Writers in the Storm

by Laura Drake
(Part 1 in a series - click here for Part 2 and Part 3)

You finish your book.  You type “The End.”  You edit, you revise, and you polish.

You’re done!  You dance, you gush.  You love the world.  In a few days, you come down from the high, clean the tulips from between your toes, and look ahead.

What the heck do I do now?

Who do I submit to?  How do I do that?

How do I keep track of it all?

First, don’t panic.  This isn’t brain surgery.  All you need is a couple of tools to succeed.

First: Business Panties. –

At work, when one of us doesn’t want to do something, we remind each other to put on our Big Girl Panties.  You must put on your business face.  I know, it feels like you’re putting your baby in a “most beautiful” contest, and Simon Cowell is the judge.

All the creativity and muse-courting won’t help you in this phase. In fact, I believe it’s why so many people hate, avoid, and fail the whole submittal process.  They don’t realize you use a whole different side of your brain for submitting than you did when you were creating the book.  So send your muse on a well-earned trip to Disneyland.  The skill set you can learn, but you’ll have to put aside the soft creative cocoon and switch to business mode.  Because this isn’t about what a heart-stopping novel you’ve written.  This is about business.  You have to look at this as you selling a product.

Sell?

If you’d wanted to do that, you’d have majored in marketing instead of taking all those English classes, right?  Wrong.  Who better to sell this?  You just spent a year or more of your life writing this book.  Who believes in it more than you?

“But I can’t sell!” you say.  “I couldn’t even make money on a lemonade stand when I was a kid.”  Do you have a husband?  Kids?  A job?  Have you ever convinced someone to do something your way?  Then you can sell.

Does the thought of pitching your book make your mouth dry and your hands shake?  Does even emailing a query make you queasy?  Me too.  Do it anyway.  As Oprah says, “Fake it ‘til you make it.”  You don’t have to be brave.  It’s okay to be afraid.  On the inside. 

Can you do this?  You can’t not do it -- because you want your book in print more than you’re afraid.  Otherwise you wouldn’t be still reading this! 

So put on your business panties and read on.

Submission Toolkit –

Writing the Query –

There is a ton of great info out on the internet, so I’m not going to try to write it better.  The best short explanation I’ve found comes from Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest in her query series, There Are No Rules.

THE 5 ELEMENTS OF A NOVEL QUERY
Every query should include these 5 elements (but not necessarily delivered in this order):

• Personalization (where you customize the letter for the recipient)
• What you're selling (genre/category, word count, title/subtitle)
• Hook (100-150 words is ideal)
• Bio (sometimes optional for uncredited fiction writers)
• Thank you & closing (plus any important notes)

What's in the very first paragraph of the query?
This varies from writer to writer, from project to project. You put your best foot forward—or you lead with your strongest selling point. This might involve:

• A referral from an existing client
• Met at a conference or pitch event (your material may or may not have been requested, but if your material WAS requested, you're not really writing a query anymore; you're writing a cover letter)
• Compelling hook that matches what an agent recently expressed interest in
• Personalized intro that smartly and genuinely identifies why your work is a good match for this particular agent or editor
• Excellent credentials or awards (e.g., MFA from a school that an agent is known to recruit clients from, first prize in a national competition with thousands of entrants, impressive publication credits with prestigious journal or New York publisher)

Many writers don't have referrals or conference meetings to fall back on, so usually the hook becomes the lead for the query letter.

Other writers start simple and direct, which is fine: "My [title] is an 80,000 supernatural romance."

Does personalization really make a difference?
Yes, if it's done well. If you're vague in your personalization (faking it), then you'll appear insincere or lazy.

Remember, your query is a sales tool, and good salespeople develop a rapport with the people they want to sell, and show that they understand their needs. Show that you've done your homework, show that you care, and show that you're not blasting indiscriminately.

So write that query.  Polish it all shiny.  Read it out loud for awkward sentences.  Then read it to everyone who will sit long enough to listen.  They’re probably going to say they love it.  Watch their faces.  Dig deeper to what they’re not saying because they don’t want to hurt your feelings.  These are your potential readers, and if they’re not captivated by your query, an agent sure isn’t going to be.

Remind yourself that this is not a feel-good exercise.  You get one shot at this.  You may have written the next Pulitzer Prize winner, but that year of work counts for nothing if your query doesn’t hook an agent.  They’ll never read it!  I make the case that this is THE most important thing you’ve ever written, so make every word golden.

Next Up: Where to find an agent, and how to approach them (without scaring them!)

by Jenny Hansen / @jhansenwrites
(Part 3 in a series of Twitter blogs – click here for Part 1 and Part 2)

At my February writers meeting, we heard Laura Drake (@PBRWriter) talk on getting an agent and Robyn Carr talk about her amazing and varied writing career. While they were both awesome speakers who taught me a ton, I was surprised that the topic with the most buzz at the meeting was Twitter (and it wasn’t all favorable).

As I’m sure you know by now, I’m madly in love with the site so it was disconcerting to see several grimaces and hear scads of complaints. The most common were:

“I like Facebook.”
“I just can’t do that 140 character thing.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“Twitter is a pain… (I’ll leave the end of that sentence off…you get the picture.)

I’ve been working to get some converts. Between this blog series on Twitter and some one-on-one coaching, I think I’m gaining on the naysayers (a little). Still, the only time I saw excitement was when I asked Robyn Carr her Twitter name and Followed her from my phone.

It was at the end of the meeting and there were 4-5 people around us, waiting to speak with her when she answered that she was @RCarrWrites. I had my phone ready for her (see list of commands below) so I just confirmed her username spelling and hit Send to follow her. The small crowd immediately erupted.

“I wish my phone would do that,” three people said it in unison.
“Your phone WILL do that,” I said.
“No, I don’t have Internet” and “I don’t know how” were the responses.

I’ll explain here, in orderly steps, what I explained to my writing buddies that Saturday.

You don’t need internet or a cool app on your phone to use Twitter. You just need a phone plan that includes texting.

You must first register your phone with Twitter – you can do this with any phone that has standard SMS texting (all messaging rates on your phone plan will apply. Most plans, like mine, will have Unlimited Text).

To Register Your Phone:

1. Be sure you are logged into Twitter
2. Click on your Username (upper right corner of the screen where your picture is)
3. Choose Settings from the drop down menu
4. Click on Mobile in the bar at the top of the screen

Once you put in your phone number, you will be asked to authenticate that it is really you (via a text to your phone that you will reply to). You also have additional options you may check off such as letting others find you in Twitter by using your phone number and receiving text messages when people mention or reply to your tweets. I have found that allowing these text message notifications keeps me very up to date with what is going on with my Twitter account, with very minimal effort on my part.

Note: If you are a light sleeper, I urge you to check the option near the bottom of the screen that allows you to turn off updates during certain hours. There is nothing worse than being woken up by text messages all night if you need to keep your phone on for work or family.

You must hit the Save button at the bottom of the Mobile screen to save these settings. You may now tweet from anywhere, whether you have internet access on your phone or not.

Last but not least, I have included the list of commands you can use to tweet from your phone below – these are also listed on the right side of the Mobile page in your Twitter settings. Remember, that you send all Twitter texts to 40404. I highly recommend that you save this number as a contact called "Twitter" in your phone.

FOLLOW username - Start following a user
UNFOLLOW username - Stop following a user
ON/OFF - Turn all Tweet notifications on or off
ON/OFF username - Set Tweet notifications for a user on or off (you'll still be following them even if you set it to off)

GET username - Shows you the latest tweet from any user
RT username - Retweet a user's latest tweet
FAV username - Favorite a user's latest tweet
D username your-message - Send a direct message to a user
(Use extreme caution when sending direct messages (DM’s) from your phone – if you leave off the D, you will have just sent your private message out into the Twitterverse. Phrase your DM’s accordingly, to avoid potential embarrassment. Note: You can only DM people who follow you.)

 Another easy way to get people's tweets delivered to your phone is to click the phone icon on a user's profile page or on your followers page. As long as you registered your phone first, you will immediately begin receiving texts with tweets from this user.

If you want to find more excellent resources on Twitter, please check out the Twitter Tuesday series on Kristen Lamb’s blog or read this great post by marketing expert, Penny Sansevieri on The Real Secret to Twitter. You can’t go wrong with either of these ladies' blogs or books.

My last gift to you is Chris Brogan’s 50 Power Twitter Tips (he’s @chrisbrogan, by the way). They’re all useful but I’m partial to the first ten, especially #3.

What’s your favorite?

by Jenny Hansen / @jhansenwrites
(Part 2 in a series of Twitter blogs – click here for Part 1)

 To hashtag or not to hashtag…that is the question. If you are new to Twitter, you might not understand that question yet. Listen up, all you non-taggers, because the amazing hashtag is going to help you get more out of Twitter. The hashtag, also known as the pound sign or crosshatch (#), is a grouping or searching tool you can use in your Twitter posts. 

When you tweet, only your immediate followers see you…unless you put a subject specific hashtag in your tweet that describes your topic. This hashtag will include your tweet in the ongoing chat stream that people on Twitter follow. When I tweet this blog, I’ll probably add #writing and #amwriting on the end of the post since those are two searches that I’ve created columns for in TweetDeck (this app is discussed in the next Twitter blog).

Let’s put this hashtagging business into perspective:

If your followers see your tweet, that is a wonderful thing. These are your Followers, your Tweeties, your peeps who think you have something valuable to say. It’s like your local lemonade stand where everyone on your block walks by, chats and gives you a quarter for a cool beverage. It’s a groovy, fuzzy thing and you’ll probably pay off your lemonade ingredients.

By adding a hashtag (#LemonadeStand for example) to the post, you and your little stand will be on the Twitter equivalent of Google or Bing, searchable to all the world, or at least all of the world that is so interested in lemonade stands that they follow the chat stream for #LemonadeStand.

Your local little tweet becomes part of a global “scene” with the hashtag. If you write to share your thoughts with the world, this is heady indeed. It is also informative.

Last week, I had Twitter open during lunch, just eating and watching the feed from the people I follow. Out of the corner of my eye I saw @MargaretAtwood and tuned in. There on the screen was “Interview at 1 pm with @MargaretAtwood. Go to #followreader to tune in.” All I had to do was click the #followreader hyperlink and I was watching a live interview with, as one of the other followers said, “Margaret Freaking Atwood. OMG!”  She is a long-time favorite of mine and it was a shot of adrenaline to see her answer questions from her fans, live and in color. 

The experience was amazing and way better than a crowded conference hall where you have to leave your seat and walk over to an open mic to ask a question. For this Twitter chat, we could ask her any question we wanted and, as long as we put #followreader on the end, it showed up for everyone in the chat (including Margaret Freaking Atwood!). The same goes for the #AskEditor chat the second Friday of each month at 3 pm EST. Editors abound, waiting for YOUR question. (I expect to see all of you hanging with the editors the next #AskEditor Friday, OK?)

Isn’t one of the huge draws of Twitter the ability to interact with people all over the world who you’d never be able to meet or get near otherwise? Though I think there is some narcissism at play in Twitter’s astounding popularity, I think the real excitement is the sense of community and the depth of knowledge that’s available. The hashtag will help enhance the experience for you, I promise.

It is interesting to note that the hashtag was not originally built into Twitter. The workers, particularly Chris Messina, wanted it but the management didn’t. They thought it looked too geeky. Many of the program’s features come from IRC (Internet Relay Chat), which was almost twenty years old at the time, and the hash mark has its roots there too. It’s surprising that a technology group was worried about the nerd factor. Still, the users wanted the “channel” feature and just organically began to use it. Twitter has in many ways been driven and defined by its user community which is, in my humble opinion, part of its charm.

For a great resource on Twitter (and social media and branding), I recommend that you visit Kristen Lamb’s blog and read all of her Twitter Tuesdays posts – TT #2 deals with hashtags and delves a bit deeper on some of the topics here.

If you would like to see a list of popular hashtags, go to one of the following sites:

• Specific to writers: http://www.dailywritingtips.com/40-twitter-hashtags-for-writers/
• http://tagal.us/ is working hard to be the dictionary on hashtags. It is a cool site and worth looking at since a list of tags drops down as you type and the hashtag definition shows in the search results.

Please feel free to add any other hashtag references or sites into the comments section below. We’re interested to hear what your favorites are.

In the meantime, enjoy some new Twitter functionality. Happy writing!