On a day that we remember Martin Luther King, Jr., and prepare for the inauguration of Barack Obama, I’m curious to know — what’s your dream?
Friend of the blog J.O. writes,”I have a question for your blog. It is a formatting question which, sadly, has me pulling out my hair. One of my manuscripts has a lot of numbers. Is there is a ‘standard’ in publishing? For example, do they use APA for numbers in fiction publishing or is it a ‘whatever works’ and ‘looks good’ sort of situation? Do you have preferences as an agent?”
Sorry, guys, I’ve got a headache attacking my brain like Godzilla in Tokyo, so allow me to just fill this space with links, ok? Thanks.
Anokaberry includes Ellen Booraem‘s The Unnameables in her list of Best Books of 2008 for Middle-Grade Readers, while Literate Lives also does a very nice write-up, arguing for its inclusion on the Newbery list.
Just went through another pile of queries and it sometimes amazes me the simple things that queriers don’t do. Is it that hard to personalize your email? To make sure your book’s title actually appears in your query? I know I throw a lot of information up here on the blog, and I don’t expect people who are querying me to read every word I’ve ever written (some of them — like that Sweet Valley High rip-off novel I wrote in middle grade, about a dancer and the guy she liked named Lance — are totally stink-o), but don’t blithely ignore the easy-to-find submission guidelines and list of genres I’m looking for, ok?
kt literary client Matthew Cody, mentioned yesterday in my post about Catherine Cheek’s thoughts on managing work, had his own thoughts on balancing a writing life with “the very likely day-job.” Matt took offense (but in a very friendly sort of way) with Catherine’s statement.
