I’ve got a 7 page synopsis in rough draft form for querying. Do I need a 7-page synopsis or is that pretty rare?

I’d say that’s pretty rare. It’s certainly something that’s no doubt useful for YOU to have, but my bet would be that most agents, in looking for a synopsis of a novel that’s being queried, are more than content with two to three pages.

Now, I wouldn’t toss that seven pager, of course. You may find yourself needing it, or something like it further on down the road — if an agent likes your full manuscript, perhaps, and wants to read your recap of the story in more detail. Some editors I’ve submitted to also want a synopsis, although there again a two to three pager may be more than enough.

And the act of writing out your story in that length is a helpful step in getting your plot down in even shorter form.

Bonus second question, for the royal wedding day! Eleni also asked “Does it matter if I have a webpage when I’m querying agents?” It’s not the be-all and end-all, but it can be helpful if an agent likes what you’ve got and wants to know more about you. As always, though, if you’re going to have a blog or a website, make sure that what you’re posting isn’t something that’s going to bite you in the arse. Always consider that your future agent and/or editor may see what you’re writing — and if that isn’t clear enough, it can be helpful to use the rule of thumb for internet writing, “Never post anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face.”

Huzzah!

What this means is that, under the new guidelines, a blogger’s positive review of a product may qualify as an “endorsement” and that keeping a product after a review may qualify as “compensation.”

In more detail:

In the case of books, Cleland saw no problem with a blogger receiving a book, provided there wasn’t a linked advertisement to buy the book and that the blogger did not keep the book after he had finished reviewing it. Keeping the book would, from Cleland’s standpoint, count as “compensation” and require a disclosure. [...]

Cleland insisted that when a publisher sends a book to a blogger, there is the expectation of a good review. I informed him that this was not always the case and observed that some bloggers often receive 20 to 50 books a week. In such cases, the publisher hopes for a review, good or bad. Cleland didn’t see it that way.

“If a blogger received enough books,” said Cleland, “he could open up a used bookstore.”

You can read more about this via articles at The New York Times and The Washington Post.

I’m curious to know what you think, and honestly, I’m curious what this means for me. Every link to an Amazon page for a book on my site includes my Amazon Associates ID, which means I may get some small kickback if you hear about a book on my site and then go to Amazon to buy it. Do you think this is unethical? Does the FTC? Maybe it doesn’t matter in the case of my clients’ books, which are all clearly noted as such, and I should think my connection with them is obvious. But what about my “Recent Reads” posts, where I comment on a book I’ve read for pleasure?

What do you take from this ruling? I’m eager to hear more from other book bloggers.

So when I saw this article today on Jezebel, I thought it tied in nicely, if obliquely, with that conversation. Personas is an art installation that “generates a visualization of a person’s online identity.” Another quote: “In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you. ” It doesn’t distinguish between multiple owners of the same name, so the results can be somewhat skewed, but I couldn’t help but think of authors who might be struggling to be sure their online presence is hitting the right marks. Now you can find out if it is!

Just for fun, I entered “Kate Testerman,” and got this lovely bar graph.
Putting in “Kate Schafer” changes things up a bit, giving me a bigger hit on “books,”
while “Kate Schafer Testerman,” with the least amount of data to pull from, finally acknowledges that sports are not as important to me as books.

How brightly colored are you? And do you think this comes close to representing you, or do you look at it just as an art project?

Anyway, I was THRILLED to open the latest issue to read about EW’s new blog about books, Shelf Life! Huzzah! I’m already added it to my Google Reader, and look forward to the same chatty, informative blogging about books and publishing that they’ve brought to their Hollywood reporting.

So while I’m adding great new sites to my Reader, I’m hoping you’ll let me know if there’s any other great book blogs I should be reading. The following are just some of the blogs I read (I’ve left out editor or agent blogs, but you can assume I already hit a whole bunch of those as well). Some may be out of date, but I’m eagerly looking for new sites to follow!

A Fuse #8 Production
Bookburger
bookshelves of doom
Jacket Whys
GalleyCat
ShelfTalker
Teen Book Review
tor.com
Trashionista
Wands and Worlds

What are some of your favorite book blogs to read?

The bulk of your answers agreed that good, original blurbs from authors you already know and like do carry a lot of weight, at least in terms of picking up a book. But if an author you DON’T like blurbs a book, you might avoid it. Which leads me to a couple of follow-up questions:

- If an author you don’t know provides a blurb for a book by a likewise unknown author, does that do anything for you?
- How much weight do you put on WHAT is said in the blurb, versus just who says it?
- How do you find blurbs? I mean, are you already in the bookstore browsing, or do you go to a store because of a blurb already read?
- Do you put any more weight on blogs versus blurbs? For instance, if an author mentions on her blog a book that she enjoyed, will go seek it out?
- What about blog tours, or group blogs of authors? If you like one author, are you inclined to find out more about the other(s)?

I’m honestly curious. There’s a statistic floating around the interwebs that 85% of book sales come from word of mouth, and I’d love to know how much which mouths are talking matters. And to make things interesting… one random comment will win another copy of Vacations From Hell!

@Brattyhack writes: “My question is about the biz itself. Why do book stores make 50% of the sale and agents and authors and pub’s so much less?” I’m not quite sure where that 50% figures comes from, actually. On a book which an author gets 10% of the price for every copy sold, the publisher actually gets 90%, covering costs of production, salaries, shipping, design, etc. So the bulk of the money on a book sale goes to the publisher, not a book store. Any bookstore owners able to answer more clearly than I?

@filamena asks: “How do you propose multi format books? (Novel with some comic elements, photography with short stories.)” By comic elements, I assume you mean graphic novel, yes? Not just that some parts of the plot are funny? I go with the easiest, most well-known way of describing a project, and let the unusual or unknown be the hook of my pitch. Now, novel with graphic elements isn’t all that unusual anymore, but for something like a collection of short stories with photographs, if short stories were doing well, I would try to pitch the quality of the writing, and let the photographs be an extra, almost.

@MsPinkSlip_Blog writes: “How should one approach the follow up process once a query is submitted to an agent?” First of all, make sure you know the agent’s usual timeframe for responses. On my site, for instance, I say that I’ll get back to query letters within two weeks. If you haven’t heard from me within that period, you can send a follow-up email — note: this is not THE SAME QUERY resent. This is an email just checking in to confirm I received the original. That being said, once you’ve submitted to an agent, I would think you might also be following their blog/twitter/etc. in which case you may hear they’re running behind, or suddenly caught up, as I posted earlier this week, and you can use that info as an opportunity to follow up. Key to a successful follow-up: be polite and provide all necessary information (your name, the book’s title, genre, and when you sent it — which you should have easily accessible, because OF COURSE you track all your submissions, rights?)

@kimchatel asks: “Do self publish credits or POD pub credits neg/positively affect a query to an agent?” For me, neither. Being self-published doesn’t tell me anything about your writing, even if you’ve sold thousands of copies. It may tell me you thought the traditional publishing route wasn’t for you (in which case, why are you querying me now?), but I look at self-published or POB queries with the same perspective as every other query.

@jjochwat writes: “Guy submits first 10 pp. Agent likes them, immediately asks for complete. Guy rereads mss, finds he could cut & improve. Now what?” Send what you have already. I’d rather you’d have waited to query in the first place until you’d done the rereading and the revising, but now that you’ve sent it out and someone wants to see more, you should send the rest, and let them make their decision. If they say no, then revise, and go out with a stronger manuscript elsewhere.

@sdficklin asks: “When querying a new project, should you mention if you already sold one to a small house w/o an agent?” Yes, absolutely! Any publishing credits are noteworthy, so long as they involve an actual paid acquisition and an editorial process.

@bethrevis and @driftsmoke ask about “unpublished writers and blogs? i.e. do’s/don’ts, mention in query?, what to post on, whether u check em out?” Speed round response: yes, you should have a blog/website. No, you should NOT be posting your entire manuscript, or writing about the details of your query process on said blog, and certainly not bad-mouthing or even excessively praising any of the specific agents you’re querying, because yes, we DO sometimes look at your sites, and do you want us to know we’re we fall on your wish list for an agent? Or (true story) that I requested a manuscript at the same time as another agent, and you decided to wait three months to respond to my request while waiting to hear from your more preferred choice? For answers from editors, check out my series of posts from last year here, here, and here. Use them to talk about yourself, particularly what you enjoy about writing and reading, and build a community around your site for the purpose of communication and camaraderie, not blatant marketing.

@anniekawaii asks: “My brother-in-law & fam are coming to visit us in Louisiana where the heat & humidity are oppressive. Are they crazy?” Yes, unless you live in New Orleans, which is an awesome vacation destination. And if you live somewhere else in Louisiana — are YOU crazy?

@LorelieBrown writes: “Just how many inches of snow did y’all get this year?” According to KKTV, recorded snowfall for the Colorado Springs area, about an hour south of me, was 17.9″, over 6 inches of which fell in March and April. Why? How much did YOU get?

@JulieWeathers writes: “Fashion and conferences. Tips on what not to wear.” Shoes you can walk in, and stand in for hours. (I’m allowed not to take my own advice — people expect certain things from my shoes!) Otherwise, business casual is usually the best way to go. Do not dress like a character from your unpublished novel.

@ktkm asks: “I am a Canuck but hoping to attract US agent. How do I deal with book rights when different for each countries?” If you’re looking for a US agent, I assume that’s because you want a US sale. If another sale is primarily your focus, you should seek out another agent. Most of the deals I do for US rights also include Canada — i.e., I do deals for North American English language rights. I also sell translation rights, as do most of my colleagues, in one way or another, so we would work with you on the rights in all countries. Very few authors have different agents for different territories, although as we use subagents, sometimes it may seem that they do, but in truth, all deals go through a central agent.

@bythebrooks writes: “How does a writer actually *find* an agent?” Step one through twenty: write a brilliant book and revise it until it’s even better. Step The Next: research, research, research.

I may answer more later, either on Twitter or here, so keep checking back!

Hey look, more answers!

@mp3mad asks: “What is the perspective in which you look at queries?” Mostly, some variation of “Does this interest me?”. Actually, no, I suppose first it’s “Do I represent this?” which I have to ask to get rid of the folks who clog my inbox with cozy mysteries, political thrillers, and self-help books, etc. Then “Does this interest me?”, followed by “Is it well-written?”, with “Is this unique enough?” tagging along, bringing up the rear. But sometimes, sometimes, all it takes is one good line. As I said to a writer the other day in my request for her manuscript, “You had me at ‘Cheer Boot Camp.’”

@tommymccormack writes: “How about this: considering a career change to get into publishing biz. How the hell do I get a job, and where do I look first?” The phrase “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic” comes to mind, but would never actually be uttered by an optimist such as myself. So, first question back to you — do you live in or around NYC? Would you consider a move there? If not, how about San Francisco, Denver, or Austin? Publishing exists elsewhere, but the opportunities are fewer. If you’re the schooling sort, there’s publishing programs like the University of Denver’s Publishing Institute, as well as Columbia University’s Publishing Course. You may be able to find others by searching online. If that’s not a route you wish to choose, then I suggest finding a way in through tangential means — book publishing may be your ultimate goal, but maybe you can get a job at a newspaper or magazine, or work on your editing skills polishing company reports for big business. It’s not an easy industry to break into, and the monetary rewards for doing so aren’t much, but I have to say, I love what I’m doing, and don’t know many in this industry who would disagree.

@jimnduncan asks: “When looking at a ms you love, how do handle the decision between thinking it could sell versus thinking it will sell?” It’s a hard line to draw, and honestly, I think I err on the side of thinking it could sell, and should sell — there’s very little guarantee that something WILL sell, especially in this economy. But (see the “optimist” comment above) when I have a manuscript that I love, that I want other people to read and fall in love with, too, I have to believe it will sell. Otherwise, I’m going to do a lot of work for nothing. Remember, I don’t get paid unless my authors get paid, so it really is a labor of love for me.

Ok, I think that’s it for me today. I’m heading off to Date Night with my sweetie, and a movie at the local art theatre. Until tomorrow!

As for the rules of passing the award on to others, I wouldn’t be able to decide on any five of my clients and their wonderful blogs, so do feel free to check them ALL out!

And let me know some of your favorite sites — I’m always on the lookout for fab blogs to add to my Google Reader, and I have been known to sign clients based on recommendations from blogs!  So, in the spirit of the Premios Dardos award, what five websites would you nominate?

Thanks to the WebMonkey’s hours and hours of hard work (and yes, I did some, too!), I can now unveil our exciting SEKRIT project. Drumroll, please….

We’re moving!

But not very far. Ktliterary.com is migrating over to WordPress from Movable Type. What does this mean for you, my devoted readers?

1. If you visit the site frequently, simply go to http://ktliterary.com to figure out the new navigation. The old page addresses have changed slightly, though the site as a whole uses the same basic navigation scheme.
2. Related to #1: If you happen to know of a link out there on the Internets to a specific main page (such as submissions.html, or daphne.html), you can simply drop the .html part — for example, http://ktliterary.com/daphne.html is now just http://ktliterary.com/daphne.
3. Also, the links to specific posts I’ve made have changed. This was pretty much unavoidable (the Webmonkey has his simian limits), but if you know the title or content you’re looking for, the Search bar at the top-right of any of the pages will help you out.
4. The big one: if you follow the site via a newsreader, the feed address has changed. The new feed address is http://ktliterary.com/feed/.

All in all, this is a pretty positive upgrade for us, and gives the site some added functionality now, and a LOT more flexibility in the future:

• You can now ’subscribe’ to individual posts and get notifications whenever anyone responds.
• If you really want to keep your finger on the pulse of the site, you can simply use your newsreader and subscribe to a feed of all the comments being made on the site. (For that matter, every category on the site pretty much has its own custom newsfeed.)
• Social Networking: Wordpress lets us plug into any number of social networks, which means easily sharing our ’stuff’ with pretty much any other network out there.
• It’s pretty.

It’s also under construction, so please please do comment and let us know if you run into anything that’s not working as expected.

Thanks!