First of all, the title of this post is admittedly hyperbolic, which was necessitated by my desire to echo Michael Gerson’s famous line about “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” as delivered by our 43rd president. And such a hyperbolic title necessitates the caveats up front. If people are setting out to write pulp and […]
Michael Chabon
Questions: Answered. Kind Of.
Is there room to play with genres if you’re querying in one and want to write while you wait. In other words, will an agent expect you to stick close to what you’ve submitted? I stay fairly dark, but play in horror, sci-fi and a mixture of semi-literary commercial fare. Also, am I able to […]
This Week in Publishing 10/3/08
Are you ready for the most linkerrific TWIP ever?? Yes? No? Oh. Well, here it comes anyway. Be careful with your carry-on items, these links may shift during flight. First off, in philanthropic news, Moonrat is hosting a raffle for a friend who is battling cancer and is offering query and manuscript critiques for your […]
The query points system and rulebreaking
If you spend any time out there on the internet you will hear many stories of authors who break literally every single “rule” about querying and literary agent etiquette and still find their way to publication. Needless to say, for people who spend months combing the interwebs for information about how to write the most […]
This Week in Publishing 5/18/07
BIG week in publishing. First, some background information. Typically in publishing contracts, when an author’s work goes out of print there is a mechanism in place for the author to ask for those rights back so they can try and place the rights elsewhere. Which makes a lot of sense. If a publisher isn’t actively […]
How do you feel about creative writing schools?
Thanks to everyone who posted comments about my stilted-fantasy-dialogue and weighed in one way or the other. Survey says: majority of the readers are turned off by stilted dialogue unless it’s done right. There you have it. Just be thankful I didn’t post my re-imagining of life as seen through a romance novel. Or a […]
