June 20-24 Author Seminar: Special Guest Cindi Myers

[Victoria]

Please join me in welcoming our next special guest to the Writers.net forums, Cindi Myers! She will be available here in the forums between the 20th and 24th of June, 2011. I'll open this thread for comments beginning on the 19th of June, so get your questions ready!

Cindi Myers is the author of more than forty published novels. Her historical and contemporary romances and women’s fiction have garnered praise from reviewers and readers alike and several have been Waldenbooks Bestsellers. Her October 2005 release, Learning Curves, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly which lauded her “true-to-life, sympathetic characters.” In 2005 she was recognized as the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year. Her 2008 release, The Right Mr. Wrong, was nominated for a Rita Award from Romance Writers of America. Recently, Aspen Mountain Press began re-releasing Cindi's historical romances as ebooks, as well as one brand-new historical, A Long, Sweet Ride. Cindi has also written a young adult novel, My Upside Down Life. Her most recent release is Work of Heart, a reality-based romance from HCI Books. Cindi produces a weekly market newsletter, with more than 2500 subscribers and an estimated readership of 20,000 per week. In addition, she is a popular writing instructor and conference speaker.

[Victoria]

The thread is now open!

[Kitty Foyle]

Welcome, Cindi Myers!

Probably the only thing I have in common with you is "the more than forty" phrase. I've had that many letters to the editor published in (mainly) NYC newspapers --.three in the NY Times, plus several ditties in their Metropolitan Diary section. Very few (serious) rants; most of the letters were just fun things. Big whoop, right?

I don't write novels. Those of you who do amaze the hell outta me.

*_*

P.S. What did you have for lunch today?

[Avonne Writer]

Welcome Cindi and thanks for dropping in.

I see that you write a lot of (or mainly) Harlequin was it hard to break into this area as a writer?

Were you originally represented by an agent?

Any advice for agent hunting, and were there any surprises for you along the way?

I am, as yet, unpublished. I write mainly YA and MG novels.

Thanks for any advice and for your time.

[Cindi Myers]

Good morning! Thank you everyone for the warm welcome. Kitty, I think having 40 letters to the editor published is an accomplishment. There must be something about your writing voice that the editors like.

Avonne, I did not have an agent when I started out. I got one later. And now I'm "between agents" again. I think in some ways, finding an agent can be tougher than finding a publisher. Do your homework and zero in on the agents who represent the type of things you write and that you think will do a good job for you. Even then, it can be a crap shoot. I fired my last agent because she let a manuscript sit on her desk for months and months and never sent it out. A good agent will do wonders for you and a bad agent can hurt your career.

Fortunately, you can still submit your work to many publishers on your own while you search for an agent. I sold my first book, a historical, to an editor at Berkley I pitched to at an RWA conference. And you don't need an agent to sell to Harlequin.

Harlequin can be tough to break into. I sent them several manuscripts before I sold one. I think the key to selling to them is to target a line and listen to the feedback you get and be willing to rewrite using the suggestions they give you. The editors there are, for the most part, very good to work with and I learned a lot writing for them. They are very willing to read submissions from unpulbished and unagented authors.

My best advice is to be patient and keep plugging away. Keep sending your stuff out there. And keep writing new stuff. When you do sell you'll have that much more material to show your new publishing house.

[Kitty Foyle]

I fired my last agent because she let a manuscript sit on her desk for months and months and never sent it out.

Wow, Cindi, "months and months"? Maybe you had another project going at the same time and forgot about it? I'd think most people would ask for an update from the agent well before months and months went by.

The one you fired sounds like a horror show. So it's hard to get good help in the agent department too?

*_*

[Cindi Myers]

Kitty, I didn't forget about that project, believe me. I talked to the agent about it every month and she always had a good reason why it hadn't gone out yet, was full of heart-felt apologies and promised it would go out "next week." And the next month would be the same story. Very frustrating.

They all aren't like that. There are some very good agents out there. But many of them only take a few clients a year, or they specialize in particular types of ficton that you may not write. So it can take a while to find the right "match."

[Kitty Foyle]

Cindi, its too bad you can't drop us a little hint...maybe a first initial? Is she in NYC?

Yeah, they can be scumbags. http://www.rightsofwriters.com/2011/...six-scams.html

Had a book agent of my own at one time (who was/is well known...NYC), but she gave up way too soon for my liking.

*_*

[Kitty Foyle]

Too late to edit that last post.

It should have read LIT ER AR Y, of course. "Book" agent is just so...not used.

Good luck in finding your next one, Cindi. As you say, a lousy agent is worse than none at all. (Oh...you didn't use the word "lousy"?)

*_*

[Cindi Myers]

The thing about agents is, the person who works hard and does a great job for one writer does a lousy job for another. There really aren't many true crooks in the business, just ones that lose enthusiasm or devote all their attention to their "big" clients and let everyone else founder or aren't on the same wavelength as the writer. It really is like a romance in that respect -- the wrong person for one writer is the perfect agent for another one.