Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of...what?

In the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote the words: "...life, liberty and the pursuit of possessions."



Later it was changed to "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."




To the colonists' way of thinking, materialism was driving the expansion of the New World. Possessions, to them, equaled happiness.


So...what do you think of that?

Roll 'Em

Had great fun taping an interview for NBC's local affiliate WFLA in Tampa this morning. We were there for almost two hours to get an edited 4-minute interview, which will air on the August 25 "Daytime" show, 10 - 11 am.

The process is very interesting: A LOT of waiting around but when they're ready for you, it's blam, blam, blam, cameras whirling about, tech guys groping you to secure your lapel mic and amp in place, prompters rolling, hosts mugging for the cam. Then you wait some more and do it all over again.

I arrived at 10:15 at the downtown Tampa studio, which also houses The Tampa Tribune newspaper offices. A security guard escorted my husband Chuck and me back to a waiting room, where another author also scheduled for an interview that day sat nervously chatting with her friend. It turns out that lovely Lisa Black from Melbourne (just next door to Merritt Island, the setting for my novels The Distant Shore and Billowing Sails) is an inspirational mom writer as well. We hit it off, gabbing our fool heads off until a technician appeared to escort us back to the cavernous studio.

We waited in chairs backed against a wall, surrounded by monitors that allowed us to view the constant movement and chaos accompanying the shooting of a myriad of lead-in's and wrap-ups (by the three hosts) of pretaped segments, presumably airing today. They rotated among three sets and shot numerous takes due to tripping tongues or holey scripts, reading from hooded prompters located just above the numerous cameras situated to shoot different angles at almost every other sentence.

The host scheduled to interview me, Lindsey, slid over between takes and introduced herself and asked for a copy of Mom Needs Chocolate, which my publicist sent but had not arrived. My stomach dropped like a stone.

This is NOT a good thing. You always prefer your interviewer to have read your book before they discuss it with you on national television.

Since Lindsey didn't know one thing about my book, she had prepared questions based on a magazine article I had written, which really had very little to do with the book. She did manage to speed read at least one chapter of MNC between takes so that during the interview an hour later, she was able to squeeze in a few customized comments so that it turned out just fine.

One vain girlie side item: After debating for days over whether to wear the teal suit or the black pinstripe, I chose the teal, only to arrive and find the set slated for the interview sported wedgewood blue chairs. Oh well. There was nothing I could do but hope I didn't clash with my chair to the point that the viewer was reduced to squinting.

Coping with Rejection: Part 2

This is information from a week-long July blog posting from a literary agency Books & Such:

When an agent sends a rejection letter, different types of rejections mean different things. Here’s the inside scoop, as I see it, on four main forms of rejection:

The Plain Old Rejection (usually sent for rejecting query letters):

This letter will say something like, Thanks, but no thanks. It means that the project isn’t right for that agent for one reason or another. If you continue to receive these rejections from every agent you’re submitting to, consider revising your query, or maybe it’s time to move on to a new idea.

The ‘Revise and Send Again’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):

This rejection letter will have some revision notes in it. This usually means that your proposal or manuscript sparked the agent’s interest, but the agent knows that it needs to be revised in some way to have a chance in the current market. These rejections usually ask for the project to be sent again, if the suggested revisions are made. If you receive one of these rejections, be sure to follow through and send that revised project back to the agent. (Agents hate to make suggestions, only to have the potential client never resubmit but instead shows the new and improved version to another agent–who, of course, thought it was genius!)

The ‘Any Other Ideas?’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):

If you receive a rejection asking if you have any other ideas for projects, this typically means that the agent enjoyed your writing, but didn’t think that your idea would work well in the marketplace. You’ll want to write back to the agent with a list of project ideas and an estimated date of when he or she could see a proposal, if you aren’t finished with the writing yet.

The ‘This Project Isn’t Right for Me’ Rejection (usually sent for rejecting proposals or manuscripts):

This type of rejection is used as a thanks, but no thanks rejection for proposals and manuscripts. It means that something in your query letter sparked the agent’s interest, but when he or she looked at the writing sample and examined the idea more closely, it wasn’t a good fit. If you continue to receive this type of rejection, stop submitting your project and consider revising.

Who's Your Daddy?

Hey, check out my newly posted TV and radio interviews at www.DeboraCoty.com! And if you're from Florida, don't forget to sign up for the exciting and informative Florida Inspirational Writers Retreat on Nov. 14 (details also on my website). Low cost! Enormously beneficial!

Here's an excerpt from Grit for the Oyster: 250 Pearls of Wisdom for Aspiring Writers:

"I recall listening to an audio tape of my now twenty-four-year-old son as he sang a very off-key rendition of "Jesus Loves Me" at age three. In the opinion of most people, his skills would be considered rudimentary, even lacking.

But I was deeply touched by the most beautiful voice on the planet, blessed and proud as only a parent can be. I taught him that song, and he was doing his part to learn and improve.

That's exactly the way God, our heavenly parent, views our writing skills. He taught us everything we know, through avenues of formal education, experience, and aptitude. Now it's up to us to continue learning and improving.

If we view our writing careers through the Daddy filter, the pressure of being "good enough" is lifted. Our Heavenly Father will be blessed and proud of our accomplishments on any level."

From the chapter "Who's Your Daddy?"

Coping with Rejection: Part 1

This is information from a week-long July blog posting from a literary agency Books & Such:

This week I’m going to talk about something we all hate: rejection. Unfortunately rejection is a big part of a writer’s life, and it’s also a big part of an agent’s life, just in a different way.

I have to reject people. Believe it or not, agents don’t actually enjoy rejecting people, but it’s part of the job. I often do all of my rejection emails and letters on the same day each week, and I never feel good about that day when I go home. It’s not fun to think about crushing the hopes of so many writers. The agents I know never set out to be insensitive when it comes to writing a rejection to an author, but sometimes we sound as if we don’t care just because of the number of rejections we have to send out. It’s humanly impossible for an agent to represent every good project that comes along; so we have to evaluate each project using these criteria:

1) Is the project something I’m excited about?

The best representation comes from an enthusiastic agent. I want to be excited about my clients’ projects, and my clients want me to be enthusiastic about their writing.

2) Could I show this project to my established network of publishers?

Every agent has a network of editors and publishers whom they’ve established relationships with. These editors and publishers are usually interested in the same type of material the agent is; so the relationship has been built on a mutual love for certain genres or topics. Agents want to represent books that could be shown to many different editors and publishing houses in their preexisting network because the possibility of selling the project is higher.

3) Could I work well with this author?

The author-agent relationship is VERY important. There needs to be mutual respect and trust between them for the relationship to last. I have a phone call and exchange several emails with potential clients before I offer representation. I try to get to know them as much as I can because I would much rather be very careful about whom I work with than having to end a relationship because it didn’t go well.

4) Can this author write well and revise if necessary?

I look for clean writing in submissions and often will suggest revisions not only to help to improve the project but also to see if the author is willing and able to make revisions. It’s understandable that authors don’t want to change their “babies,” but when I see changes that need to be made, I want clients who are going to trust my judgment and do a thorough and professional revision.

If the answer is “no” to any of these criteria, I’m going to choose not to represent that writer. When I send a rejection, I hope that author will find the right agent for his or her project; I want every author to succeed.

Book Contracts

So you've finished editing and polishing your book manuscript. Now you're ready to submit to a publisher (or an agent). What can you anticipate in terms of contracts?

A traditional book contract offered by a publisher includes, among other pertinent things, a date of completion, word count, rights (copyright, publishing and selling rights, editing, subsidiary etc.), royalties, advance, author copies, publicity, and noncompete rules (varies with publishing houses, but basically they want to have your undivided attention on their book, and not spreading yourself out too thin writing and marketing other books).

This type of publishing agreement offers royalties, or a percentage of payment on each book sold, e.g. a 10% royalty would net the author $1.00 on each $10.00 book sold. A hike in royalty may be offered after a certain amount of copies are sold, for example: "up to and including 15,000 copies sold=12% of net sales; over 15,000 copies sold=15% of net sales."

An advance is like an advance on your allowance as a kid. It's not free money; it's advancing your earned royalties ahead of time so you can eat during the 1-2 years average time from signing the contract until your book comes out. Average advances for first time books are $3,000 - $10,000. The sum offered is based on the amount of book sales the publisher anticipates within the first crucial 4 months after the book's release. If the advance is not earned out, the author is often required to repay the advance payment, which is why many authors choose to accept low advances.

To give you an example of how this works, my newest release, Mom Needs Chocolate, has sold almost 7,000 copies since its release four months ago and I have yet to earn out my advance. It will be a red letter day for me when I cross that invisible "success" line and begin receiving royalties.

The other type of book contract is "work for hire." This is the type of contract you will be offered for manuscripts used as part of a compilation (like a devotional by different authors), and sometimes for a complete book of your own work that is included in a collective series (books of a series written by different authors). A lump sum is paid up front and no royalties or advances are offered.

The benefits of work for hire books are that you, as an author, don't have to sweat blood over book sales - you've already received your payment and are not dependent on royalties. Also, you have your name on a quality book out there that will help build your reputation and promote your future books.

The downside is that you have no say whatsoever in work for hire book covers, content, style, or marketing, and the copyright doesn't belong to you. Plus the stigma within the industry is that work for hire books, like self-published books, are not as prestigious as traditional press contracts.

I've found that accepting work for hire book contracts occasionally is beneficial, as long as I don't use up my creativity and energies solely on books ultimately belonging to someone else.

Trends in Christian Fiction

There's a very interesting article in the
Denver Post about the direction of Christian fiction and the health of the industry. Worth a read!

One direction, which I happen to know about...is Amish fiction.

The other direction, which I happen to know nothing about...is vampires.

Click here to read it.