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Avocado ([info]white_serpent) wrote in [info]otf_wank,
@ 2009-04-17 16:05:00


Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:authorwank, elitism, publishing, special snowflake syndrome

But why isn't your book selling?
It's all the fault of literary agents, who are single-handedly destroying literature everywhere!

Excerpt:

The substantial and nearly unassailable wall that separates you from us has been under construction for decades. You can find the names of its architects and gatekeepers on your telephone-callers list, and in your email in-box. They are the literary agents—that league of intellectual-property purveyors who bring you every new manuscript you ever see, those men and women who are so anxious to gain access to the caverns of treasure they believe you sit upon like some great golden goose that they would likely hack one another’s heads off were they not united by one self-serving mission: to ensure that quality fiction never hits your desk.

Just a tiny bit of entitlement, elitism, and self-delusion.

And some responses...


(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]agilebrit
2009-04-18 05:55 am UTC (link)
As someone who just finished her first novel and is having hell's own time getting paid for my first major short fiction sale (a giant middle finger to Washington Mutual, who couldn't find their asses with both hands and a flashlight, WTF, an international wire transfer should be CAKE to a friggin' BANK, no wonder Chase had to buy you out before you went bankrupt), I have this to say:

Get over yourself, princess. I've written a bunch of characters I love beyond all reason in this thing, and I'm probably going to have to throw it up on my LJ as a freebie with a tip jar because it doesn't fit neatly into genres. (Seriously, the urban fantasy people are going to say "you got science in my werewolf fiction," the SF people are going to say "you got werewolves in my SF," and the medical thriller people are going to be saying "What the shit is this???") Suck it up, write another book, and deal. More writing, less whining.

Also--fifty rejections? Is that all? She's not trying very hard.

(Reply to this)(Thread)


[info]greenling
2009-04-18 06:06 am UTC (link)
Werewolf!

I never see any good werewolf books. I know they exist, but they seem to be hiding from me. Good luck!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]agilebrit
2009-04-18 06:11 am UTC (link)
Well. *cough* Just because I love these characters doesn't mean I actually wrote them well (although I think I did). We'll see what some of those oh-so-evil agents think of the thing when it's ready to actually send out, I guess. A title would be good...

And Carrie Vaughn's "Kitty" series is fabulous, if you've not tried that. Also, Carrie is nice. :)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]spawn_of_kong
2009-04-18 07:02 pm UTC (link)
And Carrie Vaughn's "Kitty" series is fabulous, if you've not tried that. Also, Carrie is nice. :)

WORD.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]greenling
2009-04-19 08:46 am UTC (link)
The good luck applies at least as strongly to any future editing or rewriting process as it does to actual publishing. :3

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]agilebrit
2009-04-19 06:06 pm UTC (link)
*grins* Thanks. It's just about beaten into shape and almost ready to release into the wild, once I figure out my query thing. Which is a whole other skill set. I'm terrible at summarizing, which may be why I don't outline...

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]kaesa
2009-04-19 12:24 am UTC (link)
(Seriously, the urban fantasy people are going to say "you got science in my werewolf fiction," the SF people are going to say "you got werewolves in my SF," and the medical thriller people are going to be saying "What the shit is this???")
What about the urban fantasy SF people who love biology but can't get into thrillers due to the disturbing lack of werewolves? Do we have to go sit with the English majors and purple?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]agilebrit
2009-04-19 12:34 am UTC (link)
You can buy the book! Or read it on my website, assuming no one else wants to publish it. Eventually.

Also assuming I can actually come up with a title for the thing. This writing shit is hard, man.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]kaesa
2009-04-19 01:12 am UTC (link)
Also assuming I can actually come up with a title for the thing. This writing shit is hard, man.
Dude, tell me about it. You've spent months putting words in order and then, when you're finished, you have to do it again for the title? I should just be able to call my current thing "Lovecraft tries romantic comedy but decides it isn't his thing. Also, there's wizards." Titles suck.

More seriously, I hope the book gets published, because it actually does sound like something I'd like to read. So good luck.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]evilsqueakers
2009-04-19 02:11 am UTC (link)
I have trouble naming my essays. Don't get me started on trying to come up with one for fiction (original or fan).

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]kaesa, 2009-04-19 02:21 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]evilsqueakers, 2009-04-19 02:23 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]kaesa, 2009-04-19 06:37 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]evilsqueakers, 2009-04-19 06:49 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]platedlizard, 2009-04-19 02:38 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]kaesa, 2009-04-19 06:43 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyh2112, 2009-04-20 08:57 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]kaesa, 2009-04-20 09:44 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyh2112, 2009-04-20 09:58 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]kaesa, 2009-04-20 11:18 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]beckyh2112, 2009-04-20 11:28 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]agilebrit, 2009-04-19 06:11 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]notarose, 2009-04-19 07:12 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]kaesa, 2009-04-19 08:50 pm UTC

[info]negativecosine
2009-04-19 04:32 am UTC (link)
(This is why I'm trying to convince people to let me name other peoples' things in groovetastic ways. Apparently mostly corporations and whatnot go for that shit, especially when it can be explained with fancy linguistic terms, but, oy, I have dozens and dozens of names just sitting around waiting to be glued to something amazing...)

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]singe
2009-04-19 06:07 am UTC (link)
Also assuming I can actually come up with a title for the thing. This writing shit is hard, man.

Bah! If the 'Kitty' and the 'Gingersnaps' books can be about werewolves then you should have no problem naming your own werewolf novel. Call it 'Fuzzy Bunny' or 'Pretty Yellow Duckies' and you'll have it made.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]agilebrit, 2009-04-19 05:46 pm UTC

[info]eleutheria
2009-04-19 12:37 am UTC (link)
Werewolf... medical thriller? Count me in! That's one of my most enduring rants, the "why aren't there more fantasy/thriller or fantasy/mystery hybrids?" The closest I ever get are psychic FBI romances, and they're, well, romances.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]agilebrit
2009-04-19 12:55 am UTC (link)
Well, it didn't start out that way, and 90% of the medical stuff is me pulling things out of my ass (because, you know, what would make a vampire sick, and how would turning her into a werewolf via nanotech actually cure that?). And it didn't start out to be about the character it eventually ended up actually being about. Funny things happen when you don't outline.

I wish there was more werewolf fiction in general out there. Lots of vampires, vampires are sexy, I guess, but the only ongoing series I can think of with werewolves is Carrie Vaughn's. Woe.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]evilsqueakers
2009-04-19 02:15 am UTC (link)
Well, you have Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series. Granted the werewolves aren't in it all the time, but most of the series. Same with Patricia Briggs. But they're not very medically minded. You've got Eileen Wilks, too. The Lupi series.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]agilebrit, 2009-04-19 06:18 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]evilsqueakers, 2009-04-20 06:37 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]agilebrit, 2009-04-20 02:19 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]evilsqueakers, 2009-04-20 07:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]agilebrit, 2009-04-20 08:05 pm UTC

[info]ladylauren
2009-04-19 06:02 am UTC (link)
Keri Arthur's Riley Jenson series? Sure, Riley's half-werewolf half-vampire, but we hear a lot more about the werewolf side than the vamp side.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]vzg
2009-04-19 12:54 am UTC (link)
Werewolf sci-fi? Huh. I'd honestly have thought that would be the sort of thing publishers would eat up.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]agilebrit
2009-04-19 12:58 am UTC (link)
I am crossing my fingers that it's so. There's lots of werewolves and most of the science is probably of the pseudo sort. I'm going to start hitting up markets for it pretty soon; we'll see what happens.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]vzg
2009-04-19 01:24 am UTC (link)
I will root for you if for no other reason than because your icon is about comic books, Robert Downey Jr., and Firefly.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]agilebrit, 2009-04-19 05:47 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]vzg, 2009-04-19 05:59 pm UTC

[info]goddessleila
2009-04-19 05:59 am UTC (link)
Well, Wen Spencer did pretty well and is one of my favorite authors, so... best of luck? And I would totally read that, it's one of my pet peeves that I've only ever found one author who can merge sci-fi and fantasy in a way that is both believable and enjoyable for me.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]white_tean
2009-04-19 10:50 am UTC (link)
Just a totally random suggestion, I've read a series called Quantum Gravity by Justina Robson (which is quite good) which is very genre busting sci-fi/fantasy/action/chick lit, so maybe the publisher that put out her series might be one you should try submitting your series to before relegating it to going unpublished. I mean, I like genre busting and the mix of things you describe does sound cool.

That series is published by Pyr books (an imprint of Prometheus books) Amherst, NY.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]miss_padfoot
2009-04-19 11:09 am UTC (link)
The title of this intrigues me - does she actually explore anything about quantum gravity in the book, or is it not physics-heavy?

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]white_tean
2009-04-20 03:10 pm UTC (link)
It's not physics heavy, she might be exploring some ideas of quantum gravity in the books, but if she is I'm not educated enough in physics myself to notice them really unfortunately for your curiosity. It's not hard sci-fi though.

(Reply to this)(Parent)


[info]agilebrit
2009-04-19 06:02 pm UTC (link)
Oh, thanks for the suggestion! I haven't even started beating the bushes for markets yet (the closest thing I've got to a pitch right now is for the Knight Agency's Book in a Nutshell competition), but I'll definitely put Pyr on my list. Although *checks* they require agented subs, so I guess I'll have to get one of those first.

And I hope it's cool. My betas seem to think it's cool. I think it's cool. Maybe an agent will think it's cool. :)

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)


[info]white_tean
2009-04-20 03:29 pm UTC (link)
Oh, you should also put Gollancz on your list too, I totally forgot until after I'd commented that the first two books I've got from the series are from the US publisher, though I think the book was originally published in the UK. The third book I got from the UK (I live in Australia, so I buy most of my genre books online rather than waiting for years for booksellers over here to start stocking them) is currently off visiting with a friend (both people I've loaned the series out to have enjoyed it) hence why I probably didn't realise my slip earlier.

One of the reasons I was reminded of this series is that this author is one I really respect as an author as she talks about how the series came out of her anger at the divide between elitism and entertainment in writing. Anyway, she goes on about it more in the entry which is and older one, but I still find it relieving to read - it's great to read the work of a writer who understands their work, and even if she writes this series more for purposes of entertainment it obviously has some complex and nuanced themes and there's been a heck of a lot of worldbuilding to make all the genre busting work.

http://justinar.livejournal.com/587.html

Good luck on your pitch by the way!

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

(no subject) - [info]agilebrit, 2009-04-20 04:52 pm UTC

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