The Road to Representation

White List Update At Last!

2008-06-28T23:40:52Z

Nearly 3 dozen LJ's and feeds added and updated, plus a few dead journals deleted. I didn't realize it had been so long until I went to update today. Remind me not to take so long again, because, lordy, that took forever! ;)

The White List. Enjoy!

P.S. If anyone has news on archer904, please let me know?

White List Update

2008-04-25T13:25:14Z

Over 2 dozen new feeds and journals added to The White List this morning. Enjoy. (And let the comments with new updates commence! ;))

literaryagents @ 2008-03-09T10:39:00

2008-03-09T14:40:45Z

Quick question:

Do you double space a ten-page sample via email? That is, if the agency doesn't accept attachments and you have to copy/paste ten pages into the body of an email, is it okay to have it single spaced?

Thanks. (crossposted to yaandmgwriters)

The White List Updated

2008-03-03T14:22:17Z

The White List has been updated with over a dozen new author, agent, and other writing related LJ's and LJ feeds. A few other listings have been updated or removed.

Thanks to everyone who helps keep the list updated with new information, LJ's, and feeds. I really do appreciate it! :)

White List Updated

2008-01-26T16:43:49Z

It's a REALLY small update (I need to go through the feeds I've added recently and make sure to get them on the list), but an update nonetheless!

The White List

Has anyone heard from archer904 lately?

X-posting just about everywhere I can. ;)

White List Update

2007-11-04T16:58:27Z

Finally! A new White List update. Maybe a dozen (probably less, but about there) new feeds and communities added.

Next update probably won't be until 2008--things will be busy between now and then and both archer904 and I seem to be getting less to add to the list these days.

Anyway, enjoy!

Historical Fantasy vs. Historical

2007-10-04T16:52:33Z

I'm an on-again off-again fiction writer with a few pro credits--mainly SF and Fantasy. I'm itching to start a novel and am trying to decide if it would have a better chance of finding a publisher as a straight historical or as an historical fantasy.

Set in 1300s Ireland, it's the story of an orphaned Gaelic chieftain's daughter and a soldier of fortune who knows both the native Gaelic culture and the contiguous Norman-English society. Main ingredients: adventure, romance, political intrigue. Possible Fantasy elements: bardic lore, medieval mysticism and magic. The fantasy elements, if used, would be historically accurate and have "subtle" not brazen effects on events.

I'm right at the beginning and am equally drawn in both directions. I'd like to choose the road most likely to lead to a publishable work. All thoughts are welcome. Thanks.

(Cross posted to sfandf writers.)

White List Update

2007-08-25T16:00:14Z

The White List is now updated with new feeds, author info is updated, and the list has gone through a general clean up (dead links removed, users who changed user names moved to where they should be, and so on). As usual, something may have gotten messed up in the translation, so let me know of any errors.

Included on the list is an update for elandryn, a DII member with her first novel about to be published by Samhain! Congrats, lady! Told you it would be you first! ;)

Amazon Shorts

2007-07-10T13:16:49Z

Have you heard about Amazon Shorts? No, these are not items of gigantic clothing, but downloads of new fiction and non-fiction, of any genre. Shorts range from 2,000 to 10,000 words in length, and cost only $0.49 from Amazon.com.

They're a great way for people to sample work by authors who are perhaps unknown to them. And for the authors themselves, the project offers a constructive way to promote their writing to a new audience which is already familiar with the concept and process of buying books on-line, which is why I'm pleased to announce that my A Wirral Otherkin Trilogy is now available as a Short.

Have any of you purchased Shorts? What do you think of the idea?

Dilemma

2007-06-20T05:52:08Z

So I have an agent that has read my partial for St. Cochrane's World and he likes it, but would like some changes in the first 50-70 pages. This is great but my dilemma is do I do that now and drop Reunion Day until I'm finished, or press on with RD and then pick up SCW? RD has about 25k-35k of writing left to do, but SCW is already complete except for re-writes

Complicating things is the fact that I have about 3 weeks of summer vacation left until I have to go back to my day job and I'm trying to finish Reunion Day by the end of July to pitch at PNWC and Willamette Writer's Conference. So I am somewhat time-limited.

I think I know what the answer is, but I'd still love to hear your thoughts and advice.

Question about explicit content

2007-05-30T22:22:59Z

My writing parter and I are currently in the stages of editing our book and we seem to be running into one BIG problem. The book we have written has a lot of explicit content ... mostly surrounding one of the main characters and her childhood of rape. In one situation the words used could be viewed as very vulgar, but we feel that because of the horror of the rape certain words should be used to convey the feeling of the situation effectively. However, we don't want this viewed as vulgar and have it possibly hurt our chances of getting published.

So here's my question:

Should I sacrifice the mood of my chapter to tone down language or risk keeping the overall feel of the chapter with the possibility that it might turn off agents/publishers?

Thanks,

Kitty Burke

Question for Agents

2007-05-20T06:31:22Z

I'm one writer of a team of two and we are planning on querying our book in a few weeks but I have a few questions on how we would do that.

First, we are using a pen name, which I don't see very many authors do anymore, and I'd like to know how we would query that and add both of our names yet go by the same pen name?

Second, would this be a bad move for our career?

And finally, do you see many queries that include two authors working under one pen name?

White List Update

2007-05-06T18:10:34Z

The White List has been updated. This particular update does NOT include comments from archer904's copy of the list. I'll get those next time around.

Enjoy. :)

White List Update

2007-04-09T14:36:15Z

Over 30 writerly LJ reads & feeds added to The White List this morning. (You all certainly keep me busy!)

Enjoy!

Query?

2007-03-23T01:01:07Z

Hey guys... if you have a minute, I could use some feedback on this query :)
Thanks in advance!!!!

Dear Agent,

The students of Audley College, including freshman Drea Wood, are no strangers to the strange: doors open by themselves, keys and other shiny objects disappear daily, and wicked-sounding laughter echoes through open windows on cold winter nights. These are all just part of Audley’s charm – or are they?

After Drea meets Devon, an Audley senior who looks too good to be true, she’s not so sure anymore. Despite their instant attraction, her instincts tell her to run. But she can’t and before long, she finds out why – he’s anything but human. Devon introduces her to the dangerous world of fey that exists right beneath her feet, just on the other side of Audley’s iron gates, if only you know where to look. Just when she’s finally figuring out how to deal with having a faerie for a boyfriend, this alternate side of Audley erupts into a deadly game of political intrigue, and Drea turns out to be an unwitting player. Can she outwit Calla, a queen determined to keep her throne, outsmart Julien, a faerie whose greed is greater than his loyalty, and hang onto Devon, whose past – and future – are intertwined with her own?

Veiled, complete at 50,000 words, is a young-adult urban fantasy. I am an English and Political Science major at X University and an editorial assistant at XXX press.

I have included my contact information below in case you have any further questions. Thank you so much for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Sara (Add contact info)

White List Update

2007-03-16T13:28:23Z

15 new authors added to The White List, plus a few corrections made. Two things to note about this update:

1. The List has finally become to big for one post, so it is now split in two. The original White List post covers A-M. You can find The White List N-Z here. The two posts do link to each other.

2.Some very weird coding showed up somewhere between the last update and this one (I didn't do it, honest -- and not at all sure what LJ did to make the oddities show up). I've attempted to fix it, but an author or two may have accidentally been dropped off the list in the process. If you were on the list the last time you checked, please check again and make sure you are still listed. Please reply to the list (NOT HERE) for any corrections. Thanks.

If you aren't listed yet, just post a comment to the list to be added in the next update! :)

Enjoy!

E-mail query or no?

2007-03-06T15:23:23Z

This sounds like a basic newbie question but it's not. I'd like to query an agent I've corresponded with before. He represents another writer I know; my friend referred me. At the time, I was looking for representation for my third book, a novel. He ended up passing, but he had high praise for my work ("you have talent to burn" was my favorite sentence), and I ultimately sold the book... but I'm straying from the point. I'd like to query him again about another manuscript closer in nature to the one that he liked. His agency's website says not to query via e-mail, nor to query agents directly. However, we've been in contact before (about 3 years ago), there's the connection with one of his current clients, and he does (or did) like my work. I don't want to be presumptuous but I don't want to sell myself short, either. Do I e-mail him or do I send a letter? Thoughts?

agent question

2007-02-26T21:14:53Z

kirsten manges requested a full from me. exclusively. for a month. i know she's had sales, is a member of aar, yada yada yada. so my question is, is she well-established and powerful enough that i'd be lucky to sign with her? or should i not place all my hopes with her? any info you can share will be helpful. i am new to this agent-seeking business and want to make sure i'm not making any stupid mistakes. thanks for all imput.

White List Update

2007-02-23T18:37:24Z

23 new authors added to The White List. Any new additions or corrections will need to wait until after March 10th.

Enjoy.

synopsis

2007-02-23T10:39:36Z

I'm hoping it's ok to post this here. This is my second draft of a synopsis for the Novel i've just finished, and i fear that I most royally stink at this whole concise business, so I'd welcome any and all opinions on this.

also, any advice on exactly what I ought to put in the cover letter *puppy dog eyes* The story is a humourous one, or at least I hope it is, but i'm not sure where to mention that - does that come over in here?

Complete in 58,000 words, Madame Caravossa’s Inter-dimensional Dating Agency explores what happens to fictional characters whose authors aren’t currently torturing them. Do they really live happily ever after, or do they start new lives of their own devising? And what are the real facts about fiction?

Sam Mattock, a self-confessedly mediocre detective, realises that it’s very long time indeed since he heard anything from his author. He’s bored, he’s lonely, and he’s very worried by the fluidity of fictional time, so Sam sets out to discover the date, only to find the task impossible because no one on the world of fiction can answer his one simple question. Yet on his quest he falls in with the shadowy organisation known as the Brotherhood of the Pocketwatch. Run by the great detective Arthur Pyecroft, with the aid of an affable sidekick, an arch villain and the drunken bum who sleeps in Sam’s doorway, the Brotherhood has two main aims: the consumption of vast amounts of tea and crumpets, and the discovery of the one true date.

Yet the quest for one date leads Sam on another kind of date entirely; the Brotherhood has heard rumours that over in the Fairytale District Madame Caravossa of the Clocks - the infamous Happy Ever After responsible for the Sleeping Beauty affair - has started a dating agency to help certain princesses with something called the Biological Clock. The Brotherhood are quite convinced that this mysterious clock must be some kind of weapon, with which Caravossa intends to take over the world of fiction, and so they send Sam to infiltrate her agency.

After filling out a questionnaire which asks him what kind of charger he rides and how he would rate his dragon slaying abilities, Sam is sent forth on a series of dates. Unfortunately for Sam, the glamorous fairytale princesses he wines and dines are not all that they seem, and they certainly don’t come complete with bluebirds chirruping away on their shoulders. These are thirty-something, divorced and rather jaded princesses who’ve discovered that happy ever after isn’t all its cracked up to be: a Cinderella who rants about a Prince Not-So-Charming whose foot fetish rendered him impotent unless she wore glass slippers, a Snow White who invites him to a seven dwarf orgy complete with apple sauce, a Little Goose Girl who gooses him and then leaves a horses head in his bed when he refuses to put out, and a Frog Princess who embroils him in the nasty case of the Plot versus Mattock when Sam is accused of aiding and abetting her attempted frogicide.

After admitting to himself that he’s fallen for the one person he knows who isn’t allowed a happy ever after of her own, Sam finally finds the courage to ask the indomitable Madame Caravossa out to dinner. She helps him to realise that the aim of his quest is not the goal but the quest itself, because a character without a plot has no reason to exist. Although Sam finds himself no closer to unravelling the mysteries of the Biological Clock, he has begun to understand how to manipulate the plot to his own ends.

But then the plot turns on him like a badly trained werewolf.

Back at the agency Sam finds himself caught between new love and old friendships when the Brotherhood break into Caravossa’s office and all hell breaks loose. He finds out that sometimes, when you’re barely dressed and magically strapped to the desk of a bad tempered fairy godmother, you really have no choice but to tell the truth. He’s not the only one – one of the facts about fiction turns out to be that not everyone is as they seem; not Sam, not Caravossa, and certainly not the great Arthur Pyecroft. And sometimes, when you can’t have happy ever after, you just have to settle for a nice long ride into the sunset…

US Agents & International Authors

2007-02-19T13:55:09Z

Do US agents take on authors in other countries? I'm in UK and have submitted to some US agencies but the follow up has been slow and i'm worried about the international situation.

Any advice?

Market Finder Update

2007-02-11T17:25:02Z

10 new markets posted at market_finder with most of those either being podcast zines or from Sam's Dot Publishing. Several more markets have been posted at the MF Community Forums. While most were genre markets (particularly SFFH, with a Mystery market in the bunch as well), some were also Literary, so there was a nice spread.

Note that podcast markets often take standard submissions rather than audio submissions, so don't let the fact that a market is an audio zine deter you from submitting.

Hopefully the next update won't take me so long to get to or be so big. My apologies to those who flists were overwhelmed.

White List Update

2007-02-10T19:40:05Z

The White List updated today. There weren't as many to add as I thought, but there's still quite a few.

Enjoy

Holiday White List Update

2006-12-22T23:56:57Z

And a big one at that. You can find it here.

Happy holidays!

White List Update

2006-11-27T04:38:45Z

Spamming my way across LJ, so don't be surprised if you see this more than once! ;)

Finally, another White List Update! The White List is a listing of writers, editors, and other publishing professionals that have LiveJournals or LJ RSS feeds. Not all are pro, but all have one thing in common: a love of writing. You can find the White List here!

Have a great holiday season everyone!