Purgatory's Pit of Doom

Catwoman said:

Teri -- you go, girl! Although I wouldn't expect a response the second time around. I'd be really surprised if she sent you any more info.

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She did reply a few more times. It's such a waste of my time at this point, though. I can't imagine anyone signing with her. If someone reads this and already has, be grateful that she showed her true colors -- although from the sound of it, her agency agreement has entangled you forever.

There's probably a thing in Bewares. If not, oh well. (I just looked in Bewares and she has her client/arch defenders so I edited and toned down my language. I hope they don't come after me over here . . it's not worth the fight )

She said:

No. We are not arguing contract law….
They can question the agreement. Once signed, please follow the agreement.
The agreement includes that the agent shops the given work to publishers.
The agent is to agent and the writer is to write.
If they can do both then we wish them success.

So now she's saying she meant, "Listen up, Authors. Once you sign my agreement, follow it."

I asked her again if I could see the agreement, but I'm sure she won't send it. Here is her understanding of contract law: "You signed the contract so follow it." Betcha I could get someone out of one of her contracts.

How odd. From the original tweet, I never would've guessed she was talking about an agency agreement.

Wordwrestler said:

How odd. From the original tweet, I never would've guessed she was talking about an agency agreement.

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Someone said once you can judge the quality of an agent by the quality of their lies.

This one is baaaaad. (When I first heard that quip, I was represented and figured any lies would be told on my behalf to make me look good.)

A better translation of her twitter: "We all need to follow the same rules" = "authors need to follow my rules."

Listening to the piece on A Wrinkle in Time (now fifty years old!) on NPR this afternoon, and then reading about how hard it was to get published, I thought of all the YA and middle grade Pitizens. It seems much harder to get brilliant and original work in those genres than acceptable, pleasant work. Maybe in all genres.

I reread a wrinkle in time last year after not reading it since I was a child. It make a big impact on me as a child because it was unlike anything i'd read before. Rereading it, there are some parts that haven't stood the test of time well, but it was definitely a trailblazer

psst... i have a cover- i know it is too sun-shiny for the pit but you are my peeps

silver76 said:

psst... i have a cover- i know it is too sun-shiny for the pit but you are my peeps

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I'll put this part in white AWESOME!! I love the contrast between the grungy wall and the frothy dress.


ETA: Uh, duh, is that grungy wall part of a jail?

hester said:

Muted congrats AO!

My weekend can be summed up as follows: husband depressed, daughter demanding, son irritable.

Hail to the Monday...

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{{{Hester}}} If you're hailing Monday, it's gotta be bad.

fourlittlebees said:

It's not about fame or fortune. I don't need a bestseller. I just want SOMEONE to want my writing besides me. Either that or I just want to see if I can give myself a concussion by beating my head against a wall.

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This, a thousand times.

{{{Roly}}} Don't know how you do it.

ink wench said:

Off today, and I just cranked about 3k on a SNI that's rapidly approaching WIP status. It's a completely pittish story, and something I'm confident my agent will have no interest in. In that way, working on it is delightfully freeing. I don't care if it's cliched crap that has no chance in hell of getting published. I'm writing it totally for me.

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Catwoman said:

If it's cliched crap, it'll probably get published!

Teri -- you go, girl! Although I wouldn't expect a response the second time around. I'd be really surprised if she sent you any more info.

I awoke this Monday to "Mom, the dog pooped in my room." I hope that's not how the week will go...

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{{{Cat}}} but

lkp said:

Listening to the piece on A Wrinkle in Time (now fifty years old!) on NPR this afternoon, and then reading about how hard it was to get published, I thought of all the YA and middle grade Pitizens. It seems much harder to get brilliant and original work in those genres than acceptable, pleasant work. Maybe in all genres.

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lpk-I heard that too and had the same thoughts.

YAY, Silver!

Terri, good on you. Gonads of Insanity (TM), you have them.

One day closer to Friday.

Yep. Another Monday passed like a bad dream.

silver76 said:

psst... i have a cover- i know it is too sun-shiny for the pit but you are my peeps

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Looooooove it!!!!!!!!

silver76 said:

psst... i have a cover- i know it is too sun-shiny for the pit but you are my peeps

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Beautiful!

Silver, said it elsewhere, but I think that cover is perfect for your book!

Car problems. Again. This time the dealer thinks it's just the battery, but I'm not convinced yet. Meanwhile, the car sits in my garage, unmoving. I'm not even sure we have jumper cables.

Mornin', Pit

{{{DVI}}}

{{{Mario}}}

Muted Awesome, Silver

silver76 said:

psst... i have a cover- i know it is too sun-shiny for the pit but you are my peeps

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It's beautiful. I like the contrast.

{{Mario}}
{{ink}}

The weirdness of selling a book.

Remember I got the invitation to send my ms to a major publisher but they said, "We'd like to look at it even though we have a similar book under contract." I sent the book, puzzled. Why on earth did they want to read it?

Surprise, surprise, I received this: "We felt like this story was a lot of fun, definitely something that young girls will like, but we do think it's just too similar to another series that we have on our list in which . .[snip].. We wish you all the best of luck placing this with another house, and thank you again for showing it to us."

What makes this newsworthy is I also have a preprinted card from this same publisher which I received last summer telling me it is the publisher's policy to accept only agented material.

So now two editors at a Big 6 house told me sorry but historical fiction like this isn't selling whereas another Big 6 just told me they have a similar book.

I'm getting the feeling it's one big crap shoot.

Adding:

Pass the dice. I'm ready to try again.

It's a crap shoot.

Speaking of dice, I still haven't heard from Agent on my revision of formerly trunked ms. 1. I just want her to send it to the editor already, dammit. But I called this morning, because I am going out of town for a while, and apparently she is in London, which I sort of knew. So hurry up and wait.

Teriann said:

I'm getting the feeling it's one big crap shoot.

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LOL! I thought we'd established that.

Be sure to blow on the dice for luck.

RedScylla said:

LOL! I thought we'd established that.

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We have, but don't forget I'm unusually slow. we've also established that tenacity and stupdity are closely related, and I'm rather tenacious . . .

Since receiving that email, I've been singing "Ten Little Indians," thanks to Kellion who associated that song with having books on sub.

Of course, at every turn I have to throw in my anti-agent diatribes. I believe that a lot of agents -- certainly any I've worked with -- would lose faith after being assured by top editors at top houses that historical fiction is just not selling right now.

But we know from that tweet that agents are much smarter than writers, so I'll just keep on rolling those dice.

Oh, yet another author being annoying, who should have kept his mouth shut so people wouldn't realize what an idiot he is. Why did anyone ask J. Franz$n to write a piece on Edith Wharton if he was going to focus on her looks? Or lack of them, according to him. I've never read J. Franz3n, but I've read most of Edith Wharton and never even thought about what she looked like. This rebuttal to him is quite brilliant, and now I want to read V. Patterson's book. Definitely won't be reading Franz3n.

(((Ink))) (((Mario)))

Silver, loving that cover! Posting it on the blog manana.

Most definitely is a crap shoot. I also happen to be quiet "good" - as good as a person can be at a gambling game - at craps. Does this mean I have a leg up? Nah.

Crap shoot? Of course!

Amarie, JF is a brilliant writer and time and again he proves himself to be a jackass, so I wasn't surprised by his piece.

BTW, on a tangent, but related to JF's jackassness, I originally wrote the above sentence with a "but", falling into the subconsious trap of equating a person's gifts/abilities with the content of their character. As if, "he's a great writer but terrible person." No, being a great writer has nothing to do with what kind of person he is.

/tangent

SteveCordero said:

Crap shoot? Of course!

Amarie, JF is a brilliant writer and time and again he proves himself to be a jackass, so I wasn't surprised by his piece.

BTW, on a tangent, but related to JF's jackassness, I originally wrote the above sentence with a "but", falling into the subconsious trap of equating a person's gifts/abilities with the content of their character. As if, "he's a great writer but terrible person." No, being a great writer has nothing to do with what kind of person he is.

/tangent

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But is he good looking? tee hee.

Snappy, seems to me if being good at craps requires a balance luck and patience, definitely.

Teriann said:

Snappy, if being good at craps requires a balance luck and patience, definitely.

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It does funny enough. It also requires you learn the ins and outs of the game. Even then, the house still has the best odds, and you're really just rolling the dice. Hmm...sounds familiar.

Snappy said:

It does funny enough. It also requires you learn the ins and outs of the game. Even then, the house still has the best odds, and you're really just rolling the dice. Hmm...sounds familiar.

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Publishing companies are also called publishing houses.

When we call it a crap shoot people will think we're being cynical when really we are being unusually precise.

There's not much I can do to improve my luck. I'm trying to cultivate patience but I fear the Biblical three score years and ten is just too short for this game.

Of my three score years and ten,
Many will not come again. . .