Thanksgiving might be next week, but TKA is already feasting on an abundance of exciting news. As October came to an end, Gena Showalter hit bestseller gold with co-author and best bud Kresley Cole for their joint project, DEEP KISS OF WINTER, which debuted at #16 on the New York Times (NYT) bestseller list. Last week, Nalini Singh's BLAZE OF MEMORY debuted at #8 on the NYT mass market bestseller list, and Rachel Caine's FADE OUT premiered at #7 on the childrens' list. Both books are a product of two successful series, Nalini's Psy-Changeling novels and Rachel's Morganville Vampires. Also, one of our most beloved books, 90 MINUTES IN HEAVEN, by Don Piper and Cecil Murphey, celebrated it's third year atop the NYT list. To top off TKA's stellar month, we're thrilled to have rock star author Shannon K. Butcher as the featured author in The Knight Post.

We are so grateful to have these amazing authors as clients, but they are just a few of the many stars in our sky. In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, we'd like to thank all of the authors that light up our literary family, and even those who we have yet to meet as they toil away mending the errant split infinitive or sewing up a plot hole. We commend all of you and wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday!

Shannon K. Butcher is the author of THE SENTINEL WARS series, which premiered with BURNING ALIVE last May. Her second book in the series, FINDING THE LOST, hit bookstores this month. She's also known for her romantic suspense novels, NO REGRETS, NO CONTROL, NO ESCAPE, and the recently relased, LOVE YOU TO DEATH. Once an engineer, Shannon approaches all of her novels like a complicated puzzle waiting to be solved. She resides in Independence, Missouri with her husband, New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher.

TKA: Give us the elevator pitch for FINDING THE LOST, Book 2 in THE SENTINEL WARS series. Short and sweet – what’s it about?

SHANNON: Andra finds lost children taken by the evil monsters who destroyed her family years ago. She doesn’t know she’s special, but Paul, a Theronai warrior, does. He needs her to survive--to channel the magic that’s killing him--but she’s not sure she wants to have anything to do with the hot, tattooed, sword-wielding stranger, not matter how much she’s drawn to him.

TKA: What inspired you to write THE SENTINEL WARS series?

SHANNON: Tons of stuff. I pull a lot of inspiration from tabletop role-playing games, books, movies, music. Mostly, I wanted to create a world that had a specific emotional landscape--a place that made me feel the way I did when I read my favorite books. TSW is my attempt to do this.

TKA: Why did you decide to make the switch from writing romantic suspense (NO REGRETS, NO CONTROL and NO ESCAPE) to paranormal? Will you continue to write romantic suspense?

SHANNON: I wouldn’t call it a switch. I’m still writing suspense and plan to continue to do so. However, I grew up reading sci-fi/fantasy so paranormal romance wasn’t a big leap for me. I’m a big ol’ nerd at heart, so this kind of thing is right up my geeky alley.

TKA: How do you apply your previous career as an industrial engineer to the way you approach tackling a writing project?

SHANNON: Engineering taught me how to take things or systems apart, figure out how they work, and put them together in a better, more efficient way. That skill is tremendously helpful when it comes to writing stories. I analyze everything I read or watch for structure, like how did that movie manage to scare me when the others didn’t? Why did that book make me cry? It helped me take discrete pieces of different story structures and put them together in a new way that will hopefully evoke the emotional response I’m looking for.

TKA: What methods do you use to research your novels (ex. online, travel, shadowing, etc.)?

SHANNON: I research almost exclusively online. It’s just too convenient and efficient not to. I also use the experiences I’ve already had, and am always looking for opportunities to do cool, new things. This year, I’m hoping to do the Writer’s Police Academy, which looks like a ton of fun.

TKA: From your experience, what are some of the conventions that have the most potential career impact for paranormal writers? How has attending conventions of this type affected your career?

SHANNON: Dragon*Con is huge, as are the Comic Cons in New York and San Diego. But what I’ve found is that a lot of sci-fi conventions are realizing that paranormal romance is growing, and they are creating tracts specifically for it. The nice thing about the smaller conventions is that you can really connect with fans. It’s much easier to have a conversation when there are a few hundred people in one location, rather than tens of thousands. One of the neatest things about conventions in general is that a lot of people would come to a panel because they were interested in the topic, but would leave interested in my work. If not for these conventions, a lot of people wouldn’t even know I exist.

TKA: What up next for THE SENTINEL WARS series?

SHANNON: I just finished book 4, tentatively titled LIVING NIGHTMARE. Book 3, RUNNING SCARED, is out in May 2010. I have stories for several more books and I hope to get to write them all!

Join Shannon in TKA's chat room this Thursday, November 19th at 9pm ET. As the successful author of both paranormal and romantic suspense novels, she has plenty of advice to share on writing and publishing and can't wait to dish about what's next in THE SENTINEL WARS series. That should be enough to make you carve out an hour on your calendars, but just in case -- we can't neglect to mention the trivia and prizes. Hope to see you there!

When: Thursday, November 19th @ 9pm ET
Where: TKA's chat room*: http://client1.sigmachat.com/sc.php?id=115545
How To Chat: Enter any combination of username and password. Login.
*Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.

Query Etiquette

Usually when we think of etiquette, visions of place settings with four different kinds of forks and linen napkins pop into our heads, but writers need to be well-versed in another kind of etiquette that has nothing to do with formal dinners (though you might argue it indicates something about their social graces). As the official gatekeeper of The Knight Agency’s submissions box, I can tell you I’m certainly the right person to write this article. In fact, just call me the Emily Post of publishing (a title I’m sure any experienced agent can claim).

At TKA, we receive an average of forty queries per day, and I read every single one of them. Consequently, I've encountered thousands of queries ranging from amazing to just plain ugly. First and foremost, what a writer should keep in mind is that their query letter is essentially a resume for both their project and themselves as an author. Professionalism is key.

Hopefully a few of the suggestions I've highlighted below will help in getting your query noticed and receiving a timely response.

---Follow instructions. Our guidelines are detailed on our website. We clearly state what we are looking for in a query and how it should be submitted. Now, breaking any of the rules is considered a total faux pas, but I’d have to say sending your 5000-page manuscript via Mr. Postman is at the top. Besides electronic submission being one of our number one rules -- it’s good for your pocketbook and it’s good for the environment. Why not save a tree and the aggravation?

---State the title and word count of your finished project—please know that we do not review incomplete projects unless you are a previously published author. Note the genre and give us a brief synopsis of a few paragraphs. Remember the query is intended to wet the agent’s appetite, not induce a plot coma.

-- Show off a bit! Provide a short bio of yourself including writing credits, organizations and other relevant information. However, remember to keep the query businesslike. Although you may have wonderful things to say about your family life, this is not the place to share them.

---Provide us with contact information and your full name. You’d be surprised at the number of writers who don’t even note their own first name in their query letter. I simply hate writing back "Dear Author" and I'm sure you would cringe to see that as well.

--- Ack, a Trojan Horse!!! Okay, maybe you aren’t channeling your inner Angelina Jolie in Hackers, circa 1995 – but how am I supposed to know that!? Your email might be sandwiched between correspondence from Dr. Lovejoy’s Viagra Shack and a mysterious Turkish businessman looking for someone to invest in his crackpot multi-million dollar business idea. So do yourself a favor, and don’t include attachments.

Truth be told , attaching the actual query or sample chapters presents a very good chance that your query will get caught in our spam filter. Should it get through our security, we won’t open it for fear of the aforementioned Trojan Horse, or his host of disease-laden friends. We will reply to these emails asking that the writer resubmit without attachments, but it makes response time so much quicker if the query is submitted properly from the first. Also, send the email without “cute” fonts or colorful backgrounds --my eyes are already strained...please don't add to my ophthalmologist bill.

--- Dear Ms. Jeglinski-Knight-Spencer-Diver-Tempest-Harty. Ummm…there’s no one here by that name. Submit one query at a time, to one agent at a time. If you don’t know which agent you’d like to submit to, then simply address your query to me and I’ll get it to the appropriate agent as I am fully aware of what each agent is currently looking for.

---Follow up in a timely manner. The average turnaround time for queries is two to three weeks. If, after a month you have not received word back on your query, do send a follow up email including the original email so that we can check our records and respond accordingly. Sorry, there's no skipping the line, but you will receive a reply.

---Always maintain a professional attitude, especially if you receive disappointing news. The publishing world is really quite small and you don’t want to garner any type of negative reputation. As my good friend Ms. Post notes, “Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.” So strive for your best, be kind and, undoubtedly, success will follow.

Carol Berg's THE SPRIT LENS received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. The reviewer noted, "Berg shapes the well-worn elements of epic fantasy into a lush, absorbing narrative."

Co-author of THE OTHER SIDE: A TEEN'S GUIDE TO GHOST HUNTING AND THE PARANORMAL, Dave Schrader was interviewed by the popular Lori & Julia radio show on 107.1 FM in Minnesota and Showcase Minnesota, a lifestyle show airing on KARE 11. Marley Gibson and Patrick Burns also co-authored THE OTHER SIDE.

NOTEWORTHY TIDBITS:

--- NaNoWriMo kicked off its tenth year of challenging writers to produce a 150,000 word manuscript during the month of November. Both published and unpublished authors alike are keeping track of their work count via NaNoWriMo's site. TKA client Michele Lang is competing this year and says, "The amount of pages you get doesn’t matter – I probably won’t have a whole book at the end of the month. But it’s fun to ride that huge wave of positive writing energy." Michele is a contributing author in the MAMMOTH BOOK OF TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE (December 2009), and the author of the upcoming 2010 release LADY LAZURUS.

On her blog agent Nephele Tempest notes, "I think it's a fabulous thing and I admire all the people who devote their month to crazily typing..." but she warns newbie writers, especially, to "Get it all down, whatever flows through your head," but by no means is a NaNoWriMo ready to pack up and submit to an agent.

We advise you to rewrite, polish, rewrite. And then polish some more. *wink*

---The deadline to enter RWA'S Golden Heart is November 16, 2009; the RITA entry deadline is December 1, 2009. For more information, visit www.rwanational.org/cs/contests_and_awards.

QUESTION: In a recent article on MediaBistro’s GalleyCat blog, the headline read, “Literary Agents, bah! Who needs them?” The article basically asked if literary agents were in danger of going the way of the dinosaur in light of increased electronic publishing opportunities and DIY printing. In response, what do you think are some of the most vital and irreplaceable tasks an agent undertakes to support their clients’ careers?

DEIDRE KNIGHT: Agents provide myriad services ranging from marketing advice, hand-holding and editing (I routinely go through 3 rounds of reading and feedback before making a submission) to shopping foreign rights in each international market and working to place film and audio rights. Not to mention, if an author is dropped by a publisher, has a terrible cover, or

encounters any other problem, the agent is there and in the author's corner.

A good agent invests untold amounts of time in making sure their client is a success, which cannot in any way be compared to the limited services a lawyer would provide in the contract phase.

LUCIENNE DIVER: I think that the agent/author/publisher triumvirate is the most powerful business model we have in publishing. Does it need updating? Yes. A complete overhaul? No. As long as there are companies that want to publish books or distribute artwork or hire actors and other artists there will be a need for agents to represent them in negotiations. The very nature of negotiations are that there are two sides, both trying to get the best deal they can for themselves. Without an advocate skilled in negotiations with precedents of advantageous language, reservation of rights, higher advances, royalty rates, etc. authors are left with what they can negotiate on their own without the clout of years of experience in the industry and a star-studded client list. Also, without the network of subagents to exploit subsidiary rights they reserve to themselves. If an author has to worry about learning the ins and outs of contract language and law, the likes and dislikes of all the various editors, the go-to people for royalty information, acceptance payments, publicity, etc., what time does that leave them to write?

NEPHELE TEMPEST: Agents are not going away, any more than brick-and-mortar publishing houses are going away. Yes, it’s a new option for writers to upload their manuscripts directly to Amazon, but this is just another version of self-publication. Those authors still need to find an audience. Otherwise they’re one more title in a sea of titles. For some, that’s sufficient—to be able to say their work is available for purchase. But the majority of writers are still going to want a deal with a traditional publisher, and most traditional publishers still expect authors to go through an agent. Never mind the myriad of tasks we perform after the book is sold, including selling foreign rights, arguing over cover art, tracking down payments and author copies, and policing royalty statements. Agents don’t just sell books, they help to build careers. They may not be the only route, but they are hardly superfluous.