Thursday, February 02, 2006

Agent Angst

If you are or even if you are not on the Brangelina Uterus Watch Team, read this. No really, just read it. It might be the funniest thing ever. No, I actually think it is. The funniest thing ever.

So, we watched Battlestar last night. What the heck was that? Anyone? I don't know either. I rarely walk away from a program saying I have no idea what any of that meant but that? Was a train wreck in slow motion with flashbacks. I shudder even now.
You ever stand at the edge and don't jump? I find myself doing this lately a lot. I've never been a no jump girl, I'm frequently noted for jumping then checking to see if there are any available landing spots. And these aren't mondo jumps. Not really.
The book thing I suppose is a little larger. I mean once you send something to an agent then it's OUT THERE and you can never make it be NOT OUT THERE. And if the agent (or every agent) says it sucks and don't contact them again what do you do? Do you know that there is one of those unwritten but people who know what they are doing do it rules that says that if you submit something and it is turned down you can never submit it to that house again under that name? Do you know if you send a number of bad submissions in you eventually get blacklisted by that person? So you give up? Every J.K. Rowling, every Sherrilyn Kenyon, every Nora Roberts has a box full of rejection slips I know. So you should be persistent, I know.
I've been researching a lot of agents. I'd like to find one with a good house that is young and hungry. You know, the perfect agent. I thought I was really onto something the other day when I discovered an agent at Trident (an agency with kick ass clients) who goes to a lot of conferences which says to me that she's looking for someone fresh and new. I did a lot of research which eventually led me to her website (her very very own) on which she stated that first she is no longer taking unsolicited manuscripts. I actually thought that was weird since she is an agent and thereby the very nature of her job would suggest that they be unsolicited but maybe that's why she goes to all those conferences. Anyway, then she gave out this whole huge list of stuff that you should have done before submitting any manuscript to anyone. Like have a bunch of articles published, give workshops, etc. This sort of thing makes me think I should just shuffle my work off to some unknown agent who may know someone who may know an editor. I have a friend who got a good book deal through an agent whose web site features a lot of pictures of her wearing polyester and bad hair and talks a lot about her church. But the agent thing is that you will have that person in your life FOREVER. It's like having a child with someone. They are entitled to your royalties on that book for eternity. But then I just think, well, my B list will be there. Why not send it off to the really really big guys first? It's sort of like playing the lottery. You spend your buck, you get your ticket. You don't expect to win and if you don't then it's just a dollar gone but if you do... So if I send it out to the big five and get rejected then I never thought they would mess with me anyway so that doesn't seem such a big deal. Onthe other hand, getting shot down by the B list would. So maybe I will send a query off to Nora Robert's agent (The Writer's House).
Goal du Jour-> Finish screwing with query letter. I did mess around with my first chapter the other day until I do believe I am done. Well, you are never done but I may be satisfied. Well, you're never satisfied...

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