No, now settle down. Sarah, put down that chair. Monkey, don't toss that coconut. This isn't the call for the WWE or Fight Club. It's merely a return to Sunday linkage. In other words, I'm doing my best to avoid editing this morning.
When I was a kid, we had a show on local TV on Sunday mornings where, in between cartoons, the host would read the Sunday comics. In honor of those long ago funnies, I give you this entry from Smart Bitches about things overheard at RWA this past week. I particularly love the fourth comment. Go take a look. (On a side note, I wrote earlier about how RWA was not going to have any panels on e-publishing. It seems they changed their minds at the last moment and added one panel. Of course, from what I've heard, they scheduled it for a room that was more than a little difficult to find. Still, I guess you could call it progress.)
The incomparable agent, Lucienne Diver, posted the link for Shelf Awareness, about the book trade and what professionals -- including librarians and booksellers -- are looking for. She calls the free newsletter "incredibly worthwhile" and recommends signing up for it.
KyleQ's comment to Sarah's post yesterday started me thinking about what we submit to agents and why it might be rejected. The Kill Zone has the following post by agent Anne Hawkins: "Why Good Agents Turn Down Good Books?" I recommend everyone looking for an agent read it.
Finally, there's agent Jennifer Jackson's comments this week concerning a response she received to a rejection. Not only did the author not understand why she turned him down, he went on to berate her for saying she was currently looking for new clients and yet she wouldn't read his book. Forget about the fact that he had submitted something she doesn't represent, but he relied on information not from her website, or from one of the more reputable agent referral sites. No, he referred to a site she'd never had any contact with. The moral of the story -- always check to see if an agent has an official website or blog. If not, check out Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write Water Cooler, etc. And never, ever email an agent back after a rejection to tell them how wrong their decision was. If you haven't figured it out yet, they have long memories and they talk to other agents.
So, what industry blogs do you follow? Any interesting stories this week?
Posts
13 comments:
I follow Sarah, Dr. Monkey, Jennifer Jackson, some freelance editors, Mike Kabongo...
You know, come to think of it, I read too many blogs.
Jason, I know what you mean. I had to delete the bookmarks for the blogs I follow from my "work" computer. Otherwise, it's too easy to surf the blogs than to try to pound out that scene that's giving me trouble.
Which editors do you follow, btw?
editrx on LJ (used to do a lot of work for Baen), Nephele Tempest (okay, she's an agent...), umm... hard to remember which of the 119 people I follow are agents, editors or authors.
I know there's a few editors in there...
Great links, Amanda.
I'm still discovering the big world of blogs. So I don't follow, so much as dip my toes when someone mentions something interesting.
Jason, thanks for mentioning editrx. I used to follow her blog and in one of the computer crashes lost the link.
Nephele is another of the ones I follow. In fact, along the lines of people emailing agents to berate them for not reading their books, she commented on it as well. So did Nathan Bransford. I wonder if there's something in the water, if the moon is at the wrong house or what is causing such foolish behavior.
I thought I followed a lot of sites but you have me beat. How do you have time to do anything else? [G]
Rowena, that's how I started out. Someone mentioned Miss Snark to me. I wandered over and was snared by her and Killer Yap. That started my downward spiral into the blogosphere.
Seriously, there are a number of good blogs out there, just as there as a number of bad ones. The problem becomes figuring out which are the good ones, the ones you can trust, and which are not. This is especially true for those who aren't that familiar with the publishing industry -- a point driven home to me just this afternoon at the library's writers group when a new member started talking about how she'd read that she should copyright her material before sending it to an agent, be ready to have her material stolen, etc.
Miss Snark is excellent. So is Evil Editor - which is a similar style but from an editor's point of view. I have to say evil editor isn't nearly as funny as Miss Snark.
I miss the crapometer and the snarkeriffic posts.
And who can forget Killer Yap, high heels, buckets of gin and an extremely strong desire for George Clooney ;-p
Amanda,
I have a set order of business in the morning. Shower, food, walk, then email, blogs, webcomics, then work.
Oh, and I say hi to the gf every once in awhile.
Jason, I'm glad to see you have your priorities set [VBG]. Actually, with the exception of the girlfriend bit, your morning order of business is pretty much the same as mine.
My problem is not checking the blogs and webcomics and new sites after that. That's why I took those bookmarks off the work computer.
I realised last night that I'm following almost 30 blogs now. Time to seriously cut back... I'm at work at the moment (no I'm not supposed to be working - it's my lunch break!) and can't remember all of them but they are a mix of writers (mostly Australian but a couple of others), agents (mostly based in America - Nathan Bransford, LD and NT from The Knight Agency and I couple of others) and then things like Query Shark, Agent Sydney, ROR, Orbit and the new Saving Aussie Books. Oh and there's this other one called Mad Genius Club - they all seem a little crazy but it's am amusing read :)
I'm going to have to start pruning my blog-watching down to what I can fit in in my lunch break.
We are a mad and crazy bunch, Kylie. Of course, I think that's sort of a requirement to be a writer. ;-p
As for paring down your list, I have a few I follow daily. Others I check on every couple of days and the rest I cull through during the weekends. And, while I miss Miss Snark, I do get a great deal of enjoyment out of the ladies who comprise the Smart Bitches. They are on my read daily or every other day list.
Hi Amanda - I've come across Smart Bitches before but have never really read it. Might have to take a look...
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