- Joined
- May 14, 2005
- Messages
- 12,862
- Reaction score
- 2,846
- Location
- A Small Town in Germany
- Website
- www.sharonmaas.co.uk
This is just a curiosity thread. Now that many, if not most, agents only want e-submissions: do they still print out the mss they receive, or have they all got Kindles etc to read those mss on?
I remember the very first positive feedback I ever heard about the Kindle: it a blog post by agent Kristin Nelson, who was raving about how wonderful it is to read mss on her Kindle.
Back when I was agented and published, ie ten years ago, agent offices were a chaotic mess of mss piled high and toppling over. Hard copy mss were everywhere: on shelves, on the floor, on her desk. Same with my editor. Somehow, it gave me a nice cozy feeling, seeing all those mss all over the place! And remember how we had to number the pages carefully and put headers on each page, just in case several mss fell on the floor, so the agent could sort them all out? Those days are bygone, methinks!
With the Frankfurt Book Fair coming up, I can think of another advantage. I've been to the Fair (again, 10 years ago!) and I always felt sorry for those poor agents, schlepping huge mss around with them. I guess those days are over.
However we feel about e-books, it seems pretty certain that for agents and editors, hardcopy mss are in the past.
For anyone whose been in an agent or editor's office recently: what do they look like now? Still lots of hardcopy mss lying around? Are the offices now all sleek and tidy?
I do feel a bit nostalgic for the old days of slush piles gathering dust.
I remember the very first positive feedback I ever heard about the Kindle: it a blog post by agent Kristin Nelson, who was raving about how wonderful it is to read mss on her Kindle.
Back when I was agented and published, ie ten years ago, agent offices were a chaotic mess of mss piled high and toppling over. Hard copy mss were everywhere: on shelves, on the floor, on her desk. Same with my editor. Somehow, it gave me a nice cozy feeling, seeing all those mss all over the place! And remember how we had to number the pages carefully and put headers on each page, just in case several mss fell on the floor, so the agent could sort them all out? Those days are bygone, methinks!
With the Frankfurt Book Fair coming up, I can think of another advantage. I've been to the Fair (again, 10 years ago!) and I always felt sorry for those poor agents, schlepping huge mss around with them. I guess those days are over.
However we feel about e-books, it seems pretty certain that for agents and editors, hardcopy mss are in the past.
For anyone whose been in an agent or editor's office recently: what do they look like now? Still lots of hardcopy mss lying around? Are the offices now all sleek and tidy?
I do feel a bit nostalgic for the old days of slush piles gathering dust.