Comments on Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent: This Week in Publishing

The Onion just wrote a review of the middle grade ...

2009-10-28T12:09:42.205-07:00

The Onion just wrote a review of the middle grade novel I'm polishing:
"Moonstone Castle has it all: a neurotic tomboy, horses, a castle, monsters, a magic spell made the adults disappear...all that s&#t that kids love. Who cares if the first paragraph starts with a sunrise. Kids want action and humor, not art."

I take it many Wrimos query you on Dec. 1st or so?...

2009-10-27T07:01:17.168-07:00

I take it many Wrimos query you on Dec. 1st or so?

Loved the Alexander Chee article about Annie Dilla...

2009-10-26T14:55:39.057-07:00

Loved the Alexander Chee article about Annie Dillard's class.

Thanks again, Nathan, for such great links.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who takes her not...

2009-10-26T14:19:36.576-07:00

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who takes her notebooks seriously! I break out in hives if get more than twenty feet from one.

I can't stand Moleskins, though. Not because they're fancy, but because they don't stay open by themselves (so I can't jot one-handed) and don't hold my favorite pen.

I have a separate elastic strap/bookmark/penholder from Container Store that I attach to stiff-backed spiral bound Barnes&Noble brand notebooks. I'd buy them by the dozen if they were stocked by the dozen. *sigh*

The links in this post are such time-suckers I can...

2009-10-26T13:39:32.390-07:00

The links in this post are such time-suckers I can't keep up or catch up with anything I have to do in REAL life.
Thanks for all the procrastination aides.

It's NaNoWriMo again already? November always seem...

2009-10-26T10:28:24.353-07:00

It's NaNoWriMo again already? November always seems to sneak up on me. Thanks for the reminder though. Now I won't have to ask why a few of my friends seem on edge over the next four weeks.

I came across your page recently, and I first want...

2009-10-26T09:23:48.876-07:00

I came across your page recently, and I first want to say that I find the information here to be generally helpful. I have one question, however.

I have recently been reading several blogs by copyeditors, literary agents, and publishers, and have noted the consistently snarky and condescending attitude most of them have towards authors. I can understand some of the frustration, based off of what I have read. And I can see that it comes down to a basic matter of authors and people in publishing have two different sets of interests. But I just find the whole thing off-putting.

I live in northern Louisiana, hundreds of miles away from the publishing business, and have spent the last year toiling diligently at a satisfying draft of a first novel. I have worked hard to build something that I think will be worth reading. I have no contacts in publishing besides a couple of acquaintances of friends, and little hope of ever seeing my novel published outside of being able to convince a literary agent with no prior knowledge of my name or work to take the time to read my manuscript. And when I repeatedly see this condescension from the very people whom I hope to be impressing, I find it a little discouraging. I also find it confusing, because neither the people in the publishing business nor the writers can have any amount of "success" without the other.

You seem like one of the more tempered ones in your treatment of authors. I was just wondering if you have any thoughts on this?

Anon 1:37 - thanks. :) Wendy - appreciate the in...

2009-10-26T06:52:00.780-07:00

Anon 1:37 - thanks. :)

Wendy - appreciate the information. Thank you.

Nathan, May I please get your take on something? ...

2009-10-25T14:04:04.237-07:00

Nathan,

May I please get your take on something?

According to the Harper Collins UK website, the European edition of Michael Crichton’s posthumously published novel Pirate Latitudes is scheduled for a Monday November 16 release—a full eight days before the US release on Tuesday November 24 according to the Harper Collins US website. Amazon UK, as well as Amazon in France and Germany, also give the release date at Nov. 16, while the Amazon US and Barnes & Noble websites show the release date as Nov. 24.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a book by an American author being released abroad before being released in the US. Perhaps the publisher wants the US edition to come out right before the Thanksgiving weekend holiday shopping, especially Black Friday.

Whatever the reason, I’m going to be very irked if I have to wait eight days longer for Pirate Latitudes because I live in the US. (In fact, “very irked” is an understatement.)

Do you have any insight on this, Nathan?

);I've - is exactly the reason I liked to print & ...

2009-10-25T10:38:34.564-07:00

);I've - is exactly the reason I liked to print & correct more than once, for any given file :)

Homonyms are multiplying because they are impossible for Spell Check to correct: it has no way of detecting sense-in-context.

But copy-editors cost money, which is exactly why they've gone away. :(

Typos in mss... I used to be a proof-reader, and ...

2009-10-25T10:02:20.320-07:00

Typos in mss...

I used to be a proof-reader, and I can tell when it's not being done. There are homonyms galore (rein/reign seems to cause the greatest grief);I've even seen those blank widowed lines you get in Word when you've been tinkering with a small part of a very long manuscript.

Why am I no longer a proof-reader? Laid off.

March! I wish here I am a whole year later and it;...

2009-10-24T15:15:04.295-07:00

March! I wish here I am a whole year later and it;s still not ready to send to you. Let's hope this year's NaNo needs less revision.

Have a great weekend too.

Vacuum Queen, I think it's great the students are...

2009-10-24T11:01:50.161-07:00

Vacuum Queen,

I think it's great the students are doing that. Dong five or ten five paragraph assignments a year will not make them better writers. To do that they need to write! A lot! So doing Nano is cool. Sometimes I think our culture has forgotten the basic premise for success... practice, practice, practice.

I gotta admit, I was fooled. I liked her before I ...

2009-10-24T09:21:25.999-07:00

I gotta admit, I was fooled. I liked her before I knew much about her. I had heard that everyone was afraid of her, and I figured that anyone that everyone is afraid of had to be good for us. Turns out it wasn't that kind of fear.

Perhaps you can only have deep thoughts in San Fra...

2009-10-23T22:23:37.191-07:00

Perhaps you can only have deep thoughts in San Francisco. And if an author happens to like the Moleskine books, so what?

Was the author outside of Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore? (I like my Moleskines,too --very practical.)

As for Sarah Palin, what is there to say about such a vacant example of women in politics?

Interesting links.

Just now finished reading Alexander Chee’s article...

2009-10-23T17:49:20.427-07:00

Just now finished reading Alexander Chee’s article about taking a class with Annie Dillard. Wow. I am speechless ... which is saying a lot. Amazing article! Thank you for that link.

Something to be said about making people smile. Lo...

2009-10-23T17:30:20.216-07:00

Something to be said about making people smile. Loved the moleskine notebook. I needed this kinda inspiration... on to writing (enough already)

"But there's more!" Are you a Russel Peters fan b...

2009-10-23T17:07:53.572-07:00

"But there's more!"

Are you a Russel Peters fan by chance?

Had to ask.

And on NaNo...it's produced two first drafts for me that are sequels to another book I find I've been revising for nearly two years.

I'm breaking out of the mold YA fantasy and doing chick-lit this year...I need some laughable distraction to being 7+ months pregnant.

Oh, and it's true, there's nothing like being pregnant to make you stick to a deadline. Even if it's only personally set.

The article by Alexander Chee, on Annie Dillard, m...

2009-10-23T16:05:22.961-07:00

The article by Alexander Chee, on Annie Dillard, made my day. Thank you so much.

Doctor Query says: Come over and show me your att...

2009-10-23T15:56:49.498-07:00

Doctor Query says:

Come over and show me your attempts, and I will slash through them for you!

That is all.

I love the story about the incredibly special auth...

2009-10-23T15:52:08.919-07:00

I love the story about the incredibly special author and his precious notebook so much, I saved it in a file called "Writer Stuff."

ahhhh I do love those fancy little notebooks. I even write unworthy drivel in them, I love them that much.

Counting the days until NaNoWriMo begins! I love a...

2009-10-23T15:46:08.727-07:00

Counting the days until NaNoWriMo begins! I love all the write-ins with fellow writers working on their first drafts, the word wars and the general craziness of it all. :P

Going Rouge? I like it. Maybe I'll have to read...

2009-10-23T15:29:01.871-07:00

Going Rouge?
I like it.
Maybe I'll have to read THAT one.

Ooh...can I also add that my son's class does Nano...

2009-10-23T15:02:25.426-07:00

Ooh...can I also add that my son's class does Nanowrimo (3 years now) and ALL of those kids have pushed themselves into a whole new dimension of writing. Great novels? Not one, but the pure amount of words was the amazing hoop we sailed through. It's definitely quantity versus quality and that's a controversial issue in schools. All the testing only begs for quality 5 paragraph essay writing, but the more we beg the kids to write using only perfect sentences, the less they come up with.
Anyhoo....Yay for Nano!

So if we're planning on querying agents in Decembe...

2009-10-23T14:58:10.834-07:00

So if we're planning on querying agents in December, should we specifically mention that it was not something we wrote for this year's NaNo? :-)

And I just have to say that, as somebody who spends quite a bit of time writing (or at least trying to write), I've already well surpassed my 52 books in 52 weeks goal for this year.