Blog Archive
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Two Dates to the Prom (follow-up)
Oct 22, 2010
Thanks to everyone who commented yesterday, especially the agents who popped in. Obviously this was an upsetting situation for everyone to read about. A lot of commenters suggested that publishing is a small world and that the mistake this author made could really be career damaging. I’m not so sure of that. there seems to […]
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Two Dates to the Prom
Oct 21, 2010
Hello! I have managed myself into a little predicament and I was advised to seek counsel from you. LOL. This is my situation: In January, I sent a partial Christian YA manuscript to an agent who reps strictly Christian material, and I mean it has to have a clear presentation of the gospel, strictly Christian, […]
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Is Nice in the Eye of the Beholder
Oct 20, 2010
I was reading a Tweet from a colleague in which she said she had recently sent a rejection to a friend of a relative and hoped it was nice. As I hope you know by now, when it comes to sending rejections, agents work really hard, maybe too hard, to be nice, but when it […]
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Reading Day
Oct 19, 2010
In response to a Tweet I made in which I said my day was going to be comprised of reading, among other things, someone Tweeted back with, “I’m a little jealous when you share you’re reading all day, (the MSs, not the contracts), tho I know it’s not always fun” Don’t I wish that my […]
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Working at a Snail’s Pace
Oct 18, 2010
I was editing a proposal for a client recently and thinking how much has changed in the fifteen years since I first started working in publishing Really I was thinking about how slow things used to be, and while I know many of you will say things are slow now, you should have been around […]
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A Little Help from Your Friends
Oct 17, 2010
This is a rare post from me, something I normally don’t do. But while huddled in the office on a Sunday afternoon this email came in from a friend and my first thought was, who better to help then my writing community. So thank you in advance for anyone who can contribute. Dear Friends and […]
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Is AutoReject an Urban Legend
Oct 14, 2010
There is a controversy ongoing on one of the query tracking services I frequent that you might be able to resolve. Some of the writers there are convinced that some agents sometimes utilize an ‘autoreject’ for queries. The thought is the agents may go to an autoreject when they are on vacation or are so […]
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Reading vs. Representing
Oct 13, 2010
As you know by now, I’ve been inundated with queries and recently spent a long morning going through and reading as many as I could get to. That being said, my goal lately is to keep the query inbox below 300 as much as possible. This is a lot harder than you would think. In […]
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The Great Prologue Debate
Oct 12, 2010
How do you feel about prologues? I’ve read arguments for and against them, but I’ve not seen the issue from an agent’s POV. I am leaning towards one for a novel I am starting, but if they are a current no-no in the publishing world, then I don’t want to sabotage myself immediately. You may […]
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Publishing Is a Career
Oct 11, 2010
how realistic is it to expect that after publishing i can leave the publishing world for a few years, ie. have no connection at all to what i have written, as if it never happened, and then to return after 3-4 years and continue writing? would you accept that and still take my second book? […]
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Subjective
Oct 07, 2010
I was Tweeting with an author recently when she said “I’m always surprised at how subjective this business is.” And my very first thought was “Aren’t you glad it is.” This was one of those lightbulb moments for me. We always discuss how subjective this business is and that even though something works for me […]
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A Publishing Tale
Oct 06, 2010
I can’t believe I almost forgot to tell this story! Two years ago, two and a half actually, we had an intern named Holly. Holly was (is, actually) smart, ambitious and loves publishing. We really enjoyed having Holly around. Even better for us, and hopefully for Holly, she was here at a perfect time. Near […]
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