Thursday, February 17, 2011

Wanna Get Published? Listen to This Guy:

Bejamin LeRoy is the founder of Bleak House Books.  That means he actually has the power to turn manuscripts into books on shelves.  And in the article below he's telling writers how and when he decides which manuscripts he'll take a closer look at: The first paragraph.

Did that make you scream?  Read what he has to say about how they identify which books they'll publish, and the advice he gives on what Publishers are looking for.

Just in case you don't have time to read the whole thing, I'm going to quote my favorite part:

"You wouldn’t trust a clumsy surgeon with a scalpel. I don’t trust authors who aren’t in complete control of their environment. Sloppy work is sloppy work. Doesn’t matter the profession, I don’t want it."

This is advice from the Horse's mouth, people.  It isn't rocket science, but it is gold.  GOLD I say.

Listen, learn, absorb, apply.

Let's all get books with our names on them, shall we?

14 comments:

  1. Oooh...I can tell I'm going to enjoy following this blog :)

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  2. How CONVICTING. I confess: I tend to be a sloppy (lazy?) copy editor? I always miss typos and can't ever remember whether to write "their" or "they're". eeek! I need to be more careful.

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  3. Stopping by to introduce myself as a new follower and fellow crusader. Did you find out what group you're in yet?

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  4. I'm a fellow crusader from your group. I thought I'd stop in to say hi.
    I'm a follower now.
    I agree, sloppy work is sloppy work. :)

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  6. Thanks for linking to Ben LeRoy's post on my blog. Ben is a very sharp publisher who has an eye for the best, and it shows. Bleak House had three Edgar nominees their first year in business.

    Again, thanks. And I do hope you'll continue to visit The Graveyard Shift. By the way, are you guys aware of our annual Writers' Police Academy? It's a hands-on event where writers train at an actual police academy using real police equipment in workshops taught by top experts in the business.

    http://www.writerspoliceacademy.com/

    Lee Lofland
    http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/

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  7. That is an excellent blog. Good stuff! Thanks for the link :)

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  8. Haha, nice information. Thanks for the link!

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  9. Thank you for the post! This is great!

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  10. True, true, true! Great to meet a fellow crusader! Thanks for caring enough to share this important post!

    ♥.•*¨ Elizabeth ¨*•.♥

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  11. That advice from the horse's mouth (as you put it!) makes perfect, total sense :-)

    I'm a fellow crusader stopping by just to say hi and follow your blog :-)

    xx Rachel

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  12. The only part I agree with on his article, is when he mentioned he "doesn't want special effects, he wants to be effected"- those are the books that will make it. Not people who are cookie cutter writers, and so I agree. The only thing is, many awesome writers have gotten rejected and to me their words on the first page may not have been much but it worked for the story. So I don't know...

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