Purgatory's Pit of Doom

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Snappy

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F@k3Edit0r is my hero(ine).
 
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MrsBrommers

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Well, I'm late to all this, but I agree that tweet was a really bad idea. You want a career--in any industry, not just writing--you need to be informed. Signing a dotted line without asking questions is a good way to get a devil's pitchfork in your ass.

I'm plugging away on revisions. Nothing too major, which I'm cool with because I was afraid it was a hot mess. It was also good to hear that it is extremely creepy and horrific without being gory.

The termites on the other hand have eaten into what little money we'd been able to save. Sigh. We'll have more medical bills coming--the four-year-old likely needs his tonsils out.
 

lkp

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May your natal day not totally suck, Roly. And Kellion is right about what you've accomplished --- you have every reason t bask a little (somewhere out of site of the hellhounds).

It is tweets like the one from that agent that reconfirm my desire to avoid twitter. Who is she anyway? I've never heard of her.
 

kellion92

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Lkp, repped you.

Mrs. Brommers, sorry about the bills, but the revisions sound manageable. You can do it!

ETA: My boss just gave me something incomprehensible to proofread. A team has been working on this document for months and they came up with gobbletygook.
 
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hester

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I love how we even have our own birthday wishes down here. I hope your Uterine Expulsion Anniversary is relatively pleasant, Roly. ;)

I am so stealing this (with Red's permission of course :D). Moderately happy natal wishes to you, Roly, and an overall (hug) for the pit.

Best thing I have to say about today is that it was slightly less soul-crushing than yesterday. There are times (more and more lately) that I wish I'd chosen something to do besides writing (podiatry comes to mind-no offense to any podiatrists out there). I'll take bunions over my WIP any day ;).
 

Teriann

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hey you guys...an editor responds to the "contract tweet" awesome! start 5 or 6 tweets down
https://twitter.com/#!/FakeEditor

I still don't get how twitter works. (All right, I haven't spent much time figuring it out). Is this connected to yesterday's "listen author" tweet?

So fake editor hides her identity?

Um, yes, I'm still ranting. I didn't realize how much anger I still have.

Her tweet sort of shows how I came to my conclusion that any editor who says I need an agent is not an editor I want to work with: Any editor who says that given what has been happening lately in the agent-writer world is either stupid or mean: stupid for not seeing what is happening or mean for seeing it and still insisting that writers have agents.
 
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Teriann

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I better fix something. Just because an editor says they only accept agented material, doesn't mean they only accept agented material.

I add this because people are going to say, "My editor only accepts agented material. How dare you call my editor stupid or mean?"

Well I can tell you from experience that very few of the editors who say that actually mean it. ETA: DWS says "get an agent" is today's form rejection letter. I've seen a few of these, too, but I've had one or two conversations with editors who really seem to mean it.

And naturally any editor who wants to see my material is brilliant and angelic.:)

Another addition for steve who wanted modern examples: About a year ago a writer posted on his blog about how he sold his first novel to St.M. His editor asked him to take it down, so he did. I get the feeling when editors tell me, "I don't ordinarily look at unagented material, but I'm intrigued by your pitch," what they're saying is, "Please don't go telling all your friends that I look at unagented material."
 
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Catwoman

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Teri -- it's the same thing as casting directors saying they won't let an actor read for them unless they have an agent. It's to weed out the riff raff. If you were a casting director, would you let hundreds of thousands of unagented Joe Schmos come in and audition for you for one part (open calls aside)?

But if a certain diamond happened to make her way in to your office under, shall we say unethical procedures, and she blew you away and was perfect for the role, would you honestly turn her down because she didn't have an agent? Of course not.

There are always exceptions to the rule. However, nobody talks about them until they succeed.
 

Teriann

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Catwoman:

One difference is there's nothing at all unethical about writing a letter. Stalking someone is unethical, but not mailing a polite, professional one page letter with a sample pages.

I suggest this post:

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=5997

He describes well what happened. When publishing houses said, "Only agented material" suddenly everyone became an agent. Kids 6 months out of college with one undergraduate creative writing workshop suddenly telling published authors "here are your revision notes. Do them and I'll submit your book for you," when very likely that published author has more credentials than the teacher the agent had for the one class she took -- and you have an absurd situation.

I like to think the smart editors see where its gone wrong; anyone can call herself an agent (having been an editor is only a credential if she was not let go for incompetence or something worse) and the most important decisions should not be left to the least qualified segment of the industry.

The unknown is what will be the replacement. I've seen some good guesses but nobody knows. But the current model has resulted in people with no credentials and no qualifications insisting on rewrites and telling writers, "Shut up and don't argue and sign on the dotted line.". The optimist in me thinks editors are reading my work because they are coming awake to the problem.
 
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Cricket18

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Moderately happy natal day, Roly.

It is tweets like the one from that agent that reconfirm my desire to avoid twitter. Who is she anyway? I've never heard of her.

All this.

Terri, I'm pretty sure Catwoman wasn't talking about stalking anyone. Can I tell you how many auditions I crashed? Many. I booked a couple of jobs that way. :D
 

kellion92

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I don't know what's happening in Agentland. I have seen a bunch of agents who used to sell midlist selling to epubs and small pubs, and they're going to have a hard time making a living that way. Honestly, I'm more worried about the writers who used to be able to be midlist not be able to sell to presses with strong distribution.
 

ink wench

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Kellion, I've noticed the same thing. It does feel like there's a squeeze going on. You're either slated to be BIG, or your pushed out to the small and e-presses. I wonder if the next stage in publishing evolution is for agents to take on e-presses. When lots of editors got laid off, they became agents. When agents can no longer sell enough to the big presses, they'll start forming their own e-presses? We all know there are quality books out there that aren't getting published, and a lot of people still do want gatekeepers of a sort to keep out the stuff that's truly awful....
 

Amarie

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I don't know what's happening in Agentland. I have seen a bunch of agents who used to sell midlist selling to epubs and small pubs, and they're going to have a hard time making a living that way. Honestly, I'm more worried about the writers who used to be able to be midlist not be able to sell to presses with strong distribution.

I didn't understand how a lot of agents could make a living when things were good.

The demise of the traditional bookstore is really hurting because everyone is trying to figure out what other kind of marketing works best and so far, no one seems to have hit on it. I read that Harper decided to sell InkPop because they realized their original assumption that a group of writers would be readers who would buy didn't pan out as well as they hoped.

We either need another Harry Potter or Twilight breakout, though without lots of bookstores, even that won't get people into them who might browse as well, or we need to see if Amazon really does manage to reinvent the bookstore, like Apple reinvented the computer store.
 

K. Taylor

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It'll be interesting how H0cking's series does now they're releasing in paper form. The initial rush should be big, and at least one series does have a movie deal. Provided they make it to film, her stuff could be the next franchise now that Twi is ending.

If the Hunger G@mes movie does well, that'll keep those books and crap going, too.
 

kellion92

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Everyone wants to know what the next breakout will be! The industry needs one, but I think they should stop chasing it because they can't predict, and concentrate on good stories, priced right so they will be successes even if they don't break huge.

I don't know if the next breakout will be AH -- what succeeds in one venue might not break out. Or it might.
 

fourlittlebees

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Still here, under couch. Got a zombie R on a full that will have me digging my way under the couch all the way to China. Add that on to RL woes and no bites on job applications and I'm about ready to just write this whole year off.

I'm at that point where I question why I bother writing.
 

kellion92

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(((Fourlittlebees))) I'm glad to see you, sorry to see you here. RL woes are even worse than writing ones, and zombie Rs are kicks in the teeth. Are you able to write? Often the time to write and the motivation to write don't coincide, but it could be a lifeline.
 

ink wench

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(((4Bs))) Been wondering where you've been.

I question why I try to publish, but never question why I write (too many voices in my head). And I'm sorry to hear about the real job woes, too.
 

fourlittlebees

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Hey, bbbb, I wondered if you were still hiding under the couch. I hope if you crawled out to take a peek, things are at least not crushing you?

I just needed a new shovel. Got an R from an e-pub, too. Same day as the zombie R. You just get to that point where you figure you really do just suck.
 

Teriann

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Hi, BBBB.

Cricket, Did I miss humor or irony? Figures. I saw "unethical" and took it literally.

I've seen the same thing, agents selling to epubs with open submissions and little or no advances. Cynical me -- I figured if the money goes directly to the agent, and the agent can get 15% of enough books for the life of a book, he can set up a nice lifetime pension, even if he won't get rich.

Once an agent "announced" a "sale" on PM to Amazon Kindle for publication "today." I thought it was some kind of joke, and pointed it out on another thread, but people but said, Well the agent probably negotiated a better deal for the writer. BWAHAHAH.
 

Haupe

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My local RWA chapter was discussing an agent recently who ONLY sells to e-pubs. I have no idea why this would be an attractive skillset to an author.

I've been watching AH in paper a bit. She's got relatively high product-placement in our local bookstores but doesn't seem to have caught hold yet. It's early days, though.

{{{bbbb}}}} I've been thinking of you.
 

Teriann

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My local RWA chapter was discussing an agent recently who ONLY sells to e-pubs. I have no idea why this would be an attractive skillset to an author.

See there. Sometimes I do catch irony.
 
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