This Friday in publishing… I’m not here!
I wrote this a few days ago and set it to post automatically. I’m not in the office, and in fact I’m currently hanging out with Dick Cheney in his top secret bunker and I’m so glad to be…… that’s messed up, Dick. Come on man, seriously, light a match or something.
We’ll have some classics and some new posts and possibly a guest appearance running at regularly scheduled blog times early next week to tide you over. (Oh, and I’m not actually at BEA, hope everyone has a good time though.)
See you next week! Assuming I survive this. I don’t think Dick likes me very much.
Unsupervised open thread! No roughhousing allowed!
And…
Have a great weekend!
Laura Martone says
And the unsupervised thread keeps going and going ang going… I wanna play, too!
Jen C – Well, I hate to rub it in, but STAR TREK was awesome. After seeing his rendition of Doc McCoy, I have an even bigger crush on Karl Urban… and it was already pretty darn big (going back to a weird little film called THE TRUTH ABOUT DEMONS). I sure hope you get to see it soon. 😉
Christine – To quote Rob Schneider’s character in THE WATERBOY (yes, I watch Adam Sandler movies, so sue me!), “You can do it!” (except, it was said more like “Yoo can doo eet!” in a terrible Cajun accent that offends my Louisianian blood).
Marilyn – Ooh, I’m jealous of your self-imposed sabbatical, and yet… I don’t know if I could go three months without writing. I’m actually excited to continue the editing process on my first novel, and Purple Clover’s JuJu write-a-thon (which starts tomorrow!) is inspiring me to start my second book.
As to your BOOK: THE SEQUEL submissions, I love your eclectic selections… I caught maybe half of them on the website, and I remember smiling each time. I was, like, “Hey, I sorta know that girl!” (from this blog, of course)
Mira – Where d’ya go?
–Laura
PurpleClover says
Agent Alex Glass is scared of my sister Jeanette after meeting her at the Backspace Writer’s Conference. Pretty stinkin’ hilarious!
Mira says
Oh, hey P.C., are you going to post the writing thing you’re doing on your blog again? Does that start tomorrow? (sorry to call it a writing thing, I wasn’t sure what the real term was.)
Laura, I had to leave. I have writing group on Sunday. Weirdly, they didn’t think that an unsupervised thread at Nathan’s was reason enough to cancel. That’s okay. They may have odd priorities, but I love them anyway.
In terms of my being on drugs, sadly I am not. I say that’s sad because I quite like drugs (this thread is still unsupervised, right?) No, my behavior is more easily explained as being seriously mentally deranged. But Laura or Christine, if you’d like me to help you become deranged, just say the word. I’d be honored.
Marilyn, you had the same idea I did! If I’d stayed might have tried to coax a group story – those are so fun. I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Come to CIC on Tuesday – we have two days now of group story. They are pretty funny. This week, I think Ann’s scheduled a fantasy, but we’ll have to put Sci Fi on the list.
Laura Martone says
I'm sorry, Marilyn & Mira. I wanted to participate in the group story – honest, I did! – but my head is already swimming with the book I have to edit and the one I have to start tomorrow (darn you, Purple Clover!)… maybe when my cranium is less crammed?
PurpleClover says
Mira –
It does start tomorrow. I’m doing an intro post so that we can get to know each other and then a Monday “weigh in” thereafter to see our status updates.
By the way, I just wanted to let you guys know I saw Star Trek and I’m dying to see it again. I LOVED IT. But these days it’s so hard for me to go to the movies because of needing a sitter. Otherwise, I’d probably be on my third time ’round. 😉
Mira says
P.C. are you going to link it here? I don’t think Nathan minds links if it’s writing related….of course I can’t be sure, but it seems that way. He doesn’t delete them.
Yes, it’s rare for me to see a movie twice, much less 3 times, but Star Trek was such fun.
One of the members of my writing group is a professor who teaches physics. She’s all: Star Trek was cute, but there was no plot. Well, it was sort of a plot, but it just doesn’t make sense.
I’m like: Uh Huh. Sure, it doesn’t make sense. If you’re a SCIENTIST! To the rest of us, it makes total sense.
Scientists. Sheesh. What ARE you going to DO with them?
Mira says
I know what you’re going to do with them. You don’t let them into Star Trek movies. No matter how much they insist.
That’s what you do with them.
Sheesh.
Mira says
Ah, everyone’s gone to bed.
The world is quiet.
This will probably be my last post on the unsupervised thread.
What should I say? What will make it all come together – not as a disjointed series of posts – but a community of posts, reveling in the unsupervision of it all.
What should be my last words?
I know!
Welcome back, Nathan! Hope you had a great vacation. You were missed!
Laura Martone says
Haha, Mira!
Not EVERYONE has gone to bed… I’m still up, reading every single query on Query Shark… and I have to say, my eyes are bleeding!
I, too, would like to say, “Welcome back, Nathan! You’ve been missed… and while you were hanging with DC, we bloggers played together nicely and were, in fact, more well behaved than you might have imagined.” (wink)
Vacuum Queen says
Well, I would like to add to this unsupervised thread by saying to a bunch of strangers that I received my first rejection letter from an agent today. Sigh. But really…I’m a bit excited that this is all REAL and I’m actually doing this and, sheesh, getting an actual rejection is so much better than just never hearing from them again. I’m not sure if I like the “if you don’t ever hear from us, consider it a ‘no’ ” feature that most agents have. Although I do understand it. Oh well.
So, watch out for that confetti I just threw into the air. I’m celebrating the fact that I’m here! Yay!!!
Other Lisa says
Christine, I have to chime in here. A couple of things…
Your query is basically your concept/pitch, and you’ll find out if/when you start querying whether it works or not. But you have to finish the book. There’s really no way around it.
I would try and find an online writers’ group to kick your ideas around. Friends are great, but writers are better.
If you have to go back to work, and even to deal with the issue of your novel eating your brain as it does now – create a schedule. Carve out two hours a day if you can and put it on a calendar and have that be your novel time. Even if it’s only one hour, that’s better than throwing in the towel and being miserable about it.
It can be done.
Finally, yeah, the market sucks right now. A lot. As others have said, you can’t count on selling a book to solve your financial problems. And even if you do sell the book, you need to be realistic about advances.
All of that said, books still sell. Books sell all the time. And even though selling your book can’t be your only goal with it, one thing’s certain – you can’t sell it if you don’t write it.
Re: the Star Trek movie…am I the only one who thought the story was pretty dumb?
I agree completely about Karl Urban however! And the casting in general was great.
Laura Martone says
Congrats, Vacuum Queen! I received my first rejection about a month ago – and surprisingly, I felt pretty good about it. I wasn’t very serious about that particular agent – I shouldn’t say this, perhaps, but I was just trying to test the waters with my query… which I’ve since revised.
Although rejection can sting a bit, I, too, felt like I had arrived! And I appreciated the fact that the agent took a second to reject me with a form letter – better to know one way or the other than not at all! I’m not a big fan of the “we’ll only respond if interested” policy… I understand that agents are super-busy people, but between an inefficient post office (which recently destroyed a box of my beloved ol’ books) and an occasionally unreliable email server, it’s hard to know if a query even made it to its proper destination.
Anywho, I’ll toss some confetti for you, too!
Christine H says
Mira, as a scientist, I resent your comments. We love Star Trek just as much as you mush-brains. I’m just a wee bit upset that they played such havoc with Roddenbury’s original plot.
And I didn’t think you were on drugs. I thought perhaps cinnamon red-hots. Or SweetTarts. Or Starbuck’s.
Christine H says
P.S. all the guys in my Physics program in grad school were total Trekkies. One of them (who was really cute) made me my own communicator pin in the metal shop.
Christine H says
Confetti!!! Confetti!!!!
*o o * o* * o *
* o* ** * o *
* * * * o * *o
Christine H says
Other Lisa: I don’t think the story in the movie was any dumber than the original episodes with William Shatner. If anything, I thought the movie was more in the spirit of the first series than the later movies were, though in an acting contest Patrick Stewart beats Priceline guy every time.
Mira says
Nathan’s back today – yea!
Christine, I’m sorry but I stand by my assertion. Yes, I know scientists love Star Trek.
Tough basukees. Scientists are incapable of watching Star Trek and not ripping it to shreds. Until they can control themselves, I think they should be kept away at all costs. For the benefit of humanity.
Everyone knows that part of the fun of Star Trek is the dumb story.
Everyone knows that except Scientists.
Okay. I would also like to add my congratulations to Vaccumm Queen! You’ve arrived! Yea! You’re a real writer know. Wear that rejection with honor! Like a badge….a Star Trek badge.
Reesha says
Reader,
I thought about buying you a Kindle…I really did…but I kind of got engaged over the weekend and will need the money for extra pretty at my wedding.
😀
Laura Martone says
Congrats, Reesha!
–Laura
P.S. You could just get married in Vegas (like I did) and save the money for several Kindles. Just a thought.
Christine H says
Reesha, congratulations!!! I don’t know you from Eve, but that is exciting news nonetheless.
Love is always exciting!
Elaine 'still writing' Smith says
Why I didn't think of posting this sooner I don't know …
Tried listening to the Arctic Monkeys? Currently, I'm 'totally' obsessed by their track 505!