Robin Crew's free time was found murdered this past Monday, September 27th. Although details are still sketchy, apparently its killer pulled its arms off and threw them over there before pulling its legs off and throwing them over that way. The head is still unaccounted for. The brutal nature of the crime has really shaken up the small town in which he lives.
"His free time was always so quiet and friendly, you know?" said a neighbor who wishes to remain anonymous. "I just never saw this coming."
At the time of writing, police have no leads
Today's quick tip- if an agent or editor tells you something could be good and they'd be interested in seeing it again after you've adressed A, B and C, they don't mean next week. What they mean is six months. Maybe more, maybe less. Either way, don't do a couple of tweaks and send it again three days later. Not unless you're already under contract and working on a strict deadline. If you're just pitching a book the first time, give it a serious bout of editing. When you're ready to re-submit, just mention in one sentence that we'd seen it before, that way if it goes through someone different, it'll make its way back to the reader who expressed interest. Besides, you might've been turned down not just to polish your manuscript a bit more, you may have been turned down because we can't handle more of your kind of book at the moment. Plus, it's a busy industry. We're going to slowly lose interest in your project if you just keep popping out new versions every week. There simply isn't the time to deal with authors like that.
I think your free time murderer is a serial killer.
ReplyDeleteFrom an author's stand point... we are so eager to please we forget sometimes to be patient. Panic sets in when we get a request for revision and we go after the manuscript in a fury. It's not sane, but it happens.
Also, sometimes agents can be inpatient. For instance, I queried an agent in August, an agent who stated their response time for queries was 4 weeks. The next day we left on vacation. Three days later I got a request for a full (unbenknownst to me since I was on vacation). When I got home 10 days later, I had 4 messages from said agent in my inbox wondering why I hadn't sent the full! I emailed back and explained and then sent the full, but geesh! Patience! I felt like I was already on bad footing since they perceived I was ignoring their emails. ;)
ReplyDelete*impatient*
ReplyDeleteAll good points. Agents can only do so much, and some might act unprofessional themselves. Which is something to consider when looking for representation. Would you want to work with them? And if the answer is no, should you sign anyway and look to change later once you've sold a book or two?
ReplyDeleteThat would be a hard situation to be in. I think most writers, when faced with that situation, would really have a hard time passing up an offer of representation, especially if the agent had a good reputation otherwise. But, even if you think you could find a different agent later,you are still going to have a long term connection with that agent if he/she sells a book for you. What if THAT is the book that just takes off and sells millions of copies? You'd be dealing with that agent for the entire lifespan of that book. I don't know what the right answer is. I think finding an agent you click with is really important, and if someone seems unprofessional, or otherwise bizarre in behavior it would be kind of scary to enter into a contractual agreement with them.
ReplyDelete