Following the lead of author and former lit agent Nathan Bransford, I decided to settle the pirates vs. ninjas controversy once and for all, using Google’s Ngram generator, which charts instances of words in literature from 1800 to the present.
Tag Archives: nathan bransford
Do you think the Norse god Odin, who takes advice from a severed head, rides an eight-legged horse, talks to ravens, sacrificed an eye and hanged himself in the pursuit of wisdom, would appreciate us referring to his day as “Hump Day”?!
Well, okay… the “Hump” refers to finally suffering through the worst trials of the workweek, and looking forward to the pleasures of the Day of Frigg (his wife), so maybe he would appreciate the symbolism. *shrug*
As Odin was the literary agent of Norse myth, let us away to this week’s literary agent links!
Today is the birthday of Charles Scribner, personal editor of author Ernest Hemingway, whose last name I heartlessly employ as a euphemism for booze sipped while writing.
Now, this might seem the perfect occasion to combine the literary agent links with the editor/publisher links like I threatened promised hinted I might do, last week.
But, no! You shall have your literary agent links, separate and per the usual schedule, and you shall like it!
Oh what a week! As critics and pundits debate the merits of non-literary fiction (whatever that might be), agents and writers are debating the merits of agents shifting from a representative model of payment to a pay-per-service model.
It’s getting hot up in here! But, let’s slip quietly out the back door of this tavern brawl and just read some literary agent links, okay?
A little history/archaeology news before we move on to the publishing links. A dig in Coventry has uncovered a 13th Century copper badge displaying the three lions of the English Coat of Arms.
This is particularly intriguing to me, as the intertwined history of badges and heraldic symbols (particularly animals) is central to the Observer Tales.
Now, on to the links! Continue reading
Yesterday, my home town paper The Washington Post published a neat list of the “Five Buzziest Summer Beach Reads,” including post-apocalyptic vampires, a post-vampire career apocalypse, a blast-from-the-past sequel, and an ape-girl. How can you pass that up?
And now, on to stuff recently blogged upon by literary agents: Continue reading
First link of the day comes from Jessica at BookEnds. Following up on a fantastic post by Nathan Bransford about the importance of keeping a “series bible” to keep track of the little details in your fictional world, Jessica explains the difference between a series bible and a style sheet, and why an author should seriously consider developing a style sheet before his or her work goes under the editor’s knife.
I am using that as my intro today because Jessica’s idea hadn’t even occurred to me, even though I do maintain a rough series bible for the Observer Tales. (The releasable stuff, I rework into Observer’s Gloss entries.) Now I have another project!
On to the rest of the links: Continue reading
As you might have noticed, I have added some sidebar graphics for the short stories Tyson’s Corner, The Chameleon Missive, and The Dun Cat of Mill Bridge, as well as a new graphic to add mood to the master page for all of the Observer Tales.
I will probably work something up for Reading Cats, too.
And, before we get to the main links, two contest announcements:
♦ First up, in honor of the release of Rock Paper Tiger, Nathan Bransford announces a contest to (in his words) “write the most compelling chase and/or action and/or suspenseful sequence. It may be something you have written for the purpose of the contest or from a work in progress.” The prizes? Hey, I didn’t put that link up there for nothing! Go, go!
♦ Rachelle Gardner also announces a combination contest and exercise, to write a one-sentence summary of your book.
Now, on to the (other) links! Continue reading
Here we are at the beginning of another week, on a day that happens to be the anniversary of several significant events in the history of written things.
Four hundred eighty years ago today in London, a list of heretic books was ordered burned. A short 13 years later on this date, Copernicus published the landmark work on the heliocentric model of the solar system, De Revolutionibus.
On this day in 1610, on the 3rd anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Sir Thomas Gates establishes a draconian civil code for the colony. (Fourteen years later to the day, Virginia is declared a failure and its charter is revoked.)
This is also the birthday of magazine and newspaper publisher Samuel Irving Newhouse (1895-1979) and United Press International (1958).
Now, on to the book-oriented side of publishing, with this week’s literary agent links! Continue reading
Okay, so I haven’t dropped a chain of literary agent links since April. Throw something heavy and hard at me. (I can take it.)
But, seriously, moving across town without hiring a moving company takes a lot out of a guy, especially when most of what you own consists of boxes and boxes of books. Kindle is looking real nice right about now.
So let’s get to those links!
♦ Dystel & Goderich doesn’t disappoint! Look at what the folks there have served up lately:
- Miriam reminds us that the real point in publishing is to enjoy it.
- Stacey does a damn good job and slapping down the cliché that men don’t read.
- Rachel gives up her best books list.
- Jessica seeks the logic underlying vampire stories, teenage hook-ups, mash-ups, and Malcolm Gladwell.
- Lauren confesses her love of bookshelf-lined walls.
♦ Jessica at BookEnds dives into the thorny issue of getting published after being self-published, and answers questions about resubmitting a reworked query letter, the purpose of query letter guidelines, and morality clauses in YA/MG contracts. She also warns us that confidence in a query can backfire.
♦ At her Pub Rants blog, Kristin compares different POVs, explains why enhanced ebooks will cause havoc, and tells writers why highlighting your age in a query is not a good idea.
♦ Nathan Bransford reminds us that every writer gets rejected.
♦ Rachelle Gardner at Rants & Ramblings reveals the secrets of a great pitch.
Enjoy!