Publishing industry news has exploded with stories about a new genre, called New Adult. The New Adult genre is meant to bridge the supposed gap between Young Adult (teen) books and general Adult fiction books. Every news site from the New York Times to Publishers Weekly has been giving their spin on the genre ever

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The “New Adult” Genre: Why Does It Exist?

I think this week might secretly be listed on agents’ and publishers’ calendars as National Rejection Week. *smile* Okay, not really. But judging from the online conversations I had with writing friends over the past couple of days, it certainly feels that way to many of us. In other words, the rejections were flying in

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The High Bar of Finding an Agent or Publisher

I’ve talked a lot about the issues facing authors on the Big 6 side of traditional publishing, from agent hunting to contracts. I’ve also discussed the self-publishing side of the aisle, from quality concerns to ebook pricing. In contrast, I haven’t posted much about small publishers. Honestly, I don’t know as much about the issues authors

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Small Publishers: Tips for Success — Guest: Susan Sipal

Several weeks ago, we discussed why authors shouldn’t worry about the ebook versus print debate but should instead focus on their readers’ online versus offline buying habits. Shortly after that post, I visited my local Barnes & Noble bookstore, a beautiful two-story building complete with an escalator. I love that place. But anyone who’s visited a Barnes

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Bookstores vs. Backlist: A New Decision

Last time, we discussed how our decision about which method we go with for publishing should focus more on our readers’ online versus offline buying habits than on their preference for ebook versus print formats. And we bemoaned the fact that those numbers are hard to come by. But let’s say we have a vague

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The New Publishing Paradigm, Part Two: What Value Do Publishers Add?

The Keynote Address at this year’s Romance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference was unusual. Instead of sharing an inspirational or funny story about her trudge to success, Stephanie Laurens essentially gave a lunchtime workshop about the publishing industry, complete with a PowerPoint presentation. Some were disappointed or bored and left early. I thought she was brilliant.

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The New Publishing Paradigm, Part One: It’s Not about eBook vs. Print

Recent events have brought fan fiction out of the hidden realm of über-fans and into mainstream media.  For the first time, many authors are learning of the existence of fan fiction and wondering how it might affect them. Let’s take a look at what fan fiction is, what it means to authors, and what they

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An Author’s Guide to Fan Fiction

*Shh*  Be very, very quiet.  We’re hunting agents.  (Sorry, with that picture, I couldn’t resist the Bugs Bunny reference. *smile*) Many—if not most—writers want to find an agent at some point in their writing career.  Even in this age of self-publishing, writers still want agents to help them with foreign rights, career advice, access to tricky

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What Are You Looking for in an Agent?

That seems like an odd question, doesn’t it?  After all, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out Google knew what I had for lunch on Wednesday five weeks ago. In fact, computers and the internet have captured so much information that we sometimes don’t want to memorize facts, figuring we’ll Google it when we need it

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What Is the Internet Missing?

Last week, Stacy Green asked me a question on Twitter and my fingers cramped while thinking about how to answer her in chunks of 140 characters.  *smile*  So we decided to make it an Ask Jami question here instead. Stacy asked: “What’s your opinion on e-publishers versus agents? … pros and cons.  I know a

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Ask Jami: E-Publishers vs. Agents