Wednesday links: Sabotaging your chances, writing love, and querying badly

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few. Since I took advantage of the holiday and didn’t post last Wednesday, here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most the past two weeks.

1. 3 Ways You’re Sabotaging Your Chances with An Agent, from Jane Friedman: Sometimes, you don’t necessarily have to do anything obvious, like having a negative web presence, to ruin your chances of landing an agent. Sometimes, the cause is something much more subtle. Excerpt: “In my years as a freelance editor, I’ve learned that writers like to tell themselves stories about why they can’t sign with an agent. “My book is just too literary” and “There’s an industry bias against bloggers” are two of my favorite excuses.”
2. Writing About LOVE – Ditch the Cliches and Turn Up the Heat In Your Romance, from Kristen Lamb’s Blog: Writing romance, as you may know, is one of my downfalls. Luckily, this post has given me some good tips to work from. Excerpt: “What you just read is a pile of cliches we have seen a thousand times before, all pressed into one single scene. I just fed you a learned code instead of serving you fresh fiction; yes, I force-fed you a learned code like traffic signals or like the bell that trained Pavlov’s dogs. The signals above are intended to get you salivating romantically… ring, ring!”
3. More Ways to Query Badly, from Janet Reid: These are just some technical things to keep in mind when you’re writing a query letter. Because often, the littlest mistake can make a big difference. Excerpt: “Diving into the incoming queries is one of my favorite things to do. A well-written query with enticing pages is one of the great joys of this job. Ineffective queries, not so much.”