Lots of links again, so let’s get started! Also, thanks to the Hastings Entertainment Law class for hosting me this morning, you guys asked some really smart questions about the business. But then: you’re law students. Of course you people are smart.
First up: Blog reader plugs! Reader Scott Rhoades has an article called “Great Writing Software That Won’t Coast a Dime” in the May issue of The Writer magazine, which is in stores now. Mira started a blog called Come In Character, in which she offers prompts and writers respond in their characters’ voices, which is undoubtedly a fun exercise. And longtime friend of the blog Ray Rhamey is turning his popular blog Flogging the Quill into a book version, so check that out as well.
This week’s agentfail post at Bookends continues to spark reactions around the blogosphere. Victoria Strauss responds here and Jonathan Lyons here. Both, like me, are surprised at the venom. Only kind of unsurprised too. UPDATE: Jennifer Jackson weighs in here.
And to further respond to yesterday’s post, I understand that agents sometimes fall down at the job and do some things that frustrate and irritate authors. We’re human. But don’t forget that: we’re human. We’re not horrible weeds in the publishing garden. We love our clients, books, and the publishing industry, or else we wouldn’t be here.
Speaking of positivity, Bookends also started an Authorpass and Agentpass appreciation thread. Feel the love!
Thanks to Colleen Lindsay for sending along this hilarious publishing glossary. Sample entry: AUTHOR TOUR: A hazing ritual intended to make authors compliant to their publishers.
In actual book glossary news, Book Roast’s own anonymous publisher breaks down terms like launch and sales conference and discusses how publishers go about allocating marketing resources. An absolute must read if you’re curious about how that process works.
Influential blogger Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo recently bought a Kindle, liked it a lot, and then immediately began considering the potentially scary repercussions and the disappearance of paper books. A really nice summary of both the advantages of e-books paired with consciousness of their perils.
Remember how Klazart/Vineet sent Authonomaniacs into freakout mode when he (legally) brought some of his gamer friends to the site to back his novel? Lauri Shaw has an interview with the man himself.
Via Moonrat comes word that the late Robert Jordan’s last book will be released in three volumes. This is big news to everyone who has read all 7,078,253,278,234 words of the series thus far.
Rachelle Gardner has a fabulous post on 10 things an author should expect out of their agent. Really a great list.
My client Jennifer Hubbard has another great writing post this week about what makes a book un-put-downable (and she should know, her upcoming novel THE SECRET YEAR absolutely falls into that category). She attributes it to a combination of a question to be solved and a compelling voice.
Reader Neil Vogler pointed me to an article that contemplates an interesting new avenue for writing: literary video games?
And finally, friend-of-the-blog Tanya Egan Gibson has a new book coming out called HOW TO BUY A LOVE OF READING, and she recently produced a really cool book trailer:
Have a great weekend!
Margaret Yang says
Awesome quality linkage, Nathan. Have a great weekend.
Marilyn Peake says
Wow, so many links, so little time. I’m going to check out the links over the weekend. Should be fun! In the meantime, I’m going over to the BookEnds blog to leave a cheerful PASS comment. 🙂
RW says
Didn’t even know there was such a thing as AAR. Thanks for the reading.
Bane of Anubis says
Thanks for another great week of posts…
Robert Jordan could definitely have used some of SK “On Writing” advice about cutting down manuscripts – way overwritten and far too convoluted. May his editor in the hereafter have a nimble and active red pen.
Good luck to Jody on the tourney and to all the others who’ve got a horse in the query appraisal race.
Kristi says
Thank for the links – the publishing glossary was gold.
I would also like to wish Jody good luck (even though I’m a Carolina fan). Jody – if you win the whole thing, you should really buy a Powerball ticket while you’re on a hot streak.
Happy Weekend to everyone who won’t be covered by a foot of snow tomorrow. To those like me in Colorado, hey, at least we’ll have built in writing time (after we shovel and have snowball fights). 🙂
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist! says
It’s so hilarious to see so much anger in #Agentfail. People need to chill the F out.
Anonymous says
So when do we get #querypass. ?? I know agents blog about what makes a great query, but how about live?
The great Daphne Unfeasible did this lately before her trip, and it was truly enjoyable.
Thanks for the links.
Tara Maya says
What a great book trailer. I laughed and linked it to my friends.
Lisa Schroeder says
Jenn Hubbard is made of awesome and I can’t wait to read her book!
Happy weekend!
Anonymous says
Literary games are old news. Final Fantasy has beeb leading that trend since the early 90s. BioShock was considered a great work of literature amongst gamers.
wickerman says
I am highly amused at the whole agentfail fall out.
When writers send queries on pink paper and misspell the agent’s name etc.. they are lazy and unprofessional fools who deserve things like snarky blog posts and queryfail.
When agents never get back to you, spell your name wrong or reject your book with a form letter that mentions someone else’s book, you have to forgive them for they are only human.
Can we all grow up please?
Agent fail – whether Ms Strauss wants to believe it or not IS about queryfail – or rather the attitude that saw it degenerate into the sad little snipe fest it became.
That certainly does not excuse Agentfail for being an equally childish exercise, but please people. There are far too many ‘Agents suck’ or ‘authors are stupid’ posts and too few folks with the levelheaded responses along the lines of what Nathan has posted.
There were some good points name in the two ‘fails’ but unfortunately most of the good was swallowed up by the landslide of negativity and foolery on BOTH sides.
Jen C says
OMG, that book trailer was awesome! Probably the best I’ve seen yet. Really, really funny!
“Are those pyjamas?”
Nathan Bransford says
wickerman-
Not sure if I’d agree with your characterization of both sides of the typo divide.
And regardless of how authors felt about queryfail, they should have remembered what their mommas told them: two wrongs don’t make a right. There were some nasty things said in that thread.
Anonymous says
Forgive me if this dampens your weekend wrap-up, but I almost can’t believe that agents are stunned by agentfail.
How out of touch do you have to be as an agent to not know that writers get pissy when they are asked to send partials but never get a response? Asked for fulls and then promptly ignored? Asked for rewrites and then the agent never gets back to them no matter how many polite emails they send?
Are these people living under a rock?
You know how you (as an agent) feel when an editor takes an interest in a project and then never gets back to you? Ever. No matter how many times you email them and no matter how many times they promise to get that read in?
Well, writers also feel that way in regards to agents. Why is it so difficult to understand human beings want the simple courtesy of following through on what is promised by an agent or an editor?
(signing on as an Anon ’cause I’m chicken).
Nathan Bransford says
anon-
Here’s what I do when an editor fails to get back to me: I move on. I might not submit to them the next time, but I don’t waste my time and energy getting angry about it.
Look at it this way: if an agent isn’t getting back to you after you even after you send polite e-mails following up, you dodged a bullet. You should feel lucky, not aggrieved. Worse is an agent who does sign you up and then stops paying attention to you. I wish those people didn’t exist, but they do.
Anonymous says
Thank you for your reply, Nathan.
Your quote: “… I might not submit to them the next time, but I don’t waste my time and energy getting angry about it…”
Sure, and it’s not like most writers are either. Most of us aren’t moping around, cursing the skies, we are querying others or working on our next book. But BookEnds asked for what irked people about agents, and answers were given.
The fact that some agents are aghast that — gasp — writers (especially those they asked for partials, fulls or those that they’ve signed up as clients) expect a few emails to be returned or some type of follow up, even if it is a rejection, simply boggles my mind.
It doesn’t make me mad, it makes me a little sad, is all. The whole do unto others as you would have them do unto you thing.
Haste yee back ;-) says
As to Agentfail…
When will I ever learn that an IDEAL is nothing but a beautiful mirage, but is incapable of providing the real camel, for the real walk, through the real desert, to the real water!
Haste yee back 😉
Nathan Bransford says
anon-
I don’t think any of us are surprised that some of the things we do frustrates writers. That’s not what I’m objecting to. What I object to is the level of anger in that thread. There’s no sense in some (not all) of those comments that agents are human, even the ones who make mistakes. There’s, in my opinion, a misplaced sense of entitlement among writers who have finished a manuscript and think their work is done and that agents then owe them their time.
Sure, sometimes agents are guilty of the same frustration demonstrated in that blog post. Doesn’t make either side right when they do it.
Anonymous says
I think it’s sad that agents got defensive over the agentfail thing instead of using it as a learning opportunity. The fact is, some agents suck. Plain and simple. While the majority agents are great, there are those who aren’t. Period.
Janet Reid’s comments on AgentFail were “writer friendly”. I suggest everyone check it out.
Anonymous says
How did the writers who participated in AgentFail end up being the bad guys? The prompt on the blog invited animosity, specifically suggesting authors post anonymously.
It’s very depressing that writers are always criticized, even by their fellows! Yes, some people responded with anger — which was invited. Sheesh.
Anonymous says
I’m Anon 3:21 and 3:35–
We’ll agree to disagree, I think we are on the same page anyway. 🙂
Have a great weekend and thanks for your level-headed blog.
Nathan Bransford says
anon-
Some of the people who participated left constructive comments, which is fine. And yeah, I acknowledged in my post about it that it was part of the prompt.
But “they asked us to” isn’t really an excuse, is it? And certainly some people don’t even need a prompt.
Chris Bates says
Thanks for the Josh Marshall link.
Marshall’s view mirrors my own – not to mention many others – on the whole ebook thing. That ‘sock in the gut’ comment summed it up. It’s almost as if you caught your high school sweetheart kissing your best friend. You like ‘em both but you know that your world has changed irrevocably… and there ain’t no going back.
His comment about missing the magic of stumbling across those ‘peripheral’ articles in newspapers also rang true. Nowadays I read news online. I click the stories of interest, rarely giving a moment to read a one hundred word grab on some random subject. Those obscure gems escape me now, sadly. I suppose that is why community free-press papers will still survive: Obscure relevance!
As for agent/queryfail…
It’s always hard for anyone to take criticism – personal or professional. Of course, professionals expect it: they are paid to.
Budding authors will always be aggrieved by rejection. We’re timid creatures.
Nathan, I don’t really sympathise with your ‘just move on’ comment with regards to commissioning editors passing on your pitches.
You get paid to shop a product. Sure you have quota to fill, commission to earn, but I assume you get a retainer? The author, however, submits on spec. That SASE that is bundled with the manuscript isn’t empty. That sucker is full of hope and aspiration. If an agent crushes that, they crush that particular author.
That breakout ‘it’ novel that every agent and publisher is after isn’t written by hard-edged, self-serving, thick-skinned, egotistical, self-confident writers … it’s pasted together by emotionally-charged, often fragile, introspective home-bodies. Without these people there is no industry.
Conversely … you need criticism to achieve great writing. Constructive criticism.
Apologies for the usual essay.
Elaine 'still writing' Smith says
Mira’s ‘Come in character’ was good fun – I could hear my character’s voice changing at the imposition of being forced into an unfamiliar setting!
Tanya Egan Gibson’s ‘How to buy a love of reading’ is now at the top of my ‘must have’ list of books – Borders says ‘No’ and May is a long way off.
There were so many links to follow I’ve got nothing else done – great blog!
Nathan Bransford says
chris-
When I’m submitting a debut author I’m submitting on spec too. I don’t get paid if they don’t get paid. There’s a hundred hours of unpaid work riding on every submission. I may not be as invested in it as the author, but it’s not far off.
Yeah, if I don’t sell one particular project I’ll probably still have a job, but the author doesn’t lose their license to write books either.
sex scenes at starbucks says
OMG, thanks for that link to “Come in Character.”
Well, I guess I mean thanks. I might mean “Bad Nathan!” I just wasted about an hour reading it and leaving comments.
hannah says
In the Agent Positivity category, one of our bloggers at Yapping about YA landed an agent today, and we’re having an #agentwin party in celebration! https://www.yappingaboutyoungadult.blogspot.com/
Jennifer Jackson says
Thanks for the link, Nathan. 🙂
Chris said:
“Sure you have quota to fill, commission to earn, but I assume you get a retainer? The author, however, submits on spec. That SASE that is bundled with the manuscript isn’t empty. That sucker is full of hope and aspiration. If an agent crushes that, they crush that particular author.”
Just wanted to chime in and agree with Nathan on this one. Most agents get paid on commission. We only get paid when the author gets paid. I know that every project I send out goes with passion and hope — perhaps it’s a bit of a surrogate investment, but it’s a very sincere one.
Anonymous says
Nathan, Your blog is must reading for me.
It keeps me informed, educates me,
and is entertaining as hell.
Thanks again.
Bane of Anubis says
Anon – just because something is posted anonymously doesn’t mean it should be done without civility. In fact, when posting anonymously or with an unidentifiable screenname (e.g., Bane of Anubis), I think it should be done w/ more civility b/c we have the added benefit of hiding behind a shield of invisibility.
WV: gooftyp – I do this frequently.
J. M. Strother says
Oh, dear.
“AUTHOR BIO: A piece of creative writing whose length varies inversely with the attractiveness of the person depicted in the AUTHOR PHOTO.”
I’m going to need a very long AUTHOR BIO. 🙁
~jon
Chris Bates says
Nathan & Jennifer:
I understand where you guys are coming from.
The difference here is that the average author throwing out a query is an industry virgin. They've never exposed their work publicly. They've never been challenged with a professional critique. They've never faced the cold reality of the business.
You, on the other hand, know the ropes. And yet I bet the first week in your job was anxiety filled. How many times did it take to ‘throw your arm in’? Two deals? Five … ten?
Good ole Joe/Jane Novelist is timidly stepping out onto an NBA court and looking to sink a three pointer from the get-go. And here’s the thing… they’ve only ever played the hoop on their garage wall.
Can their game cut it in the big time?
Let’s cross to the talent spotters… which is what you guys are. You spot talent for the big teams. You sign talent. What spotters shouldn’t do is kill those working on their game. Sure, an author should research the industry more and many need to work harder on their submissions. Doesn’t mean they need to be denigrated, publicly or privately.
Nathan, the visitor numbers you have on this blog would suggest that people are coming here not merely for industry info but for something else as well. I bet it has something to do with respect.
I know agents have a ton of crap manuscripts in the slushpile. 99% of them will make your eyes roll and pray for salvation in the form of a decent read. The holy grail.
I guess civility is the key.
These days many business operators – large and small – Google prospective partners and associates for evaluation. Personally, if I found a string of negativity attached to such a name, I'd scuttle the deal … or the representative.
T. Anne says
Cool book trailer. Thanks for the links Nathan.
Sarah Laurenson says
Nathan – Thanks for the Book Roast shout out. Ms. Spitfire is a great resource for info on the publishing side of life.
I have noticed a marked increase in the amount of negativity by anonymous commenters. Not just here or from people in publishing. Even news stories have nasty comments in the thread. It seems the cloak of anonymity gives some people carte blanche to be disgusting.
A co-worker of mine died in a car accident recently and some of the anonymous comments were unbelievably cruel.
Ethics are what you would do if you think you won’t be caught. Apparently, there are a lot of unethical people out there. Not a real surprise actually, but it is sad. Thankfully, there are even more ethical, decent people – even in blogland.
I’m seeing some double standard with the reactions to #queryfail and #agentfail. Snark can be cruel – period – no matter which side of that fence you sit on. And neither the agents nor the authors agreed to be the subject of that fail thread.
But yes – if you’re given leave to express your anger, should you? Is it appropriate as long as someone gives you permission?
Rachel says
Bane of Anubis–
I totally agree with your comment at 4:23. Every posting should be done with civility, something that a lot of writers should have thought about before they posted on agentfail. I read some of the comments but it was too painful to keep going.
Thanks to Nathan for all the information you pass on to us.
Rick Chesler says
Thanks again for the info, Nathan!
Jo says
OMG! I can’t believe that anyone thinks there was “so much anger and vitriol” in the agentfail comments. You think that’s anger? You don’t know what anger looks like. That was frustration.
The frustration comes from agents expect a certain level of professionalism from authors but don’t feel the need to be professional in return.
(Anger, BTW, is what I’ve seen in my day job in the past month, and it’s going to get our office manager fired. Yelling, swearing and throwing punches will do that.)
As Nathan recently pointed out when discussing GRRM’s blog responses, when you have public discourse, you invite people to feel familiar with you. One needs to think twice about EVERYTHING that goes into a public forum. Even if it’s private, you have to know your audience. And whining about the number of people who want to be your date for the prom is tacky. A polite no will do. Fortunately, many reputable agents understand this. The ones who don’t will reap what they’ve sown.
As far as how an agent makes his money, I LOVE the system. I don’t trust anyone who wants to do me a “favor” out of the goodness of his heart. I don’t believe in the goodness of a stranger’s heart. I want to know where they’re making there money. That an agent makes his money in same proportion that I do is a wonderful thing. It means he/she is motivated to do the absolute best they can for me because it’s also good for them. That I trust.
Nathan Bransford says
jo-
No, I’m sorry, I stand by what I said. Some of it was just frustration, but a lot of it was anger. And I don’t think much of it was justified.
Rick Daley says
Excellent strategy, provide enough links to satiate us until you post again on Monday. Plus it gives me the chance to use big words like satiate.
COME IN CHARACTER is a lot of fun, Mira has done a great job moderating it so far!
WORD VERIFICATION: prick. Seriously. Dude, are you trying to tell me something? I can tone back the comments…
Nathan Bransford says
I’d also like to add that this all is probably a bit more real for agents than it is for the people who participated in the thread. They might have just been venting anonymously, I get scary e-mails. I’m concerned about the level of anger out there about agents, particularly when people are already so tense because of what’s going on in the world.
So a little more calmness out there would be much appreciated.
Bane of Anubis says
Threats/stalking are things most of us don’t have to deal with. It sucks that you or anybody has to deal with that (and nothing, absolutely nothing – in terms of professionalism or lack thereof – justifies that.)
WV: intely – Hope this is a good omen, b/c I’m waiting for an answer from Intel – hopefully a Y 🙂
L.C. Gant says
As always, you’ve outdone yourself with the linkage, Nathan! I’ve got enough reading material for the whole weekend. Thanks a bunch!
I’m also sorry about the scary emails you’ve been getting; that’s awful. General frustration is one thing, but I’d hate to think any writer would consider harming an agent over a rejected manuscript. Definitely not cool.
wickerman says
Sorry Nathan, I have to stand by my analysis of the Agent Fail reactions. I can see where you would argue with it – after all, you are not one of the ones who anything I read on Agent Fail applied to, but there is – from this side of the fence anyway – a double standard.
Upon rereading my post I think maybe I came off a little more harshly than I intended and I certainly didn’t mean to level the criticism at you or any other specific person, it was a general observation about some of the exasperated agents who have responded around the web. There seemed to be an awful lot of consternation among some folks who followed queryfail with a big fat ‘Get over it – if you can;t take this you’ll never make it in the Pub biz.’
nevertheless, I will freely admit it would sit differently with me if i were the guy getting death threats in my email box.
I respect you and others like Janet Reid and Jessica Faust too much to argue it further.
My point – poorly put at that – was exactly your own – the Agent Fail did nothing but heap bad form on top of the already pointless venom spewed by queryfail.
Group hug??
Chris Bates says
“I get scary e-mails. I’m concerned about the level of anger out there about agents, particularly when people are already so tense because of what’s going on in the world.”
Okay, okay… I apologise for the ‘rodent squashed with rice sack’ pics… I only meant it as a harmless joke.
Beatriz Kim says
Thanks for the links. Have a great weekend everyone!
Mira says
Nathan, you get scary e-mails? That’s horrible!
Boy, I was relieved to see your post today. You posted late, and I left work early to go do stuff, so I wasn’t sure you would post. I was actually getting teary in my car worring that you’d been hurt by stuff that was said yesterday. Which, I just want to say, is nuts. Nuts! I don’t even know you. Not that I would want to hurt someone I didn’t know either, but you know. It’s nuts.
But I hang out here alot, and in a odd way, I really care about you….as well as many of the posters here. Not in a stalking, sending mean e-mails kind of a way(by the way, whoever is doing that, stop that this instant! What is wrong with you!!?), but in a……weird, I post on your blog and don’t even know you but care about you anyway kind of way.
Anyway, I’m very glad you’re doing just fine.
I, however, am not, being nuts and all. But there you go.
Mira says
Oh. Very important. Thank you for linking to Come In Character. I wasn’t it, and I was totally blown away.
How awesome of you!!! Thanks, Nathan.
And Rick, you, too, thank you too.
I really hope people enjoy it. I’m having a blast there personally!
Nathan Bransford says
Thanks, everyone. And I don’t mean to complain — I feel lucky to have the job I have, I think all this goes with the territory, honestly, the craziness doesn’t usually faze me. It’s easy to laugh off.
I’m just saying that the stakes might appear a little different to us than it does to the people who leave comments anonymously. Maybe it’s just the news these days, but it all unnerves me a little, and agents have written me who were pretty distressed. Say what you will about queryfail (and I didn’t participate), but what was in agentfail was an order of magnitude greater in terms of the anger and negativity. I really would like to do what I can to dispel some of that by explaining our side.
This isn’t an umbrage war and we all have our frustrations in the business, but I don’t think many of the comments in the agentfail thread should be defended (nor do I defend queryfail). Hopefully perspectives are restored over the weekend.
Anonymous says
“I don’t remember seeing any comment that stated every agent on this planet did everyone of the things listed. Not one. The agents weren’t being lumped into one big sum. These for the most part were complaints about many different agents, the bloggers were told not to name names. I hate it that all of the agents that were not necessarily being talked about think that it was about them. It is sad that the whole ordeal was seen as every post there was by an angry or unpublished writer. There were many published writers and the majority of complaints were hopes for a better future, and yes there were a few over the top angry people. Just because someone blogged doesn’t mean they agree with every complaint. IDK maybe some of these sensitive agents see something in theirselves we can’t see. I saw some anger, but I also saw a LOT of justified stuff in there.” This is from another blog, but I thought you needed to see it.
Nathan,
I would seriously like to see you go in and re-read those posts. This time don’t connect them. Read them as individual people blogging. Then tell us how many of those are truly scary posts. IDK why this has struck such a nerve with you and a few other agents.
As for your moving on when you get ignored, I love what Wickerman said, but have this to add. You are an experienced agent, you are already proven, and you haven’t heard over and over agents expect to be treated like their the only one you are querying, individualize each query, etc. Agents don’t want us to mass query, and by gosh if they ask for our mss and want an exclusive we are not going to do anything that might blow it. We toil over every letter we write, terrified of misakes. Can you imagine an agent talking to another agent and find out they are looking at the same MSS as each other. We can! A bad name for us can be spread throughout all the agents. I have heard that several places. Do you know how long to give a publisher? We don’t, and by the time we figure it our window might be closed. I just can’t see that you could possibly feel like those “virgin” writers.
Back to queryfail now. Those writers they were making fun of weren’t bad writers, they were new writers. They hadn’t learned the ropes yet, but some of them will if they don’t get crushed. Do you think they are going to query those agents when they do? The agents that did the things people were griping about are seasoned people, they are not learning the ropes. Now you tell me which of those two fail sessions were wrong? They are not the same. Those writers would have learned how to query properly by reading blogs like yours, JR’s, and JF’s, which the majority of writers really appreciate, and not been crushed. And I honestly think they were griping about the queryfail not your daily blog.
Those horrible letters in your slush pile, maybe the perfected dream letter in someone elses in a few months.
I have to say my eyes were truly opened by the different agents reactions, and some of my original opinions have really turned around for the better.
Nathan Bransford says
How about this one anon?
Look – I don’t feel personally implicated in this. I don’t do a lot of the things people were complaining about. I’m just trying to explain some of the reasons why I disagree with the reasons behind the anger. And yes, there was real anger. Some of it really unjustified.
And yeah — there are hoops to jump through in this business. That’s just the way it is. It’s not always fair. People can get mad, or they can get working.