Mattie123 said:
Hi Everyone!
I have to disagree. Holding back from asking for help if you think it might enhance your project and you truly believe that the Author might be gracious enough to assist you by contacting their Agent or anyone else that might be able to assist you is what networking, blogs, the internet, and all of these sites have in common- Assistance in getting published! Only until we reach out and ask for help can this field of writing improve from it's present day God-like status and become down to earth and realistic. We are only human. I have been in several fields as a 55 y/o female and I have no reservations asking for help from anyone I can in the writing world. I hope people feel that they can approach me for advice and comments anytime they see fit. The only time I will not help them is if I can't and do not know the answer. Some people really think they are big-shots. Being an elder of sorts in this arena, I find that to be a turn-off. True professionals teach their trade to anyone who is interested in learning it and true human beings always acknowledge a question from someone. Only a jerk turns their back on those people who are merely trying to make a living.
It does no harm to ask, particularly if you actually know the writer. But it can be a serious risk for a pro writer to say yes. There are many, many new writers out there who will sue you the moment you write something even remotely similar to whatever it is they had you read.
And it's just silly to think only a jerk turns his back on those people who are merely trying to make a living. There are at least fourteen million wannabe writers out there. Are you saying a professional writer has to say yes to every last one who asks for help? If he did he'd never have time to write anything of his own for the rest of his life.
It isn't just one wannabe who asks. It isn't just ten or twenty or fifty.
You want down to earth and realistic? Down to earth and relaistic is that professional writers are also human, and often have very little spare time, can get sued by anyone at anytime, and often do. And for every hundred writers who ask for help, at least ninety can't be helped. This means you have to pick and choose carefully. And darned few of the pros out there got where they are by asking other pros they didn't know for help. Having a pro offer help is something else. Put yourself in a position of having the pro ask, and you'll probably get more help than you need. But this usually means getting to know teh pro well first, and treating him like a friend, rather than as a ladder.
And you don't really have to ask. Pros offer advice all over the internet, generally answer questions, write how-to books, etc. I don't know any pro who won't answer questions, unless the numbers are simply overwhelming. Pros help on sites such a sthis one, and by advice given and questions answered on their own websites. But if you're counting on a pro reading your manuscript or referring you to his agent because you contacted him and asked him to, well, it probably ain't gonna happen, and it shouldn't.
If you take the time to really get to know a pro writer and let him ask, that's one thing. If you go to places where he's supposed to help and is allowed to help, such as conferences and workshops, that's one thing. But contacting a writer you don't know out of the blue and expecting him to read your manuscript with an eye toward recommending his agent is something else altogether. It's presumptous, shows no regard for the pro writer's time or potential problems, and is really being the jerk.
It isn't at all difficult to get help from pro writers. Most are extremely helpful. But there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it, and a right time and a right place.
And an agent's time is just as important as a writer's time, and my last agent had a clause in my contract that said I couldn't read manuscripts from anyone except under controlled circumstances and conditions. And I had to be extremely careful about referring anyone to her even then.
Get help from pros, yes, but go about it the right way, and remember you aren't the only writer out there. You're one of fourteen million. So get help in the right way, at the right time, and in the right place. Make friends with a writer, and he'll do the asking.
And, honestly, assuming you have any talent, the only assitance you need to get published is the kind you're already getting from pro writers, if you're paying attention.