Top Ten Gifts to Give to the Writer in Your Life

Wow! You must really love the writer in your life. How do I know? Because you used your Google Machine (or Bing) to help find a gift for an author. Now Relax. Rest easy, because you've arrived at the write right spot (and I promise, no more puns).

November -December 16, 2014 you can give your writer or illustrator the gift of a PROFESSIONAL CRITIQUE from a top literary AGENT, EDITOR, Author, or Art Director. Visit the #KidLitForHaiti online auction here:    Click Here

Top Ten Gifts for the Writer in Your Life
1.  Dragon Software: Dragon Software is home speech recognition software for your P.C. It's amazing! Simply speak and the words appear on your screen. "Transfer words into text at the speed of thought." The words appear three times faster than you can type. Cost - $99.00

2.  Moo Cards: Moo Cards are beautiful and affordable business cards. Even if the writer in your life has not established a business, it's still important to have business cards printed. Writing is typically done alone, so when the author steps out of their creativity cave and attends a conference, it's nice for them to share contact information (whip out Moo card here). Stay connected with peers. On the card include important information and don't forget to list Twitter name and blog page address. Also, don't make the mistakes I made, which means don't choose red print unless you expect all your future friends to have had lasiks.
Cost - Approximately $25.00

3.  Membership! I'd like to steal a phrase from American Express, "Membership has its privileges." It's so true. Membership example: If the person you are buying for writes for the children's market (ages one month to eighteen years old; think board books to Hunger Games or Good Night Moon to Twilight) then a membership in the S C B W I would be the best possible gift you could give this person. SCBWI stands for Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and please know that Judy Blume was one of the first members in this forty-year-old organization. With membership you receive a bi-monthly magazine on the children's market, discounts to conferences, scholarship opportunities and a lot of how-to information. Cost - $75.00 per year.
(If your author writes for another industry, find the appropriate membership for the genre)

4. Conference. There is probably no better gift than enrollment in a conference. Conferences are attended by editors from leading publishing houses, agents from dream-teams, industry professionals (i.e. reps from places like Dryden Books or Harold Underdown's PC Editorial Services) and respected authors (I've met Judy Blume, Richard Peck, Sherman Alexie, M.T. Anderson and Libba Bray to name a few).
     At the conference, attendees not only learn from the best, they also have the opportunity to attend master classes taught by industry professionals. Furthermore the writer will make connections with people with whom they would generally not have access. Many editors who say they are closed to submissions will accept a query or chapter submissions from a writer they meet at a conference; same goes for agents.
Average cost of a conference $400 plus transportation plus hotel accommodations

5.   Book: Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. Not only is Donald Maass the author of seventeen books, he is also a literary agent. His book, Writing the Breakout Novel, is regularly discussed in critiquing groups as THE book to get.  Cost - $16.99

6. Book. Another great book to wrap for the writer in your life is called Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Rennie Brown and Dave King. Available at Tattered Cover Bookstore. Cost- $13.99

7. Subscription. A subscription to Writer's Digest magazine comes with the option to receive it in either printed or digital format. It's packed with sage advice and also comes with a free copy of The Writer's Digest Guide to Creativity. Furthermore advise your writer to follow Chuck Sambuchino's blog: Guide to Literary Agents.
Cost:  subscription $19.96 for print and $16.06 for digital; Chuck's blog subscription: free

8.  Subscription: Buy your writer a subscription to a professional organization such as Publishers Marketplace so they can have online access to critical information. Publishers Marketplace web page says, "Welcome to biggest and best dedicated marketplace for publishing professionals to find critical information and unique databases, find each other, and to do business better electronically. A service of Publishers Lunch, the most widely read daily dossier in publishing and known as "publishing's essential daily read," Publishers Marketplace really works in part because it is driven by the attention of over 40,000 publishing professionals who read Lunch every day."
Cost: $20.00 per month.  Publisher's Lunch is a newsletter you can sign up for and receive for free; what you won't be able to do is search the data base unless you pay the $20.00 per month membership fee.

9. Gift Card: Nothing gets the creative juices flowing like sitting in an Indie bookstore, sipping fresh brewed tea (or a latte) and being surrounded by thousands of wonderful books. Give your writer a gift card to their favorite (or your favorite) independent bookstore, and if the writer has children then also give them the gift of time to use the card; offer a few hours of babysitting. Colorado Recommendations: Tattered Cover Book Store and Boulder Book Store
Cost: $20.00 - your limit plus time

10. Massage: Sitting hunched over a computer for hours while banging out the next great novel takes its toll on the back. Buy the author a massage, and if you really want to help with their creativity, add on a bonus scalp massage. Don't forget to include extra funds for the gratuity.
Cost: $60.00-$200.00

Bonus: If you are feeling extra generous, buy your writer the opportunity to have their manuscript professionally critiqued with a book doctor such as Emma Dryden or Harold Underdown. Costs vary so visit their links.

Want more? Visit this clever list posted by Tara Lazar: http://taralazar.com/2013/12/07/gifts-for-writers-in-other-words-gifts-for-you/

How to Write a Synopsis: Advice from Industry Experts

Notes for Crafting a Winning Synopsis from Industry Experts:

Congratulations! You’ve written your 75,000 word master piece. Now in order to present it to industry professionals in a concise, enticing and engaging manner, you must par down your novel to one one-hundreth of its original size; approximately 750 words or less. There are many conflicting resources on formatting a synopsis, but the elements that are needed to compose a winning synopsis are agreed upon across party lines. Here’s my take on how to make sure you hit the highlights and other important facts.

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN YOUR SYNOPSIS: Make sure your synopsis covers the beginning, middle and the ending of your book. Don’t save your ending as a surprise. 2012 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market a.k.a. CWIM (edited by Chuck Sambuchino) advises to make sure your synopsis includes hook, plot, theme, characterization, setting, conflict and resolution. The Writer’s Digest Guide to Query Letters by Wendy Burt-Thomas advises a synopsis should include “your book’s content, structure, tone and design if needed.” Furthermore Burt-Thomas says to “start your synopsis strong immediately, then fill in the details later.”

            The Fiction Writer’s Connection website has a great checklist for your synopsis. The list includes questions like:  Does your opening paragraph have a hook? Are your main character’s conflicts clearly defined? Have you hit your major themes and major plot points, and did you show how the conflict was resolved in the end?

            The Vivian Beck Agency also advises to start with a hook, and after you introduce your main character, they say to unveil your main character’s CONFLICT, MOTIVATION, and GOALS. The Body of your synopsis should include an ACTION, REACTION, and DECISION (check for these elements to suss out if you have an active or a passive main character).  Don’t forget to include the crisis and resolution to your story.

            Nathan Bransford (a one-time agent with Curtis Brown, and now published writer) says that a synopsis is not the time to detail every character in your story.  He says, “[a synopsis] needs to make the work come alive. If your synopsis reads like "and then this happened and then this happened" and it's confusing and dull, well, you might want to revise that baby.”

In regard to length, Nathan advises two to three pages, double spaced unless submission guidelines ask for something different.

CONFIRM THAT YOUR MAIN CHARACTER ISN’T A PINBALL: Read your synopsis and decide if your main character is responding to events, bouncing around like a pinball tossed in one precarious (perhaps exciting) direction after another, or if you’re main guy is driving the action. If he’s a pinball, then no matter how exciting the events may be, your guy is passive and that is not what the industry wants.

            Mary Kole from the Andrea Brown Agency often offers pitch-slam events at the conferences she attends. In a sit-down interview I enjoyed with Mary Kole at the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles, she offered a pearl of wisdom: make sure your main character is ACTIVE vs. PASSIVE. The advice seems obvious, yet so many writers have things happening to their main character vs. having the protagonist drive the story forward.

FORMATTING:  CWIM 2012 (Writer’s Digest Books) says to include your genre and word count on the upper right side, and your name, address, phone number and email address on the left side. Your title goes in all-caps in the center

Example:

First Last                                                                               Historical Fiction

1234 address                                                                           50,000 Words

City, State Zip

(303) 111-2222

emailaddress@yahoo.com

MY FABULOUS BOOK TITLE HERE

Other formatting advice includes:

• Don’t number your first page; begin numbering on second page;
• Double space all text ,and use 12 point Times Roman with one-inch margins
• Second page header is formatted like so: Your name/TITLE IN CAPS/Synopsis     2
• The first time you introduce a character in the synopsis, have their name appear in all-caps (with normal formatting to follow);
• And **open with a great hook and inciting incident.
• Size-I keep hearing, “the briefer the better, but all elements must be there to sell your story.”  Guide to Query Letters  by Wendy Burt-Thomas says it’s typically one to two pages. 2012 Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market a.k.a. CWIM (edited by Chuck Sambuchino) has a glossary where synopsis is defined as “a page to a page and a half if single spaced” (odd definition since they also advise to double space your synopsis).
• Write your synopsis in present tense
• Use 12 point Times Roman

  

SYNOPSIS VS. QUERY: Make sure you know the difference between a synopsis and a query. A query letter is a single page, three paragraph letter that is meant to hook the reader into asking for more. The three paragraphs include The Book, The Hook, and The Cook. (1) Paragraph One: The book tells the title, the word count, and the genre. (2) The hook includes your logline and a few lines about your story (similar to what you might read on the jacketflap of a book). It does not tell your whole story.  (3) Paragraph Three: The cook is a paragraph about you, where you went to school, and any writing credentials you may have.

            The Synopsis, unlike your query, tells your entire story (beginning, middle, and end). The length of your synopsis will depend on agents/editors submission guidelines. You should practice writing a short, one page synopsis as well as a long, three to five page synopsis.

More Resources:

Advanced Fiction Writing

Writing World

C. J. Darlington