It was a pleasure working with all of you this semester. Keep writing!
Here is a piece about the myths and mysteries of publishing by Rick Riordan, and below is an infographic about publishing options.
Querying Agents, the Dating Analogy
Don’t be surprised if the querying process proves one of the darkest times in your life as a writer (as is the case for many of us). Querying is like going on blind dates as a really unattractive person. It is asynchronous, internet blind dating that involves such long waiting times you’re often not sure if you’ve been stood up entirely (you can feel free to assume so if you haven’t received a response after a year).
Your query (with or without the first 5 pages) is the first, blind date–you will make a good impression, or get a “not my type” step-aside.
A partial request for the first 3 chapters (or up to 50 pages) is the second date–getting to know your book better, considering getting serious with you.
A full request for the entire manuscript is the third date, when the agent sees everything–and decides if you are well-matched enough that you can sign a contract and make it official.
Try not to query more than 6-8 agents at a time. No bites, tweak your query. No bites after partials, fix your pages. No bites after fulls, work on the whole manuscript (hopefully they gave constructive advice).
Look up agents by genre on Agent Query or Query Tracker as well as Preditors & Editors and the agents’ individual agency websites (for submission guidelines). Check out new agent alerts.
You can record your queries on Query Tracker.
Final Portfolio
Final portfolios will consist of
1) Your (polished) first 5 pages
2) A synopsis (your revised outline complete with ending)
3) Your query
4) A cover letter.
Your cover letter will discuss each of the previous three items (5 pages, synopsis, query), how they have evolved, what you have revised and changed in them based on feedback from peers and the instructor, and possibly what you hope to work on in the future.
Just email me everything in one document by next Wednesday (12/11) at midnight.
PW Lunch Weekly
FICTION
Women’s/Romance
Karen Whiddon’s THE LONG WAIT, continuing her Anniversary, Texas miniseries with a suspenseful romance between a rancher trying to rebuild and a widow whose life is in jeopardy, to Patience Bloom at Harlequin Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Nocturne, in an eight-book deal, for publication in 2014 and 2015, by Lucienne Diver at The Knight Agency.
General/Other
Suzanne Rock’s AT HIS SERVICE, which takes place in the glittering world of a family’s hotel empire and follows the boundary pushing relationship between a maid and the hotel owner, to Eileen Rothschild at St. Martin’s, in a two-book deal, by Deidre Knight at The Knight Agency (World English).
Joshua Cohen’s THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, the story of a ghostwriter pulling back the veils of the tech world, as revealed by the life story of the enigmatic billionaire founder and CEO of Tetration, which started by revolutionizing the search engine and later ventured into smartphones, computer manufacturing, and the surveillance of American citizens, to Samuel Nicholson at Random House, in a pre-empt, and UK rights to Michal Shavit at Harvill Secker, in a pre-empt, by Edward Orloff at McCormick & Williams Literary Agency.
Rights: sh@mccormickwilliams.com
Children’s: Middle grade
Caldecott Honor-winning author of Blackout and illustrator for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, John Rocco’s first middle grade adventure SWIM THAT ROCK, written with Jay Primiano, pitched in the tradition of Stand by Me and Mud, and set in Rhode Island during the pivotal summer in the life of a fourteen-year-old boy who becomes the only hope to save his family’s diner after his father goes missing in a fishing boat accident, to Karen Lotz at Candlewick, by Rob Weisbach at Rob Weisbach Creative Management (world).
Children’s: Young Adult
MEANT TO BE author Lauren Morrill’s THE TROUBLE WITH DESTINY, pitched as “Pitch Perfect” meets A Midsummer Night’s Dream on a cruise, about a drum major who must save her school band and navigate romantic disasters when their ship gets stranded at sea, and MY UNSCRIPTED LIFE, in which a sarcastic girl finds herself falling for a hot celebrity who is filming his next movie in her small town, again to Wendy Loggia at Delacorte, for publication in Fall 2015 and Fall 2016, respectively, by Stephen Barbara at Foundry Literary + Media on behalf of Paper Lantern Lit (North American).
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards for his short story The Paper Menagerie, Ken Liu’s debut fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty, about a charming bandit and the son of a deposed duke who seem like polar opposites yet, in the uprising against the emperor, they quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures, and a short story collection, to Joe Monti at Simon & Schuster Children’s new imprint, by Russell Galen at Scovil Galen Ghosh Literary Agency (NA).
NONFICTION
Advice/Relationships
Host of MTV’s #1 show Catfish, Nev Schulman’s IN REAL LIFE: Love, Lies, and Identity in the Digital Age, a guide to connecting with others authentically in the era of social media — peppered throughout with his personal stories, the book delves deeply into the cultural dialogue that the show has already begun and offers advice, to Pippa White at Grand Central, at auction, for publication in September 2014, by CAA (World).
History/Politics/Current Affairs
London Review of Books senior editor Daniel Soar’s SPIES LIKE US, a new history of surveillance, which examines recent revelations about the NSA, big data, and cyber surveillance through the lens of espionage’s long history and the evolution of communication technology, to Paul Whitlatch at Scribner, in a pre-empt, by Andrea Joyce at Canongate (NA).
Australian and New Zealand rights to Michael Heyward at Text; Spanish rights to Miguel Aguilar at Debate; Norwegian to Halfdan Freihow at Font.
Winner of both the 2014 Sami Rohr Prize and the ALA’s Sophy Brody Medal for The Aleppo Codex, Matti Friedman’s PUMPKINFLOWERS, set in the 1990s, the true story of a band of Israeli soldiers, including the author, charged with holding one remote outpost in Lebanon, a task that will change them forever and ultimately foreshadow today’s unwinnable conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, again to Amy Gash at Algonquin, by Judy Heiblum at Sterling Lord Literistic, in association with the Deborah Harris Agency (World English).
kendra@algonquin.com
Memoir
Kidnapped at the age of 21 by Ariel Castro and held captive for 11 years, Michelle Knight’s story of her ordeal, promising to reveal new details about her year alone in captivity as the first victim, as well as her escape, saying “I want to give every victim of violence a new outlook on life; We shall define ourselves not as victims but as victors, and this will lead us to peace,”
to Amanda Murray and Georgina Levitt at Weinstein Books, for publication in spring 2014, by Jan Miller at Dupree Miller & Associates (world).
Final Evaluation Link
Queries, Queries, Queries
Agents on Beginnings
Publisher’s Lunch
Sign up for daily and/or weekly reports of current sales (of books, by agents, to publishers) here: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/subscribe.html.
For instance, below is this week’s Lunch Weekly:
Some Deals
As usual, here are 10 deals from last week’s report of about 170 deals in all. To see the complete deal flow (including entire categories generally omitted from this version) and get a complete deal round-up every week (with more pricing information) instead, sign up now for our full service.
Click to register
https://www.publishersmarketplace.com/register/
The Key
As usual, the handy key to our Lunch deal categories. While all reports are always welcome, those that include a category will generally receive a higher listing when it comes time to put them all together.
“nice deal” $1 – $49,000
“very nice deal” $50,000 – $99,000
“good deal” $100,000 – $250,000
“significant deal” $251,000 – $499,000
“major deal” $500,000 and up
FICTION
Inspirational
NYT bestselling author Shelley Shepard Gray’s eight-book deal, to Chelsey Emmelhainz at Harper, by Mary Sue Seymour at The Seymour Agency.
Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Brian McClellan’s three untitled epic fantasy novels, a new trilogy set in the same world as THE POWDER MAGE series, to Devi Pillai at Orbit, by Caitlin Blasdell at Liza Dawson Associates (World English).
cblasdell@lizadawsonassociates.com
Children’s: Middle grade
Go the F*ck to Sleep author Adam Mansbach and Lunatics author Alan Zweibel’s BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: Huge Pain in My……, about a boy trying to navigate junior high and woo the popular girl with the help of Ben Franklin, with whom he can communicate via letters from 1776, to Emily Meehan at Disney-Hyperion, in a two-book deal, by Richard Abate at 3 Arts Entertainment for Mansbach and Laura Nolan at Paradigm for Zweibel (World English).
Children’s: Young Adult
Debut author Heather Petty’s LOCK & MORI trilogy, in which a female Moriarty teams up with classmate Sherlock Holmes to solve a mystery in modern-day London, until the answers lead him too close to all that she’s been hiding, to Christian Trimmer of Simon & Schuster Children’s, in a pre-empt, in a three-book deal, for publication in 2015, 2016, 2017, by Laurie McLean at Foreword Literary. Dramatic rights: Brandy Rivers at The Gersh Agency.
DIGITAL
Fiction: Thriller
T.R. Ragan’s fourth, fifth and sixth book in the LIZZY GARDNER series, featuring a Sacramento PI and her two young assistants, to Alan Turkus of Thomas & Mercer.
NONFICTION
History/Politics/Current Affairs
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Steve Twomey’s FROM THE VACANT SEA, detailing the ten days before Pearl Harbor, to Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster (World).
Former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Michael J. Morell with Bill Harlow’s THE GREAT WAR OF OUR TIME: An Insider’s Account of the CIA’s Fight Against al Qa’ida, from the only person with both President Bush on 9/11/01 and President Obama on 5/1/11 during the capture and killing of Osama Bin Ladin, promising an unprecedented look into our nation’s war against al Qa’ida during the period he calls the “most remarkable in the history of the CIA”, to Sean Desmond at Twelve, for publication in Spring 2015, by Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency (NA).
Memoir
Decorated War Hero and Clemson football player Daniel Rodriguez’s RISE: A Soldier, His Dream, and a Promise Kept, with NYT bestselling author Joe Layden, chronicling his role in the bloody battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan on October 3, 2009, his personal battle with PTSD, and how a promise he made to a friend who died on the battlefield drove him to relentlessly pursue his dream of playing Division 1 football, to Susan Canavan at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, at auction, by Scott Waxman at the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency for Rodriguez and Frank Weimann at Folio Literary Management for Layden.
Film: Joe Veltre at Gersh Agency
Narrative
Comic, mental health advocate, youth lecturer, and TEDx speaker Kevin Breel’s HANG ON TO HOPE, his short, inspirational and motivational narrative on depression, to Heather Jackson at Crown, by Brilliant Partners (World).
Sports
Recently enshrined Pro Football Hall of Famer and legendary NFL coach Bill Parcells’ memoir PARCELLS: A Football Life, co-written with sports journalist, Nunyo Demasio, a look back at his long, storied and influential career, offering a nuanced portrayal of the complex man behind the coach, and examining the inner workings of the NFL, to Mauro DiPreta at Crown Archetype, for publication in September 2014, by David Black and David Larabell at the David Black Literary Agency (world).
Lit Idol
Judges: the other writers being workshopped today.
Contestants: the class will form three groups competing against one another.
Task: Noticing and identifying things about the manuscript at hand, as many as possible, falling into the categories of our rubric: showing v. telling; viewpoint & narration; characterization; hooks; setting; pacing & progression; presentation; adjectives, adverbs & comparison; sound & style; dialogue.
Process:
1. The JUDGES will notice a list of things about the manuscripts based on the rubric and write them down. Each GROUP of contestants will do the same.
2. Each round (one for each rubric field), each GROUP will share one thing they noticed about the manuscript, and they get one point if the JUDGES did not notice the same thing. The JUDGES decide whether the group gets a point.
3. GROUP with the most points wins something after 10 rounds (1 round per rubric field).
Wri 125 Next Semester
Looks like I have Wri 125 again next semester. The focus will be short stories–reading, writing, revising, & publishing (yay!) them.
WRI 125 Sec1 M/W 4:00-5:50pm
Come one, come all!
A Novel Writing Class 