ThomasLitchford

That’s the median annual income for an American writer according to a 1981 study commissioned by the Authors Guild Foundation. A 2000 follow-up study on the midlist (i.e. books that are not blockbusters; they tend to be ’serious’ literary fiction or nonfiction books with comparatively modest sales) indicates that this has probably not changed significantly [...]

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I’ve been thinking recently about Google’s campaign to digitize the libraries of several major research universities, and so have a lot of other people.
I’m not sure if there’s really a threat here, at least not yet. Some writers and publishing industry types are very worried that the book biz is going down the same path [...]

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Well, the recent upgrade to WordPress 2.0.3 seems to have fixed the problem with the comments. Give it a try now.

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Here’s my first attempt at a query letter. Tell me what you think in the comments section.

10 June 2006
M_. Agent Soandso
1000 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10010

Dear M_. Soandso,
I am writing to query Lithium, a 70,000 word complete novel. Lithium centers on the character of Marianne Caxton, a poet and novelist who suffers from [...]

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That’s the really interesting question. I have the address in my signature file, so everyone I e-mail could click on it and check out the site, but who else?
For instance, the other day, a couple days after the “Impatience” post, one of my readers assured me that, yes, she was reading the book, and she [...]

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I guess there’s something inherently self-indulgent about weblogs. I sort of wish I had something more interesting to talk about than myself, but there are plenty of other bloggers doing that already, so, what the hell?
My wife’s ship deployed yesterday, so I’ve got all this damn time to kill. Based on feedback from several voluntary [...]

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I eventually started seeing the street signs through the fog and started getting an idea of where I was and where I was going. It was like finally deciding to open up the map when you’re lost.
The first, and most essential, was the idea that the narrator’s mother had abandoned him. This provided a massive [...]

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While Lithium is in ‘the bottom drawer’ I thought it would be interesting to record the history — the process — of the thing. It’s maybe a little presumptuous of me to think anyone will be interested in this, but, for the sake of posterity…why not?
(I will here forcefully hold myself back from offering an [...]

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Oh, how difficult it is to wait quietly for someone to read a manuscript! Several friends of mine have copies of the first completed draft, and I’m getting antsy. Someone else, a writer and more of an acquaintance, has a copy, and I’m really anxious to hear what she has to say.
Why? I need [...]

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