Happy Anniversary to us! On Wednesday, September 1 we will have been on the ‘Net for 2 years. To celebrate, we’ll be hosting a follower’s contest beginning Friday. Shonna will explain the rules in her Friday post. We will also have a guest blogger every week this month. So make sure you come to visit us often this month. You don’t want to miss a thing.

          My post today might seem a bit odd for a writing blog. I want to sing the praises of Logitech, makers of computer peripherals (mouse, keyboards, etc). Why in the world would I do that here? What could Logitech possibly be doing that is helping me write more (the theme of our blog)?

          Well stick around and I will tell you!

          I hate mouses. (Yes, that is correct terminology. Back a couple of decades ago computer geeks had an argument about it. The determination was that they’d named the mouse and it was not a rodent, so they could declare the correct word for the plural. Hence, mouses. Or at least that’s what many computer geeks claim.) Whatever they are called, I don’t like using them. They make my wrist and arm hurt. Years ago I saw a trackball and fell in love. I have had one ever since. (As far as I know, Logitech is the only company that makes trackballs.) For Christmas 2008, my family bought me a wireless trackball. (I use it at my desk and take the corded one with my laptop “on the road.”)

          About two weeks ago the right button on my wireless trackball stopped working. I messed with it and tried to get it to work. (My corded one does something similar, but if I make sure I press it a certain way, it works.) No matter what I did, though, that button would not work. So I looked for my warranty card. I didn’t find anything so I went online. On Logitech’s site, I discovered my model of trackball had a five-year warranty. I contacted customer support via email late on the evening of 8/18/10. (Remember that date. )

          The next day I heard from a support technician. He asked me to test my mouse by plugging it into a different USB port and a different computer. I did so. It actually did improve the mouse. The button began working every 4th or 5th time I pressed it. I reported that back to the technician. He asked for a bunch of numbers (model, serial, pid) and a copy of the receipt. I couldn’t find my receipt. Over a few more back and forth emails, I told him when it had been purchased, who most likely had paid for it and that I was fairly certain I’d registered it. (THAT is one routine I’m pretty good at maintaining.)

          His reply? “It appears your device is defective. I have submitted a replacement request. You will be contacted when it is shipped” After several days, I began to think I should follow up and ask him about the status of the replacement request. Until I went to check our mailbox. Along with the junk mail I always get was a box from Logitech! That was on 8/26/10! A week. It took a week to get my defective trackball replaced. A week and no hassle. Just legitimate questions to ascertain I actually had the trackball and it was defective.

          Now THAT is what I call customer service!

So how does this relate to writing routines and productivity?

1. Register those products with warranties you’ll actually use if needed. It could save you a lot of hassle if, like me, you have trouble hanging onto receipts. That means you won’t have to use writing time and emotional energy to argue with customer support. You can spend it wrestling with your characters instead.
2. Buy from companies that honor their warranties. (Logitech has my business for life!) When you do, you are assured of useful, working tools that help you accomplish your goals. Your characters will thank you.
3. Tell others about your experiences, both good and bad, but most especially the good. That will ensure those good companies stay in business and you’ll have access to all those useful tools you need to move your characters from imagination to well-drafted plot.

          Anyone else have an experience that made them want to tell everyone, “Buy anything and everything from this company!”?

I’ve always wondered if Paul in the Bible knew a lot of runners. Oh! Maybe Greek Olympians! Wouldn’t that be cool?! He used a lot of running analogies in his writing. Lately, I’ve started thinking about writing in terms of running.

Kitty's Runner's Journal

You might have heard me talk about running here. I talk about it on Facebook a lot because we (John and I) just completed a 14k race (about 8 ½ miles). The City 2 Surf race, with 80,000 entrants, is the third largest foot race in the world! Not only was it fun, but we both came in under our goal times! In 3 ½ weeks we’ll be running the Sydney Running Festival’s half marathon (21km, 13 miles), both for fun and to raise money for a charity, CHUM Therapeutic Riding.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned about running and writing over the last year or three…

• You may not finish the race if you don’t train long enough beforehand. I thought I was going to die the first time I ran a 5k race. I’d only been in training for 9 weeks. I finished, but thank goodness the race wasn’t longer.
• If you don’t train properly, you might hurt yourself and not be able to run the race at all. I bought the wrong shoes and hurt my foot so badly I had to drop out of a race two weeks before it started, no money back, months of training wasted.
• Training sucks – unless you decide it doesn’t. Attitude is at least 75% of how I keep going. John and I used to sleep in when it rained. But we got further and further behind in our training. One day we just had to decide – do we want to run that race in five months or not?
• The more you know about the course, the better prepared you can be and the more likely you’ll finish well. The City 2 Surf course is very hilly. One hill is even called “Heartbreak Hill.” When our friend Steven drove us from beginning to end, we could see and mentally prepare for what we’d need to do on race day. We also added a lot more hill training to our prep work because we could see we wouldn’t be prepared if we didn’t. We both ran, not walked, up Heartbreak Hill.
• “I’m running for distance, not for speed.” Sometimes I get up before dawn and haven’t slept well and can barely get out the door and sooo don’t want to run. I can feel I’m running slower and I have to focus on my posture because I’m slouching from being tired. Then instead of letting the negatives get me down, I repeat that mantra in my head. Amazingly, I’ve never quit before the assigned distance for the day has been run, and I often finish with a far better time than I expected (i.e., slower, but not nearly as slow as it felt! LOL!).
• A runner’s journal will help you find your strengths and weaknesses over time. I know I run better in the cold than in the heat or humidity. I’m better in the morning before breakfast than in the afternoon. I’m good at pacing, but need to work on speed. I know what sports supplements give me more energy and which ones give me a stomachache. Because I write it all in the journal.
• Even though I’ve never considered myself athletic, and have been a couch potato most of my life, I have to run 1-2 miles just to get into the groove. MILES, people!! I couldn’t run one mile when I was 18!
• I can’t compare myself to other runners, but I can compare myself today to my runs yesterday, last week, last month. I’m running significantly longer (our short runs 3x a week right now are 10k each (!) plus a “long” run on the weekend) and I’m getting faster all the time. Sure, practically everybody passes me. But maybe she’s been running since she was 10. Maybe he’s only running one lap and I’m pacing myself for three.
• I can’t run hard and fast all the time to run my best race. Neither can I let my training slide. I have to run uphill, downhill, long slow runs, short fast runs, and I have to include strength training and adequate stretching as well. I learned this by reading books and magazines on running, and by asking other runners.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have to explain the connections to writing. Whatever our chosen “training” is, we need to keep it consistent. If it’s every day, do it. But if it’s only Saturday morning, don’t compare yourself to other writers. You need to write every Saturday morning. Period.

And we need to keep track of what we’re thinking and feeling and listen to our subconscious guiding us. It’s the same way a runner listens to her body. If my knee hurts, it might be because my foot is striking the ground incorrectly. If my shoulders hurt, it’s because I’m tensing up as I get tired. When I pay attention, I can correct the problem and the symptom fades. It’s the same with writing.

Kitty's new Writer's Journal!

And yet as I write this, I think, why am I comparing my routines to other writers’ (write every day, write 100 words a day, write 10 pages a day, etc.) instead of checking my routines against my own past? Are both quality and quantity improving compared to this time last year? Two years ago? (Yes!) And why don’t I have a writer’s journal? I’m starting one today! (See the picture!)

I’ll close with some of my favorite running quotes from Paul and other Biblical writers. See if you can find a correlation between running races in the quotes and in your own writing life. Godspeed!

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training… Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly… (1 Corinthians 9:25-26)

Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:30-31)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)

I just returned from the Romance Writers of Australia National Conference. (It was held at a hotel within walking distance of my home, so I use the word “returned” loosely!) What a great weekend! If there is one thing that will get your creativity flowing and your motivation recharged, it’s hanging out with lots of like-minded people!

I was trying to decide the best way to share all the wonderful information and inspiration from the conference and I decided I’d let other people tell you about it, too. I think you might find some of their blogs have not only fun and interesting posts, but truly helpful thoughts on helping you finish your own manuscript.

Caitlyn Nicholas has several posts about topics covered on Published Author Day (A-Day as she puts it). Anne Whitfield also talks about it on her blog. Paula Roe shares some of what she learned at the conference, including great stuff from Deb Dixon, author of Goal, Motivation, Conflict, and our all-day Friday speaker.

One fun fact: there were about 250 attendees – 249 women and 1 man! Daniel got his own write-up in the Sydney Morning Herald: “Daniel Puts the Man in Romance”.

My personal highlight was pitching my superhero book to an editor and getting a request for a full manuscript! Hurray! Now to re-read it, polish it and get it out!

I want to get my routine machine kicked into a higher gear because I also want to take advantage of Harlequin/Mills & Boon’s New Voices contest. It begins September 6, and the first round(s) are judged by readers – the end-users of our industry. The winner will be published by Mills & Boon, have a M&B editor for a year, and receive an iPad! Have you ever thought that if only you could get your work in the hands of readers, you’d be able to prove you had what it takes? Well, if you write category romance, this is your chance! (Let us know if you enter so our readers can check out your entry!)

If contests get you excited to finish your work and submit it, the Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Short Story Competition is now open. Send in your romance, mystery/crime, science fiction/fantasy, thriller/suspense, or horror by November 1. There is also the A Piece of the Sky first line contest – and it’s free to enter!

Not interested in contests? Just trying to get your work out? Here is a blog on the Writer’s Digest site about how to get agents to request your material.

Or maybe you’re tired of the agent hunt and want to find ways to get your work straight to an editor. Penguin UK is opening up their submissions policy to unagented, unsolicited manuscripts from now until the end of October. Hurry to the web site and check out the details!

Too tired/busy/<insert your reason here> to write today? Then check out this blog on 23 (More) Websites That Make Your Writing Stronger and keep feeding your brain writing-related information. Or go to Booklist Online and sign up for a free webinar on writing, or watch one of the past webinars at their site. They’ve got great topics like romance fiction, crime fiction, comics in schools, non-fiction, teen literature, inspirational fiction and much more.

That’s all the information I remembered as I was trolling through emails from various writing loops this past week. I have to go now – I have a manuscript to polish and submit!

Last week, I started to tell you all the ways I try to gather information that will be helpful to my career as a writer. But the list was so long, I had to break it into two blogs. Last week I mentioned online classes and lecture packets, Twitter, blogs, online articles for writers, and webinars.

There are an abundance of online ways to keep up with the latest information. But remember that authors still speak at bookstores. (Easy to forget sometimes when we spend so much time alone on the Internet!) This can be a great way to network and ask questions, including how-to questions. Also check out your favorite authors when they go on blog tours. They will often – depending on the audience at the blog – discuss how they researched and wrote their book. More helpful information for you. Many authors also have “For Writers” sections on their web sites with articles and links to other useful information.

You may be thinking you can’t afford to go to a writer’s conference – the airfare, the hotel, the hundreds of dollars in tuition. But search online and watch your newspaper’s calendar section for other writer or reader events. I attended the Australian Romance Readers Award dinner last Saturday night. Not only did I meet some romance readers who were happy to tell me what they loved to read, but I met some more writers. We exchanged email addresses so that we can share information later.

I also went to the Sydney Writer’s Festival last week. Most of the events are talks with authors and are free to the public. I went to the talks on writing crime in fiction and YA writing, There were also talks from first novelists, talks on verbal storytelling and more. Check your newspaper, community web site, or library to find out about reader and writer events in your area. If there isn’t anything interesting coming up, consider volunteering to be a speaker somewhere or to organize a community event. These are great ways to network!

As part of the festival, the State Library of New South Wales conducted tours for writers and researchers. A friend and I paid $20 each to get the grand tour. We were told all the different kinds of things they had there for research and what other famous writers had used library materials for in their books. (Ironically, all this information is available to anyone for free, but we paid $20 to find that out.) Find out if your library does tours. Better yet, find out if there are libraries in your area you had no idea were there! (I’d never heard of the State Library of NSW, but I am definitely going back. The inside looks like the library the Beast opened up to Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast! It’s dreamy!)

Another way to gather information is from your friends, critique partners, and other writers who know you. Based on their knowledge of you, your writing and your interests, they can help you decide if you’re on the right track in your writing. My agent asked me several years ago if I’d considered writing YA because she thought my voice worked for it. I haven’t really tried it until this month, but I’m finding it an interesting experiment. Maybe I’ll discover I have a talent for it. I was telling my friend Rachel about this scary car chase through the woods that happened to me as a teenager and that I was thinking of writing it up as part of the first scene of this book. She was so taken in by the story (though we were driving down city streets in the light of day) that she said her heart was racing as she waited to hear what happened next. Maybe I’ll find I can tell a suspenseful story as well.

On the other hand, learn to tell when you’re not getting good information. If you show your work to people (writers or otherwise) and they tell you it’s great, they loved it, can’t think of anything to change, you may decide this particular person or group is not really helping you write better. Know when you’re surrounding yourself with “yes” people who aren’t helping, versus when you’re trying to get constructive criticism from people who enjoy reading in your genre. While many people who don’t read in your genre can be good or great critique partners, people who love and read similar books may be most helpful to you.

Those are just about all the ways I can think of that I use to routinely gather information. Sometimes they can help me fight procrastination by taking some action, however small, in my writing. Sometimes I spend too much time doing something (can you say “research”?) and not writing a single word – which is exactly the kind of procrastination I’m trying to fight this month.

What do you have to keep yourself from doing too much of? What works for you? What seems to be a procrastinating habit for others but you find it works well for you?

          I have a Kindle! I have a Kindle!

          Laugh all you want at my excitement. It won’t phase me. I’m too immersed in reading the plethora of books I’ve discovered for my new Kindle.

          This unexpected gift was handed to me last week, just in time for an extended road trip. And just in time to help me achieve my Anti-Procrastination Month goal of reading 4 new novels this month. I knew I needed to read more, fill my creative tank, so to speak and this month seemed the perfect time. I had an extended road trip planned and would have at least half the travel time to read (more if my daughter can’t relax enough to let me drive her car).

          Before I even suspected I would receive a Kindle, I’d learned about Amazon’s Kindle for PC, an easily downloadable program that allows you to read Kindle books on your PC. In a few easy steps I had the program loaded and my first (free!) book downloaded. Within days, I’d discovered the Kindle version of several books I’d been wanting to read. They were only $.99! In the two weeks leading up to my vacation, I added more books to my Kindle for PC. I was ready to go. I could read my novels on my computer while we drove all over the US.

          Two days before my departure, an elderly relative called and asked me to come see him. When I arrived, he handed me a box. I opened it. It was a Kindle! I have a dear friend who calls me the Queen of Understatement. To say I was thrilled is a huge understatement. I squealed and hugged him and thanked him several times. Then I went home and neglected the multitude of tasks I needed to do to play with my new toy.

          As content as I was to read my books on my PC, I’m so thankful to have a Kindle. It is so easy to read! I can even sit in the sun and read, no glare on the screen. And it’s so small, it fits in my purse, available at anytime I might have to redeem otherwise wasted minutes. It holds more books than I could read in years, all a 5 x 8 “book” that weighs less than most paperbacks. I can be read multiple books and my Kindle automatically takes me to the last page I read when I open each book. I love my Kindle.

          The definition of kindle is “to ignite or set on fire.” Receiving my Kindle has done just that. I’ve always loved reading. I now love it even more.

          My goal for Anti-Procrastination Month was to read 4 novels. I read “Shutter Island” by Dennis Lehane before my road trip, “Rooms” by James L. Rupert in the first few days of the trip and am now reading “The Light Princess” by George MacDonald, “Refuge” by Stephanie Gallentine and “The Word Reclaimed” by Steve Rzasa. I still have 1500 more miles to travel. With a battery that holds a charge for over a week, that’s plenty of time to finish these stories. (Especially if my daughter never wants me to drive. ) I love my Kindle!

          Do you think reading novels is as important (and fun!) as writing them? What novels are you reading? Do you have or want an electronic reader? Or do you prefer the experience of paper and ink? What kindles your reading enthusiasm?

In addition to routinely writing, we need to routinely gather information. This may come in a variety of forms, many of which you know about. You might want to take online classes and learn something new or brush up on something you need to work on. One of my favorite online teachers is Margie Lawson. She teaches Deep Editing, Writing Body Language and Dialogue Cues Like a Psychologist (the latest one starts May 31 at WritersOnlineClasses.com), Defeat Self-Defeating Behaviors and more.

If you don’t have time for an online class, you may want to sign up for one that uses an email delivery system (such as Yahoo Groups) so you can file all the emails with lectures and comments to read later when you have time. Another method is buying the lecture packets instead of taking the class. I’ve bought Margie’s lecture packets to do on my own time. While taking the class and spending all the time necessary to do the work would probably have netted me faster results, doing the work on my own has been great because Margie’s lecture packets (several hundred pages each) are so thorough.

There are MANY groups that offer online classes – Romance Writers of America (RWA) chapters and other groups like crime writers, mystery writers, etc. offer a discounted rate to their members, but also offer the classes to non-members for a few dollars more. And don’t let the organization’s name fool you. RWA chapters, for instance, not only hold classes having to do with writing romance, but they also have classes on character, plotting, crime scenes and more. (Do some searches for writer’s classes, online classes, etc. and you’ll find dozens.)

Shonna is a fan of finding information on Twitter and she is very good at it! She follows agents (see her post on “How to Stalk an Agent (nicely!)”) and also keeps track of what publishers and other writers in her genre are doing. I haven’t figured out how to do what she does without taking up my best writing time, but ask her questions and she’ll help you figure out how to get information you can use from Twitter.

Read Stephanie’s blog from Monday to get a list of some of her favorite how-to authors on story structure. She’s got a new favorite blog now, Storyfix, and you can also sign up for the emailed newsletter there. (I signed up but I haven’t read it yet – not quite as useful that way! You can also get RSS feeds of blogs coming to your mailbox. I read these more often than going to the blog.) Stephanie always seems to find yet another blog that posts great information consistently. Again, I have a tendency to read some great blogs for a few days or a week, but quit when it seems to be taking up too much of my writing time. Ask Stephanie if you want more great blogs to read.

Get into the habit of sharing links to great articles and blogs with your other writer friends. Eventually people will get into the habit (especially if you encourage them) of sending links to each other when they find something good. This synergy will help you all find a lot of information without each of you having to search for everything yourself. I am a member of two groups who send each other emails frequently with just two lines – Here’s a great article on X topic, and the link. Doesn’t take much time at all.

Are you familiar with webinars? Online seminars, they are usually in a “meeting” software that you get a link to click into. Basically, it’s a panel discussion that you are listening to through your computer speakers. The ones from Booklist are free, and the two I’ve participated in have been useful for studying the market. Definitely worth my time, even though yesterday I had to set my alarm for 3:45am to dial in to a 2:00pm US Eastern time webinar. I learned a lot about YA (young adult) fiction yesterday in a webinar called “Trends in Teen Lit: The Independent View”. The information can be a little general but if you’re researching something you don’t know much about (like me and YA), it’s good information.

Don’t have time to do all of this info gathering and keep up with your writing? Decide on how much time you will dedicate – an hour a day? an hour a week? – and choose the things you think will be most useful to you and work on those first (perhaps reading a couple of agent and editor blogs). If you have time, try other things to see how they work for you (follow agents on Twitter). Don’t go over your time limit and you’ll feel good about the time you’re putting in. And you’ll feel great that you aren’t procrastinating with your writing.

These are just some of the things I came up with when I made a list of all the different ways I routinely gather information. I’ll share the rest of my list next week. What about you? How do you gather information? How much time do you spend doing it?

Whenever my husband and I plan for a household project, such as landscaping, or fixing a plumbing issue, we always double the dollar amount we expect it to cost. From experience, we’ve learned that we usually underestimate, especially when hiring out. So we double our estimate and come close.

Same goes with publishing. Each step takes longer than we think it will.

.

Agent Rachelle Gardner tweeted this on Thursday:

Paradox: Publishing seems to move at a glacial pace. Yet all of us (agents & editors) are running as fast as we can.

Once you get your work OUT THERE, you will learn the meaning of patience. I thought being a mother taught me to be patient. Uh-uh. God placed little ones in my life in order to prepare me for the submission process, I’m sure of it.

We can control our writing pace, the number of hours we put in to learning the craft, and any number of other writerly activities. But once the query email has left our computers, we have no control on when we will hear back. Anywhere from five minutes to never.

A watched pot never boils. Nor a phone ring, or an email ding. Sigh.

In The Waiting is the Worst Part, agent Nathan Bransford talks about how hard it was for him to wait while his own book was out on submission:

A WEEK AND A HALF. That’s how long it took before I woke up in the middle of the night to check my e-mail…

LOL. Yes! (insert fist pump) I was glad to read that a seasoned agent, familiar with the querying process, also had trouble waiting patiently for an answer.

Chris Richman at Upstart Crow Agency wrote a blog post recently called On Patience. He gives a timeline of a query sent to him in Dec 2008 and finally ending with a publishing contract on March 2010, with a pub date of Fall 2011. And that timeline didn’t even include the months (years?) it took the author to write and revise the book in the first place.

There is no solution to the waiting game. Setting your expectations helps. “Write the next book” is the common advice. I say, print out these clichés and tape them to your computer, your phone, and your bathroom mirror:

• In due time.

• It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

• Slow and steady wins the race.

• Better late than never.

          At some point, if you are seriously considering a career in writing, someone will try to convince you that you should create a website. Are they right? Does every aspiring writer need a website, even before they ‘get the call’? Or should they ignore the pressure, concentrate on writing books and leave a website until after they have a publishing contract?

          As with any other decision, there are conflicting opinions and you will have to decide what is best for you. Here are a few of my thoughts, which may help you make a decision for or against.

          I think the first thing to consider is the purpose of the website. Why would anyone come visit it? If I had books to offer, of course one of the main goals for the site would be to let people know about my books. I don’t have any books to sell. Not yet. So creating a website for that purpose just doesn’t make a lot of sense. Even when I do have published books, a site that is only a advertising tool will get limited traffic. Unless I do a lot of networking and publicity, which would take time away from my writing, there is only a limited amount of traffic I could expect.

          As I’ve considered this, I’ve gone to two different groups of people for ideas, other writers and internet marketers. (Occasionally, those groups will merge and I’ll find a writer immersed in Internet marketing. Randy Ingermanson, for instance.) The internet marketers make the most sense. (That’s really not that surprising, considering they are attempting to make a living from online marketing.)

          The common theme they all emphasize is to keep your target audience in mind and create a site that gives that target audience something they want. You give them something they want that helps them while it increases their desire for whatever you are offering. Create a site that has your target audience returning again and again, even if it is only for those freebies, be it information, entertainment or actual product.

          That seems counter to the way many authors create their sites. They put up graphics of their books, links to places where they blog and a calendar listing where they will be speaking. Their site, be it a blog or a full-fledged website, is all about them. If the reader is into that author and the reason they are visiting that site is to learn about the author and buy books, all well and good. But how does that author attract and keep visitors who are not initially interested in her books or appearances? And how does that author keep those same visitors returning more often than her publication schedule?

          Again, it is about offering the visitor something other than a pitch to, “Buy my latest book!”

          Sort of like this site. Kitty, Shonna and I definitely started this site to increase our own name recognition, hoping it might even establish a base of potential readers when we publish these stories we are creating. That is no secret. Unless we tell you that is one of our goals (as I just did), though, it is not obvious. We are not (usually ) yelling, “Hey! Look at me!” and putting up useless drivel about our activities and opinions. We do discuss our activities and opinions, but within the context of offering you and other visitors to the site something of worth, something that will help you along your own quest toward publication. (At least that is what we strive to do.)

          So if you are considering creating a blog or website, be sure you have something to offer an audience along with whatever chatter about yourself you include. When there is something the reader considers worth her time, she will visit, she will return and she will tell her friends. And that’s what you want, lots of traffic and talk.

When you feel like your manuscript has been critiqued and rewritten to an inch of its life, you may be ready to start looking for representation. I know many agents will say most authors submit too early, but when you are starting out, you don’t know what that means. So go ahead and submit when you think you are ready, because maybe you are. And if you’re not, don’t worry; you’ll soon know it by all the form rejections!

I like the idea of vetting my manuscript through an agent before taking my one shot at an editor. (Agents can be like a trial run to see if your manuscript has merit and if one is interested, can help you with that final polish.)

How do you find agents?

Traditionally, you’d go to book listings such as the annual Writer’s Digest Guide to Literary Agents. The companion blog to this book is http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/ run by Chuck Sambuchino. He does a great job of offering info about new agents, agent advice, author advice, winning query letters, contests, and more.

Other more traditional avenues include:

• attending writer’s conferences

• talking with other writers

• scanning the acknowledgment pages of books you like

• reading newsletters and magazines announcing publishing deals (like Publisher’s Weekly)

Now, for the fun stalking part. If your goal is to narrow your list down to the agents who will most likely ask for a full, there are some ways you can learn their interests, quirks, and dislikes.

Agent blogs and newsletters

I like when an agent blogs. Some people don’t, saying it takes too much time away from their “real” responsibilities. I think blogging is good for an agent’s clients because that is just one more bit of publicity for their books. And for us aspiring-types, we get to learn if that agent is a fit for us.

Twitter (Twit chats, seeing who others are following, #FF (Friday Follow), forwards)

There are a LOT of writers, agents, editors, bookstores, librarians, etc. on Twitter. Like blogging, twittering can tell you a lot about an agent. You can learn her likes and dislikes, find out if she’s cleared her query inbox and other good stuff. Learn that she is off to the London Book Fair, so you know you won’t be hearing from her this week, etc. For an excellent primer on Twitter, start with http://www.inkygirl.com/twitter-guide-for-writers-part-1/

Contests

On our Contest page I try to post the urls of contests that put you in touch with agents. Sometimes contests are quick (announced on Twitter and they last a day or so.) Even if you don’t enter a contest, you can learn a lot about an agent by watching the winners and comments. For example, The Secret Agent contest is a fun one because the SA stops by and gives comments on each entry. There is one going on right now, so be sure to check it out and you’ll see what I mean.

Others places:

Author blogs—if you know who your agent reps, you can follow her authors for snipits of agent news and to get a feel for the kind of writing the agent leans towards.

Query Tracker—is an online database of agents, plus a blog all geared to helping you find an agent.

Message boards (like Verla Kay’s Children’s Writers & Illustrators Message Board for children’s writers)—talk to like-minded authors as well as hear directly from agents who check in periodically.

What about agents who aren’t online? Yeah. They are a bit tougher to stalk and you’ll have to rely on the traditional methods. Casey McCormick at Literary Rambles has managed to compile some info on the more reclusive agents. She focuses on YA and MG.

Anyone else have some tips on where agents hang out?

          As I read the comments to my blog last week, I realized the topic of self-publishing is bigger than I thought for our readers. I decided to spend another week on the topic, with this post being somewhat more instructional. Please know that I am by no means an expert. I am at the beginning of my journey toward self-publishing. I’m still finding my own way. I have been reading about it, considering it and discussing it for years. I have definite opinions, but very little experience. As I said before, I feel like a childless couple dispensing childcare advice. Even so, in the spirit of this blog, I offer what I know for those coming along behind me. And I encourage those further along the road to add their comments. (Please! )

          I think the best way to get started is to define the terms used. There is a difference between POD (print on demand) and self-publishing and vanity publishing. Sometimes those differences are not immediately obvious. Often the lines get blurred, either by the publisher or the author. Other times the similarities or lack of them are obvious to insiders, while escaping the understanding of outsiders. Perhaps my perspective, and that of the few sites I’ve visited, will bring some clarity to the issue.

          Vanity publishing is the ‘black sheep’ of publishing, the option that engenders, rightly or wrongly, the upturned nose and sneer by those of “the establishment”. It’s been around as long as books have been published. With this option, the author takes all the risks, bears all the cost. Before the advent of POD (print on demand) publishing, this meant having to order hundreds or thousands of copies for each printing in order to get a decent price. That isn’t always the case now, but the author still must do all the work and bear all the cost. While this may be the best option for an author, this is an area of the publishing world that is rife with “sharks” and it takes a business-savvy person to negotiate these waters. (Although, as self-publishing becomes more and more viable, those predators have to work harder to find unsuspecting prey.)

          Self-publishing is often seen by those outside the field as the same as vanity publishing. In fact, to the casual observer, there is little difference. The author owns the copyright, handles, or pays others to handle, all the tasks necessary to see the book to print and takes on all the risks and benefits of publishing a book. (U-Publish, a self-publishing company (which I have NOT vetted, so visit at your own risk) has a good explanation of the difference between vanity and self-publishing.) The difference is often in the mind and business activity of the author. Another site, The Straight Dope says it best, “Understandably some writers think, ‘if I’m going to do all the work, I’m going to keep all the cash.’”

          Print on Demand (POD) publishing technology changed the face of publishing, made self-publishing a viable option for many entrepreneurial authors. Now it is possible to inexpensively print a small (as low as 1copy) run of paperback books of the same high quality as the traditional publishing run of thousands. Now any author or publisher, no matter how little known or under-capitalized, can make a book available to the public for a reasonable cost. (According to Booklocker, most of the major POD publishers use the same printer.) The downside to POD is that most bookstores do not stock these books, usually because they cannot get a refund if they don’t sell. (With persistence, though, an author can change this. Janet Elaine Smith has self-published multiple books, has convinced many bookstores across the country to carry them, shares her ideas and experiences with other authors and even publishes a marketing ebook.)

          Online publishing is often equated with self-publishing, but can be very different. Some ebooks are self-published, many are not. Traditional publishers are increasingly offering books in eformat in addition to or instead of the regular printing run. Producing a book in an electronic format sometimes makes the most sense, especially with the rise of eReaders. When an author is considering self-publishing, depending on the audience, offering an ebook option to the public might be a viable option, particularly for many niche markets.

          These are very basic explanations and, as I said, I might not have all the facts, not having a lot of experience in this yet. Obviously, each author must assess their book, their desires for that book and their intended audience in order to make the wisest choice. As I progress further along this road, I’ll share my experiences. And I’d love to hear your more of our reader’s thoughts on the subject.