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About This Blog
Michael Merschel: Michael Merschel is The Dallas Morning News books editor. September 2009
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A salute to William Safire, wordsmith "Oxford American's" Southern Lit poll: Yep, it's full of Faulkner Let us now praise punctuation. Punctuation? Punctuation! "Best American" poet Michael Grabell on journalism and poetry Books on book clubs -- is your favorite listed? Sachse-Wylie Author Festival starts Saturday Review of and excerpt from Oprah pick "Say You're One of Them" Recent Comments
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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: A person who handles book reviews at a large, regional newspaper -- and keep in mind, some large, regional newspapers are not all that involved in reviews these days -- gets about 300 unsolicited books every week. Said editor has room to run five or six reviews a week. (But, humble and good-hearted, he tries to make sure they're good, and could use the clicks, -- so don't forget to read them for yourself.) So what's a writer to do? Luckily, the conference was full of just that kind of advice. And I'll try to distill some of it in future posts. But to end on a happy note -- here's Chuck Sambuchino's take on the weekend. (I missed out on the bats, the springs and the pool, but the lesson is -- if you go to a writers conference and want to find an agent, don't hang out in the hotel lobby. Go to where the fun is. Thanks to Deanna Roy for sending that link, plus all these photos of attendees.) E-mail entry: |
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The old way of doing things in the literary industrial establishment is broken. There are too many good stores and good writers, chasing too few places at the big guy's publishing table... who just want the sure-fire best seller which is exactly like the last twenty sure-fire best sellers. Hollywood has the same problem. Only established stars with sure-fire block-busters can apply to the club.