The Next Circle of Hell, Vol. 2

I've been traveling so I haven't had time to pop in here, but omg, CONGRATULATIONS, MAGGIE!!!! That is the kind of news I need to see more of over here.

Happy Monday everyone! Not feeling optimistic about news this week. Today marks a pretty large, even number since our sub date rounding off to about six months. I know lots of people have gotten good news around the six and seventh month mark, but I'm just buckling myself in for a wait. The good news is that soon *a few weeks from now* I'll be sending the revision of my new thing to my agent and I feel good about its prospects

I hope you get good news soon polishmuse! It's exciting that you have a new thing ready, though. I'm still on the first PAGE of my WIP. Oy.

My horoscope said I would get lots of opportunities over the next few days lol!

*waits*

*Fingers crossed* you get good news soon polishmuse! Meanwhile, I hope New Thing goes down well with your agent.

Still no news for me novel-wise but I am on the shortlist for the James White Award for a short story. So I'm very pleased about that That will keep me going while waiting on any news on the novel.

Congratulations, Cameron! What an honor.

I hope you hear good things soon, Polish. And that your agent loves your new shiny.

Cameron that's amazing! Congrats!

Hang in there, polish. I know how you feel

I heard from my publisher and she's going to co-edit my book along with another editor. Not sure when my editorial letter is coming (ahhh), but I'm glad they've sorted it out since my editor left the house.

Having some trouble with progress on Book 3 again. I think it's all of the daily distractions in my life, and worrying about Book 2 out in sub hell.

Finally got some responses after my agent nudged. 2 more rejections, alas. And one of them was pretty blunt!

(passes writera some rejection cookies) Sorry to hear that!

re: nudges-- when does your agent do them? do they let you know that they have?

Question for the group: How long do your agents usually take to respond to your emails? Just general-type ones.

polishmuse: Mine nudges and then forwards the responses along as they come in. She doesn't usually tell me before she does it. I think the timing depends on the round and the editor, but it's less than 3 months after sending the MS, generally.

Niiicola: some emails my agent doesn't answer If I'm just passing along news or something, she usually doesn't respond, but when I have a specific question she gets back to me within the week (except once when she was sick).

Niiicola said:

Question for the group: How long do your agents usually take to respond to your emails? Just general-type ones.

Click to expand...

Anywhere from 5 minutes to not at all...??

Usually within an hour if I have a question.

Mine usually gets back to me within a couple hours, sometimes later that day or overnight. (We're on opposite coasts.) I had a panic when she didn't respond to a question for a week, and then she wrote me and said she'd been out of the office. Whew!

She said she was planning to nudge soon-ish, we're at the 3 month mark.

Niiicola - My agent replies to e-mails with questions as soon as he wakes up...like at 6 AM his time. But e-mails that don't have actual questions tend to get slower replies, or sometimes none at all.

I'm really into the revisions of my YA Suspense. I think I can make this thing really shine, which is great as it's taking my mind off subs. Anyone has exciting plans for the summer?

Hi guys,

I've been MIA b/c I started a new full-time job and I've been sooo exhausted, trying to find that balance between work, writing, family, grief, etc... But I popped by and saw Maggie's news and wanted to join in the shower!

CONGRATS!

And good luck to all of you guys working on R&Rs or waiting to hear from agents and/or interested editors. Keeping everything crossed for you all, since I've been feeling kinda hopeless for myself of late.

Still, I keep chipping away at Terribly Problematic Hot Mess of a WIP. I do it on my lunch hour, then in the evenings at home. Not making one hell of a lot of progress, but at least I'm trying.

Haven't heard from Agent in about six weeks now. I really should touch base with him, but I already know he has no news or no useful feedback, because otherwise he'd get in touch--he's been really good about it in the past. In any case, I'm too tired right now to draft a Touching Base email.

Good job, Maggie!

Welp, today signals Week Four on sub, with one R and seven remaining. As many of you know, it feels like Year Four. Let's see, it's June now, right? Maybe by Christmas?

Super reassuring to hear other agents are non-responders to non-questions I had to figure that was the case. I cannot imagine the state of most inboxes in the publishing world. I imagine it looks a little like this:

As for summer plans: working on a new, new project. It's actually a slight deviation on the genre for me, so we'll see if it all pans out...

Hi guys! My agent usually responds to me within a day. It can take longer if I'm asking her to read something. She's an extremely busy woman, but is prompt when we have pressing matters.

I have a call with my new editor tomorrow! Ahh. It's like a catching up call, as I was recently assigned to her since my other editor left the house. Luckily my agent will be on the line.

My agent is generally pretty good at getting back to me, though he has this thing when he either responds within two hours (or the next business day, if it's afterhours in NYC), or NOT AT ALL. It used to freak me out, but now I realize it's just the way he operates: he might save non-essential notes for a response later on, and then promptly forget about them altogether. Any direct or essential questions, he does respond to, and quickly.

Do you guys ever get super overwhelmed by massive manuscripts you're working on?

Like I've reached a point with my new one where I open it with the intent to work on it, but end up just staring blankly at the Word doc.

pinkbowvintage said:

Do you guys ever get super overwhelmed by massive manuscripts you're working on?

Like I've reached a point with my new one where I open it with the intent to work on it, but end up just staring blankly at the Word doc.

Click to expand...

Totally. I started breaking my novels apart by chapters in Google Drive specifically because of this. I'd get overwhelmed by the size of my doc and then become hopelessly disorganized. Compiling my MS after is usually a pain, but I do better with chapter-by-chapter editing this way.

Scrivener is magical for that problem of draft overwhelm. I would never have made it through my novel without it. You can chunk it out in smaller bits, chapters or scenes or even just character riffs. And it all stays organized and accessible.

I also draft section by section in google docs. My books are Adult SF so they err on the bigger side but I write in longer sections of 9-12k words and it's just easier to outline/keep track of everything. Then I put them all together in one big word doc to send.

My agent usually gets back to me in a few hours, 24 at most, even if it's just a "thanks" so I know she got it.

Putputt--sounds exciting! It's nice when we're in that part of the cycle where we really enjoy our work! I hope it keeps until the end!

I'm still waiting, but I know I'm getting closer to The Answer.

Phew, Book 2 sent to my agent! This one's already sold and under contract so at least that's nice and simple, but I'm still really hoping she likes it!

I haven't been on in a while--very busy at work and otherwise lately--but I did want to say congrats to Maggie after taking a quick look at all the posts I missed!!! That's fantastic. Congrats to Cameron as well.

As for me, MS1 is out with new people, so fingers are tightly crossed. Agent finally read MS2, got his edit letter the other day and we are currently going back and forth on some ideas for how to move forward with it. The sub process is as painful as ever, but I did get my first acceptance on a short story a few days ago, so that's been a much-needed pick-me-up.

Good luck to everyone! Will try to be more consistent on this thread!