Pictures, Publisher’s Lunch, and Plane

It’s 7 a.m. I must be on a metro car in an hour and a half, and I still need to accomplish a whole list of things that may or may not include packing.

Meanwhile, I did get my hands on my camera, so pictures of Life & Style, for those of you who haven’t gone grocery shopping this week and so missed the tabloid rack:

This is the correct issue of the magazine on the left, and this is my ad there on page 21 on the right. Cool, huh? Yeah, I know, totally geeking out. Other ads include Crest Whitestrips, Cover Girl, and Sketchers Sneakers.

Moving on…

Some good blog posts out there recently. Bestselling author Angela Knight weighs in on the topic of “critics, snarks, and trolls” and how they differ. Good stuff.

Agent Kristin Nelson is talking about the make up of the Publisher’s Marketplace blurb, and how imagining what you will write for that is actually a great exercise for a writer looking to hone their high concept. So true! I’m a huge fan of this exercise, not only for the reason mentioned, but also for another reason: positive visualization. When I was in high school, the coach of the swim team used to make his swimmers pick a goal number, a goal time, for their event and then write it down EVERYWHERE — on the cover of their binders, in big letters inside their locker, in cut out felt dangling from their rear view mirror. Everywhere you went, you knew what the guy in your Geometry class wanted to make in the butterfly relay or what your locker mate was striving for in freestyle backstroke. And they knew. That number was there, in their head, in their mind all day.

The coach claimed that seeing that number in front of you all the time was an excellent way to make it happen in real life. That if you kept picturing it, it not only kept your head in the game, but also made it seem like it could happen, It was a number you got used to seeing.

I have been known to write fake Publisher’s Marketplace announcements for myself and for friends as encouragement devices. A sort of, “I know you’re getting rejections now, but look at what this might lead to if you keep trying” game. So many people I know said that their sale felt “real” to them when teh announcement appeared in Publisher’s Lunch. Having a concrete visualization, in the established Publisher’s Marketplace style, can be a big encouragement.

This is what Publisher’s Marketplace announcements look like (a shout out to my pal Jaida, who just made her first sale this week):

Or:

So the pattern is:

Genre
Something About Author Author Name’s TITLE, about blah blah blah, in Blank Book Deal, to Editor at Publishing House, by Agent.

Get as fancy as you want:

Non-Fiction/Memoir
New York Times Bestselling Author, Eli graduate, and future Princess of Wales Amy Haskel’s recollections of her idyllic childhood in Ohio, her stormy Ivy League College career as a member of the infamous secret society Rose & Grave, and how she met William, at auction, in a two book deal, to Random House, in a pre-empt, by Clarissa Cuthbert of ICM. Movie rights are with Kevin Lee of CAA.

Okay. Off to catch a plane. I think I may give a prize to the most amusing Publisher’s Marketplace-style announcement left in the comments section. Have fun!