Judith Rossner’s 70s novel, August, is about a psychoanalyst and the young adult client she sees during the month when all therapists take vacation. Someone needs to write the novel about an agent and the young adult novelist who pitches in August and hears crickets. Is everyone on vacation in August? Yup. August is about beach books and cabin reads. Swinging in a hammock with a great novel or lounging by the pool reading new nonfiction, reading al fresco is a summer pleasure. Enjoy. So what’s on my summer reading list? Fiction Trust Exercise by Susan Choi The Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee Perish by LaToya Watkins Nonfiction Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin Kimmerle How to Read Now: Essays by Elaine Castillo Memoir Inheritance: An Autobiography of Whiteness by Baynard Woods The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama Happy Go Lucky by David Sedaris If you’re getting ready to seek an agent or publisher, you have even more reason to relax with a good book. Like therapists, agents and acquisition editors are often on a summer hiatus the next four to six weeks. It’s the off-season for new book deals. Sit back and enjoy this month to read. It’s an especially good time to read your comps. What are your comps? Your market competition, the books your readers are buying right now, your comparables. How…

Recently I finished teaching a six week workshop where one participant asked a tough question that has haunted me. “What shouldn’t I do as a writer? What mistakes can you help me avoid making?” I stumbled through an answer. I like to focus on the positive things writers can do to improve their writing and yet the question was a legitimate one. And in my line of work I’ve seen a lot of mistakes. So I thought I would share a short list of do’s and don’ts. Know your genre Many writers suffer from genre confusion. Fictional memoir doesn’t exist. Knowing your genre is important because bookstores need to know where to shelve your book. As a writer, it’s even more important because each genre has its own literary conventions. Within the genres of romance, mystery, thriller, suspense, and science fiction there are well-defined subgenres. Know precisely where your book fits because readers bring certain expectations to each. There are lots of love stories, but not all of them belong to the genre of Romance. Know your reader There is no “general reader.” Have you ever gone into a bookstore and library asked for a book that could be for anyone? No, me neither. Write with a specific audience in mind. Read I often hear writers say they don’t want to be influenced by what they read. Do artists avoid museums and galleries? Do musicians surround themselves with silence? Do you know any chefs who ignore their passion for food?…

You finish a piece of writing. It’s polished. It’s done. You feel the sense of completion in every atom of your being as a writer. Savor that moment. The end. Done. You save it. You print it. You revise it again. You read it aloud. It’s ready for reader feedback. So who do you ask? Not your lover or spouse. Not your best friend or your kids or your parents. Not even. It’s a no-win situation for them as beta-readers for your work. If they sing your praises, you suspect their independent judgement. If they offer a critique, it’s personal not professional. Don’t put them in this awkward spot. You need beta-readers. You want someone to read your work and respond to its content. Sure, it’s nice to get affirmations from friends and family when they read what you have written and are genuinely interested. It feels good. But you want and need your writing to BE good. So how will you know? Who can you trust? Beta-readers are called that because of marketing lingo. They are beta-testing your product: a book manuscript. It’s a bit a misnomer. Really they are first-readers. There are some types of beta-readers you want to avoid. The Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff Vandemeer offers so much wonderful advice to writers, it’s in my top list of resource books for writers. It’s not just about ficton, but writing as a profession  The comical graphic illustrations of those beta-readers to avoid…