read on both the color nook and on my iPad. My iPad reading is almost exclusively reserved for the gym, when I’m on the treadmill or elliptical. The color nook, I carry with me to Barnes & Noble when my daughter wants to take a trip there. I’ll take advantage of the longer “sample” reading time in store the color nook offers (I love that feature), and then purchase any digital books from B&N.com that I’ve started & can’t live without.

Last, I still do read submissions on my laptop. I actually prefer to read submissions on my laptop when I’m not traveling, because it gives me a different mindset than if I’m reading on my Kindle, for instance.

So, as you can see, no one device is absolutely perfect for me, yet, but I’m not unhappy using a collection of devices. For one thing, it gives me familiarity with a variety so I can see how readers are experiencing things. For another…I just like gadgets ;)

So you tell us…what devices do you use to read digital books? Have you found that one perfect device, or are you still holding out for a combination of features no device maker has introduced yet?

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Posted in Carina Press | 36 Comments »

Thinking about Query Letters. Part II: Query Do’s

Angela James | March 17th, 2010

Following up on yesterday’s post about Query Don’ts, here’s some Query Do’s. I think these are probably common sense for most of you, but just in case!

Do

1. Read the submission guidelines

Just like I said as the last one of the query don’ts: friends don’t let friends send queries without first reading the submission guidelines. You wouldn’t go to a business interview without looking up the address, don’t query without looking up the guidelines. The person you’re querying has tried to give you the tools to do your job with those guidelines! Think of writing as your business (even if it’s just your hobby, it’s OUR business so treat it as yours too) and querying as your job interview.

2. Spell check

Let’s talk about spell check. I know it doesn’t catch every typo or misused word, but that’s no reason NOT to use it at all. In fact, most email programs have a setting that automatically spell checks your email before it goes out. You should use this setting, not just for query letters, but for all correspondence. Think of it as an “appearance” thing. We can’t see if you’ve got on your best business suit so instead, our first impression comes from the query letter and even more immediate? The subject line. You would be utterly shocked, I think, at how many queries come through with typos in the subject line. Yeah, we notice.

3. Include the important information

Make sure you tell us what we need to know: Your name (pen name and real name), title, genre, word count, is it complete and a short bit of info about the book. Then consider your published writing credits, major contest wins, major bestseller lists, membership to writer’s organizations or, if you’re writing non-fiction, your platform and relationship to the material.If you’ve been building an audience pre-publication with a website, blog, Twitter, Facebook or other social media site, you can mention that as well (though MySpace is considered old news now, so you might not want to hang that out as your only means of social media platform!)

Include whether the query has been previously published (or available for free giveaway even) and if it is a simultaneous submission (have you submitted it to other agents and publishers in the meantime), keeping in mind that some submissions guidelines at some publishers prohibit simultaneous submissions.

And hey! Don’t forget to include your phone number and address so we can get back to you. Kind of important and people DO miss this step!

4. Let the recipient know you’re paying attention

It’s one thing to say: I read your submission guidelines and here’s my submission. That’s good, we’re glad you’re paying attention. But what’s one of the rules of writing? Show, don’t tell. If you read our submission guidelines, show us by actually following them now that you’ve told us. You can also let the recipient know you’re paying attention by mentioning you read their blog, Twitter, etc.

As an example: we’ve had some queries come into the submissions box in the past few weeks addressed to a specific editor and mentioning that they saw that particular editor was interested in XYZ genre, after this post we did. Now we know that author has been paying attention!

5. Let the recipient know they’re special

This goes with #4, but it’s a little different. Yesterday I talked about not just copying and pasting your query letter, and this is one way in which you can let the editor/agent know it’s being written just for them. Not only do you let them know you’re paying attention, as in #4, but you can take it a step further. You can mention that you saw the editor/agent talk at a particular conference. If you met, maybe you can reference something unique about your conversation (we meet a lot of people, so help jog our memory!) But you can also reference that you’ve read one of the books they publish/represent and why it attracted you to that publisher/agent, or what you particularly enjoy about their blog or Twitter. Of course, there can be a fine line between sucking up and making the recipient feel special, so don’t go overboard.

Example: I occasionally get query letters that reference the author reads my personal blog or personal Twitter stream, and they go on to say what particularly they like about it (for instance, they like that I share recipes, talk about my daughter–and they’ll name her by name–or that they’re also interested in sewing).

6. Be gracious

This is twofold. First, be gracious in your query letter. Don’t talk about all the “crap that’s being published” or even worse, target books or authors specifically saying, “I know I can write better than them.” While we don’t expect you think everything that’s published is a special snowflake, we also don’t really expect you to introduce yourself and your book to us by putting down and insulting others. And, you know, since we’re part of the publishing industry, you’re basically telling us we’re responsible for putting out crap. That’s not the best way to start a potential working relationship!

The second part of this is if you get a rejection. Be gracious. Send a thank you or don’t (that’s a whole other debate) but don’t send a response telling the editor/agent that they obviously have terrible taste, a terrible eye for talent and don’t know how to do their job. Oh rly? In that case, why did you submit to us? I mean, you DID do research before submitting to us, right, so you know what our list looks like and how we operate?Anyway, why is this a bad idea? Because one rejection doesn’t mean you’ll never work with that person, there are a lot of authors who get rejected on one, two or even five projects from one editor/agent but end up hitting it just right with the sixth. And even if you decide you don’t want to work with us now, publishing is an ever changing business, six months from now that editor you insulted in a response and told you’d never write for them or their company? Might be the lead editor at your dream publisher. It’s a cliche but it’s true: don’t burn any bridges.

7. Respect the editor’s or agent’s time

We know that you’re special and your book is special, but please remember that while we recognize that, we deal with thousands of special authors and books via queries each year. So despite your specialness, we can only allot so much time to each query in order to be fair to other thousands of queries we get. So this is a bit repetitive of some of the earlier ones but in order to respect their time, make sure you follow the submissions guidelines, include what’s requested in those guidelines (and nothing extra), and write the best query letter you can in no more than 4 or 5 short paragraphs (if you even need that much).

The other way you can respect the editor/agent’s time is by following up only after they’ve had the submission for their allotted amount of time. For example, Carina’s auto response and website say response in 8-10 weeks (this is going to be increasing to 10-12 by the way) so please wait until after 10 weeks have elapsed before following up. Please don’t follow up after four weeks or six. Give them the entire amount of time. And during that time, don’t send a bunch of emails with updates about your career, your book or your cat (kidding! I don’t think anyone has ever done that) because you need to trust in your query to sell the book, frequent emails will probably only serve to make the editor/agent believe you don’t respect their time now and wouldn’t respect it if they decided to work with you.

8. Keep the editor/agent updated

Now you’re confused after my last point, right? Don’t be! This is a bit different. Earlier I stated you should mention if your submission is a simultaneous submission. If that submission should happen to be offered a contract or representation, you need to let the people you’ve queried know immediately. So that means do keep track of who you’ve queried and when (spreadsheets are good for this!) and whether you’ve received a response. If you are going to place the book elsewhere, please respect the agent/editor’s time (see how these all tie together?) and send an email pulling the submission. Remember how I said there’s thousands of queries? It’s helpful if we don’t read queries (and manuscripts) that aren’t actually available because we can’t make any money doing that and this is, after all, a business.

However, one caveat to this is if you have a query with multiple editors/agents and you’ve been offered a contract/representation, but you’d like to see if another editor/agent is still interested. It’s permissible to let us know you’ve been offered elsewhere but you’re still interested in working with us, would we be able to or interested in reviewing your query within x number of days/weeks? As one editor said: this can result in a bidding war for your book. Or it can help you land your dream agent. Hey, think positively!

9. Make sure you’re ready to query
But here’s something that might seem to conflict with what I just said (it really doesn’t, though); Please make sure you’re both serious about the person/place you’re querying to, and that you (and your book) are ready to query. Reading each query (and submission) takes both time and money. Each submission to Carina Press costs a minimum of $7.50 (yes, I know the exact minimum cost amount) and that’s just a minimum, the closer it gets to acquisition, the more it costs. Every agency and publisher has their own time and money costs associated with reading submissions and queries, so please make sure you’re serious about wanting to work with whoever you’re querying and not just using it as a lark, to get experience or to throw it out there and see what sticks. Also, don’t send queries for books that aren’t ready. For instance, we’re only interested in complete, fully polished manuscripts. If you’re only 2/3 done writing or haven’t thoroughly edited, don’t send it to an editor or agent unless you know they’re willing to work with new authors on proposal.

10. Use a legible font type and size (and black only please).

For the love of all things holy, please don’t get fancy with your fonts in query letters (and don’t write them in ALL CAPS). First off, realize how much time most editors and agents spend in front of a computer and/or reading manuscripts. 12 hours a day is not an overestimate, more like an underestimate. So please, please, please don’t send us queries done in blue Curlz MT font (my most recent example) because they’re killer on our already strained eyes. And if you’re querying someone who has a page count limit, don’t use 8 pt font to cram as much as possible in. Please (do you see how much I’m pleading here, this is serious stuff, folks!) choose a nice, plain font, in black, with a legible size. Sure, if it’s a digital submission we can change the font/color/size but that means going through extra work and adds time to each query. Even adding an extra two minutes for that type of thing means adding an extra hour of time spent on submissions for every 30 queries. Yeah, funny how quickly it adds up, no? And that means less queries responded to in that hour and the longer you have to wait, especially if we only have an hour per day to look at queries. And realistically, if you make the query hard to read? The editor or agent is going to pass because it’s easier.

11. Realize we want to say yes. But saying no is easier.

I wish I could attribute this to the agent I heard say this at a conference we attended together, but I can’t remember who it was. Essentially, she said that saying “yes” means a lot more work for the editor or agent. If you say yes to the query, you’re then committing to read a partial or a full. And those take a lot of time. So while we hope that every query is amazing, if it’s not amazing in the first few pages, it’s much easier to say no, because your commitment is at an end and it’s one more marked off your list. I think this could be discouraging for authors except for the fact that we really want to say “yes” and if your query is solid, you have a good hook, a unique twist, fantastic writing then you’ve made it impossible for us to say “no” and we’re going to keep going. It’s your job to make it impossible for us to say “no” by sending us the best possible package you can. Easy, right?

12. Do keep in mind that everyone is different (so do do your research!)

So now that I’ve given you this list of do’s and don’ts, which I tried to keep mostly universal and not specific to me, to Carina, or to editors/publishers but to publishing as a whole, I should remind you that each editor and agent are different, we all have different quirks (boy howdy, do we ever) and we realize that can make navigating the submissions process tricky and sometimes frustrating. So do your research, know who you’re submitting to and what they’re looking for, and once you’ve submitted the very best package possible, give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve got a leg up on 90% of the authors out there because you’re researching, learning and worrying about these things.

Good luck!

Tomorrow, a wrap-up on queries, I’ll answer some of the questions you’ve been posing in the comments (if you haven’t asked and still have a question, please do ask!), and I’ll link to some of the other posts on queries that have been written in the past few weeks. I’ll also provide a query letter checklist that you can use as a tool when you’re ready to start querying.

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Posted in Writing/Submissions Advice, submissions | 9 Comments »

Thinking about query letters. Part I: Query don’ts.

Angela James | March 16th, 2010

Last week I got a query letter that had me so taken aback, I Twittered about how I wished I could share it. Not to humiliate or ridicule the author in any way, but because I would love to talk about all the reasons it was full of query don’ts, and offer you concrete, real-time examples. In mulling this over, I’ve decided to do a list of query letter don’ts and a list of query letter do’s (list of query do’s to come tomorrow). Since it’s unlikely I can offer a snippet from an actual letter, without making someone feel as though they’ve been made a target, I’ll use paraphrased examples when necessary.

Don’t:

1. Start with a rhetorical question

I see a lot of editors and agents mention this. The reasons are varied, but ultimately it comes down to this: What if the editor or agent’s answer to the question is NO? Is No what you really want them to have in mind when they begin your query?

Example (not real but similar to some I’ve had): Have you ever wondered why time doesn’t run backward? Not only is the answer no, but now I’m wondering why I’d wonder this, and I’m not thinking about the query or concentrating on the details, but I might now be wondering why I’d care why time doesn’t run backward. And perhaps thinking how this sounds like something my five year old would ask. But I’m not thinking about the query.

2. Tell the editor/agent how you know there are submission guidelines but you’re not going to follow them.

Example (paraphrased): I know there are submissions guidelines but I didn’t follow them this time because I’m different.

What do I hear? “I’m more important than you, I’m going to disregard what you suggest when we work together, and clearly I know better than you.” Not only that, but I hear how little respect the author has for me and that it doesn’t matter to them that there are very good reasons I have guidelines. Also? I’m probably hearing the blood rushing in my ears as I get just a little angry.

3. Send a blanket email to every publisher/editor/agent all at once.

You know, as in don’t just throw it out there at everyone and see what sticks. Doing this makes it impossible to personalize the query and tailor it to the person/company you’re sending to, and thus makes your query one of the crowd rather than standing out.

But even worse? When you send it to 50 of us at once and do it in a way that it’s not bcc–we can see every one of the other 49 email addresses you’ve sent it to. It shows, again, a lack of effort and interest in the process.

4. Include details of your family life/personal life/how you’ve wanted to write since you were five.

Tell us only the things that are going to sell your book. Think of us as the first readers you’re trying to sell to. If you were trying to convince a reader to buy your book, would you include a story about how you own five dogs, two cats, a goldfish named Sally? Possibly if your book is a mystery about a petstore owner, but even then…probably not. Because it’s not important information in the marketing of your book to readers, and it’s not important in the querying of your manuscript to editors and agents. It just makes your query letter longer, takes the focus off your book and allows us the opportunity to let our attention wander from your query.

5. Send a query letter that says only: manuscript and synopsis attached.

Not even bothering with a query letter means 1) that I’m going to suspect you’re too lazy to go to the effort of writing even a short query letter and therefore will probably only do the minimum amount of work in response to edits or to market your book and I don’t want to work with an author who’s going to do minimal or no work. 2) That I have to do more work and spend more time figuring out the basics of your query and so you don’t respect that my time is limited and of value. 3) That you really don’t care whether I take a look at your book or not, if you’re not even going to take some basic steps to convince me I should.

Plus? Some editors/agents don’t open attachments. Oops!

6. Address it to “whom it may concern”

On our FAQ page, I give a few suggestions for who you can address the letter to, since authors have no idea which of the editors will be seeing their manuscript. I do this because I know many authors stress over how to address the letter, and while I do like a personalized letter and you should use one as often as possible when sending to specific individuals (for instance, people who read our blog have been addressing their queries to specific editors who said they were looking for a certain genre), there are times when a specific address isn’t possible. However “to whom it may concern” is not even making an effort to personalize it. It’s more of a copy and paste effect. Possibly “Hey you” is the only thing worse. Dear editors or something similar at least lets us know you’re not sending the exact same query letter to every agent, publisher and editor out there. Again, it’s about the effort, however subtle, that we see being put into the query.

7. Send a letter with another publisher’s (editor’s/agent’s) info in the body of the query letter.

Oof. Look, we don’t expect that we’re the sole person or publisher you want to work with, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make us feel as though you’re really interested in working with us and not just whatever editor, agent or publisher you can get to take you or your book.

8. Say that you were recommended by one of our authors, fellow editors or agents without their permission.

No no no no. Don’t be name dropping or saying someone suggested you to us unless you’ve asked permission and are fully prepared for us to follow up and ask that person about you. Just don’t.

9. Query for a genre the person you’re querying doesn’t publish.

Because that’s just silly. Why waste your time? (or theirs?)

10. Forget to include the pertinent information.

I’m always amazed at how verbose query letters can be without imparting information that’s relevant and necessary: title, genre, length, completed or not and a short (short) description of the book. Also, if you have a special affinity for the subject (for example, if you’re an ex-FBI agent and you’re writing a romantic suspense) then that might be considered pertinent info as well. These are the things we want and need to know about the book, not whether your critique partners really loved it!

Also, don’t forget to include your contact information. Real name, address, and phone number so we can contact you, if, you know, we want to publish your book. And include this information on your synopsis and manuscript as well.

11. Address your query to dear agent if it’s going to an editor (and vice versa).

(and don’t tell a publisher/editor that you’re hoping they’ll agree to represent them because we won’t).

12. Don’t send any query, ever, without looking at the submissions/query guidelines for the person or place you’re sending it.

Most of what I said above can be encapsulated down to this: friends don’t let friends send queries without reading the guidelines first!

But since you’re all reading this, I’ll be you already knew this stuff already.

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Posted in Writing/Submissions Advice, submissions | 10 Comments »

Week 18…The times are changing

Angela James | March 15th, 2010

First I need to apologize. I had promised a submissions update and there wasn’t one. The honest truth is because I only got through submissions as far as putting them into the spreadsheet and getting them to editors. That might not sound like a lot, but trust me, it was a full day of work plus some. Submissions are very time consuming and I look forward to the day when I have someone who can help me with them, or when I have more time to devote to them (hahaha!).But this does have to be done this week, so you WILL get one this week. As an apology, I’ve worked up two posts on queries that will appear tomorrow and Wednesday. I hope you find them useful.

Second, we are in a big push now as far as our production schedule, in order to meet a June launch with X number of titles and that means my to-do list makes me hyperventilate just a little. This morning, I stared at my computer for a good fifteen minutes while I sorted out my brain and tried to decide what needed to be done first. I hope by the end of the day to be in a place where I don’t feel guilty about having so much needing to be done! But in the meantime, a quick recap for you…

“It’s the cost of being a pioneer.”

This past weekend I attended the Liberty State Fiction Writer’s conference. If you’ve been interested in joining a writer’s group, you might consider this one. It’s for writers of ALL genres of fiction and, even if you’re not close, you can still get benefit from it because they do something totally cool: they podcast all of their meetings. They were also discussing, while I was there, other neat ways of getting info to distance members (videocast, I think?) and that they really want to be all inclusive not just for people in the area, but also for distance members. They have 157 members currently and they’re a combination of published and aspiring authors in a variety of genres. I hope you’ll check them out!

Anyway, an interesting thing happened at that conference. For years, I’ve been attending conferences, doing pitches and sitting on editor panels. The level of interest in me/my company has always varied based on where I am and what conference I’m attending, but when I first started, interest was limited for the most part, because authors wanted to meet the editors from the traditional publishers, pitch to them and ask them questions on the panel. After my first conference, I quickly grew used to this and, if you know me at all, you know I have a very well-developed sense of humor and the ability to not take myself too seriously. I was later telling my workshop attendees about this and the best, and most accurate response came from author Rosemary DiBattista and she said,” That’s the cost of being a pioneer.” It was like a lightbulb, she was so right. I’m a pioneer, wheee! Anyway, over all these years I haven’t been offended by this attitude, it just made me so much more determined to be knowledgeable, grow the business and reputation of digital publishing and educate people because I knew there would come a day when digital publishing would be recognized (you’d better recognize!) So for the past five years, that’s what I’ve done: kept up my knowledge, grown the business of digital publishing (hi, Carina Press!) and worked to educate anyone who wants to listen about digital publishing.

Well, at this particular conference, which wasn’t huge but a nice size of about 130 people, the editor panel was split pretty evenly between those editors from digital-first publishers and those from traditional publishers. And unlike previous years, at previous conferences, the questions were also split if not evenly then actually weighted towards digital publishing. Not just digital-first publishing, but digital publishing in general. No surprise to most of you, I’m sure, but those authors were very interested to hear about digital publishing, digital-first publishing and would the iPad be a game changer? I walked away from that panel realizing that it’s a whole new ballgame now, because authors want to know about my company, and other digital-first publishers, they want to hear what I have to say about digital publishing and many, many authors are paying attention to what they ignored or thought irrelevant 4, 5 and even 2 years ago. It’s a fascinating time to be in publishing, isn’t it?

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Posted in Appearances/ Conferences, Behind the Scenes, Carina Press | 11 Comments »