One of the more frustrating aspects of rejection is having to start all over again. Once again I’m straining to seduce agents and agents’ assistants. I’m sending out another six queries. Two of them are e-queries (more on that in a minute), and the rest are snail mail. I have a few more agencies I’m …
Well, Agent H_______ wrote back to say she wasn’t ‘connecting’ with Lithium. But she also said the writing is ‘strong,’ and she hopes I’ll keep her in mind for the future. Reading is incredibly subjective, so I’m not surprised that the first agent to read the full MS didn’t connect with it. I am disappointed …
And I am absolutely sick of revising Lithium, which I’ve just finished doing, again. That makes something like five revisions to the complete text. It takes me about four days to read and revise the book if I can spend a couple hours a day on it. The occasion for this final look was Agent …
Agent H__________ responded and asked for an exclusive look at the complete MS for Lithium. This, of course, is very promising. Let’s hope she enjoys the complete manuscript as much as she enjoyed the sample chapters I sent.
Spook Country comes out in August. I almost hate knowing about new releases this far out. I almost went nuts waiting for new books by Thomas Pynchon and Martin Amis last year.
William Gibson is one of favorites. Here’s an article on Japanese culture. He wrote it a couple years before Pattern Recognition came out. If you’ve read the book, you’ll spot the London-Tokyo connection developing here: I’ve always felt that London is somehow the best place from which to observe Tokyo, perhaps because the British appreciation …
Is this true in American subways? Here’s an article about what people are reading in the Tube in London and other UK trains. I’ve seen readers on trains in Boston and DC, but I don’t recall seeing too many books in NYC. Correct me if I’m wrong. Books, like clothes, music (should a bit of …
One of the agents I queried in December has asked for sample pages, a short chapter from each of the three parts of the novel. I’m trying to retain a realistic perspective, but I’m also obviously excited. This is the first response I’ve received that was not a form letter rejection. At the very least …
Obviously I’ve brazenly stomped into the world of online self-publishing. I haven’t given up on traditional publishing–in fact, I have news, but that’s a different post. This is really just an experiment. No one has done any hard statistical research on the subject, but some writers, like Cory Doctorow believe giving their work away leads …
