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I'm a teapot
Jan. 4th, 2006 04:14 pmFocusing on submissions again...
The writing output has slowed down, with only 240 words on Monday and a grand total of 31 yesterday on the Knights Templar story, plus handwaving and burbling at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
predatrix while she wrote some more Syndicate. However, yesterday *was* productive, in that I spent some time ensconced in the reference section of the Ipswich Public Library, making the acquaintance of the Writer's Handbook 2006 and the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook 2006. Two reasons for this -- one was to get a feel for them to decide whether or not to cough up money for one or both of them, and the other reason was to do some literary agent research. I was trying to pick out one or two agencies that will consider at least three out of four of science fiction, romance, erotica and gay interest. This is because I have a book that has all of the above, and which has already received one "I can't sell this cross-genre book" rejection from an agent who liked the writing enough to ask me to send him my next book. Sadly my next book was more of the same (and besides was sold to a small press without intervention of agent), so I'm still on an agent hunt...
Net result is that I'm spending this afternoon preparing a submissions package for pfd. It's a big agency, one of the biggest, so of course the books department has a great many hopefuls assaulting its slushpiles. Around a hundred manuscripts per week for the adult fiction and non-fiction books slushpile, according to the website. But being big means that it has agents covering most specialities. It does want an exclusive even on queries, but on the other hand it has a target response time of three weeks, and on past performance that's going to be a lot less than the time it takes me to decide on the next target and prepare a submission package. :-) However, I do seem to be slightly less "I'm a teapot" this time about inflicting The Trashy Porn Novel That Grew on someone's slushpile, so maybe I'll have at least decided on the next UK one to try by the time I leave the UK, and can leave a package with a friend for posting.
The writing output has slowed down, with only 240 words on Monday and a grand total of 31 yesterday on the Knights Templar story, plus handwaving and burbling at
predatrix while she wrote some more Syndicate. However, yesterday *was* productive, in that I spent some time ensconced in the reference section of the Ipswich Public Library, making the acquaintance of the Writer's Handbook 2006 and the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook 2006. Two reasons for this -- one was to get a feel for them to decide whether or not to cough up money for one or both of them, and the other reason was to do some literary agent research. I was trying to pick out one or two agencies that will consider at least three out of four of science fiction, romance, erotica and gay interest. This is because I have a book that has all of the above, and which has already received one "I can't sell this cross-genre book" rejection from an agent who liked the writing enough to ask me to send him my next book. Sadly my next book was more of the same (and besides was sold to a small press without intervention of agent), so I'm still on an agent hunt... Net result is that I'm spending this afternoon preparing a submissions package for pfd. It's a big agency, one of the biggest, so of course the books department has a great many hopefuls assaulting its slushpiles. Around a hundred manuscripts per week for the adult fiction and non-fiction books slushpile, according to the website. But being big means that it has agents covering most specialities. It does want an exclusive even on queries, but on the other hand it has a target response time of three weeks, and on past performance that's going to be a lot less than the time it takes me to decide on the next target and prepare a submission package. :-) However, I do seem to be slightly less "I'm a teapot" this time about inflicting The Trashy Porn Novel That Grew on someone's slushpile, so maybe I'll have at least decided on the next UK one to try by the time I leave the UK, and can leave a package with a friend for posting.