“In the Blogosphere” is a series, which lists links to writing-related blogs I’ve stumbled upon throughout a given week (usually).
I’m making one of my resolutions to be better with these blogosphere posts. *Well, I’m trying, but I’ve been reallllllly busy!* I’ve saved a lot of great stuff, though, and it’s all definitely worth a read.
I’ve decided just to focus on agents and querying and . . . stuff, since I need to get a jump on WB workshop stuff this weekend.
Hope you enjoy!
AGENTS & QUERYING & STUFF
I jumped back into the query pool this week with my latest YA contemporary manuscript, so this is largely for me. 🙂 Oh yeah—and any of you also at this stage. Hee.
Many of us have formulated our own lists of “dream agents,” based on stalking meeting some of the industry’s finest at conferences and workshop, reading interviews and blogs, etc. Here, the Michelle Wolfson-repped rom-com author, Tawna Feske, talks about the downside of dream agents.
See that butterfly net? That's my dream agent. *Creepy much*? You know who you are . . . OK--you prob don't, and that's prob a good thing! 🙂
And, just in case that depresses you, here is another post by Feske, where she shows her agent-catching query. For a little inspiration!
Agents dishing out query tips online in response to their query inboxes becomes a heated debate around the blogosphere at least twice a year, but I think it’s a valid discussion whenever it pops up. Here, Heather Trese of See Heather Write asks: Is the #queries hashtag really good?
Querying can be extremely frustrating (understatement much?), and it can lead to writers getting pushed over the edge of good sense and expressing their frustrations in their Tweets or Facebook statuses. Translation: not good. Here, Bridget Pilloud has the answer—a bitch box, or the Bitchy Comment Receptacle. You need to bitch? Pilloud provides a sounding board—and then deletes your comment so no one will see it. Win-win!
Ever wonder how agents actually evaluate fulls when they request them? Well, she doesn’t speak for all of agentkind, but Andrea Brown lit agent Mary Kole says she does it like this.
Going to a conference? Here’s what kt literary’s Kate Schafer Testerman has to say about talking to agents IRL.
I had the distinct pain pleasure of writing my synopsis for my new MS this weekend. I had *forgotten* about this, the fabulous Shawntelle Madison’s synopsis wizard. But you should def check it out!
In my editing of MS #2—as well as in the reading of John Green, Maureen Johnson, E. Lockhart, and other YA all-stars, I’ve done a lot of thinking about the “mature voice” in teen fiction. Here are amazegent Mary Kole’s thoughts on the subject.
So, confession: I got a Kindle for Christmas . . . and I love it! Of course, it WILL NOT take the place of holding an actual book in my hands, but I have already found it great for traveling, working out, and it was VERY helpful last weekend, when I needed to read two harder-to-find books for an interview I was doing. Agent Kristin Nelson agrees in this post, about the power of story—in any medium.
CONGRATS
A special WOO HOO goes out this week to my Twitter soulmate, Cambria Dillon, who signed with literary agent Vickie Motter of Andrea Hurst & Associates! SO EXCITED FOR YOU, girl!!!!!!!! *mwah!*
What better way to celebrate than this??
Ricki Cardenas 