This was one of those days when I felt as if I did nothing but work my butt off and at the end of the day, or at least at 2:00 when I had enough time to land and write this, I feel as if nothing has gotten done.
This type of day is actually one of those pretty typical for most agents. I woke up this morning thinking I just had a few "loose ends" to tie up. But with everything, when you finish one project, 20 more creep up and scare the you know what out of you.
On the task for the rest of the day?
1) Finish up reading and critiquing one of my clients new writing projects.
2) Hopefully get to reading a stack of submissions (although for some reason I see that happening this weekend).
3) Get to a critique from a chapter.
4) Verify that all is up and running for the online class beginning next week.
That should keep me busy for a while
Hello Scott,
ReplyDeleteI agree that agents are being kicked from both directions. I read that one office receives over FIFTY email queries a day, in addition to requested material. Another said they are receiving over 1500 unsolicited snail mail queries a month. Who can deal with all of this and still get any work done that actually might pay some bills?
As publishing options constrict, and the number of people who would LIKE to be published expands, and agents say that it will be a year before they can send an answer for material requested at a conference, a person does begin to feel as if they have fallen into a cement mixer on "High."
Which leads me to the question. What is your opinion of the growing number of services that offer to send half a dozen or so names of agents seeking material for several hundred dollars? Right under $400 was the last price i saw3. Some of these seem to be quite legitimate, associated with active authors of well-reviewed books. On the other hand, I doubt any agent is seeling material from newcomers in this publishing climate. Abother novel from Dan brown, perhaps.
How do you feel about this? Worth a shot or not?The advantage they might offer is immediate knowledge, rather than a web site or Publisher's Marketplace lisitng that hasn't beem updated in years.
Yhank you.
Never pay someone to submit your work. No matter how legitimate they appear to be, there is simply no easy route to being published.
ReplyDeleteYou are right that things are getting tighter and tighter for new authors. This is really due, in my opinion, to the larger and larger number of below average authors out there combined with the decrease in book sales. Editors and agents are having to be much more critical about works we read and decide to take on.
Best of luck though.