Going to a writers conference-- check out the names of presenters, editors who are on facebook. Assume that they wouldn't be on there if they aren't looking for contact.
Writers and editors on facebook, if you aren't too pushy and keep it related to the profession, will usually be responsive. DOn't try to sell them real estate.
Post on blogs of editors and agents who are supporting other authors and books.
Start of novel-- put action in right away. Introduce characters later.
First draft is getting story down. Can add action later.
Casting your net-- look for agents and editors doing the most work in your genre.
Publishersmarketplace.com place to research agents and publishers associated with specific books and genres so you know who to contact to sell your book. Costs $20/mo.
Basic concept-- find out people who have bought stuff like what you are writing.
Red flag: Never sign a contract where rights don't return to you, after, say, 18 months. Never sign a contract that asks for all rights.
Genres that cross over-- thrillers, science fiction, fantasy
(if something magical happens, it's fantasy. Star Wars, with THE FORCE, is fantasy.) Urban, dark, high fantasy- kingdoms, lords, dragons, like Lord of the Rings.
Cross Genre is safest with young adult, since book section is broken up by age, not genre.
Horror as a genre is not very popular. Euphemism-- "suspense thriller."
Source of info for writers: http://www.bksp.org
Simultaneous submissions: I'd rather be audacious and piss one or two people off. (Send simultaneous submissions and don't tell people.) I don't think I've ever done anything that wasn't simultaneous-- for magazine articles, literary agents.
Audacity does work.
Jonathan
Promoting books: Make friends with independent booksellers and you have a friend for life. DO indies over chain stores like Barnes and Noble or Borders.
Jonathan's writing group meets the last sunday of the month at the Saxons coffee shop in Doylestown, PA. It's free. Next Page 1 | 2
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Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.
Check out his platform at RobKall.com
He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity
He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com
more detailed bio:
Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, (more...)
