Writing News:
The Working Man: The Modern Sherlock Holmes and His Fashions.
Kim Newman on Why are so Many Vampire Stories so Weak?
What’s going on at this year’s BEA!
The Top 10 Most Read Books in the World!
A chance to ask a literary agent anything you want!
Writing Tips and Tricks:
DIY MFA explains between Villains and Antagonists.
How to Write Shop address Race in YA Fiction. (although it’s hard to argue this when you’ve got Fox News bemoaning the fact that women are allowed to vote.)
Agent Mary Kole explains what makes a lasting Novel for her.
Nathan Bransford wonders if it’s ethical to watch football.
Agent Kristin Nelson explains Plot Catalysts.
Query Shark has the motherlode of all query letters.
Querytracker: Making the character connection.
Five Famous Literary Flops from Writer’s Relief. Also: how to determine if you’re a good candidate for self-publishing your book.
Agent Jennifer Laughran on writing sequels and series before signing on with an agent.
Similarly, Writer’s Digest has 7 Ways to Write a Stand-alone Book (with Series Potential).
YA Highway explains Making your Characters as Emotional as Adele.
Contests and Blogfests!
Want a challenge? How about joining StoryADay, where writers write one story everyday for a month?
International Creative Writing May is here!
Images of the Week
Apparently, the sixth book of the Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire
The spreadsheets and costs of a semi-pro online magazine
A message from the Avengers:
And finally, just because:
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Posted on May 07 2012 at 10·32 PM / Permalink
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Writing News:
Tor / Forge ebooks are now going to be DRM-free!
Story Siren and plagiarism allegations.
Writing Tips and Tricks:
Steve Ulfeder explains how you know you’ve made it via Jenny Milchman.
Writer’s Relief: How you know you’re ready for Self-Publishing.
DIY MFA shows how you can get more writing time.
Kathy Steffen from How to Write Shop shows you how to write your character well through their professions.
Agent Kristin Nelson explains why agents don’t take on anything (even if they think it sells).
Getting Facts straight in your novel: Kristy Lahoda explains Expert Witnesses.
Rachelle Gardner: is a writer responsible for what their characters say?
The single best piece of writing advice from Harper Lee, John Steinbeck, and Carl Sandburg, and more!
YA Highway has expectations within genres.
Kevin Federline’s aunt wrote erotic fanfiction about K-Fed and Brittney Spears…. wait, what?
Contests!
Check out Agent Kristin Nelson’s Agent Reads the Slush Pile seminar on May 2!
The 10th Dear Lucky Agent contest live until May 14, 2012!
The Writer’s Digest Conference West on October 19-21, 2012!
Images
And throwing in some Game of Thrones humor on politics.
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Posted on April 30 2012 at 02·31 PM / Permalink
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News Around the Web:
Some major US publishers refuse to renew their contracts with Amazon.
The Department of Justice’s ongoing lawsuit against Apple and other publishers regarding ebook pricing. Nathan Bransford explains.
The Casual Vacancy: J.K. Rowling’s adult book!
Book Ends, LLC says goodbye to their blog (but not their agency!)
Idiots from Twitter come out to admit they never realized Titanic was a real ship.
Writing Tips and Tricks:
Why writing your book based on the next trend is the wrong way to go, from Pub Rants.
McSweeney has the Ultimate Guide to Writing Better than you Normally Do.
Why Flight of Imagination Pictures won’t work with agent Mary Kole.
Chuck Wendig shares 25 reasons he hates your character.
The Intern explains the perks of Indie publishing versus the perks of Big 6 Publishers.
Kathy Steffen shares why Fiction Writers should write Poetry. And DIY MFA has some Poets on Poetry.
Ten Tips for Reading your Writing in Public by Writer’s Relief.
Writing Tools
You can Write Children’s Books by Tracey E. Dils. Available at Writers’ Digest!
Images of the Day:
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Posted on April 16 2012 at 02·46 PM / Permalink
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News Around the Web:
Book publisher Lee & Low expands to add YA to multicultural genre.
Join the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition!
The Rejectionist throws off her anonymity, and has a book deal!
Writing Tips and Tricks:
Adventures in YA & Children’s Publishing: Eve Marie Mont on Keeping your Unwavering Passion to Write
DIY MFA has 3 Steps to Reading in Public to Captivate your Audience, and shows you how to Practice Reading Aloud.
Rachelle Gardner shows how to Identify your Novel Genre.
All Things Writing has 5 Reasons to join a Blog Hop.
How to Plan a Book Launch (Part One) by Greg Leitich Smith
Lauren Oliver offers Advice you’ve Never Heard Before.
Writers’ Digest has the Top Three Mistakes when Writing Plot
Writing Tools
If you’re looking to promote your books, Innovative Online Book Tours might help!
Images of the Day:
To celebrate the upcoming 3D release of Titanic in theaters:
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Posted on April 10 2012 at 08·36 PM / Permalink
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Dear Agent,
The Son of God finally returns, but nobody can hear him over the sound of all the bullshit going on.
Autotuned music and gangster rap has drowned out the trumpeting of angels to herald His arrival, while nightclub strobe lighting and illegally-induced hallucinations has dimmed the light shining down from the heavens. Politics are running rampant, where media is skewed to pander to the highest bidder and politicians claim to do God’s work, though He recalls ordering no such thing. Besides, it’s hard to get anyone’s attention when they’re all busy with the Internet - a repository of mostly useless information where humor equates to cats eating cheeseburgers and where Nickelback are considered ‘artists’.
But the Messiah is nothing if adaptable, and so He tries to get with the times, setting up his own website and hoping his videos go viral soon. But how does one go about finding Twitter followers, Facebook friends, and blog subscribers in a world where quality is quickly overshadowed by quantity? How do you spread the Good News to people who won’t listen to anything that hasn’t got a celebrity scandal in it? How do you deal with statesmen and professed leaders of your own church who find nothing wrong with talking to God, but not when He talks back? Why are people so mean to Justin Beiber, she sounds like a pretty nice girl, considering? And which specific pair of animals in Noah’s Ark went on to produce Snooki and Nicki Minaj, it was a madhouse during those seven days of Creation but He’s pretty sure He’d remember those? And why would anyone name their kid T-Pain? Are hyphens a thing now?
The revolution may be televised, but salvation barely makes for blog news.
At 102,000 words my novel, The Confusion of Christ is, sadly, pretty true. I would compare it to The Passion of the Christ meets Fox News meets MTV.
Best regards,
Rin Chupeco
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Posted on April 06 2012 at 02·11 PM / Permalink
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News Around the Web:
A funny The Daily Tribute, Aprils Fools’ Edition!
Joanna Volpe’s beginner’s guide to the Bologna Book Fair
The NYC Department of Education wants fifty forbidden words removed from standardized testing.
Writing Tips and Tricks:
All Things Writing shares how to pump up your book with book tours.
How to Write Shop grammar check: Irregardless.
Sarah LaPolla tells you to Be the Next, rather than the Current, Trend.
QueryTracker.net defines Authors and Social Networking.
Writers clock in on how to stay motivated when writing, from Writer’s Relief. Also: 10 Misconceptions about Writing Books for Children.
Janice Hardy deals with Backstory.
Writing Tools
If Scrivener isn’t for you, then how about yWriter?
Editing software AutoCrit may help improve your manuscript.
Organizations and Contests!
Gone Reading - a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding libraries and reading charities.
Adventures in YA:Â What’s in stores next week, and a Giveaway: Timeless by Alexandra Monir!
Funny Images for the Week:
The BBC’s April Fools for the win!
For pop culture fans: guess the show!
And finally: why I like cats
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Posted on April 03 2012 at 03·24 PM / Permalink
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Blogworthy News:
Repeal laws forcing victims to marry their rapists!
Rare author interviews unearthed.
Twentytwowords has 10 movie poster cliches (with plenty of examples).
Pub Rants offers a glimpse of theÃÂ 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair - and the next Hot Thing in YA?
20 incredibly rare author interviews unearthed.
Kristen Hubbard finds some celebrity book cover lookalikes.
Writing Tips and Tricks
5 ways to liven up a descriptionÃÂ by DIY MFA.
Musetracks suggestsÃÂ revisits Casablanca for inspiration.
QueryTracker wants you to promote your books through business cards.
WritersDigest explains how to edit your novel.
Adventures in YA and Children’s Publishing: guest Catherine Knutsson offers tips on patience, editing, and heart.
Janet Reid explains page numbers and formatting.
And an oldie but goodie video from my side of the world - a Japanese game show called Downtown Batsu, where contestants are not allowed to laugh during one full ‘school day’ for any reason, or they’re spanked. Hard.
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Posted on March 27 2012 at 02·16 PM / Permalink
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A small collection of pertinent writing news, links, and tips from around the web!
Blogworthy News:
Writer’s Relief shows us Taxes for Creative Writers.
Kate Hart has compiled a list of YA book deals from 2011-2012.
Nathan Bradsford explain why DOJ’s Potential Lawsuit over the Agency Model is a Really Big Deal.
The Economist shows how Facebook connections mirror old empires.
Tips and Tricks:
Writer’s Digest has 5 Excellent Tips for writing a manuscript.
Need help with your manuscript? Maybe Autocrit can help.
Laura Roberts shows you how to write a novel in three days.
DIY MFA teaches Description versus Exposition, and also suggests that you make an Editorial Calendar for your Blog.
Webinars and Blog Features
Pub Rants is conducting a video seminar called Goodbye Slush Pile! The Secret of How to Write the Perfect Query Letter Pitch Paragraph for your Novel on March 29, 2012.
Cupid’s Literary Connection encourages readers to submit questions about agents, writing, and more to their new blog feature : A Question For You.
TOP 3 IMAGES OF THE DAY:
Have a relevant link you’d like to add? Send an email to paleberry [at] gmail [dot] com!
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Posted on March 20 2012 at 03·45 PM / Permalink
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Not nice.
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