STATUS: Amazed. It’s snowing in Denver. AGAIN. This is the 8th snowstorm in a 7-week timeframe. 3-5 inches predicated and it’s snowing like crazy at the moment. I should have a Snow Patrol song on the iPod for today instead!
What’s playing on the iPod right now? COUNTING BLUE CARS by Dishwalla
Michael Bourret at D&G has a terrific little essay on Judith Regan and about what publishing is missing without her—for good or for bad.
For full disclosure, I only interacted with Judith once. She was attentive and courteous. She didn’t end up buying my book (I sold it elsewhere) but I had no complaints. From her reputation, I must have caught her on a good day. Big smile here.
Gawker takes a nice poke at deals posted on Deal Lunch via Publishers Marketplace. A little sly commentary on what sells.
The Man in Black is hosting one wacky contest by making entrants create a contest so wacky as to win an ARC of his debut thriller THE MARK.
And I just discovered another agent who has joined our blogging ranks. Lori Perkins is the Agent In The Middle. She’s been expounding on marketing so if you’re interested, you might want to check it out.
It’s snowing here in the Springs again as well!
Oh dear GOD will it ever STOP!
WOW!!! Thank you sooo much for the link to Lori Perkin’s blog. That’s some of the best marketing info I’ve ever read, and I’ve read a lot about marketing.
Word Ver: myequomr
What’s an equomr? And why do I have one?
It’s amazing what sells, and what DOESN’T sell.
*whispers* I hope you’ll forgive me, but my chronic OCD insists I mention that the song title is actually “Counting Blue Cars”.
*wanders back off to lurk some more*
It’s always snowing in the Springs. Blech.
On marketing, for oneself, how does one accomplish such marketing feats when one lives in a shit burg like Colorado Springs? Seriously, this place is such a wasteland that I am coming to hate it (and the snow ain’t helping, either).
I begin to long for the lands of my birth, the east coast, where cities are closer and not everyone is a tech employee, an angry ex-military type or a frigging bible banging arch conservative christian. You know, where there’s interesting stuff to do and no fag-bashers to poopoo it.
Since you’re posting links of interest, I’d be thrilled if you’d stop by my blog to read about the collection Dreams and Desires. It’s full of established romance authors and up-and-coming authors who have joined forces for a special cause.
I am in a quandary, and once more it is agent-inspired. I’m not sure if it was Ms. Nelson who was the perpetrator of this little gem– maybe she was, either within the confines of this blog or at a conference I attended.
“If you re-query an agent you have queried before, change the title and the letter… agents have very long memories.”
I was just revving up a new batch of queries (no complaints here; it’s part of the game, after all) when I noticed from my logs that I am re-querying one agent, with the same title I used several months ago. I decided to send the letter anyway, as she never dignified the last with a rejection.
However—- it seems to me that saying an agent would remember something they rejected out of hand (without looking at a manuscript or sample pages) is pure bullshit, and a neat way of cutting down on repeat letters from the Great Unwashed. Every agent brags about receiving 30,000 query letters a year, and I don’t care how smart they claim to be; if they rejected something in the thirty seconds they put aside to read a couple paragraphs (or their assistants did), they are not going to remember one title from that number.
This just seems like a nice way to keep the in box a little lighter.
Judy Regan is a snake, and has screwed more people over than most people can count; his essay/post makes him sound like an amateur and he should have kept his mouth shut.
Anonymous 2:01–
The “don’t requery unless the title and query is different” rule only applies if you got a response. If your story idea and/or pages have already been rejected, it’s rude to query the agent with them again–it suggests you didn’t believe them the first time. Unless the book has changed enough that your description of it in the query is also different, in which case you can think of it as being an entirely different book.
But if you haven’t received a response, most agents who’ve talked about it say that you should feel free to requery (unless it’s an agent who explicitly states that they never reply to rejections). Your first query may have gotten lost in the mail/cyberspace. So what you’re thinking of doing isn’t breaking any of the “rules” anyway. 🙂
Is it just me, or are there a hell of a lot of typos in Lori Perkins’ blog posts?
Lori Perkins is an idiot, and probably only borderline literate. And yes, I know she’s been in the business for twenty years, but just because you do something for a long time doesn’t mean you’re great at it. Dig her client list; many porn stars and pop culture types. Selling celebrity books is like falling out of bed after too many cocktails.