The Daily Rejection

Carleree said:

That makes sense to me. She made the first contact/pitch and got the publisher interested. Why should another agent make the commission on the work she'd done initially?

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I'd understand it if I dropped her and was trying to make a quick buck by excluding her.

She dropped the ball, she's been terrible about keeping up to date, and she's the one who decided not to pursue it further. She shouldn't get a dime.

Otherwise all she has to do is sign every author with even a long shot of getting published, send their manuscript to all the decent publishers, then drop them and let them or their new agent do all the work while she collects.

DJ, is that the standard for agent contracts. Seems like a point that could really be abused by lazy/shady agents.

Sorry about the rejections. Don't forget that referrals are based on merit, too, as well as the fact that you've gotten this far in the publishing process already.

Congratulations on your upcoming baby. At least that will help you keep in mind what matters most.

Drachen Jager said:

More bad news... I just found out my ex-agent is entitled to her cut if I sell my MS to any of the publishers she's contacted in the next nine months, even though she dropped the ball on me entirely.

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What???

Tell me it aint so. Surely that's not standard?

hmmm, ok. i can see her side of that actually. though it should be shorter. (it's to avoid an agent being cut out of a deal by unscrupulous authors/ publishers.

but what if the work is revised and then taken up?

Hathor said:

Anytime, sweetie. Or was that meant sarcastically?

You have nothing on me. Remember, I queried over 200 agents with a letter referring to my "forward."

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I bow to the queen

I'm pretty sure that's the standard. I've read a couple agent blogs about it, and most contracts are worded that way to stop other agents from getting the commission for work they didn't do.

So why doesn't she sign up all the authors that submit and drop them the same way? I bet it's a lot of work to sign that many authors. And she'd also get a bad reputation. She'd ruin her career doing that to every author who queried her.

I'd be totally fine with it if she'd gone through a process with me. She never provided any editorial feedback or support. I asked for her comments on the manuscript and she never bothered to send them. I even said I wasn't sure the manuscript was ready and that I wanted to go through a round of revisions first, but she sent it off anyhow.

I asked what the submission plan was and she just sent it off without running the plan past me first.

In short, she read the manuscript (maybe, I'm beginning to think only her assistant ever read it), packaged it together with the synopsis and such I provided, mailed that off to some publishers and now she wants 15% of anything the book makes.

Is 15% fair pay for a stamp-licker and e-mail redirector?

If I want to go back to that publisher and she doesn't waive the nine month wait period I'm going to damn sure try to ruin her reputation. I've already wasted nine months waiting for her, all I got for my patience was a brush-off.

I didn't say it was fair, I said it was the standard. That's why you have to read the fine print in the contract and ask the right questions in the interview. I'm sorry this happened to you, but there's still hope for your project, DJ. Keep your chin up, move forward.

And the 'nucks are playing tonight. Yell at the tv a lot

Carleree said:

I bow to the queen

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Ahem, the goddess.

We used to have a duchess on this thread. Whatever happened to her? And maybe a princess, too, but I'm unsure about that.

The post of queen is open if you'd like it.

Hathor said:

Ahem, the goddess.

We used to have a duchess on this thread. Whatever happened to her? And maybe a princess, too, but I'm unsure about that.

The post of queen is open if you'd like it.

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Goddess. Yes, you're right. My mistake. I don't know what happened to the duchess, but the post of queen has now been filled.

Carleree said:

I'm pretty sure that's the standard. I've read a couple agent blogs about it, and most contracts are worded that way to stop other agents from getting the commission for work they didn't do.

So why doesn't she sign up all the authors that submit and drop them the same way? I bet it's a lot of work to sign that many authors. And she'd also get a bad reputation. She'd ruin her career doing that to every author who queried her.

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Yep, that's pretty standard. If the agent subbed it, they get a cut.

Carleree said:

Goddess. Yes, you're right. My mistake. I don't know what happened to the duchess, but the post of queen has now been filled.

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Woo hoo! Congrats, your majesty. And on an even-numbered day, too! Have a coronation cake

Has anyone ever written a book overusing one particular word? I'm to the point of checking book three for my usual unnecessary words, and I was really into the reallys, more than usual. And this wasn't in one section, but the entire book. Books one and two had unneeded reallys, but nothing like this.

Maybe it's my subconscious saying that book three is harder to believe, so I have to keep assuring readers it's really real.

Hathor said:

Has anyone ever written a book overusing one particular word? I'm to the point of checking book three for my usual unnecessary words, and I was really into the reallys, more than usual. And this wasn't in one section, but the entire book. Books one and two had unneeded reallys, but nothing like this.

Maybe it's my subconscious saying that book three is harder to believe, so I have to keep assuring readers it's really real.

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Thanks for the cake. I over use really and just a lot. I wouldn't read too much into it.

Hathor said:

Has anyone ever written a book overusing one particular word? I'm to the point of checking book three for my usual unnecessary words, and I was really into the reallys, more than usual. And this wasn't in one section, but the entire book. Books one and two had unneeded reallys, but nothing like this.

Maybe it's my subconscious saying that book three is harder to believe, so I have to keep assuring readers it's really real.

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There is a thread here on AW where a nice man wrote and posted a link to programs (for Word) that will tell you the amount of time you use a certain word, how the word is used...etc...If I had the link, I would post it, but I've changed browsers

Sydneyd said:

There is a thread here on AW where a nice man wrote and posted a link to programs (for Word) that will tell you the amount of time you use a certain word, how the word is used...etc...If I had the link, I would post it, but I've changed browsers

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Yes, I have a link for that or something similar, but finding it is really another matter. Really. My bookmarks are now woefully disorganized. I should take a day and fix them.

What was weird is that I was pairing the reallys like I did above. Or folks in dialogue would echo them or say something like, "They really, really hit it off." I have no idea what I was thinking. Maybe I was gushing because I was finishing the trilogy. Who knows?

I just ( overuse this one regularly, too) don't know why I went so really, very (another one) overboard in only one book.

I do have a long list of words and phrases I overuse, but I don't know if it is complete.

Oh well (I do this one, also). Taking out the excess verys and reallys -- by itself -- took hundreds off my word count. Like I said, it was bad. Strangely enough, the one beta who read book three so far didn't catch anything unusual.

About reviewing one's work carefully: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwAyfQ

Sydneyd, is this the link you had?
http://www.christophermpark.com/manalyzer.php

I threw my book 1 in it, but I don't know if it helped much. I can see how often I used "frequent offenders," but it doesn't assess how much is too much. The FOs can't be avoided entirely.

I suppose it would be useful to see if you have many uses of a word that you don't have on your personal "look at during revision" list.

It was interesting to know how many distinct words I used, though.

I know I've seen another program that points out cliches and says whether you are using certain words too much (in the programmer's opinion). But I don't seem to have bookmarked it.

Oh, I don't think so...let me check...

This is the link. It is an AW thread

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11653

Thanks. I'll have to look at these programs. The phrase frequency counter, for one, might prove interesting (or terrifying).

I found (google is my friend) the program I was thinking of:
http://www.autocrit.com/

Only it costs $119 to cover manuscript-length documents for one year. (That is, if your manuscripts aren't over 100,000 words, like mine are.)

I'll keep looking.

The Bookie Awards are going to be a fight to the finish. Get over there and vote for Peggy Blair, only three days left! (you can vote once per day)

Second place is surging hard and will overtake her if we don't get out there and vote.

http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/03/the-second-annual-cbc-bookie-awards.html

Thanks for the reminder. Just voted again.

Have possibly been offered job as copy editor (Carleree, stop laughing!) for gigantic company. Currently don't "work" - except for raising kids and cooking for food allergic son, etc. Any thoughts? Anyone? Company belongs to friend in NC and so would obvs. work from home. Thoughts? Has anyone done this sort of work?

Hey everyone -- back here asking for your help! The Beggar's Opera is still in the lead for Best Mystery in the CBC Bookies but the second-place contestant put out a big push for votes today and surged 3%! As Drachen points out on The Next Circle of Hell, if she keeps that pace up she'll win! Readers can vote once per day until March 31st so please do vote, and vote often -- here's the link. Thanks everyone!

http://www.cbc.ca/books/2012/03/the-second-annual-cbc-bookie-awards.html

Polly, take the job. it's money. Why on earth would you turn it down? But if you do, give her my number. Hahahaha.

Peggy, I'm pretty sure everyone here is voting regularly. Good luck!

Thanks, Carleree -- just saw Drachen's post up above, thanks, Drachen, I really appreciate that. And thanks, Quickbread, for voting. This will all be over on Saturday at midnight -- I really do appreciate the support. It's starting to feel like the last tour of Cher ....

Polly, I agree with Carleree. Why not? It sounds like a great opportunity. What kind of materials would you be copyediting?

Peggy, you're welcome!