How Do I Know What I Think Until I See What I Say?

Last weekend I had to travel for business, and I forgot to bring a book for the way home! I never forget a book for place trips, but on the way out to San Diego I had to do a lot of prep for the meetings I was attending, so I didn't need one, and I didn't think "oh, Jay, you won't be doing prep on the way home." So there I was in the airport without a book. Boo! This is particularly traumatic for me because I'm picky about what I read and airport bookstores are almost universal in the suck. They are chock full of boring business books and top ten bestsellers that (a) I've already read or (b) I wouldn't read with someone else's eyes, let alone pay good money for. I was, to be blunt, in despair. But I saw a book with a pretty cool cover, so I picked it up. And, when I checked out the back cover, the hook was good. When I opened it up, I was a little concerned...it was supposedly one of those suspense/mystery novels, but it started with a prolo...

I just read on Writer Beware that Amazon UK has been using pressure tactics with book publishers to get better terms. And, of course, everyone's already heard about Amazon's tactics in the US related to POD and the Kindle. (If you haven't, check out Maya Reynold 's blog--she does the best industry breakdowns I've read.) This is the danger of Amazon that is just now starting to become apparent--Amazon is thisclose to obtaining monopoly power. In antitrust terms, a monopoly is what happens when one company has so much market power that it can control access, both to consumers and to manufacturers. Of course, Amazon would quibble with me about that--physical bookstores still exist, and Barnes & Noble and Borders both now have websites, and blah blah blah. But any decent antitrust lawyer will tell you that "market power" is determined by your definition of the market. And in the online bookseller market, Amazon has very little competition. And any ...

In my Real Job, I spend a lot of time making sure things are perfect. I draft contracts, and review deals, and negotiate terms, and my mistakes can end up costing my company money. (That doesn't mean I don't make mistakes, by the way. I'm not a god . Unless I work with you, in which case, I've never made a mistake in my life, and no, you still cannot do whatever it is that you wanted to do that I already told you not to do.) Naturally, this precision seeps into the rest of my life and, of course, my writing and querying process. I have #9 envelopes so that my SASE fits neatly into my #10 envelopes. My drafts are labeled and numbered and saved to CD. My pens are sorted by color, type (felt, ball, fountain), and line width. (No, I'm not kidding.) Anyway, the other day, I got a request for a full from an agent who's already seen a partial. YAY! I print the whole thing out, put it in a folder, and take it to work (we have a post office in the building), w...

I want to move away from the YA for a minute, lest people get the impression that I've never read a book for adults in my life. I have. I do. I think that's one of the impressions a lot of people have about YA writers, is that we only read the stuff we write. Not true (at least not for me). Authors of "adult literature" (by which I mean books for people over the age of 17, not the other kind of "adult" literature), are some of my favorite writers. And my most favorite of all of them is David Foster Wallace. I'm going to talk about "Infinite Jest" here, because that's my favorite of all of his fiction and is sort of the apex of his career (to this point - I expect great things) and is the type of thing I'm most qualified (by my own reading and thinking) to evaluate, but his nonfiction is some of the most entertaining stuff I've ever read. A good place to start with Wallace is his collection of essays called "A Supposedly F...

by Katie Alender , whose blog is so seriously entertaining that I sent a query letter to her agent just because he was cool enough to rep her. Here's the meme: 1. What was I doing ten years ago? Hmm...1998, what was I doing? Ooh! I was in a PhD program (Victorian Lit), and was months away from deciding to quit and go to law school (that happened in August). I have to say that, while I still miss teaching a little, that was a great decision. So, yay, ten years ago me, for being about to make a good life decision! 2. What are five things on my to do list for today (in no particular order)? finish the laundry; write 2500 words on Electric Boogaloo; walk the dog; straighten up office; read GMAT manual (I'm in training to be a GMAT instructor). 3. What snacks do I enjoy? I'm of the salty persuasion, so any thing made from a potato or corn that is then fried/salted, count me in. I also like fruit, but not nearly as much as I like potato chips. 4. Things I would d...

Lately, I've been reading a lot of books where the main character and her best friend don't get along. This is confusing to me. Why is the main character friends with someone she dislikes, or is afraid of, or actually hates? I get that it happens--I've seen Mean Girls . I've read Queen Bees and Wannabes . Heck, I'm old enough to have been the prime audience for Heathers . But in order for this fractured best friend relationship to be convincing, it has to be set up. In both Heathers and Mean Girls , there's a reason why the protagonist is friends with a bunch of b*tches--she chose to be. She knows that they're jerks. In fact, she can feel herself becoming a jerk right along with them. It's part of the character arc, the point of the story, that being friends with these girls is not who she really is. But the relationships I've been seeing lately don't make that kind of sense. The protagonist doesn't have a reason to be friends with...

Agent Jonathon Lyons has an entry here describing an author he had an interaction with this week, and can I just say WOW. WOW. Seriously. I mean, I understand being annoyed or hurt by rejection. It sucks. It sucks when you don't get the job you want, or the guy you ask out says "no thanks", or when the agent you're dying to get says "not for me." And I understand the impulse to say, "you're WRONG!" But it's really not a good idea. It's like that scene in A Few Good Men when Demi Moore objects to a ruling by the judge. The judge overrules her. This is where it should end. But instead, Demi Moore asks for reconsideration. "We strenuously object, your Honor!" she says. Oh, you strenuously object? Well, then, you must be right! Or, I'm totally right and you should sit down, Demi. Thanks. I'm assuming that an author's strenuous objection to rejection engenders a similar response in an agent. "Oh, you ...