Wicked Wordsmith

The Most Important - and Most Compelling - Short-Short Story of Your Career as a Selling Author by Robert W. Walker

Catalog Copy:
General synopsis of book (no more than 290 words) See example below.
Title: DEAD ON
Author:  ROBERT W. WALKER

Quote: “Walker’s prose cuts like a garrote; he is a master at the top of his game.”  —JA Konrath, author of Whiskey Sour, Dirty Martini

Synopsis:
Private Eye Marcus Rydell is fighting to keep his hold on life in modern day Atlanta, Georgia.  He is a detective struggling with suicidal tendencies due to his having been disgraced and having lost all he holds dear four years earlier.  Marc’s suicidal gun to mouth is only stopped by his cop’s instinct and the promise brought to him by Dr. Kat Holley.  She makes him an offer at the point of a gun, one he can’t refuse, for it actually provides him with a reason to live in the form of vengeance.  Rydell sets aside his plans of suicide to chase a killer who, four years previously, hurt both Kat and him in immeasurable ways.  The hunt takes them to the darkest regions of the Atlanta night and the Georgia forests where the monster they are chasing turns on them amid the spectacular Blue Ridge Lake region.  They hunt a psycho Rambo type who is hunting them.  The killer bundles people into square blocks, breaking every major bone, packages them up, hangs them on a tree, builds a fire below them and they die a horrible, torturous death.  He has eluded police and feds for four years.  Marc and Kat, who fall in love along the way, along with a black German shepherd named Paco must end the maniac’s life before he ends theirs.

Cover thought:  Cast in blue, an idyllic lake with moonlight reflecting off its center.  At right a lovely modern log home where warm glow of light makes shadows of a man, a woman, and a black dog.  At left a stand of trees, a small fire glowing below a human “package” dangling from one tree branch.  Body has legs, arms, torso and head\face crammed and bound into a square the size of the torso.  Perhaps another figure, the killer, peering through binoculars at the couple and dog at the house.  These figures could all be silhouettes in style of flat black cut outs.  Maybe a twirling abandoned boat on the water.

Author Bio:  Robert W. Walker lives in Charleston, West Virginia with his RN and author wife Miranda and, two daughters, two sons, a dog, a lizard, and too many bills.  Rob loves traveling and sharing his hard-won lessons on writing via his online Write to Sell class.  Contact rob at www.robertwwalkerbooks.com

This example is straight from my latest sale, some 44 in all now counting my E-books.  For more examples of “copy” or “pitches” for books see all the copy written for these at www.FictionWise.com

If and when you become proficient at clearly and concisely describing your novel in 125 words or less, then this short-short about your novel can be used in the proposal, in the oral pitch, and anywhere else that it makes sense.  To get help on this take my 3-Hour, 60 dollar online course WRITE TO SELL during which time I will look at the opening 30 pages of your novel.  Part of the course is the work you will do – read certain of my articles forwarded and the opening 30 pages of DEAD ON.

Simply contact me at inkwalk at sbcglobal dot net, and let’s get to work on your MS post haste.  I’ve never had a complaint save the one guy who called me a butcher.  You got a story to tell, you got guts, so next step is to share it with Robert W. Walker, the book shaper.

Robert W. Walker is the author of more than 40 novels including the 2006 hit [City for Ransom] from HarperCollins. Find him on his blog or on his Web site.

Subscribe and ye shall be published!

So I'm going through stacks and stacks of magazines, sorting which to treasure till I die, and which to pitch. As I sorted through various national and regional writing publications, I noticed something: Some of those magazines that I'd been so hot to subscribe to had not even been opened. I couldn't believe it. So many of these glossies had gathered dust in record time and I hadn't touched a one.

Wasted money? You bet.

I thought instead of spending $6 per copy at a newstand, it was more fiscally responsible to buy a $20 per year subscription. After all, I'm a starving writer. I can't afford $6 a pop. (Of course, I pay more for new softcovers these days, but that's beside the point.) Poets & Writers was one that fell way below my radar. As I flipped through it, I realized the nonstop ads for MFAs in creative writing immediately doused any interest I had in finding an actual article on something - or someone - I'm interested in. Not saying that this isn't a great magazine. It's got it's audience. But I am not one of the people salivating from copy to copy.

The Writer was the next one. I decided I should get one to this glossy, because, well, it was on sale for $15 annually. All I can say in my defense is that it seemed like a good idea at the time - sort of like one of those adventures as a teenager that leaves your folks screaming at you for weeks afterward.

It seemed that my old standby, Writer's Digest, was my best new source for the industry. And even that magazine  wasn't completely read all the way through each month.

There were a few others here and there in the growing pile of tree-killer glossies that meant nothing to me.

I sat back and realized that, had I not plunked down money for more magazines that I just "had" to have, I could have used those funds for a membership in Romance Writers of America or Mystery Writers of America. I could have used it to buy more books at the writing conference I attended in October.

I guess what it boils down to is this: I don't need every magazine out there on writing. I need to pick what works for me - maybe one national and one regional to stay current. But I can only get them if I'll  read them. The ones I thought I needed for contest info? Ditching them. All that stuff is online now - for free. I doubt I'll miss them. I think I'll be happier with the extra cash for supplies rather than glossies that take up space in my cluttered writing world.

Angela Wilson - Wicked Wordsmith