Select a page
      Choose Category
      RSS Feed Subscribe to email

      Category : Career

      • March 2, 2015

        It's "Ask an Agent" time!

        by

        I’ve got a new book coming out very soon — How can I find an agent? (and 101 other questions asked by writers). In celebration of that, I thought we’d take the month of March and just answer the agent questions you’ve got. So if there’s something you’ve always wanted to run by a literary agent, this is your chance. Drop a note in the “comments” section, or send me an email at Chip (at) MacGregor Literary (dot) com. I’ll try to get to as many questions as I can. So let’s get started with some of the questions people have already sent in…

        A friend wrote to say, “I’ve noticed that agents at conferences will list several genres they’re interested in, but rarely see any specifications about the exact type of books that interest them. I write YA – can I pitch them ANY YA novel?”

         

        The conference often asks agents to briefly list what we’re looking for. They usually don’t give us room to offer a lot of detail. So, for example, I represent romance novels, but there are some areas of romance I don’t really work with (paranormal, for example). There’s no method for offering much beyond a quick description, so I’m always happy to talk with any romance writer who stops by, and will try to help or steer him or her in the right direction, if I can. From my perspective, if an agent says he or she represents YA, then set up an appointment to go talk through your project and ask questions.

         

        This came in on my Facebook page: “How do I get what’s in my head onto paper in a way that will grab the reader’s attention?”

         

        Great voice… and that’s easier said than done. I’ve never been sure if we can teach an author how to have great voice. We can help writers improve, help them use better

        Continue Reading "It's "Ask an Agent" time!"

      • February 26, 2015

        Thursdays with Amanda: Is Your Nonfiction Book Idea Viable?

        by

        Amanda LuedekeAmanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        When I first met Chip, we were working at a college (me in admissions and he as a visiting professor). I had a BA in writing and a love for books, so naturally, I pitched him some ideas. I mean, why not?!

        I’ll never forget his reaction to the only nonfiction book I ever ran by him…

        Now mind you, I had this GREAT book idea. I was in the midst of planning my wedding, and I was super inspired by this strong desire I had to make my wedding feel like me. What did that mean? It meant embracing the traditions that fit, while ignoring the ones that didn’t–and replacing them with things that were more Amanda & Tad and less standard wedding.

        This whole concept exploded in my mind. I mean, what if you have two sports-lovers getting married?! They could plan their wedding around a particular sports event and have a reception in which they serve wings and beer while watching the game! Or what if the couple is really into theatre? They could do a murder mystery reception that is super interactive and even includes clues from the invitations and programs!

        I went crazy. I started jotting things down and obsessing and then one day I casually pitched my wedding planning book idea to Chip. (And when I say casually I mean totally on the fly…you may as well envision us walking through campus and me dropping this bomb on him. Poor guy.)

        And you know what he said?

        He said no.

        He said

        Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Is Your Nonfiction Book Idea Viable?"

      • February 23, 2015

        Ask the Agent: Should I write for a specific publisher?

        by

        Questions from around the world today, in our International Version of Ask the Agent…

        Someone from the UK wrote in to ask me, “Should I write my proposal for a specific publisher? I was at a conference recently and an agent suggested we identify and target one publishing house for our manuscripts. Do you agree?” 

        I think that’s one way for a category writer to get ahead of most other writers who are submitting proposals. If you research a publisher, you can often find out things like the word count they want, the types of stories they prefer, the topics that interest or don’t interest them, etc. That allows you to shape your proposal specifically for the publisher. That may not work for literary fiction, but it certainly helps with romances, romantic suspense, thrillers, historical romances, cozy mysteries, westerns, and other “category” lines.

        Someone from New Zealand (I just thought it was cool that someone in New Zealand was sending me a question) asked, “When I’m sending a query to an agent, should I tell him or her that this is a series?” 

        The answer probably depends on the series. It’s always easier to sell one book than to sell a series, just as it’s easier to sell one car than a fleet of cars. But at the same time a publisher will often want to know if your novel idea, if successful, could be turned into a series of stories. So don’t pitch the series — pitch the book, but mention the series, probably at the end of your proposal. That answers the “sequel” question without making it seem like you’re trying to get someone to commit to an entire series of books.

        And keeping on our foreign-soil theme, someone from Germany sent this: “What advice would you give to an author who self-published a book, only to realize later it was a mistake? I posted my novel on

        Continue Reading "Ask the Agent: Should I write for a specific publisher?"

      • February 19, 2015

        Thursday with Amanda: Which Comes First? A Book Deal or Platform? (FICTION)

        by

        Amanda LuedekeAmanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        In the journey of publishing, what is the typical order of events? Does an author come out with a book first? Or do they develop a platform first?

        I think many of us in the industry see this as an easy question to answer.

        For fiction, the book comes first.

        For nonfiction, the platform.

        But it never fails that I’ll inevitably run into authors who either don’t understand this, don’t agree, or flat out don’t fit the mold. So here is some insight into the fiction side of this topic:

        WHAT COMES FIRST FOR FICTION? A BOOK DEAL OR PLATFORM?

        If you’ve ever tried to build a platform for your fiction career without actually having a novel, you’ll find it’s near-impossible. I mean, what do you blog about? What do you Tweet? You don’t have characters anyone knows, you don’t have product to push, and you certainly don’t have much reason to share when your next draft is done or when you’ve had a 10k writing marathon.

        Marketing your fiction career without a product is HARD. So that’s why the general rule is that the book comes first, then the platform.

        BUT! there are always exceptions to the rule. For fiction, a huge exception would be an author who has found an audience not for their fiction writing, but for some other hobby or focus. Let’s say Trina writes fiction. But she also bakes. She has a recipe blog with a decent following. So in a sense, Trina has a platform and this platform will actually help her

        Continue Reading "Thursday with Amanda: Which Comes First? A Book Deal or Platform? (FICTION)"

      • February 6, 2015

        The Journey of my First Publishing Contract (A Guest Blog by Jill Lynn)

        by

        Jill Lynn HeadshotI’m a newbie to the publishing world. In early 2014, I received my first publishing offer from Harlequin Love Inspired. I accepted it with excitement, ready for the words hidden on my computer to be seen by all the world.

        Then I received my first edits.

        After hyperventilating, I read them again. I could tell my editor was right… she was brilliant, seeing things I hadn’t seen. But the changes… I didn’t have a clue where to begin. The task felt insurmountable. I wrote and wrote, and my family didn’t see me for a period of time.

        When we reached the end of edits, then came an entirely new problem. They wanted me to hand the book over to them. What? When did we agree to this? Oh, yeah. When I signed the contract. But still, they actually wanted me to fork over my words. They were going to let people read them. But… but… but I’m not done yet!

        I quickly realized I would never feel ready.

        Part of being creative is that there’s always something more that can be changed or tweaked or deleted. That’s what deadlines are for. Someone has to pry the book from your hands. I naively thought I would have a book done before the deadline. I’m not a procrastinator and I don’t do things last minute. But I never realized that I wouldn’t feel ready to give it up. I did send it in on time, and then I wandered around my house for a week wondering what to do with myself. Laundry would have been a good option.

        Next came the request for titles. I went round and round on those, bugging my friends, my poor agent Amanda, and my husband until people were texting me random title ideas at all hours of the day.

        Once a title was picked, we moved on to line edits.

        Oh, wait. You thought the edits

        Continue Reading "The Journey of my First Publishing Contract (A Guest Blog by Jill Lynn)"

      • December 4, 2014

        Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Steps to Create an Author Brand

        by

        literary agentAmanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        The past few Thursdays we’ve been talking about creating an author brand. The main points of the posts have been:

        1. Your books are not your brand. YOU are your brand. Your brand infuses your books and not the other way around.

        2. You can be the one to determine what your brand is.

        3. If you don’t determine your brand, others will do it for you…and you probably won’t like the result (after all, most of us want to be known for more than physical traits such as “blond” or “tall” or “old” or … you get the picture).

        We touched on a few of the questions that you need to ask in order to discover what kind of an author brand will work for you, such as:

        – What are my hobbies?

        – What is my personality? Am I sassy? Contemplative? Old-fashioned? Radical?

        – In what areas am I an expert? What are things that I know more of or do better than others?

        – What life experiences have I had that stand out?

        Once you’ve identified what kind of a brand you want to give yourself, how do you implement it? How do you go from being an author, to a brand?

        1. Look your brand. Let’s say that you have skills in refurbishing and decorating vintage pieces. Your fiction always tends to be set in vintage eras (or it focuses on characters who appreciate that style) and so you feel having a vintage brand will carry throughout your career. Now, you could go around

        Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: 5 Steps to Create an Author Brand"

      • November 20, 2014

        Thursdays with Amanda: How to Change Your Author Brand

        by

        Amanda LuedekeAmanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        Last week, we had some great discussion on author brand and how to get started with creating one. The driving idea behind the post was to think about who you are, your likes, interests, hobbies, experiences, etc. and to turn that into a brand. We will eventually talk about HOW to turn that into a brand, but in the meantime I want to address an issue that was raised by fellow literary agent…I don’t know if she wants to remain anonymous, so we’ll call her Agent Example.

        Agent Example said that she has suddenly realized she is being thought of as the “Picture Book Agent”…which really really really isn’t what you want if you’re hoping to make money at this any time soon. It’s like a career death sentence. Especially if you work in CBA.

        How does this happen?! How do you end up with an author brand that you don’t want?

        Remember, you give yourself a brand. You don’t sit back and wait for brand to happen. In Agent Example’s case, she probably wasn’t as aggressive as she could have been about her brand, and before she knew it, she was the picture book agent. Here’s how this works:

        1. When you are a person of interest, the very group that is interested in you will look for ways to differentiate you from others like you. So when there’s a panel of agents on stage, authors in the audience are looking for ways to label each one so that they can process things, tell others about the

        Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: How to Change Your Author Brand"

      • November 19, 2014

        ASK THE AGENT: How can I make a book signing successful?

        by

        I just had an author friend write to say, “I’ve been asked to do a book signing party at our local bookstore. It seems like most booksignings I’ve been part of were a disaster. Do you have any tips for making a book signing successful?”

        Anyone who has spent time in this industry has been to a dud of a book signing party. The author shows up, sits at a table by herself, and fidgets while a couple people wander by, ignoring her. Eventually an older woman hesitantly approaches, looking furtively around, and asks, “Hey… can you tell me where the ladies’ room is?”

        Nothing is as deflating to an author as throwing a party and having nobody show up. The fact is, if you want to do a book signing, the first rule is simple: Don’t rely on the bookseller to get people there. They might send out a flyer, or put it on the company website… or they might now. (I remember one A-level author who showed up with me for a book signing only to find the staff hadn’t been told, there was no signage, and her boxes of books were actually locked in the manager’s office, and he was away on vacation. True story.) So, like in everything else in marketing, don’t rely on someone else to do the work – YOU do it, and have a plan for succeeding. Some tips…

        1. Invite people. Again, don’t sit and wait for people to show up. Go out and invite them. Make it a party. Tell your family they need to show up. Personally invite all your friends – call them, send them notes, check back with them and get some commitments to be there. Focus on inviting some groups, since groups of people will make it feel like more of an event. (So invite your co-workers, your neighbors, the people at church, the people at the

        Continue Reading "ASK THE AGENT: How can I make a book signing successful?"

      • November 17, 2014

        ASK THE AGENT: How can I become a hybrid author?

        by

        Someone wrote to ask me, “How do you define a ‘hybrid’ author? (Isn’t it simply an author who is self-publishing but still has books with traditional publishers?) And do agents work with authors who are basically self-publishing?”

        I’m frequently asked about the notion of working with “hybrid authors” because I seem to be a bit in the minority– a literary agent who actually encourages his authors to become hybrids. But you see, I used to make my living as a writer, so I understand what it’s like to try and make a living creating words. And the changes in the industry that have taken place means there are new opportunities available to writers that were never available in the past.

        Let’s define our terms: A hybrid author is one who is self-publishing AND traditionally publishing. There are plenty of people who insist one method or the other is the “right” way to have a writing career these days – that you either “get an advance and publish your books with a legacy press and ignore the badly-edited self-published crud on Amazon,” OR you “self-publish your title via Amazon and Smashwords, and reject those money-grubbing publishers in New York who only want to enslave you as a midlist author.” Um… I tend to think there’s another way.

        A hybrid author gets the benefit of an occasional advance check, professional editing, great distribution, and access to marketing professionals from his or her publisher. PLUS there’s the benefit of having complete creative control, book price control, and the chance to do more titles that generate immediate earnings from his or her self-published titles.

        Of course, there’s also a down side. A hybrid author really has to set up his or her writing life as a small business, since everything from cover choices to copyeditor payments are the responsibility of the author. He or she has to stay up on trends – which

        Continue Reading "ASK THE AGENT: How can I become a hybrid author?"

      • November 13, 2014

        Thursdays with Amanda: Creating an Author Brand

        by

        Amanda LuedekeAmanda Luedeke is a literary agent with MacGregor Literary. Every Thursday, she posts about growing your author platform. You can follow her on Twitter @amandaluedeke or join her Facebook group to stay current with her wheelings and dealings as an agent. Her author marketing book, The Extroverted Writer, is available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

        In response to last week’s post on author brand, some of you admitted that you didn’t really know how to answer the question of “who am I?”

        This is one of the many questions that a company or individual will ask when on the hunt for a clear brand identity. They may also ask:

        “What comes to mind when hearing my name (or company name or product, etc)?”

        “What feelings do people have when thinking about my name/my company/my product?”

        “What do they associate with my name/company/product/etc.?”

        “What do I want them to feel or think or associate with my brand/company/name/etc?”

        Many companies will pay tens of thousands for answers to questions like these. They end up with lengthy research reports on their brand, the image it conveys, the climate of their client base, etc.

        But authors don’t usually have tens of thousands of dollars, do they?

        So let’s try a back door approach.

        EXAMPLES OF AGENT BRANDS

        You may think that agents are just agents. That we have no use for a brand, and that there isn’t really anything that defines us as individuals aside from the deals we do and the authors/genres we represent.

        But let me show you something…

        CHIP MACGREGOR

        If you’ve met or are familiar with our agency president, chances are you didn’t just think “agent” when reading his name.

        Instead, you probably thought of his Scottish heritage and penchant for wearing a kilt. You probably thought about how he is blunt and intimidating (things I’ve heard him described as), or how

        Continue Reading "Thursdays with Amanda: Creating an Author Brand"