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How Did I Not Know This?
Apr. 10th, 2006 12:22 amAn agent I admire gave a talk at a meeting of a local science fiction and fantasy society. I don't have a natural talent for stalking people, but from time to time I remember, hey, didn't I intend to stalk that guy? So I drove an hour north, checked out the local organization, and learned a bunch of stuff I'm chagrined at not already having known about agents and their assumptions. I have the odd impression that I'm the only person in the Northern Hemisphere who didn't already know it.
( Read more... )
As annoyed as I am at my own ignorance, it's good to have a new plan. Once the current short story is fit to mail out to magazines, I go back to the big book to fix the second half of the ms. No more waiting for feedback that will come whenever it comes. I can probably fix the big defects in two months. It's not likely that anyone really wants to see a 300,000 word first novel, but then, it wasn't likely that the Shiny Young Agent would ask to see it, and that happened. If that unlikely event repeats itself in June, I don't want to have to say--again--that the ms will need several months of revision before I can send it out.
There are now two agents who have said to me, quite explicitly, that they do not rule projects out on the basis of length alone. Even if it's 300K? No, not even then. When I have something query-worthy, there are people to query.
( Read more... )
As annoyed as I am at my own ignorance, it's good to have a new plan. Once the current short story is fit to mail out to magazines, I go back to the big book to fix the second half of the ms. No more waiting for feedback that will come whenever it comes. I can probably fix the big defects in two months. It's not likely that anyone really wants to see a 300,000 word first novel, but then, it wasn't likely that the Shiny Young Agent would ask to see it, and that happened. If that unlikely event repeats itself in June, I don't want to have to say--again--that the ms will need several months of revision before I can send it out.
There are now two agents who have said to me, quite explicitly, that they do not rule projects out on the basis of length alone. Even if it's 300K? No, not even then. When I have something query-worthy, there are people to query.
