Ladies and gentlemen of the court, all rise for the noble and knowledgeable Danielle Chiotti, literary agent at Upstart Crow Literary and esteemed judge of WordHustler’s Literary Storm Novel Contest (NEWSFLASH: due to popular demand, we’ve extended the deadline to February 26, 2010! You’ve still got time to submit!). Danielle is passionate about great writing, finding amazing new clients, and helping writers succeed in the publishing industry.

Luckily for us, Danielle made time in her busy schedule to sit down and discuss what draws her to different books, how important the query letter really is, and how she plucks talented writers out of the slush pile. Will you be the next gifted scribe to catch her eye?

Read the interview to find out, then polish those manuscripts and send them out!

WordHustler: How did you get your start in the publishing industry?

Danielle Chiotti: Completely by accident, actually. I graduated with a degree in Creative Writing, and spent a year waitressing before I basically stumbled into a job doing reader’s reports for a small literary agency. A few months later, they asked me if I wanted to come in and learn about being an agent. I had no idea what that meant, but I thought, “Oh, why not?” I’ve been working in publishing ever since.

WH: You’ve worked all over the publishing industry, at places like Kensington Publishing and Adams Media. What is the main difference between editing and agenting, and why did you decide to make the switch?

DC: Literary agents have a lot more autonomy than editors do; we’re not beholden to a certain set of parameters for publishing a book. I loved my work as an editor, but there were always so many rules about what I could and could not acquire, depending on the needs of the publisher. As an agent, I can truly sign the projects I love–in any area I choose.

WH: What draws you to a fiction book? Non-fiction?

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Have you ever wanted to sit a literary agent down and ask them all those burning questions bouncing around in your brain: How important is the query? What kind of books get you excited? How many author clients do you REALLY find in the slush pile?

So have we. And so we did. Enter Adriann Ranta, newly-arrived agent at Wolf Literary Services who has spent years shepherding writers through the editing and agenting processes. Adriann handled all the hard-hitting writing questions we dished out, and even asked for seconds.

Read on to discover what Adriann considers the best kind of query letters, what she thinks about YA books, and why she loves the word “percussive.” Then it’ll be time to get an agent for yourself! Success never tasted so good!

WordHustler: How did you get your start in the publishing industry?

Adriann Ranta: I graduated with my obligatory, directionless liberal arts degree having no idea what I wanted to do with books, but knowing I had to do something with them since they’re all I’ve really felt passionately about. After considering and quickly declining a phone sex job as an outlet for creativity, I got a job at The Editorial Department, the oldest freelance editing firm in the country, based in Tucson, AZ.

I worked as their managing editor of Between the Lines, gathering info and interviewing professionals in the industry. Eventually, I moved to New York and through a variety of internships, assistant positions, and odd jobs found that agenting is the niche that most suits me.

WH: What’s the main difference between editing and agenting, and why did you decide to make the switch?

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Katie Grimm is the best kind of literary agent you could have: an impassioned reader who knows her way around story, character, and what makes a book stick with you. An agent at Don Congdon Associates with a background working in libraries, Katie spent time poring over the books that made it to the shelves and now is one of the savvy people who get them there.

WordHustler sat down with this smart cookie to get the rundown on the Young Adult world, on characters that stay in your head long after the book is finished, and why the query letter is more important than you may think.

Read on for an interview more informative than the Dewey Decimal System!

WordHustler: How did you get your start in the publishing industry?

Katie Grimm: I’ve always been a committed reader, but I didn’t have the desire to get into the industry until I worked at a library.  I grew frustrated by the rows and rows of novels from the same handful of authors, and I knew there was undiscovered talent out there that deserved to be there too. That drive to give readers access to new and exciting books brought me to New York, and Don Congdon Associates has been a great place to give me the chance to do that ever since.

WH: Why did you decide to become an agent?

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Weaving a story that captures the imagination not only takes training, preparation, and dedication, it ALSO takes some serious talent. The difference between being just a “writer” and being a “storyteller” is an elusive mystery, and one WordHustler set out to solve with a little help from Caren Neile.

Neile is a writer, instructor and Artist-in-Residence at Florida Atlantic University. As the director of the University’s South Florida Storytelling Project, she is well-versed in the way oral stories are passed down in history. She is also equipped to help people translate their stories to the page.

Read on to learn about the magic of storytelling and the payoff of never giving up. It’s the tale that always has a happy ending.

WordHustler: How long have you been writing? Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?

Caren Neile: I’ve been writing for 45 years, since I was six years old. I specifically remember, at age 6, writing a book called “Tales From the Land of Make-Believe.” How I wish my parents had saved it!

WH: What were some of your favorite books when you were growing up?

CN: I loved Black Beauty and King of the Wind–I was a real horse lover. The Encyclopedia Brown books were a big influence on me. Also I was a big fan of Nancy Drew. And I remember a lovely novel called Spring Begins in March that was a particular favorite as well.

WH: What is the best book you’ve read recently?

CN: Hmmm, this is tough. I loved The Yiddish Policemen’s Union by Michael Chabon and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

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You may not be a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, or a little girl from Kansas, but every one of us has felt like a Cowardly Lion when approaching the great big wizard known as the publishing industry. But not to fear!

WordHustler sat down with Laura Mazer, Managing Editor of Berkeley-based independent publisher Counterpoint Press, to get some straight answers about the state of the publishing industry, the state of writing today and- most importantly- the state of the projects she’s looking for.

Read on to gain some fantastic insight and, with three clicks of your mouse, your manuscript may find a home on an editor’s desk before you know it!

WordHustler: Did you study journalism in college?

Laura Mazer: No, I was an English major, but I knew early on I wanted to be an editor. One of my first jobs—and one of the best jobs I’ve ever had—was at Creators Syndicate, one of the biggest newspaper features syndicates in the world. I edited op-ed writers from the right and the left and from around the world. It was a heady time, and an exciting entrée into journalism.

Then I moved to New York City, where there’s so much media there that it opened up a whole new world for me professionally. I wound up editing at a magazine called Brill’s Content, covering media and politics from a skeptical perspective. That was also a very heady time, come to think of it.

I moved back to California in 2002, and after being in New York, California seemed like the diaspora of publishing. I was worried about finding a job in media. I knew there were plenty of book publishers, but I was nervous about making the transition from newspapers and magazines to books. The book industry seemed to cultivate a mystique—a very behind-the-velvet-curtain sensibility. I didn’t know if my journalism background would be considered relevant. Turns out it was, but I didn’t know that at the time.

WH: It’s a very shrouded industry.

LM: Right! It’s shrouded, with an insider-driven vibe.

WH: Would you say it’s slower overall?

LM: It is slower, sure, at least on a per-project basis. Instead of turning out a final piece of writing in a day, or a week, or a month, it can take a year or longer. It’s a much bigger machine. But the volume is much higher, too—instead of turning around 700 words in a day, or 2000 words in a week, we’re working with 80,000 words at a time.

WH: What draws you to a fiction book? Nonfiction?

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A Southern Writer Never Kisses and Tells: An Interview with Mindy Friddle

Somewhere in a plant-choked garden in South Carolina, journalist-turned-novelist Mindy Friddle is planting some succulents in an old, broken-down cowboy boot. She’s also thinking about characters and scenes for her next novel, giving them space to roam around in her head. Mindy Friddle is the real deal, folks: a bona fide Southern lady and a talented writer to boot (pun completely intended).

WordHustler sat down with Mindy to get a feel for her writing experiences, her personal writing style, and why you have to talk to everyone about your project (answer: because it may just land you your dream agent).

Read on to explore the magical world of Mindy Friddle’s fertile mind!

WordHustler: How did you get your first big break? I know you have a journalism background- what was the first thing you ever published?

Mindy Friddle: I began writing for my college newspaper, and I found I really took to writing features as opposed to hard news.  As a senior in college, I also wrote a poem and had it published in the college literary magazine. I loved the process of writing that poem– figuring out the ideal word, concentrating on imagery. When I graduated, with a very marketable degree in philosophy (ha) I took a job as a newspaper reporter for a tiny weekly newspaper. I covered everything–town council, school board, and business, but still gravitated toward writing features and columns.

A couple of years later, I was in graduate school working on a Master’s and getting certified to teach English, and I took a class with James Dickey and a prose workshop. From then on, it was a matter of mustering the courage to write fiction. I yearned to do it, even in the face of rejection. I wrote some stories, had them turned down, wrote some more, and finally, when I started with an image of a decaying homestead for my first novel, The Garden Angel, I was on fire.

I worked on the draft, revised, wrote some more for several years. The story had a momentum of its own. I love when that happens! My first big break– well I was blessed to have several: the first chapter of The Garden Angel won an award in my state, and was published in the Charleston newspaper. That was a clipping…my first. Enough to send in a query to an agent, which I later did. A second break– going to Breadloaf Writers Conference, where I met Julianna Baggott, whose first novel Girl Talk, was coming out, and who struck me as an immensely talented writer and generous person. She’s a friend now, and when I asked her–a stranger really, then–if she was pleased with her agent, she had glowing things to say about the agency, and encouraged me to contact them, and to mention that she sent me. To make a long story short, I queried the agency, sent in my lone “clipping” and the first three chapters. They agreed to work with me.

WH: I know you are an accomplished book reviewer as well as author. What kinds of books are your favorite to review? More so, what type of books are your favorite to read?

MF: I love reviewing books I’ve enjoyed. In fact, I won’t review books that I didn’t like or didn’t connect with for whatever reason. It’s subjective–taste– and life’s too short not to praise books and share them. I’m an eclectic reader and often recommend books on my blog, Novel Thoughts (http://mindyfriddle.blogspot.com/). Some of my all time favorite novels–this is a very partial list: Ironweed by William Kennedy, The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, every novel written by Ann Tyler, The White Hotel by DM Thomas, The Hours by Michael Cunningham, The World According to Garp by John Irving, Norwood by Charles Portis, Veronica by Mary Gaitskill, Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, Amy and Isabel by Elizabeth Strout, Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo…and lots of Southern faves: Jill McCorkle, Lee Smith, Allan Garganus, Josephine Humphreys, Carson McCullers, Kaye Gibbons, Eudora Welty, Michael Lee West–Crazy Ladies, love it– Fannie Flagg. On and on.

WH: Now for the part everyone wants to hear about: how did you land an agent? Was your first book, The Garden Angel, finished at the time? How many agents did you approach before landing one?

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