I'm counting the days till publication of Marching Up Madison Avenue

You may have to double click on the image to make it large enough to read.

The hell with world peace..

MY new year resolution is to disarm that gun you use to shoot yourself in the foot--to that end, here's a list of things you say in your query letter that are automatic rejections:

1. fictional novel
I'll swallow my loathing for almost anything but a clear failure to grasp the importance of specific words. This is a written medium. This is all about words. When it's clear you don't know how to use them, the conversation is over

2. "this isn't a query, it's just to find out if you're interested in".
That's a query. Don't expect anything but the form response to a query letter when you send this.

3. "here's my website with all sorts of testimonials from publishing professionals including Ms X at BigAss Publisher who read my novel four times"
Those are not testimonials. Those are rejection letters. The fact that you don't recognize this AND that you have already shopped this novel on your own to every house in town is the Kiss of Death.

4. My novel is similar to The Electric Church; it's an expose of religion.
The Electric Church is a thriller. Or SFF. It's not an expose of anything. If you want to compare yourself to one of my authors, hell ANY author, at the very least read the write up on Amazon. I won't even make you buy and read the book. Just know where its shelved at least.



Of course, the people who read this are probably the only ones who don't actually need the info.

I gotcher world peace riiiiight here

What I do when I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing

Mostly I go to the Met Museum.

I love it passionately.

Last week I went on MetMonday, 12/31/07. Normally the Met is closed on Monday, but they open on certain Monday holidays. Of course, every tourista in New York was there. It was PACKED. I escaped to the Etruscan wing.

Can you guess what this is?

This has been a REALLY good week

1. I snagged a wonderful marvelous writer from the jaws of my colleagues (more on that once I sell her fabulous incredible marvelous book to some really smart editor!);

 

 2. We closed on Amy Minato's exquisite memoir SIESTA LANE (pub April 2009!); 

 

 3. We went back to work after two weeks of slothful thriller reading on the couch (you know you're pathetic when going back to work makes it a good week); 

 

4. I found a Jack Reacher novel I hadn't read!; 

 

 5. I realized Project Runway is available on NetFlix;

 

 6. The pr and marketing plan for Marching Up Madison Avenue is taking shape nicely.

bulll...riders!

The idea that cowboys are going to be hanging out a block from my office makes me think I need to represent westerns.

Here's the article from Gothamist that brought the good news!

Back to Work!

Time to tiptoe through the tulips to the telephone!