New Announcements for the New Year: Time to Redecorate

Toward the end of last year, I mentioned I planned to make some changes here on the website moving forward. Given how infrequently I blog, it makes sense to shift gears. This site will continue as an informational hub from now on. I plan to maintain the archive of posts, but in future things will be more news/announcement focused.

Photo by David Pisnoy on Unsplash

What does that mean? This site will remain your go-to spot for finding out what I’m looking to take on/represent, and where I’m traveling once the world opens up and we start to see in-person conferences again. If I’m teaching online, I’ll include that information here. Plus, announcements about TKA clients, book covers, and so on.

What’s going away? Anything that feels like an actual blog post. It doesn’t make sense to maintain a blog if I only write occasionally.

Instead, I’ve started a newsletter for anyone interested in the more personal side of publishing life. I plan to chat about the industry, books, reading, and writing, plus likely a bit of cultural overlap. Whatever I’m feeling passionate about at the moment. Right now the goal is two issues per month, directly to your inbox. The first post is up, so if you’d like to check it out and/or subscribe, you can find me over on Substack at Tempest in a Teacup.

One last announcement for now: Queries reopen on February 21st. I’ll likely update the wishlist here right before reopening.

Romance Writers of America and Their Racism Problem

I joined RWA as an associate member (typical for a literary agent) in 2005, and over the last fifteen years have participated in a number of conferences–both local and national–providing content and taking pitches. I could see the benefits offered by the organization to their members, but I also became aware of the downsides of the group. RWA leadership has always felt entrenched in their ways. Reluctant to change, slow to catch up with major shifts in the publishing industry. It took considerable time for the shiny new e-book format to count as a published book, whether members were looking to upgrade their membership status or enter the RITA Awards. When self-published authors sought recognition on par with their traditionally published peers, there was more deliberation over eligibility. But throughout all of these slow-moving changes, one issue has been consistent: RWA remained far too white.

As with other concerns, RWA has been addressing their racism problem. Very slowly. There have been discussions regarding the RITA Awards, the nomination and judging processes. Experts have been called upon to help determine ways to improve the system. To make it more fair, diverse, welcoming. There’s been a lot of talk. For years. And yet. And yet, here we are, with this enormous mess that began, unbeknownst to most, last August, and became very public just days before Christmas.

A brief recap, for those unfamiliar with the situation. Author Courtney Milan, who speaks out frequently against racism and stands up for the rights of all marginalized writers, was accused of breaking the RWA Code of Ethics when she criticized a work by author Kathryn Lynn Davis as being racist in its descriptions of a Chinese character. (Note: Milan herself is half Chinese.) RWA announced they were suspending her membership for a year and banning her from holding future office. Author Alyssa Cole shared the censure announcement on Twitter. She included links to the Code of Ethics and the original Twitter conversation that supposedly spured the complaint against Milan. Over the next few days, a sea of complaints were lodged in reaction to RWA’s handling of the situation and treatment of Milan, united under the hashtag #IStandWithCourtney. News articles began appearing in major outlets. RWA backed off their judgment, but only so far as to state they would turn the situation over for legal advice. Davis herself appeared to backtrack somewhat in an article in The Guardian.

For a thorough and regularly updated timeline of these events, including information about the initial complaint against Milan, I will link to author Claire Ryan’s detailed post: The Implosion of RWA. Huge kudos to her for keeping all of this straight. Also, for a recap that includes the most recent fallout–the cancellation of this year’s RITA Awards–I offer this Entertainment Weekly article.

So, what does all this mean? The reality is that there’s a world of difference between making policy adjustments to keep up with shifts in the industry, and getting to the root of how you treat actual people. Where RWA’s leadership could possibly afford to take their time determining the place e-books held in the world, there should be no such dithering regarding the rights of their membership–all of them–to be treated fairly, equally, and with respect. That means all ethics complaints are reviewed, and that evidence should be included before judgments are passed. It means you maintain transparency. And it certainly means you don’t drop a bombshell of censure right before Christmas and then close up shop for the holidays. RWA’s very handling of the initial complaint suggests that they themselves were aware that they were not behaving in an acceptable fashion.

This situation goes far beyond the need to diversify nominees for a book award; RWA has demonstrated that they need a complete overhaul of staff and culture to address racism at every level of the organization.

I could go on and on about all the things wrong with this situation, but many people, more articulate on the subject than I, have already done an excellent job. I can only comment on my own commitment to continue pushing for diversity and fair treatment in the publishing industry. I joined with a number of other agents to send a letter calling for the resignation of the full RWA leadership, and I will not be participating in any RWA events–providing presentations, taking pitches, etc.–until such time as they have cleaned house from the top and recommitted the organization to fairly representing all of its membership. I don’t know if it’s possible, and I reserve the right to walk away completely if they fail in the task.

 

Knight Agency Submissions Move to QueryManager

The Knight Agency submissions move to QueryManager starting today! I’m excited to announce that, as promised yesterday, we have officially migrated our submissions system over to QueryManager. As of now, you will be able to query the agent of your choice directly. The new system provides a confirmation when your query uploads, and also allows you to track the progress of your material. On our end, QueryManager allows us to sort queries and other submissions more effectively. It keeps them separate from other incoming email from the start.

If you submit to our old submission email, you’ll receive a message redirecting you to QueryManager. However, we do still have materials sent prior to today, and will respond per usual. No need to resend anything sent before we made this shift.

As always, you can find complete submission guidelines for The Knight Agency on our website, including links to each agent’s QueryManager submission form. Or you can submit to my directly through my QueryManager form. I am currently seeking full-length novels only, including general/upmarket fiction, women’s fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, single-title romance, young adult and middle grade fiction. My complete wishlist is available both here and at the agency link above. I have also been known to use the #MSWL tag on Twitter from time to time.

 

Submissions Update and the State of My Inbox

Submissions Update

I have a quick submissions update for all of you before I come back later with this week’s Friday Links. As you might have gleaned from the state of this blog, this year has gotten off to a busy start. But I will be opening to new submissions again starting Monday, January 22nd. As always, I ask you to check out and follow our agency submission guidelines, available here.

The State of My Inbox

Regarding outstanding submissions, I am in the process of sending out responses to a huge pile of work I read over the past couple of weeks. I’ve been under the weather, including some stubborn headaches, which means I’m reading offline to minimize eye strain. Normally, I read and reply, so this system has put me a bit off my game. Thank you all for your patience as I get these emails written and sent.

On Monday, I will post a more thorough update on previous submissions, so you’ll know if you should have heard back regarding your material.

Holiday Break 2017

I’m packing it up for the holiday break and heading back east to visit family. The Knight Agency offices are officially closed until January 3rd. I will post updates here on the blog, however, through the end of the month. Look out for Friday Links and more December Writing Challenge encouragement. In the meantime, don’t forget to schedule your writing time each day for the challenge. Mark those calendars, set alerts in your phone, stick a note on the fridge door. Do what you need to in order to put in a bit of writing time. All the words count!

Those of you waiting on responses to submissions, I hope to get a few more out this week. More news about those, plus an update regarding when I’ll reopen to new submissions, after the start of the year.

Safe travels to anyone on the road, the rails, or heading into the friendly skies!

Writing Goals: Planning for 2018

Writing goals, both making and working toward them, should be a year round process. But at the end of the year, it’s good to look ahead and sketch out a rough plan for where you’d like to go. You should also consider the bigger picture, and how your writing fits into your life.

I’m not a big fan of the term resolutions. Resolutions are things you start ignoring by the middle of February. Instead, I prefer to set goals and then come up with systems to help achieve them. The system becomes the habit, and the goal the result. But how do you make and keep your goals? What makes them different from the forgotten resolutions?

writing-goals-planning-for-2018

If you took time to look over your 2017 goals last week, you may already have a good idea what works and doesn’t work for you. But regardless, I have a few places for you to start.

Things to Keep in Mind:

  • Focus on goals that are within your control. You may wish to sign with an agent, but whether you do depends on whether your writing is where it needs to be, and you connecting with the right person to represent you. Instead of making “get an agent” your goal, determine what you need to do to make it happen. Maybe you want to send out ten queries by the end of January, or five queries per week. Other goals within your control might be to complete the research for a project you’ve been considering, finish a first draft, or to send a short story out on submission — and keep sending it out if you get rejected.
  • Don’t be afraid to think big. Huge goals can be manageable; you just need to break them down into smaller bites. So if your goal is to write your first novel this year and you haven’t started, don’t shy away from it. Instead consider the typical word count for a novel in your genre and divide that by the number of weeks in your writing year. Now you have a goal of how many words you’d like to write each week to get that first draft done.
  • Consider the calendar when setting your goals. Are you going to travel a lot this year? Take that into account when scheduling your  writing goals. Chances are you won’t get much writing done if you’re touring the capitals of Europe. Also think about busy times at your day job, or commitments to host for the holidays.
  • Create a Balance. If you’ve chosen a major goal for the year, that might be your entire writing focus. You’ll break it into smaller, sub-goals that will keep you occupied all year. But you can also balance your year with several smaller goals, or a mix of larger and smaller ones. Some goals might be for later in the year; you might have one you start in January and aim to complete by late March, and another that starts in April. Wrapping up a few small goals early can be great for keeping you motivated.

Creating Systems for Your Goals:

Once you have your goals in mind, you want to determine what it will take to accomplish each one. Set yourself mini-deadlines to keep things on track. For instance, if you want to get an agent, you might set that goal of sending out a number of queries per month. But before you can do that, you must write the query. You also need to come up with a list of agents you wish to submit to, and decide which ones you want to query first. Your eventual system might include a schedule for researching each batch of agents, including what they rep and their submission guidelines, and personalizing your query slightly when it seems appropriate.

If finishing a first draft of your novel is important, schedule your writing sessions each week on your calendar. Set alerts so you don’t forget. And if you’re concerned about making enough progress, try giving yourself a “catch up” writing day once a month. Maybe make yourself accountable by joining a writing group, or finding a writing buddy, if you haven’t already

Checking in with your goals should become part of your overall system. Again, mark it in your calendar, for the end of the month or once a quarter. Just take a half hour to look over your goals and see how your system has been working. Is everything progressing well? Or do you need to tweak things a bit?

Be Flexible:

At the end of the day, these are your goals. You determine what they are, and how to achieve them. If they are truly important to you, you’ll find a way to get them done. Don’t hesitate to change things up mid-year if your ambitions have shifted. And if things are going better than anticipated, you can always add new goals later in the year. Ultimately, the idea is to keep on writing. Good luck!

The Year in Review: Time to Assess 2017

Before you start setting goals for next year, it’s important to assess 2017 and see where you stand. This has been a difficult year for many, and that can make it frustrating to consider your progress — or lack of it. But not every year will shine. Some years bring major challenges. Here are some tips for considering this year in an honest fashion, and for gearing up for 2018. So grab your list of goals for 2017 if you made one, and some paper, and get ready to analyze.

desk-with-laptop

Considering Your Goals for the Year

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know I encourage writers to set goals every year. So if you joined me for that process, or did it on your own, you should have some sort of list or spreadsheet of what you wanted to achieve. This will help you assess 2017. Take a look at what you wanted to accomplish, step by step, and see how you did. Be honest, but don’t be overly critical if you fell short. Just note what went well, what you pulled off, and where you made progress. Congratulate yourself for the things that got done. Then look at what you didn’t finish, or maybe gave up on. Maybe there were projects you never even started. Ask yourself why some goals went better than others.

  • Were some goals easier?
  • Were you more interested in completing certain things?
  • Did you get frustrated by roadblocks or lack of progress and slowly give up on any of your goals?
  • Did you underestimate the time you needed for something?
  • How did life get in your way?
  • Did any of your goals just become less important as the year progressed?

The key here is to think about where you got in own your way, and where other factors came into play. That way you know where to focus your attention in the future. Don’t beat yourself up for any failures; they’re learning opportunities.

Considering How to Make Goals More Manageable in the Future

We fall short on goals for many reasons, only some of which you can control. Understand that there will always be things that happen that require you to shift your focus elsewhere or set projects aside. But you can take your own habits and tendencies into account, giving yourself an advantage. A few tips:

  • Make sure you’ve broken your goals up into sufficiently small parts.
  • Build a little extra time into goals that you know depend on other people’s cooperation.
  • Consider if a goal is time sensitive, or just something you decided you wanted to do; deadlines tend to motivate.
  • Keep your list of goals to a manageable number, and consider the level of difficulty for each one; one big goal and a few small ones or several medium-sized goals can help balance your efforts.

Once you’ve had time to assess 2017 and all you’ve accomplished, you’ll be ready to start looking forward to your goals for next year. Don’t jump right into it. Take a few days to let ideas percolate. Think about where you want to go with your writing, but also with other areas of your life.

Consider your day job, your family and relationships, your health, finances, and community responsibilites. 2017 made a lot of people sit up and take more notice of politics, so that might affect your plans for next year. Maybe you want to travel more, or go back to school. Take it all into consideration and even make a few notes while you’re brainstorming. Then next week, we’ll talk about setting goals for 2018.

 

 

Closing to New Submissions

Temporarily Closing to New Submissions

I will be closing to new submissions as of October 10th. I need to work my way through an enormous backlog of submitted work right now. Plus a tall pile of client manuscripts threatens to kill me daily. (Or maybe that’s my clients waiting for comments/edits.) Please note that my coworkers at The Knight Agency will still be accepting new material. As always, you can find our agency submission guidelines and other information at The Knight Agency’s site.

If I request or have requested material from you already, either by email or at a conference, please do send it. Previous queries do not count as new submissions, nor do conference pitches. If you are waiting to hear back on a query/partial/manuscript, thank you for your patience. I’ll be getting back to you as soon as possible.

I will reopen to new submissions once I have the current landslide under control. Keep an eye on this blog and/or social media for additional announcements. Thanks!

2017 Writing Goals: 3rd Quarter Check-In

Play Your Writing Goals

Time to review your writing goals for 2017! We’ve entered the final quarter of the year, so grab that list of goals and see where you stand. Or maybe you’re just getting around to making some writing goals. Whatever stage you’re at with your writing, consider where you’d like to go next, and how to get there.

Writing Goals Review

If you set goals for your writing at any point this year, look back and see what you’ve achieved versus where you need to recommit. Maybe you managed to complete some smaller goals, but you’re behind with a big one. Perhaps you focused on a major goal, while some small ones fell by the wayside. Or perhaps circumstances have changed and you need to rework one or more goals to match.

Be honest when you assess your progress, but don’t beat yourself up. Use your goals as a tool, a rudder by which to steer your career as best you can. Sometimes we lose track of what we’re trying to achieve, but sometimes life just gets in the way. Only you know where you should be working harder, and where you have to cut yourself some slack.

Reassess Your Writing Goals

Once you know where you stand, you can determine where you want to go. Maybe you’re on track, and all you need to do is keep working as you have been. Congratulations! But maybe you want to cross a goal off your list as no longer valid, or you need to change the timeline on something you’ve been writing. Don’t hesitate to tweak your goals as necessary. These goals are for you; you get to say what they should be, what’s working and what isn’t.

Writing Goals Going Forward

If you didn’t set goals earlier in the year, do so now. Even with three months left to 2017, you can accomplish plenty to help you move forward with your writing. Commit to writing daily, or consider submitting short work to a contest or for publication. Start researching literary agents, or get your author’s website up and running.

Even if you did set goals for the year, you can certainly add new ones at this stage. Maybe you’ve come up with a new idea for a project that requires some research, or you’re ahead with something and ready for the next step. Goal lists should remain flexible, and not adhere strictly to the calendar year.

Checking in with your writing goals enables you to keep on top of your career and your accomplishments. People typically forget about their new year’s resolutions by March. If you check in on your writing ambitions frequently over the course of the year, you’ll keep them fresh in your mind. So make your list of goals, set some calendar reminders, and go write.

Webinar Reminder: Conquer the Dreaded Synopsis

This is just a quick reminder for those of you interested in attending my Writer’s Digest webinar: Conquer the Dreaded Synopsis. The course takes place online tomorrow, August 2nd, at 1pm ET. You can sign up right until the class begins and still be eligible for the critique synopsis that’s available to anyone who registers ahead. Full details on the course and information about sign up can be found here. Hope to have some of you in class tomorrow!