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Day #24 – Green-Eyed Monsters
By Dawn Frederick As our lives become more public, especially in the social media realm, another challenge to overcome is the occasional entrance of the green-eyed monster. I’m not talking about your...
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Day #25 – Writers’ Conferences
By Dawn Frederick I have many friends who compete in sports. This requires individual practice times, a set of reasonable goals, and participating in events with others who share the same interest....
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Day #26 – I know this person who knows this person. . .And yes the book is...
By Jennie Goloboy What does an agent need to know when reading a query? It’s fairly simple, what type of book you’ve written and what the book’s about. It’s surprising how many authors start queries...
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Day #27 – Know Your Book’s Category
By Dawn Frederick Here’s a good way to cause brain freeze for some agents (at least mine). Coming to the query process without any idea of which books are direct competition, and even worse no idea...
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Day #28 – Family Pets and a Pony Named Starfish
by Jennie Goloboy As stated throughout our NANO Coffee Breaks, I’m often surprised at the things received within most query letters, specifically things that don’t need to be included. 1. Pictures of...
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Day #29 – The Agent/Author Communication Process
By Dawn Frederick Communication styles, they play an important role in one’s personal and professional lives. There are three types: aggressive, passive, and assertive. Without going into all the...
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The Red Sofa Chats – Will Schwalbe
Happy 2013! We’re extremely honored to have Will Schwalbe as our first guest of the new year. Not only does he know the ins & outs of the publishing world, he’s an author too. By far one of our...
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Authentic Historical Settings
by Jennie Goloboy Back in the 80′s, Van Halen included a line in their contracts forbidding brown M & M’s backstage. Many years later, David Lee Roth explained that they weren’t being spoiled...
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Aiming for the “we” approach to writing
By Dawn Frederick Imagine walking into a room full of hundreds of people. It’s the party of the year, and a chance to meet others in and outside your regular circle of friends. Upon walking around the...
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The Red Sofa Required Reading List is back
Now that Red Sofa Literary is back into the paces, post a busy leap into 2013, it’s time to return to the basics of building a writing reference library. 1. The Writer’s Yearbook 2013 You can...
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Guest Post by Susan Koefod: What it’s like to work with an agent
Hello everyone! Imagine my surprise with Susan Koefod mentioned that she’d like to do a guest post for Red Sofa Literary. I’ve known Susan for a few years now, and she is the penultimate professional...
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What happens after a book is sold to a publisher?
It’s time that we all step back and think about the process once an author accepts an offer from a publishing house. Remember the time it took to write the book? Let alone the time required to build a...
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Required Reading: MAKE YOUR STORY A MOVIE by John Robert Marlow
By Dawn Frederick During the 2013 Madison Writers’ Institute, I had the treat of seeing a panel on books and the film industry; where the panelists discussed how books are chosen and/or adapted into...
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1987, Compact Disks, and Ebooks, Oh My!
By Dawn Frederick In 1987, my neighbor, a retired scientist, mentioned a thing called a “compact disk.” That he had a feeling it would replace records (a.k.a. LPs). I had no idea what he was talking...
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Meet Laura Zats, Red Sofa Intern Extraordinaire
Jennie and I am excited to introduce our new intern, Laura Zats! On week two, Laura is already taking the helm and assisting on many ends at Red Sofa. Additionally she is an expert on all things YA,...
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The Lives of Playwrights
Think about the time it takes to write a novel, find an agent, and get it published. Now imagine that time taking possibly 3x longer to see the final presentation of one’s PLAY (vs. a book), that is...
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Notes from the Armchair #2
I have a confession to make… When I started working with Red Sofa Literary, just a few short months ago, I was terrified of social media. And yes, I am quite aware that I’m not allowed to be...
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Happy NaNoWriMo!
It’s our favorite day of the year. Why? Because today is the final prep day before the start of National Novel Writing Month! For those of you who have been kicking around an idea for years and are...
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U is for Unique
Artwork by Tom Torre (@CopernicusNerd) By Dawn Frederick A good way to make an agent’s eye twitch is to claim one’s book is unique in a query, especially when there is already a long list of...
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Notes from the Armchair #6
By Laura Zats Twenty years ago, any author who wrote for teens or middle grade wouldn’t have been considered “serious” writers. Even now, there’s still an idea that YA and MG authors will at some point...
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