“In the Blogosphere” is a weekly series, which lists links to writing-related blogs I’ve stumbled upon throughout a given week. Most posts will be from that week, but if I find some “oldies but goodies,” I’ll throw those up here as well.
I never find as much time to read blogs as I want, but here are a few posts that struck me this week.
**This week’s blogosphere post is going to be a bit longer because next week’s might be shorter—or nonexistent. I plan to go a bit MIA starting tomorrow so I can get my YA manuscript out by Friday. WISH ME LUCK, PLEASE!!!
YA AUTHORS
My virtual friend, Wendy Toliver (author of The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren, Miss Match, and the forthcoming Lifted) is the newest member of Buzz Blog: “where YA authors from Berkley JAM, Flux, Dutton, Puffin, Delacorte, HarperCollins, Harlequin Kimani-Tru, Houghton Mifflin, and Simon Pulse discuss writing, promotion, and of course, hot guys…” Check out her first post in which she talks about her famous “Fave Fives” that got her on track to being published. As well, if you comment on her introductory blogs (there are seven this week), you have a chance to win a $10 Borders gift card!
New York Times bestselling author, original Nerdfighter, and Printz Award recipient John Green (author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns as well as collaborating author of Let It Snow and the upcoming Will Grayson, Will Grayson) offers an optimistic view on the future of reading—complete with quirky footnotes and all—on School Library Journal.
STAY ON TOP
According to David Carr at The New York Times, Twitter is it. I believe I’ve discussed the usefulness of Twitter and its hashtags in terms of writing and publishing before, but the folks over at What the Hashtag?!, the user-editable encyclopedia of hashtags, break down what these valuable Twitter tools are and how to effectively use them.
Greg Pincus, a guest blogger over at Writer’s Digest editor Alice Pope‘s CWIM blog, talks online audience optimization: you blog, vlog, tweet, and comment, but how do you reach your target audience?
THREE AGENTS & AN EDITOR
Here, you’ll find FinePrint Literary‘s Colleen Lindsay‘s take on word counts and novel length. According to her and other agents’ tweets, 2010 has already seen its share of this kind of faux pas.
However, the aforementioned post will be one of the last of its kind, according to Lindsay’s last post of 2009. Side note: I’m actually interviewing Ms. Lindsay for the Guide to Literary Agents blog, so look for that interview in the coming months!
Nelson Literary Agency‘s Kristin Nelson advises writers to wait a week before querying over at Pub Rants.
In the style of FinePrint Literary agent Janet Reid‘s post from last week’s blogosphere roundup, Del Rey Books‘ editor-in-chief, Betsy Mitchell, examines her manuscript rejections of 2009.
PEP TALKS
Writer’s Digest‘s Chuck Sambuchino uses Superman IV to say there’s no such thing as selling out on his GLA blog.
In this post, the good people of Writer’s Relief explain that even a few minutes is enough time to write.
YA author Dawn Metcalf says, “chill, baby, chill,” on her blog, Officially Twisted. Publishing comes to those who wait.
TRUTH & LIES
Grammar nerd that I am, I love the book Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. Over at mental_floss, WII author Patricia T. O’Conner debunks five grammar myths.
On his Web site, science fiction writer, photographer, Web designer, and editor Jeremiah Tolbert dispels five lies writers believe about editors.
SOMETHING MY HUSBAND WOULD LOVE
Run Leia Run‘s Adam Bertocci, an award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter, shows the world what would have happened if Shakespeare had written The Big Lebowski.
The Dude abideth.
JUST FOR FUN
I, for one, forgot most of what’s been going on the last two seasons of LOST. Don’t want to sit through those annoying “pop up” episodes ABC is sure to unleash in the coming weeks? Thanks to Holy Kaw posting this YouTube link, here is a recap of the entire first five season in eight minutes.
A QUESTION OF QUERIES
As I mentioned, I am sending out queries for my novel next week (yeeks!), so these two posts are of particular interest to me this week.
Author and WordServe-Literary-agent-Rachelle Gardner-client Jody Hedlund talks queries and their aftermath.
I am perhaps most interested in posts of this nature. On her Web site, Kimberly Pauley, a YA author, shares two of her original query letters for her popular vampire series Sucks to Be Me—both of which she says got her partial and full requests and led to her eventual publication.
Ricki Cardenas 