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writers digest magazineBackspace featured in October 2009 Writer's Digest Magazine! Pick up a copy at newsstands or read the online interview with co-founders Christopher Graham and Karen Dionne.

 

 EXTRA articles on writing and publishing posted daily on STET! - the Backspace blog

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For a limited time, Irene Goodman of the Irene Goodman Literary Agency is offering partial manuscript critiques, giving writers a chance to not only receive that much-needed feedback on their work, but also an opportunity to contribute to a worthy cause.

Click HERE for more details. 

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May 27 - 29, 2010 - New York City

#1 NYTimes bestselling author Lorenzo Carcaterra, Neil S. Nyren, Senior Vice President, Publisher and Editor in Chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons, keynote speakers 

editors panel
"Unquestionably the best of all writers’ conferences, this two-day annual conference has leaped to the top with its emphasis on quality, not quantity. No more than 150 novelists can attend, and there are no formal pitch sessions. Instead, you’ll have the opportunity to attend quality workshops and mingle with some of the best editors, agents and other publishing professionals in the industry in a comfortable, non-aggressive atmosphere." -- BiblioBuffet

Early Registration Discount through Feb. 1

Save Up To $120

Maybe You're Already A Writer By Lee Child

Lee Child

Mystery novels, crime novels, suspense novels, detective novels, label them as you wish - but they all need characters, and characters need occupations. Plots need context, and details need authenticity. Read widely and you’ll see how today’s writers meet these needs by drawing on their own previous professional experiences.

But what mechanism is in use? I think you’ll see that the process breaks down into three categories: direct, indirect, and contextual.

A direct influence is pretty straightforward: a real-life surgeon might write a mystery with a fictional surgeon as the main character; or a psychiatrist might write about a psychiatrist; or a lawyer might (and indeed they have, in their hundreds) write about a lawyer.

Indirect influence is similar: an ER nurse might write about a trauma surgeon by drawing on direct observation and stepping up a rung or two; a civilian employee of a police department might write about a beat cop; a beat cop might write about a detective lieutenant. A detective lieutenant might write about a CIA operative. Indirect influence tends to be upward and lateral in focus.

Read more...
 
PUBLISHING IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY - Part One by Richard Curtis

AT THE END OF THE MILLENNIUM

 

 Like a world held between the gravitational pulls of two stars, the publishing industry is suspended between two great paradigms. One is the familiar industrial model built around tangible objects: bound volumes of paper manufactured on printing presses, warehoused in depots, transported in vehicles and sold in stores; the other, newly born, can be described as virtual. The sun of traditional publishing and bookselling has illuminated and warmed us for a millennium, but it is unquestionably fading, while the other, fueled by the prospect of direct communication between authors and readers independent of physical means of manufacture and distribution, scintillates with possibilities. In the balance lies the fate of one of civilization’s most precious artifacts, the book.

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A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO GETTING PUBLISHED by Jeff Kleinman


STEP #1: Write Your Project & Develop Your Credentials.

stepsSeems like two steps, doesn’t it? It’s not – or at least it may not be. You need to write (or perhaps just develop) the project, and at the same time, you need to make it clear (first to yourself; and then to others) that you’re the best person to be writing it in the first place.
This means having the writing “muscles” to do the job, as well as having the expertise to prove it.

 

 Step #1A: Write The Project

• Fiction: write the entire book (most novels are generally between 90K-120K words), rewrite as necessary.
• Nonfiction: Write a proposal (outline + a sample chapter or two), rewrite as necessary.
Step #1B: Develop Your Credentials
• Fiction: Publish! Win awards, grants. Try to give the appearance of a writer whose career is really taking off.

Read more...
 
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