June 2, 2009
Lately, I’ve been applying what I learned at the latest Oregon writing workshop and putting together a series of marketing materials. In particular, I’ve written several blurbs, query letters, and proposals. The cool thing is, each item provides vital practice with the skills I learned at the workshop…and at the same time, gives me something to send out to market my work. That part really helps me focus, because I know each piece I develop has a specific, impending purpose. This evening, for example, I got halfway through a brand new, starting from scratch proposal for one of my existing novels. My motivation is clear: I got a great rejection from a top editor last week…and he asked to see some more of my work in future. I think this novel might suit him, so my current goal is to get the proposal done so I can send it his way with a query and sample pages. It’s an interesting project, too. For years, I’ve tried to sell this novel as a mainstream, commercial, or literary novel, and it’s gone nowhere. At the workshop, my mentor, Kris Rusch, suggested I might be able to market it as a mystery. I hadn’t thought of that angle; it might just work. So now, I’m eager to finish the new proposal and see if it pays off. Even if it leads to just one editor asking for a full manuscript, it could be totally worth the effort.
So there you have it. The latest news on the writing front. See you soon.
