The Profile/Author Picture

Today you're going to get a mini rant from me.

Sorry.

Especially since this particular pet peeve of mine is perpetuated by some of my dearest blogger friends.

Here it is.

For the love of Pete (whoever he may be) please use a picture of yourself as your profile picture. You may  not need a professional author photo yet, but if you want people to remember you attached to your name, please, please, please...post a current picture.

For example. Our fearless leader Carol, AKA Huntress remained 2 Separate People! in my mind for over a year! For some reason she has issues posting a picture of herself (I think she's beautiful by the way.). Hey, we all wish we were younger, thinner, had longer/shorter/straighter/curlier hair, etc.

Take a chance and trust people with a picture of you and your real name or the name you want to be known by. Do you really want to build a brand like this:

PookieBear22

Yeah, it's cute, but it makes it hard to connect your blog/twitter/facebook/stories to you. 

Pick a head shot or at least a picture from the waist up where its close enough that people will recognize you if they pass you in the grocery store. Smile or be mysterious. Just don't pick your nose. Not for the picture anyway. Then use the same picture EVERYWHERE. This is now part of your brand. 

Q4U: If you don't use a head shot, what are you afraid of? I really want to know. 

But how do I take a good picture? Here are some great links:

5 Tips for Taking a Good Author Photo by ebookpublishinghq. This post had me laughing out loud. My favorite is the reference to a romance writer's photo. Made me think about switching genres, but don't tell my hubby!
5 Tips for Taking a Great Author Photo by Voices from the Heart mentions some of the cliched photo poses.
9 Suggestions for Taking Better Head Shots by Michael Hyatt, author of Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Thomas Nelson). Enough said.
Look Great in Your Author Photo by The Review Review has a long list of things, including how to hide a double chin. What about that extra 30 lbs?

Our Judges Query Pet Peeves

We asked our guest judges what their top two pet peeves were when it came to the queries they receive. Here's what they told us in their own words.

Donna O'Brien

1. GRAMMAR!! I don't expect your manuscript to be grammatically perfect, but your query should reflect a basic command of the English language.

2. Misrepresenting the actual manuscript -- While it is important to have a great hook and interesting query, they should reflect the heart of the novel and not just be a gimmick to get attention.

Andrew Buckley

1. I dislike when query letters are ‘form’ query letters.  And I’m not saying don’t use a form query but at least have the good grace to personalize it to the publisher/lit agency you’re querying.

2. I hate with a fiery passion when query letters only contain a synopsis.  We want to hear who you are, whether you’re planning more books in the same vein, how long the piece is, and why do you believe it’s a good fit for our catalog, etc., etc.  Read submission guidelines…or forever be damned to the 64th circle of hell reserved for talented aspiring writers who constantly bugger up their query letters.

Nancy Bell

1. Failure to read and follow the submission guidelines.  For example sending in docx format when the guidelines specifically state .rtf or .doc  Failing to put contact information on the top of the manuscript. Or sending a genre we don't handle.

2. Queries that claim to be the next....insert here Harry Potter, Dean Koontz etc, or telling me that this book/series will set the publishing world on its ear etc. It is fine to be confident and proud of your work, but most of the queries with wild claims are followed by a manuscript which in no way lives up to its billing.

Krystal Wade

I don't have major peeves but when people don't follow our submission guidelines (don't launch into a I've done this and that and am a member of this and that etc, and don't send the entire ms when we ask only for first five pages) it kind of annoys me. ;-)

Amy Lichtenhan

1. Definitely when authors do not follow our submission guidelines.  It tells us immediately they are not willing to put the time and effort into their submission with us.

2. When we receive the first three chapters and they are unedited and filled with typos. We don't expect perfection, but we definitely want to see authors who have taken the time to be sure their submission is in the best shape it can be.

Notice how four out of five mentioned submission guidelines? Come back tomorrow evening for a post dedicated to submission guidelines and how to abide by them.

Descriptions without Describing

If there is something that drives me crazy when I’m reading it’s the “looking in the mirror” description trope used by far too many writers. 

Rise Up! Break the habit! Our characters deserve better!

“She looked down at her small, 5’4” body and sighed. With a practiced gesture she moved her long, curly black waves over her shoulder, bending to pick up the step-stool. By stretching just right she could still just barely reach the glasses, and had just finished getting them down when her supervisor walked in.”

Not a great description. Yes. we know her height, hair color/length. I could probably have thrown in her eye color. We can tell she’s a bit annoyed at being so short, and she practices moves to draw people’s eyes away from her short stature. Yes. It’s description. But it’s stifling. Wouldn’t you agree?

Try this. Try describing your character simply by the actions that portray their physicality. This character is a shorter person. She needs a step stool. Or she wears high heels. I could say,

“Knowing the wine glasses were out of reach, Brenda went to get the dreaded step-stool. She kicked off her Louboutin’s and stomped up the three steps. “Stupid thing!” Carefully placing the glasses on the granite counter beside her, she had just about finished when her supervisor came into the room.”

Says the same thing in an entirely different way. In fact, you can fit a lot more interesting details in when you free yourself from having to Show description. Tell me what your character does. How your character moves about in the world. How they are awkward, or comfortable, in their own skin. How they trip over their own feet because they’re a teenager just getting used to their rapidly growing bodies, rather then saying “He is 13.”

A good practice exercise for this is to go to the mall, park, baseball game...wherever there are lots of people doing lots of random things. Pick two or three and write exactly what they are doing. How they are doing it. How many steps it took the really tall man to get from his truck to the porta-potty. How hard the short woman had to strain to lift her child up to the monkey bars. How the old woman with the cane braced herself against the car to load her groceries into the back seat. One bag at a time.

You don’t need to know that he was a 45 year old man with salt and pepper hair, blue eyes and a beer gut. That can come out later. When you show him at home in front of his tv, drinking a 6-pack.

Our readers are pretty smart. And they have imagination. It’s far more important for the reader to understand how a character will react in a situation, then to know how their hair is going to look.

So here’s your assignment class! Take the following description and change it, any way you want (just keep the essence the same), using tips I showed you.

“He couldn’t believe it. 42 years old. Oh well. At least his hair wasn’t too grey. He turned away from the bathroom mirror, feeling for his thick glasses. Shambling out to his lounger, he eased his massive body into the broken springs and opened a fresh bag of chips. Maybe this year he would lose the weight.”