Category Archives: suggestions

June 09, 2011   Michael   fun, music, recommendations, suggestions, writing  
31

Music on the brain

I go through phases of working with music on in the background. I’m currently in a music-all-the-time phase, rotating through Holy Ghost!, Foster the People, The Sounds, and some Hall & Oates (their greatest hits was on sale!). I find that depending on my mood, having music on can keep me extremely focused, blocking out the background noise and honing my attention. (The only issue is that I obviously turn the music off for calls, and I find myself forgetting to press play when the call is over!) Other times, I find it terribly distracting, and I will work for weeks without any music at all.

I know that authors all work in different ways, and I’m curious to know if you all write with music going. Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what do you listen to? And are you headphone or speakers people? (And anyone I should be listening to?)

May 31, 2011   Stephanie   fun, lists, reading, Stephanie, suggestions  
8

Summer reading

I have to echo John in hoping that everyone had a nice Memorial Day weekend! There’s just something about a three-day weekend that really recharges things. And who can begrudge the unofficial start of summer. In true form, I managed to give myself my annual Awkward Uneven Starter Sunburn—yes, annual—so it looks like things are off to a solid start!

Aside from vacations and warm weather and sunburns, the best part of summer is the ubiquitous summer reading list. I’m a sucker for a good beach read, so I’m on the lookout for a bunch of new titles I can put aside for my summertime reading. I thought I’d also share this list from Entertainment Weekly of eighteen books they recommend for the summer. For myself, there are a few titles I’m interested in reading: Aimee Bender’s The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle, and Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall, to name a few. There are also a couple of series I’ve been meaning to dive into.

How about you? In contrast to Lauren’s post from last week, I want to know what YOU plan to read this summer. Are there certain titles that have been sitting on your shelf (or that you’ve been meaning to purchase) that you hope to finally pick up? Or maybe you plan to revisit a classic? Let me know!

May 27, 2011   Lauren   fun, Lauren, reading, suggestions  
5

A sunny Friday afternoon

So as you all know from reading the blog all week, BEA has just wrapped up, which means I’ve spent most of my week at the Javits Center.  Happily, I spent much of that in the one room in the place that’s sunny:  the International Rights Center.  It’s an unoriginal thought to be sure, but it remains surprising that a building made of glass has so little natural light.  Of course that also means that I have about a thousand (give or take) unanswered emails to take care of, and that’s before I even contemplate doing the follow up from my meetings, so time is a touch on the short side today.

It’s also short because today marks the return of publishing’s greatest tradition since the death of the three-martini lunch:  summer Fridays.  That hallelujah chorus of angels you hear is all the people in NY publishing frolicking in the sunshine having left their offices at 1.  I’ll be joining them as soon as I clear my inbox and desk of the appalling number of contracts that piled up while I was out (I know: good problem to have!).  One of my favorite things to do of a summer Friday is head home, ride my bike to Prospect Park or Coney Island, and read a book from cover to cover in the sunshine before meeting up with some friends for al fresco dining and drinks.  If you’ve never been in NY in the summer (and can handle a pedestrian city with humidity issues), it’s really the most glorious place.  Sunshine, warmth, free movies in the parks, and outdoor margaritas really bring out the best in us, and the transition from dreary winter through rainy spring to gorgeous summer is the best time of year to find people who aren’t wondering why on earth they live here.  It also helps that summer means getting out of town, and there is no time a New Yorker more loves New York than when he or she is just coming back from being somewhere else.

So in the interest of actually getting out of here before sundown so I can welcome the summer Friday back into my life, I’m asking you to do the heavy lifting for me:  what should I read, guys?  I’m looking for books that are fun, light, and not so dense that being distracted by a cool breeze will make me forget what happened on the last page.  Fiction or nonfiction, YA or adult, virtually any category will do!  I just need something that I can and would want to read in one sitting that will fill me with joy rather than ennui.  Books about death or intractable political conflict are best for rainy days, I find.

May 10, 2011   Stephanie   advice, authors, optimism, Stephanie, suggestions, writing  
3

Try, try again

There’s a reason for the saying “practice makes perfect.” Nobody ever said “just try it once, it’ll probably work out.” So it’s no surprise that the same goes for publishing. Because for the most part, almost no writer gets their first book published. In fact, with very few exceptions, first-time authors have quite a few books written, sitting on a shelf or hard drive perhaps, by the time they sign that contract.

There are several reasons why this is a good thing. And today I wanted to link to this blog post by Rachelle Gardner from one of my favorite agent blogs, Rants & Ramblings, to help explain why. I think what Rachelle says makes perfect sense—the writing process undoubtedly teaches a considerable amount about what works and what doesn’t. And beyond the business aspect of her argument, up-and-coming writers can only benefit from spending as much time as possible exposing themselves to the craft.  One of the best things for aspiring authors to remember is to not only write every day, but also read every book they can get their hands on. Improved skills can only improve those chances.

How about you? Do you fall into this category of having multiple manuscripts floating around, whether in your head or on paper?

April 26, 2011   John   advice, editor/agent lunches, John, opinion, suggestions, thrillers, writing, YA  
4

Background Fails

Today I want to talk about my current editorial fixation: Background. I had lunch yesterday with one of the top thriller/mystery editors in the biz, and at one point we compared notes on what works in his market and what I found worked in YA. In both genres, the answer was pretty simple: Plot rules, background fails.

Over dessert (I know, we were naughty), we both lamented the submission we see and reject over and over: the one that opens with a big, slam-bang action scene followed by about 50 pages of background before anything equally exciting happens again. Generally, that background takes three overlapping forms: backstory about the characters, description of the setting, and sharing of research. And usually, you can tell from the tone that the writer feels this background is very, very important to your understanding of the opening scene.

But really, 50 pages? There’s a reason why it’s called a thriller—it’s supposed to thrill you with an exciting plot. Why do we need to know a character’s personal history if that character isn’t really doing anything? Why paint a beautiful atmospheric picture of the Florida everglades if nothing actually happens there? Why describe in detail how a jet fighter works if it doesn’t get off the ground? Where’s the thrill in that?

Some say you start with a bang then slow the tempo so you have room to build—I say, why not keep up the tempo and build higher? After that big opening murder, I’d much rather watch the killer run and the detective chase than learn about the killer’s sad childhood and how the detective’s wife left him. In other words, let me know the characters by being shown (hint, hint) what they do than being told (get it yet?) who they are.

Here’s a little exercise I learned at a writer’s conference: take a look at your first 50 pages and cut any and all background material you find there. Then, either connect what’s left to the rest of the plot, or fill out the story with action scenes. I have a sneaking suspicion that not only will your manuscript be more gripping and fast-paced—thrilling, even—but that when you go back to fill in the background, you’ll find you it barely even miss it.

April 11, 2011   Jane   Jane, reading, suggestions  
8

The importance of reading…even for us!

Recently, I was looking to see what my son’s schedule was going to be at the end of his college semester (he is in the second term of his freshman year at the University of Michigan) and I saw that he had a reading week before his final exams. “A reading week,” I thought, “what a wonderful idea.”

As agents, we are so busy reading proposals and manuscripts from clients and prospective clients, as well as trade articles for our information and education that we simply lose perspective on what else is going on out there in the world. But, during our work weeks—and I tend to work until 10:30 every night at least—there is simply no time for anything else.

And so, I have decided to take a reading week this week in order to read for pure pleasure. Ironically, the first thing I am reading is a manuscript from a client’s soon to be published book, and I am just loving every minute of it. Next, I plan to finish this month’s DGLM book club book, THE FINKLER QUESTION, then it’s on to Vanity Fair and, after that, I am just not sure.

I wonder if any of you have recommendations for other fiction I might read during my reading week. And, what would you choose to read if you were to do what I am doing?

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