New Write Stuff editor opportunities!

By Kathryn Craft

With the conference almost sold out, Juliet Grames, of Soho Press, still has appointments available. We know why, of course—most of her acquisitions are in crime fiction set in other cultures, and apparently we don't have any authors at present who are targeting that narrow genre.

Since Juliet's background in publishing and bookselling has so much to offer us, we've decided to do something about that.

To best serve our conferees who do not yet have agent/editor appointments, and to make the best use of Juliet's time and expertise, we are now opening up her appointments to the following additional consultations:

• Literary fiction and memoir.

Juliet writes:
Sorry if I wasn't clear--I DO acquire literary fiction, and also memoir. I just also acquire a very specific kind of crime. And the ratio of titles is really about 1:3, litfic:crime. If you want an idea of some of the books I've bought, I'll post a couple literary fiction deals announcements here.

(World English) Fuminori Nakamura's THE THIEF, winner of the prestigious Oe Prize, the story of a virtuoso pickpocket who is drawn into a web of intrigue in the Tokyo underworld, to Juliet Grames at Soho Press, by Kazuto Yamaguchi at Kodansha, for publication in early 2012.

ROCK PAPER TIGER author Lisa Brackmann's second novel, a literary thriller about an American woman who stumbles into a dangerous circle of spies and cartels in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Juliet Grames at Soho Press, for publication in early 2012, by Katherine Fausset at Curtis Brown (world English).

THE SPANISH BOW author Andromeda Romano-Lax's THE DISCUS THROWER, about a young German art dealer sent to Italy in 1938 to collect a famous statue for the Fuhrer, pitched as compared to REMAINS OF THE DAY, to Juliet Grames at Soho Press, for publication in 2012, by Gail Hochman at Brandt & Hochman.

• Individual ten-minute consultations on the publishing/writing subject of your choice.

  Possibilities include:

• People who will be ready to pitch next year (they don't have a finished manuscript) but would like to practice pitching this year, and get feedback from a pro.
• People who'd like to get a sense of the commercial viability of their project, or want to ask for an insider's perspective on how to make it more so.
• People who'd like feedback on their query letter.
• People who are stymied by a writing challenge and seek advice. 
• People who might be interested in learning more about how the publishing industry works.

Keep in mind that you'll still only have 10 minutes, so have your material/questions ready.

How we'll do this:

Dianna will give appointments to the first "X" number of e-mails she receives ( X = number of appointments still available). Please put "JULIET GRAMES" in the subject line. You need not tell us what you want to use the appointment for; we'll trust you'll come up with a good idea.

To reduce work on Dianna, who has held up so beautifully to the rigors of registrardom that we'd hate to crack her now, you will only hear back if your appointment has been granted. If you don't hear back, you can assume you were too late.

Please take advantage of this amazing opportunity! On your mark, get set...

...e-mail Dianna!