Re: helpful and true eh?
1 - Thanks Uncle Jim (and all you others). This thread is great reading, especially for someone still in the foothills and questing towards 'The Mountain'.
(i'm trying to make a name for myself [and hone my skills] with short speculative fiction before trying to climb the pile of notes that comprises my 'future novel' aka 'The Mountain')
2 - I hope you don't mind free publicity. I am a big proponent of spreading useful information (to help combat all the not-so-useful info that propagates on it's own) and so i
posted it on Future Tense (the Alan Lattimore writing site, it's about 4 stories down from the top right now), and then
mentioned it on my site with a link and then borrowed a wee bit of your inspiration (i'll return it after dry cleaning!) to start my own little
thread (on a board i just learned to install on sunday night!) that isn't about teaching, but about learning. (collection of links and sage sayings, including quite a bit of this thread, thanks again Uncle Jim!
3 - Stephen Brust is one of my personal favorite authors, but i haven't read the book you recommended (though i've read almost every
Jhereg Series book he's put out, and LOVE
Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille.)
Soo.... I ordered a copy and it should show up in my mailbox in a week or so.
4 - on the helpful note: any reason no one has mentioned
Writer's Market 2004 as a good resource? Is it because it's more aimed at short stories than novels? if so, there is also (though i haven't used it so can't vouch for it personally)
2004 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market.
i only mention this because as uncle jim said, as soon as it's done, you send it, and move on to writing something new.
to expand slightly, i've been told, send it, but have your list of publishers already in order of your most to least preffered. and possibly envelopes already labeled for the top few on your list.
then if/when you recieve a rejection slip, you can, THAT SAME DAY, slip a new copy of your MS into the mail to your second (third, fourth, last) publisher on the list, and these books will at least give you a start on who you want to send to. (but do NOT ignore the sage advice to actually go to a bookstore, and see for yourself what that publisher actually puts out)
-Rob Eubanks
<anxiously awaiting his next rejection slip and working more science fiction>