True Quote

"A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God."

-Sidney Sheldon (1917-2007)

The Typewriter Dance Video

The Typewriter Dance: Only if you've spent days/months/years writing novels will this appeal to you, but how can you resist music made partly with a typewriter? And you can sort of see which parts of the typewriter they used, as well. (6 min. [the last 30 seconds are blank])

ProAuthorLinks: Query Letters

• http://queryshark.blogspot.com/ - Where Miss Snark left off, Ms. QueryShark has taken over... minus the dog (Killer Yap) and worship of George Clooney, of course.
• http://misssnark.blogspot.com/ - If you're missing Killer Yap, George Clooney references, and a TON of good query advice, then walk-don't-run to the Miss Snark archives. She is no longer with us... in this particular blog form. Her last post was in May, 2007, but stupid query letters are apparently eternal.

Unraveling the Secrets of Marketing a Bestseller

Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol sold 2 million copies in its first week. That wasn't an accident.

The Globe and Mail has written a great piece on just some of the extraordinary marketing that has gone into promoting Brown's latest novel. You can read it here: Unraveling the secrets of a marketing bestseller.

Two telling quotes from the article:

"When Dan Brown's new novel The Lost Symbol hit stores this month, literary critics complained it read more like the treatment for a Hollywood thriller."

"The main lesson for publishers and marketers in the success of The Lost Symbol is this: 'Find hits.'"

Why is it still controversial to talk about trying to write commercial fiction that makes lots and lots of readers happy? "Literary critics complained." Are these the same literary critics who led me to have to read Faulkner when I was in school? Are these critics people with the same sensibilities who pick the most depressing movies possible for Best Picture Oscars?

There needs to be two types of critics: one set for the literary market, and another set of critics for commercial fiction. Right now, all commercial fiction has is the reading public who are voting with their wallets. If that's the case, they are hugely out-voting literary critics... again.

Bestselling Author Websites

Almost all bestselling authors' websites add something special to readers' experiences. Some have free content, all have snazzy photos, and die-hard fans can find out when the author will next be out in the public. If you study the websites below, you might get some ideas of what you can add to your website to make it more reader-friendly and professional. Everyone listed here has been a New York Times Bestselling Author recently. One thing of note: While it's true that many of these sites were created by the author's publishing house, not one of them has a word count meter on it! Not one. Is it possible that word count meters are the mark of an amateur? Or readers don't care? Perhaps it takes away from the magic?

• Sandra Brown
• Pat Conroy
• Clive Cussler
• Ted Dekker
• Janet Evanovich
• Christine Feehan
• Terry Goodkind
• Philippa Gregory
• Charlaine Harris
• Lauren Kate
• Jeff Lindsay
• Stephen King
• Dean Koontz
• Stephenie Meyer
• Karen Moning
• James Patterson
• Kathy Reichs
• Anne Rice
• Nora Roberts
• Nicholas Sparks
• Kathryn Stockett

The Electro-Plasmic Hydrocephalic Genre-Fiction Generator 2000!

Behold! The Electro-Plasmic Hydrocephalic Genre-Fiction Generator 2000!

Having trouble coming up with a storyline? Having trouble distilling your 200,000-word manuscript into a single sentence summary?

Fear not! Run, do not walk, over to Wondermark.com where your plot line will be revealed... or at least you'll have a stonking-good laugh, which is what I just had.

Algonquin Books Executive Editor Chuck Adams & Literary Agent Sally Hill

Straight from the Experts: Literary agent Sally Hill McMillan and Algonquin Books Executive Editor Chuck Adams discuss what they do and how they do it. If you want to be successfully published, you need to know as much as you can about how the publishing industry actually works. The answers by Chuck Adams are especially helpful. (You can listen to this in the background. You don't need to actually watch it.)(1 hr. 5 min.)