Stilllllllll going. Can you tell how excited I am about the entries in this contest? No? Well, I am very excited! So excited I put that in italics. Thanks again to everyone for entering. Please remember to enter in the original contest thread.
It was a year ago today that Miss Snark left us, and there are a number of lovely tributes around the blogosophere for Her Snarkness. Patricia Wood is hosting the official tribute, and Kim Stagliano, Stephen Parrish, Maya Reynolds and Aprilynne Pike have also posted tributes. (Sorry if I missed anyone — busy day!)
There is some big news afoot at Random House as Peter Olson is officially out as CEO, and in steps Markus Dohle, who had headed Bertelsmann’s Arvato Print unit, and is a publishing outsider. We’re all watching closely!
And you may have seen Dennis Cass’ video on what he isn’t doing to promote the paperback release of HEAD CASE, but if you haven’t, the hilarious video is definitely worth a watch:
Bethanne says
LOL, select all…
funny. who knew?
kitty says
Since it’s been a year, I guess it’s okay to reveal Miss Snark’s true identity.
…
Adaora A. says
I bet Ms. Snark is blogging somewhere…as one of the blogging agents. I have my suspects.
I was curious about Random House as well. Jonathan Lyon’s doesn’t forsee much change. I hope that’s the case. Fear of the unknown and all that.
Kristin Nelson posted that video too. It’s deadly. You’d cut off you’re air supply laughing.
Josephine Damian says
Great. Another YouTube video I can’t watch.
Nathan, maybe when you wrote next Wednesday’s date you were already thinking ahead to when the contest was over? lol
Caryn says
I LOVE the video. Probably one of the best ways I’ve seen to virally promote a book: make people laugh in a medium that’s easy to share.
Gabrielle says
You gotta love publishing humor.
Kirsten says
Technophobes unite!(somehow)
That’s hilarious, and oddly comforting. Thanks for posting.
Marti says
I adore Miss Snark. I hope she is happy and well.
Best wishes to you, Nathan, I read all of the entries and do not envy your job.
That book trailer is fabulous – thanks for sharing!
Anonymous says
Nathan,
Can you tell me the secret of how to delete anonymous posts (so far I have three–I thought I was deleting the previous ones)!
Ack!
Coll
Anonymous says
Nathan,
I’ve been trying to figure out how to get rid of my unwanted posts. If you decide to count my entry in the contest, please disregard the first 2 posts about Mary Jane, Willow and Red.
I need a drink.
Coll 😉
Miss Snark says
I may have to give up George Clooney for Nathan Bransford.
Maybe.
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
MISS SNARK HERSELF!
Anonymous says
OK, the tension is Rising!!!
Just for some relief, I decided to click on the “next blog” button at the top of my screen.
Seriously.
https://movimiento-esoterico.blogspot.com/
random update
Adaora A. says
398 entries…..
Julie Weathers says
Oh, my stars. Miss Snark!
austexgrl says
Okay..I tried to post, in the contest, but never could. I give up!!, but now, Miss Snark…for her, I WOULD NEVER, NEVER give up!! My all time favorite person….love her, even more than George Clooney
Nathan Bransford says
Ah, Miss Snark!! Thanks so much for stopping by. And I’m beyond honored that you would even think of snubbing your beloved Clooney. But let’s face it — we both know that’s the gin talking.
Sam Hranac says
Oh. My. How I love that video.
Sarahlynn says
Ever since I hit “publish your comment” I’ve been cringing over a missing comma in a dialog tag. Alas, alack. ‘Tis so much better to obsess over the little things.
ORION says
I love this video too…
Thanks for the mention/link Nathan. I’ve had three hours of sleep in two days being the comment moderator.
Lucky I live Hawaii.
I think we ended at 148 comments. I closed it at midnight New York time.
rhienelleth says
It seems my contest entry never showed up (or at least, I can’t seem to find it among the 400+(!!) entries currently listed. After I posted the comment this afternoon, it didn’t immediately appear, but at the time I assumed you must have been screening comments.
Has anyone else had trouble? I suppose I’ll go ahead and re-comment.
Nathan Bransford says
If you posted and did not see your comment please note that Blogger has instituted a new feature on long comment threads — you have to click the link that says “newer” or “newest in order to find your comment.
Please please look closely for this because there have been a lot of double-posts.
rhienelleth says
I’ve scrolled through all 412 comments twice, and can’t find it. When I posted, there were 232, I think. I know about where that would fall on page 2 of the comments, and so I’ve particularly searched there. But if it posted anywhere in the comments, I sure can’t find it.
Though I did notice several double postings in my search, as well as some that seem, er, long-ish, for 250 words. LOL.
I’ll scroll through once more, and post again only if I don’t find it.
Anonymous says
OMG 415 comments on the contest!!!!
yikes!
Josh Everett Ryan says
rhienelleth – hope you know already about your browser’s edit -> find in this page function? most browsers have this, including internet explorer, firefox, prolly even netscape navigator… might make it easier?
Other Lisa says
Oh, that video. It hurts! It really does…
I mean, I have a Twitter account. What’s it for? I’m still not sure.
Eric says
sarahlynn,
Yeah, I have the typo blues too. I considered deleting and resubmitting, but then I thought about poor Nathan glazing over his bottle of makers, reading through half of my re-post before realizing he’d already been there and done that and just let it go.
Adaora A. says
Oooh Nathan you’re the cheeseto Miss Snark’s maccaroni!
Anyone else find themselves quoting line’s from Juno?
Mark C says
Nathan: I don’t think anyone would hold it against you if you took a little extra time to judge these entries….you’re going to end up over 500….500×250 is 125K words! That’s a 500 page book!!!
Leis says
Erm. But it’s easy to delete your own post… 😕
There’s a BIN right under the published post — click it…
Jessica says
So how far are you through reading the entries right now, Nathan?
Nathan Bransford says
I was up to #400 last night, I’ll tackle the rest tonight.
Natalie says
Wow, that’s impressive.
Anonymous says
and you still have several hours left…you’re easily clocking 100 over a few hours. The last contest was nearly 700 and I’m betting that’s where this one will end too.
On the bright side, there’s lots of funny lines over there and that’s gotta help with the reading.
Adaora A. says
Wow…400?
Very impressive. I thought you’d be at half that with all the regular agent work you have on your plate. Energetic agents ARE ideal.
Precie says
Nathan–
I’m still not convinced you don’t have a death wish.
Congratulations, though, on being selected by Writer’s Digest for as one of the best Agent Blogs of 2008. You definitely deserve the honor!
I’m guessing your visitor stats have already jumped exponentially…I just the contest entries remain manageable.
Precie says
ahem…I just HOPE the contest entries remain manageable. (Never forget the HOPE.)
Anonymous says
534 entries and four more hours to go!!!
Will he make it by Thursday morning?
Bets?
I bet he will!
Jessica says
What a pro! Already 400 down.
After all of this is done, would love to know what your process is, Nathan. Do you read completely through each entry? Read until it sucks, then move on? Keep a notepad next to the computer to mark keywords of ones that make your ‘maybe’ list?
Nathan Bransford says
Jessica-
I read them all the way through — with dialogue it’s actually harder to make a snap judgment than with the first paragraphs and pages. I copy the ones I think are possible contenders into a separate document, and then when I have a full list of possibles I’ll winnow that list down to a reasonable number of finalists.
lauramanivong says
Ack…Patricia Wood’s blog has comments closed now!
Miss Snark, Miss Snark, I owe you so much! I snagged an agent at the lovely Curtis Brown agency and sold my middle-grade novel to HarperCollins since discovering you. Yes, the writing trumps all, but not being a nitwit comes in a close second. Thank you! Thank you!
Phoenix says
Anon 5:46 : Anonymous posts can’t be deleted. Only the “owner” of the post can delete their own post, and if you don’t claim ownership (which happens when you post anonymously or as “Name/URL” if that’s not tied to a Blogger account), you can’t delete it. Only the site owner (Nathan, in this case) can delete it.
Anonymous says
Hmm, all I’m going to say is Janet Reid’s critiques on Queries sound very familiar. Snarky one might even say. It’s the reason agents, editors and other authors says voice is all you’ve got…