ThomasLitchford

Writing.Life

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Entries from August 2006

More on My Recent Replies

August 31st, 2006 · No Comments

Someone in the comments section of the last post asked about the content of my rejection letters. Herewith Denise Shannon’s reply:
[Handwritten] Dear Thomas Litchford, [End Handwritten]
Thank you for your recent query to the Denise Shannon Literary Agency. Unfortunately, we do not feel your project is right for us, but we wish you the best of [...]

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Tags: Agents

“No Thank You” Times Three Plus One Lousy Mail Carrier

August 31st, 2006 · 2 Comments

I knew this day would come. It just took a little while longer than I initially thought, and there’s a good story about that if you read on.
Elyse Cheney, Carol Mann, and Denise Shannon all sent rejections, and I got them all on the same day. ‘Hmm, that’s odd,’ you might be thinking. Here’s why:
Yesterday [...]

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Tags: Agents · The Mysteries of Everyday Life

Author Photos

August 29th, 2006 · No Comments

What is it with this obsession with author photos?
Writers are a jealous bunch, but one of the things that gets them riled up the most is an attractive, successful author.

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Tags: Other

Writers and Editors

August 26th, 2006 · No Comments

My last post may seem a bit harsh. After all, as NY Times book critic Janet Maslin points out, while Calamity Physics starts out on shakey ground, she gets her story into the clouds and dazzles the reader well enough. And the reader eventually gets over some of her more obnoxious writerly tics, like ending [...]

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Tags: Publishing · Writing

Where Are the Editors?

August 24th, 2006 · 2 Comments

If this is what passes for good writing:
Perhaps the June Bug understood Dad had felt that way about all the others, but armed with three decades’ worth of Ladies Home Journal editorials, an expertise in such publications as Getting Him to the Altar (Trask, 1990) and The Chill Factor: How Not to Give a Damn [...]

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Tags: Publishing · Writing

Speaking of Glass Books and Dream Eaters

August 24th, 2006 · No Comments

Mr. Dahlquist received $2 million for his efforts. No wonder there’s such a marketing push behind the book. Here’s the story.

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Tags: Books · Publishing · The Decline of Western Culture

Weak Sales at Borders, Barnes and Noble

August 24th, 2006 · No Comments

According to a story over at the great Publishers’ Marketplace, Borders and other mega book retailers have seen a big drop in sales this quarter. What do they blame it on?
Not just the absence of Harry Potter, but the lack of any meaningful hardcover hits to move units and bring traffic to stores.
Apparently, no [...]

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Tags: Books

TP from Lulu

August 20th, 2006 · No Comments

An innovative, if somewhat obnoxious use for rejection letters.

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Tags: Other

More on Rejection

August 19th, 2006 · No Comments

Here’s an interesting post over at Making Light about a somewhat pathetic, somewhat hilarious site about rejection.
The basic gist is that authors tend to take every rejection personally while most agents and publishers are just trying to do business.

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Tags: Publishing · Writing

The Wisdom of Broadcasting My Rejection

August 19th, 2006 · 2 Comments

I’ve seen other bloggers write about the submission process, and I’ve even seen bloggers post copies of the rejection letters. It’s entertaining.
But one has to ask: is it wise to do so?
Miss Snark advises against it. Suppose I query an agent, and she Googles me and finds the blog (which just recently started to show [...]

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Tags: Agents