Friday Feast: Questions to Ask During "The Call," Submission Secrets, Book PR Lead Time, Fiction vs. Fact, and Awesome Places Ruined by Popular Books

Friday Feast: Questions to Ask During “The Call,” Submission Secrets, Book PR Lead Time, Fiction vs. Fact, and Awesome Places Ruined by Popular Books

Source: Basheer Tome

Happy Friday, folks.

Apple picking season is in full effect here at Dead Darlings headquarters in Boston. And much like those daytrippers who peruse the sweet and tangy offerings of bucolic family farms, I’m up to my ears in fantastic bookish links and don’t know what I’m going to do with all of them.

Here are our picks for the week:

You finished your book. You researched agents. You submitted queries. You waited. You got an email: An agent wants to have a chat. (!!) Chuck Sambuchino provides some advice on evaluating offer(s) of representation and what to ask an agent when you get “the call.”
Congratulations! You’re on submission. Condolences! Your novel may not sell. Jennifer S. Brown discusses why she thinks authors should keep secrets while on submission.
Your Novel Got Bought (sing this to the tune of “Baby Got Back” over and over). When should you start promoting it? Sharon Bially advises that Book PR Needs Lead Time. Lots of it.
Leslie Pietrzyk asks: Why is that always the question fiction writers are asked? Why do readers insist on knowing if the story that held them enthralled was “real”?
Bali. Alaska’s Stampede Trail. Volterra, Italy. Tao Tao Holmes offers these destinations as some of the awesome places (arguably) ruined by popular books.