Like writers, agents are scrambling to keep up with changes in publishing and some have reinvented themselves. Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware warns in her May 17 post that some agent reinventions may not be in writers’ best interests. Meanwhile, Wylie-Merrick Literary Agency side-stepped the conflict-of-interest issue by dropping the agent label to morph into Ampichellis E-Books . It retains its gadfly-like stance, however, and here the founders of Ampichellis opine that some agents might take over the role of book packagers or offer editorial services. Not so fast, fires back agent Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency, whose response makes it clear the agent’s changing role is an industry hot button. Stay tuned.

New agent! Michelle Diener alerted us to a recent post in Chuck Sambuchino’s Guide to Literary Agents blog. Susan Finesman has joined Fine Literary and it sounds as if Women’s Fiction fits her wish list.

In the May, 2011 edition of The Knight Agency Newsletter , Deidre Knight pens What To Expect When You’re Expecting An Offer to inform and reassure those with manuscripts out on submission.  In addition, a newsletter feature dubbed “The Watercooler” offers insight into the kinds of submissions Knight agents hope to find in their in-boxes. Hint: several are looking for women’s fiction.

Wordserve Literary’s Rachelle Gardner is a fan of hard truths and told them May 16 through 19 here .

Are you skittish about e-publishing, worried about the future of brick-and-mortar bookstores, and anxious about agents? Take a deep breath and click here Feel better now? We do, too. Thank children’s/YA agent Molly O’Neill for a link that reminds us why we read and write.

When I think of women’s fiction as a genre label, I do tend to think of contemporary-set novels – they definitely come to mind first. However, there are many historical novels that are also women’s fiction, stories of self-discovery, in which a woman overcomes adversity and prevails.

My debut novel, ILLUMINATIONS, is based on the life of a real historical woman I found while reading through a series of history books aimed at young adults, called the Uppity Women series. The author, Vicki Leon, gives a page to each ‘uppity’ woman she discovered languishing in the footnotes of history – women who did amazing things, but whom few history courses or history books discuss.

I bought the whole Uppity Women series, and while reading Uppity Women of the Renaissance, came across a woman who immediately intrigued me: Susanna Horenbout. And so my historical series based on a fictionalized account of this talented woman began.

There are wonderful situations and amazing conflicts to be found if you look to history as a setting for women’s fiction, but there are a few danger areas, as well.

While today’s reader wants to sink into an historical setting and forget her current day problems, I don’t think she wants her heroine to accept the status quo and be little Miss Submissive. Or what today’s woman would consider submissive. I am truly lucky to have a main character who did not conform to the norms of her time. She was a professional, a skilled artist who was recognized by her male peers as exceptional, in a time when women simply weren’t considered professionals.

But while not every historical WF novel will have a character as ‘modern’ as my Susanna (even though she lived 500 years ago), I think the key here is attitude, and connection. People are people. The things that cause us pain and sorrow today, are very likely similar to the things that caused us pain and sorrow no matter how far back in history we go. Find the common ground, and you have found your connection to your reader.

My book is set in the court of Henry VIII, and the Tudor period was a time of many exceptional women. Anne Boleyn, Katherine of Aragon, Elizabeth I. And my much lesser-known Susanna Horenbout. But there are so many amazing historical novels which focus on real or fictitious women who took on adversity and triumphed. I would include World War II-era novels here as well, because even though, as far as I know, WWII novels aren’t considered historical because there are still people alive who lived through the events, that era is full of amazing women, and cannot be labeled as contemporary.

While some of the women I’ve mentioned above are iconic, characters like the one in my series, who are not part of the power games at the top of the ladder, are almost more extraordinary. They made their way with very little help and no support for their dreams and goals. They lived within a system where everything from the law to socially acceptable behaviour sought to leave them powerless. It makes their power, whether in the form of quiet courage or real confrontation, shine all the brighter.

I’d love to know what aspect of historical social norms most turns you off as a reader. And if you want to get a bit deeper, what can writers do to stay true to the social history of the time, but not alienate their readers?

Michelle Diener

In September, Simon & Schuster announced that they united the “editorial and publicity teams of its Pocket Books and Simon Spotlight Entertainment into a new imprint called Gallery Books.” I’m mentioning it because the Publishers Marketplace announcement for Michelle Diener said her two historicals, ILLUMINATIONS and BRILLIANCE, were sold to Micki Nuding at Gallery.

The Wall Street Journal reports the death of the slush pile. Yet the article names books found in slush piles in recent years. That sounds like a pulse to me.

Promotions at HarperCollins UK will affect women’s fiction. Lynne Drew is now publisher for fiction, including WF. Deputy publishing director Sarah Ritherdon will oversee commercial women’s fiction and will report into Drew. Ritherdon will work alongside Victoria Hughes.

Looking for new ways to sell your books? Stephen Elliott arranged book tours in people’s homes instead of bookstores. He said, “I sold about 1,100 books (not counting copies of my older books, which I was also selling) at 73 events. Seven hundred of those were books I purchased wholesale, a few hundred more were sold by local booksellers invited to the readings.”

Xerox is partnering with Espresso Books to produce On Demand Books in minutes for less than a penny a page. “This cutting-edge book solution, sold by On Demand Books, LLC, produces millions of copyrighted, public domain, out-of-print, or rare texts for consumers in a matter of minutes.”

Amazon launches a 70% Kindle Royalty Option.

This made me laugh. Barnes & Noble lied about Nook’s weight. One ounce less than claimed. I think the world will survive.

Another article on the return of the bonkbuster. Apparently sex, glitz and glamor are back in style. I’m wondering when sex was out of style.