"Get Specific Names," advises Kristin Nelson

Kristin Nelson's PubRants is a must-read for me (it should be for you too!). Today her post on the importance of specific names on submissions is really valuable.

The perfect gift for your ma if she is one tough Mother!

No, not the handsome model...the shirt!

And if you can't find that, then Portland Noir, the most recent anthology with a story from that handsome model himself.

Hell yes I'm buying her book!

This youtube video about edit letters just cracked me up.

Why I Will be at the BEA pitch slam this year

This is my client Alysia Sofios.
She's standing in front of Pocket Books, which will be publishing her book WHERE HOPE BEGINS on 9/15/09.

I took that picture when we visited her editor, the incomparable Abby Zidle, and her publicist two weeks ago.

A year ago, I'd never heard of Alysia Sofios, and she'd never heard of me.

That all changed at the Writers Digest Pitch Slam at BEA last May.

If you've got a project, you'll do well to think about attending the conference this year.

Normally I loathe pitch sessions. Loathe.
There's one good thing that can happen at a pitch session that can't happen as easily anyplace else. You can TALK to the writer.

That's how I figured out Alysia didn't have a true crime book, and she didn't have a story about murder and desperation. Yes, there are those elements in the book but this book is about perseverance, and hope, and taking risks.

I never would have seen that in a query letter, and Alysia would have never written a query letter to me. She'd never heard of me before the fateful day she heard a bunch of people laughing and decided to see what all the fun was about.

Here's the link to the Pitch Slam website.

Maybe it's time for you to take a risk and sign up.
If you do, you darn well better come over and say howdy.

Some days you flip the bird...

...some days you don't!

Dodging bullets for fun and profit

Prima facie evidence that Jessica Faust is nicer than I am can be found on her BookEnds LLC blog post today.


It amuses me to no end when people seem to think that asking for more information, or asking for it in a certain way is a burden. Here's my response to that: don't query me.

Querying an agent is not a right guaranteed to you by the Nth amendment to the constitution. If you don't want to send me information the way I ask for it, don't. It's ok. I'll live. You will too.

Here's my version of pretty much the same interaction:

Ring! Ring!

Me: Hello, FinePrint.

Caller: Hello, I'd like to speak to Janet Reid.

Me: Speaking.

Caller: I'm looking at your website where it says not to call.

(Pause for the irony of this to perhaps dawn on caller, but no such luck)


Caller: It also says you don't want to miss out on anything.

Me: (thinking, yes, I know what's on my website, I wrote the bloody thing) yes?

Caller: Well, I have something that's unlike anything else ever done before!

Me: You'll need to send a query in writing. Email is best.

Caller: oh. But let me just tell you a little bit about it

(Pause for caller to drone on for some time, while I open and sort query letters paying no attention to what caller is saying)

Silent pause

Me: You'll need to send a query in writing. Email is best.

Caller: Ok, well, that's fine. I'll put (redacted) in subject line.

Me: That's fine, just email it to me.

Caller: I'll put a link in the email to my website with the book on it.

Me: I don't click on links, please just send a query letter.

Caller: Why won't you click on a link?

Me: I'm not going to discuss this with you further.

Caller: (in a tone that conveys he'll have nothing further to do with ME, thank you very much) Bye!

Me: (not-so-silent-laughter)

Now, the difference between Jessica and me? She clearly feels bad when this kind of thing happens. Not me! But like I said: she's nice. Me, I'm cruel enough to make werewolves dance!

Hurray! Portland Noir is HERE!

and the cover lists leading contributors: Ariel Gore, Jess Walter, *Bill Cameron*, Karen Karbo, Zoe Trope, Jonathan Sellwood and Monica Drake!

The Edgars!

The awards have been bestowed. The authors have been wheeled out of the bar. The agents have been rolled up with the rugs and sent out for industrial strength cleaning: yes this year's Edgars have come and gone.

It was a lot of fun.

I know this because this morning I awoke with a red feather boa wrapped around my head; clutching a scotch bottle, a program and shrieking Leonard Cohen lyrics; and wondering if I'd really threatened a coup d'etat of Cornelia Reade's fan club leadership so I could be the president instead.

Well, what happens at the Edgars, stays ..um...well, stays in the imaginations of 200+ very talented writers and will most likely be fodder for a great novel next year.

Such is the fate of those of us who work with the Keyboard Cabal.

Now, on to Malice!