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Text of the page (random words):
came up with 49 800 000 hits the sites have phrases like set your own royalties and eliminate middlemen one promises to end unneeded and endless re writing another says have your books in a week and start selling lots of exclamation points all very seductive if one is driven to write to be read and frustrated to the screaming point conventional publishing is an antique industry and is in major flux the returns system is a whole separate topic and a complex one amazon is rumored to be thinking about building brick and mortar stores people are writing their own work then marketing it everywhere they can new opportunities abound most traditionally published authors i know are not in any way old fashioned nor blind they are experimenting with formats structures and sales channels i am certainly not pretending to know what the future of books will be or saying that the system as it stands serves writers or readers as well as it might i am just saying this it takes years of writing with purpose and intent and energy and feedback from people who don t love you and who understand writing to get good at writing prioritizing publication and marketing assuming either one is a validation of the work in and of itself can be discouraging even heartbreaking for the writer so take your time i have written about this here too http kathleenduey blogspot com 2011 12 publishing old new self indie html posted by kathleen duey at 3 09 pm san louis obispo conference pic taken by roxyanne young friend and author i spent a day in san louis obispo teaching serious writers that there are no freakin rules they were kind enough to let me pace the floor sit on the table and listen to them read aloud with my eyes closed i love writers they notice everything they are awake they keep me awake on the train up and back 14 glorious hours of train i reread the first 70 chapters of book 3 the story is telling itself or so it seemed to me and now onward ps one writer got in touch to thank me for being the only writer she had ever heard say there were no rules who then did not provide a sequence of rules to follow i should probably add that there were no beginners in the room but even if there had been i am convinced that craft often overwhelms art and our books are not what they could be because of that a few days later i am not saying art will bloom if craft is not learned i am saying that once craft is strong and solid which can be a long learning curve for many of us art should probably run the show whenever possible posted by kathleen duey at 2 53 pm tuesday march 13 2012 your agent search my ability to help the book covers here are unrelated to the topic i just love them so i included them finding an agent i don t give my agent s name to people i don t know really well and even then i rarely do it the agent writer match up is an odd thing find the right agent first time around if you can interview them honestly and represent yourself honestly too you are considering making them your business partner make sure they love your work your career vision it s good if they like you a lot too and you like them you want someone to be a partner you can ask any question and get a real answer you sign a contract after all so begin this phase of your career seriously don t rush it i am assuming that you are a good enough writer to begin the agent hunt i can t tell you how many people think they are and aren t if a bunch of agents don t respond at all or several send your work back saying you aren t ready believe them examine what they said and get to work you can find places and ways to learn how to write better in almost every town rejections are a precious and free gift that agents hand to any aspiring writer the unglossed opinion agents don t usually want new clients who echo what they are already repping at least not enough of an echo to make them feel redundant to editors readers publicity people all genres contain similarities but you wouldn t want to compare your work to mine or anyone else s in a sub letter if you describe your work well the agent will be able to respond accurately according to their current needs and what they see coming down the road etc some agencies have guidelines for sub letters if they do follow the directions they get hundreds thousands and they have asked for their template to be followed in order to save staff hours this scbwi list might help http www scbwi org resources documents agentdirectory 10 pdf if you are not familiar with scbwi they are an international organization for ya and children s literature and art they have been around 40 or more years and the agencies they list are well known reputable honest etc scbwi conferences and their faculties rock posted by kathleen duey at 3 50 pm saturday february 5 2011 leave out the dull stuff i am writing the third book of my trilogy now there are two protagonists and two timelines that alternate every other chapter in one story about 8 years will pass in the other about 200 years go by the timelines are slowly converging so it gets complicated at times the chapters tend to be short overall but i use chapter length as a way to brighten or dim the spotlights guiding the reader back and forth when emphasis is needed on one thread or the other to keep all this in sync sometimes i have to readjust for pacing so i spent this morning turning twenty chapters in one of the storylines into fifteen chapters by combining chapter content changing the emphasis points re polishing the little cliff hangers at the end of each chapter and most of all diminishing or eliminating the ink spent on things the reader already knows has seen the story rolls so much better now it can be useful to reread each chapter of any book in progress and see what it really brings to the story if the event you are excited to write the real heart and purpose of the chapter occurs in the middle of the night after the protagonist comes home from spending time with someone that you know they are slowly going to come to love or hate or anything that is story significant it might be worth painting a full evening scene let the protagonist get ready for bed fall asleep then be awakened by whatever the midnight surprise in the actual plot moving scene is but if the protagonist spends the evening with people less important in her his life or with significant characters the reader already knows and understands in terms of their roles in the protagonist s world you might not need to write the last few hours at the office and the train ride home this time if the reader already knows the layout of the apartment or house or campground or whatever the scene venue is and can imagine the physical setting of the event without an awkward real estate tour guide author intrusion consider a chapter opening that has almost no set up here is a quick made up example instead of this chapter 14 jenny left the store about five minutes after closing and she had to run to make the last train it wasn t as crowed as usual but it was slow again so she got home later than she wanted to she quick walked the two blocks to her apartment her keys protruding from her right hand knuckles as always she used the stairs up to the forth floor as her daily aerobics unlocked her apartment door then went through the ritual of locking all five of the locks her father had sent her taking a long shower helped a little but it was getting harder and harder to make herself to relax after work the two new sales girls remained annoying she could only hope they would both get fired when someone finally noticed they smelled like pot half the time she had overheard them telling jokes about her at lunch again too mr gregory had been tedious as always and sometimes she wondered how she could stand to work there but she knew she had to nothing had changed she had to support herself now there was no other way to convince her family that she could eventually survive by selling her art so she made a decent dinner read a little more of the romance novel her mother had sent her then turned on the tv an hour later she turned it down then off hoping she wouldn t have nightmares that she could sleep until her alarm went off ok assumuing the reader knows had seen most or all of the above in previous chapters knows she is having nightmares etc consider jumping into a scene without the usual daily activities intro this chapter 14 jenny jerked upright and the pounding stopped she could hear her heart beating as she freed herself from the tangle of sheets and stood up so she could walk off the adrenalin the nightmares were getting scarier more real including the sound tracks the floor was cold and she was about to turn on the lights and find socks when the pounding started again for an instant jenny smiled glad the sound was real not another nightmare maybe some drugged up addict was using trashcans as snare drums she looked out the window at the empty street then turned back to stare through the darkness that led to her little kitchen her front door the banging was real close meant for her it was not muted by skin or flesh someone was attacking her apartment door with a heavy metal bar she heard the jingle of the first lock hitting the floor etc posted by kathleen duey at 4 18 pm labels scene openings wednesday september 9 2009 the sf fan community me after a great panel for ya readers i attended dragoncon this year and will be going back next year if i can book reading communities are like big families lots of opinions lots of different preferences and a great deal in common find one that suits you i don t costume like many people do but i admire their creativity and the incredible work that goes into the making of their clothing this is a link to the steam punk fashion show 2010 i was so there it took an hour of line standing but the woman behind me turned out to be a nasa employee in charge of the mars robots so yeah dragoncon rocks posted by kathleen duey at 11 34 am labels dragoncon hand jewelry steam punk friday august 14 2009 scbwi if you want to write for kids or ya go to scbwi org and begin to explore a world of help for your craft the business everything this year i got to do the closing speech for around 1100 people i was so nervous before i began during it was like talking to my family actually better than that except for that monster screen photo thanks to debbie ridpath ohi posted by kathleen duey at 9 22 am labels scbwi wednesday july 22 2009 looking forward and back traditional publishing is still undergoing a sea change a departure from many of the old models it is a painful wrenching exciting amazing new phase for storytellers and story sellers the big 6 publishers are downsizing staff and have been for years they are looking for new ways to be efficient and still create and sell great books they are experimenting with incredible multimedia projects and are sizing up the oncoming waves of reading devices and other story vehicles they still support great print books while releasing great ebooks people who work at publishing houses are generally smart dedicated to their work and love a good story they are also innovators who know how to adapt or morph it s an echo of how itunes wiped the slate and gutted the album format the big music studios said there would be a gazillion garage bands with 30 fans each they turned out to be almost right even the tv mega talent shows rarely seem to launch careers the way the studios once did on the other hand the indie bands are thriving and i love the idea of artists of all kinds finding their audience mega big small global or local art belongs to everyone for now at least the publishers still offer writers what they always offered us a long steep learning curve that will eventually qualify some of us for access to incredible editors with critical reading skills and deep story experience as well as informed and energetic marketing staffs if a writer can captivate someone who has spent years reading and developing books it s a good sign that lots of readers will find the work compelling too a sign not a guarantee there are none there never have been almost every career writer i know asks writing friends to beta read their raw work i do i often spend time on rewrites before my editors see it i spent my learning curve years in writing classes reading a hundred or more books about writing studying literature reading reading reading writing writing writing and going to endless writer s conferences i took notes while famous authors incredible editors artists and agents shared what they had learned along the way i still go to conferences i get to speak now but when i am not speaking i am listening and i still take notes i did all of this and more because no easier way was offered to me or anyone else there was no other way to enter into the career i wanted more than anything i assumed a 5 10 year craft learning curve because that s what we were all told by the writers we listened to and now we are living in the golden age of self indie publishing it is fascinating to me 2 7 million indie books were released in 2010 wow i just clicked in self publishing and there were 10 200 000 hits wow again it s an industry a very few indie publishers have done really well some of these writers already had traditional careers and preferred to run their own show others are very good writers and marketers who came prepared and have worked hard i admire indie authors i want to try indie pub for some of my stranger odder works next year i can only applaud the time energy and money indie writers have poured into their work the people who have done well have earned it i am cheering for anyone who has even modest success on their own i know they are doing ten jobs all at once i just want to say this almost no one expects musicians to get good on an instrument without years of lessons books years of practice there is a similar learning curve for writing mine was longer than i thought it would be traditional publishing used to give writers a free way to test readiness i have a pile of rejections now writers are told to query agents first they offer the same readiness test if you get a positive response to your query you send the manuscript or part of it and get more feedback sometimes detailed sometimes painful for absolutely no fee at all agents will let you know where your stand because if they take you on they will have a stake in your success ditto old school publishers they put up the money and the staff indie publishers do not offer that kind of service it is almost certain that no craft art market specialists will be reading your work with that kind of careful invested attention it will get published anyway without mentors and teachers and beta readers learning to write it is like deciding to knit buying yarn and needles then sitting in your room alone waving them around and hoping for a sweater if you don t have critique partners consider finding some take ...