If you love westerns, I've got a definite recommendation for you.

May is the month for best-selling author Brenda Novak's extraordinary on-line auction that benefits juvenile diabetes.  If you haven't checked it out before, this is the year you should do so. Cumulatively, she's raised more than $1.3 million for juvenile diabetes research and she hopes to break $2 million with this year's activities.

The auction includes such wonderful items, many of particular interest to writers, both published and not yet published. There are things of interest to readers as well.  I've donated a manuscript critique again this year as well as a couple of hours of my legal services to review a publishing contract or help an author out with a copyright or publishing question.  There are hundreds of items from authors, agents, and others, so definitely check it out.  You only have until May 31st.

As I said, all proceeds go to benefit juvenile diabetes research.  Diabetes of all types has become such an epidemic in this country, but to me juvenile diabetes seems the harshest.  My heart goes out to the families with young children struggling to manage this disease.

So 'tis the season to look beyond ourselves and see what we can all do for others.  Let Brenda's auction get you started.  To help you out, the link to her auction page is here. 

        One of the most important choices you have to make early on in developing your manuscript is who is telling the story. Is there a specific character narrating everything with only knowledge of what they can see or a third-person narration aware of everything that’s going on? Who is the voice that will relate the rest of the characters and the plot and the setting to your audience?
       You can draw someone in from the first page with a clear point of view or a unique perspective. You can also lose them just as quickly with a voice that is not very interesting or is difficult to follow. Make sure you are part of the first group and not the latter.
       Be consistent. If you choose to tell the story from the point of view of one of your characters, decide whether they are relating the events as they happen or reflecting back on something that has already passed. Don’t let them tell the reader anything they wouldn’t actually know. There are few things more distracting in a story than inconsistencies in voice.
      Be compelling. Even in a third-person narrative it is important to have a strong, clear sense of who is telling the story. It doesn’t matter if the story being relayed is the most simple, mundane task or the most exciting event to ever happen, the way it is told and who is telling will make or break whether someone reads on.
     Most of all, don’t be afraid to start over! If you realize halfway through that your story really would have been better served with a third-person narrative and you’ve been writing from the point of view of your main character, switch it up! The time it takes to rewrite those pages will be well worth it in the end if you have a more polished manuscript with a more compelling voice when you are finished. Don’t become so invested in your point of view that you let it ruin the rest of the story.

     As always, good luck!

      Intern Emily.

It is so very easy in this business to get swamped by the day-to-day minutiae.

Reading queries, partials, fulls.
Researching the market.
Talking with editors.
Making and following-up on submissions.
Waiting for contracts.
Negotiating details.
And on, and on, and on.

The details are often so all subsuming, that one can lose sight of the purpose, the goal, the reason for being in this business. I didn't realize how lost I may have become until today when I stopped to smell the roses, (well they were actually hyacinths), but you get the idea.

Call it spring fever or taking time to restore one's soul. Not only did I enjoy the blooms of spring, but I also took out a few minutes from the work day to look at the Oscar winning animated short, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. It is delightful. It made me happy, but more importantly it restored my faith in the power of books. All those flying words brought such joy to all the people they touched, that it was impossible not to see books as an essential part of life. It felt good to think that authors and agents play a part in that joy and to remember why my love of books got me into this business in the first place.

If you haven't watched the video on U-tube, you really should. I'd love to hear if it brings a smile to your face as well.

This month brings several new books from our authors. We'll highlight one today.

Last Chance Beauty Queen by Hope Ramsay continues the adventures of the townsfolk of Last Chance where the Cut n' Curl remains the place for the best gossip in town. This time British royalty has come to town, looking for an investment and perhaps a wife. Caroline's job depends upon making him feel welcome, but when he wants something she has no intention of giving him, sparks really are ignited. But this former Watermelon Queen will learn a lot about what's really important in life and community.


And if you happened to miss the first book in this series, Welcome to Last Chance, you can get it in digital form this week for a discounted price. Here's the link .

A month into a new year seems as good a time as any to discuss something very important to a story: the beginning. It is difficult to get invested in reading something if it cannot capture you from the very start. This may be unfair—I am sure there are plenty of really great novels out there which do not pick up until a few chapters in. However, when your partial manuscript is being judged on those first few chapters that is not a risk you can really take. You need to capture your audience from the first page, and then work to keep them interested for the remaining pages.

Introduce great characters in the first few pages. Even if the plot doesn’t pick up right away, it is easier to give the author the benefit of the doubt and keep reading if there are characters you feel connected to. [See the post a little while back on characters for more on this.] You can also draw a reader in by creating a setting that they won’t want to leave. It is easier to stick with a slower story if you feel like you can imagine being there. Also, just the overall style of writing can instill some confidence that the plot will follow.

That being said, it is still really important to make sure something happens in the first 20-30 pages. That long without plot development—even if it occurs within the middle of the book after the story has picked up—is too long! It is nice to have some kind of idea where the story is going from the initial chapters, even if you also include a synopsis which explains the future development. I want to be really drawn in from the first page, first sentence even. You only get so much time to capture your audience, so use it well!

'Tis the marvelous season for gift giving, parties, joy, and wonder.

It's also the season, as we approach the end of the year, for rest and reflection. All of us in the publishing biz have been buffeted by what felt like gale-force winds of change this past year. But, hopefully, the holidays will give each of us a chance to catch our breath, process the changes in a moment of quiet reflection, and plan a course for next year that will steer us to our hearts' goals.

Be kind to yourself during the holidays and find that quiet moment to revisit and renew your hopes and plans for 2012.

Also, don't forget to visit a local independent bookstore, browse, and buy a book (preferably something that your Amazon algorithm would never pick out for you). And whatever you do, make sure you read at least one new book this holiday! (Or maybe one for each day of the holiday!)

Best wishes,

The Elaine P. English Literary Agency

Whether an author should self-publish, how to do it, how to succeed if you try -- these are all the questions buzzing around the publishing biz these days. Some authors seem to feel that traditional, "dead-tree" publishers are dinosaurs with absolutely no relevance.

[I have to admit I love the phrase "dead-tree" publishers. The environmental impact of this business has always been something that's troubled me. It's one of the main reasons we switched to all electronic submissions. But I have to admit when folks use the phrase these days, it sounds so negative on so many levels!]

Hardly a day goes by without at least one author asking me about self-publishing. As with most issues and since I am also an attorney (and this is the attorneys' favorite response), the answer I give is always "it depends." I do believe each situation is unique and ALL factors should be considered, not just that everyone else is doing it and some are even making money at it. So today when I saw a blog post on this subject from Jane Friedman, former publisher of Writers' Digest and a professor of media and writing at the University of Cincinnati that I thought made an enormous amount of sense, I wanted to share the link. She suggests that while authors may have great power, they still need to use it responsibly. Take a look at her piece and let me know what you think.

November is flush with new books by Elaine English authors! Hot off the shelf, Joanne Kennedy's latest sexy Western is sure to put some sizzle in your chilly Fall evenings:

The agency is thrilled to announce that The Rancher's Courtship by Laurie Kingery is available on bookshelves today. Kingery's latest novel is the fourth installment in the popular Love Inspired Historicals series "Brides of Simpson Creek".

Now that it's November, my fourth book in the "Brides of Simpson Creek" series for Love Inspired Historicals, The Rancher's Courtship, has hit the shelves. It's made me stop and reflect about how I started the series, and what I've learned along the way, series and a few things I wish I'd known.

Series are vastly popular with genre readers, especially in romance. Even if you aren't writing a series, some readers may assume you are, and will ask if certain secondary characters will be featured in the next book. This may lead to writing a series when you hadn't even planned to. My series, the Brides of Simpson Creek, however, came along at a time when I was tired of having to "build a new world" each time I started a new manuscript, complete with a locale, secondary characters, and businesses, such as a particular saloon, or mercantile. (Yup, I write western romance.) I developed what seemed like a unique concept, the mail-order groom instead of bride. (If you wrote this concept first, ten years ago or so, please don't burst my bubble).

I designed a town, Simpson Creek, Texas, set it in the hill country near San Saba, and gave it a reason to need mail-order grooms—the lack of eligible bachelors following the War Between the States (also known as the Civil War if you're a Yankee). I gave the plot a plucky young miss discontent to remain an old maid, had her set up a group of like-minded ladies and place a newspaper ad—the 1860's version of online dating!

I started writing before computers so I still do a lot of planning on paper—no elaborate spreadsheets for me. On a piece of paper I wrote out the physical characteristics of each main character in one column, important facts in another, the names of secondary characters in another. The names of the first group of ladies in "The Spinsters Club" got their own column, and as the series developed, I had to keep track of what spinsters had found their matches—for not each spinster would get her own book. Each contracted book got its own page, and I still refer back to previous books, because I started writing the series in 2009 and it's all too easy to forget details after writing four of the stories. No fact is too small to write down—a throwaway character in the first book might have a pivotal role five books later.

I was well into the first book, which became MAIL ORDER COWBOY, before I got to visit the actual site of my fictional Simpson Creek—and discovered there really had been a community called Simpson Creek on the site. Spooky, huh? While there, I found a historic tree, the Marriage Oak, to use in my third story, THE SHERIFF'S SWEETHEART.

The ladies of my Spinsters' Club have married, had babies, (and in one case, went crazy and lost her life because of loving the wrong man), and the one thing I wish I'd started from the beginning was a comprehensive timeline so I could remember what book happened in what months of what year. It's been useful to visit http://www.timeanddate/com to see when the full moons were, and what date coincided with what day of the week—not because I think most re

Before you send your manuscript to an agent, it is important that you allow others to read and critique your story. And by others, I don’t mean your mother, your spouse or anyone else who loves you and wants to see you succeed. The person or person who read your novel should be objective, familiar with the genre and the essentials of good writing. They should also not be afraid to hurt your feelings and rip your manuscript apart if necessary.

There are many online critique websites at your disposal. You have only to complete an internet search and a little due diligence to find one that works for you. If formalized critique websites are not your style, try using social media formats like Twitter or Facebook to find readers of your genre interested in critiquing your story.

Just as the best meals can be ruined by too many proverbial cooks in the kitchen, a well-written novel will suffer from too many critiques. If you let ten people read your story, you will have ten sets of critiques to wade through. Of course, if all ten readers point out the same flaw, obviously you should address it. But it is better to find one to two dedicated readers, whose judgment you trust to offer suggestions.

Your critique partners do not have to be writers but they do have to be readers, able to recognize grammatical, character development and plotting errors at the minimum. It is always surprising to discover what flaws other readers can find in your work-in-progress. But once found, your writing will only improve, as well as your chances of having an agent represent your manuscript.

Intern N

Now that queries have reopened, it seems like a good time to discuss a few do’s and don’ts for query submissions. Keep these in mind as you consider sending in your query!

DO - Sell yourself and your work as best as you possibly can. You have about a page to really convince us that your manuscript is something we want to read, and if we aren’t captivated by the query chances are we won’t be by the manuscript either.

DON’T- Send your partial or full manuscript along with your query. If we want to read it- we’ll ask for it.

DO- Go over what genres we represent. Make sure you fit into that genre. If you think your query may be read to fit into a different genre, make sure you include something to convince us that you belong at this agency in particular.

DO- Proof read! If you cannot edit the one or two pages of your query for errors, it isn’t a good sign for the rest of your manuscript.

DO- Clearly explain what it is your manuscript is about. We want to know what it is you’re writing about, and the more clear your concept is the more confidence it appears you have in your ideas.

DON’T- Get discouraged if we don’t ask to see the partial. There are a variety of factors that go into evaluating queries, and just because it isn’t right for us doesn’t mean someone else down the road won’t like it.

Intern Emily

We just discovered a technical glitch that was apparently deleting all emails coming into the queries account before we could read them. Don't know for sure when it started, but probably last week just as we were re-opening to submissions. So if you sent something to [email protected] last week, please Re-Send.

Thanks.

1. Do you have the talent to be a professional novelist? I don’t mean, does your mother or spouse think you are a good writer but is your writing on par with novels, short stories and magazine articles that you’ve read. Or could it be, after you’ve studied the craft of novel writing, written a novel or two and understand how to write a properly plotted story with realistic dialogue and well-developed characters. Have you let anyone read what you have written? Have you received positive, encouraging feedback from an English professor, magazine editor, agent or anyone who should know good writing?

2. Do you have a passion for writing? Like most creative undertakings, writing is a passion project, usually a lifelong endeavor. Real writers have been writing since they could hold a pencil properly--poems, childish stories, journal entries, novels and the like. It is a part of them, a natural expression of who they are. And they write for themselves. They write for free. They write because they love the idea of putting pen to paper (okay, that’s rather archaic) or fingertip to keypad and creating a story from nothing. Passionate writers write because they don’t feel normal if they don’t.

3. Do you have the diligence required to study and learn the craft of writing? Writin

Get ready . . . get set . . . submit!

On October 1^st, we will re-open to submissions. So get ready to send in your queries for new projects. Remember, we want email queries only. But take a minute first to check out the revised submission guidelines on our website, www.elaineenglish.com.

We’re limiting the kinds of works we’re going to represent going forward, so don’t assume that everything you’ve written we’re interested in seeing. We’re going to concentrate on romance, women’s fiction, and cozy mysteries only. For romance, we’re open to all the various subgenres from historical to contemporary, sweet to erotic, romantic suspense, paranormal, steam punk, and urban fantasy, just to name a few. The only exceptions are: we handle very little inspirational romance and if you write time- travel, your burden will be a bit harder, because we’re real skeptics. Cozy mysteries are those entertaining, relatively low-violence, who- done-it stories, typically featuring an amateur sleuth.

Women’s fiction is a bit harder to define, but I know it when I see it. It’s fiction about women and intended primarily for women readers of all ages. It’s often about relationships – mothers and children, families, even generations. It shows women discovering and taking up their place in the world. It can be set in historical, contemporary or futurist times, but the focus, and generally, the point of view of the story, is that of a woman.

Taking time off from submissions has given me a clearer perspective and helped me to focus on what’s really important. It also gave the agency a chance to completely catch up on submissions (can you imagine!) and to overcome the burn-out which seems to be an occupational hazard in this business. So reinvigorated, here we go. Send us your pitch and together let’s find the next great bestseller!