Nice Rants

One of my favorite literary agent blogs is Pub Rants by Kristin Nelson. She shares her publishing-insider perspective along with loads of useful advice for aspiring writers. She has been blogging regularly since January 2006 and her archives are filled with helpful and interesting posts.

Among the many topics she has covered, here are some of my favorites:

• Writing a query pitch like back cover copy (also see Agent Kristin’s Blog Pitch Workshop on her sidebar)
  
• Actual queries that worked (also see Agent Kristin’s Queries: An Inside Scoop and Submission Pitch Letters to Editors on her sidebar)
  
• Beginning writer mistakes
  
• Stories behind the covers
  
• Choosing the right title

For added fun, Kristin shows her eclectic taste in music by saying what's playing on her iPod at the beginning of every post.

Blarney

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

In case you couldn’t tell from my name, Shea (pronounced “shay”), I have Irish ancestry. On a visit to Ireland I kissed the famous Blarney Stone. Kissing it requires literally bending over backwards to place your lips against the stone. In exchange, the kisser receives “the gift of gab.” Personally, I didn’t notice an immediate transformation, but maybe it happens gradually.

I’m not a fan of empty flattery, but I wouldn’t mind being more eloquent and persuasive—especially when it’s time to write query letters!

Learning

Yesterday I wrote about creating the idea for my novel and I mentioned using the internet to learn about writing and publishing. I expected to find writing advice and I was not disappointed. But I was surprised to find useful information about the publishing industry. In particular, I learned that when I finish my novel (thinking positive), the next step will be finding a literary agent. I was thrilled to discover several interesting and useful blogs by literary agents, and I have been following them since January. I will share my favorites in a future post.

Although I am nowhere near ready to query a literary agent, I think it is helpful to know what literary agents want. I don't mean which genres, or vampires vs. zombies. I mean what they want to see in a query letter. I think some query letter advice can be applied to writing the novel itself. In order to have a good hook, interesting conflict, and a strong voice in my query, I need to make sure I have those elements in my novel.

I'm glad I started following literary agent blogs at the early stage of my novel, instead of waiting until my novel is finished. And yes, I'm determined to finish it someday!