Earth to writer—listen upA former science-fiction/fantasy editor at Penguin and Random House describes the most common writing and marketing mistakes she saw
Published:
April 8, 2010 Maybe you’ve already gone through the most nerve-racking of the
authorial rites of passage: the agent-editor appointment at a writers
conference. Attendees sign up for a slot with the agent or editor of
their choice, and have a strictly enforced eight minutes to pitch a
completed novel or a work-in-progress; at eight minutes a bell rings
and the writer is swapped out for the next hopeful. Nerve-racking to
say the least!
A few years ago, I was on the faculty of an all-genre conference and
spent a morning in the appointments room. One of my appointments was
late, and I was looking over my notes when I heard loud voices from the
hallway; the tardy author had arrived and was haranguing the volunteers
who were handling the scheduling. Volunteers at these events work long
hours and do it cheerfully, and I was already predisposed to dislike
him when he blustered into the room and threw himself into the chair
across from me.
Unfortunately, in his hurry he had cut himself badly while shaving, but
hadn’t noticed. His natty, white button-down shirt was soaked with
blood well below the collar. To this day I have no memory of what this
fellow was writing; but I do remember trying to keep my jaw from
dropping as he proudly told me all about his book.
This is an extreme example, but in my 10 years as a genre editor I saw
plenty of science-fiction and fantasy writers—sometimes talented, often
otherwise sane and lovely people—shoot themselves in the foot when
writing and marketing their work. Editors are wildly overloaded,
especially so in the last couple of years when many of their colleagues
have been laid off. They are looking for reasons to reject your
manuscript and get it off their teetering to-do piles.
Don’t let it happen to you. Following is a list of common mistakes—and ways you can avoid them. |
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