Give her a toolbelt and a job!

The Pink Octopus got a laugh out of this!

Where I will be on Feb 28

Turns out I missed the party where Miss Pauline arrived! but I did get to the launch party described on Ilana's blog here although not long enough to steal a book.

I will be rectifying that situation on Saturday (except the outright theft part) at McNally Jackson, 4pm.

Join me!

Why I Love Ya

I love what you write. I've loved that from jump. You remember? I emailed something akin to "if you don't sign with me I'll be forced to kidnap you and hold you for pages." ... or something like that.

This was before I knew Barbara Poelle, so the phrase "monkey knife fight" had not entered my lexicon, but if it had, I would have offered that up too.

I love you cause when I took your book out on a round of submissions you never once yelled at me when editors didn't jump on it.

Then, when we gathered their responses, and realized something was missing, and I suggested revisions, you did them. You never complained. Not once. At least not to me.

And when we took the new, appreciably better, book out on a second round and editors still didn't jump, you didn't complain. You thanked me for all my hard work. That's all you did. I'm in awe of that self-control and gracious generosity of spirit.

And then, when I came up with one more crazy idea for a revision, you didn't scream at me. You didn't flounce off. You didn't heave a huge dramatic sigh.

No, what you did made me realize all over again how much I love you: you took my idea and you ramped it up three levels, set it on fire, ripped the phoenix of a brilliant idea from the ashes, emailed me back and said "what about this" and it was one of the most original and inspired ideas I've ever seen.

I am in awe of you. Personally, professionally. If I could clone you I wouldn't cause the one of the very best parts of this business is knowing I have the one and only you on my client list.

I'm so very glad to be on your team.

Happy Birthday! You rock.

Tact? As in tactical armor, right?

Here's a link to a post of advice for agents from author Hope Vestergard.

Needless to say I'm probably on her shit list. Take a look at #3.

The funny thing is, she missed the obvious one: respond to queries. As far as I'm concerned that should be number one. All that other stuff might make querying easier, but not getting a response makes writers crazy.

As for "tell us who reads our work": Assume someone else is reading your work. Just assume it. I read all my own queries, but I also solicit opinions from other people in my office. Yes that includes our cadre of invaluable interns. I am not putting that on my website or in my guidelines because it varies from day to day, project by project. If you let this kind of thing bother you, you're in for a world of hurt. Lots of unknown people will be reading your work at every stage of the game. Get used to it now.

Add this to your list of tactics for success

Yen Cheong writes the incredibly valuable Book Publicity blog. If you don't subscribe to it or read it daily, you get to stand in the "I am cluefree" line for awhile.

Today she mentions email signatures:

Email signatures — on new messages, responses / forwards and on Blackberries / other PDAs — are vital. Would you leave a voicemail message for a professional contact without leaving your full name and phone number? Hopefully not. So what makes it okay to sign off an email with just your name and not a word about your company or its website?

Make it easy to find you when you're contacting people you want to find you. If you're an author and you don't want to publish your home address, get a PO box and a cell phone.

If any of you email me (and I reply!) you'll see there's an email signature.

It goes on every email. It's really easy. I set up my mail program to do it automatically.

If there's some reason I don't want to include it, I can delete it by hand before I send the email. (MWA lists require a sig line to be a max of two lines, so I have to cut it down when I post there; also other list serves don't need my details on every post so I edit those too)

Here's what mine looks like:

Janet Reid
FinePrint Literary Management
240 W 35th St #500
New York, NY 10001
direct: xxx-xxx-xxxx
office: xxx-xxx-xxxx

Did you think this was a good idea? It's not

I'm working my way through the incoming query letters tonight and there's some very good stuff to be found indeed.

What puzzles me though are people who send a query letter that is largely a review or a synopsis written by someone else. I see this a lot from people who have submitted work to contests. They start with "and my novel was nth out of n+100 and here's what PW had to say about it."

The purpose of a query letter is to read YOUR writing. I know the editors at PW can write. I also know they aren't looking for agents, and they're really not looking for agents for YOUR book.

Write your own damn query letter. All of it.

Two ways to know if a book is amazing

1 You've figured out the twist at the end before it's on the page but you still must read on to know why.

2. Laura Lippman wrote it

Here kitty kitty

An agency client sent this picture of a visitor to his front yard:








y'all live in some strange and exciting places!

$13.99 + (head) tax

Recently I attended a bookstore event for a debut author. (I'm going to be sketchy on specific details to protect my fragile ego.)

I knew the editor and the book sounded fun, so I figured I'd stop by and show the flag. Sometimes debut author readings can have limited turn out. I was very puffed up at my amazing generosity, so full of myself that I was just lucky a passing umbrella didn't poke a hole in my swelled head.

When I arrived at the event, it was standing room only. Chandelier hanging room only. The author was in his milieu. He was funny, charming, and when he read from the book, I knew I had to read it.

I hung around till the end, snagged the last copy and stood in line for a signature. The author hailed from the West Coast and I wanted to say hey, hurray for the home team.

When I handed him my book and said my name for the signature, he looked up at me.

"I know you," he said.

uh oh.
This is almost never a good sign.

"Really?" I asked, hopeful he was a blog reader, had perhaps read a client's book, or perhaps had me confused with Donna Reed, Lou Reed, Calvin Reid, or any one of the myriad Janets at the recent contest on DogFact9 blog.

but no, oh no.

"You read an early draft of this book," he said.

Ahh..this book. The one I'm holding in my hand. The one I'm getting ready to pay hard earned cash money to take home. The one that didn't have Janet Reid (or Donna Reed, Lou Reed, Calvin Reid, or in fact any Janet at all on the acknowledgements page)

That one.

"You rejected it," he said unnecessarily.

"Clearly I was out of my mind," I replied, also unnecessarily.

"Well, it was a much earlier version, not really ready," he replied graciously.

"Go Blazers," I said, hoping for the home team advantage.

Then, I slunk out of the store. With the book of course.

When I returned to my lair, I looked up his name on my list of queries. I had in fact rejected it.

Here's what I said:

"Thanks for sending me (title) which I read with interest. I’m sorry I have to tell you it’s not right for me. In fact I really hate to tell you that cause I think you’re a really good writer and this is funny and charming. I just don’t think I can sell it."

And I was right. I didn't know how to sell it.

But someone else did. To a major publisher. For money. Real money.
To a GREAT editor.

So, when those rejections come in, and they will, keep this in mind: one agent's rejection is not only unimportant, it's really just a chance to find the RIGHT agent. The one who can sell it, and will.

I have the bookstore receipt to prove it.
And my hats seem pretty loose to boot.

We couldn't have done it without you!

Remember last May when I posted a fervent plea for Gary Corby to contact me?

He'd sent an email query; I'd replied asking for pages.
My email to him bounced back twice as undeliverable.

I REALLY liked the pages.

I figured why not at least try to get his attention on the blog. Maybe he was a blog reader; at the very least he might have his name on google alert and see the post that way.

What I didn't count on was the response from y'all, the regular blog readers! You took it as a challenge!

You tracked him down.

In AUSTRALIA!!

You emailed him to email me; you emailed me with his contact info.

Turns out his webhosting service had a glitch, and his email was part of his site. By the time y'all were finished I had his home address, work address, telephone number and I think maybe a picture of the family guinea pigs.

Gary certainly got the idea I liked his novel!

Today the story comes full circle with this announcement on Publishers Marketplace:


FICTION: MYSTERY/CRIME
Gary Corby's THE EPHIALTES AFFAIR, set in Periclean Athens, to Keith Kahla at Minotaur, with Kathleen Conn editing, in a nice deal, for publication in Fall 2010, by Janet Reid at FinePrint Literary Management (world).


Thanks to all of you! We couldn't have done it without you!

As for Gary's website, well it's back up and running. Take a look!

Facebook no more

I took a flyer on the Facebook thing. I didn't want to dismiss it without at least giving it a whirl. I can see its value for authors, but it wasn't that useful for me. I deactivated the page. Just fyi.

I love the cover of this book

and this book you CAN judge by the cover: it's as charming as the cover!

Don't take my word for it.

Here's the New York Times review, and another in Minnesota (where all the writers ARE above average!)

A poem like you've never seen one before

Remember when you were a kid and you saw something so amazing, and so wonderful for the very first time, that all you wanted to do was see it again and again?



It's been a long time since I've felt that way.

Then I saw this.

More ammo for the war on success

This blog post from Jennifer Mattern's All Book Marketing about effective blog promotion is very smart, very useful advice.

I've mostly railed about what doesn't work, and what annoys the snot outta me, but this post is about stuff that does work, and that's good advice to heed.

Best $2 I've ever spent!

This is just plain cool.

If you're not familiar with the project, it's reproductions of the art, not the actual six sqintillion dollar paintings themselves that are in the subway station at Atlantic/Pacific.

But what's coolest of all is the "camera work" on this tour. Whoever did this is amazingly talented!

Favorite line of the reading day-2/21/09

"You know Bangkok, Jack. It's tough to get much done without occasionally having somebody shot."



I love this job, I do!

Mr. Champion, I rebut you Sir!

My good friend and wickedly clever industry observer Ed Champion has a post on his blog that challenges industry pricing practices.


Ed poses these questions:

Ed: So if you’re a publisher or a bookseller, consider this. If you know that people can afford a $10 hardcover (as opposed to a $30 hardcover), why in the hell aren’t you learning from (the examples he cites in his post.) Why aren’t you offering a Valve-like time window where people can walk into a bookstore and purchase a few $10 hardcovers over a weekend?

JR: $30 hardcovers for sale at $10 are called remainders. If price is the ONLY consideration in a book choice, there are lots of ways to buy $10 hardcovers. (If you want to buy a specific book at $10 that's a different argument, addressed later.)

ED: And why aren’t you promoting the hell out of this?

JR: Red letter sale signs saying "cheap books" won't draw people into a bookstore selling new books. That's the secondary book market: Goodwill, garage sales, second hand bookstores. If price is the sole consideration, you can buy bag loads of books for $2 most every other month at a variety of secondary book stores ranging from Housing Works here in NYC to most every Friends of the Library sale across America.

ED: Why isn’t there a Free Book Day in which you get to introduce people to the joys of books and you get to know your customers?

JR: That's called the library.

ED: Why aren’t you forming intimate and personal connections with readers so that they’ll continue to buy your products?

JR: Maybe book buyers don't want intimate and personal connections with a bookstore. They want to buy a book they already know about. They want fast and easy service. I offer as prima facie evidence in support of this position: Amazon.com

I call it the Sock Buyer model (I used to call it the Underwear Model but I couldn't even type the phrase without giggling.) When I need socks, I go to a store that sells socks. I don't want an eager beaver assistant to show me ten or even five kinds of sock. I know what I want. I want to go to a well-marked, easy to locate aisle, get the socks I know I want and wait fewer than 30 seconds in line to pay for them.

Remember, more than half of the people who responded to the question "how do you select what to read" answered "word of mouth." They want the next Lee Child (my god, who doesn't!); the next Laura Lippman (ditto); the next Sophie Littlefield (you will my pretties, you will).

If some bookstore takes it into their head to offer those books to me at less than their cost, well, that's fine with me, but it does NOT change what I want to buy.

Does it change what I do buy? Does offering a $10 Laura Lippman introduce new readers to Laura Lippman (a hazard to To Do lists everywhere, let me assure you.)

Answer: yes, but then what.

If you offer a hardcover, frontlist book at less than cost, you may have certainly created a new fan for Laura Lippman, but unless that new fan then buys either all the backlist OR places an order for the next book (which is a YEAR away!) creating a new fan does not translate to creating a new customer for Laura Lippman (And answer me this, when was the last time you saw all the backlist for an author in ANY store. A very very few exceptions to that, but mostly it's frontlist and if you're lucky, two earlier books)

What might work is "buy this hardcover now, and bring the cover/receipt/picture of you donating it to a library in prison" back next year and we'll give you an extra 20% off the new Laura Lippman then."

It also clearly does not lead to sales of OTHER books unless the buyer picks up the $10 book in addition to other purchases. Since you pose these questions with the assumption that people have less money to spend, not more, this is also not something that bookstores can reliably depend on for generating more revenue (or earning back lost revenue) from this $10 sale price.

It's counter productive to do the one thing that requires a further purchase to yield a positive result.


Bookstores aren't in business to support your reading habit. Bookstores are in business to make enough money to stay open, and offer a return on investment to the owner that is better than their opportunity cost. Serving customer needs can accomplish that goal but it does not make sense to serve a customer's desire for cheap reading material at the expense of the bottom line. You forget that Mr. Champion at your peril.

And further:
The idea that booksellers or publishers should offer hardcover books for $10 ignores some basic industry facts.

Booksellers pay publishers a percentage of the cover price: generally near 50%

That means bookstores pay publishers $12.50 for every $25 hardcover they sell.

So, if they charge a consumer $10.00 for that book, they've not only lost money, they've deepened the loss by the amount it costs to sell a book. It wouldn't take more than 100 books out the door at a loss like that to really tip the scales for a small business on a thin margin (i.e. most booksellers I know)

So what about cutting the bookstore a break and invoicing the book at a steeper discount?

Ah here's where the accounting gets overwhelming. Which books get the steeper discount, and for how long? Is it based on when the book is ordered, or when it sells? What if it doesn't sell? Is it returnable as a new book or a remaindered book?

I suggest these not as specific questions to attack Mr. Champion's argument, but simply as an illustration that it's not simply a matter of saying "ok, let's sell these for a bargain rate and hope more customers will buy."



Mr. Champion, in response to your question I paraphrase another bald headed pithy phrase writer: It's the economics, Segundo!

We're just not that into you

Nathan Bransford is a very smart agent.
Nicer than me by a long shot.

He gives good advice on his blog.
Here's yesterday's on the topic of queries for novels: less you, more story.

As you might suspect, the reason I put up the link to that is cause that's exactly how I feel too. And my experience matches his: recently I've seen an uptick in queries that try to sell the writer rather than the novel.

I'm just not that into you.
I am however very interested in your novel.

Nathan says it....but nicely.

Nice Girls May Not Have Fangs--but they do have starred reviews!

Yes indeed, the incredible Molly Harper garners a starred review in PW for her delicious debut Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs.

--Remember you heard about Molly HERE first --

Here's the close of the review: "Harper keeps the quips coming without overdoing the sarcasm, and her take on vampire lore will intrigue and entertain even the crabbiest of agents the most jaded paranormal fan."

Not hard to see why eagle-eyed Stephany Evans snatched this right out of the incoming submissions, whisked it off to auction, and brought home a tidy deal for several more books.

Pub date is April, but you can reserve a copy on Amazon

Just FYI

I ask for 100 pages when I ask for partials.
I figure that gives me enough pages to see if a book really needs to start at chapter six instead of one, and to see if you can get some conflict and tension going such that I want to read on.

I ask for 100 pages.
If you send 100 pages in Courier, I convert it to Times New Roman, and it becomes 76 pages.

Therefore, a savvy query writer might want to send 100 pages in Times New Roman, rather than Courier. Your goal is to have me read a lot rather than a little. 24 pages is a substantial difference in volume.

If you don't believe me, test it yourself on your word processing program.

And I don't switch to TNR cause I like the smaller font. I change to TNR cause it's darker on my screen and easier to read.

SellAScript? Get a damn refund

As you all know I'm just cranky as hell about query services. I think they're a total rip off. A little eyeball work will elicit all the information you need about whether I (or any agent) am a good prospect.

Case in point: three emails today from people pitching scripts (as in movie or tv scripts).
Well, you don't have to go far (my site, the FPLM site, Pub Mkt, Agent Query etc) to see that scripts and screenplays are one of the very few things I don't represent. (There's a reason for that: I'm a book agent...BOOKS.)

So, I slithered over to the source of these emails and sure enough, these queriers had forked over money to have their queries sent to:

direct e-mail inboxes of 2,884 (current total) industry professionals, comprising studios, production companies and independent producers, plus 1,774 (current total) agents and managers.

And further:

Your e-query does not look like a mass e-mail and all responses are directed to your own e-mail inbox.

Bullshit.

Your query looks exactly like all the other queries from this company:

Query - "title"

"Log Line"

Genre: Comedy

(Brief description)

I would like to submit this screenplay for your consideration and can be contacted as listed below.
Thank you.

(contact info of querier)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
If you do not wish to receive further queries from SellAScript.com, please forward this email to query@sellascript.com with "REMOVE" in the subject field.

I've gotten dozens of these despite doing the REMOVE thing.
If you want to waste my time, and your money, go right ahead. I've got those emails diverted to junk mail now and you must have money to burn.


And here's the REAL cost of using these kinds of services: you think no one wants your work when you don't get any response. The truth is no one has READ your work. One look at the format that screams query service, and it's put in the trash.

Most production companies and film companies don't consider unsolicited work.

You think you've failed when you haven't even started. That's the real cost. And honestly, it's kind of sad too. You deserve better.

Add this to your list of hard and fast rules!

It's on the DO NOT side of the page.

Do NOT quote rejection letters of any kind in a query letter.

NO exceptions to this rule. None.
If you think you have an exception, think again.

There's no way it will help you and it's pretty much instant rejection when I see "Agent Q at XYZ was very impressed but chose to pass because of her busy workload" because I know you are quoting a form rejection. How do I know? See text of MY form rejection on previous posts.



Here's the other thing: if Agent Q passed on it, I'm not so full of myself (despite all evidence to the contrary) that I instantly think oh lo! that slithery competitor missed the chance of a lifetime and I'm going to show her.

Nope, what I think is aha, she doesn't think this will sell.

The only time I'm interested in what other agents think about your work is when they are clamoring to read it and represent you.

If you think that's unfair, I didn't say it was. What I said was this is how it works.
Two entirely different things, and the smart querier will waste little time fretting about fair and just get on doing what's effective.

Rachelle Gardner cracks me up

Her post on things to not say in a query letter - very valuable advice by the way! - includes this gem: (remember, Rachelle's agency focuses on Christian writing and books)

Query letter:"I realize you require information about my platform and credentials, but Jesus’ disciples did not have impressive resumes, degrees, or extensive evangelical experience... my credential is that I am a disciple of Christ."


RG: True, but the disciples could get an endorsement from Jesus…in his own handwriting. Bring me one of those and we’ll talk.

Recognizing a form letter when you see one-updated

I'm beginning to have more empathy for silence =no agents.
This is not a good thing.

What's getting me there is that queriers are now responding to form letters with cheerful little notes like:


Thanks so much for your prompt reply. I regret that we will not be able to work together on this project, but perhaps our professional paths will cross in the future as I continue writing my next novel.

Take care. Have a nice day.

or


Thank you for your kind response.

I am submitting to multiple agencies and I look forward to a "yes" soon.

Best wishes,


On the face of it, this doesn't matter much.
But, managing incoming email is an increasing problem.
Five or ten of these a day (I'm not kidding!) start making me think about sending something like:

THIS IS A FORM LETTER.
I got your query.
If I want to read more I'll let you know.



I really value your input on this; thank you!

Here's the newest, revised version of the form rejection letter. Feel free to critique!




Thank you for your query and I apologize for this form reply.

I regret I have to pass on many interesting projects due to time constraints.
I urge you to query widely of course!

All good wishes,


Janet Reid
FinePrint Literary Management


PS There's no need to respond to this email.


Blog: jetreidliterary.blogspot.com
website: jetreidliterary.com

Four SEVEN years!! Four SEVEN** years to wait, but now, ahhh!

SJ Rozan took some time off from her Lydia Chin/Bill Smith series. It was a long wait for those of us who love her books. Sure there were some wonderful stand alones to ease the pain, but still, it's been a long time waiting.

Last year at one of the many fun events at Partners & Crime I might have just *happened* to moan, whine, beg, cajole, threaten, plead, offer bribe money, embarrass myself about mention this dreadful dry spell to the ever gracious Ms. Rozan.

She kindly offered up the information that she'd just turned in the new novel, and it would be a Lydia book. I might have screamed. I certainly huzzahed!

And now, tonight, I've got my mitts on a copy of The Shanghai Moon! With a boon companion, I slithered down to the Tenement Museum to hear SJ and the ever entertaining, always fun Henry Chang give a talk on Chinatown noir.

As soon as the enthusiastic applause for the talk ended, I hurtled to the front of the room, polevaulting over elderly ladies; the visiting conga line from the Rainbow Room; and, a platoon of autograph hunters. No fool I - I'd done a head count of the audience and an inventory of the books on the front table. I wasn't going to be one of those standing at the back of the line, sans book. No sirreee octopussy I wasn't.

Visual proof that sometimes being pushy and shovey is the only way to really get what you want:






***I was informed the wait has been seven, not four years. Time flies when you're pining for Lydia Chin!

Ceci n'est pas une query***

Hi Janet,
I wrote a great novel. Want to read it?


Hi Janet,
can I send you a query letter?


I am struggling to get my incoming email file under 200 unanswered emails. Right now it's a losing battle, and the only people who are more frustrated about this than I am, are the people waiting to hear back from me.

I've made a commitment to answer every query. It may not be the answer you want, but I will answer. I will not let silence = no thanks.

The flip side of our deal is you gotta send me a real query letter.

This half -assed crap doesn't cut it.

It has to say my name. (No"Dear Agent")
It has to be addressed only to me (no long string of bcc names)
It has to be a real query letter.

If it doesn't meet all three of those criteria, I reserve the right to delete it unanswered and with no apology.

This isn't complex.
This isn't unusual.

And I really don't think it's too much to ask.
If you do, query someone else.


***

"agents"

I'm a regular reader of Editorial Anonymous (added reason: I love love love her slush monster!!) and her post today about "agents" who send cover letters addressed to "Dear Publisher" made me snort coffee out my schnozz.

I've long advocated asking a simple benchmark question of prospective agents-What have you sold
but perhaps it needs to simpler yet: which editor might like my book!

Publishing is in a rollercoaster ride of changes right now (just listening to the tweeting from TOC conference this morning makes me slightly frantic) but one thing has not changed: this industry runs on who you know. An agent who doesn't know anyone is worse than useless. It's ok to ask who do you know to a prospective agent asking to represent your work particularly if the agent is new and doesn't yet have much of a sales record.

How to tell if you've gone too far on that editing thing

1. you carry five pens at all times so you can do things like correct bumper stickers;

2. you get arrested for defacing (correcting) historic signs;

3. You get booted out of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar cause even they think you're a pricklepuss.

4. All of the above

One good deed

I like this blog a lot.

High Concept Explained

not by me of course, but very well by Holly Root over at the Waxman Agency who, when not slithering around with Barbara Poelle and me, has been known to sell a book or two.

Why We Need Poets

"Though she can no longer live alone,
I realize that no matter where my mother
lives now, she will always be alone
in a world forever gone wild in her mind.
Still thinking I am her last late boyfriend,
she leans closer, says, "you're always so kind
to me" and sighs as she pats my hand"

Floyd Skloot "Relocation"
from Book III The Alzheimer's Suite
in "Approximately Paradise"
Tupelo Press: 2005

Jeff Somers versus NYComic Con

Well, he got there in one piece, and he left in one piece.

Clearly my work here isn't done.

And for proof; the videos

If you'll be at Comic Con this weekend, make sure you step right up to Jeff and intone "You're fucked Mr. Cates" then laugh maniacally!

Sic!

It's always a good day when the punctuation pugilists at the Abbeville blog suit up for a rousing round of fisticuffs with their sworn arch nemesis the Chicago Manual of Style.

Here's today's round.

For those of you who might not notice, the Abbeville blog has a new url. You'll want to update your linkage or google reader subscription so you don't miss out on any of the fun.

Remember I told you I stroll around the interwebs ogling your blogs?

Sometimes you really really make it worth my while.

There are many reasons to love The New Yorker

Among them, this paragraph from an article on fact checking by John McPhee:

The worst (fact) checking error is calling people dead are not dead. In the words of Josh Hersh (described in the preceding paragraph as the modern fact checker who is characteristically calmer than marble) "It really annoys them." Sara (the fact checker McPhee is writing about) remembers a reader in a nursing home who read in The New Yorker that he was "the late" reader in the nursing home. He wrote demanding a correction. The New Yorker in its next issue, of course complied, inadvertently doubling the error, because the reader died over the weekend while the magazine was being printed.

Lego!

sehr gut!

Town Council inserts its head in asterisk

I thought this was a joke.
Guess not.

Perhaps next week the Town Council will debate rounding off pi to make calculations easier.

Kyle Minor! On Tour! YES!!

2/19 and 2/20 are on my datebook in RED!




Kathleen Rooney and Kyle Minor are embarking upon a 25 city traveling literary circus they're calling the Live Nude Girl In the Devil's Territory Tour, in support of Kathleen's memoir Live Nude Girl: My Life as an Object, and Kyle's short fiction collection In the Devil's Territory.

A special guest reader will join them in each city. Guests include Daniel Handler a.k.a. Lemony Snicket, Rebecca Berry, Laura Benedict, Joshuah Bearman, Steve Almond, Brian Evenson, and more.



Tuesday, February 3 at 7:30 pm at Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Tel: (323) 660-1175
with Joshuah Bearman

Wednesday, February 4 at 7:30 pm at Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tel: (415) 282-9246
with Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket)

Thursday, February 5 at 7:00 pm at the Hawthorne Blvd location of Powell’s Books
3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
Tel: 503-228-4651

Friday, February 6 at 7:00 pm: at the University of Washington Bookstore
4326 University Way N.E.
Seattle, WA 98105
Tel: 1-800-335-7323
with Jonathan Evison

Saturday, February 7 at 7:00 pm: at Village Books
1200 Eleventh Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
Tel: (360) 671-2626
with Elizabeth Colen

Sunday, February 8 at 4:30 pm: at Garfield Book Company on the Pacific Lutheran University campus
208 Garfield Street, Suite 101
Tacoma,WA 98444
Tel: (253) 535-7665
with Jason Skipper

Monday, February 9 at 7:00: at The Loft Literary Center
Suite 200 Open Book
1011 Washington Ave S.
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Tel: (612) 215-2575
With Rebecca Kanner

Tuesday, February 10 at University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee
2200 E Kenwood Blvd
Milwaukee, WI 53211
Tel: (414) 227-3337
with Liam Callanan


Wednesday, February 11- Saturday 14: AWP Conference in Chicago, IL
Palmer House Hilton
17 East Monroe St.
Chicago, IL 60603


Dzanc Reading: Kyle Minor, Roy Kesey, Mike Czyzniewjiewski, Allison Amend, Louella Bryant Panel on Postevangelical Literature: Kyle Minor, Pinckney Benedict, Scott Kaukonen, David McGlynn, Angela Pneuman Table for Rose Metal Press at the Book Fair: Kathleen Rooney with Abby Beckel Thursday, February 12 at 2:00 pm University of Arkansas Press Table: signing by Kathleen Rooney Friday, February 13 at Links Hall at 8:00 pm: Kathleen Rooney reading on behalf of Switchback Books from Oneiromance (an epithalamion)

Monday, February 16 at 7:00 pm at Brookline Booksmith
279 Harvard St
Brookline, MA 02446
Tel: (617) 566-6660
with Steve Almond

Tuesday, February 17 at the Provincetown Association of Art Museum (PAAM)
460 Commercial Street
Provincetown, MA 02657
Tel: (508) 487.1750
with Chris Busa

Wednesday, February 18 at 7:00 pm at Ada Books
717 Westminster Street
Providence RI 02903
Tel: (401) 432.6222
with Brian Evenson

Thursday, February 19 at 7:30 pm at Freebird Books
123 Columbia Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
Tel: 718.643.8484
with Rebecca Barry

Friday, February 20 at 8:00: in the Earshot Reading Series
Rose Live Music
345 Grand Street (btw Havemeyer & Marcy)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Tel: (718) 599-0069
with 3 other readers TBD

Saturday, February 21 at 5:00: in the 510 Reading Series
Minás Gallery, 815 W. 36th St.,
Hampden (that’s Baltimore) MD 21211
with other readers Blake Butler, Shane Jones, and Rahne Alexander


Sunday, February 22 at 8:00: at the George Washington University Marvin Center Amphitheatre, sponsored by The Rome Review
800 21st Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20052
Tel: (202) 994- 7470
with Dan Gutstein

Love, Loss and What I Wore

Love, Loss and What I Wore was published 13 years ago. I still remember reading it back then, and I talk about it periodically (most recently to literary agent Meredith Bernstein who is a walking piece of wardrobe fabulosity.)

And now it's going to be a play

This book defies every "must" in the industry.
And sells and sells and sells.

This is one of those reminders that publishing may be an industry, but it's also a place with a lot of room for passion. Even now.