Check Out CSN Stores: You'll find everything but the kitchen sink...Oh wait, they've got that, too!

Hey everybody,
   I hope you are all doing supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-ly! I know Halloween is only one days away, but that doesn't mean you can't start preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas! I know I've been hard at work, planning lots of fun events and activities to help celebrate the holidays here on the blog.
   In all honesty, there isn't much I can think of for November other than more interviews, giveaways and book reviews. So, how about I suggest a great place to order any thing you need to dress up your house for the holidays? We're weeks away from Thanksgiving, and you'll want to impress the in-laws. Don't worry though, CSN Stores has got your back!

With over 200 online specialty stores, CSN Stores carries just about everything you need (and everything you don't, but will end up getting regardless!) Need a new dining room table for displaying that delicious Thanksgiving turkey? How about some stylish slip covers to makeover the old sofa in the living room? In desperate need of Pots, Pans,..or fireplaces?

All that and more is at your finger tips! Check out the Our Stores page on the CSN Stores website for a full listing of all the stores/sites in their arsenal. Any and everything you could need to make this year the best year for celebrating family, life, and love is only a click away!

-Stay tuned on the blog for more stuff on CSN Stores! I've found plenty of wish list items to bombard you guys with! How about visiting their site and telling me what you would pick out! I've got my eyes on those Paula Deen Cookware Sets!

Don't Take it Personally...

This morning, literary agent Rachelle Gardner posted a must-read article for those querying writers who are getting fed up with agent responses-- or lack thereof-- to their work. It basically boiled down to this:

"Vent about your frustrations, but please, please, please: Refrain from making every complaint a criticism of agents."

At the risk of branding myself a suck-up or worse, I believe Gardner when she explains just how busy the average literary agent is. Query letters alone must take up an inordinate amount of time for what amounts to a fairly thankless head-ache of a task-- something I think we can all agree on.

But if literary agents really didn't care, there wouldn't be so many of them blogging about their experiences, and about what makes them keep reading a query letter or a submission. Agent blogs are my lighthouse, the flame that guides me through the querying process. The operative word being "guide"-- I take their word as guidelines, not Gospel, and it has helped me to craft my queries to where I have about a 20% success rate. Can't argue with results. And I get most of my information about what's happening in the publishing industry from agent blogs, too.

Just in case you've missed a few, here's a short list of agents who blog, which is by no means exhaustive, but these are the ones I check the most regularly.

Kristen Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency
Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown
Jessica Faust of BookEnds, LLC
Jennifer Jackson of Jennifer Jackson Literary Agency
Jenny Bent of The Bent Agency
Janet Reid of Fine Print Literary
Kate Shafer-Testerman of KT Literary
Jenny Rappaport
Jill Corcoran

There's also a Blog Roll here on the Agent Query website, which is another invaluable resource for learning about a particular agent's likes and dislikes. After all, if you send off your query and a writing sample, and things go well, you could be in a serious relationship with this person for some time. Isn't it worth getting to know them a little before hand?

But just remember-- if they choose not to begin that relationship with you, it's not personal.

So perhaps as a gift to them, we could be a little gentler on literary agents this holiday season. That means no querying NaNo novels in December, folks! ;) And even if you've had a bad experience with a particular agent, remember they're all individuals who deserve our respect.

Happy Holidays, Literary Agents!