Lara Zielin

STATUS: Officially addicted to HGTV. What IS my house worth?

FAVE LINKEY-POO RIGHT THIS SECOND: Gawker’s sister site, jezebel.com. Specifically when they rip apart popular women’s magazines. 

I am a fan of agents and, let’s be honest, I’m a fan of anyone who makes my life easier. Cleaning ladies, masseuses, you name it. Not that my agent is in that same “service” category, mind you, I’m just saying I’m all about outsourcing things when it makes sense. I’m also a fan of doing heavy lifting when the time calls for it.

Case in point: I was talking to a friend today who wanted to learn more about publishers who might be interested in little kids’ books, and this person indicated that in addition to soliciting my input, they’d soon be walking down the street to go research the shelves at Borders. Tres smart mon amie, said moi! 

I did loads of this when I was trying to get my book(s) published. I wanted to know who the major writers were in the genre, what publishers had a handle on what I was trying to get into the market, and who the agents were who were representing these writers. Hint: most writers thank their agents in the notes at the beginning of the book and list them by name. When writing query letters to the aforementioned agents, it’s always helpful to say things like, “Because you represented X book, I think my novel would be a great fit with your agency.”

Before DONUT DAYS was purchased, I gave my $.02 on who I hoped would pick up the book. I’d done my homework and I had a few ideas. I thought that Hyperion would be a good fit because they’d published a fabulously wonderful book my Melissa Schorr titled Goy Crazy. It was about a girl struggling with her faith and with boys (my kind of plot, y’all!) but without alienating the people reading it who might not be Jewish. Like me, for example. Anyway, I thought that I might be their kind of writer, too. Even though DONUT DAYS found a home elsewhere, it was empowering to be knowledgeable about what else was out there and where I might fit into the picture.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 12:19 am and is filed under writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.