Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Checking in

by Lauren

So how's it going DGLM blog readers? We wanted to take the opportunity now that we’ve had time to settle in to find out how you feel about the changes we made here.

We've all been thrilled with the feedback we're getting and how active you guys are. Finding time to work on this without taking time away from our clients has been a challenge--I'm writing this on the subway en route to the office, for example--but we're having fun being part of the discussion with you.

So how do you feel about the redesign? We're blogging much more than we used to, but are there areas we're still not covering (or covering enough) that you'd like us to consider? What are you liking most? Least? The title contest and Slush Week were both a lot of fun for us, and we'd love to do more contests and series--what do you think? Is there a helpful button or widget you wish you could find in our sidebar? We've gotten great suggestions from you guys, like Slush Week and the I Wish I Saw More... sidebar, so please keep 'em coming. (In the comments below, but also in the comments at any time! We're always interested to hear what you think.)

You can see the blogs that we're reading to the right--we'd love more suggestions! In particular, I'd love to read a blog by someone who works in sub rights. Anyone know of one?

Speaking of which, who are you? Unpublished authors, published authors, editors, agents, publishing professionals, tax attorneys who simply love our sparkling wit? Let us know below, anonymously or otherwise.

Some housekeeping as well. We stopped doing questions corner because we weren't really getting many questions emailed, but we're reading the questions you ask in the comments and try to cover the bigger ones in separate blog posts. If you're missing that feature, try clicking the advice tag in the cloud at bottom.

Speaking of the tag cloud, I may have gotten a little overambitious early on with the tagging and created a ton of tags that aren't very useful, so I'll be cleaning that up a bit.

And for our fellow Blogger bloggers, are there any handy widgets or tricks we should know about? You guys were very helpful in resolving our color issues some time back. If anyone has any tips on embedding video in particular, that'd be great. We've had sizing issues, fought with the HTML forever, and then given up when it was still not quite right.

Most of all, thanks to everyone reading! Thanks to the linkers and retweeters and Facebook sharers who've helped us find others. Thanks for actively participating in the discussions, letting us know what you think, and helping us improve. Thanks also to those of you who read but don't comment--we hope to hear from you, too! It's a genuine pleasure talking with all of you.

And now the train's pulling into 14th Street, so it's time for me to go!

21 comments:

  1. How do y'all live in cities? Don't ya feel like... well like, y'all are arm pit to arm pit and high rises are just chicken coops piled each on t'other?

    Haste yee back ;-)

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  2. I'm wondering what an average number of clients an agent handles. I suppose it depends a lot on how prolific those clients are, but is it ten, fifty, a hundred? And how many new clients do you pick up a year?

    Thanks for all the great info!

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  3. I'd look at signing up with Amazon Associates and installing a widget to sell the books you represent.

    Me? I'm a wanna be author and part-time sys admin/part-time mum.

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  4. I've been visiting much more often now that you have such frequent posts. I loved Slush Week. I do freelance editing and write advice for aspiring writers, so I read a lot of publishing blogs, and this one has become a great resource.

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  5. Me too annerallen, I've been checking in and reading everyday. It's been great - thanks Lauren and DGLM!

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  6. Personally I just love the blog. I don't get a lot of time these days to check all the ones I want to, but I try to keep up with most of them, and this is always a good source of industry information.

    I'm just a college student trying to find time to write, so I enjoy flipping through agent/editor/writer blogs when I can. Thanks for posting! :)

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  7. Hello -- I just found your blog via Laura Resnick's website. Very informative, especially the post on how submissions are done.

    I write time-travel romance usually set between Regency England and present day. Presently unpubed, I am hoping that will change someday soon.

    Thanks for the great info. I am looking forward to learning more.

    Nina

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  8. I found the DGLM blog a couple weeks ago and LOVE it. It’s now set it up in Outlook as an RSS feed so I can check it every day. I also follow DGLM on Twitter & Facebook.

    I found Slush Week very insightful. Thank you for taking the time to post helpful information, despite your hectic schedules.

    I am an aspiring author, working on a YA romance.

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  9. I don't know if I have any suggestions or not... I enjoy reading the blog a lot. I'm a young adult writer, agency client, and currently unpublished... but I'm hoping to change that last part soon.

    Thanks for the blog.

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  10. I'm one of the read-but-don't-comment people, an unpublished novelist, published magazine journalist. I'm happy with the increased frequency of your posts (I like to find something new each day when I check in) and your current choice of topics.

    I have a Wordpress blog and love its simplicity of use. Although I sign into Google Friend Connect on Blogger sites so the owner knows I'm following, Wordpress doesn't support it. I put my favourite blogs into a special Bookmarks folder for quick access, so it matters not to me whether you move to Wordpress or stay with Blogger.

    Thanks for your efforts to improve communication with your readers.

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  11. I'm a big fan of this blog, and really appreciative of the time and effort you all are putting into it. I wish I had time to comment more often, but I always read! I'm an aspiring YA author in my final stages of revision, and I'm part of the writing blog First Novels Club.

    As per embedding videos -- first off, let me apologize for CARROT instead of < or > because Blogger wouldn't let me post with the actual HTML tags I used as examples.

    I know only basic HTML, but anytime I want to embed something from YouTube, I copy the "Embed" code and paste it in the "Edit HTML" field in the Blogger post I'm writing. Just make sure it's not in the middle of other code (everything has an opening and closing in carrots -- i.e. CARROTspanCARROT blah blah blah code stuff CARROT/spanCARROT or it won't show up. It's safest to paste it after a CARROTbr/CARROT, since that's a line break, so you know you're not in the middle of anything important. To fix the size, after you paste the code, change the number (only!) in the Object Width="560" to about 300... that'll keep it narrow enough.

    ^ Hope that's not more confusing than helpful!

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  12. Love the new design. Love slush week. I don't recall the title contest, but I'm sure it was great too!

    About me: I'm a currently unpublished author of books for children and young adults. I have a number of children's picture books complete. My work in progress is a young adult novel, which I am hoping will become a series.

    Thanks for the great blog.

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  13. About Me: I'm P.D. Hansen, the owner and webmaster of EvilAvatar - Daily Gaming News.... With Attitude http://www.evilavatar.com

    EvilAvatar.com is a video game news & information page that will see over 350,000 absolute unique readers per month.

    I was the author of several video game strategy guides from publisher Bradygames. I had a short story published in The Undead: Skin & Bones in 2007 and another short story published in Zombology II: Return of the Reanimates in 2009.

    I'm currently hard at work on a Sci Fi/Western novel and a Zombie novel in addition to a slew of short stories.

    I have enjoyed this blog and I think I find a lot of valuable information here.

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  14. I love the new design - it's much easier to read. I'm unpublished and am learning the business from your blog and others. This is one of the few regulars I hit every day, so I'm glad you're posting regularly.

    Thanks for the time you've spent on making this a truly great blog.

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  15. I love that your agency is blogging so often now!

    I'm an aspiring writer.

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  16. Another aspiring author here. I write mainly MG/YA and women's novels, and teach English full-time.

    I really enjoyed your slush week. Your comments on query letters and which ones you found compelling were very helpful.

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  17. I've finished a 430 pg novel, lit fiction; many excerpts have been published. Four agents actually read various versions[hope, hope springs eternal] and gave constructive advice. I read you periodically for tips.

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  18. "I write time-travel romance usually set between Regency England and present day. Presently unpubed, I am hoping that will change someday soon."

    It's always nice to hear from Brazilian authors.

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  19. Love, LOVED Slush Week. More please!

    Your fan, a Michigan wannabe

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  20. I'm an aspiring author too, and I have to say, this blog is one of my favourite places to visit online!

    Absolutely loved Slush Week, and I was particularly impressed with how tactfully and kindly the agency critiqued each of the queries. It's very easy to tear things to shreds, but at no point did I see any 'tearing'. Also, kudos to everyone who sent in their queries, that was brave!

    A teeny request/suggestion: would it be possible for you to mention (maybe in a post, or in a list in the sidebar) how far along you've gotten in reading queries? I know your guidelines recommend we re-send a query if we haven't received a reply in eight weeks, but I just think it would be really useful for writers to know if specific agents have read and answered queries up to a certain date, etc.

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