Guest Author: J. A. Dennam

Welcome to the PEARLS OF WISDOM AUTHOR TOUR!  

Today I would like to introduce you to our first guest J. A. Dennam author of TRUTH AND HUMILITY, FLESH OF ANGELS, and FLESH OF THE FATHER, now represented by the Corvisiero Literary Agency. She is starting off our tour by sharing with us her experience with editing, or lack thereof, in this very honest and refreshing post. 

I am almost afraid to read my first book. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read it a million times. I know it’s good. Awesome, even. I’ve self-published all three of my novels, but our budget didn’t allow for professional edits, book covers, interior design or digital formatting. I did it all myself for free without even the benefit of a critique group. I was very much alone in this and treated the whole thing like a fun, obsessive-compulsive hobby. I never even considered that there were a bunch of rules to write by...

My first wake-up call came when my latest novel, TRUTH AND HUMILITY, was professionally edited. At 112K words, it seemed short to me considering the length of my other two novels. But I was asked to shave off at least 23K words in order to make it a desirable length. Wow. It was tough, time consuming, heartbreaking… but do-able. Now, if I were to do the same to my first novel I would be required to shed 100K words! That’s over half the book! Yes, FLESH OF ANGELS is an out-of-control beast of 188K words, but all I could think of was those four-inch thick epic tales I loved to lose myself in.

The second wake-up call – POV. You mean you can’t hear anyone else’s thoughts besides the H&H? Not anyone, even that most loveable, cool guy who has so much to contribute to the story? Since even my random blind date had a POV, this was almost harder to fix than the word count. Why didn’t I notice that when reading other books, I wonder? I do now!

While the thought of tackling my other novels in the same way sends chills down my spine, I am most anxious to start my next story armed with this knowledge. It feels good to know I’m not alone anymore, to be able to gather valuable input from my beloved writing community, now that I have chosen this as a full-time career. 

Since TRUTH AND HUMILITY has been fine-tuned, it is ready and waiting for mass market. It is a Romeo-and-Juliette sort of tale about two people from feuding families who find forbidden love while facing incredible odds, but with a happier ending. You can read all about it on Amazon.

When it comes to blood, Danny Bennett will do anything to protect her family, especially from the enemy Cahill clan.  But she realizes just how dangerous Austin Cahill – her brother, Derek’s, accuser and most hated foe – can be when she is forced to succumb to his anger, his command... and finally, his passion.  Can she protect her brother from Austin’s wrath?  Or is she only fueling the fire?

I am a wife and mother of four children. I am an artist, motorcycle enthusiast, baker of pies and problem solver. In order to find time to write, just like painting, I do it in the middle of all the chaos. I sit here in my kitchen, typing this while my son flies his Lego jet-plane creation around my head. Perhaps this is why it’s so easy for me to write about chaos. Thanks to the success of TRUTH AND HUMILITY, and to my agent, Marisa, I am now able to justify this obsessive compulsion of mine. My next highly anticipated project is the companion novel to T&H. Stay tuned, especially those of you who fell in love with the characters…

We give thanks to J. A. Dennam for participating in this tour and wish her many many successes! I know that she continue to make them. 

I hope that you enjoyed this post. I was so glad when she presented this to me because I can't emphasize the important of editing enough. There are several other posts in this blog about editing and word count I hope that you take a look at them and that you come back tomorrow to meet the next guest. 

Happy Writing! 

~Marisa

Upcoming Pearls of Wisdom Tour: Authors

Some of my brilliant colleagues somehow magically find the time to do weekly, sometimes daily, posts on their blogs, and newsletters for their clients. This amazes me greatly. I don't know what kind of weird magic they are conjuring up in order to alter space and time.

I often go through my day chasing my head (figuratively speaking of course), and as I get my work done and things pop up, I think to myself, I should Tweet that, or I need to share that with my friends on Facebook, or that would make a fantastic blog post, and yes... I constantly think of good book titles. I have a lengthy list of book titles that I hope one day someone writes a book for... ;)

Anyway, my point in all of this is that I wish I could find that magical spell, or even a time machine, so that I could share with you more of my thoughts (God help you all), ideas, everyday news and shenanigans, developments, and gossip (even though I never gossip ;)). And so these thoughts nagging me to give you More (anyone thinking 50 Shades of Gray right now?) have led me to the realization that I haven't had any guests on my blog in a long time.

So I decided to invite some of my favorite and very current authors to share their pearls of wisdom with all of us in a mini Guest Tour. In fact I think that I may actually call it The Pearls of Wisdom Tour!

Of course, I have issues doing anything small... so the mini tour has turned into a 17 guest tour (as of now). Starting Monday March 11th, I will be sharing posts from the following A List Authors:

1. Cora Carmack, Best Selling author of Losing It and Faking It (New Adult)
2. Jay Crownover, Best Selling author of Rule (Romance)
3. J.A. Dennam, author of Truth and Humility (Romance)
4. Sascha Illyvich, author of The Playground and many other wonders (Romance/Erotica)
5. Nicole and Michelle Izmaylov, multi talented sister duo (YA Science Fiction)
6. Gwen Jones, Professor and author of Wanted: Wife (Romance)
7. Darin Kennedy, MD and author of The Pawn's Gambit (Fantasy)
8. Michelle Leighton, Best Selling author of the Bad Boys series (Romance/NA)
9. J.L. Mac, Best Selling author of Wreck Me (Romance)
10. JB McGee, Best Selling author, of the This series (Romance)
11. Monica Murphy, Best Selling author One Week Girlfriend (Women's Fiction)
12. Erin Noelle, Best Selling author of Metamorphosis, in the Book Boyfriend Series (New Adult)
13. Dean Sault, author of upcoming Jihad (Thriller) and Maker of Angels (Western Romance)
14. Emily Snow, Best Selling author of the Devoured series (New Adult)
15. Ryk E. Spoor author of Phoenix Rising (Fantasy)
16. Jessica Therrien, Best Selling author of Oppression in the Children of the Gods series (YA Paranormal)
17. K. A. Tucker, Best Selling author of Ten Tiny Breaths and One Tiny Lie (New Adult)

That's the alphabetical list as of now. As we finalize the schedule I'll be posting the order in which they will guest star. They will be discussing everything from their books, their writing process, the industry, to books they love.

I do hope that you read their posts. These clever authors, each very successful in their own right, have a wealth of information to share... Don't miss out! 

Happy learning!

~Marisa

Old Cliches Die Hard

We had a terrific Cliche Twitter party today. It was an impromptu thing that caught my fancy, and then I couldn't pull away from. If you go to the #cliche hashtag, you can see all of the posts. We ended up having complete discussions using only cliches. It was honestly the most fun I had on twitter. I had to keep myself from responding with 'lol' and instead of sharing a cliched response. I'm sure that we'll do this one again. Next time I'll get my entire team involved, and hopefully you can join us too.

As far as cliches go though, I have to warn authors to stay away from them. I've always felt that those that know a lot of cliches are well versed in our language and its idioms. I do however believe that it shows a whole other level to your skill if you can take a cliche and or expression and come up with your own clever words to get that same point across. I think that that makes for good and stimulating story telling.

Creativity, not just in characters, setting, and plot, but also in the way that you express yourself goes a long way. Who knows, maybe your innovative phrase will one day become a cliche too... no sense in dreaming small!

Happy Creating!
~Marisa

Started the New Year with a Bang...or Two

If you are a friend and or follower, you may have noticed that things have been quiet for me on the social media front. The last few months have been not uneventful for me professionally and personally, and although I miss the buzz that comes with being in touch and in the spotlight, I have had a lot to focus on. So much has happened that if I had to fill you all in with this one blog post it would be quite a tome. So I'll start with a short post about my Agency and things that we are working on.

I founded the Corvisiero Literary Agency almost a year ago in March. Although it seems like I've been on my own forever, the last 11 months have been an incredible journey of growth. One never really knows what it's like to do something until they actually try. Just like swimming, having babies, jumping off an airplane, or even having sex... you never know what it feels like until you do it.

Well, running an agency is no different. Starting any business is a challenging task. And no matter how good you are at it, there is always room for learning and there is a lot of work to be done (it's a never ending fountain actually). I have been lucky however to have been joined by my L. Perkins awesome colleague Saritza Hernandez, as well as the wonderful ladies (Stacey Donaghy, Brittany Howard, Sarah Negovetich, et all.) that joined my staff, and most of whom became in integral part of my life. The Agency's success would not be the same without you. 

During this year we have fallen into our stride and have become incredibly strong. We are representing very talented authors and signed some great deals the past few months, some of which have wet ink on the contracts and haven't even been announced yet. We have grand things in the works. More to follow on these when I'm allowed to share, but for now lets say that we have some rising stars (Stacey Donaghy and Brittany Howard, shhh... wait for it.) on our hands who have made a significant impact.

Some of our success has been noted and our query inbox shows it- It's bursting at the seams! If you are one of the authors that sent us a query, fear not. This weekend some of the staff and I are having a QueryParty and we plan to make a huge dent on those numbers. We are meeting virtually on Saturday, and each of us is bringing our poison of choice (coffee, wine or whatever gets us going). We plan to have a blast in the process. Stay tuned to @corvisierolit and #queryparty as we tweet along and share our progress. I'll be tweeting as @mcorvisiero.

I will try to not stay away from my blog and other pages for long. I will be very focused on selling projects, attending conferences, scouting talent, and teaching workshops for the next few months, but I'll do my best to stay in touch.

Happy Writing!
~Marisa

Sandy Aftermath: A Helping Hand is Worth More Than Words

After what seemed like an eternity sans heat and electricity post Hurricane Sandy, our power has been restored. Although we have our electricity back, many towns in NY and NJ have been left with unsurpassed destruction never before seen in these areas. With the death toll still rising, many people have been left homeless, stranded, and quite literally powerless.

If you've watched the news coverage you have inevitably heard about people's experiences and their tragic losses. I personally can't stop thinking about the story of the young mother in Staten Island who had to evacuate her home as water started to seep into her house, then poring in from all crevices. She quickly took her two and four year old sons out of the house and into the family car only to be stuck there immobile as the water surged around her. Within a few minutes, unable to go anywhere with the water quickly filling up the car, she took the boys out of the car and put them on the roof telling them that they would be okay. As her screams for help commingled with the wailing winds, another strong wave swept over the car taking both of her babies with it. 

This scene keeps playing in my mind like a wicked loop from a terrifying movie. Only difference being that it is not a movie. It is a horrible and very real tragedy. One that is not an isolated incident for many other families who have suffered unimaginable losses in our area this week. My own family, clients, friends and my community have been severely affected by this storm. 

As you may imagine, all sorts of assistance and donations are needed. Stacey Donaghy, Michelle Johnson, and Jamie Bodnar Drowley and I have offered our services to the Jen Malone Writer's Auction. 

The Auction has been set up on the Jen Malone's blog so be sure to look at all the latest posts going back to October to see the goodies that have been posted there. For ease of locating our specific posts and placing your bids, I'm listing our respective links below. The proceeds from this auction go directly to the Red Cross.

Auctioned Items: Bid Now!

Marisa Corvisiero (me) -- Query and 10 Page Critique

Stacey Donahey -- 10 Page Critique

Michelle Johnson -- Query Critique

Jamie Bodnar Drowley -- Query Critique

I know that not all of our finances allow us to give donations, so please click here for other ways that YOU CAN HELP. My sister, Emma K. Viglucci, founder and director of Metropolitan Marriage and Family Therapy, PLLC, in her role as Member at Large for the NY Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (NYAMFT), is helping coordinate efforts for the Rockaways, Belle Harbor, Breezy Point, NY and other areas. She has put together a very helpful document listing many things that you can donate, and where and how you can volunteer to help. 

I hope that you are able to donate help or give a smidgen of your time to possibly ease someone's discomfort or loss, or possibly even save someone's life. 

Happy Helping!

~Marisa

Time Well Spent

A time comes in one's life where absconding our compulsions becomes moot. As much as I like to think of myself as an easygoing person, there is that OCD side of me that rears its ugly head whenever my type A personality is dissatisfied. The result is that it drives me diligently and with obscure focus to the finish line.

Now if you were married to me, you may not like the overly driven Marisa at times. My clients on the other hand... well, just picture them with big grins on their faces, jumping up and down while clapping their hands going, "Yey, keep up the good work!" This of course encourages me even further.

The point that I want to make is that I hate wasting time. When I get into my driven zone, I make my lists and my schedule, and heaven forgive the in-perceptive soon to be sadling that tries to move my cheese.

Every year I travel to several conferences and teach many workshops. This time that I invest in my agenting and consulting practices is time that is often my family time. And so, it is even more important to me to ensure that the event is worth it.

This weekend we hosted Up Close & Personal, a full day workshop with my Literary Powerhouse Consulting partner, Jo Ann Kairys. We invited authors to her home in NJ and spent all day there chatting and working, and drinking lots of good coffee. I have to say that in spite of my apprehension to forego another weekend day away from my husband and kids, the workshop turned out to be a huge success. I am happy to say that it was really a wonderful time. I may have even found an incredible manuscript to represent.

After the workshop on Saturday, I went home content that it had been a good day. This great feeling was reinforced the next morning when I received a very nice note from one of the attendees. In part it read...

"I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for yesterday's amazing experience.  From top to bottom--the expert consultation, the company, and the laughs--it was so much better than I could have imagined." -SW, San Francisco

A note like this pleases me to no end. I'm satisfied that the workshop was productive, interesting, and fun. This type of positive experience serves as incentive for me to keep doing what I'm doing. Although it is difficult for me to find the time to go to conferences, do live workshops and chats on a regular basis, I find that these efforts aren't just helpful to authors' work, they help us all to create a wonderful network and connections between agents, authors, and publishers that may have never been forged otherwise. 

And so you can expect to continue to see my agents and myself at some more of these type of events in the future. I hope that you decide to participate as well, because overall it is time well spent... even for the busiest of us.

~Marisa

New Agents: Congratulations Ladies!

Congratulations to Stacey Donaghy, Brittany Howard, and Michelle Johnson for being promoted to Jr. Agents at the Corvisiero Literary Agency, LLC. Effective October 1st, 2012 these amazing ladies will officially become Jr. Agents. On behalf of the Agency, I congratulate you and thank you for a job well done!

Stacey, Brittany & Michelle have been with the agency for most of this year in training to become Agents. They have each surpassed my expectations beyond their respective roles. Not only have they become indispensable to me in the operations of the agency, but they have also become friends and confidants. 

Stacey Donaghy

I am confident to say that they are well on their way to becoming wonderful agents, and look forward to long rewarding relationships with each of them! 

These three ladies join me, Saritza Hernandez (Senior Agent), Jordy Albert (Jr. Agent), and Brittany Booker (Jr. Agent) in the ranks of agent-hood and will be actively looking for new talent to grow their lists. So be sure to take a look at their profiles and our submission guidelines.

Brittany Howard

We also congratulate Jamie Bodnar Drowley, on her promotion to Agent Apprentice! Jamie has been doing a wonderful job as an intern with us for a few months already. She will be Apprenticing with me until she is ready to spread her wings.  Last, but never least, please welcome our newest team member, Wayne Meyers, Intern and IT specialist. We are very exited about the latest promotions and hires. Please feel free to contact them and offer your congratulations!

Michelle Johnson

I was at the Southern California Writer's Conference this weekend, and during an interview someone pointed out that my agency has grown quite a bit since we opened our doors. He asked me, "At what point would the agency no longer be considered a Boutique Agency?" My answer to him was that the Corvisiero Literary Agency will always be a boutique agency, "We don't call ourselves a boutique because we are small. We call ourselves a boutique agency because of our quality of service and exclusivity. We treat our clients as if they are a part of our family, and we pride ourselves in the fostering their growth as professionals. Their success is our success."
I believe that our internal culture and special skills- having a lawyer, editors, PR person, a manger,  a doctor, an IT specialist, etc. sets us apart from many agencies, bigger and smaller. We hope that you think so too!

To submit your work for consideration see our submission guidelines, and e-mail your work to query@corvisieroagency.com.

Happy Welcome!
Marisa

Up Close & Personal: Workshops, Events, & other Services

I am looking forward to working one on one, for a full day with authors during our upcoming Up Close and Personal workshop. 

If you haven't already heard, my Literary Powerhouse Partner, Jo Ann Kairys, and I are offering a full day workshop in her beautiful home on October 20th to specifically help authors ready their submissions package to Agents and Editors. 

This workshop is a one of the kind exclusive workshop, and I think that it will be a lot of fun! In a setting like this, we will not only get to know the author's work and focus on what they need, but we will also get to talk about the industry, learn how to build a platform and market books, how things work, and most importantly, we'll get to know each other! 

The setting will be intimate, so space is very limited. If you would be interested in spending the day with us talking about your work (style, plot, voice, arc, etc.), from query, synopsis, and proposal, to selling your book, and everything  in between, this workshop is for you. 

I think that Jo Ann and I are in an incredibly good position to help authors save money and time that is often misspent in this process, and improve their trajectory directly toward success. 

During my agenting years, and even before that, I have heard of too many stories of mistakes authors make that they wish they could take back. But these can be avoided with proper research when you find qualified professionals to help you. Whether it is us at Literary Powerhouse, or an editor, a consultant, or even an attorney, you need to know that your new hire is qualified to deliver what you need to help you succeed in this industry.

I have added a tab to this blog in order to start sharing the events and workshops offered at Literary Powerhouse, as well as the events that I will be hosting and attending as a Literary Agent. We have many upcoming workshops offered by instructors who are industry experts that are especially great at what they do. These will be added and updated periodically, so if you can't find what you're looking for, please visit the Events page on the LitPow site. Also be sure to sign in for announcements. 

Please note that as a literary agent, I can review your work to consider representing it. In such capacity, and through the Corvisiero Literary Agency neither I nor my agents will ever charge any fees for reviewing or considering your work, nor for advice that we share during conferences, live chats and other events. If you seek to participate in workshops, have work edited or critiqued, etc. you may find these services at Literary Powerhouse Consulting. For legal services and contract reviews, take a look at Corvisiero Law. 

This separability of services is carefully crafted to ensure that all services offered by me and my staffs are clearly delineated and ethically offered to clients. The goal is to maintain proper guidelines as to how work is submitted, accepted, and only when appropriate- billed. An agent should never charge you fees for reading, and they can not require a payment from you to hire an editor to fix your work. It's okay for them to tell you that you need to edit your manuscript before it goes out, but they shouldn't be charging clients fees for such editing after they've agreed to represent it as an agent. 

On the other hand, there is a persistent trend whereby many agents are now finally offering their expertise for hire. In other words, you can hire an agent as a consultant, or for specific services such as coaching, editing or critiques for a fee. This has become increasingly acceptable as long as the fee is not a prerequisite for getting your work reviewed and considered by them. So take advantage of these opportunities, because no one knows the industry better than agents and editors. 

Happy Learning!

~Marisa

Submissions: Package Yourself!

People often ask me why I still attend a number of conferences every year, and how I find the time to do it. Finding the time is the difficult part for me, every time I leave the office and home for a number of days it feels like it all goes to hell in a hand-basket. The why part of this question, however, is the easy part.

I attend conferences for the same many reasons why I offer workshops and do live chats on a regular basis, and why I founded the LitPow Writer's Network Group... its because I enjoy it. I find meeting authors to be very fruitful. These types of interactions give me the unique opportunity to help and and nurture authors, many of whom later become wiser, more knowledgeable and skilled clients. It also allows me to develop relationships with writers that I enjoy working with, and it gives me a chance to get to know them before they actually become clients.

I often say that taking on a client in this business is a lot like choosing a winner on American Idol. Each meeting, interaction and step in the submission process is an episode in the competition. When we find someone who writes well, most agents will also look for the whole package. Can the person write? Are they creative? Do they have more books in them? Are they articulate and presentable? Are they industry and technology savvy? Will they work hard to build a platform or following and push their sales? Are they a good fit for the agency and good to work with? Etc. 

And yes, even though the work always speaks for itself,  to be very successful in the publishing business seasoned agents and publishers will often look for authors that offer the whole package.  It is therefore imperative that as an author you work on all of these things that would make you more marketable, while you continue to hone your craft and prepare yourself to present it all in that neat little package all wrapped up with a bright red ribbon.
This is in no way intended to discourage any author who may be insecure about any of their attributes. I am not sharing these words with you to tell you that you will not succeed if you are not hot stuff. I'm posting this to tell authors what to be prepared for, and to reiterate the importance of paying special attention to how you present, or 'Package,' yourself when you submit your work to be considered for representation or for acquisition by a publisher. 

What I'm saying is that with the proper presentation of yourself and your work, your chances of getting the call and a publishing contract will increase exponentially. 

The proverbial package is comprised of you and your work. These are the things that you are 'selling' when you pitch to an agent or editor. The literal package, however, is made up of the things that you will submit in paper (or electronically) for consideration- query letter, synopsis or proposal, and your manuscript.

Query letters, as short as they are, are considered to be the key to the doorway. Your letter must always be professional, concise, catchy, contain all of the information that is needed by the reviewer to assess your work, and present you in the best light as the foundation of that project. If the foundation is week, anything that is added on top will be more likely to crumble. So when you're preparing your Query, be sure to think about the things mentioned above that agents and editors are looking for, and try to give them what they are looking for. 

Once you've done your best with your letter (and manuscript), I strongly recommend that you have your peers or a consultant critique it and give you constructive criticism. It's always a good idea to participate in workshops, do your research, and to go to conferences to help you prepare. 

A literary consultant or coach will also help you prepare your package - or should we say to package yourself, before you are ready to send things out. A good consultant will also be able to help you with the actual novel, from editing to classifying it, to telling you whom to pitch it to and how. Be sure to research anyone you find before you hire them and ask for recommendations when applicable. 

Next month, my Literary Powerhouse Consulting (LitPow) partner, Jo Ann Kairys and I are offering a full day workshop called UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL. During this exclusive workshop we will be helping a handful of authors with their submission packages, pitch preparation, marketing know-how, etc. LitPow, Writer's Digest and other great companies offer many terrific workshops that are awesomely helpful and usually fun. 

These types of workshops and attending conferences are instrumental to helping authors prepare themselves and their work for success, and often facilitate introductions to agents and publishers that you would otherwise not have access to. So find a conference or a workshop near you (or online) to help you get ready for submissions and on your way to success.
Happy Packaging! And Happy Autumn!
~Marisa