Oh where does the time go? Is it Thursday already?
This has been quite a busy week in my pay-the-rent job, which goes a long way toward explaining why the blog is a little slim this week — and shifted one day to the right, as they say in business speak. (At least in English, they say this. I wonder if Arab businessmen postpone events ilá yasár or “to the left” …)
Enough chitterchat. On to the publishing links!
As one of my regular agent blog reads once stated, lack of a query response is the same as a form rejection. So, as I absorb this advice and rack up my next round of queries, let’s check out some more good advice from our favorite literary agents.
Yes, I scour the best literary agent blogs for goodies so you don’t have to! You can thank me by clickerating that RSS feed button. Gently! It’s made of pixels.
Jessica at BookEnds explains why bad queries are great news for good query writers, lets us in on her query pet peeves, gives us some idea of the business rhythm at BookEnds, and tells us to go ahead and send a thank-you note after a rejection. And, no, she will not rep your 2000-page book.
Over at Dystel & Goderich, Miriam discusses the good and bad of Facebook, Stacey offers some sobering advice about picking a genre (and more!), Jessica navigates the fine line between too much and not enough info in a query letter, Lauren confesses her unrepentant bibliophilia (“teetering piles” of books? me too!), and Jane tells us what negotiating looks like.
Janet Reid clarifies when she does and does not want to hear from you, Jennifer Jackson explains that your query may have been eaten by the grue (and also explains a li’l something about genre), and Kristin Nelson answers boatloads of reader questions. “How many boatloads?” you ask, noting anxiously that there was no hyperlink in that last clause. One, two, three boatloads!
Finally, Nathan Bransford tells us how to write and format a query. He also picks Moby-Dick as his “desert island book,” winning instant kudos from yours truly. Although a giant pop-up book on sailing with a styrofoam dust sleeve might be a wiser choice…
[Also: how do I decide what to bold in these link lists? Well, if there’s a site or firm name, I bold that. Otherwise I bold the blog writer’s name.]
