Comments on: What I Learned This Week: Why I Say No

By: Tweets that mention What I Learned This Week: Why I Say No « Suvudu - Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, Movies, Comics, and Games -- Topsy.com

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 20:37:13 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jessica Souders, Julie Eshbaugh. Julie Eshbaugh said: An editor at Del Rey explains the reasons she passes on manuscripts: http://bit.ly/aCXlGy #pubtip #writing [...]

By: Hal

Hal — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:02:07 +0000

“Writing quite good, but this isn’t the story to launch an author with” — tell us more, please.

By: Betsy Mitchell

Betsy Mitchell — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:42:51 +0000

Congrats on getting yourself an agent, Caroline! That’s a major hurdle behind you.

By: Lawrence Watt Evans

Lawrence Watt Evans — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:44:14 +0000

’80s horror, with the red drippy letters on black covers and lots of serial killers and splattered body parts, was not read exclusively by men. I know it sometimes seemed like it, but honest, I spent two years as president of HWA talking to horror writers and readers, and there were plenty of women who read the stuff.
My mother, for one — and I don’t mean my own splatter novel, as she was dead by the time that was published.
I have a great deal I could say about horror, but this isn’t the place; I just wanted to correct that one misapprehension.

By: Nathan Carriker

Nathan Carriker — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 02:46:34 +0000

Betsy, thanks for your time on this post. Did the writers you passed up receive feedback to the effect of your true reason(s), or does everyone get a blanket “not right for me/the market/etc. right now”, regardless of the cold, hard truth?

By: Denise Weeks

Denise Weeks — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:37:13 +0000

Hello, Ms. Mitchell! I appreciate the tips and am passing them along to the writers’ group I’m in (and telling them they should get you for the next conference.)
You may or may not remember me, but my novel DULCINEA: or WIZARDRY A-FLUTE was the first of three runners-up in your 1996 Warner Aspect First Fantasy Novel Contest (I lost to your first commenter–hi, Nalo). Your kind comment at the bottom of my “congratulations” letter said that you liked my story and asked if I had tried YA publishers . . . which leads me to believe that you might still like the book. Agents told me back then that my book was too long for YA fantasy, but now that Harry Potter has broken the glass barrier there, perhaps it’s no longer a problem. But I can’t find any YA agents who’ll take me on in order to send the book to you again (they tell me instead that if I have a werewolf/vampire/zombie novel, please send that one!) Do you ever take unagented queries? (The ‘net says not and the office says not, but what the heck–I might as well ask, right? The worst you can do is say that I’m banned from your sight for life. *grin*) I completed a sequel to DULCINEA, but it has been sitting on the shelf as well. Anyway, thank you for the encouragement way back when. If I give up in frustration, it will be in spite of the kindness you showed, and that Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden showed, and that Peter Stampfel at DAW showed (years ago, but it sticks).

By: A.S. Browning

A.S. Browning — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:20:00 +0000

Just to be clear, asakiyume — I *thought* the stuff I planned to do was very similar. A thriller is a thriller, right? Not so much. My agent made me focus in a lot harder on subgenres, and on which one I thought I could work in best.

By: asakiyume

asakiyume — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:13:04 +0000

A.S. Browning,
Thanks for your comments! Yes, I’ve heard that about it not being a good idea to start out with a novel that’s quite different from the other stuff you’re likely to be writing (or have already written).

By: Betsy Mitchell

Betsy Mitchell — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:11:32 +0000

Hi Steven–Yep, it’s hard for a professional editor to admit that sometimes self-publication is a viable route, but honestly I think a lot of people *would* enjoy several of the manuscripts I had to pass on this year. And some of my favorite books fall into the “between genres” category and had a hard time finding publication in years past, the most startling example being _A Confederacy of Dunces_ by John Kennedy Toole, which was turned down by about two dozen publishers before the author committed suicide at age 32 (A ROUTE I DO NOT WANT TO RECOMMEND TO ANYONE!!!)–and then went on to win the Pulitzer Prize after Toole’s mother persisted until the manuscript was published. Anyway, with the self-publishing tools available today, this is a legitimate route if an author can devote the self-promotion required along with it. And if the book succeeds, a publisher may come calling, and then you’ve got’em by the delicate parts! The story of how _The Celestine Prophecy_ came to be published (and then sold gazillions of copies) makes for inspirational reading.

By: A.S. Browning

A.S. Browning — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:10:30 +0000

Asakiyume — Most of the specifics are very individual to my own work, but to generalize: The book needs to be highly commercial (not like everything else you see on the shelves — something that *could* be on the shelves but is truly unique in some key way), needs to play to your strengths as well as the needs of the market, and also needs to set a template for the future. In my case, I had a strong book that was wholly unlike most of what I wanted to write going forward, and it took a long time for me to understand that this was the best story to start out with. And I was very lucky to have an agent patient enough to work with me, thinking my career in the long term, instead of simply trying to sell the first project with no eye to the future.