Andrea Hurst & Associates

AUTHORNOMICS Best-of: Literary Agent Laurie McLean

By: Andrea Hurst

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AUTHORNOMICS Best-of with Chuck Sambuchino

By: Andrea Hurst

Chuck is giving away a copy of the 2012 Guide to Literary Agents! Comment on this post within one week to win. Good luck!

With a publishing industry that is ever in flux, it can be hard for an aspiring author to figure out what information is relevant and what she needs to do to be successful. Recognizing this, literary agent Andrea Hurst and writer and blogger Katie Flanagan will be introducing a series of weekly interviews with publishing industry specialists. The AUTHORNOMICS Series features literary agents, editors, authors, marketing experts and more talking about their opinions on the publishing industry, writing, and what a writer needs to know.

Interview with Author, Editor, Journalist, Playwright and Expert Chuck Sambuchino

Chuck Sambuchino is an editor and a writer. He works for Writer’s Digest Books and edits GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS (guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog) as well as CHILDREN’S WRITER’S & ILLUSTRATOR’S MARKET. His humor book, HOW TO SURVIVE A GARDEN GNOME ATTACK (gnomeattack.com), was released in Sept. 2010 and has been featured by Reader’s Digest, USA Today, the New York Times and AOL News. The film rights were recently optioned by Sony and director Robert Zemeckis. His first book was writing-related: the third edition of FORMATTING & SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT (2009).
Besides that, he is a produced playwright, magazine freelancer, husband, cover band guitarist, chocolate chip cookie fiend, and owner of a flabby-yet-lovable dog named Graham.

1. You’ve been involved in all sorts of writing arts, including newspaper journalism, playwriting, editing, blogging and, of course, authoring a humor book. Do you have a favorite role?

Not really. I’ve always kind of had ADD, which is why my writing career has been something like “I wanna write plays! … Wait, I wanna write articles! … Nope, I wanna be an editor! … Sike! I guess I seriously want to write books! … Sike again. I’m gonna sell this screenplay or bust!”

I would have to say book writing has been the most rewarding because of the reach of books. I mean, if you write a great article, it kind of goes unnoticed and then fades away forever. But people read books and tweet about them and shake your hand at events. It’s great to get out and meet people and get feedback.

2. As editor for the Guide to Literary Agents, what is your best advice on getting an agent?

I’ve blogged more than 1,500 posts for four years on this very question, so it’s tough to boil it down to one point because there are many. But try this one: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Keep writing. A lot of first books don’t sell. I just heard this week from a writer whose first book fell flat on submission, but her second book got her an agent. So, again—keep writing. You get better as you go.

3. With the publishing business in transformation, do you see the role of a literary agent changing as well?

I think we’ve seen agents take a more aggressive approach to selling subsidiary rights like foreign rights and film rights. As book advances (payments) continue to slowly slide downward, agents are adapting to make sure they can make money. Also, I’ve seen an agent recently start a side business formatting e-books; others have started editing manuscripts on the side. I recognize that is all a slippery gray area with the AAR, but agents are simply adapting to a changing market and trying to make money, same as everyone else.

4. You have been to many writers conferences over the years.  What are some of the most beneficial things a writer can do at a conference to help their writing career?

Do everything. Attend lots of sessions. Go to every event. Pitch agents. Get up early. Go to bed late. Schmooze and meet friends over drinks. Take notes. There is usually a ton of stuff going on—and it’s all for the taking.

5. What is your view on custom and print on demand publishing? How does a strong social media presence affect this choice?

If you’re talking about self-publishing your book or e-book, I would say my thought is this: If you have the means to get your work out there and promote it, then this can be a very profitable avenue for you. If you have a great platform (social media like Twitter and a blog factor into this), then you can self-publish a book and spread the word easily—getting people to buy your work. Self-publishing can be a great thing, but you have to know what you’re getting into (and it seems most people do not).

That said, I personally am still a fan of traditional publishing. When How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack came out, the book got good placement at Borders as well as Barnes & Noble. It got mentions in USA Today, Reader’s Digest, and more. We recently learned that Sony is going to option the film rights. Italy bought rights to it, as well. I mention all this good news to prove an important point: Methinks none of this would have happened without the work of my publisher and agent. And that says a heck of a lot about traditional publishing.

6. You keep a blog for the site of How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack as well as the Guide to Literary Agents blog. Do you have any advice for an author setting up a new blog?

It takes time to develop a readership—and I’m talking years—so be patient. A blog must have a focus and must have takeaway value for the reader; otherwise, it is more for your sake their theirs (and will not attract many readers). Include art and white space in posts. Invite good guest posts. Write good guest posts for others. Try to maintain some regularity. Have fun. Pay attention to your titles, as that will be what people search for through Google.

7. How did you come up with the idea for a book on surviving a garden gnome attack?

I was thinking about the movie THE FULL MONTY and remembered a quick scene with a garden gnome. I started to think about how tacky and creepy they are, wondering why anyone would actually own one in real life. Then I thought: Certainly if they creep me out, then they must creep out others, as well. That was the genesis.

8. Do you have any upcoming projects or events you can tell us about?

Mwahahahaha. I’m always cooking up humor book concepts, screenplays, and more—but nothing I can share right just now.

9.  What is the best piece of advice someone has given you in the publishing industry, and what do you think is the most important thing a writer today needs to know to succeed?

Again, this is hard to boil down to a single point. How about this one? I once heard a screenwriter say: “If you’re writing a spec and you’re not having fun, something’s wrong.” What they meant was this: In life, you will write some things for love and some things for money. So if you’re writing some fiction for love (as opposed to being commissioned to write a novel), then you should be having fun. Not every minute will be fun (I myself love first drafts but hate rewrites), but most of it should be.

Also, recently, I read something dynamite written by literary agent Mary Kole. See, when I tried my hand at a middle grade novel in 2009, my problem wasn’t plot. I love plot. My problem was character. Mary wrote that if you’re writing a main character in a children’s novel, they can be loved or they can be hated. Both approaches will attract readers. “It’s the mushy middle ground you should be afraid of,” she said. That struck a chord with me, because sometimes my characters enter the mushy middle ground area.

The winner of Bharti Kirchner’s The Bold Vegetarian is Hannah Jayne! Thanks for reading and commenting on our blog!

Andrea Hurst has over 25 years experience as a published author, developmental editor for publishers, and skilled literary agent. She works with both major and regional publishing houses, and her client list includes emerging new voices and New York Times best-selling authors. Andrea represents high profile Adult Nonfiction and well crafted fiction. Her clients and their books have appeared on the Oprah Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, National Geographic network and in the New York Times.

Katie Flanagan is a fiction major at Northwestern University. She is currently an editor with Booktrope and a reader for Pink Fish Press. In the past, she has interned with Andrea Hurst Literary Management and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her favorite genre is women’s fiction, but she reads any fiction put in front of her. Check out her blog about the writing life at katieflanagan.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at @K_Flanagan.

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Bharti Kirchner

By: Andrea Hurst

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Amy Boggs

By: Andrea Hurst

Amy is a sci-fi/fantasy geek always looking for more things to geek out about. She joined the Donald Maass Literary Agency in 2009. She previously worked at an independent children’s book store and got her first taste of agenting during a college internship. Her take on agenting is taking a strong editorial focus and building an author’s long-term career. She is looking for fantasy and science fiction, especially urban fantasy, paranormal romance, steampunk, YA/children’s, and alternate history. Historical fiction, Westerns, and works that challenge their genre are also welcome. She is seeking projects with characters who are diverse in any and all respects, such as (but not limited to) gender, race, ethnicity, disability, and sexuality. More information is available at www.maassagency.com. You can also find her puttering about on twitter at @notjustanyboggs.

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Sheila Bender

By: Andrea Hurst

Sheila Bender has authored over a dozen books, including Creative Writing DeMystified, Writing and Publishing Personal Essays, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry  in a Time of Grief and A Year in the Life: Journaling for Self-Discovery. She is founder of WritingItReal.com, a resource and instructional site for writers, and a frequent presenter at regional and national writers’ conferences. She lives in Port Townsend, WA, with a view of Discovery Bay, which seems a fitting name to her when she sits down to write.

Find out more about Sheila at www.writingitreal.com.

Sheila is giving away a copy of Writing and Publishing Personal Essays to a random commenter on this blog! Leave a comment within the next week to enter.

1. As an author of poems, essays and memoirs, what has been your favorite genre to work in?

It is hard to say I have a favorite genre. Once I get into the meat of any piece of writing, I feel completely absorbed in finding its shape and the insight it is moving me toward. I read quite a bit of poetry, essays and memoir and write a lot of prose these days. However, when something snags my emotional attention, when an image or a sound won’t go away, when I want to see what there is at the bottom of my mind and heart, I usually write poems. But as a writer, I know that our obsessions remain the same whatever genre we are writing in; we examine the world through the lens of what preoccupies us. So, although I’ve written a poem on a subject I am investigating emotionally, that doesn’t rule out writing prose. It is kind of fun to alternate longer relaxed lines and paragraphs with the compression a poem demands. And then, of course, there is sudden nonfiction, like the kind Brevity magazine publishes online, where the prose poem and short nonfiction run into each other. That is a very enjoyable genre to work in.

2. What inspired you to start teaching writing and publishing books on how to write?

By the time I began writing as a poet, I had already been a classroom teacher for middle school students, a day care center director and staff trainer as well as a parent educator. Teaching is what I do. So, once I was a publishing poet and earned a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, I could teach freshman composition and research writing as well as poetry and fiction classes at colleges; it was a natural jump for me to write instructional books and articles on writing. I saw in the college classrooms that when it came to writing, I was teaching differently after having studied with poets than I was taught as an undergraduate.  Combining the lessons of the poets with my English major background in rhetorical styles allowed me to greatly facilitate my students’ writing and they wrote beautifully. Some of them eventually published pieces they wrote for class. I love what I can do as a teacher. Therefore, deciding to write instructional books for those who want to write was a task I eagerly took on. And happily, people tell me the books I’ve written have helped them start and continue writing.

3. One of your goals as a teacher is to help writers revise more effectively. What are some of the common revision problems you see?

I think the most common revision problem I see is learning where your essay or poem or memoir is headed—on its own, without you as the author directing it or trying too hard to fill people in so they’ll notice you writing the piece. Our words are smarter than we are, my poet teachers often said. They are if we let them take over. Where is the work in flow? Where is it labored? Where does the writer seem to be trying to write the story rather than writing it—giving us background info that slows us down as readers, for instance, or using abstract words instead of using specifics that allow us to be in the experience as readers rather than merely being told about the experience and the writer’s reaction to it. I could teach for days about revision, but the quickest way to help a writer who faces revision is what I call my three-step response method. A trusted reader will tell the writer three things: what phrases and words struck them, how they felt reading the piece (both feelings they knew they were supposed to have and feelings that got in the way such as confusion or feeling lost or left out), and where they are interested to know more.  Having this information is very valuable to the writer who must revise. It is empowering to know you were heard and to know where your words may have led your reader astray and that the reader wants to know more. You may not have to tell them everything they want to know—fixing up places where you left them out or confused them fixes a lot of problems and leads to reader satisfaction even without all of the questions answered.  Some of the questions readers report about drafts of writing come from not being able to figure out exactly what the piece wants them to focus on.

A problem in revising is jumping too soon to the editing stage and forgetting to linger over the shaping stage. The  three-step response method helps the writer see more of the shape of their work and how to sculpt it before the critical editor voice does its work—spelling, paragraphing, sentence variety, punctuation. The editing stage is very important, but I always tell my editor brain to hold off—if it gives me time to shape well, there will be a much better piece for the editor brain to work on, and I will really value that work.

4. Your recent memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief, has just come out. How instrumental do you feel poetry is for writers who need an emotional outlet? Is there any advice that you could give to writers who want to try their hand at poetry?

I think writing poetry helps any writer—the use of metaphor, compression, images and sound are the lyric values that enliven all writing. Trying one’s hand at poetry is a way of concentrating on these craft elements and seeing how powerful images and sound are for relaying experience and emotion.  However, if someone is “afraid” of poetry or feels they “don’t get” poetry, I’d leave it alone and read prose that has the same lyric values. Maybe reading Naomi Shihab Nye’s book of paragraphs Mint Snowball would be a good idea.  Or someone interested in the lyric elements of the writing craft who doesn’t like to read poetry might find inspiration in the short pieces on Brevity magazine or those in another online magazine, fraglit.

All creative writing provides an emotional outlet, and all writing does involve poetry. Some prose writers just don’t identify their voice as being poetic because it is not flowery or difficult to access like they imagine poetry must be.  Reading the poems of Billy Collins or Ted Kooser will demonstrate the fact that contemporary poetry is not difficult to understand.

5. Most of your published books focus on teaching others how to write, but your most recent book, A New Theology, is much more personal. How did these writing experiences differ?

For one thing, writing A New Theology took much longer. When I write instructional books I am looking for the most effective, hands-on way to help others write what it is they have to write. Since I spend a lot of time in classrooms and teaching workshops, I have many tricks up my sleeve that I can translate into book instruction. Writing a memoir about the months after the death of my son meant asking questions that would be hard to answer, but questions I was burning to know the answer to: How will our family and the family of my son’s fiancee live through the day they would have married, five months after the snow boarding accident that took his life? What is mortality? What is immortality? How will I go on without the presence of my son? How will I remember him? It takes time, and for me, much writing to find answers. And then even after the manuscript I wrote answered those questions, to be of value to readers, my book had to make contact with them—one editor told me that my prose had to be as accessible as my poetry—that was very interesting to me as I usually think that people find poetry inaccessible. I learned from her how to let the prose stand for itself without what she called “an overlay of grief” blurring the content. In making the book work for readers, I found it worked at a deeper level for me.

6. In your books, you often focus on the importance of journaling. Do you still keep a journal? How does journaling shape your own writing experience?

Journaling for me is the act of making sure I write every day—whether that is email, beginnings of new poems or essays, instructional articles, or phrases that come to me or ones I borrow from my reading or overheard conversations. There is a lot of writing in my life, and I try to keep it organized as if it were all one journal, whose contents I might use in any combination.

Sometimes, when I keep a print journal, it is a box of slips of paper. Other times, I have purchased notebooks for journals during a trip or during a repeated activity like biking—I  take myself out on my bike, stop for a break, journal, and continue biking.  The importance of journaling for a writer is to write, write, write and if you use prompts in journal writing, you may start creating new work without even having intended to do so.  Also, journals are wonderful places to record your thoughts, questions and findings when you are working on a longer project that will require you find your thinking and notes and information. Journals offer a place to come to as a writer, a space to be a writer, away from the tasks that make one feel “not a writer.”  However, when you are a writer, everything is writing, and what you do during your day, as long as you record it and write about it, is part of your writing life. Lifejournal.com has an add on called LifeJournal for Writers, for which I wrote content. The product has just come out in a Mac edition and provides an organized place for keeping one’s writing, whether it is spontaneous, from prompts or part of a whole.

7. For many years now, you have been reading the work of young writers and judging various contests featuring personal essays. How have writing styles and themes changed in young writers through the years?

Actually, my most recent judging has been for a contest for writers over 50. They write about caretaking parents, what it feels like to age, relating to adult children, becoming grandparents, maturing in marriages or in separations. They write about changing careers, about their gardens, close calls, neighbors and travels.

Younger writers wonder about their futures and write about alienation from the way things are. The youngest writers write what is right there for them: on a panel I did recently, writer Judith Kitchen told a story about a young writer from years ago in one of her author-in-the schools visits. When asked to write what grass would say if it could talk, he wrote: “Grass doesn’t talk. The crickets speak for it.” I love these two lines together. I think they demonstrate how the concrete thinking of younger writers brings poetry onto the page. I think the differences between younger and older writers may be mostly ones of trusting images—the older we get, the more schooling we’ve had, the easier it is for us to think that abstractions and summaries are more important than the concrete.

I love reading writing from any age group.

8. You mention on your website that you wish to help writers allow writing to take a more serious place in the writers’ lives. Do you have any advice on how to make writing a serious priority in a world full of so many distractions?

I think one way is to start by committing a doable amount of time to your writing. In the classes I teach, we accomplish amazing writing in 10 to 20 minute exercises. I think we all need to look for those ten minutes that we can commit to writing. My idea is that after we have words on a page, the writing will find a way to make us sit down for longer. I think that keeping a pad and pen or a laptop or iPad with you in your car and arriving at work a bit early and writing in your car before you go into work is one place to find this time. Another is at lunch, of course, or right when you get home from work. It isn’t the ten minutes that is so hard to find—it is feeling like you can shift from not writing to writing. You can. Imagine you are at a cluttered desk and instead of cleaning it up and organizing the papers so you can write, you just put your arms out in front of you and push the papers and clutter away to each side of the desk. Now you have the space to write for ten minutes. Set a timer if that helps. After you have written, you can pick up the clutter of life.

And you have to feel free to write what is in your heart and mind with specifics that  appeal to the five senses. The specifics and sensory information are what allow you to enter the experience you have already had and are now writing about. If it is hard to “just” write, I recommend keeping prompts nearby (many books and websites are out there with scores and scores of prompts). You can make your own prompts easily, too: Write a letter to someone you really want to know about your life right now. Turn the radio on and off and write from whatever snatch of conversation, lyrics or instrumental music you heard. Open a book and point. Copy the phrase your finger points to and let yourself write whatever you think of because of that phrase. Open the dictionary and find a word you don’t know the meaning of. Make up a definition. Or read the actual definition and write about what it makes you think of in your life’s events.

9. What is the most important advice you would share for someone who is just starting out as a writer?

Believe in yourself. Believe that it is important that you write, that as you write you will learn more and more about yourself and about how to put more on the page.  And find a group of writers to belong to who will affirm this—whether they are group that meets together to write, meets together to listen to one another’s writing, or functions as a writer’s group that is hoping to develop and polish pieces of writing.

10.  Your magazine, Writing It Real, was launched in 2002. Can you talk about the magazine offers writers and why you decided to publish it online?

The magazine and website offers writers instruction, inspiration, and craft discussions aimed at helping people keep on writing. The articles offer writing exercises, sample revision processes (we show drafts of essays and poems from beginning to end and the three-step responses that helped the writer write their way to a finished piece).  We have author interviews with working writers and samples of their work as well as much more. The articles feel to me like what I’d do in a classroom—teach, bring in guests, enjoy the work of people writing in many genres.

In 2002, I’d already published many books on writing, and I knew how long it took to get the instruction out to people because of book publication timelines. Online meant I could offer something every week. And my husband, who still is co-publisher with me, is a professional computer expert. So, I had what I needed to launch. Today, through the website, I offer much more than just the articles. We are launching a new design at some point in December that includes a members’ forum in which members of Writing It Real can post not only questions and answers about writing and writers, but information about their own books, blogs, and websites. I am excited to be able to make the Writing It Real community of writers more visible. It is the kind of community I was advising writers to find when you asked me what advice I’d give new writers.

11. You have several books published targeted to writers. What are the avenues you have used to get your books published?

My first book was co-written, and we published with Warner. Through a friend, I had met a young man who was off to New York for an internship there. I told him about the book. When he got to his new office, he interested the editor he was working for in taking a look at the book. Meanwhile, the same friend who introduced me to him led me to a friend who led me to the agent my co-author and I hired, a woman starting out on her own, who was interested in acquiring a list. Ultimately, the agent and the editor helped us shape the book a bit and it became a stronger manuscript by the time Warner published it.  That book went on to have a second longer edition published by a regional press we hooked up, Blue Heron Press in Portland (I think we met the publishers at a writers’ conference), and when they went out of business we published it again with Booktrope, an organization that offers free electronic books as well as print editions. They came to my attention when my sister called me to tell me about a friend of hers who was involved.

My agent sold my book on essay writing to Writer’s Digest Books and then that press asked me to write three more books for them. When those books went out of print, I retrieved the copyright (just the formality of requesting it) and have seen the books republished in print and electronic form. I met a small publisher in San Diego through a book publicist, and he brought out Writing and Publishing Personal Essays, Second Edition.  My colleague Ruth Folit of Lifejournal.com has made two other of my out-of-print books, Writing Personal Poetry and A Year in the Life, Journaling for Self-Discovery, available as  ebooks. Soon, I’ll be publishing with another small press who is interested in bringing out a series of Writing It Real books.

I have also published with McGraw-Hill’s education department. They approached me about writing books for two of their series: their Perfect Phrases series (I wrote Perfect Phrases for College Application Essays, about perfect phrases for researching oneself for material and phrases for creating order in an essay) and their DeMystified series (I wrote Creative Writing DeMystified). I’d been asked to write the Perfect Phrases book when a book packager for McGraw-Hill contacted my boss at Accepted.com, an organization for whom I was an editor. Then the McGraw-Hill editor for that book contacted me directly for the DeMystified book.

My memoir, A New  Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief, was turned down by my agent and one other. Both said it was powerful and ought to be published, but they didn’t feel they could sell it. I was eager to have the book published because I wanted to raise money with the proceeds for a camp scholarship fund in my son Seth Bender’s name. One night, I sent a query by email to about ten presses. I heard back from three and sent the book out to all three presses that expressed interest. One was the University of Nebraska press, known for being a memoir press. Imago was ready to publish it but said I had to wait for the university press to let me know their decision as it would be prestigious. It took months, but I finally received a gracious rejection letting me know turning my book down had more to do with the press than my work. Leila Joiner at Imago went right to work and the book still came out in a timely way. If a big press ever wanted to pick that book up, it would be wonderful as more people would hear about the book. Those who read it tell me it has a healing affect.

12. You organize an annual writers’ conference with Writing It Real. What can writers get out of your conference that they might not find elsewhere?

I think there are several reasons to attend a writer’s conference—first of all, the days you attend are earmarked for submersing yourself in the life of a writer. And then you receive enrichment in lectures, writing sessions, and networking and you meet new colleagues to connect with in an ongoing way after the conference. It is a treat to experience so much of what you love to hear about all in one place and time. One of the great benefits to me of teaching is being invited to present at conferences because outside of giving my presentations, I get to be an attendee and enjoy the perks of the weekend.

13. Do you have any upcoming projects we should look out for?

Oh, yes! We still have six casitas left for any who want to attend our annual Writing It Real conference, which is at the historic COD Ranch in Oracle, AZ this March 1-4. People can email conference@writingitreal.com for more information or read the material under “conference” at WritingItReal.com. This is the fifteenth time that Jack Heffron, Meg Files and I have come together to teach. We offer craft lectures and exercise sessions and individual consults as well as manuscript workshops.

Also this year, I am doing two exciting conferences with other colleagues:  January 27-29, I am joining Ruth Folit in Sarasota, FL, for a weekend of Journaling Like the Pros: Write Right Now! You can read about this weekend intensive at

Finally, along with Susan Bono of Tiny Lights Magazine: A Journal of Personal Narrative, I am taking writers to Istanbul, Turkey, to visit the city and join in the Writing Istanbul project my colleague there, Yesim Cimcoz, directs. People can email me at info@writingitreal.com to learn more about this one.

I am continuing to work with Pixelita Press here in Port Townsend on the Writing It Real books series they proposed. First one up is a complete collection of my poems, Behind Us the Way Grows Wider. They’ve already created a video in which I talk about writing and teaching writing. You can view it here.

I shouldn’t leave out my new website design—my hard working designer at HoffmanGraphics.com has done an amazing job of adding functionality to my website that I think all writer members will greatly appreciate once we launch the new site—hopefully by the end of 2011.

Andrea Hurst has over 25 years experience as a published author, developmental editor for publishers, and skilled literary agent. She works with both major and regional publishing houses, and her client list includes emerging new voices and New York Times best-selling authors. Andrea represents high profile Adult Nonfiction and well crafted fiction. Her clients and their books have appeared on the Oprah Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, National Geographic network and in the New York Times.

Katie Flanagan is a fiction major at Northwestern University. She is currently an editor with Booktrope and a reader for Pink Fish Press. In the past, she has interned with Andrea Hurst Literary Management and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her favorite genre is women’s fiction, but she reads any fiction put in front of her. Check out her blog about the writing life at katieflanagan.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at @K_Flanagan.

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Dan Poynter

By: Andrea Hurst

Dan Poynter shows people how to make a difference and a living with their book. He coaches them on book writing, publishing, and promoting. Dan is a publisher and the author of more than 100 books including Writing Nonfiction and The Self-Publishing Manual.

1. Your company, Para Publishing, originally started as a venture to publish information on parachuting and skydiving, and you used it to self-publish your book Hang Gliding in 1973. From your view as a true publishing veteran, how has self-publishing changed over the years?

In 1969, there were fewer than 3,000 publishers in the United States.

Today there are many more.

And that is a good thing.

Nonfiction books are becoming more focused and more targeted. I have 9 on various aspects of skydiving.

Fiction is much less expensive to publish. So more writers are meeting the entertainment needs of more readers.

2. How should an author decide between traditional or indie publishing?

There isn’t much choice today. The large publishers are looking for authors who are celebrities and have a following. These celebrities are a brand. A certain number of sales to their fans are guaranteed.

3. For those authors just starting out in the world of indie publishing, where do you think is the best place for them to start?  What books do you recommend?

The most expensive parts of publishing are the mistakes.

4. Ebooks have really taken off over the last few years.  Some authors are making large amounts of money through self-published Kindle and NOOK sales.  Is there anything you recommend to make the most out of this opportunity?

Once your book is posted at Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, and so on, you have to let the world know that the book exists and where to get it.

See

http://GlobalEbookAwards.com

5. You have published more then 120 of your own books. How do you manage to find time to write as well as run a company?

Plus travel: more than 6,000 miles/week.

6. You say every speaker needs a book. Does every writer need to be a speaker?

No. The contrast is that most of us writers are introverts. We really don’t like the idea of doing radio, television, or autograph parties. Rather than go out into public, we would rather stay home to write. Extroverts, on the other hand, thrive on social time and need several hours of interaction in order to spend a few minutes alone. Their challenge is, it takes more than a few minutes to write a book. They tend to be very good promotion but they need help with their writing. Many extroverts deal with a ghostwriter.

7. One of your main points is that the author must do their own promotion. How has this promotion changed over the years, and what are the most useful tools for an author in promoting their work?

Promotion has moved from print to online.

8. How important do you think it is for an author to have a website? A blog? A strong social media presence?

Websites, blogs, social media are all online. That’s where you want to be.

9. Para Publishing also publishes other authors’ works. What kind of submission process do you use, and what sort of manuscripts do you look for?

We haven’t published other author’s manuscripts for some time. This is because of time constraints. Publishing requires a lot of extra work on someone else’s book. There is editing, other cleanup, production, and promotion. It isn’t fair for a publisher to take on a work if he or she is not prepared to get behind that book. When people called me with a skydiving book idea, my 1st question was: how many jumps do you have?

10. How do you see the role of traditional publishers and agents changing over the next decade?

Agents are prisoners of the system and the system is broken.

11. Are there any upcoming projects we can look out for from you? Workshops? Conferences?

Andrea Hurst has over 25 years experience as a published author, developmental editor for publishers, and skilled literary agent. She works with both major and regional publishing houses, and her client list includes emerging new voices and New York Times best-selling authors. Andrea represents high profile Adult Nonfiction and well crafted fiction. Her clients and their books have appeared on the Oprah Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, National Geographic network and in the New York Times.

Katie Flanagan is a fiction major at Northwestern University. She is currently an editor with Booktrope and a reader for Pink Fish Press. In the past, she has interned with Andrea Hurst Literary Management and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her favorite genre is women’s fiction, but she reads any fiction put in front of her. Check out her blog about the writing life at katieflanagan.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at @K_Flanagan.

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Pam Allyn

By: Andrea Hurst

Pam Allyn is the Executive Director and founder of LitWorld, a global organization advocating for children’s rights as readers, writers and learners. She is also the Executive Director and founder of LitLife, a national organization dedicated to school improvement. She is the author of the acclaimed and award-winning What To Read When: The Books and Stories To Read With Your Child–And All The Best Times To Read Them(Penguin Avery). Her most recent books are Pam Allyn’s Best Books for Boys: How To Engage Boys in Reading in Ways That Will Change Their Lives.(Scholastic) and Your Child’s Writing Life(Penguin Avery.)

Find out more about her at www.pamallyn.com. Visit her organizations at www.litworld.org and www.litlifeinfo.com.

1.  You are primarily a literacy expert. What are the literacy problems facing the United States today, and what are the literacy problems facing the world in general?

Literacy statistics in the United State are quite startling.  Despite everything we know about the critical importance of literacy and all the different models and techniques that have been developed to increase literacy outcomes, the reading competencies of American students in the past two decades are still lagging.

Only one-third of all students entering high school are proficient in reading and the statistics are worse for African American and Hispanic students — only about 15 percent of African American students, and 17 percent of Hispanic students. (NAEP 2009 Grade 8 Reading Results).  Findings also show that upon graduating high school, students are not demonstrating the writing skills necessary to perform well in the workplace and colleges are consistently reporting that incoming students have weaker reading and writing skills.  Only 31 percent of college graduates have high level literacy skills. (2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, cited by The New York Times).

International literacy statistics vary widely, but at least 774 million people around the world cannot read or write, and most of those people are concentrated in the world’s poorest countries where children have the least access to educational resources.  That number is growing, too, as the world’s population grows.

The effects of illiteracy are multitudinous.  Illiteracy affects one’s ability to seek and maintain employment, it affects one’s ability to care for their family, it affects one’s ability to access quality health care and to a healthy lifestyle, in general, it directly affects whether or not a person contracts HIV/AIDS and other serious diseases, it affects the likelihood of a person committing a crime and spending time in prison; in short it affects every aspect of a person’s life.  Giving a person the gift of literacy is giving them the gift of life – the gift of opportunity and possibility.

2.  What goes into increasing literacy? Is it simply teaching people to read, or does it encompass something else?

Literacy is about what I call the “LitLoop”: reading, writing, listening and speaking.  It encompasses all the tools that we as humans need to absorb the information and emotional content of our world, to synthesize and organize that information, to innovate new ideas & to then communicate those ideas with others.  We live in a world where new technologies are rapidly changing the way we interact – so it’s really important, also, to incorporate new notions of what it means to be a literate person in the 21st century.  Emailing, texting, blogging, tweeting – these are all essential literacy skills too.

The easiest way to increase literacy is through practice.  It really is that simple.  Practice reading by reading.  Practice writing by writing.  Practice speaking by speaking.  Practice listening by listening.  One of the biggest obstacles worldwide to practicing reading, though, is access to resources such as books and computers. One great way I think more and more people will have access to literacy is via wireless mobile phones, which are fast becoming the way to communicate and keep in touch for people throughout the world. Increasing literacy is all about increasing the opportunities our children have for practicing their skills and that can happen anywhere, at anytime – at home, at school, with friends.  Literacy should belong to everyone.

3. Can you tell us about LitLife and LitWorld and what they offer writers?

LitLife is my organization for coaching and supporting best practices in the teaching of reading and writing pre-k through grades 12. What we offer is a really solid yet joyous approach to the teaching of writing. Writing has historically been taught in a very rote way, separating the parts of what makes a piece of writing great to the point that a child can no longer get a sense of the purpose for the writing in the first place. My approach is purpose driven and audience driven meaning that the child is writing for real reasons for real people, not just writing for the benefit of the teacher but for lots of people including other children and in many genres.

I founded LitWorld in 2007 to bring the power and potential of literacy and the magic of what writing can do for someone both personally and for the community to all children worldwide. It’s incredible to me how many children in the world are deprived of the right to read and write, through lack of access to resources and materials and for lack of basic education. LitWorld is an advocacy organization. I want people to know about these issues and how everyone can get involved in helping to solve them.

4. Your new book, Your Child’s Writing Life: How To Inspire Confidence, Creativity and Skill at Every Age, deals with how to get children writing as well as reading. How important is writing to literacy, and how important is it to the general development of children?

I like to say reading is like breathing in and writing is like breathing out.  It’s a vital part of the whole of what a person learns to do well as a literate individual. When we start to put our own words on the page or screen, we start to process all we have learned as readers. Not only that, but the writer can see the absolutely profound power of words when he or she is in charge of them. And to see that their own stories are the very best tool for learning to read and write.

5. Your first book, The Complete 4, is a guide to teaching reading and writing. How did you go about getting this published?

I was very, very lucky in that I met Lois Bridges, my extraordinary editor for that book and several after that. She believed fully in what I was trying to say and what I was doing, and made the commitment to me to get those ideas published. I have had a long and wonderful relationship with Scholastic, the publisher who supported the book and others after, and they have always been huge champions for all my ideas. I am deeply grateful for this collaboration and that, in truth, it wasn’t a matter of seeking out a publisher or editor, but more about going and doing my work for many years and then having people say: hey, you should write about this. I would say as advice to any aspiring writer that to live your life most fully is the most important thing and to find great people who will be champions of that work. That’s a rewarding combination.

6. You have your own webpage as well as social media. Can you talk about what you have found most successful for self-promotion?

It goes back to authenticity. I would never do anything that didn’t feel true to the work and the message and to me myself. I would never do any kind of promotion that wasn’t just truly and completely about the big picture. I want all children to have the right to  effectively read and write. That drives every interaction I have on the social media. If you have a message, and purpose, it becomes one more great tool to spread those ideas.

7. Did you consciously go about building your platform or did you realize you could use your platform to get books published once it was already established?

I would say it was more of a synergy and it continues to be that. One idea builds upon another, and I would never think of a platform as something to build outside of my driving ideas. It’s just a natural to want to share ideas and to put them places people can respond to them. That’s what I find exciting about social media; we can all be collaborative together in really lifechanging ways. It’s not just my platform, it’s a collective platform for social change and for the power of writing to impact one another.

8. You are also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. How did you get started there?

I have written a lot of blog posts over the years for different great people. The more I did that the more attention I started to get for them. I was so pleased when the Huffington Post invited me to do some writing. But it definitely didn’t happen overnight. I really value the many smaller blogs out there for getting authors’ voices going and helping me not only to gain a following but also to develop my own writing voice. I encourage all writers to do a lot of reaching out to others in the social media who have similar passions and interests who can help you to both those things. I love and adore the Huffington Post. What Arianna Huffington has done for writers is absolutely extraordinary. She is one of my great heroes and mentors. She has made it possible for a greater democracy in media and in news and in honoring multiple perspectives and voices from a much greater variety of life. Reading the Huff Post gives me the confidence to strengthen my own voice even further, to really say what I mean and say it strong the model of the Huff Postt brings me great pleasure to participate in this effort and to be part of Huff Post in any way I can.

9. How do you balance your writing life with your leadership of LitLife and LitWorld?

Well, I don’t sleep much!! But I love so much what I do. I always say my two hobbies are children and stories. Since I get to do what I love, it doesn’t feel hard to balance it all. As for the writing specifically, it pours out of me because it’s all about all that. I think if you stay close to what you love, you can truly balance a lot. I make sure to rest on the weekend, though. I always take a long nap on Saturdays, right on the couch! I love that too! It is important for all writers to take a break, even when the writing is going well. Sometimes my best ideas are when I am doing a cycling class or taking a walk with my husband or talking with our daughters.  Contrary to popular opinion, the writing process isn’t always about sitting down and writing. Sometimes it’s about getting out and letting people change you.

10. Are there any upcoming events or new writing projects we should look out for?

Yes! We have World Read Aloud Day coming up on March 7th. I’d love all your readers to become “WRADVOCATES” for WRAD (World Read Aloud Day!).

The best writers are those writers who have fallen in love with words. That’s what WRAD is all about.

The winner of last week’s contest is Crystal Ord! Thanks for reading our blog.

Andrea Hurst has over 25 years experience as a published author, developmental editor for publishers, and skilled literary agent. She works with both major and regional publishing houses, and her client list includes emerging new voices and New York Times best-selling authors. Andrea represents high profile Adult Nonfiction and well crafted fiction. Her clients and their books have appeared on the Oprah Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, National Geographic network and in the New York Times.

Katie Flanagan is a fiction major at Northwestern University. She is currently an editor with Booktrope and a reader for Pink Fish Press. In the past, she has interned with Andrea Hurst Literary Management and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her favorite genre is women’s fiction, but she reads any fiction put in front of her. Check out her blog about the writing life at katieflanagan.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at @K_Flanagan.

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Regina Brooks

By: Andrea Hurst

Interview with Agent Regina Brooks

1. Before starting Serendipity Literary Agency, you were an aerospace engineer. What made you switch into publishing? Are there any skills that ended up crossing over from engineering?

Publishing offered me a place to use on a daily basis both the left and right brain.  I love  science and math, but at my core I’m truly a creative.

As an engineer I saw myself looking at a system and trying to figure out where the potential setbacks or failures might be in that system.  It was about design and then troubleshooting.  I see the same process as an editor. You look at the system (the book) and try to determine how well it has been designed.  Where the failures might come in.  For example, the plot might be wonderful, but the characters might be 2-dimnesional.  There’s the flaw in the system.

2. What were some of the lessons you learned in starting your own business?

It’s great to have a plan and a strategy, but you also have to be extremely flexible and willing to shift.

It’s great to have the knowhow but you have to delegate and outsource.  There are only  24 hours in a day.

People always say that it takes money to make money, but I learned that you are as rich as your resources.

3. You are also involved in the Y.B. Literary Foundation, whose mission is to promote the reading of literature for youth. What are some of the challenges in getting youths to read? Is there any universal thing you find they look for in books?

I believe young people love to read; they just need access to literature. This is what YB Literary Foundation organization strives to do.  We provide this access. Young people’s reading desires are diverse, but the common things they all look for are entertainment and relatability.

4. You named your agency “Serendipity.” How much do you think serendipity plays into getting published?

Serendipity is the act of finding valuable things you weren’t necessarily looking for.  I think  authors should  view the process of getting published  in very focused and deliberate way.  They should identify the ideal agents and the ideal publishers for their work.   Yes, luck does play in to some degree, but as you know people can make their own luck.

5. You were first involved in the publishing house side of the industry before becoming an agent. Can you talk a little bit about the difference between working for a big house like McGraw-Hill and running your own agency?

I think the biggest difference from working in house is that I was in the position to say yes or no to projects. Also when I was in house I was limited in the range of titles I could work on. I was primarily editing and acquiring technical titles. As an agent I have the opportunity  to work on a variety of titles and with a variety of authors.

6. What are some of the most common mistakes you see in submissions?

I would say the most common mistakes are forgetting that the agent doesn’t know who you are, so you must sell yourself and your platform.  Often times, authors are afraid to brag about themselves, and agents really want to see this.  Also, authors don’t spend enough time crafting their query letters and customizing them to the agents needs. Also the query is a place where authors should help the agent to understand the uniqueness of their submission and project, especially as it relates to genre fiction.

7. Do you think the role of a literary agent is changing in this publishing climate?

Yes, the role of the literary agent is definitely shifting and it’s an exciting time. Literary agents are even reconfiguring their business models.   Many agents have started ebook publishing divisions where they directly publish the authors ebook edition.  Technology has created opportunities for agents to   develop outlets for writers that have never seen before. Last year I partnered with Marie Brown, and Marva Allen and created an imprint called OPEN LENS that is distributed by Johnny Temple’s AKASHIC books. Our first title, MAKEDA written by Randall Robinson, was published this September.  Also at  Serendipity Literary Agency, we are  driving sales by managing our  authors  international revenue streams by tapping foreign booksellers directly to sell their books

8. Can you tell us about the types of books you specialize in and what you are looking for right now?

Serendipity Literary Agency is a full service agency and we are interested in a broad spectrum of books.  The agency is now in its 11th year and we’ve expanded.  We added some wonderful new talent in, Karen Thomas, Dawn Michelle Hardy, Folade’ Bell.  Writers can feel confident that their genre will find a home at the agency.  But I’m specifically looking for narrative nonfiction, pop culture, humor and, of course, excellent YA.

9. What is the best piece of advice you have for an aspiring writer?

Develop yourself as an expert on a topic and connect with other people who care about that same subject, hone your writing craft, and write something unique.  Build an audience of people who love your writing even before you get the book deal that way you can help the publisher know who your audience is.  Be patient. Be creative.  Be a reader.  Today it feels like there are more writers than readers.  One of the first questions I ask aspiring writers is “what books have you read in this genre, or on this topic.”

10. Do you have any upcoming projects or classes for writers to look out for?

I’m currently hosting a YA DISCOVERY CONTEST for NANOWRIMO, in conjunction with Gotham Writers Center.  Writers need only send in the first 250 words of their YA novel. www.writingclasses.com/yapitch

I’m most excited about a new tea line I have developed called Possibiliteas. The tea line was specifically developed for writers to help them with the creative process.  The line launches this week at possibiliteas.com

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Texillian Armadillion

By: Andrea Hurst

Texillian Armadillion (aka Tex) lives in a mysterious attic filled with wondrous words, floating around the dust the way that invisible notes of a piano float through a concert hall. Tex is keeper of the tales. He is a voracious reader and loves to watch as words float from a person’s mind to the page. He is the Editorial Director of the macabre children’s magazine Underneath the Juniper Tree and loves every second that he gets to work with writers and artists to inspire creativity in the minds of young ones. Tex has a special gift, he hears a symphony when he reads words. He sees a painting when he watches alphabet letters dance with the dust bunnies in the attic. He only asks one thing of you, if you use his beloved words, please make them count. For each individual letter has a tale to tell, a life to live.

Trick or treat! One lucky commenter will win a free workshop of a macabre children’s short story by Tex. Just comment on this interview within the week to enter!

For more on Tex, visit the following links:

Underneath the Juniper Tree takes all the monsters that hide in your closet and under your bed, pulls them out in the open and celebrates them.

We are a non-profit children’s macabre literature and art magazine that is published monthly online, with additional material, contests, giveaways, etc., on our website almost daily. Being the macabre delicacy that we are, our biggest inspirations are artists such as Dave McKean, Mark Ryden, Maurice Sendak and the like. Our literature inspirations range from classics such as Aesop’s fables, R.L. Stine, Edward Gorey, Neil Gaiman, Lewis Carroll, H.P Lovecraft, and of course The Grimm Brothers. Their story Juniper Tree is, in fact, our magazine’s namesake.

In each issue, we strive to accomplish two things: 1. Support new and budding artists and writers and 2. Promote the most creatively fantastical and darkly neurotic literature and art that has been much loved over the centuries. UTJT is not about cheap thrills. It is about creatively macabre literature that leaves you chilled long after you have left the page. Often there is a sense of melancholy in our stories, but we balance it out with a healthy dose of darkly hilarious stories and poetry.

UTJT, run by Marjorie Merle and myself, was created out of the devastating loss of another fantastically dark children’s publication, Crow Toes Quarterly. CTQ was a mysterious and grim literature and art printed quarterly for children. Marjorie, many of our dear friends, and myself not only loved and supported this independent publication but contributed to it as well. Therefore it was a huge disappointment to many people when it was confirmed in the spring of 2011 that CTQ would be closing its doors and ceasing publication due to budget issues.

In its departure, Marjorie and I decided that with our combined set of skills in literature, editing, art, design, marketing, and the world of publishing we could help revive the magazine and keep its legacy alive. With the blessing of the founder of CTQ, we started Underneath the Juniper Tree as a simple blog in April 2011, and in June we published our first monthly e-zine. We have been publishing monthly ever since.

We are continually astonished with the support and contributions we receive. Just last month, the wonderful Dave McKean (Coraline) and Jonathan Maberry (Rot & Ruin series, Simon & Schuster 2010) both contributed to our humble little magazine. That is on top of the many other extremely talented contributors that make our magazine what it is because of their love for the dark art and providing children with a creative outlet like no other. To this day, no one has been compensated in any way, including Marjorie and myself. It’s a labor of love, and we love to labor on it.

Our goal for UTJT is to continue the free online monthly but eventually start a subscription based quarterly.

2. Why partner with Marjorie Merle?

UTJT was initially the brainchild of Marjorie Merle (or MM as she is known around our dark circle). MM contributed to CTQ quite a bit, and thus when it closed down, she had the idea to start another outlet for dark children’s literature and art. Marjorie is a close, dear friend of mine, and she asked if I would be willing to come on board to help her achieve this goal.

We compliment each other very well. We have very similar taste in art and literature, which bodes well for the magazine—not a lot of arguing about what goes in and what stays out. But whereas Marjorie is professionally trained in art and design, I am professionally trained in editing and marketing. So after we got our wits about us, Marjorie became UTJT’s Art Director and I became the Editorial Director. The greatest part, however, is that we are both creative artists in our own right and where one of us is lacking, the other is right there to help support and build up that particular skill. MM is quite fantastic at editing and I know a little something about art and design myself. So we are always able to step in and fill each other’s shoes from time to time. We truly make a devilish team.

3. What, to you, makes a story scary? Why are they so compelling?

While preparing for the November Issue, we had a particular piece that involved a great deal of detailed torture. While whimsical in a way, because a doll was carrying out the torture, both MM and I agreed that the realistic nature of the torture was too extreme and instead of being “scary” it was just gross. The torture scenes were easy to cut out, and leaving those particular scenes up to one’s imagination made the story so much creepier.

So to directly answer your question, a scary story happens in your mind. The words and images on the page are simply there to help your imagination in the right direction—especially in children’s literature and definitely for UTJT. Now, of course you have many classic horror stories that use very graphic imagery, but they are horror stories, not macabre literature, which is what we strive for.

On that note, UTJT loves to work with select scary stories—for example: we have a Royally Beheaded series that uses very graphic imagery, but what we love more than anything is a good dark tale. Dark tales are so compelling because people rarely let their mind wander into those grim recesses. We all have them. Our minds are chock-full of mischievous little ghouls that only make an appearance when we are walking down a dark alley alone, or when we are lying in bed at night and we hear something go bump.

So when someone has the opportunity to explore those darker areas of their mind in a great piece of literature, or a wonderful piece of art, it’s compelling and it intrigues. We seek after the unknown, also known as what we fear. It’s human nature.

4. You accept general submissions for children’s stories. What are some of the mistakes you see when writers write for children?

Yes, we love general submissions! We love to see what macabre, grotesque minds occupy the world.

One thing I have noticed lately while editing is that people forget that in order to appeal to a target audience you must appeal to a target audience. We’ve had stories written about teenagers doing macabre things, or even adults. Although the story concept may be wonderful, I’ve always written back saying, “Make them kids!” We write for children. Children love to read about other children doing mischievous things, or perhaps… getting their heads lopped off (Juniper Tree by The Brothers Grimm). Why do you think the majority of the Grimm tales were about children in peril? We have a great piece coming out in our November Issue called Bone Music that initially started out with an adult couple. The concept was wonderful, so we had the writer change the adult couple to a younger brother and sister pair. The bottom line is that children don’t relate to adults as well as they do to other children.

That’s not to say there cannot be any adults in our stories. Some of our stories feature adults (again, the Royally Beheaded [RB] series). But there has to be an appeal to children. In the case of the RB series, it’s educational with a terrifying or gruesome twist. Darling Dire, the author of the RB series works very hard to use historical fact, one of the reasons we picked up the series. It’s historical, but gruesome. It teaches children some history in a unique manner.

This is good advice for writers of any genre for kids: Your main protagonist (or antagonist in many of our stories) should only be a few years older than your target audience. Writing for an 8-year-old? Your character should be 9-12, and so forth.

5. You pair the stories with artwork. What do you look for in artwork, and what does it add to the writing?

The question is: what doesn’t a great piece of art add to a story? UTJT is just as much an art magazine as it is a literature magazine. Initially, we had a short stories section, and we had an art section. But then we had artists wanting to work with writers and vice versa. Soon we had not one but two, three, even four illustrations for some of our stories. Art is just another stepping stone to help build a child’s imagination. A lot of our art is quirky, whimsical, and abstract enough, that the reader can add his or her own interpretation. We would never want the art to hinder the reader’s imagination.

We obviously look for macabre, whimsical art. We send out stories to the artists and they chose what they think fits their style and then they create pieces for the stories. Sometimes we will find an amazing piece of art, solicit the artist, and a writer will create a story based around that art piece.

As an artist, new or veteran, it is always a great thing to start up a portfolio of your work. This helps publications like UTJT get a strong sense of your work so that we can determine whether you are right for our magazine or not.

6. Since Underneath the Juniper Tree is primarily an online publication, how do you go about driving traffic to your site? Do you advertise to the children or their parents or both?

While we are a children’s magazine, we have a huge adult demographic. Which does not surprise us in the slightest. After all, we are all still reading Alice in Wonderland and The Chronicles of Narnia, aren’t we? Adults never want to leave that part of their life behind. It’s the Peter Pan Syndrome. Therefore, we promote our publication everywhere. Facebook and Twitter have been great ways to drive traffic to our site and publication. But word of mouth is absolutely priceless.

We have, on average, about 50-60 contributors in each issue. Say each one of them tweets the issue’s release, or facebooks the issue a couple times a month, we’ve just added about 1000 potential viewers per contributor. It becomes a we—a wonderful web of readers and art lovers who want to support the magazine. We also have the help of our dark partners in crime: The good folks over at The Daily Dead (http://dailydead.com/) who promote us each month. Our good friends at Dreadful Tales and Kinderscares (http://dreadfultales.com/) do a great deal of promotion for us as well as The Lit Coach (http://thelitcoach.blogspot.com/) and several other wonderful powerhouses in the industry. Just last month, we did a contest with Literary Asylum (http://literaryasylum.blogspot.com/) and Walden Pond Press. Having the support of a major publishing imprint like Walden Pond was wonderful for us.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I have had many courses in marketing and know the appropriate steps to take in order to be seen. If a writer is truly serious about any type of Guerilla Marketing, they should look up online courses or read books published on the subject. It’s a wonderful skill to have in this industry.

But specifically for UTJT, it’s truly a matter of supporting art. Support others and you will be supported tenfold. This is an extremely important lesson for all budding writers and artists. Build a community for yourself. Support others and they will support you.

7. What is your best piece of advice for aspiring writers?

To borrow a quote from one of our biggest inspirations: “…short stories are the best place for young writers to learn their craft: to try out different voices and techniques, to experiment, to learn.”
—Neil Gaiman

Aspiring writers need to…ahem…write. Every day. And as Gaiman says, short stories can be the best place to learn your craft. Most of us wouldn’t buy a pair of jeans without trying them on. You take about a hundred pairs into the dressing room and leave with one or two. It’s quite similar with writing. Don’t write something just because you think it will sell or because it is trendy. Write what fits you. Write what you are passionate about.

8. What are you dressing up as this Halloween?

I’m going as a skeleton. It’s kind of my thing. I’m convincing MM to dress up as me this year!

Happy Halloween!

Andrea Hurst has over 25 years experience as a published author, developmental editor for publishers, and skilled literary agent. She works with both major and regional publishing houses, and her client list includes emerging new voices and New York Times best-selling authors. Andrea represents high profile Adult Nonfiction and well crafted fiction. Her clients and their books have appeared on the Oprah Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, National Geographic network and in the New York Times.

Katie Flanagan is a fiction major at Northwestern University. She is currently an editor with Booktrope and a reader for Pink Fish Press. In the past, she has interned with Andrea Hurst Literary Management and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her favorite genre is women’s fiction, but she reads any fiction put in front of her. Check out her blog about the writing life at katieflanagan.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at @K_Flanagan.

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AUTHORNOMICS Interview with Bill Kenower

By: Andrea Hurst

Interview with Bill Kenower, founder of Author Magazine

1. You are editor-in-chief and founder of Author magazine. What was your inspiration for starting the magazine?

My Hollywood pitch for Author would be: Writer’s Digest meets The Secret. I wanted to create a writing magazine that provided more than advice on craft and publishing. I felt there were lots of great magazines out there already providing that information. In my experience, it was not always so difficult to learn how to write a story or a query letter, but it was consistently challenging to cope with the fear and uncertainty that can and frequently do go hand-in-hand with this profession. My focus in the interviews, in my daily column, and in some of the articles I buy is: How do you learn not just to author your books, but become the author of your own life?

2. What are some of the benefits reading your magazine can offer writers?

Companionship. At Author you can watch and listen to established and first-time authors talk about the experience of becoming writers, of sitting down every day to a blank page, of being rejected, of not knowing how to finish a story, of hating the middle. Everyone goes through it, but at your desk you can sometimes forget this. Author, I hope, reminds you that you are not in fact alone.

3. You live in Seattle, Washington, as do a number of our guests. Can you tell us about the literary scene there?

Seattle is lousy with writers. I interview writers from all over the country, but I could easily limit myself just to Seattle and never run out of writers. Seattle also has a great reading population. We are always a part of book tours both nationally and internationally. Aside from New York, I can’t think of a better town for a writer to live in – and it’s lot cheaper here than in NY, and the winters are warmer!

4. You have also been a game writer, actor, playwright, sommelier, and bartender. How have those diverse experiences helped you as a writer and editor?

All those experiences taught me about life. Writing classes and magazine are great, reading books is great, but nothing will teach you more than life itself. Writing is just translating what I learned when not writing.

5. You often speak to groups about the writing life. What are some of the struggles people most often ask you for help with, and what is the best piece of advice you give?

People want to know how to be successful. That’s always the biggest question. How can I be a successful writer? The answer: Write what you love. The only question a writer should ever ask him or herself is not, “What do agents want?” or, “How can I get a big contract?” or, “What markets are hot right now?” but rather, “What do I most want to say?” If you answer that successfully, your job is done.

6. You have an excellent blog for Author magazine. What are your tips for writing a successful blog?

See above. Also, trust. I never really know what I’m going to write about every day, but I have found that if I trust myself, if I ask, “What’s the very best thing I can share today?” something comes. It’s a great discipline, writing a short column every day. There’s no time to doubt yourself.

7. You work in various capacities with Pacific Northwest Writers Association. How do you interact with them on a professional level?

The PNWA is great. Not only do they fund Author, they also provide all kinds of support for local writers. If you’re not a member, become one. Technically, I am a member of the board. In that capacity, I help mostly with rounding up writers for the yearly conference. In truth, the other board members are the ones who put the conference together, and put the monthly meetings together. I am amazed at how much this small and unpaid group of people gets done.

8. What are some of the most interesting interviews you have done for the magazine?

That’s a tough one, but here goes: Andre Dubus because he is so eloquent about the link between his life and his work; Henry Winkler because he spoke so compassionately about a subject near and dear to me; Geneen Roth because she is one of the wisest and most articulate people I have ever met; Sir Ken Robinson because he showed me how to talk about the things you love with humor and precision; Richard Bach because he showed how easy success should feel.

And finally, Somaly Mam. Of all the people I have met because of Author, none has affected me as profoundly as Somaly Mam. After thirty minutes with this woman I understood unquestionably that suffering is nothing and love is everything. It was a done deal after that.

9. For anyone interested in starting a writing-related magazine, what advice would you offer them?

Create the magazine you can’t find on the internet or the newsstand. Create the magazine you’ve been looking for.

10. Do you have any upcoming projects or events to keep an eye out for?

I am currently working on a memoir of sorts called No One Is Broken, about how raising a son on the autism spectrum taught the meaning of life. I will be sure to let everyone know once we have our publisher lined up!

You can visit my website to learn more about me, or stop by Author for some inspiration and advice.

Andrea Hurst has over 25 years experience as a published author, developmental editor for publishers, and skilled literary agent. She works with both major and regional publishing houses, and her client list includes emerging new voices and New York Times best-selling authors. Andrea represents high profile Adult Nonfiction and well crafted fiction. Her clients and their books have appeared on the Oprah Show, Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, National Geographic network and in the New York Times.

Katie Flanagan is a fiction major at Northwestern University. She is currently an editor with Booktrope and a reader for Pink Fish Press. In the past, she has interned with Andrea Hurst Literary Management and the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her favorite genre is women’s fiction, but she reads any fiction put in front of her. Check out her blog about the writing life at katieflanagan.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter at @K_Flanagan.

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