Seven Gift Ideas for Writers

Hey everyone!

It's that time of year and I am so proud of myself for getting my Christmas shopping/ present making early.

So that gives me time to catch up on Scandals with Bite Book 4, my newsletter, and, of course, this blog.

A few people have been blogging gift suggestions for writers, so I may as well add in my own two cents.

I'm not going to include the obvious things, like notebooks, pens, and whatnot. Instead I will cover two other categories of gifts.

A.) Things that are Fun/ personalized.

It's an indisputable fact that professional writers often turn into caffeine-soaked workaholics. We spend countless hours at our desks, writing, revising, marketing, struggling to meet constant deadlines, etc. In this chaos and drudgery, we sometimes feel like we're losing our identity, our sense of self. Especially when we're so busy being inside out characters' heads.

I recommend gifts that pull the writer away from things writing related. What else does your writer enjoy? For me, it's heavy metal music and horror movies. These are a few things I've pinned for my "Dear Santa" List on Pinterest. It's mostly horror T-shirts and DVDs of some movies I like.

If you're shopping for me, check out Fright Rags.com

So if they're also a gamer, get them gaming stuff. If they're a gardener, gardening stuff, etc.

Another good idea is something that literally pries the writer from their desk.

Movie tickets, concert tickets, etc are all great ways to encourage your writer to get out and clear their head.

But sometimes, we writers are straining to meet a deadline, or in a good groove where the words are pouring out. In those cases, you can't get the writer away from the desk. So that brings me to the other category.

B.) Things that make the job easier.

A non-fiction book related to what we're writing. 

Research can take time. Sometimes grabbing a book is quicker. I often write regency romance, so a book on the regency would be awesome. A sci-fi writer would appreciate something on space technology, a thriller author something on psychology, etc.

A restaurant gift card.

I cannot stress enough how valuable these are. When writers are riding a deadline, dinner plans get neglected. Gift cards for some yummy place eliminates the hassle.

Another function they can serve is a figurative carrot on a stick. Every once in awhile I will reserve myself extra time for a hard core writing day. I set a goal that's two or three times my average word count and if I make it, I treat myself to Wingstop's garlic parmesan wings. If I had a gift card for wings, I'd schedule another mega write-a-thon stat.

Comfort items:

Writers spend a LOT of time at their desks. Things that make the setting more comfortable are highly prized. A few ideas: Pajama pants, fuzzy socks, slippers, or a fleece throw. 

Is their desk too cold? Get them a little space heater. Too hot? Get them a fan. Too dark? A nice lamp would be great!

Caffeine!

Remember how I mentioned that we're caffeine saturated workaholics? A gift card for a favorite coffee shop is appreciated by the coffee drinkers, a box of tea or tea leaves for the tea drinkers, or if you're one of my friends or family members: I LOVE RED BULL!!

Promo items:

These days, we have to spend money on swag and advertising to promote our work.

Places like Vista Print and Print Runner have great deals on bookmarks, pens, stickers and other fun stuff we can pass out to our readers.

Reviews:

It is harder and harder to get reviews. We are extremely grateful for every one.

A Hidden Sign of a Good Publisher

So you've sent out queries and garnered a few requests from publishers. Then one of them offers. A friend had this happen to her a couple months back.

I asked her the usual questions:

Do they check out on Preditors and Editors?

How long have they been in operation?

How do the rights and royalty rates compare?

How is their distribution?

Everything seemed to check out there, but then I thought of something else, a detail that seems to be ignored in a lot of "seeking a publisher" blogs.

Do the authors stay with the publisher?

I remember reading a book by a certain publisher that I really enjoyed. I've been looking forward to the author's next book. But there hasn't been one. And the first one came out in 2009. The publisher has great connections, excellent staff, wide advertising and distribution, but authors usually only stay with them for one book.

It makes me think of my publisher's motto: "Sourcebooks publishes authors not books."

Obviously those other guys only publish books.

Luckily, the publisher making an offer on my friend's book appear to keep their authors and everything else looked great, so she accepted.   

Female Anatomy and Romance Plots

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Blending History With Fiction: Guest Post by Author Sarah-Jane Stratford

Truth really is stranger than fiction – you don't need to be a history geek like me to discover that. When I started writing vampires into real historical events, part of my interest was in making fiction stranger than truth. Beyond that, I wanted to explore the essence of humanity, especially when put to the worst sort of test, and for me that meant working with characters who weren't really human and setting them in the midst of World War II. 

The madness and monstrosity of the time easily lends itself to the addition of real "monsters" – although juxtaposed against the Nazis, the vampires prove themselves more truly human. I wanted to be mindful, however, and not seem to be disrespectful or detract from the real accomplishments of the humans who resisted and fought the Nazis. Incorporating vampires both allowed me to play with fantasy elements such as elaborate attacks and escapes, but of course also set interesting boundaries, such as having to stay out of the sun. Millennials – vampires who are over 1000 years old – are much harder to kill, but they still have to be careful. This was especially fun when traveling to a sunny climate like Italy.

In the first book, The Midnight Guardian, I folded in a few real historical facts, but for The Moonlight Brigade, I went a bit more wild. Part of that is thanks to the hero, Mors. He's a wild character – the ultimate devil-may-care type – that far from being cautious about altering the course of human events, as a vampire ought to be, he'd launch himself right into the middle. You can't blame him, really. He's been around 2000 years and was general in the late Roman republic. He's not the sort to enjoy the quiet life.

As a young vampire, he stirs up fears in Rome that help spur the rise of Julius Caesar and the empire. There are a lot of reasons why the republic came apart, but historically we know that fear presages autocracy, so it stood to reason that one of those fears was vampires. The irony, of course was that the vampires didn't go away when Caesar became emperor.

It was also fun and easy to fold Mors into events like the Roman invasion of Britain – the place he would later call home; and the eighth-century siege of Constantinople. He was a natural fit in major events.

During World War II, he could still be brazen, but it was important that – while he's a consummate joker – he is serious as he assists the Allies in his own unique manner. I was very excited to give him the opportunity to interact with Mussolini at one point, even though the setting itself was of course fictional.

My absolute favorite blend of historical fact and the paranormal in The Moonlight Brigade came when Mors encountered Giulia, the leader of a small band of partisans. Although it's not one of the biggest stories of the war, many of the Italian partisans were women. Mussolini was very rigid about gender roles, which meant that a lot of women spent much of their time at home. Which gave them time to organize. While the partisan movement was not hugely active until after the Germans had taken over northern Italy in 1943, I saw no reason not to insert an Italian resistance to Fascism prior to that. Mors, ever the general, was eager to shape this resistance into an underground army – and they were just as eager to become that army. There are many photos of Italian women toting guns and living rough as they fought alongside men to liberate Italy. I found these photos highly inspiring as Mors and Giulia worked together. They prepare for the real invasion of Sicily…which took place at dawn.

The biggest and most exciting challenge with these books is the balance. My goal is always to be respectful of the real history and true to the fictional characters. It's those characters and their story which come first, so that sometimes absolute historical accuracy must give way (aside from the inaccuracy of there being vampires at all, of course – minor detail). I like to think that all my former history teachers understand.  

On Queries and Researching Agents

I made a TON of mistakes while querying my first novel. I have since learned from them and the results of my submissions for my current novel have much improved. I figured I'd share what I learned. Get your paper n' pen & hold on. You'll need em even more after reading this.
An important thing I learned is that the internet is almost a must if you are an aspiring author. And not just because many agencies now only take e-queries)
Oh, and if your manuscript is not complete and polished to its very best, QUIT READING NOW AND GET BACK TO WORK!

First off, perfect your query letter. If you think it is perfect, you are probably wrong. There are multiple sites and blog posts on how to write a proper query letter. There are some that show examples of good and bad ones including comments about what an agent loved or hated about a query. QueryShark is a great one! You can find a lot of info when you just Google "query."

Find people to critique your query: The best site I've found for this is Querytracker.net. You have to join to be able to post your query on their forum for people to critique, but joining is well worth it, for there are multitudes of other great resources on that site, which I will mention soon.

While working on that, it is time to research agents. QueryTracker and other such sites have vast online databases in which you can look up agencies based on genre. But DON'T stop there. It is a big waste of time for you and the agent to just willy-nilly pick agents off these lists and go straight to the email address listed to send a query. These databases almost always include a link to the agent's website. That's because you're supposed to check that first!

Take some time to study the agent's website: Don't just skim through the submission guidelines and then jump into "compose mail" in your email program. Agent websites are filled with priceless gems, including more specific info about what they are looking for, links to their blogs and recent interviews, and articles about perfecting your submission.

Research a prospective agent's clients: Besides the fact that it is important to know if an agent HAS published clients, it is very useful to know how close the books they rep will fit in with yours. When an agent says they rep Romance, that doesn't tell you enough. For example: An agent expressed interest in my previous novel, which would fit in with novels like Sherrilyn Kenyon or JR Ward. I'm not querying her with this one because it is more along the lines of Judith McNaught-meets-Virginia Henley-meets-Maggie Shayne.

Enter contests! Contests are not only a great credential if you win, but they are also a great opportunity to receive agent feedback. Many blogs, such as QueryTracker and Miss Snark's First Victim have them regularly.

I entered Miss Snark's First Victim Secret Agent contest last year with my previous project. Not only did I get great feedback from the agent, but when she was revealed, I discovered that she sounded like an excellent fit for my current novel. Needless to say, after further research she was bumped to the top of my query list.
And last January QueryTracker hosted a contest for romance, and that very agent was the judge! And.......I WON THIRD PLACE!!!! She read my material not only gave me great feedback, she also recommended me to 2 other agents.

Follow agent blogs and follow them on twitter: You really get to know agents as people as well as get priceless information on their response times, their pet peeves (Many hate the .docx format because it's a pain in the rear for them to convert) and valuable tidbits on the publishing industry. Many agents get together often on twitter to host an "#AskAgent" session. You can ask them anything but questions about queries. Follow that hashtag! (That’s the # sign)
But remember, for the love of God, DON'T PITCH YOUR NOVEL TO THEM ON THESE SITES! They hate that, and for good reason. Agents tweet and blog in their rare personal time and get their chance to be people. They don't want it ruined by some schmuck who can't follow the rules.

Be professional, courteous, and patient in your query as well as everywhere else online. Agents receive 100's of submissions a day. They also have to work with their existing manuscripts, pitch to editors, and attend conventions and conferences. And they somehow have families and personal lives, which I have no idea how they pull that off. Don't bug them EVER about the status of your query and only nudge on partials and fulls if you have waited long past the agent's stated response time.
As for your online presence, i.e. facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. Remember: AGENTS DO THEIR HOMEWORK TOO. If they Google you and see that you are posting rants whining about rejections or waiting time, they will likely hesitate to work with you. And if you tweet "Dude, I was so WASTED last night!" EVERY day, well, a few might frown on that too. Still, don't be too scared to be yourself. Agents do want to know who you are. And if they dislike you for your political leanings, spiritual beliefs, or sexual orientation, then they likely wouldn't be a good fit anyway. Still, it would be best to keep your bedroom habits and other too-personal details to yourself.

Handle rejection gracefully: First off, don't publicly rant about them and DON'T SEND ANGRY HATE MAIL! This will not do you any favors and will damage your chances at a writing career. I can't believe how many agents still get regular nasty letters. This is why they don't give personal rejections most of the time.
Rejections are not only depressing, but they can also be infuriatingly mysterious. One of the main reasons for rejection is when the author did not follow submission guidelines. Typos are another one (one time I revised my query with a kick-butt closing sentence- and then sent it off with 2 mistakes! I still garnered a request, but the agent said I almost blew it and I should have known better.)
If you rack up a lot of rejections with very few requests, it is likely a sign that you need to revise your query and/or your manuscript. And be sure to double check your revisions as I learned earlier.
A scary theory on some rejections: I don't know about you, but I have book cravings. Sometimes I want something dark and deep. Sometimes I want light and cheerful, other times I want a tough heroine and blood n 'gore. Maybe agents also have cravings and your submission didn't fit that day's craving. Of course, maybe some cosmic force helps with that to ensure you get the right one =) I can dream, you can't stop me.

Anyway, there is a lot more info on agents and valuable resources at your fingertips, so go out, do your homework and do your damn best to be sure that your submission is in the cream of the slush pile. Good luck to you all!

Between Drafts

If you'll kindly take a look at my progress bar, you'll see that I completed the rough draft of my contemporary romance: Solo Project For Two. W00000T!!!!


I follow Stephen King's advice to put a rough draft away for 4-6 weeks and work on something else. That something else shall be another round of revisions on the first two books in my paranormal series. I CAN'T WAIT to get back to my paranormals! This last was a contemporary but it wouldn't get out of my head so I had to write it.


I'll start with book 2 in AN IRONIC SACRIFICE since that progress bar has been sitting idle for months and I have pages of notes and tons of helpful beta crits to work with.


And speaking of crits, since I'll be in "editor mode" I'll be doing a few crits for some friends. I will also be catching up my social networking and hunting for paranormal guest posters. :) 


But this period won't be all work and no fun. I'm finally going to get to attack my giant TBR pile...and be lazy on the couch watching movies...and getting rowdy late at night on twitter. Oh, twitter, I've neglected you so. :( 


Then I'll get on rewriting the "Official" first draft and while that's off to the betas I'll work on rewriting book one. Then I get to do my research for book 3.


Hopefully by the time I finish the third draft of SOLO PROJECT FOR TWO, I'll get to begin the third book in my Brides of Prophecy series, already loosely titled: QUEEN OF PROPHECY.


What do you do between drafts?