Thursday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

HOW I READ SLUSH: 3 LESSONS FOR WRITERS

By: Carly Watters

Agents talk a lot about query letter writing and how we manage the slush pile. There’s the flip side of that too: once we request your material what happens? Well today, you get inside my brain. This is how I read requested material and how you make yours stand out:

1. I read on my iPad

I don’t print manuscripts out until I sign them and start to work on them. So I’m trying to see if I enjoy the writing and pair the writing with a name or book title to distinguish one manuscript from the other.

Lesson: Formatting! For the love of pete number your pages and title your file something like: Author Last Name BOOK TITLE. I don’t want to play a guessing game about which manuscript matches which query. The last thing I want is confusion when I’m trying to organize my slush. I also ask for a synopsis pasted into the first page of the manuscript document so that I can jog my memory and refer back to it.

2. I read 3-10 partials in a row

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Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again: 

1. Smashwords: 2015 Book Publishing Industry Predictions: Slow Growth Presents Challenges and Opportunities http://ow.ly/GDXbQ
2. How I Read Slush: 3 Lessons for Writers | Carly Watters, Literary Agent http://ow.ly/GDZV2
3. Fiction University: Will They or Won’t They? Plotting With Yes or No Questions http://ow.ly/GE08b
4. 5 Tips for Running a Writers’ Circle | Beyond The Margins http://ow.ly/GE0oc
5. Q: What Do Agents Like to See When They Google Writers? | Carly Watters, Literary Agent http://ow.ly/GE0z0
6. Michael Crichton’s Method for Plotting Out a Story - WRITERS HELPING WRITERSWRITERS HELPING WRITERS http://ow.ly/GE0TQ
7. Eight Most Common Editing Errors In Self-Published Books | Self-Publishing Review http://ow.ly/GE13j
8. 7 Strategies and 110 Tools to Help Indie Authors Find Readers and Reviewers http://ow.ly/GE2cM
9. The Book Designer — Practical Advice to Help Self-Publishers Build Better Books http://ow.ly/GE2p7
10. The 10 Commandments of Social Media Content Marketing http://ow.ly/GE2DB

Happy writing and running, Kathy