This week I’m linking to another J.A. Konrath post. His account of what he’s done to start and then revitalize his career as a great lesson for any writer.

Medallion Press is changing to an e-publisher. You can read more about it in their April 1st Newsletter.

Nathan Bransford talks about co-ops, and includes links to other blogs on the subject.

From Nicole Zoltack’s summary of the recent Write Touch conference, agent Kim Lionetti is particularly interested in finding new YA and WF authors. The summary also includes pitching advice from Lionetti.

In a GalleyCat interview, agent Harvey Klinger says editors are looking for strong women’s fiction.

From Agent Query: “Elizabeth Evans has moved from Kimberley Cameron & Associates (formerly known as Reece Halsey North) to Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.” According to her agency profile “She especially loves launching new authors’ careers” and she’s actively seeking “Novels that hit that sweet spot between commercial and literary fiction. Well-crafted stories filled with tension, emotion and suspense.”

I try and I try, but I can’t escape eBook news. As of April 1, Amazon isn’t selling new Penguin e-books. I hope that changes soon.

Just when we think we’re doing good for the environment by using digital media, Don Carli at MediaShift tells us that might not be the case.

“If you thought you were saving forests and protecting the environment by going paperless…think again. The real dilemma you face is that you may be doing more to cause environmental degradation and deforestation by going paperless than you think, and making responsible choices requires informed decisions and rational tradeoffs.”

There has been a flurry of articles about the iPad release. I’m only including one link with customers comparing the Kindle to the ipad.

From RWA-WF member Janie Emaus:

Fabulously40 is writing its first fabulous book and it’s about you. The world has had enough of “Chicken Soup.” We believe readers are hungry for a hotter, heartier serving of authenticity, straight talk, humor and inspiration for women in their fabulous forties!

Tell us how life has improved for you since you turned 40. You could be one of forty featured authors in a forthcoming Fab40 compilation!

• Have you found a new love, learned a new skill that has boosted your self-confidence, or found a new direction in life?
• Have you overcome some difficult challenge?
• Have you reconnected with a long-lost friend or family member you thought you’d never see again?
• Have you gone through a challenge that brought out an inner strength you didn’t know you had?
• Have you attained a long standing goal that you thought you’d never reach?

Tell us your inspiring, heart-warming story in 1,000 words or less and send it to us at publishers by June 15, 2010. This opportunity is open to all published and unpublished writers. What’s most important is stories from the heart that will make a difference to the readers.

There will be no monetary compensation at this time, but inclusion in this anthology will be a viable publication credit for your resume.

Authors of selected submissions will be notified in writing by September 30, 2010 Please include your name, email address and phone number with each submission.

In an interview at 1st Turning Point, Dorchester Editor Leah Hultenschmidt says, “Authors who have a strong network of contacts in the romance and bookselling community definitely have a leg up when submitting. The more friends you have to help spread the word, the wider your potential audience.”

This is one reason our WF chapter is so valuable. By the support we give each other and the genre, we’re affirming that there’s a market for women’s fiction.

Steve Jobs: 7 Lessons from a Marketing Genius by Carmine Gallo is a great blog on marketing any product. Books are a product! One of the 7 lessons is creating a “Twitter-friendly headline.” According to Gallo, when Jobs “introduced the MacBook Air in January, 2008, he said that it is simply, ‘The world’s thinnest notebook.’” Simple and powerful!

Looking for an agent? Writer’s Digest has a list of 24 Agents Who Want Your Work. 11 of the 24 are looking for women’s fiction.

Anyone thinking of querying a BookEnds agent should wait until the end of January. Jessica Faust and Kim Lionetti are taking a query break. On her blog, Jessica says says she stopped taking queries in the beginning of October. Since she began her hiatus, “there’s at least an extra hour in every day to work with my clients, get my office organized or even, on those rare evenings, put my feet up and read something I don’t have to. More then that though, it’s been a really nice mental break for me.”

If You Build It, They Won’t Come: A Guide to Author Websites is a GREAT article on websites. It gives percentages of what readers want in a website. And on how a website helps sell books. Did you know “Book shoppers who had visited an author website in the past week bought 38% more books, from a wider range of retailers, than those who had not visited an author site”? Neither did I, until I read the article.

Librarians visit websites, too, according to Susan Gibberman, Head of Reader Services, Schaumburg Township District Library and RWA’s 2008 Librarian of the Year. In her Romance University blog, she gives the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly about querying librarians.

She adds that library patrons can request books from librarians. I’ve done that with The Lost Recipe of Happiness by Barbara O’Neal (aka Barbara Samuel) and The Last Will of Moira Leahy by Therese Walsh. In both cases, I brought the book to the library and actually put it in the acquisitions librarian’s hands so she could read the first pages for herself.