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.
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 …
Ms. Marly Russoff replied with a nice ‘We are not accepting new fiction submissions at this time.’ I’m revising my policy on not writing about agent responses. I don’t imagine agents are googling every submission they receive. (That’s right: I’m unilaterally lower-casing the verb form of ‘Google.’) Seven rejections really is not very many. What …
Here’s the hook I sent in for Miss Snark’s Crap-o-Meter. It’s number 492 on the list, so it’ll probably be Thurs. or Fri. when she gets to it, at the earliest. I’ll post a link. The day after Mark Roth graduates from the University of Washington he reads about the murder of his mother in …
Miss Snark is doing another Crap-o-Meter. This one will evaluate a writer’s ‘hook,’ which, presumably, is the meat of a query. The max. word count is 250, and she’s given us a twelve hour window to get our e-mail to her. The examples she gives all sound like book jacket copy, so I’m going to …
I sent out a couple more e-queries last night. I did so while watching Triumph of the Will, which infer from that what you will. (That film is one everyone should eventually see. Especially if you’re a Starwars buff — absolutely if, like me, Empire is your series favorite.)
David Louis Edelman blogs about his promotional efforts for his book Infoquake. It’s an interesting look at how much of the publishing/marketing machine now depends on authors having a ‘do-it-yourself’ attitude. (Some agents suggest authors pay freelance editors prior to submission.) (Via Galley Cat)
