Friday’s Links and Questions for Nicola Morgan

On Wednesday we introduced you to prolific author, consultant and popular blogger Nicola Morgan, and as promised, today is your opportunity to ask her any of your own questions about publishing, writing and other literary concerns. Just leave your questions in the comments section of this post, and check back later for answers.

Selected posts from Nicola’s blog, Help! I Need a Publisher!
Failure to be published: the harsh reality

What to expect around publication

Book launch truths

Deciphering your rejection letter(s)

In defense of authors

Additional literary news:

Ravit Lichtenberg predicts ten ways social media will change in 2010

Numerous sources are reporting that both Kirkus Reviews and Editor & Publisher will be ceasing publication.

The New York Times reports that some publishers are delaying the release of e-book editions of some new titles due to possible concerns that they might cut into hardcover sales.

Some independent bookstores are fighting competition from e-book sales and chain retailers by importing UK editions of books not due for sale yet in the United States.

Leading periodical publishers have formed a venture that some are describing as a “Hulu for Magazines.”

n653213921_1671825_1056996Matt Staggs is a literary publicist and the proprietor of Deep Eight LLC, a boutique publicity agency utilizing the best publicity practices from the worlds of traditional media and evolving social technologies. He has worked in the fields of public relations and journalism for almost a decade. In addition to his work as a publicist, Matt is a book reviewer and writer whose work appears in both print and web publications.

Booklife Essentials: Asking Nicola Morgan, an Interview

Nicola Morgan’s known for being versatile in her writing, and blunt in her advice. Her Help! I Need a Publisher blog is merciless in its debunking of writing myths. Morgan is unafraid to tell it like it is, much to the benefit of those who read her. Not familiar with Morgan? Here’s her bio.

Nicola Morgan is an award-winning and multi-published UK author, writing mostly for the Young Adult market. She is best known in the UK for her YA novels and non-fiction about the teenage brain—Blame My Brain was shortlisted for the Royal Society’s Aventis Prize. Nicola blogs eagerly about how to become and survive as a published writer and her blog—Help! I Need a Publisher!—is highly recommended by agents and editors. She has also just launched a new literary consultancy, Pen2Publication. Nicola divides her working time between writing, speaking, advising, and dreaming of shoes and chocolate. Her greatest ambition is to learn to say no to the right things. She is hoping that Booklife is going to help her achieve this.

Not only have we interviewed her for Booklifenow below, but on Friday Matt Staggs’ Booklifenow Top 10 Links post will feature our favorites from Help! I Need a Publisher. And if that weren’t enough, if you have any questions about writing or the writing business, post them as comments to the links post and she’ll drop by to answer them. So check back in Friday, and have your questions ready…

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Booklife Essay: Luck’s Child by Marly Youmans

Marly Youmans has published young adult, genre, and literary fiction in a variety of publications and in book form for publishers including Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Penguin, and many others. Her essay here, originally published in the appendices to Booklife, reminds us that some elements of a career are out of our control.

This week as the book tour winds up, I’m at the Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia, the Chapel Hill Comics Shop, and Manuel’s Bar in Atlanta. Check the schedule for more details. – Jeff

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Friday’s Links and Questions for Colleen Lindsay

As I promised on Wednesday, Colleen Lindsay is here to answer any questions you might have about the publishing industry. All you’ve got to do to participate is leave your question in the comments section of this post.

Although I provided a very brief introduction to Colleen in the prior post, I asked her if she would mind giving us a more detailed statement about her life and work. Here it is:

Colleen Lindsay is a literary agent with FinePrint Literary Management, LLC. Colleen’s first job in publishing was in Northern California as a mass merchandise sales assistant for Ballantine Books. For five years she served as Director of Publicity for Del Rey Books where she specialized in the creative publicity and marketing of science fiction, fantasy, pop culture, YA fantasy, graphic novels, manga and third-party licensed media. Some of the authors whose publicity campaigns Colleen had the privilege to manage at Del Rey include Terry Brooks, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Moon, China Mieville, Richard K. Morgan, Minister Faust, Matthew Stover, R.A. Salvatore, and Harvey Pekar. Some of the non-genre titles whose publicity Colleen has managed include the New York Times Bestselling Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light and Will Bowen’s A Complaint Free World. She has also worked as a freelance publicist, copywriter, and online marketer for several major trade publishers and as a book reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Colleen also spent twelve years working as floor manager, backlist buyer and events manager at several San Francisco Bay Area independent bookstores. She joined FinePrint as an agent in March of 2008; her first book sale was Alan DeNiro’s Total Oblivion, More or Less. You can learn more about her at her blog (http://theswivet.com) or her Twitter feed (@colleenlindsay).

Read five of my favorite posts from The Swivet, as well as a few items of note from the publishing world at large, after the jump:

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