Great post on writing and querying no-nos

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Browland86

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That sounds like it would be nerve-wracking for the authors. But it helps me better understand what agents are looking for and what turns them off.

It's funny that zombies are a turn-off for a lot of the agents. I suppose there is a glut of zombie stories these days, but some of them (Walking Dead) are still very popular.
 

Jamesaritchie

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That would take guts, even if it is all anonymous. But all those things that get gonged should get gonged, and writers should know it. Except maybe for the zombies.

When agents and editors say no zombies, they usually mean the same thing as when they say no vampires, or no anything else. They usually mean no more crap like all the other crap out there. Either show me something brand new and incredibly exciting, or forget all about it.
 

lambauman

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That's a great article. Thank you so much for posting.

Good to know zombies are on the out. I was never into it anyway. ^_-
 

espresso5

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Wow. My query starts with a question. Oops. Thank God I read this before I sent it out.
 

celticroots

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A good article. I'll have to rewrite the beginning of my WIP. (it starts out with my MC being chased through the woods.)
 

deborahmarkus

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Wow. My query starts with a question. Oops. Thank God I read this before I sent it out.

Whew! Yeah, from what I've read, this has evolved. It used to be that agents didn't mind the question-beginning, and some even really liked it. But I think it's something that's so easy to do that lots of people did it, and now agents can't stand it.
 

Gordon

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Wasn't guilty of most of these, but the zombie thing made me laugh. And worry.

My currently-being-shopped MS has dead people in it - not ghosts, definitely not zombies... just, um, dead. Surreal, absurd, and mostly funny. I realized in reading this list that my query, which mentions the dearly departed, might be construed by agents as, well, zombies, which are apparently frowned upon.

I've considered running the query through Query Hell, but haven't, for a variety of reasons... maybe I should..
 

GFanthome

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It was a good read and I suspect a good lesson to learn if you're a newbie writer. I really admire the courage it took for the writers to anonymously submit their works for this "game". The thing is, I can't see myself doing this, even though I haven't made any of the mistakes cited. The reason being, I suspect that the panelists would be looking forward to any reason to hit the gong at least once, even if an author's work was good enough for further consideration. In this milieu, all of the authors would likely be gonged as part of "the show".
 

LoopyLinde

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I suspect that the panelists would be looking forward to any reason to hit the gong at least once, even if an author's work was good enough for further consideration. In this milieu, all of the authors would likely be gonged as part of "the show".

Oh no. That thought just popped my fantasy bubble of having the one query all the agents loved. Gasps of awe, being offered representation right there and then by several agents, watching them fight over possession of pages. Paper flying everywhere.

Sigh.
 

GingerGunlock

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Some things that were cliche I had no idea. Not that I've done most of them (That I can think of) but I also haven't seen them. I wonder how that happened?

Great article, though I would get too angry at the gong.
 
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