Yosemite Writers Conference: Poetry talk - By Melinda Carroll

Kate Gale, editor of Red Hen Press out of Los Angeles, California, sat reading from a poetry book before beginning her workshop “Editing Poetry: Entering the process whole and coming out humming.” Her wet hair fresh from the Tenaya Lodge swimming pool was a metaphor for her no bullshit attitude about poetry.

Is poetry still being published? At another panel I heard someone say poetry was dead. According to Gale, poetry is not dead, but you won’t get rich publishing poetry. I for one was excited that there was a poetry workshop at this year’s conference for I am a lover of poetry.

Gale opened the workshop reading two poems, one from the book she had been reading by another poet and one of her own that she had been working on for a few weeks. Her poem was rich in imagery, emotion, insecurities, and fireworks, literally fireworks as she found a way to express a woman’s self-worth issues and her desire to receive recognition from her lover as a request for fireworks. I may not be interpreting her poem correctly, but I loved Gale’s voice. Her poem grabbed my attention and took me on a journey.

I found the poetry workshop very constructive and informative as Gale mapped out the process of writing and publishing poetry. She answered questions regarding publishing poetry in literary magazines and publishing collections of poetry that I have always wondered about.

She stressed the importance of reading poetry to get in a poetry frame of mind before writing. Of making writing a practice and a priority, good advice for any writer. How important creative writing workshops are that will give you rigorous feedback on your work. And what type of poetry is currently being published.

One thing Gale said that really stood out to me is, “Great poems are where the creative meets the intellectual.”

And really that is the type of poetry I want to read and write.

More on the 2007 Yosemite Writers Conference:

Is Book Publishing Dead? Yosemite Writers Conference Provides Food For Hungry Writers
Yosemite Writers Conference: A Conversation about Blogging
Rambo Creator Reinvents Captain America
Yosemite Writers Conference: Demystifying Chick lit and Women’s fiction
Yosemite Writers Conference: Poetry talk
Mystery talk after David Morrell's big speech
2007 Yosemite Writers Conference: Brenda Knight Sidesteps the TVA man
Yosemite Writers and the Chukchansi bathroom break
Headed to Yosemite Writers Conference to talk writing for social change

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Read Noveltown’s experiences at last year’s Yosemite Writer’s Conference:

By N.L. Belardes
A Writer in Yosemite: Part One
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Two
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Three
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Four
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Five
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Six
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Seven
A Writer in Yosemite: Part Eight

By Matildakay
A great literary weekend
What's your type?
How to Approach a Literary Agent...
The Mary Wong Lee Memorial Scholarship
Malcolm Margolin is Posh
Hanging out with the Pirates of Yosemite and setting the record straight
Kill Your Darlings

Booksquare asks: “Do Publishing Houses have a future?” - By Melinda Carroll

Do Publishing Houses have a future? It’s an interesting question. With the wider range of publishing options authors have, Kassia Krozer of Booksquare talks about the future of big publishing houses and how they will have to evolve to compete.

Kassia Krozer writes:

“Most books simply aren’t marketed, at least in ways that impact the reader. Most books are dumped on the market and told to sink or swim.

Publishers will distinguish themselves with editing and marketing skills. Editing, we have decided will gain new importance in the future world — an about-face from today’s bottom-line, shareholder driven model. In a world where anyone can throw up their work, it will be the good stuff (or the most salacious) that attracts a wider audience. We might chide today’s youth for their casual approach to things like punctuation and spelling, but complete sentences and words that are not one step away from initialisms will continue to matter. Good editing will continue to matter.

Marketing, too, will be an asset offered by publishers. As we all know, today, most books simply aren’t marketed, at least in ways that impact the reader. Most books are dumped on the market and told to sink or swim. This is an inefficient way to run a business, but that’s how it’s always been done in publishing, and only the future — that future with more competition and more at stake — will change this. Once committed to the notion of fighting to acquire and retain authors, we believe that publishers will find new and creative ways to market the books these authors write.

Publishers must, necessarily, adapt to new processes to grab an increasingly fragmented audience… We are not sure that publishers — the big entrenched ones — fully understand how to go about this. Time and again, they miss what’s going on, they lack the key ingredient of today’s online culture: authenticity.”

(Read the full article)

Krozer brings up good points. I think this is why more and more authors today are turning to Indie publishers like Noveltown. Indie publishers work more closely with their authors, pay more attention to editing and find creative ways to market books and reach readers. Books aren’t just thrown on the market to sink or swim with Indie publishers like Noveltown. Rather authors and books receive individual attention to make each book as successful as possible when every dollar counts.

Query Letter Dos and Don’ts – By Melinda Carroll

Do you need a query letter? Yes. You do need a query letter when submitting your work to a publisher and/or literary agent. What is a query letter? Simply put, a query letter is your first, best and sometimes only chance to pitch your work to a publisher and/or literary agent, hook them, and make them want to read more. And just maybe publish your work or sign you to their agency.

Pub Rants, a literary agent’s blog, recently gave some don’t tips for query letters.

Don’t #1:

“I just hate when writers highlight (as if this is the main selling point of the query letter) that their work of fiction is based upon their true life story.

Writers are often told “to write what they know.” I’m good with that. But one’s true life story may or may not translate well into fiction.

If the story is amazing, it will stand on its own despite the “true story” declaration. Let the story sell itself. Once taken on by the agent and then sold to a publisher, the true story aspect can then make a good human interest angle for promotion.”

(Read the full blog)

Don’t #2:

“Don’t query for a work you haven’t completed if you write fiction. (Obviously, if you write nonfiction, all you need is a proposal and sample chapters—not the complete manuscript.)

Why? Because if an editor or an agent requests a full, you need to be able to send it.”

Don’t #3:

“If you’re querying, you should be ready to submit sample pages. Period. There’s shouldn’t be any requests such as “can you discard what I previously sent you because I just had an epiphany and I’m rewriting.”

It’s either ready or it’s not.”

(Read the full blog)

This got me thinking about query letters…

Noveltown receives query letters/emails with submissions. Most writers, myself included, do not know how to write the perfect query letter. And query letters are a big deal in the literary world. The Yosemite Writer’s conference even has a query letter contest and workshop.

So how do you write the perfect query letter?

Recipes for Word outlines how to create a novel query letter. A query letter that is:

“A concise, one-page query letter that describes something brief about the novel's plot or distinguishing hook, the genre or category the offering is in, and other titles the author believes comparable. The letter should include basic information about the author, previous publishing credits, previous agent, significant writing awards, education, participation in writing groups, conferences, and any other distinguishing information relevant to his or her profile as an author.

Agents and editors reject ninety-nine percent of all queries submitted to them. What does this mean? It means the minimum quality level acceptable is perfect. I repeat perfect. No mistakes, none, nada, zip. Perfect.”

(Read the full article, which outlines step by step how to write the perfect query letter).

(Use the query word wizard!)

And finally, Be Your Own Editor blog offers ten query letter dos and don’ts tips.

(Read the query letter tips).

So hone your query letters before submitting your work to Noveltown, other publishers and literary agents, you don’t want to end up in the NO pile because of a bad query letter.

Patricia Wakida announces she’s leaving Heyday Books – By Melinda Carroll

After eight years as the Development Director of Heyday Books, Patricia Wakida is moving on to bigger and better things.

“My time at Heyday has been extremely meaningful to me, not the least of which has been working with all of you… I finally have no excuse to put off my own writing and research. It will be quite an adventure, and I am thrilled to attempt it all.”

Noveltown and Paperback Writer wish Patricia all the best in her new endeavors.

New Noveltown contests are on the way? - By N.L. Belardes

Bakersfield's Indie press, Noveltown (That's us) is gearing up for some cool contests. Get ready. Get your thinking caps on. Get your game on... Keep checking the Noveltown site for details... go there now for some hints...

You ready?

-n.l.