Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Why an Aspiring Novelist Needs a Bunch of Books that are Good to Go by Anne R. Allen Most writers I meet are desperately trying to get a first novel published. Most will fail. Here’s the bleak truth: almost no writer gets a book deal on the basis of a first novel alone. “Yeah, but…” […]
by Anne R. Allen Beginning writers love prologues. My first novel had one. I’ll bet yours does too. And why not? Prologues are the quickest way to set the scene and establish the mood and tone of your novel. They allow us to snuggle into a fictional world and get comfy before the action […]
by Anne R. Allen Today agents Janet Reid and Colleen Lindsay have both blogged complaints about writers including extraneous publishing credits in their queries, so here are some guidelines: Contests: Ms. Reid says agents do NOT want to hear about your 3rd place or hon. mention “wins”. It’s first place or nothing. She […]
I just heard one of my YA stories, The Big Ones will be included in the Literary Lab’s new anthology, Genre Wars. Nice, since it looks as if the competition was stiff. It’s only my second venture into the genre, and short stories are a stretch for me. My muse likes big, juicy novel-sized plots. […]
How Long Should A Novel Be? by Anne R. Allen A lot of agents have been complaining about queries with inappropriate word counts recently. If you’re getting a lot of form rejections, this may be why. Today Fineprint agent Colleen Lindsay has posted an update of contemporary word count rules on her great blog, THE […]
There’s been some discussion on other blogs about some of my statements about how publishers label things. Please know I’m just the messenger—I don’t condone those one-size-fits-all categories any more than other writers. Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay it Forward weighed in by directing me to a blogpost in her blog archives about the […]
by Anne R. Allen Young Adult and Middle Grade are fast becoming the dominant genres for new fiction. I heard at a writers’ conference recently that one publishing house has fired most of its adult fiction editorial staff and replaced them with YA/MG editors. Many of our most creative authors are now penning […]
by Anne R. Allen Yeah, I know. We all hate labels. But if our ultimate goal is space on a bookstore shelf, we have to be able to suggest to an agent or editor what shelf that might be. The best place to start is an actual bookstore. Find books like yours and see […]
by Anne R. Allen Hundreds of folks weighed in on the great literary vs. genre debate on Nathan Bransford’s blog last month (He says good writers need to read both. I agree.) A few days later, in a Writers Chronicle thread more writers debated the subject. But nothing much got resolved—I think because the […]
by Anne R. Allen There’s a new fiction genre in the publishing world: “New Adult.” This means books for single people 18-30. According to author S. Jae-Jones’ recent blogpost it includes most of the hipper literary works of the past couple of decades, plus the now defunct (just whisper it) chick lit. Her list […]
by Anne R. Allen If you’re a diligent, talented writer who’s done your homework—and you have the good-luck fairy on speed-dial—sometime during your novel querying process, your phone will ring and you’ll hear the voice of an agent—a real, honest-to-goodness publishing industry professional—who’s impressed enough to spend money and time ringing up little old […]
by Anne R. Allen Recently I cautioned against scam agents, but also noted that the ratio of legit agents to newbie novelists is approximately one to twenty-five gazillion. So what do we do—throw mass queries at big-name agents, perhaps employing the services of a Mafia henchperson or Voodoo practitioner? That would be a […]
This is one of my most pirated columns from Inkwell Newswatch. I’ve found copied on dozens of other blogs. (I’m flattered, pirates, as long as you give me attribution.) I wrote it in May of 2005, when I was working for an indie publisher in the UK, now defunct, but the principles remain the same. […]
