Introduction
How To Use This Book
Section 1: Interviews—Casting the flyrod, 3
1 Agents, 5
2 The Book Review, 49
3 Marketing and Sales, 75
4 Book Shepherd, 95
5 Bookstore events, 115
6 Cover design, 125
7 Distributor, 143
8 Independent Editor, 154
9 Warehouse Distribution, 163
10 Internet Resources, 169
11 Publicists, 191
12 Websites, 205
Conclusion, 212
Section 2: “Forget the bait, pass me the Maalox”: The Submission Process, 213
13 Before You Bait Your Hook, 215
14 Myth busting, 219
15 The Log Line, 225
16 The Pitch, 229
17 Author Bio—creating something from nothing, 235
18 Word Count, 239
19 The Snooze-less Query letter , 241
20 The s-s-sy-sy-synopsis, 249
21 Submissions Advice, 255
22 Après le query/submission, 259
23 Rejection, 263
24 ”So why did you reject me?”, 267
25 The Promotion plan, 271
Section 3: “Chumming the Waters”, 277
26 Publishers Are Not Created Equally, 279
27 The Players, 283
28 Print-on-Demand—POD, 287
29 Questions every writer should ask a publisher before querying, 299
30 Vanity/Subsidy Publication—pay to play, 303
Section 4: “The Writer’s Survival Style Guide”, 307
31 When a manuscript feels sick, 309
32 Punctuation Beerfest, 315
33 Submission Autopsy - Part 1 - Show vs. Tell, 319
34 Submission Autopsy - Part 2—Backstory, Fluff and Good Intentions, 323
35 Submission Autopsy - Part 3—Dialog tags, 327
36 Submission Autopsy - Part 4—POV, 331
37 Physical Descriptions in Blocks of Text—Watch Out For Those Bosoms, 337
38 Survival Style Guide, 339
39 Watchful Writing - Mind Your Characters, 359
40 Do Miracles Happen?, 363
Conclusion, 367
Index, 368
