The Next Circle of Hell, Vol. 2

Putputt said:

Hrmm I'm not sure, mainly because right now I'm so focused on my WIP. I haven't really devoted any time to thinking about her edits at all, since I'm about to have another YA out on sub soon (hopefully!) and then hopefully my WIP, which is an MG, will be ready to be subbed in February/March. I guess I don't like the idea of having to go back and edit this MS, because it was my #OwnVoices MS and it's been particularly painful for me to see it get rejected...more so than other MSs. It's Own not only in the sense that the MC is of my ethnicity, but she also goes through the same things I did, and some of the rejections said some stuff isn't realistic and I'm like, IT REALLY DID HAPPEN. Heh. So I dunno, I might just ask agent to trunk it for now.

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I think this summarizes why I hate this industry as much as I do. "The situations portrayed in this book just didn't seem authentic to me."

I would be so tempted to respond with "Really??!! Cuz this really effing happened to me!!! So take that!"

And then throw flaming poop at them.

spikeman4444 said:

I think this summarizes why I hate this industry as much as I do. "The situations portrayed in this book just didn't seem authentic to me."

I would be so tempted to respond with "Really??!! Cuz this really effing happened to me!!! So take that!"

And then throw flaming poop at them.

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Yeah, it's one of those weird things that happens, although, to be fair, that's not just specific to the publishing industry, that's life in general. Especially when it comes to things related to race/gender. Like at some kind of seminar about sexual harassment I was reading about the speaker asked if it was unusual to be followed by someone, and then asked for a show of hands. The men were asked first, and only one or two raised their hands to indicate they'd ever been followed by someone creepy. Then the question was turned to the women, and the majority of them raised their hands and everyone was looking at everyone else with shock. The men in particular were like, "This can't be real, right? You guys staged this? This just doesn't happen. I'VE never been followed, how could it happen to so many of you?" The women were apparently more along the lines of "My God, I thought it was JUST me..."

So yeah, it does get weird that way.

I guess I'm kicked out of the circle because I fired my agent today. On the flip side, I did get a full request on this same day so I may be back soon. It really is hell!

Diane!!! I'm so happy for you! Jim is fantastic.

Hi guys. It's been a while!

I'm so sorry to hear that, dearend. I hope you find new rep ASAP.

dearendugoo said:

I guess I'm kicked out of the circle because I fired my agent today. On the flip side, I did get a full request on this same day so I may be back soon. It really is hell!

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It's too bad about letting the agent go, dearendugoo, but after hearing you describe your relationship with the agent, earlier in this thread, this seems like it might be for the best anyway. You should never be afraid of your agent, that's just a bad dynamic.

Hope to see you back soon, dearend! you deserve good rep! best of luck in the search.

Saw all this action on the thread and decided to take a look, and sure glad I did — I think this Save the Cat is exactly what I need right now while reworking the outline to my story. Spent some time googling it. Super excited. Just put it on hold at my library, but I’m tenth in line, so I’ll probably go out and buy it. Yay, excuse to go book-shopping!

It says the book is based on the Hero’s journey. How is it different from Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey? Studied that pretty intensely a few years back, read it in tandem with The Hero’s journey and wrote a blog post comparing the two.

How did I not hear about this book until now?!

spikeman4444 said:

I think this summarizes why I hate this industry as much as I do. "The situations portrayed in this book just didn't seem authentic to me."

I would be so tempted to respond with "Really??!! Cuz this really effing happened to me!!! So take that!"

And then throw flaming poop at them.

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Heh, I'm just chalking it up to "I failed to show stuff in the MS in a believable way".

Dearend, sorry to hear about parting ways with your agent. I have no doubt you will be back here soon!

67K...Jaysus, why did I tell my agent I'd have this MS done and polished by January??

67k is fantastic, PutPutt! You can so do this by January. That's more than 5 weeks away.

I'm sorry things didn't work out with your, Dearend, but congrats for the full request! It looks like you're blasting through the query trenches already.

I hit 51k in my WIP; yay! I think I can finish by the end of the month.

Look at us all blasting those word counts! I'm feeling great about my 35k. I'm thinking this book will be on the shorter side-- 75k maybe. MAYBE 80k? I WILL get to 50k by the end of NaNo though, come hell or high water or turkey-induced coma. It will happen.
Putt: that's a great wordcount. The polishing, er, well.... a quick polish? And January IS 31 days long, so you can stretch that timeline out a little....

It's likely to be a quiet week (month), so asking an etiquette question:
Will you send your agent a Christmas/holiday card?

polishmuse said:

It's likely to be a quiet week (month), so asking an etiquette question:
Will you send your agent a Christmas/holiday card?

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Oooh, good question. I don't have my agent's address yet and I'm nervous about asking this early on in the relationship, so probably a no from me, but I'm tempted now that you've mentioned the idea.

EMaree said:

Oooh, good question. I don't have my agent's address yet and I'm nervous about asking this early on in the relationship, so probably a no from me, but I'm tempted now that you've mentioned the idea.

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I think I would just send it to her office address.

I usually send mine something. She works hard to get my books out there, and at this point, she's made no money from me.

polishmuse said:

It's likely to be a quiet week (month), so asking an etiquette question:
Will you send your agent a Christmas/holiday card?

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This is a question I had not considered. But I am now.

Hi guys!!! *waves* *trips over doormat* *looks up at looming spiraling stairs ascending into infinity* So... this is the next circle... *DRAMATIC MUSIC (i.e. Carmina Burana)*

Just kidding. I'm so happy to join you guys in the Next Circle at last! *scoots over on chair* I signed with my agent a short while ago and we just made our announcement today, so I'm allowed to break the silence at last. Whew!

Annnndddd... for polishmuse's question about holiday cards... and I think I'd like to do that, especially as I'm new to my agency/agent? We are going on submission very soon, so... I'll definitely need to thank him for his hard work by then!

polishmuse said:

It's likely to be a quiet week (month), so asking an etiquette question:
Will you send your agent a Christmas/holiday card?

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Totally didn't think of this, but yes! I will be. I love sending holiday cards, and he's worked so hard for me and uh, not earned any money off my stuff.

Welcome, Amillimiles!! So glad to see you here and especially to read about your amazing journey. I have so much respect for your crazy perseverance. Will you be going out on sub this year, or is your agent waiting until after the holiday craze?

Huge welcome, amillimiles! Congratulations on getting an agent, and here's hoping your manuscript gets snapped up by a publisher

Congrats, Diane and Millimiles!

So sorry, dearendugoo. But a lot of people have come back here with new/better agent relationships, and hopefully you will too.

I haven't sent a card to my agent, but I've sent a "Happy holidays" e-mail.

It's been very quiet on my end. No word on a bunch of subs for a looooong time now. I hope some holiday-break reading gets done this year--that's when I got my, "I love this! I'm getting second reads!" e-mail last year (that turned into an 8th month exercise in extreme patience that got me nowhere).

Welcome Amilli! Hope your stay is short for all of the right reasons and as stress free as possible (and if not, well, we're here for all of the complaining, hand-wringing, and alcohol you need ).

Thanks for the feedback, all! I think I will send a card. As you say, in my case they haven't gotten paid for a single thing thus far and have done a lot of editing, cheerleading, etc for me. Hopefully we'll all get paychecks before NEXT year rolls around, but we'll see!

polishmuse said:

It's likely to be a quiet week (month), so asking an etiquette question:
Will you send your agent a Christmas/holiday card?

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Heck no. We're not cool like that.

I actually just asked my agent about this, and she said it was cool to send things to the mailing address of the agency itself, and things would be taken care of from there. It probably does get a little more complicated in 21st century literary agencies, since just because an agency is located in one state or city, doesn't mean all the agents actually live in that same city.

Welcome, Amilli!

Eeee thanks guys!!! First off, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Putputt -- I am actually going on sub after Thanksgiving! Aaaaaah!!! This holiday is going to be just me revising in between all the good food and friends and family.

Likewise, I was inspired by writers like yourselves and SO many others who kept it up for decades before their book found a home and made its way into readers' hands. Everyone has their incredible journeys and I'm so glad some of these are documented. Most of us only see the last 0.01% of a writer's journey into published author; we don't see the 99.9% of late nights, lonely days, heartbreaks, tears, and frustrations.

So -- thankful to be here and thankful for everybody else who is here -- and everyone else who will soon make it here!

Welcome! Enjoy your stay, but may your submissions process be brief and filled with success!

dearendugoo, I don't think anyone gets kicked out of here. Hope not, anyway, as I'd probably be the first one given the boot. I hear once you've been agented, funding another is much easier so keep us posted!