Category Archives: Stacey

December 12, 2012   Stacey   articles, book ideas, Stacey  
3

Women take note and start reading

Late one night, I was online and came across a link to a Huffington Post piece someone had tweeted about. I followed the link and it took me to this amazing compilation of articles written by, about, and for women in 2012. It’s an eclectic list, covering a broad range of topics (although weight issues and body image seem to be an overly recurring theme). I had read some, heard about others, and a few were introduced for the first time. It struck me while checking out these pieces how many had direct connections to books. Some of them are written by published authors, and others are the basis for upcoming books.

Many are compelling, most well done (some very well done) and worth your time. I really enjoyed Emily Rapp’s piece, as well as the clever review of Tiny Beautiful Things by Anna Holmes, and Jessica Valenti’s piece about women’s desire to be liked. She also links to an upcoming book by Facebook senior exec Sheryl Sandberg, someone I’m so happy to see writing a book for women in the workplace – I talked about how great it would be for her to write a book years ago. And as a mom of daughters, I thought Jennifer Weiner’s piece addressed some important cultural issues about body image that are worth further exploration.

After you’ve taken a look, do you think there there articles here that you feel you’d like to see broadened to book length? I often look to articles for book inspiration, and this list makes me glad to do so. I read some of these articles into the night, and there were a couple that had a real emotional impact.

Good writing is infectious and makes you want to find more of it. These articles exemplify that. I love reading about women’s issues, our struggles, and our hopes for a better world. It makes me want to work harder to find important books that will change lives and inspire. Enjoy these pieces and let us know which ones affected you.

 

November 28, 2012   Stacey   fun, gift books, holidays, Stacey  
3

Creative ways to give books

Every year around now, I panic over the zillions of gifts I have to get for those in my life. As my kids get bigger and involved in more activities, the list gets longer and more elaborate. And I find myself struggling to figure out what to get that hits the right notes of personal, practical, fun and won’t break the bank when I have to buy 20 of them.

I saw this piece in PW about the solid start to the holiday buying season, and it got me thinking of books and ways in which they can be included as holiday gifts. Since I work in book publishing, I try to support the industry by buying books this time of year, hard copies, and giving them as gifts. Last month at the Scholastic Book Fair in my town, I bought a wide array of books for the class, books for the kids, and a Harry Potter paperback box set for me (which I hope to start with the kids one of these days)! A percentage of sales went back to the school, so it’s a win-win.

I admit I sometimes give my own clients’ books if I’m particularly excited about a title and have multiple copies on hand. I always try to pair the book with something else – a craft book with something crafty, a cookbook with a kitchen utensil, or in some cases whatever I have left over from last year’s stash. Just kidding, sort of. What book works with a pretty soap and lotion set?

If you have any great ideas for giving books as special, fun, or different holiday gifts, please share. And which books are on the top of your list to give this year? The more we support the book business, the better off we’ll all be for it. Happy holidays, and happy book shopping!

November 16, 2012   Stacey   advice, creativity, motivation, Stacey, writing  
1

A pep talk for writers

It’s been a long, challenging couple of weeks around these parts. Most talk has centered on storms, power, snow, water damage, trees down and the like. But thankfully we’re also getting back to business. The normalcy of daily activities is a welcome change.

So it seems like a good time to reflect and think about what makes us tick, and what makes us better. I came across this post from writersdigest.com that speaks to what bestselling writers do differently than others. These ideas apply to other areas of life too, and certainly to a writing life. I like the line: “Genius is seeing the inevitable before everyone else, the possibilities before it’s even a consideration.” Reminders to stay focused, pay attention to the world around you, beat resistance, keep working even when it hurts, and use every rejection as an opportunity are always useful.

So as we return to our regular lives and start thinking ahead to Thanksgiving and the holidays, take some time to reflect on your life, your passion, your work, and what you can do to make it the best it can be. Sometimes it’s just a little something each day that makes you feel good. Remember to try to enjoy the process too. Difficult as it may be, we are all doing the best we can despite the unanticipated obstacles that sometimes and inevitably get in the way.

October 18, 2012   Stacey   advice, cookbooks and food writing, middle grade, nonfiction, Stacey, what we're looking for, why I signed up, why we are agents, writing  
4

Stacey Glick interview at Writer’s Digest

It’s been a while since I wrote about the kinds of projects I’m looking for, and since I answer that question and many others in an interview I did that was recently published on writersdigest.com, I thought it would be nice to share it with our loyal blog readers.

The interview goes into some detail on my background, my list, and my thoughts on many different aspects of the market, where it is now, and where it is going.

I thought Ricki’s questions were really targeted to my interests and as a result we managed to squeeze a lot of information into a fairly brief interview.

I hope it’s useful to anyone reading, and if I didn’t answer all of your questions or you have others you’d like to ask, ask away and I will do my best to respond to each and every one. Promise! Enjoy.

October 04, 2012   Stacey   advice, community, Stacey, writing  
0

We’re all in it together

I’ve talked before about writers being part of a wonderful, tight knit community. There is certainly something therapeutic for many writers about the fine art of writing, but for most, it’s not nearly enough and they want to find an audience for their work.

Nick Morgan from forbes.com talks about the similarities between Harvard Business Publishing and Harlequin, two houses that have vastly different lists. But in many ways, according to Morgan, their business model is similar. Build a community and find readers by marketing directly to that community.

It’s not novel, and he doesn’t talk much about Harvard, but he does shed some light about the things that Harlequin is doing (and much of it they’ve always done) to build real relationships with its readers. A Harlequin rep even talks about creating a place where “friendship can grow”. And seeking out the places where their readers go. I love the example of how decades ago, they put books in groceries stores because that’s where women were.

It’s so important to remember that while writing and reading are often solitary endeavors, it’s what happens next that connects us all. So, keep writing, keep reading, and keep connecting with other members of those communities and building the strong bonds that allow us to share the collective experience of reading.

September 19, 2012   Stacey   advice, creativity, fun, problem solving, Stacey, writing  
6

Boot camp for writers

I love sharing stories about writers who make time to write despite busy, stressful and overscheduled lives. I wonder what people complained about generations ago—being bored (like my kids, if they only knew how good they have it now)?

I’ve written about this topic before, and this piece from author Judy Christie via Writers Digest cracked me up because I just think it’s so relatable. We all struggle sometimes to motivate when there are so many distractions, and I’ve never actually timed how much of each day I spend working versus other stuff, some of which constitutes work and some of which certainly does not. Setting a timer and doing it boot camp style sounds so over the top, but in a good way. No pain, no gain!

So, take the advice, writers and get to writing, in whatever way feels right for you. Personally, I want to hire Judy Christie to set me on track and get that timer ringing in my ear. I wonder how long it would take me to get into shape!

What do you do to quantify your time spent writing? And what do you consider to be a successful day? Most people don’t set kitchen timers, I’d bet, but I hope a few of you will give it a try and let me know how it goes. I bet you’ll be a lot more productive for it.

September 05, 2012   Stacey   advice, organizing, Stacey, writing  
12

Confessions of a digital hoarder

Years ago I represented a memoir by a man writing about his mother who had a habit of stealing rocks from famous places around the world. Think Stonehenge. She was a compulsive collector of things, and might today be described as a hoarder. This is a topic of interest, as evidenced by a book Jane represented called The Secret Lives of Hoarders by Matt Paxton, as well as the successful TLC show Hoarding: Buried Alive.

I was intrigued by this recent piece in a Publisher’s Weekly blog by Barbara Vey that talks about digital hoarding. We are all immersed in technology, even those of us who fight against it, and it does threaten at times to take over our life (my client Dr. Larry Rosen talks about these things in his books like iDisorder about the “psychology of technology”).

Just last night, I was trying to share pictures from our vacation in Maine and was so frustrated that we have over 11,000 pictures on our new computer and no way to easily organize them. At last glance, I had over 50,000 e-mails in my in-box!

So, how do you writers handle digital storage when you’re writing? Do you save each draft of a novel, or just the current one? Do you organize by book so you have all your drafts and notes in one place? Do you back it up so you don’t risk deleting or losing your work? I imagine that this is a fear that keeps many writers up at night, the thought of losing your life’s work! And how does it all compare to the days of writing by hand? I recently talked about writers who still work that way, hard copies only, which can lead to a whole other kind of hoarding, not to mention all those trees that give their life for the paper trail.

Please do share your thoughts on digital hoarding, as well as any suggestions you have on  organizing your work electronically to avoid it. I, for one, could use some advice!

August 22, 2012   Stacey   bestsellers, opinion, our clients, queries, Stacey, YA  
10

Where are all the guys in YA?

Following up on Miriam’s recent post about writers’ groups being comprised of mostly women, I came upon this piece in The Atlantic about female authors dominating the YA market. It discusses how NPR Books this summer had fans choose the 100 Best-Ever Teen Books and of the 235 books being considered for the list, 147 (63%) were written by women.

Certainly there are many bestselling male authors across all categories, but I think it’s fair to say that the YA market is dominated by female authors. We all know that many of the biggest books and series of the past decade were written by women, including, as the piece points out: Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and the Twilight books. Each of these series went on to attract a large fan base that included boys and girls, and women and men, one of the reasons they were able to achieve such huge success. The movies didn’t hurt either.

In our own DGLM stable, we have a handful of male YA authors, including the bestselling James Dashner, Geoff Herbach, Andrew Smith, Danny Marks, and Shandy Lawson, but collectively the majority of our other YA authors are women (all of mine are), which confirms the theory based at least on our small sampling. And when I think about the queries I receive for YA, they are usually from women.

So I’m curious why this is. Is it that women read more YA fiction? Is there, as some suggest, the element of nostalgia for women remembering their teen years? Would you like to see more YA fiction from men? Or does it not make a difference who’s writing the books you read? Share your thoughts, and I’d love to start seeing more YA queries from men! (ps-this is my last post until after Labor Day, so enjoy the last few days of summer!)

August 08, 2012   Stacey   advice, editing, grammar, Stacey, words, writing  
15

Which or that and other gripes about grammar

The question of “which” versus “that” came up when I drafted my last blog post and the person editing my post took a stab at which one she thought it should be but then suggested I double check. Here’s the sentence: Aimee Bender, the talented author of most recently The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, has this enlightening piece in the latest O Magazine that talks about her decision to create a writing contract with a friend that would allow for each of them to maintain certain very specific writing rules complete with confirmation e-mails that each had stuck to their previously agreed-to commitments.

What do you think it is? I was happy to come upon this article about the subject in a recent writersdigest.com piece, and I thought it was a useful topic to cover since it’s a common challenge to get right, and like the questioner, I think many people do feel the two words are interchangeable. The explanation given here by Brian Klems is clear and anecdotal, making it easy to digest. Based on his advice, I’d say we got it right in my blog post (thanks, Rachel!).

I started digging around to read more about common grammatical mistakes, and came across this fun and snarky piece from litreactor.com that highlights the 20 most common grammatical errors (or word usage mistakes, as many of them are, and happy to say Which and That is right at the top). And I’d like to add to the list “I” and “me” — how often do you hear someone say “Between you and I” which should be “Between you and me”?

What’s your biggest grammar pet peeve? Is there a grammatical faux pas that drives you crazy? Oh, there are so many. Please share with us some of your favorite grammar gripes.

July 25, 2012   Stacey   advice, creativity, Stacey, suggestions, timing, writing  
5

A contract for creativity

I minored in psychology in college, and I’m a huge fan of anything that makes me feel more organized, more in control, and better able to manage the 10,000 things I have to do all the time. Lists help a lot, as do deadlines, but what about creating a self-imposed contract? An intriguing idea.

Aimee Bender, the talented author of most recently The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, has this enlightening piece in the latest O Magazine that talks about her decision to create a writing contract with a friend that would allow for each of them to maintain certain very specific writing rules complete with confirmation e-mails that each had stuck to their previously agreed-to commitments. I love her line about the parallels between writing and psychology: “Although psychotherapy and writing are distinct in many ways, they are two fields whose great resource is the vast plains of the unconscious mind and how this landscape gets translated into words.” So true.

For many writers, the ability to work in solitude is both liberating and daunting. Sometimes it’s hard to motivate when there isn’t anyone there to encourage you. And when you’re feeling a spell of procrastination coming on, the water cooler at work is a good way to get a few minutes of down time before heading back to the task at hand. When you work alone, you don’t have that luxury, and when the Internet in many cases  is your sole companion, it becomes way too easy to get sucked into an unproductive cycle. Then again, you can get sucked in anywhere really, but that’s another story (see my recent post about technology).

A contract makes you accountable for your own time and how you spend it. When you commit to writing for a certain period of time each day, or 5 days a week, or whatever works for your own life and schedule, it allows you the time to breathe outside of that without the nagging feeling of always feeling like you should be doing more.

What do you think about this for your own writing, and would you consider doing it? Would you want to team up with a partner to check that you are meeting your contractual obligations? Let us know what you think, and if you’d be willing to experiment and give it a try. I suspect the act of creating the contract alone would make you feel more in control, more motivated, and more productive.

 

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