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July 2008
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How to Get Your Book Published: The word (and numbers) from Austin A must-see video for school librarians, and the people who love them Categories
dallasnews.com
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June 23, 2008
Budding authors who paid to attend the Writers' League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference were probably hoping to hear words like, "I love it! We're gonna make you a star!" Instead, in various sessions, they got some daunting numbers: A literary agent might receive 125 queries a day. That's according to Uwe Stender, who says he gets 42,000 queries a year. A couple of agents told me that even though they like to scout talent at writers conferences, they expect to find maybe one bankable client from such events in several years of searching. Even a successful agent is constantly facing rejection from publishers. Kimberly Cameron says that although some weeks she might sell 10 books, she figures she lands, on average, "zero to one" book deals a week. For authors lucky enough to get a book deal, about 80 to 85 percent of them will have to make do on an advance of less than $20,000 (said Sara Nelson of Publishers Weekly.) When their book is published, it is is up against about 300,000 other titles each each year (that number from also from Sara Nelson.) That includes about 22,000 novels -- 50,000, if you include self-published titles (said independent journalist and regular Dallas Morning News contributor Edward Nawotka). And my own contribution to these statistics:  Comments (1) Leave comment
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|  E-mail entryThe entry "How to Get Your Book Published: The word (and numbers) from Austin" is tagged: book publishing , how to get your book published , writers league of texas
Over on Neighborsgo.com, Plano's Doug Valentine has written about his creation of a video he entered in the Gale/Librareo contest ... and won. I can't embed the video, but if you've ever checked out a book from a school library -- click here. It's worth it. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "A must-see video for school librarians, and the people who love them" is tagged: librarians , lilly's purple plastic purse , plano The last time Junot Diaz came to town, he was well-regarded writer with a well-received new book with a funny title. About 30 people enjoyed an intimate evening with him at Borders. The next time he comes to town, it will be as the Pulitzer-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. And I imagine a lot more people will be interested in seeing him. They'll get their chance 2 p.m. Sept. 14 when he comes to The Writers Studio. Tickets go on sale July 1 at (214) 828-1715. I'll share more details when they do. [Update: Here's the video from his recent Colbert Report appearance, some classic nerd-on-nerd action:]
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Junot Diaz coming to Dallas" is tagged: Junot Diaz , Writers Studio If you're in Dallas, you can at least look forward to this event on Friday: Cliff Roberts, founder and president of the Fort Worth Haiku Society, will read 7 p.m. that dat at Priya Yoga Studio, 6337 Prospect. If you're not in Dallas, a lovely sample of his work can be found here. Comments (0) Leave comment
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| E-mail entryThe entry "Relax, it's only Monday, and haiku is coming" is tagged: Cliff Roberts , Fort Work Haiku Society , haiku , poetry |
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