[Writer Post] One Sheets and Don’t Be A Jerk Redux
Please bear with me this week, it’s the beginning of the busiest month of my year, and I got hit with a bug. But there is stuff going on, and this is one of the times I’m very, very grateful to work at home where I can still do what needs to be done while being sick and pathetic.
What’s going on? I’m working on a thing called a “one sheet”, it’s something they do in Romance publishing for agents and editors. My mom, who I spotlighted on Friday, is helping me out with this because it’s a completely foreign concept to me. Because for all that publishing is a single industry, the genre requirements are so…not. Though, if this works…it might not get me a cross-genre publisher, but it might help me hone my query letter.
Yes, the dreaded query letter. It really is the algebra of the writer’s life. It can be a very important element to your submission packet – which also changes from publisher to publisher. Seriously, if you’re not carefully reading your submission guidelines, you’re killing your career before it starts. THE RULES ARE THERE FOR A REASON…
Oh, and in the “Don’t Be a Jerk” realm of “Don’t Try This At Home”… there are stories of people “pretending” to be an agent in order to get a writing job/contract/acting job. Or pretending to be press or other people to promote buzz for your project (there’s a story that says Ty Cobb did that when he was a young player). Yeah. Don’t try to pull the wool over people. You’ll get caught. In the Internet Age you WILL be mocked and ridiculed for the rest of your life. AND, it probably won’t end well for you.
Just ask RJ Ellory, a British crime writer who was found out. He’s been faking his own reviews by using various names and personas and then using those same persona to attack rivals. DUDE. You don’t do this. No matter what. This kind of thing is high on the “Don’t DO THIS at Home. EVER!” And when you get caught, people are pretty…displeased with you. It makes your colleagues put a lot of distance between them and you. And it totally makes you THE JERK. Don’t be the jerk.
And now on to the recovery.