Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

Off to a great start

On the lighter side: Stuck for an unstoppable opening line for your breakout novel? Check out these stunning first sentence suggestions from the Morning News:

--Shoes were the ruin of young Benjamin's life.

--Ivan Sergei Shushmayovich was poor, very poor indeed, but every day he stood hopefully outside the little rich girl's house, a much-chewed pencil in one hand, a rusted mutton cleaver in the other.

--We never should have given the nine-armed monkeys machine guns.

--Of all of the king's cows, only Bootsie had magical poop.

Posted by Cindy on June 28, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Diversions

How to leave 'em wanting more

At literary readings and book tour events, I am continually surprised at how poorly some authors present their own work. A few swallow their words or read into their manuscripts; others read in monotone or with a repetitive, sleep-inducing cadence; still others perform well but run on so long they exhaust the audience.

Fortunately, many writers are wise to the idea that a reading is a type of performance. Author and critic Terry Teachout offers tips for giving public readings. They can help you turn your reading into an entertaining experience for all (including yourself). An example:

(8) Strive for vocal emphasis and variety. Most authors are ineffective in front of an audience because their delivery is dull. The goal is to sound like you're talking informally, not lecturing (and that includes whatever passages you choose to read from the book itself). Each sentence should have its own point of emphasis. Find it and mark it in your manuscript. Don't trust your memory--underline key words, or highlight them in boldface. And be sure to keep your energy level high. If you don't sound excited, your listeners won't feel excited.

Posted by Cindy on June 22, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Marketing and promotion

An interview with Robert Coover

Robert Coover, distinguished author and Brown University professor, is is interviewed in McSweeney's Internet Tendency:

[C]reative-writing workshops have absolutely nothing to do with our nation's literature, though writers sometimes, more or less by chance, turn up in them, looking for an agent or romance or someone to start a new magazine with them. Creative-writing workshops mostly have to do with creating other creative-writing workshops. And this is all right, I suppose, because writing is good for people, or at least not seriously harmful. It teaches them to read, for one thing. We don't need more writers, but we do need more readers. We need creative-reading workshops. Students would still have to write in them, but for nobler ends. And the self-proliferation of creative-reading workshops would be a less onerous thing. You asked me if teaching has enhanced my writing in any way, and I'd say mainly it has got in the way of it; might have made me a better reader, though.

Posted by Cindy on June 22, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Inspiration

Walk in with a CD-ROM, walk out with ten bound copies of your book

Print-on-demand comes to an American bookstore for the first time:

Take a floppy disk or CD-ROM to Bookends in Ridgewood, N.J., or e-mail the store a file, and pow! - in as little as 17 minutes a perfect-bound paperback version of your novel, family memoir, or favorite Bulgarian desserts can be printed.

Every book comes complete with a customized cover chosen from among several thousand designs. For an additional fee, it can also be trademarked and registered with a machine-readable ISBN number, essential for any author hoping to get the work stocked by a major chain and on its way to becoming a best seller.

Several things distinguish this bookstore's approach to self-publishing from that of companies like Xlibris and iUniverse, most notably cost, marketing and selling assistance, and royalties. The bookstore's prices are lower, while the Internet-based companies offer marketing and distribution services in packages and a la carte. The bookstore takes no royalties, while the other print-on-demand companies do split royalties with authors. Thus, the bookstore is acting more like an enhanced printing company, while the Internet-based companies are a step or two closer to traditional publishers (although still substantially different from them, as they charge fees of their authors).

(Link via Maud Newton.)

Posted by Cindy on June 10, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Publishing

The importance of business skills in publishing

Provocative thoughts and tips on "breaking into" the publishing world: Publishing's So-Called Mystique

[T]he publishing world, at least in my estimation, works just like any kind of corporation, any kind of workplace. In other words, landing a book deal is no different than landing the job of your dreams. So a lot of the same skills that apply in the job hunt should be transferable to getting published.

What's the top piece of advice for those on the job market? Make use of any and all contacts. Anyone, be it a friend, neighbor, family member, former boss, people you've worked with on a project, is a contact. Ask advice, get feedback, meet with your contacts on occasion, follow up and above all, be professional. And don't abuse your contact base either, because they are people with valuable time who don't like to be hit up sporadically because you want something.

(Thanks to The Elegant Variation for the link.)

Posted by Cindy on June 09, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Publishing

A peek inside the enclave

Do you need to have an MFA (master of fine arts, typically in writing or literature) to be considered for publication in "serious" literary magazines and journals? Recent events at The Paris Review seem to indicate so. To investigate the situation, Maud Newton interviewed the journal's new editor, Bridget Hughes. A review of the "new/unpublished writer" controversy is included.

9. Do you know how many new writers published each year are enrolled in or graduates of a prestigious M.F.A. program like Iowa or Columbia? We have this conversation occasionally at the magazine. It increasingly seems to be the case that people who are interested in pursuing a writing career attend mfa programs.

10. How, if at all, have these numbers changed since the first issue of the magazine was published in 1953?
MFAs weren't as commonplace in 1953 as they are today. As for unpublished writers, looking back it's hard to tell. I mean, Philip Roth was really an unpublished writer when "Conversion of the Jews" appeared in Issue 18 in 1958 (though his work had appeared in a few other little magazines). But it's difficult to think of him that way now. Ditto Jack Kerouac, Gina Berriault, Richard Yates, Richard Ford, Edward Jones, Rick Moody, Jeff Eugenides . . .

.

Continue reading "A peek inside the enclave"

Posted by Cindy on June 09, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Publishing

Chicken Soup for the Grandma's Soul

Chicken Soup for the Soul publishers are looking for inspirational, true stories about grandmothers that will make readers laugh, cry or sigh. Stories should be 1000 words or less and be positive, universal and non-controversial. For each story selected for the book, a 50-word biography will be included about the author and a permission fee of $200 will be paid. The submission deadline is July 1, 2004.

Judith Burnett Schneider and Julie Long have had stories published in Chicken Soup titles and feel the series is a great vehicle for publication. Many titles have reached the NY Times Bestseller list.

Continue reading "Chicken Soup for the Grandma's Soul"

Posted by Julie on June 07, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Calls for submissions

Library Re-Opening Event

Join Judith Burnett Schneider, Julie Long and other Pittsburgh-area authors at the newly renovated Northland Public Library, Friday, June 4, 2004, 7 to 9:30 p.m. Come for the conversation, musical performances, silent auction, wine/beer tasting, as well as appetizers and desserts.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $18 at the door, and includes three wine/beer tasting coupons and a raffle ticket for one of the baskets. All proceeds benefit the Northland Public Library Foundation. For additional information, call 412.366.8100. The library is located at 300 Cumberland Road in the North Hills.

Posted by Julie on June 02, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: What's up with us

"I don't avoid repeating myself. I rip myself off all the time."

An interview with Chip Kidd, the extraordinarily-good book cover designer who is also an editor, writer, and expert on Batman, in which he discusses "his career, the Caped Crusader, misadventures in the film industry, and his aesthetic theories."

The Onion: What sets a good book cover apart from a bad book cover?

Chip Kidd: Well, the boring answer is, a good book cover makes you want to pick it up. End of story. It will intrigue you enough to make you want to go to second base, as it were, with the book. The silly answer is, "One with a big penis on it." It worked for me.

O: What would you want to avoid? What would make you say, "This will never work"?

CK: I've been doing this long enough that to even go there is a mistake. Let's limit it to designing covers for fiction right now. That's very much a theater of the mind.... One of the things I learned while majoring in graphic design in college, that I've always taken very much to heart... The teacher one day drew an apple on the blackboard, and then wrote the word "apple" underneath it. He pointed to the whole thing and he said, "You should never do this." He covered up the picture and said, "You either just have the word," then covered up the word and said, "or you just have the picture. But don't do both." It's insulting to the reader, or the viewer, or whoever. I think that's true. So what did I do on the cover for All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy? I showed a horse. I showed a pretty horse.

Posted by Cindy on June 02, 2004
This entry was posted in the following categories: Publishing