The big industry news this week was the RITA/GH announcements. RWA-WF members who made the finals are Therese Walsh, double finalist Susan Wiggs, Pamela Morsi, Barbara O’Neal (Barbara Samuel), Jane Porter, Jeane Westin, Gabrielle Luthy, Chris Keniston, and Patricia O’Dea Rosen. Congratulations to all of you!
Interested in building a bigger fan base? Bob Phibbs, the retail doctor, talks about why people quit social networks like Facebook, and why you should stay on them.
On the same subject, editor and thriller writer Jason Pinter talks about the publishing industry embracing social networking and how this has changed in the three years since he was fired (or dooced) from one New York publisher — and hired three weeks later by another.
“With book coverage dwindling it has become more important than ever for publishers to create and explore alternative avenues in which to engage readers. And, perhaps surprisingly, publishers are responding. Many editors have personal Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, and many share access to their company’s Twitter accounts. Editors, agents and publicists are using these online tools to promote their acquisitions, authors and new releases in a way that, just a short time ago, was unheard of.”
Are you looking for an agent? Jason Yarn with Paradigm Literary Agency is judging Query Tracker’s next blog pitch contest. Chick lit, Women’s Fiction and Commercial Fiction are a few of the fiction genres he represents.
“The contest will open on Monday, March 29 at 12 Noon EST. Entrants will submit a one-line pitch and the first paragraph of a completed manuscript. The contest is open to all genres except short stories and romance. Mr. Yarn is accepting 100 entries.”
A Writer Beware blog by Victoria Strauss has data on first novel sales, including links to amounts paid, whether agented or non-agented, and more. She even has the average time it took responders to get their first sale (11 months).
Publishers Weekly has the sales ranking of 2009′s bestselling hardcover books. They call it “The View from the Top.” Nice view.
