Blog Archive
-
An Agent’s Dilemma
Aug 07, 2007
While traveling recently I brought along a full manuscript submission to read. I had already read the first three chapters and was thrilled. It was a thriller with a unique and different hook. The characters were well drawn and likable and the writing was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t have been more excited. In fact, I […]
View More -
Agents as Authors
Aug 06, 2007
I love your blog but see that you and other agents also write books. How does that happen and why? I think that you have the right to also be authors but what happens when you have an author who is as qualified as you to write a book, a publisher is looking for an […]
View More -
Stalking Agents
Aug 03, 2007
Would it be ok to say something like “I’ve been studying your career for a few years and I am very impressed”? Or will I sound like a stalker? There are a few agents I’d love to work with because I’ve seen what they’ve been selling and how their authors have grown professionally. I watch […]
View More -
Where I’ll be in 5/10 Years
Aug 02, 2007
A challenge was made and I fully intend to meet it. In yesterday’s comments I was asked where I see myself in five years and again in 10 years. Ironically I was asked this same question during an RWA pitch appointment. An author met with me not to pitch something (I’d already seen work from […]
View More -
Why Offer Exclusives?
Aug 02, 2007
Why do authors offer up exclusives when they aren’t even asked? This has happened to us on more than one occasion and I’ll never understand it. An author queries us and we reply that the project sounds interesting, please send along a partial. To which we hear, “I’ve promised that I will only send material […]
View More -
Parting Ways, the Aftermath
Aug 01, 2007
Yesterday’s post on Jennifer Crusie’s post about being fired by her agent elicited some interesting comments from all of you. The biggest question though seems to be what happens next. Do I think Ms. Crusie received hundreds of emails and phone calls from agents trying to woo her and what do agents do to distinguish […]
View More -
Addressing an Agent
Aug 01, 2007
How does one address an agent in a query? Dear Jessica? Dear Jessica Faust? Dear Ms. Faust? Such a little thing to obsess over, I know, but since I rarely query/submit to people I haven’t met at conferences or other places, it feels odd to call them “Ms. So-and-so.” I guess it depends on the […]
View More -
Parting Ways
Jul 31, 2007
I was directed this morning to Jennifer Crusie’s post on her crazy hectic life and most importantly, and shockingly, her firing by her agent. Now I make that sound much more harsh than Jennifer did. And the reason I’m writing about her post is that I was awed and amazed by the poise both Jennifer […]
View More -
Feeling Like a Puppy Dog
Jul 31, 2007
One agent requested my full, offered suggestions for revisions which I completed in a week and a half, and then proceeded to sit on it for a year. Two follow-up emails were ignored, but the third was acknowledged by the assistant. A year later, I had the opportunity to meet her during an RWA chapter […]
View More -
A Day in the Life… and James Frey (again)
Jul 30, 2007
Maybe it’s a sign. Just before giving this one last look I accidentally hit quit and lost the entire post. Luckily it’s been saved, but it makes me wonder whether I should just skip it for today. Anyway, I’ll brave it out since I have been wanting to do a day in the life post […]
View More -
Looking for an Agent . . . with Contract in Hand
Jul 30, 2007
Every once in a while it happens. Actually, it happens a lot. A publisher gets in touch with you directly, either through contests, conference pitch appointments, or work you’ve written in a literary journal, and asks to see your work. Of course you submit it, why wouldn’t you? Why would you possibly turn down a […]
View More -
BookEnds Talks to Elizabeth Amber
Jul 27, 2007
Elizabeth AmberNicholas, The Lords of Satyr (first book in a trilogy)Publisher: Kensington AphrodisiaPub date: July 2007Agent: Jessica Faust (Click to Buy) An art historian, Elizabeth Amber has spent many months in Italy and Greece researching Etruscan and Greco-Roman art and visiting vineyards. Her studies of the cult of the wine god known as Bacchus or […]
View More