I am collecting all of your questions, but things have been crazy between NaNoWriMo, school, and work. I also would like you all to know that I am currently in the same boat as many of my readers - I am awaiting a response from a publishing company about the three chapters I sent in. Contacts within the industry only get you so far. Now my writing has to stand on its own like everyone else's. I feel your pain.
Today a query came in for a diet book. This would hardly be exceptional if not for the total idiocy of the writers. After jabbering on for three paragraphs about how much weight this husband and wife had lost (not mentioning how long it took them to lose it - it could be years for all I know), they finally got down to the actual amazing plan: "DECREASE YOUR CALORIE INTAKE AND YOU WILL LOSE WEIGHT."
...Wow. What a revelation.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Monday, November 13, 2006
One of those rare posts where I talk about myself
A couple people have emailed me about a reference I made to 6-MP, an immunosuppressive drug commonly used for various chronic illnesses involving a hyperactive immune system. Since Yahoo mail "lost" two weeks worth of stored mail and a number of those emails, I'll answer it here.
I have Crohn's Disease (link NWS). It's one of the reasons I live in New York - all of the best doctors are here and my case is rather complicated. It's also why I don't work full time, aside from also being in grad school full time - I'm always rearranging my work schedule around procedures and emergency appointments, and my boss is incredibly understanding about it.
Someone else with Crohn's asked me why there isn't more books about it. After all, we get plenty of submissions every week from cancer survivors, or friends of people who died of cancer, or crazy doctors who think they've found a cure to every disease and it's apparently eating dirt.
The answer is probably that Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and the rest of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease family are all pretty gross to discuss in any detail. While I'm not ashamed to say I have the disease and describe the symptons to anyone who actually really wants to know, most people who have it do not come forward, because it's embarassing. And even if/when people do write about it, it probably wouldn't sell to people who don't have the disease or relatives who have it. Anything exceedingly well written will sell, but very few things are exceedingly well written, and it's even more important if the text is a sensitive topic. I've seen very few narratives, fiction or non, about waste management. (Except by environmentalists) I've never seen a protagonist who had a job cleaning septic tanks. The closest I've ever seen to that is Lore from Slow River working in a water filtration plant. It's not that the topics are "off limits" - nothing is - but they're not palatable, so they won't sell to a large audience.
I have Crohn's Disease (link NWS). It's one of the reasons I live in New York - all of the best doctors are here and my case is rather complicated. It's also why I don't work full time, aside from also being in grad school full time - I'm always rearranging my work schedule around procedures and emergency appointments, and my boss is incredibly understanding about it.
Someone else with Crohn's asked me why there isn't more books about it. After all, we get plenty of submissions every week from cancer survivors, or friends of people who died of cancer, or crazy doctors who think they've found a cure to every disease and it's apparently eating dirt.
The answer is probably that Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, and the rest of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease family are all pretty gross to discuss in any detail. While I'm not ashamed to say I have the disease and describe the symptons to anyone who actually really wants to know, most people who have it do not come forward, because it's embarassing. And even if/when people do write about it, it probably wouldn't sell to people who don't have the disease or relatives who have it. Anything exceedingly well written will sell, but very few things are exceedingly well written, and it's even more important if the text is a sensitive topic. I've seen very few narratives, fiction or non, about waste management. (Except by environmentalists) I've never seen a protagonist who had a job cleaning septic tanks. The closest I've ever seen to that is Lore from Slow River working in a water filtration plant. It's not that the topics are "off limits" - nothing is - but they're not palatable, so they won't sell to a large audience.
Mysterious Questions from an Agent
Dear Rejecter,
I queried an agent who emailed me asking two
questions: 1)if the book had been workshopped with any
writers' groups and 2) if any publishers had seen the
book.
Why do you think the agent would be interested,
especially in the writers' groups?
The answer to the second question is obvious. He/she wants to know if you have been rejected by any or all of the big five companies, which would be a serious reason for the agent not to take on the manuscript.
The answer to the first question is not so obvious. The agent might be implying that the book needs to be edited, but I don't know why the agent wouldn't have come out and said "You need an editor." Writer's groups are a mixed bag, and I don't know an agent who would send a client to one. What the agent is probably doing is fishing for big names - if you did a workshop with a famous author or attended Clarion or whatnot. But that's just a guess.
I queried an agent who emailed me asking two
questions: 1)if the book had been workshopped with any
writers' groups and 2) if any publishers had seen the
book.
Why do you think the agent would be interested,
especially in the writers' groups?
The answer to the second question is obvious. He/she wants to know if you have been rejected by any or all of the big five companies, which would be a serious reason for the agent not to take on the manuscript.
The answer to the first question is not so obvious. The agent might be implying that the book needs to be edited, but I don't know why the agent wouldn't have come out and said "You need an editor." Writer's groups are a mixed bag, and I don't know an agent who would send a client to one. What the agent is probably doing is fishing for big names - if you did a workshop with a famous author or attended Clarion or whatnot. But that's just a guess.
Creating a Synopsis
I have finished my first novel and am embarking on the
terrifying process of trying to find an agent. I have
been researching how to write a good synopsis.
However, nowhere have I found an answer to my
question: should my synopsis narrate events in
chronological order? Or should it narrate events in
the order in which they occur in the novel? The two
are not the same, in my case. The story takes place
over a span of 60 years, and is told through
alternating points of view, so a chapter set in 1949
might follow upon a chapter set in 2005.
That's a tough call. I don't pay particular attention to a synopsis unless I have to, but I know a lot of agents and assistants do. I would say .... it depends on how often you flip back and forth, because you don't want to be writing "Meanwhile, in the future" all that often. I wrote a manuscript with two parallel storylines - one involving a news reporter in 1996 and one involving his brother in the year 2016, and honestly, I would probably be stumped on a synopsis, and then eventually end up just writing it the way it appears in the book. There's not a hard and fast answer to this question that I know of. You may want to check with some other agent's blogs.
terrifying process of trying to find an agent. I have
been researching how to write a good synopsis.
However, nowhere have I found an answer to my
question: should my synopsis narrate events in
chronological order? Or should it narrate events in
the order in which they occur in the novel? The two
are not the same, in my case. The story takes place
over a span of 60 years, and is told through
alternating points of view, so a chapter set in 1949
might follow upon a chapter set in 2005.
That's a tough call. I don't pay particular attention to a synopsis unless I have to, but I know a lot of agents and assistants do. I would say .... it depends on how often you flip back and forth, because you don't want to be writing "Meanwhile, in the future" all that often. I wrote a manuscript with two parallel storylines - one involving a news reporter in 1996 and one involving his brother in the year 2016, and honestly, I would probably be stumped on a synopsis, and then eventually end up just writing it the way it appears in the book. There's not a hard and fast answer to this question that I know of. You may want to check with some other agent's blogs.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Editors, Editors, Editors
Rejecter - one tiny defense here --last week at Backspace tghe agents told us the LIKED when we hired an editor because implied that the MS might be cleaner than if we hadn't, meaning less work for YOU. And also, they liked that we had invested our own moolah in our work. I know nothing of which editor or the quality of the work presented -- just sharing some info that was bandied about last week in NY. Perhaps the writer was at Backspace? Was YOUR boss there?????
My boss was not there, but many reputable agents were from the looks of the webpage. I can only guess what they were referring to in terms of editors, but I would assume they mean reputable editors and no people like Edit Ink. I suggest you ask on Kristin Nelson's blog, as she was at the conference.
EDIT: There was a change and she was not present. Don't bother her about the conference.
My boss was not there, but many reputable agents were from the looks of the webpage. I can only guess what they were referring to in terms of editors, but I would assume they mean reputable editors and no people like Edit Ink. I suggest you ask on Kristin Nelson's blog, as she was at the conference.
EDIT: There was a change and she was not present. Don't bother her about the conference.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
The First Five Pages
Dear Rejector,
Agent Query says, "Do NOT include sample chapters of your novel with your query UNLESS an agent's submission guidelines specifically SAY to include sample pages with your snail mail query. If you really feel compelled to show an agent your writing style along with your query letter, include only the first 5 pages of your novel." I'm not trying to just provoke a battle of experts here, but what do you (or most agents) think of that? If you were to recieve five pages with a query, would you read them? Ignore them? Shred the whole package and send it back in the SASE?
This will vary from agency to agency, but in general, the 5 pages will either be ignored (if the query is so bad that we don't get that far) or actually read, depending on who's reading it. I'm paid by the hour, and I'm an insanely fast reader, so I'll read the pages. A very, very busy agent with no assistant might not, but 5 pages in manuscript format is really not a lot of text.
On the other hand, if I say, "Yeah, go ahead and send five pages," everyone who reads this will start doing it, and then it'll become a nuisance, which is why AgentQuery says that. So I answered your question, but I'm not going to take a hard line and tell everyone to send 5 pages or not. In general, listen to what the agency says they want. If they don't specify, just send a query.
Agent Query says, "Do NOT include sample chapters of your novel with your query UNLESS an agent's submission guidelines specifically SAY to include sample pages with your snail mail query. If you really feel compelled to show an agent your writing style along with your query letter, include only the first 5 pages of your novel." I'm not trying to just provoke a battle of experts here, but what do you (or most agents) think of that? If you were to recieve five pages with a query, would you read them? Ignore them? Shred the whole package and send it back in the SASE?
This will vary from agency to agency, but in general, the 5 pages will either be ignored (if the query is so bad that we don't get that far) or actually read, depending on who's reading it. I'm paid by the hour, and I'm an insanely fast reader, so I'll read the pages. A very, very busy agent with no assistant might not, but 5 pages in manuscript format is really not a lot of text.
On the other hand, if I say, "Yeah, go ahead and send five pages," everyone who reads this will start doing it, and then it'll become a nuisance, which is why AgentQuery says that. So I answered your question, but I'm not going to take a hard line and tell everyone to send 5 pages or not. In general, listen to what the agency says they want. If they don't specify, just send a query.
New York Or Bust
Here is my question: I see a lot of uproar about how much an agent’s
location really matters. What I’d like to know is how much a writer’s
location matters to the agents. For example, if a writer is located
outside
the big publishing countries such as USA and England.
It’s most likely a silly question, so feel free to be snarky if you
answer it. ;)
It's actually a not a silly question at all. What was silly was my original post, which skimmed your email a little too quickly and I answered the wrong question. Gack, Nanowrimo!
The answer is: No. We do not care if you live on the Upper West Side or in Tehran.
location really matters. What I’d like to know is how much a writer’s
location matters to the agents. For example, if a writer is located
outside
the big publishing countries such as USA and England.
It’s most likely a silly question, so feel free to be snarky if you
answer it. ;)
It's actually a not a silly question at all. What was silly was my original post, which skimmed your email a little too quickly and I answered the wrong question. Gack, Nanowrimo!
The answer is: No. We do not care if you live on the Upper West Side or in Tehran.
The "Holding Pen"
Dear Ms. Rejecter,
What are some of the reasons your boss might sit on a manuscript (not an exclusive) she likes after six months or more instead of offering representation right away? Miss Snark recently blogged about having a potential client in a “holding pen” for a year. As the assistant, how are you instructed to manage that type of situation given that you are probably being asked to read any requested revisions and the potential client is probably contacting you or the agent for updates?
I don't particularly know what Miss Snark is referring to by a "holding pen," but in general, agents give responses as soon as they have made a decision. We're not interested in putting people in suspense unnecessarily - that's cruel and they're in suspense enough just waiting for the mail delivery. The "six months or more" wait generally refers to a wait for the manuscript to actually be read and decided upon, or just decided upon. Sometimes the agent says, "I need to read it again" and then some emergency with a client comes up and she gets distracted for a while. I can't think of a time when I have ever seen a boss actually decide to offer presentation and then not do so in the next three minutes, maybe 5 if she got a busy signal on the first call.
What are some of the reasons your boss might sit on a manuscript (not an exclusive) she likes after six months or more instead of offering representation right away? Miss Snark recently blogged about having a potential client in a “holding pen” for a year. As the assistant, how are you instructed to manage that type of situation given that you are probably being asked to read any requested revisions and the potential client is probably contacting you or the agent for updates?
I don't particularly know what Miss Snark is referring to by a "holding pen," but in general, agents give responses as soon as they have made a decision. We're not interested in putting people in suspense unnecessarily - that's cruel and they're in suspense enough just waiting for the mail delivery. The "six months or more" wait generally refers to a wait for the manuscript to actually be read and decided upon, or just decided upon. Sometimes the agent says, "I need to read it again" and then some emergency with a client comes up and she gets distracted for a while. I can't think of a time when I have ever seen a boss actually decide to offer presentation and then not do so in the next three minutes, maybe 5 if she got a busy signal on the first call.
Why are we STILL on the subject of gift baskets?
Just curious: If the "Gift" basket/certificate is sent to the agent as a thank you, is the agent supposed to send a thank-you for the thank-you?
A quick email acknowledging that it arrived is more than adequate if you ask me.
But you didn't, did you . . . ask me?
I would assume the same rules apply here that apply in any real life gift basket situation - you send a thank you if you feel like it or feel you should. My dad, who is a skin cancer surgeon, often does work pro-bono for needy patients or friends, so he regularly gets gift baskets. I don't know if he sends thank yous, but I've never seen him do it. On the other hand, if someone sent me a large gift basket for my birthday, I might send a thank you note. Who knows?
A quick email acknowledging that it arrived is more than adequate if you ask me.
But you didn't, did you . . . ask me?
I would assume the same rules apply here that apply in any real life gift basket situation - you send a thank you if you feel like it or feel you should. My dad, who is a skin cancer surgeon, often does work pro-bono for needy patients or friends, so he regularly gets gift baskets. I don't know if he sends thank yous, but I've never seen him do it. On the other hand, if someone sent me a large gift basket for my birthday, I might send a thank you note. Who knows?
Saturday, November 04, 2006
.......What?
Apparently my last post was accidentally cross-posted in some alternate universe in which people are born without the mass of brain known for processing "rationality" and instead just have a giant impulse center that forces them to hit "Leave Your Comment" on every website they see.
Allow me to repost:
Question: "When your boss makes a sale, does expect her client to send her a gift?" [In other words, is the agent/client relationship a tipping situation?]
Answer: No, it is not a tipping situation. Gifts are not necessary. If you feel compelled to give one, it will be appreciated, but try not to send bulky or perishable items that will take up space in the office and/or go bad if the agent happens to be on vacation. Do not send food, as you don't know if the agent is vegetarian, vegan, kosher, halal, allergic to peanuts, allergic to gluten, diabetic, on TPN (intravenous feeding), or is fasting while sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment.
I hope this clears everything up.
(P.S. If your agent is sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment, he/she may be doing that for a while and you should probably seek literary representation elsewhere.)
Allow me to repost:
Question: "When your boss makes a sale, does expect her client to send her a gift?" [In other words, is the agent/client relationship a tipping situation?]
Answer: No, it is not a tipping situation. Gifts are not necessary. If you feel compelled to give one, it will be appreciated, but try not to send bulky or perishable items that will take up space in the office and/or go bad if the agent happens to be on vacation. Do not send food, as you don't know if the agent is vegetarian, vegan, kosher, halal, allergic to peanuts, allergic to gluten, diabetic, on TPN (intravenous feeding), or is fasting while sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment.
I hope this clears everything up.
(P.S. If your agent is sitting under a Bodhi tree to attain Enlightenment, he/she may be doing that for a while and you should probably seek literary representation elsewhere.)
Friday, November 03, 2006
The Giving of Gifts
When your boss makes a sale, does expect her client to send her a gift? Flowers, perhaps? A bottle of champagne? Something more expensive if it was a big sale?
No. We expect our fifteen percent. Actually we take it, because the publisher writes us a check and then we cut a smaller check to send to the author. It's part of the author/agent relationship and it's written into the publishing contract under the agency clause.
Gifts are actually sort of annoying. A lot usually come in at Christmas time, from authors on our client list who haven't written anything for a while and from publishing houses. This is a problem when they are gift baskets that contain fruit or something else that expires, because very often, the agent isn't in the office on Dember 24-25 and so the package might sit on the desk until January 2nd. Once I went in on December 23rd or so to handle the mail while my old boss was away, and I called her up because we'd gotten this huge gift package from some offer that contained a lot of different types of fruit and candy. She said, "Well, I'm not coming in to pick it up, so just take it home and eat it or whatever. Oh, and remember to tell me what it contained so I can write a thank you note." A lot of the items were unkosher and therefore went uneaten by me. Waste of money.
No. We expect our fifteen percent. Actually we take it, because the publisher writes us a check and then we cut a smaller check to send to the author. It's part of the author/agent relationship and it's written into the publishing contract under the agency clause.
Gifts are actually sort of annoying. A lot usually come in at Christmas time, from authors on our client list who haven't written anything for a while and from publishing houses. This is a problem when they are gift baskets that contain fruit or something else that expires, because very often, the agent isn't in the office on Dember 24-25 and so the package might sit on the desk until January 2nd. Once I went in on December 23rd or so to handle the mail while my old boss was away, and I called her up because we'd gotten this huge gift package from some offer that contained a lot of different types of fruit and candy. She said, "Well, I'm not coming in to pick it up, so just take it home and eat it or whatever. Oh, and remember to tell me what it contained so I can write a thank you note." A lot of the items were unkosher and therefore went uneaten by me. Waste of money.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
The Sad Scam of Professional Editors
Every once in a while a writer comes along that I feel sorry for, not because I'm crushing their hopes and dreams by mailing them a rejection, but because they've clearly got no clue what they're doing.
Today we got an unrequested full manuscript. This happens from time to time - usually the author tries to make it seem in the query like it was requested by being vague. (We hate that) Today the manuscript was an especially long piece of historical fiction, something like 150K. That's not totally unacceptable for historical fiction if it's a sweeping epic, by the way (Shogun must be well over 200K), but the poor guy mailed it unrequested, and it obviously cost him a fortune to do so - especially because he sent it priority from Canada.
Rubbing salt in his own wounds was his mention of using a "profesional editor" for his manuscript. There are professional editors out there who are actually professionals, and you don't know who they are. They're usually individuals who get contract work from agencies and publishing house editors who know them and are willing to shell out the money for their services. It's sort of an in-industry thing - we only contact a professional editor if we know them personally and know their track record.
He even included the recommendation letter from the editor, who was from some scam editing company in Canada. I know the pain of being tricked into "professional" editing companies. When I was sixteen, after a slew of rejections for my terrible novel, I shelled out about $600 of my Bat Mitzvah money to use the services of a company. I think it was Edit Inc. Anyway, I got the manuscript back and all they had done was change around some punctuation. They didn't mention the obvious problems with the novel, which I had written when I was thirteen and actually made very little sense because, well, I was thirteen.
These companies usually charge by the page (I think the rate I got was 5 cents a page) or by every hundred words, so this author shelled out big for the editing, which clearly did nothing for his manuscript. I'm particularly tough on historical fiction, because I have a BA in history and about half the books I read for fun are history books, and historical fiction is really a genre that requires a lot of research and if you make a mistake, I probably have enough expertise to catch it. Well, I didn't get more than three paragraphs in before the first mistake.
The story took place in Roman Britain and the main character was a rather foul-mouthed Briton. He was so foul-mouthed that he apparently had gone forward in time to learn new curse words that hadn't been invented yet. Shit is legitimately a word that predates the Norman invasion (1066), but it probably originated the Germanic tribes who fought against the Romans and didn't make it to the isle of Britain until the Anglo-Saxon invasion, when it was scitte. It didn't become schītte until Middle English developed after the Norman invasion. (Chaucer wrote in Middle English)
Fuck is another word that probably wasn't in the regular vocabulary of a first-century Briton. It also only has origins back to the Anglo-Saxons, when it was probably a different word, because by the Norman invasion it was still fuken. In other words, having the main character say, "What is the fucking problem?" denotes a serious problem - lack of research.
This guy should have spent the probably thousand bucks he dropped on editing and mailing around his huge manuscript on some history books instead.
Today we got an unrequested full manuscript. This happens from time to time - usually the author tries to make it seem in the query like it was requested by being vague. (We hate that) Today the manuscript was an especially long piece of historical fiction, something like 150K. That's not totally unacceptable for historical fiction if it's a sweeping epic, by the way (Shogun must be well over 200K), but the poor guy mailed it unrequested, and it obviously cost him a fortune to do so - especially because he sent it priority from Canada.
Rubbing salt in his own wounds was his mention of using a "profesional editor" for his manuscript. There are professional editors out there who are actually professionals, and you don't know who they are. They're usually individuals who get contract work from agencies and publishing house editors who know them and are willing to shell out the money for their services. It's sort of an in-industry thing - we only contact a professional editor if we know them personally and know their track record.
He even included the recommendation letter from the editor, who was from some scam editing company in Canada. I know the pain of being tricked into "professional" editing companies. When I was sixteen, after a slew of rejections for my terrible novel, I shelled out about $600 of my Bat Mitzvah money to use the services of a company. I think it was Edit Inc. Anyway, I got the manuscript back and all they had done was change around some punctuation. They didn't mention the obvious problems with the novel, which I had written when I was thirteen and actually made very little sense because, well, I was thirteen.
These companies usually charge by the page (I think the rate I got was 5 cents a page) or by every hundred words, so this author shelled out big for the editing, which clearly did nothing for his manuscript. I'm particularly tough on historical fiction, because I have a BA in history and about half the books I read for fun are history books, and historical fiction is really a genre that requires a lot of research and if you make a mistake, I probably have enough expertise to catch it. Well, I didn't get more than three paragraphs in before the first mistake.
The story took place in Roman Britain and the main character was a rather foul-mouthed Briton. He was so foul-mouthed that he apparently had gone forward in time to learn new curse words that hadn't been invented yet. Shit is legitimately a word that predates the Norman invasion (1066), but it probably originated the Germanic tribes who fought against the Romans and didn't make it to the isle of Britain until the Anglo-Saxon invasion, when it was scitte. It didn't become schītte until Middle English developed after the Norman invasion. (Chaucer wrote in Middle English)
Fuck is another word that probably wasn't in the regular vocabulary of a first-century Briton. It also only has origins back to the Anglo-Saxons, when it was probably a different word, because by the Norman invasion it was still fuken. In other words, having the main character say, "What is the fucking problem?" denotes a serious problem - lack of research.
This guy should have spent the probably thousand bucks he dropped on editing and mailing around his huge manuscript on some history books instead.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Living wage? Hahahahahahaha.
I'm interested in the publishing industry. I work for a small online publisher in the DC area but would like to be in the lit agency biz. That would mean, of course, doing some time in the trenches and doing that time in NYC. Like DC, New York isn't cheap. So, that leaves me wondering. What is the average salary for the entry-level agent? How much mac and cheese will I have to eat until moving up the ladder?
Standard pay for an assistant in NYC is $10/hour. Sub-agents make their money on commission, which is usually next-to-nothing when starting out. In other words, get ready to sell your plasma for cash if you want to stay financially afloat.
Me? I'm in grad school full time, so I'm supported by my parents, to be perfectly honest. My job at the agency is really more about gaining enough experience to get a full-time job at a publishing house once I graduate, where I'll get a salary plus maybe health and dental.
Standard pay for an assistant in NYC is $10/hour. Sub-agents make their money on commission, which is usually next-to-nothing when starting out. In other words, get ready to sell your plasma for cash if you want to stay financially afloat.
Me? I'm in grad school full time, so I'm supported by my parents, to be perfectly honest. My job at the agency is really more about gaining enough experience to get a full-time job at a publishing house once I graduate, where I'll get a salary plus maybe health and dental.
The Next Great Literary Genius and How I Hate Him
There's one local fanboy who fancies himself a Big Time SF/Fantasy/Horror Author. (He doesn't want to write -- too much like work -- he wants to Have Written.) All he sends out are "Proposals", never the finished stuff.
His latest "proposals" (besides the puff piece on himself he put in Wikipedia/Wikifur) are movie scripts -- to hear him motormouth at parties, he's Now A Major Playa (TM) In Hollywood (TM).
Rejecter, have you had to deal with the likes of him?
I don't know who this person is that you're referring to specifically, but there's certainly at least a dozen of them at every major gathering of unpublished writers (known as a Sci-fi Convention). I've met these people at cons, which I now avoid assiduously for that reason.
His latest "proposals" (besides the puff piece on himself he put in Wikipedia/Wikifur) are movie scripts -- to hear him motormouth at parties, he's Now A Major Playa (TM) In Hollywood (TM).
Rejecter, have you had to deal with the likes of him?
I don't know who this person is that you're referring to specifically, but there's certainly at least a dozen of them at every major gathering of unpublished writers (known as a Sci-fi Convention). I've met these people at cons, which I now avoid assiduously for that reason.
Me and My Boss
How often do read a partial and LOVE it, request the full and love that too, but end up not offering representation because your boss didn't like it as much as you did? I know every case is different, but what's a ballpark figure. 1 in 2? 1 in 5? 4 out of 5? Rarely, because you and your boss are mostly on the same page?
I have no idea what the figures would be if I was actually requesting partials and fulls myself, because I don't do that. The boss does that.
Either way, it's irrelevant. My job is not to find material that I like but material that is good and my boss would like. We have different literary tastes, but my tastes are my business and I leave them at the door. My job is to find material for her. There are some books on her list I don't care for at all. They're either not my genre (I don't care for autobiographies of courageous women escaping Iran, having read enough of them to last a lifetime) or my interest (my boss promotes a lot of political books and I have different views than her on certain things). We do have shared interests, but for the most part, the major crossover between us is being able to recognize quality writing.
I have no idea what the figures would be if I was actually requesting partials and fulls myself, because I don't do that. The boss does that.
Either way, it's irrelevant. My job is not to find material that I like but material that is good and my boss would like. We have different literary tastes, but my tastes are my business and I leave them at the door. My job is to find material for her. There are some books on her list I don't care for at all. They're either not my genre (I don't care for autobiographies of courageous women escaping Iran, having read enough of them to last a lifetime) or my interest (my boss promotes a lot of political books and I have different views than her on certain things). We do have shared interests, but for the most part, the major crossover between us is being able to recognize quality writing.
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$$$. Some of us are not clowns. We take suggestions from agents and work hard to improve our manuscripts.
Again, clarification. It's our knee-jerk reaction based on years of experience. It does not necessarily refer to your novel. Most of the novels that are resubmitted with editing do not have significant changes in them, and/or the changes we were looking for. Sometimes the author just deletes a scene and adds a crazy sister or something. But we don't know that, so we read the re-submitted work, but it usually ends up being the case.
If your novel has improved to the point of being publishable, we will take it on.
"Oh, THIS guy again."
I mean, give writer's a little credit--they are trying to improve, you supposedly encouraged them to make changes--why the apparent disdain? I know you have to deal with a lot of loser wanna-be's out there, but this type of comment/thinking is the kind of thing that makes agents appear bloodless, unless, of course, they "fall in LOVE" with your manuscript$$$. 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.
Introducing Characters in a Query
Is it a good idea to introduce the main characters before giving the short synopsis in a query letter?
For example: “Sara, is nine feet tall, terrified of spiders and in love with a bald teenager etc…….”
If this is a bad idea, what is the best way to introduce main characters in a 250 word query?
This is a very bad idea. You are not required to introduce main characters at all, unless they are part of your novel description. In fact, listing characters and telling us unnecessary information about them is a terrible idea and a real turn-of. Don't do it. The characters mentioned in your introduction are enough.
The tendency to put character's names in bold is based on the old screenplay-writing standard where when a new character appears, their name is all in caps. This does not apply to prose.
For example: “Sara, is nine feet tall, terrified of spiders and in love with a bald teenager etc…….”
If this is a bad idea, what is the best way to introduce main characters in a 250 word query?
This is a very bad idea. You are not required to introduce main characters at all, unless they are part of your novel description. In fact, listing characters and telling us unnecessary information about them is a terrible idea and a real turn-of. Don't do it. The characters mentioned in your introduction are enough.
The tendency to put character's names in bold is based on the old screenplay-writing standard where when a new character appears, their name is all in caps. This does not apply to prose.
This is the month in which I have no life
Once again, Rejector is embarking on the insanity known as National Novel Writing Month. For that reason, I may get a little behind on answering questions, or may miss a question that's embedded in an anonymous post. If you really want me to answer, email me.
Now, back to work.
Okay, I'll bite. When you write a query letter and leave the typos & other errors out, what are you basically looking for beyond the hook?
Good writing. Maybe some publishing credits. That's it.
Now, back to work.
Okay, I'll bite. When you write a query letter and leave the typos & other errors out, what are you basically looking for beyond the hook?
Good writing. Maybe some publishing credits. That's it.
Monday, October 30, 2006
How to Get Your Word Count
How do you count words? MS Word? Or something that will better equate to number of pages (for example, an average of words/per page of full pages multiplied by the number of pages)?
I find the difference in the two methods changes my wordcount by over 5,000 words.
I'm not sure why this is such an issue for everyone, but I've been flooded with emails about this. This is how to calculate word count:
1. Click on "Tools"
2. Click on "Word Count."
The old method of assuming there were 250 words on a double-spaced page and then multiplying that by the number of pages is a method that was used when we didn't have programs that did the counting for us, and we had to have some way to do it without actually counting all the words.
To be honest, we don't care about the exact count. (We certainly don't care about it in the hundreds and double-digit numbers) We care within a range of about 5 thousand words, which would be a couple printed pages. Don't lie, but 95k is not a big difference to us than 92K or 90K. Just use a word counter, round to a hundred (don't list the last two digits), and submit.
I find the difference in the two methods changes my wordcount by over 5,000 words.
I'm not sure why this is such an issue for everyone, but I've been flooded with emails about this. This is how to calculate word count:
1. Click on "Tools"
2. Click on "Word Count."
The old method of assuming there were 250 words on a double-spaced page and then multiplying that by the number of pages is a method that was used when we didn't have programs that did the counting for us, and we had to have some way to do it without actually counting all the words.
To be honest, we don't care about the exact count. (We certainly don't care about it in the hundreds and double-digit numbers) We care within a range of about 5 thousand words, which would be a couple printed pages. Don't lie, but 95k is not a big difference to us than 92K or 90K. Just use a word counter, round to a hundred (don't list the last two digits), and submit.
Chapter Length
I've got a question and since you've been talking about word count... I thought this fit in nicely. Is there a particular word count guideline for chapters? Does chapter length matter - either to agents, or to publishers (that half page for new chapter might take up space and add up to extra pages)...
I've seen some 300 word novels with 25 chapters and some with maybe on 19... People certainly say, "well, your chapter should be long enough to be interesting, carry the story, and end on a hook of some kind or be a logical break with point-of-view"... but that doesn't really tell you much... So, I'm curious if agents or agent assistance ever discuss chapter lengths.
We never discuss chapter length unless we've taken the author on as a client and we feel the manuscript needs revision in terms of structure and pacing.
Chapter length does not matter except in how they make the story flow.
We never discuss chapter length unless we've taken the author on as a client and we feel the manuscript needs revision in terms of structure and pacing.
Chapter length does not matter except in how they make the story flow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)