Guest post by NoteBookBlogairy

How to Find a Literary Agent

This is a topic that is widely discussed amongst writers and novelists-in-the-making.  It’s a topic that very relevant now because of the precarious relationship between traditional publishing and e-publishing.  Many still feel that traditional publishing is still the way to go because you still will have the veneer of success stamped on you because a traditional publisher accepted and published your work.  This is the epitome of the author having arrived.

However, with so many success stories of independent writers who are making a name for themselves and selling their books through their own marketing efforts (John Locke, Amanda Hocking, Richard Phillips to name a few…), you wonder if it is possible for the average writer.

John Locke has a book (http://www.amazon.com/How-Sold-Million-eBooks-Months/dp/1935670913) that describes how he sold one million books in 5 months.  It gives step-by-step details – but do you have the time, patience and tech/software savvy to handle all of the simple steps and the ongoing promotions and marketing required?

Well, that’s something only you can answer.  However, even if you don’t self-publish, creating a brand and a platform in social media is becoming increasingly more important even when in contract with a traditional publisher.  Publishers want to know that you can engage a decent amount of readers and are not clueless in today’s new publishing arena.

So, if you think your manuscript is polished with tight grammar, spelling and punctuation let’s move on with acquiring a literary agent!

Step #1: Make sure the literary agent you are submitting to is not the first person to read your completed novel.  Have a dry run editor and/or beta readers who provide feedback on your work.  And then, make sure you listen to this feedback and get some other opinions to ensure that you know from a few readers what are the high points and low points of your story.

Step #2: Once your manuscript has gone through the beta readers and/or editor and gets a green light go ahead and begin making the edits/changes suggested from the feedback.  Re-read, or have others re-read again to ensure that you’ve fixed the items that needed clarifying, expansion, contracting – or whatever was needed.

Step #3: Begin creating your query letter which will be your book’s introduction to the literary agent(s) of your choice.  The query begins with an introduction detailing why you chose the agent to pitch your book to and to show that you know something of that agent.  Research and read as much as you can about the agent and incorporate what you’ve learned in that first paragraph.

The second paragraph is your book’s synopsis.  Tell what your novel’s about in 250 – 400 words – less if possible!  Give them sizzle and pizzazz.  Make the agent want to read what you’ve written.  You can compare your book with a similar set of books so they get the idea quickly.  Give them a titillating blurb that will make them want to ask for more pages of your book.  You must also tell them where your book will go on the shelf of a brick-and-mortar store, or where it will be cataloged in an online bookstore.  Is it a psychological thriller?  Is it a historical romance?  Is it a Christian Western romance?  Let them know!  How many readers are in this market?  If you know, you can share that!

The third paragraph is your bio – why are you the right person to write this particular book?  Who the heck are you???  Let them know of your quirky personality through eclectic language that is uniquely you.  This is the time to showcase your ability as a writer!  If you’re having trouble writing about you, pretend you’re writing about someone else!  Be as objective as possible but funny as all get out if that’s who you are!

Step #4: Get another pair of eyes on your query to ensure you didn’t omit something important!  When trying to condense we sometimes overlook extremely important pieces.  While you’re at it, have them check for typos and any other glaring mistakes.

Step #5: SPELL THE AGENT’S NAME RIGHT!  Yeah, I know this is silly but it is extremely important.  If you read the blogs and follow agents’ social media accounts, you will see that simple things like not spelling their name right labels that author as ‘sloppy’ or worse – lazy.

Step #6: Send out that query according to the specifications of the agent’s blog or post.  If they ask for a query with 5 pages of your book – give them what they ask for!  Do not give them more or less.  If they ask that you paste it in the body of the email – DO THAT!  If you send an attachment, in most cases, they will not open it and your query will be discarded without being read.  Following instructions at the outset (and throughout the process) is important.

Step #7: Repeat steps 3-7 until you acquire an agent!

There’s no magic bullet or pill that will find you an agent in 10 days.  You can attend literary events in your area to get up close and personal to a living breathing literary agent but that agent will be inundated with hopeful authors such as yourself throughout that event.  But, having met an agent face-to-face, you can make an impression that can make the request of seeing your manuscript come much more quickly than if you had simply sent your query via snail mail or via email.

To help you find agents, please check out these links:

https://twitter.com/NotebkBlogairy/literary-agents-of-note

https://twitter.com/WritersDigest/agents/members

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor

http://www.writersmarket.com/

http://www.pw.org/literary_agents

http://www.agentquery.com/

http://www.sfwa.org/real/

About this Guest Poster:

Rochelle Campbell is a Brooklyn-based writer who has written two full-length novels and over 15 short stories.  Chambray Curtains Blowing in the Wind was published in 2009 by Bartleby-Snopes Literary Magazine.  You can buy her short story collection, Leaping Out on Faith, on Amazon for 99-cents (http://www.amazon.com/Leaping-Out-On-Faith-ebook/dp/B007RGBQNA).  Or, you can connect with her on her blog, The NoteBook Blogairy (http://notebookblogairy.blogspot.com/).

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Guest Post by Madhavi Sood

 

Thank you very much Faiza Butt, who invited me to write this Guest blog for her wonderful Repository of Books. Indeed I am very grateful & feel honored for this opportunity.

On different shades and hues of Life .....

I have seen Life at close quarters from being a high achiever at School & college and later at work. 

Every thing some how came to a stand still when I  had almost died that too in my prime, struck with disease and bed ridden (had a NDE  - near death experience). 

It was perhaps my zest for living, and love from my Family & Doctors care that brought me back from the depths of pain and darkness, for a purpose yet to fulfill  that perhaps egged me on to recover faster and write poems and stories and sketch & paint.  

Traversing and crossing the boundaries of spaces and times through my poems that reached out to me and my own soul and helped me move my body engulfed as it was in aches, pains and ailments. Writing set my soul free and helped my body too recover faster – for here I could express my innermost thoughts and feelings and simply be.

I Believe ..... Sometimes our deepest desires are the ones that push us to move on and do and become all we want to in Life.

At times, I had lost sense of myself in pain and at those times the Light & Nature beckoned me to pen poems and words which flowed down like a cascade, while I was still lying down on my bed; looking through the window at the sky & green trees by my bedside.

My Parents & husband and my in-laws supported me at each step and my Doctors counselled & treated me so that I could live again and come back from a crumbled building to one who could support others and sustain.

I have always been close to Nature and love kids. I feel there is a child inside all of us who gives us freedom to be what we are and can be.  And I am learning this each moment that I have been blessed with a wonderful daughter who teaches me and reminds me each step of the way.

The poems in this book “From the Silence Within”, were written by me whilst I was bed ridden and ‘fighting for life’  some time back.. Most of them are soul stirring, inspiring and motivating the self. Some poems are funny and a few lyrical and some romantic too.  Yet most of them are motivating and dealing with Life in its different shades and hues.

“From the Silence Within” 

“From the Silence within, shall bloom a thousand flowers.

Showered on life’s path, colourful and radiant like the stars.

And as each petal shall unfold.

A brand new verse, a poem, a, new story unspoken will be told.

And as you browse through each page.

A mystery, some wisdom sprinkled will uncage.

For in my silence you will find.

My feelings, my joys and my sorrows hidden behind.

And when I am gone and lost.

These few words do treasure and keep fast.

Just close your eyes and listen from the Silence Within.

For I’ll be there with you forever, through, thick or thin”.

© Madhavi Sood alias Madhavi Mohandas 2012.

Published in ‘From the Silence Within’

I do hope these poems move you, touch your soul and spirit  as much as I loved writing them, for they eased me from pain and gave me a hope to survive.

Hoping that my poems in my book  “From the Silence Within’  which is actually my soul's first flight  inspires you, awakens you too to become what you want to be and to spread your wings and soar high ...  

Buy from amazonBuy from tower.com Buy from uread Buy from cresswords

A small movie clip about my book excerpts link :

A video of one of my poems I have recited and published in my book:

Book Review links :

Link1
Link2
Link3

Interview Links :

Link1
Link2

 
Author's blogs : www.madhavisood.blogspot.in and
www.madhavisood.wordpress.com
Author Page
Twitter page : madhavisood : handle -> mads2011
tumblr page

 

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To Spoil or Not to Spoil -- the Problems of Publicizing a Sequel

Guest post for Faiza Iqbal by Karen A. Wyle

Since self-publishing my first novel in October 2011, I've had plenty of practice in publicizing my work. But now, as I prepare for the release of my third novel, I face a new conundrum. Novel Number Three, Reach: a Twin-Bred novel, is the sequel to Novel Number One, Twin-Bred. How do I tell readers what to expect without "spoiling" the first novel for those who haven't read it?

Here's a typical teaser for Twin-Bred:

Can interspecies diplomacy begin in the womb?

Humans have lived on Tofarn, planet of creeks and rivers, for seventy years, but they still don't understand the Tofa. The Tofa are an enigma, from their featureless faces to the four arms that sometimes seem to be five. They take arbitrary umbrage at the simplest human activities, while annoying their human neighbors in seemingly pointless ways. The next infuriating, inexplicable incident may explode into war.

Scientist Mara Cadell's radical proposal: that host mothers carry fraternal twins, human and Tofa, in the hope that the bond between twins can bridge the gap between species. Mara knows about the bond between twins: her own twin, Levi, died in utero, but she has secretly kept him alive in her mind as companion and collaborator.

Perhaps Mara should have expected the enigmatic Tofa to have their own reasons to support her project. Perhaps the ever-cynical Levi should have warned her that members of the human government might use her twins as weapons against the Tofa. Will the Twin-Bred bring peace, war, or something else entirely?

 

Once you've read that blurb, here's some what you don't know:

--Do the Twin-Bred (the fraternal twins in question) live to maturity?

--Does Mara Cadell survive until the end of the book?

--What, exactly, are the schemes that others outside the Project have for the Twin-Bred, and do any of them succeed?

--Do the Twin-Bred manage to bring peace, or at least reduce the danger of war, between their native communities?

--Does anything change in the relationship (if we can call it that) between Mara and her never-born twin Levi in the course of the book?

--How do the events of the book change the principal characters -- and who are those characters, anyway? . . .

All well and good. So how do I describe the sequel without answering at least some of those questions?

Well-established authors may be able to assume that most of those considering the purchase of a sequel will have already read the earlier book(s). But I can't realistically place myself in that category. Also, I've been learning about book publicity, as well as about the craft of writing, since I published Twin-Bred in October 2011. I hope to reach potential readers whom I didn't manage to reach with either of my earlier novels. Reach: a Twin-Bred novel will be my third published novel, and it will probably be the first one to come to some folks' attention.


Now that I've posed the problem, I should be able to present the solution. Sorry, folks -- if there's a formula, I'd love to hear it! All I've been able to do is keep my spoilers as few and as vague as possible.

On Smashwords, where Reach is already "live," there are two levels of description, one shorter and one longer. The shorter appears in "summary views," and goes to "some" retailers; the longer is distributed to "most" retailers. Both appear on the book page. Here's what I came up with for both. 
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Short Description :

In this sequel to Twin-Bred, scientist Mara Cadell and the Twin-Bred she helped to create embark on a new and perilous journey -- except for one pair who remain on Tofarn, attempting to live in the human and Tofa communities. Meanwhile, events on Tofarn approach a crisis, in which former host mothers Laura and Veda are deeply involved.

And here's the longer description:

Scientist Mara Cadell created the Twin-Bred -- pairs of fraternal twins, one human and one Tofa -- to bridge the profound and dangerous gap between the human colonists on Tofarn and the indigenous Tofa. Unexpectedly, it is the Tofa host mothers who now claim the capacity to bring peace between the two. The Twin-Bred themselves have been forced to abandon their mission and their planet, in the hope of finding a less hostile home. Only one pair remain behind, seeking to build new and separate lives with their own kind.
But Mara and the Twin-Bred should know by now that plans provide little protection. New challenges are in store for all the Twin-Bred, and for those whose lives they touch.

Links:

Author website

Facebook authorpage

Twitter handle: @WordsmithWyle

Reach'sSmashwords page

Reach on Goodreads

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Letters to the Granddaughter - The Story of Dillon Wallace of the Labrador Wild

Guest Post by Philip Schubert

I'm really pleased to accept Faiza Iqbal Butt's invitation to be a guest blogger and tell her readers about my biography 'Letters to the Granddaughter - The Story of Dillon Wallace of the Labrador Wild' (print edition:  ISBN 9781482388442).  It has been out since January 2013 and can be purchased in print and eReader format on:  Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Create Space, Kobo, Nook or Smashwords.  It can also be purchased as an iBook and read on an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.  Reviews of the biography are posted on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk.

  

Dillon Wallace was a key figure in the Hubbard and Wallace Saga which took place more than 100 years ago in Labrador and northern Quebec. Approximately 10 books have been published on the saga over the years but this is the first biography on Dillon Wallace.

Wallace ensured that the story would never be forgotten by publishing one of the finest books ever written on the North, 'The Lure of the Labrador Wild', and by taking part in the three canoe trips linked to the saga. To date no one person has been equal to the challenge of fully retracing these trips.

I discovered the joys and dangers of travel in trackless wilderness starting in 1999 after reading Dillon Wallace's 'The Lure of the Labrador Wild'. I spent a decade retracing the routes in Labrador and northern Quebec described in 'The Lure', in Wallace's follow-on book, 'The Long Labrador Trail', and in Mina Hubbard's 'A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador'.

Nothing in Dillon's early life as an impoverished youth on a farm suggested that he would still fascinate people nearly 150 years later. Dillon was blessed in fact with "Grit A'Plenty", which no one would suspect from his unimpressive physique and unsmiling face. He pulled himself up by his bootstraps, rising from gristmill employee, to self-trained telegraph operator, to stenographer, to finally becoming a lawyer. His life from that point on, however, was equal parts tragic and heroic, but continued to be marked by splendid accomplishments. Starting at the age of 40 in 1903, he carried out a series of trips in Labrador and today's northern Quebec covering several thousand miles.

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The first trip sadly resulted in the tragic death of his trip leader and best friend, Leonidas Hubbard, and a narrow escape for him. His book on the trip, The 'Lure of the Labrador Wild', published in 1904, became a best seller and is still in print. It would change Dillon's life forever. It told the story of the trip as it was documented in his and Leonidas' trip journals. Leonidas' widow, Mina Hubbard, who would be forever changed also due to the unbearable loss of "her laddie", had commissioned the book. When Dillon refused to rewrite the book and make Leonidas into the larger than life figure she had been expecting, she became Dillon's sworn enemy for life.

There then followed two extraordinary trips in 1905 across Labrador, following the route planned in 1903. Dillon led one. Mina, drawing on skills that no one had realized she had, led the other. She planned hers in secret, and then provoked a life-long estrangement from Leonidas' family by telling the press as she left that she suspected that Dillon played a role in her husband's death and was on her way to investigate it. A third fascinating figure, voyager George Elson, the other survivor of the first trip, safely canoed Mina the length of Labrador down some of the most challenging rivers that George and his crack team of outdoorsmen had ever seen. No one was more impressed than George, or more disappointed than Mina, when Dillon and his only team member, forestry student Clifford Easton, successfully completed the trip as well. The evidence that George, a heroic figure in his own right, had fallen in love with Mina and which may have motivated him to agree to organize the trip at Mina's behest, added another fascinating dimension to the saga. The 1905 trip formed the basis for Dillon's second book and he went on to publish another 25 books, becoming a legend in his time.

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This is the story of Dillon Wallace as told by me, with an introduction by Dillon's granddaughter, Amy McKendry. It includes extensively illustrated maps and dozens of my colour photographs of the challenges faced and overcome in the wilds by the saga participants.

This book will appeal firstly to hard-core canoeists like me who have learned to survive in the kind of wilds experienced by saga participants 100 years ago.  It will appeal secondly to those in love with nature at its most unspoiled and pristine.  Finally, it will appeal to those looking for stories involving a character like Mina Hubbard who loved and hated with equal intensity and a character like the quietly courageous Dillon Wallace whose achievements have never been equalled to date.

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