Category: Publishing

The Most Important Paragraph of a Query Letter

by Maria

Desktop-and-flowers

Query letters are not fun for anyone. Writers hate writing them, and agents are so inundated with them that it can be hard to churn through the onslaught, day in and day out. But as with most painful things in life, they are necessary and unavoidable. A query letter is still the best way to concisely tell agents who you are and why your book is exciting.

Everyone has a different system for reviewing and processing queries—some agents automatically route them to a query inbox and review them en masse, while others only review projects that have made it past the first barrier of assistants.

My method is probably a little weird. I have all queries sent to my main inbox, and I try to review and file every last one of them by the end of the day. This works for me for two reasons: 1. I am a little OCD about keeping my inbox manageable and filing things correctly; and 2. It means I never have a fantastic project languishing in a rarely-checked inbox for months.

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Read, Eat, Drink: Overcoming Distraction, Homemade Ravioli, and a Sage Cocktail

by Maria

Read:

Last week I was thinking about the themes that ran through my list of the 9 Books That Will Make You a Better Writer, and I realized that one of the things that attracted me to those particular books was the way many of the authors dealt with the issue of writing and mental fortitude. The two are so intertwined and so crucial to success. As Betsey Lerner writes in The Forest for the Trees, “There is no stage of the writing process that doesn’t challenge every aspect of a writer’s personality. How well writers deal with those challenges can be critical to their survival.”

As I wrote about here, procrastination is one of the biggest mental roadblocks that holds writers back from creating books and building audiences. It’s a lesson we have to learn again and again–how to step away from all the noise and create space for productivity. I love that Leo Babuata of Zen Habits is so honest and helpful about this–he calls himself a distraction addict, and I think it’s safe to say that most of us are just as hooked on pop-up windows and scrolling news streams as he is. As he writes:

Distractions, of course, are often about the fear of missing out. We can’t possibly take part in every cool thing that everyone else is doing, but we also don’t want to miss out on any of it. So we look online for what’s going on, what other people are doing and saying, what’s hot. None of that actually matters. What matters is being content, doing things that make people’s lives better, learning, being compassionate, helping. So let’s let go of what we’re missing out on, and focus on the difference we want to make in the world.

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9 Books That Will Make You a Better Writer

by Maria

craft writing books to make you a better writer

Today I’m over on Bustle Books, sharing a list of my favorite books on writing and publishing. I think that, all too often, aspiring authors overlook craft books, thinking that it’s more worthwhile to read within your genre and soak up the style and form of someone else’s writing.

But there’s so much more to honing your craft than reading good books. There are underlying principles to all good writing, regardless of the genre, and it can take an entire lifetime to not only identify them, but execute them well. And who the heck has that much time? Especially with all the added pressure these days for authors to network, use social media, and build platforms.

So think of these books as your shortcut to learning the ins and outs of writing. Each of them is a master class in everything from decluttering your prose, to conquering procrastination, to building a platform, to plain old staying sane.

Read the full article here to see which books I think are essential for writers!

2 Types of Flawed Thinking That Are Getting in the Way of Landing a Book Deal

by Maria
how to get a book deal
thought patterns that hold you back

I was thinking about the last batch of queries I caught up on last week, and I was trying to pinpoint why I passed on so many of the nonfiction projects.

On the surface, it’s easy to quantify the most common reason for passing—around 350 of the approximately 500 rejection letters I sent were because the author’s platform wasn’t strong enough yet.

The “yet” is the crucial part of this. I was so happy to see so many well-written queries and proposals with sound market research, unique concepts, and strong sample material. But when I looked at the marketing and publicity section, there were too many instances of “I will do this…” rather than “I have already done this.”

Which leads me to believe that the deeper issue is more about timing and perspective than hard numbers. I think two things are happening:

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