Yay! A contest!

I think we need a contest!

The usual rules apply:
1. Write a story using 100 characters or fewer.

2. Use all these words in the story:
avarice
parmigiano
rhubarb
immobilization
Liverpudlian
fuel

3. You must use the whole word, and that whole word should be part of a larger word. The letters for the prompt must not be in consecutive order. They should be backwards.

4. Post the entry in the comment column of THIS blog post.

5. One entry per person. If you need a mulligan (a do-over), post again.Don't worry about spell-check.

6. Interstellar entries are allowed, but prizes may vary for those addresses.

7. Titles count as part of the word count (you should have a title; it should be a pun.)

8. Under all circumstances you should tweet something about your particular entry to me. Example: "Hope you like my entry about Felix Buttonweezer!"  This is part of the judging.

8a. There are no circumstances in which it is ok to ask for fleabags from ME. NONE.

9. It's not ok to tweet about the contest generally.
Example: "I just saw the flash fiction contest on Janet's blog and I'm so confused"

10. Please post anything but contest entries. (For example "I love Felix Buttonweezer's entry!")

11. You agree that your contest entry can remain posted on the blog for the life of the blog. In other words, you can't later ask me to delete the entry and any comments about the entry at a later date.

12. The stories should not be self-contained. That is: include links or footnotes to explain any part of the story. Those extras will be considered during the judging.


Contest opens: 7:26pm (EDT) 4/1/17

Contest closes: 9:26am (AEDT) 4/2/17

 If you're wondering how what time it is in NYC right now, here's the clock

If you'd like to see the entries that have won previous contests, there's
an .xls spread sheet here http://www.colindsmith.com/TreasureChest/

(Thanks to Colin Smith for organizing and maintaining this!)

Questions? Tweet to me @Janet_Reid
Ready? SET?




 

I love my job, oh yes I do

For those readers who've been here FIVE years or more, you'll remember my non-trip to the Alaska Writing Guild conference in August 2009.

For those of you who don't, here's a blog post that will give you a sense of my wrath

In 2010, I was invited to try again. This time I wrested the planning from the travel agent, and booked myself on a flight to Seattle, then on to Anchorage on the Monday before the conference.  By god if there was going to be a repeat of 2009, I was going to be ready!

Of course, there wasn't.  I got to Anchorage five days before the conference. The conference organizers, kind and generous souls that they are, offered to take me on explorations, trips, tours, hell, they'd have found polar bears to pet if I'd asked.

Instead, I closeted myself in my hotel room and WORKED! I kept telling them I wasn't there for a vacation, only to make sure I actually GOT THERE.

And it was absolutely worth it. The Alaska Writing Guild conference was where I met Lee Goodman and first read his novel INDEFENSIBLE.

I will never forget the moment I looked up from reading his manuscript and realized "holy shit, this guy is the next Scott Turow!"

I was fortunate that Lee signed with me.

I was delighted when editor Emily Bestler agreed with me.

And this week, I was overjoyed when PW gave INDEFENSIBLE a starred review.  I'm damn proud I had a hand in helping this book have a life.



These are the moments an agent lives for.

At some point we left the bar

but no one is sure when.



Bouchercon winds to a close today.

The Albany gendarmes are glad. The bartenders are too.

Character

The sixth movie in the Fast and Furious franchise opened this weekend.  I didn't go on opening day but I am not only planning to see it, I'm a devoted fan of all the movies. (I revved up for the new one by watching ALL five previous ones!) 

I adore Vin Diesel (and have since Boiler Room--which if you haven't seen, stop reading now, and go rent) and fast cars. 

Now that The Rock is in the movies, well they're even better.

Surprised? Don't be.  Most people have little oddities that make them much more interesting than what they look like.

So yes, I read the poem of Richard Blanco and at the same time I love the spoken word/hip/hop work of Ice-T and Jay-Z and a couple other guys who are going to be horribly embarrassed to find out I'm a fan.


What does this mean to you, other than recommendations for films and poems?

When you describe characters, particularly as you're introducing them, think about what makes them interesting. Generally it's NOT the color of their eyes or hair, and unless YOU are a one-dimensional reader, their hotness (is hotness a word?)

So "blonde bombshell" fails unless you mean color coded ammunition. Sexy, hunky, and all that stuff does too.

An unpublished manuscript from a client featured a character who waxed his trailer. More than anything else that told the readers everything we needed to know about the guy.  Of course he was VERY hot too, but that wasn't the first thing we learned about him.

Introducing characters is like introducing people.  You wouldn't say "Hello, I'd like to introduce you to Janet Reid, she's short, myopic and drinks a lot of Scotch on the job" would you?  I think it would be much more interesting and important to know that I love Vin Diesel, and hip hop, and the poems of Richard Blanco. In other words, what makes you your character not your attributes.

Building tension

I'm a big fan of the movie Heat with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro. I watched it again last night and I noticed something I hadn't paid much attention to before.

There are two key scenes that change the course of the action.  One is the bank robbery.  DeNiro and his pack of wolves rob a bank, the alarm is sounded, and Pacino with his pack of wolves give chase.  The key scene starts when Pacino exits the car at the bank.

The firefight confrontation runs 5 minutes and 35 seconds. [If you cue it up it's 1:03:38 or so on the long version available on Amazon Instant view.  (there's more than one cut of this movie)]

At the end DeNiro and Val Kilmer escape in a car from a grocery store parking lot, and Pacino then hunts down the remaining pack member.

This is a scene of high tension.  We're glued to the action. In terms of movie time or screen time, the scene is very very long.

The second scene is the end of the movie. DeNiro is leaving the hotel, having dispatched "the Grim Reaper" with one of the best lines in a movie.

Pacino exits the helicopter, sees DeNiro's babe, and realizes he's back in the game.  DeNiro sees Pacino, and turns away.  From this point to the end of the scene: 7minutes.  (Cue: 13:42 from end)

The climax of the movie, the most tension filled scene takes LONGER than the previous action sequence by almost a full 90 seconds (an eon in movie time.)

The reason this is important for you, as a writer of novels not screenplays is the principal transfers:  the big action scenes are LONG, not short.  Tension increases with longer scenes.  I've heard editors say this over and over, but until I saw the movie (complete with a digital counter on my screen) it hadn't quite sunk in.

One of the things I noted in a manuscript very recently was the author got to the climax of the novel and solved everything in two sentences.  It felt very disappointing to have all that build up then, bam it's over.

Short sentences and long scenes build tension.

This isn't a rule, really it's more like something to gnaw on as you write. Or a way to pass off watching Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro as working.

 THE FINEPRINT INTERNSHIP: A Novel Nonfiction Experience

The Premise:
FinePrint Literary Management, a full-service literary agency based in New York City, is accepting internship applications for Spring 2013. More specifically, we are seeking an enthusiastic, self-starting individual to assist, enable, and otherwise entertain agents Janet Reid (me)  and Brooks Sherman (my boon colleague in crime)

The Plot:
The intern will work closely with the above agents and learn about the agenting and publishing process. Duties will include reading and evaluating submissions, writing readers reports, performing general administrative tasks, and dusting Janet's extensive whiskey collection. The intern will also be invited to attend readings, panels, and other industry-related events.

The Protagonist:
Ideal applicants will have completed at least two years of college; have an avid interest in the publishing industry, a strong familiarity with various forms of social media, a working knowledge of frontlist fiction and nonfiction. The commitment is two days/week, in-office.

The Pitch:
Please email your cover letter and resume, both within the body of the email (NO attachments), to Brooks Sherman (Brooks at FinePrintLit com)




this is unpaid :((

Things that made me very happy in 2012 (2nd on a list)

Happy Holidays from Dancers Among Us! from Jordan Matter on Vimeo.



Dancers Among Us!

I love this book with a passion. I ordered a copy, then ordered another for my dancer sister, then I ordered a bunch more just to have on hand for people I loved. I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!!! It captures everything beautiful and joyful and energetic about life, and it will make you happy to read it. Don't think of it as a book. Think of it as the cure for winter blahs.

Things that made me VERY happy in 2012 (start of a list!)

Remember this post on Query Shark?

Well, I just got the ARC for PREMEDITATED by Josin McQuein and I am so happy I can't see straight. Front cover:

And here's the back!

Proof positive that a great query letter serves you long after you win QueryShark, secure an agent and get a book deal. That's the back jacket copy that's getting everyone excited to read this book.

Dijkstra Agency Asserts Representation of Nobel Winner Mo Yan's Backlist

by MICHAEL CADER on OCTOBER 12, 2012 in AGENCY NEWS, INTERNATIONAL NEWS

New winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature Mo Yan is listed on The Wylie Agency's website as a current client and, as we reported yesterday, when contacted for comment Andrew Wylie said by e-mail that the agency was "in discussions with publishers in all territories" about Yan's work. (This was confirmed by some publishers reporting from Frankfurt.)

But Sandra Dijkstra at the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency reports that "we were Mo Yan's American and international agents from the beginning. Starting with his classic novel RED SORGHUM, we sold his first 6 books worldwide." She notes that "we are very proud to have been there for him from day one, and that his ship has finally come in."

Viking confirms to us that they have the Dijkstra Agency listed as the agency of record for RED SORGHUM. A colleague of Dijkstra's says that they "are aware of Wylie's claims" but "SDLA is, and always has been, the agent for Mo Yan's backlist titles up until 2010."


 (I'm sure neither the Dijkstra Agency nor The Wylie Agency finds it all that funny, but this just cracks me up completely.  It was reported here at Publishers Marketplace.)

Something thoughtful for you on this lovely Monday morning

from WhyCraft.com

Something beautiful for you this lovely Monday morning

A craftsman endeavors to do something well for its own sake.

It doesn't matter what that something is, the way you approach it must be with the spirit of craftsmanship.

Sometimes the best part of a party is the thank you

yes the writing got smudged cause we learned ice cubes are slippery the hard way.

The titular head of my defenestration committee

Titles!
Hang on a second while I leap out the window to a fiery end on 7th Avenue please!

Ok, ok, you're right, I'd probably just bounce off all the pedestrians staring at the great round orb that has recently returned to the NYC skies.

Back to the reason for my window ledge excursion:

Titles!
Book titles!

I have several books almost ready to go out on submission and all of them need new titles.  I'm staring into space muttering things to myself such that the Sharkly Assist gives me her trademarked raised eyebrows and not-so-furtively reaches for the butterfly net:

Good titles aren't make or break items but a good title --the RIGHT title-- sure doesn't hurt. Thus my mutterings and grumblings.

I like to pick a phrase from the book, and when I read a novel I make a list of some of the words I think might work.

And then there are the times when the author has an idea and I have an idea and together we have:

And then there are the times we have a title and one of us decides it should be something else. #oops. It's not a good idea to change a title mid-submission so the new title has to be amazingly better than the old one. And even then I don't like to do it (it drives editors bonkers and makes it harder to track email conversations and submission records).  I want to come up with the right title BEFORE I go out on submission.

So, when you need a title, what do you do? I'm not above stealing your tricks of the trade for my own nefarious purposes.

Going dark

I'm going to take a couple days now for the holiday week.
No work, just the occasional tweet or blog post, no replying to queries or email. I'll be reading when I'm not going for a train ride.

Notes from the incoming query holding pen

This morning I checked my voracious spam filter (Priscilla Queen of the Just Desserts) and found an incoming query. (Priscilla is fierce but slightly stupid, bless her heart.)

I had to look at the email to make sure it wasn't spam and from the first glowing sentence, I knew I was in the presence of someone who could really REALLY write.

Her query did the ONE thing it needed to: it enticed me to read the book. It enticed me to read something that might not be finished, on a topic I normally hide under my desk to avoid.

And earlier this week I got a query that was a total disaster in paragraph one, and got better in paragraph two but not until the final sentence did it hook my interest. And it did.  One sentence. At the end.  And it did what a query letter needed to do: enticed me to read the project.

I mention this because many of you are getting the idea that your query letter has to be "perfect" to elicit a YES, SEND from an agent.   There are a number of sites (my QueryShark included) that show you how to polish and hone queries.  Workshops and conferences abound with presentations on How To Write The Perfect Query.  You can buy six books on the subject without leaving your desk chair if you click on any writing reference section of an online bookstore.

But the  unvarnished truth is this: good writing and enticing concepts trump form. Almost every time.

It doesn't hurt to polish your query. It's better that you do.  But it's not a checklist.  You can make mistakes; you can break rules and still get YES, SEND from me.

I'm always looking for that one project that makes me forget it's raining and I have to go to work on a crowded subway in five minutes.  I'm always looking for the one project that makes me want to stay home and read it NOW.

I can and do overlook all sorts of "mistakes" when the writing is brilliant or the concept is hot. 

Every agent I know feels the same way.

What prompted this email?

Knowing a picture is worth a thousand words, I sometimes only send images in my email.

To editors who have completely lost all their senses rejected a project:

To people I am reminding (again!) about something past due:

My auto-responder when I'm "working from home"

Today, it was this particular image.  Can you guess what I heard about that prompted this reply?

Answer: it was finding out I was too late to get tickets for THIS.

Quote of the day

One of the great joys of my life are the hilarious emails I get from my clients.  Just today, this was the closing line from one of them:



BTW, did you know there's nothing to bring out the wannabe paramilitary crazies like standing in the middle of Walmart and saying, "so, anybody know anything about hand grenades?" 


I love this job, I do!

AND the horse you rode in on!

In case you can't see the text of the letter accompanying the shredded rejection letter and envelope:


"A man of my brilliance and talent should not suffer immediate form rejection letters. So fuck you and good luck in your future endeavors. With your 'judgment' you'll need it."

What you don't see

A couple of things happened this last year that reinforced my growing suspicion most people don't know what agents do. Most particularly those who don't know are the very people who are "informed"--the ones who read the blogs, attend the conferences, follow us on twitter. Even clients and editors.


There's a reason for that: we don't talk about it. We don't and can't talk about most of the things we do. I can't mention any specifics because I can't talk about my clients' business in public. Not at all.


I can talk about querying, and reading manuscripts, and conferences, because those are general information, and guideline type things. I can talk about reviews, and book signings, and blog mentions, and contests because those are public.

The sum total of ALL of those things is about 10% of my work day and work week. Less if it's really busy.


The major disadvantage to the increasing transparency of publishing (and much of that transparency started with agent blogs-a transparency I'm proud to be part of) is that it leads to the idea ALL of publishing is now transparent.


It's not.

And it shouldn't be.

I advocate for and represent each client individually. Their business is not the concern of anyone else.

I read those "day in the life of an agent" posts (and I've written a few myself) and articles with a LOT of skepticism. Most of them are pretty general, and pretty unrealistic. You'd have to be an actual book on the shelf of my office to know what goes on there all day.

And that's the way it's going to stay.

So, why this post? Just a heads up that unless you've actually worked in an agency, and specifically with an agent, you probably don't know much if anything about what agenting actually entails.

Which is just fine, unless you plan on hanging out a shingle as an agent. You aren't planning to do that are you?

BEA Day 2-the moments you live for

Today was the BEA day we'd all been looking forward to. When I say "we" I mean everyone at FinePrint, and everyone at Nancy Coffey Literary, and everyone in the Joanna Stampfel-Volpe fan club.

Today was the YA Editors Buzz panel and we'd known for some time that the very smart editors over at Little,Brown had chosen Kody Keplinger's debut novel The DUFF as the book they wanted to buzz.

Remember Kody Keplinger?


As is our strategy for panels we expect to be SRO we went early and staked out seats. Kick Ass and Take Names Agent Suzie Townsend, I'd Be Lost Without Her godsend Meredith, our new intern Zach and I were in the sixth row. Lurking behind us were (the Ever Slithery) Barbara Poelle and Holly Root accompanied by Sophie Littlefield. The row ahead of us had very very VIP personages. In other words, we were fan club not to be denied.

The panel proceeded apace. Many fine books were mentioned. Suzie and Meredith made periodic dashes to the back of the room to secure galleys.

Then, the moment arrived. Cindy Eagan, Editorial Director of Little, Brown's Poppy imprint rose to talk about The Duff.

She gave an eloquent and enticing presentation.

At the close of her talk she said "When JD Salinger died, I, like many of you I'm sure, re-read The Catcher in the Rye. I was struck again by how that wry, angry voice seemed to be that of an entire generation.

"When I read The Duff, I had that same reaction: an angry yet so funny voice that seems to speak for an entire generation."

Dear Reader, I wept.

For Kody, yes. To have your debut novel compared to Catcher in the Rye is beyond words.

But honestly, my tears were for Joanna Stampfel Volpe, Kody's amazing and talented agent.

Joanna used to be my intern, and I remember her early days well. She was funny, and smart, and I knew instantly she was someone I wanted to work with.

She demonstrated a keen eye for good books (Gary Corby has her to thank for fishing him out of the queries) immediately.

Soon she was a valued member of our FinePrint team. When she moved up and on to be an agent in her own right at Nancy Coffey Literary, we teased her about abandoning us (although she remained here in Suite 500) but we cheered her advancing career.

She was soon signing clients and making deals. Auctions. Big ass deals. And all the while, her delightful charm never wavered. Not through the tough moments and keen disappointments that are the woof and warp of daily literary life, particularly in a year when it seemed publishing was going to the dogs.

Joanna enlivens our suite in a way that is irreplaceable.

So, when Cindy Eagan said what she did about Kody's book, I wept. My heart was bursting with joy, and pride, and delight.

I can count on one fin the number of times I've wept at BEA: one.



These are the moments you live for. The moments when you realize that a book can arrive in the slush ; be spotted by a talented agent; bought by a prescient editor; supported by an enthusiastic and eloquent publisher; and then be in the hands of readers who may very well find The Duff is a book that changed their lives.

This is the best job in the world.
I'm surrounded by colleagues of extraordinary talent and grace.

Today I remembered why I love my job.