Author: Scott McKenzie

Jonathan Miles’s debut novel, Dear American Airlines gets a good review from Richard Russo in the New York Times. I’m about halfway through this quick novel and will have more about it later. But for now, I just wonder what the airline’s PR department thinks about it. Granted, a literary novel isn’t exactly going to…

Answer-Thon

Jonathan Lyons of Lyons Literary is hosting an answer-thon at his blog. Lots of good info on pitching multiple projects at once, agents expectations of authors, and disappearing agents. Good stuff.

Getting Your Book on the Shelves

If you’ve self-published a book, used a print-on-demand service, or gotten squat for help from your publishing company’s marketing department, here’s a great article with detailed instructions for pitching your book to book buyers and store managers. [I learned about this article from Jonathan Lyons’s blog, and I think he got it from Shelf Awareness.]

Parisian Pen Habit of Mark Sarvas

I profiled lit blogger extraordinaire and debut novelist Mark Sarvas in the May 2008 issue of Pen World. In the piece, Mark describes how he used pens during the writing and editing of his novel, Harry, Revised. He also explains his habit of collecting pens while in Paris.

Query Letter Comparisons and Bragging

Nathan Bransford has a great blog post about bragging. And the comments yield an interesting discussion as well. Bransford’s point is that you should “brag” on yourself all you want in a query letter. Share your relevant achievements and accomplishments. However, then turn off the spotlights. “When it comes to describing the actual work in…