Six Great Books

IS TWITTER LIKE READING AN AGENT'S MIND?

Once you've finished your manuscript it's all about finding an agent. Could this be harder than actually writing the novel? There are literally thousands of literary agents - everyone an individual. Anything that gives you insight into who these people are and what's on their mind can only be an advantage, right? Well, Twitter may just be 140 characters of insight and worth a read.

GalleyCat just published a list of agents on Twitter. I sampled some feeds. Some were helpful. Others, not so much. Here's the list  - see what you think.

Best Literary Agents on Twitter - GalleyCat.

Better an Unread Book than an Unworn Sock

     I try not to buy too many books for myself or my children.  Our bookshelves are full and we raid our local library every two weeks, checking out fifty books at a time.  This has something to do with being "green," but even more to do with being cheap, so please don't tell me to buy an e-reader instead!  As a wannabe first novelist, I feel like a hypocrite.  Why should I expect anyone to buy my (as yet unpublished) book if I don't consider their books worth buying--even when I desperately want to read them?  

    Here's a confession: in my last blog post, I referred to Mona Simpson's compelling novel, My Hollywood, but I have only read the first third.  It was a great read, and it made the two hours I had to kill at the Stamford, Connecticut Barnes and Noble store before catching a train so delightful.  Since my return from that trip the week after Labor Day, I have been on the DC Public Library waiting list for the book, starting off at number nine.  Since users can check out books for three weeks and renew for another three, it's not a surprise that the list goes slowly.  Just when I was thinking of asking for Simpson's book for Hanukkah (we celebrate Christmas too, but that's weeks later this year), I discovered today that I jumped up to number two on the list, apparently because the library system bought more copies.  Even if I haven't supported Simpson directly, I console myself with the knowledge that my hold request helped to convince the library of demand for her book.  And the patrons who let the book sit around on their nightstands for six weeks probably helped Simpson's cause even more. 

    I'm not too cheap to buy books for other people, especially when I want to impose my literary tastes on them.  Unfortunately, no one on my holiday gift-giving list seems right for My Hollywood, but I will keep in mind this plea on the blog of Chuck Sambucchino, the editor of The Guide to Literary Agents, encouraging us to make books our standard gift in order to support the publishing industry.  He advocates asking family and friends for lists of books and magazines they want, but many of us shy away from such a pragmatic approach.  The whole idea of gift-giving is that you are supposed to come up with great ideas on your own.  That's why aged aunts are famous for giving itchy, ugly socks and other items that no one wants or uses.  Nobody strives to be a clueless gift-giver, but if you just don't know what to buy someone and you want to save the publishing industry, then console yourself with the knowledge that an unread book is better than an unworn sock.

Stacy Juba Shares Her Experience in Publishing

We welcome Stacy Juba to Six Great Books to share her experience about publishing her first book. Stacy is the author of the mystery novels Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and the soon-to-be-released Sink or Swim, as well as the patriotic children's picture book The Flag Keeper. Her young adult paranormal thriller Dark Before Dawn will be released by Mainly Murder Press in 2012.  She is also the author of the young adult hockey novel Face-Off, published under Stacy Drumtra.

On a personal note our husbands were college roommates at Florida State University. We’ve come a long way. Who would’ve thought that when we attended each other’s weddings, that we’d both be blogging about writing and publishing someday. Hopefully down the line, the FSU roommates will both be married to bestselling authors. Thanks for letting us interview you Stacy!

Check out Stacy’s website and blog and purchase her books at www.stacyjuba.com

When did you start writing and seriously consider publishing a book?

I’ve been writing since childhood and started sending out stories to magazines when I was a high school sophomore. When I was 16, I wrote a young adult hockey novel called Face-Off about teenage twin brothers who don’t get along and are forced to play for the same hockey team. When I was writing the book, I saw an ad for a contest in the back of an Avon Flare novel at the local bookstore. I bought the book for the entry form. I entered my manuscript in the competition shortly before graduating from high school, went off to college, and a few months later, found out that I’d won. The book was published in 1992 under my maiden name Stacy Drumtra. The book did very well, however it took me many years of rejection before I sold a second book. This was partly because of employee turnover at Avon, and my next few manuscripts weren’t as strong because I didn’t have the benefit of professional editing like Face-Off received.  I was also so young and needed to focus on college and preparing for some sort of day job. 

Tell us about your inspiration for your first adult book Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. It’s such an interesting concept since so many writers reflect on the past to drive content for their books.

I graduated from college and became a reporter at a small daily newspaper. When I started out, I was an obit writer and editorial assistant. One of my tasks was compiling the 25 and 50 Years Ago Today column from the microfilm.  I never forgot that experience and when I was trying to think of a premise for a mystery novel, I got this idea: What if a newspaper editorial assistant stumbled across a 25-year-old cold case on the microfilm? What if a tragedy in her own past made her fixate on this murder and become driven to solve it?  This idea became my mystery/romantic suspense novel Twenty-Five Years Ago Today (watch the trailer) about a rookie obit writer and newsroom editorial assistant Kris Langley who investigates the cold case of  the murder of a artistic young cocktail waitress Diana Ferguson.

How long did it take you to write Twenty-Five Years Ago Today? Can you describe your writing process?

It took me about a year and a half to write the first draft. I’d plot out four or five chapters ahead, write the chapters, and then edit them. I knew who the killer was, but I didn’t know all the events that would lead up to the climax. With my current work-in-progress, Sign of the Messenger, I prepared an extensive 20 page outline which I hope will save me lots of rewriting. I winged it a bit more with Twenty-Five Years Ago Today and needed to go back and do some revisions to make the earlier chapters mesh with the later chapters. I’m also a member of the writing organization Sisters in Crime and shared the manuscript with critique partners who provided valuable feedback. It took me 9 years to sell the book, which brings us to your next question!

How did you find your agent and publisher?

It took a couple of years to get an agent for Twenty-Five Years Ago Today. During that time, a few agents were nice enough to give me suggestions on how to make the book stronger, so when I agreed with the suggestions, I’d make revisions before sending it out again. Finally, I found an agent who loved the book. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough and after nearly three years, the agent wasn’t able to sell it, nor two of my other manuscripts. I was frustrated to be back on my own again after getting my hopes raised and worried that I’d lost my chance. For a long while, I felt as if I had run out of publishers, but I always kept my eyes open. One year, I entered it in the St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Contest for the Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, and to my shock, it finaled.  I got my hopes up again as that contest had launched the careers of many well-known mystery authors, only to have my hopes come crashing down when I didn’t win the contest. The next year, my manuscript Sink or Swim finaled in the same contest – but again, I didn’t win.

So, the novels went back in my drawer while I continued keeping my eyes open for opportunities. One day, a message came across one of my Sisters in Crime loops that a new mystery publisher, Mainly Murder Press, was seeking mystery novels based in New England.  I submitted the book and a couple of months later, they offered me a contract. That totally transformed my writing career. Even though it wasn’t my debut novel, it had been 17 years between published books, so it sure felt like a debut novel. I even served on a Debut Novel panel at a mystery writers conference.  I guess it was my comeback novel. I launched a web site and blog in 2009 and just signed my third contract with Mainly Murder Press.  They have been a pleasure to work with, and I’ve learned so much about the publishing business that I independently published a patriotic children’s book called The Flag Keeper. Even though it had been rejected by traditional publishers, I knew there was a market for it and that I could sell it. 

 Click here to continue the interview

THE VICTROLA: How I Learned to Dance My Story

 “Maria Shiver’s women’s conference really opened my eyes to how hungry women are to learn from each other, and how the business and the personal intertwines in a way that it doesn't for many men,” a journalist colleague who attended wrote me in an email. 

His comments gave me another reason to finish my memoir. He added, “I’m struck by how the audiences - not just for the big speakers, but also in smaller forums - really listened so intently. It was as if people aren't really talking TO them in other contexts.”

I want to add my voice to the discussion.  I believe my book, with strategies about navigating the dubious path to “having it all,” might be of use.  I hope my story will validate the experience of other women: the freaky girl moments around a love-life tragedy, the frustration of constant pressure at work and the ever present worry that with so many demands nothing gets done well and my kids will reap the consequences on the couch of a therapist. 

Suddenly the need to finish my book is clear. My tears, despair, schemes and triumphs may corroborate those of my readers, equally alone and confused about how to make it work. I can’t allow it to always fall behind the tyranny of the urgent.  I see where my voice fits and connects to women who were and are me.

It reminds me of afternoons I spent as a child with our RCA Victrola (for those younger than I, it’s a record player that had “stereophonic” sound.)  My sister and I enjoyed countless hours listening to the 33-rpm-demonstration record that came with the turntable.  A tag line on the record label claimed, “Hearing Is Believing.”  As we listened to the music we could see monsters conjured up by a symphonic movement, dance out Herb Alpert’s Tijuana beat and, for a contemporary jazz piece, we moved like a locomotive around the room.

Sound, the voices of other women in this case, gets me on a visceral level.  The women speaking at the conference reminded me that I have to get a move on.  Wanting to connect to other woman and encourage them gives an urgency to my own story-dance.  It strengthens my resolve to move forward on getting this completed and finding an agent!