Author Heather McCorkle

I hope you're ready for another full post of tweets! Here we go. You'll want to get our your planners and take down the dates on this tweet from Jane Friedman of Writer's Digest. She lists great contests for writers of YA, crime, romance, and more! @JaneFriedman Jane Friedman 7 Free-to-Enter Writing Contests That Impact Your Career: http://ow.ly/5lm8E In an #AskYAed session, publisher Egmont USA reminds us of a harsh reality in publishing:  @EgmontUSA Egmont USA Okay - I need to get this out there. Despite the mega-deal advances reported, most advances are not very big. #AskYaed Writer Jolina Joy brings us this insightful tweet from Anne Allen about what agents are doing to prepare for the evolving publishing industry:   @Jolina_Joy Jolina Petersheim How are literary #agents preparing for the future? http://bit.ly/jvV4Fc Agent Laurie McLean is taking notice of Anne Allen's post on the future of Literary agents too:  @ agentsavant Laurie McLean A very in...

Many writers sit on the fence and wonder if their work is polished enough while others toss it out there too soon. But how many really know if their book is actually ready to submit? I sure didn't my first time out. It took a lot of trial and error for me to figure it out. Its all about whether or not your work is polished enough and is right for a particular agent. First there is the work itself. Is it going to grab the readers and therefore, an agent? Is it edited to the point where it looks professional and clean? Is the story strong enough or original enough that the agent will be able to not only enjoy it, but foresee selling it? These are very important questions that you must ask yourself. Second is platform. Who is your audience and have you conveyed the book well enough that they will want to read it? Is it good enough that they'll recommend it to others? People buy and support books that grip them and make them feel something. Make sure you've tapped into tha...

As my agent and I delve into the frightening stage of submitting to publishers the subject of The Big 6 comes up yet again and I realized, not all aspiring authors know what this means. Before the editor stage of submitting I didn't realize who The Big 6 were either. Here they are in no particular order (some subsidiaries may not be listed. Click on the link for a full listing): Random House: There are a lot of publishing groups each with their own imprints under this huge roof. Here the groups: Crown Trade Group, Knopf Doubleday Publishing, Random House Publishing Group (including Ballantine, Bantam, Dell, and many others), RH Audio Publishing Group, Random House Children's Books, RH Information Group, RH International, RH Large Print. http://www.randomhouse.biz/ourpublishers/ Simon & Schuster: Atria, Folger Shakespeare Library, Free Press, Gallery Books, Howard Books, Pocket, Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Threshold Editions, Touchstone/Fireside, Aladdin, Atheneum...

I'm told there was a day when talent alone got your book published. Apparently that day was long before I was born. Today you must possess the big three. As any of you who have been trying to get your work published for any amount of time know, getting all three elements can be like finding an endangered species. So is reaching for a literary career as unrealistic as reaching for the presidency of the United States now? No, but you do have to work harder at it and want it really bad. So what are you to do? Timing: Know your genre. Meaning read it, check the bestseller list frequently, visit the bookstore (or web site) often. Come to know what kind of books are selling in the genre you write. Now here's the tricky part. If you've written something that is selling like mad you may run into a lot of agents and publishers who don't want to buy it because they've already purchased or sold books similar to it. On the other hand, if you write something completely differen...

To Twitter or not to Twitter? That's the question on a lot of writers minds. Heck it was on my mind. So why did I take the plunge? A couple reasons. The first was to connect with other writers and follow agents & publishers who tweet. Sounds a lot like networking right? And we all know how necessary networking is for us writers. The second was to further build my platform. Agents & publishers love their writers to have a platform, it helps sell books! The platform thing sounded very foreign and intimidating to me at first until one of my published friends explained that it's just different ways of gathering readers. With the mystery taken out of it the whole idea made sense. Then suddenly twitter made sense too. You don't have to jump on there and think of something witty every day. Use it as a networking tool and it will have served it's purpose as part of your platform! You don't have to take my word for it though. Check out what Publisher's Weekly is ...