Super Teddy Award Series For Agents, Editors & Publishers Awarded To The Entire Blog Called:
Pub Rants
For Being A Useful Blog Full Of Information On How An Agent Thinks & Works For The Inquiring Author
Pub Rants
For Being A Useful Blog Full Of Information On How An Agent Thinks & Works For The Inquiring Author
Pub Rants where Literary Agent Kristin of the Nelson Literary Agency puts down her thoughts and musings, as the blog sub-title states: "A Very Nice Literary Agent Indulges In Polite Rants About Queries, Writers, And The Publishing Industry" lives up to her promise of being "very nice". Those of us used to Miss Snark and The Evil Editor (I still don't understand his blog) are presented with a different personality and way of looking at things.Kristin's description of herself remains true throughout the blog.
A nice Midwesterner breaks free of her genteel upbringing and says what's on her mind--politely of course--some habits are really hard to break.However, nice or not, do not confuse this with not getting a point across. Kristin does this in her own succinct manner. She does publicize her own success - that is a given - but she also in a down-to-earth manner constantly encourages writers.
For instance, in a Post entitled "The Dead Zone" she tells writers:
But here’s the reason why we don’t submit much after the first week in December. A lot of editors take extra holiday time around this time of year because publishing slows down. So a lot of key decision makers tend to leave the office early and if you have a project generating excitement… editors have to confer with those key people.So now you know why your query letter or you manuscript is taking a bit more time, and you don't have to curse the agent in your lonely room for not dealing with your work!
It’s just too frustrating so we wait until the calendar turns to the new year.
But actually I found utterly fascinating the post "A Year in Statistics" in which she places her stats before us. You can learn a great deal from these stats: (I am just going to quote the ones I found fascinating).
20,800That query letter number is fascinating. 20,800! OMG! Poor Kristin. Her eye doctor must love her! OMG!
(Estimated number of queries read and responded to in 2006)
54
(Number of full manuscripts requested and read)
8
(Number of new clients taken on this year)
21
(Number of books sold this year—not counting subsidiary rights stuff)
And out of all those queries 8 new clients were taken on after reading 54 full manuscripts. That is 54 full books!
But what it should tell us is that agents do deal with an incredible amount of queries. They do read them. There is no doubt that what you write must stand out from the crowd. (Which destroys my writing career because my query letters totally and completely suck big time!)
And through all this Kristin stays sane. Though her Ipod addiction - well I will not comment on it as one never knows if my query may one day end up on her desk!
Sometimes it is important to read Agents that do not have a "unique cynical tone". Sometimes it is important for us to read the real nuts and bolts stuff. So we get perspective.
Pub Rants gives us perspective. It is written by a nice person, a successful agent and full of interesting facts about being an agent and manuscripts. Agent Kristin at Pub Rants does all writers a great service in what she does and how she does it. Make this a daily or weekly stop on your Agent Blog reading. You will learn a great deal from it. A real big thumbs up for Pub Rants.
(Hey Kristin...do you take short story collections? All right all right...sheesh stop mumbling about crazy writers under your breath! - Hah. She still is nice!)
(For more information on the "Super Teddy Award Series For Agents, Editors & Publishers" see, "Introducing The "Super Teddy Award Series For Agents, Editors & Publishers")
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1 comment:
Thanks, Teddy. I had been meaning to check out Ms. Nelson's blog, but hadn't taken the time. I'm glad you pointed it out.
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