I realize no one has looked at this blog for nine years, including me, but that doesn't bother me.
As a practical matter, The Chronokine awaits an editor and I need to write something every day in order to stay sharp. Maybe it won't find its way onto these pages, but it least my writing has a home.
My editor-to-be is busy with another project but I expect to send him the manuscript in a few weeks. In the meantime I bought the 2020 version of Guide to Literary Agents and pored through the index under science fiction. That produced an initial list of prospects I proceeded to vet by reading their web sites. Some are no longer agents. Others, on closer exam, don't sell a lot of sci-fi books. Some are closed to queries (nice problem to have). And some just don't give me the right vibe. I don't think they'd go for my work and why waste mutual time finding that out?
I'm making a spread sheet to track the results when I begin to query. Very important to present the query in the fashion they demand. Agents are picky people. They have to be. I can't imagine reading the slush pile day after day, hoping to discover the next Big Thing in publishing. Therefore, any perceived deviation from the requested format of the query will be severely punished.
Compared to 10 years ago, the process is more author friendly. Email submissions are required. Not the case in 2011. Lots of SASEs back then. Still can't send attachments but it's no problem to cut and paste into the body of the email.
This might raise hackles of any agent reading this (unlikely as that may be) but I feel I have to comment on the grafting of social justice/woke thinking onto the industry. It may well be that the publishing market reflects a desire of many readers to read books that emphasize a particular world view in which formerly "marginalized" communities lack access to book publishing. If so, who am I to argue with the market? Over and over each agency takes pain to explain how interested it is in finding authors who fit into that particular niche. I thought good writing won out in the end. Do I think I'm "over-represented?" Not really. How many 70 year old ex-doctors are writing novels these days? And if Scott Fitzgerald were reincarnated, would the agents pass on his work because he's a WASP?
Just to be clear: in Winner Takes All, I have two gay characters, one who is murdered by his identical twin and the other who sacrifices his life fighting the bad guys. That's as much virtue signaling as I plan on doing. And my preferred pronouns are Hey you and Don't call me late for dinner.
As a practical matter, The Chronokine awaits an editor and I need to write something every day in order to stay sharp. Maybe it won't find its way onto these pages, but it least my writing has a home.
My editor-to-be is busy with another project but I expect to send him the manuscript in a few weeks. In the meantime I bought the 2020 version of Guide to Literary Agents and pored through the index under science fiction. That produced an initial list of prospects I proceeded to vet by reading their web sites. Some are no longer agents. Others, on closer exam, don't sell a lot of sci-fi books. Some are closed to queries (nice problem to have). And some just don't give me the right vibe. I don't think they'd go for my work and why waste mutual time finding that out?
I'm making a spread sheet to track the results when I begin to query. Very important to present the query in the fashion they demand. Agents are picky people. They have to be. I can't imagine reading the slush pile day after day, hoping to discover the next Big Thing in publishing. Therefore, any perceived deviation from the requested format of the query will be severely punished.
Compared to 10 years ago, the process is more author friendly. Email submissions are required. Not the case in 2011. Lots of SASEs back then. Still can't send attachments but it's no problem to cut and paste into the body of the email.
This might raise hackles of any agent reading this (unlikely as that may be) but I feel I have to comment on the grafting of social justice/woke thinking onto the industry. It may well be that the publishing market reflects a desire of many readers to read books that emphasize a particular world view in which formerly "marginalized" communities lack access to book publishing. If so, who am I to argue with the market? Over and over each agency takes pain to explain how interested it is in finding authors who fit into that particular niche. I thought good writing won out in the end. Do I think I'm "over-represented?" Not really. How many 70 year old ex-doctors are writing novels these days? And if Scott Fitzgerald were reincarnated, would the agents pass on his work because he's a WASP?
Just to be clear: in Winner Takes All, I have two gay characters, one who is murdered by his identical twin and the other who sacrifices his life fighting the bad guys. That's as much virtue signaling as I plan on doing. And my preferred pronouns are Hey you and Don't call me late for dinner.
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