Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Yet Another Clarification, This One Less Hilarious

You make it sound like you should leave this information out and just use a new query.

"Oh, THIS guy again."

I mean, give writer's a little credit--they are trying to improve, you supposedly encouraged them to make changes--why the apparent disdain? I know you have to deal with a lot of loser wanna-be's out there, but this type of comment/thinking is the kind of thing that makes agents appear bloodless, unless, of course, they "fall in LOVE" with your manuscript$$$. Some of us are not clowns. We take suggestions from agents and work hard to improve our manuscripts.

Again, clarification. It's our knee-jerk reaction based on years of experience. It does not necessarily refer to your novel. Most of the novels that are resubmitted with editing do not have significant changes in them, and/or the changes we were looking for. Sometimes the author just deletes a scene and adds a crazy sister or something. But we don't know that, so we read the re-submitted work, but it usually ends up being the case.

If your novel has improved to the point of being publishable, we will take it on.

3 comments:

none said...

You mean you wanted TWO crazy sisters? Dagnabbit.

Kimber Li said...

Dang.

Anonymous said...

I want to hear the unabridged version of you in your own voice. This raw honesty online is a treat, like becoming a fly on the wall inside the enemy camp. ;)

When I read: "ugh, this guy again", I cringed-- an emotional knee-jerk response. Excellent, because I don't want to be him. Ever. The honest stuff always makes a bigger impression, same as fiction.

I called a crit partner long distance the other day and told her I felt good about the publishing process for the first time, because all the voodoo fear/paranoia about what actually goes in is being weeded out with first-hand information. Priceless.

Ms Snark makes me laugh whenever she mentions, 'they're not trying to trick you, or 'try doing what they ask'. It's simple, isn't it?

Please don't second guess your way of calling it as you see it. Thanks.