Query Update: January '11

Last month was full of catch up and working on some new stuff at the agency. Interesting stats for sure!

As in previous posts, here are some current query numbers (note this is for both agents here at LA):

• Total queries sent from January 1 - 31: 1,031 (Almost doubled from December o_O)
• Queries sent with an unsolicited attachment (aka - automatic delete unread with no response): 41
• Queries which led to requested materials: 13 (YAY! -- 9 for me and 4 for Barbara)
• New clients: 1 (however, he did not query me -- I found him online and I've not yet announced who it is, as we are working on a project at the moment).

If you're curious what December's numbers were, click here.

Back to those requested partials *dives into slush happiness*

(BTW---> if you've not entered Mer-Bear's super awesome contest / blog debut, check it out.)

~KO

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Project Alice

If after reading that title you thought of this, then I'm SO happy you follow my blog (RE is a favorite of mine, though they should've stopped after #2):

However, the Project Alice I'm talking about involves BOOKS.

And can be found about 1/3 of the way into this video (it's 5 minutes -- if you let it buffer and skip to the 3:00 mark, it's the Alice portion).

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

This video offers a sneak peek into IDEO's* vision of books of the future. I'm not entirely excited / impressed by Nelson (though I see it having a huge impact on non-fiction), Coupland is a fabulous concept that I can see as a Library-Bookstore hybrid (seems like an oxymoron, right? But watch the video and see what I mean), but for the children's realm specifically, Project Alice holds a LOT of promise (and, um, hello Cassie Clare shoutout!).

Next week I'll be touching base on how I think we should be looking at enhanced eBooks as more than just the book equivelent of a DVD with extra features.

Are you Team Nelson, Team Coupland, Team Alice, or Team I-Hate-eBooks-Why-Are-Things-Headed-In-This-Direction?!

~KO

*IDEO is a Design and Innovation Consulting firm -- what's that? It's a company that comes up with really cool ideas....for other companies (i.e. they don't execute said ideas themselves) to help them innovate and grow.

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Twitter Challenge -- Best. Thing. Eva.

Brittney asked for topics to write a song about.

YA erotica + Mango the cat + King Henry and his wives.

10 minutes to write it.

This is what came of it.

Ah-may-zing. Let's get this girl's video VIRAL.

I <3 her

(she also rocked Walkin' After Midnight. Legit amazing)

~KO

Lyrics, if you'd like to sing along:

Lyrics (because I know you want to sing along):
My name is Mango & I'm a precious pussy cat
One day I'll have 2 mommies and there's nothing wrong with that.

Until that day comes, I'll share my house
With my mom's crazy sister who reps dirty books about,

King Henry & his wives, but they're teen vampires in disguise

And I will purr and I'll support though her tiny T-Rex arms are short

She still feeds me all my noms,
So I can't have any qualms about her day job,
And I really miss Rob.

My name is Mango.

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SMW Pt 2 -- Social Books

So I went to a panel on Thursday entitled "Social Books: How Media is Changing the Writing, Reading and Promotion of Books."

(to get a range of Tweets, quotes and clips from the panel, look up #socialbooks on Twitter)

When I signed up for the panel, the description essentially indicated that the panelists would be discussing how using tweets, apps, videos, blogs, wikis, mash-ups and fanpages help an author reach far beyond the book's binding.

What actually happened:
Author 1: I have a heckuva lot of followers because of people saying FOLLOW HIM! And now when I Tweet, I lose like 100, because they aren't interested in my feed.
Author 2: I have a blog and many followers. But I turn off the comment section. My blog is a dictatorship, not a democracy.
Author 3: I read @ replies, but there's no point in replying to people.


Ok, so there was more conversation than that, but to be honest, I left about 25 minutes into the one-hour panel. It got to a point where the panelists were essentially saying that publishing is 'ever-changing' and there are 'no hard rules' and I just shook my head and jumped shipped.

The key point I think the panelists, and moderator, were really missing, is the importance of the social aspect of social media. Always remember this key factor:

Social > Media

The social aspect of Social Media is what makes it important and, more importantly, interactive. One of the panelists did have a good point: "All forms of reading, with the exception of books, are social: journalism (newspaper web sites allow readers to leave comments), blogs (comments), videos and movies (YouTube), etc." 

And it's true -- at the moment, books themselves aren't social. eBooks are starting to lean in that direction, with the help of eReaders allowing comments and then sharing such comments with friends. But how do you make books social and help spread the word, outside of Twitter, blogs and Facebook?

Good question. That's why I went to the panel. That's not what I got out of it.

It's not the quantity. It's the quality.

What I did get out of it (though clearly not the point they intended to send) is that it doesn't matter how many followers you have (one author has 1.4 million followers), it doesn't mean you automatically know how to reach your audience efficiently nor does it mean you give them exactly what they're seeking as a follower (note, same author is the one who said "Now when I Tweet, I lose like 100 at a time because they don't care about my feed.")

This sort of links back to what I was talking about earlier this week, and what my main point is when I give my social media talks at conference: Social Media isn't about 10 million followers. It's about generating a following who are going to come together as a community because of you or your product. It's about people coming together because of a common interest and then knowing they can always return to this community for updates, discussions or, the best part, bonus material, relating to said product/person. (bonus material can include sneak peeks, fan art, video clips and more).

I also think it's the point the panelists completely missed, since they bragged about numbers and pointed out the face they would even bar people from commenting, the number of people unfollowing them, and so forth.

Look at your Twitter feed. Do you see anyone you tend to sort of graze over and never really focus on their Tweets? If so, why are you following them?

Look at your blog feed. Do you see any you haven't read since 10 posts ago? Why do you subscribe to them?

~K

(in other news, check out MerBear's post on Social Revolution)

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FAQs Answered

I've seen several questions flying around and thought I'd take a moment to answer them:


Where are you with Queries? Did you read my partial?
I try to keep my web site up to date with where I am with queries and partials. As of this exact moment, all queries sent before January 4, 2011 have been read and replied to, which is listed on the site. I need to update the partials section, because I'm actually caught up through December 29, with the exception of one from December 1 (which i'm in the process of reading).

Do you read stuff in order?
Depends on the situation. I try to read in the order received, but if something especially catches my eye, I'll jump on it. If I hear that it's been given an offer of representation and I have until X date to reply, then I'll move it to the front of the stack. If I request something from a conference, that gets priority, as well.

Where are you with hard copy submissions?
There's really no way for me to keep a hard tally on this, because we receive so many and if it's not for us, we send a form rejection and recycle the materials. I can say that I know for a fact we're caught up on all hard copy submissions from before February 1, 2011.

Do you read your queries?
This is the question I see the most of around the Internet. Answer: yes and no.

We have an intern, who has been nicknamed #PirateIntern by my clients (yes, he has his own hash tag! Former intern Becky was dubbed #EvilIntern though she was hardly evil). Said #PirateIntern reads all hard copy submissions -- I don't read the hard copy slush, because we get so much of it and for the reason to follow.

#PirateIntern does read electronic queries. However, I read a good deal of them also. Why? Because literally about 75% of the slush pile are queries that either A) I don't rep or B) nowhere near my tastes. So #PirateIntern's job is to sort through them and if there's any hint that I might like a query, he'll flag it for me to read.

I know a lot of people say "but I'm querying you not the intern!" I totally agree. On the other hand, if I had to read every single query, I'd have zero time for my clients, foreign rights and audio -- which is the main focus of my job here at the agency.

When we seek interns, it's not just 'apply', 'you're interested?', 'you're hired!'. I do a great deal of research in their reading tastes, their sense of humor (I can't have an intern who just doesn't get my humor -- one of us would end up in tears and it probably wouldn't be me), their sense of efficiency, etc. When we take on an intern, best be guaranteed that they know  what I'm looking for, what I like to read and know it well enough to find it in the slush pile.

Example: My most recent client is thanks to #EvilIntern. She dug it out of the slush pile and *knew* it was for me. Guess what? She was totally right.


Do you read all partials and fulls?
Yes. Absolutely.


But all the form rejections say "assistant"....
Right. Because it's a form rejection. If I took the time to put my name on every single one that I read, people would then be even more inclined to ask that question of "Why did you reject it?" On the flip side, I'm not going to put just my name on it because sometimes it's the intern who reads it, if it's for my boss then she'll read it and sometimes I read it. So we just have a general "Assistant" signature.

Example: I recently rejected something and said author emailed me back asking me to point out why I rejected it for the reason I did. I ignored it (my form rejection says that due to the volume of queries and requested materials, I can't give specific reasons on rejection) and he emailed me back -- the next day. Asking again to show him. Still ignoring it and he's now blocked by my email system.


How long does it take you to get back to a person who queries? Partial? Full?Totally depends. I really strive for 4 weeks on queries and 4-6 weeks on partials, but stuff happens and dates get shifted. I try to be courteous and email a form update if the partial's been in the inbox for more than 8 weeks, apologizing for the delay but I've not forgotten about them.




Questions? Leave 'em below and I'll add to this. Please don't ask any questions that can already be found on my blog or KathleenOrtiz.com (hearing "what are you looking for" is a little old when I have it listed on the web site).... :)

~KO

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SMW Pt. 1 - Beyond Blogging

So I went to a panel today at lunch titled, "Beyond Blogspot: New Venues and Opportunities for Authors to Get the Word Out"


What I had hoped to learn:

• What can authors do to make their book and themselves stand out among a saturation of 1 billion + blogs
• Does it make a difference if an author uses Blogspot, WordPress or Tumblr?
• What should authors blog about?

What I learned:

• A blog is ___.
• Twitter is ___.
• We can haz book trailers!
• kld;lk3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333

That last bullet point was courtesy of my falling asleep during the panel.*


Seriously, though, I think it's a completely reasonable and intriguing question:

What the heck should an author blog about to make themselves stand out?

Should writers blog about writing?
Should you blog about books you read? Give reviews?
Should you blog about your personal life?
Should you blog about topics relating only to your genre?


That's entirely up to you.

If all you want to do is generate a following of fellow writers, and not necessarily readers, then blog about writing.

If you just want people to come to you as a source for book reviews, then review books.

If you just want people who are nosy and want a peek into your life on a daily basis, then make a Facebook page and make it public -- with pictures.


Your blog should be comprised of information that will define your platform. One of the panelists stated, "If you can't think of anything to blog about, just talk about other authors and books." Great idea. Until you start doing that on a regular basis. Then guess what? Like *almost* any other topic, there are thousands of other blogs that do that and, no offense, probably do it better.

Give your audience a reason to follow you and read your posts.

Then, the most important part, analyze your audience's involvement. If you have 1,000 blog followers but you average maybe three comments per post, then you're not doing your job as a blogger to engage your audience. I think if you average at least 10% of your followers worth of comments per post (i.e. 400 followers and 40 comments), you're doing above and beyond what the average blogger does for their audience -- at least try to aim for 5%.


Three of my favorite bloggers:
Maureen Johnson -- YA author -- her blog has a little bit of everything and 110% of her personality
Ink in All Forms -- by Laura Fitzgerald -- Publishing from a marketing perspective
Strangest Situation -- by Sarah Fine -- Where Psychology and YA Literature Collide


I follow about 20 different blogs, but these are definitely in my top three. Are there other good examples? Absolutely -- but these definitely strike me as unique yet informative and totally for their audience.

Take a look at the blogs you've subscribed to-- do you read them all? Do you find yourself skipping over a bunch of them in your blog roll? Why? What do the blogs YOU read do to keep you engaged?

~KO


*Ok, not really. But you get the point.
**This is the second post in my SOCIAL MEDIA WEEK blog series. If you've not yet taken my ereader poll, please do so here.

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Embrace Change -- Don't Fight the eBook Pt. 1

In honor of Digital Book World, which just occurred in January, and the upcoming Social Media Week, which starts Monday, I'm going to dedicate the next few posts to technology in the publishing industry --- but more importantly, it's about embracing change itself. I'm signed up for a few sessions and will be keeping an eye on what other professionals are saying works for them and what they think is to come for us in the future.

For now, I'm just going to touch on "don't fight the ebook", as it's something that I've noticed a lot of -- specifically this week.

(Note: I'm NOT going to discuss royalties or backlists or anything else -- I'm 110% discussing it from a consumer standpoint. The other part will come next week.)

RIP Laser Disc

Regardless of whether you pick up a physical book or buy a digital one, it's up to you. Different folks different strokes. I, personally, am starting to buy books if I'd buy them in hardcover and then get the ebook if it's a paperback I'd buy. I still love physical books, and I certainly buy more physical than digital; however, I'm starting to note a definite trend on my preference for which subjects I tend to purchase as physical vs digital.

As long as you read, and you obtain the text legally, I'm happy. However, if you're sitting back and scoffing at ebooks and thinking it's a trend, all I can say is watch this video and remember -- the ebook is not like the laser disc.

From the Scroll to the Book

I hear a lot of comments like "but I can't physically turn the page!" or "I can't flip back to something I was reading before!" I agree, it's not the same -- but like life itself, you too will evolve and adapt to change.

It's funny because for someone who's so "YEA! TECHNOLOGY!" I'm never one to buy the shiny new product first. I think I bought my first CD player in like 1999 (I was really, REALLY attached to my Walkman (remember -- those things that played tapes)). And my BFF bought my iPod for me 3 yrs ago along with a note that said "welcome to the 21st century."

It was really REALLY tough for me to be all, "wait...but I like my CD covers...and having them displayed on my shelf...and looking all cool when I flip my visor down with my CDs lined up..." but then after a while it was "oh! I LOVE NOT HAVING A CD THAT SKIPS!" and "I can carry 1000000000000000 songs with me EVERYWHERE! HUZZAH!" and "Pshhhh I don't have to worry about sun damage to my CDs in my car!"



I really think it will be the same way with books. Any type of major change -- especially when it involves new technology -- is going to be bumpy at first. But in the long run, if you just keep an eye on what's available, what's working, what's not working, and don't jump TOO quickly on something without reading consumer reports, then why not embrace it and possibly try it?


Until they do something like this...then...well...driving + this app = should be illegal.

What I'd LOVE to know are the answers to this survey and your thoughts below in the comments.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

**Note that I'm closing this quiz on FRIDAY FEBRUARY 11, so I can post the results**

Also would love to know what YOU want to know about my findings at Social Media Week 2011.

~KO

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