Corbin Lewars on Persistence

Yesterday, at Just Write on Whidbey Island, our guest speaker was Corbin Lewars, local writing mentor and author of Creating A Life.  It took Corbin five years to see her book published, after rewrites, a fired agent, and a lot of stress, she finally went the route of small publishing.  She shared one stress saving secret though: keep yourself busy.  Corbin started a zine before she was published, which shared common themes with her memoir and helped build a platform.  The zine, Reality Mom, is in its eighth year of publication.  It started small, she shopped it around to local bookstores, but slowly the demand grew.

Corbin shared a few other words of wisdom with us:

• Don't follow the market.  By the time you finish a novel to suit the market, it will have moved on already.
• Research each agent you are going to query and make sure you make her list.  Look up agents in your favorite books (acknowledgments page), and research them.  Corbin hired a friend great with researching to help with her agent list.
• To get blurbs for your book start networking with local writing groups, other authors, and mentors.
• Non-fiction, memoirs especially, tend to be only 60,000 words--this is due to publishing costs.
• Make sure you can get out of your agent contract if you want to.  Don't let them trap you in for a year or two years if they aren't going to fulfill their end of the bargain.  If you negotiate a publishing contract agent-free, hire a publishing lawyer or freelance agent (they help negotiate contracts, contract free, for a small sum).
• When you are out to find an agent, don't grab up the first one you come across simply because they want to represent you.  You are out to interview that agent as well.  If you can't get along with them professionally, working together isn't going to be a lot of fun.

When asked about her preference between small and large publishing houses, Corbin replied that she was glad she went with the small publishing house for her first book.  It afforded a lot more hand holding than the large ones would have.  The down side to small presses is that they have little to no budget for marketing, so you will be nearly solo on that.  However, in today's present economy, large publishing houses may give first time authors little to no budget anyways.  Either way, look forward to a lot of self marketing.

Check out Corbin's website here, and support authors by buying her book!  All in all, I greatly enjoyed meeting Corbin.  She is a down to earth woman, absolutely gorgeous, and a great speaker.  Her parting words of wisdom on how to stay motivated: get support through a writing group or mentor, make writing a priority, nurture yourself with a walk or a latte, and remember the key to being a writer is to keep writing.

A Day on Whidby

Yesterday, I went to Whidby Island, as I do most Wednesdays, to meet with my agent/mentor/boss/friend/teacher Andrea Hurst, president of Andrea Hurst Literary Management.  We talked books and work and conferences, and then we went to the Pier in Coopeville, to Just Write, a writer's group Andrea put together.  Most Wednesdays, these writers can be found in the coffee shop or in the sunshine on the pier writing.  Days like yesterday, we are all treated to a guest speaker.

Tom Masters was our very talented and oh-so-knowledgeable guest speaker.  I've said it before, I'll say it again, I don't know everything.  I don't want to know everything.  I want to learn from the experts.  And Tom Masters is an expert on blogging.  In his talk, Blog to Book, he shared the importance of blogging and using other online tools to create a platform and excitement for your book.  There are so many resources out there to help the scared, lonely, and computer illiterates.  You can find Tom Masters' book, "Blogging Quick and Easy", on Amazon.

After Just Write, we had a farewell dinner with our lovely intern Katie Flanagan, who returning to roam the stately halls of Northwestern.  Follow her journey from lowly water-cooler-changing intern and creative writing student to a big wig in the Big Apple and literary genius, http://katieflanagan.wordpress.com/

In case you hadn't heard it before, and in case you have just nod and follow along, things in publishing move rapidly.  Interns and assistants come and go within months.  Agents leave and reestablish themselves just as quickly.  And (hopefully in my case) new agents can spring up like daisies in spring.

Next week at Just Write, fellow agent Gordon Warnock will be speaking about "How to interest a literary Agent".  Everyone is welcome.  More information can be found at http://www.andreahurst.com/classes/

Happy writing!