Yes, as the title suggests I found this mythical beast, admittedly entirely by accident. Some sleuthing after another YA fantasy author's agent (Kate O'Hearn) accidentally led me to Roald Dahl's agent...David Higham Associates. A coincidence you won't hear me complaining about. Added to Agent Book; I'm repressing the manic urge to contact them next (Roald Dahl's agent! OMG!!), but I found all those other agents first, so it wouldn't be fair. (I'm very British about my policies on queue jumping, dontcha know.)
The H3 (that sounds curiously scientific o__O) editing is going smoothly; up to chapter 20 now. With any luck it might be done by christmas! Good, because new projects keep poking at my subconscious and asking when they'll get their turn.
In other news! The reading of Twilight, done solely for the academic purpose (even I'm not that much of a masochist to read it for the lulz) of a feminist critique is also going well. I've read up to halfway through New Moon and have been merrily sticking post-its in whenever I spot something disgustingly misogynistic (in other words, every other paragraph ). The colour code is pink for 'Bella is a bland, whiny idiot singlehandedly setting feminism back 100 years', and blue for 'Edward is a patronising dick'. Yes, as you may have guessed, I'm on team Twilight is shit.
On the other hand, it has made me feel better about my own female characters and story lines (I think Meyer has that effect on every budding writer...it's called the 'if this crap can become a bestseller, my crap can too' mentality). When I originally posted some of the first draft of Hades on a fanfiction site, half of the readers hailed from the HP camp (fine, brilliant, what more could I ask for than the attention of fellow Rowling lovers?) but half of the readers were from the Twilight camp. And after I found out what Twilight was, that worried me. That worried me greatly. I should be grateful for any readers, and I am, but a hideous part of me was just wailing 'does this mean I'm as bad as Meyer??!!' Fair enough, there are similarities between Hades and Twilight that will inevitably attract similar readers. They are both dark supernatural romances involving a 17 year old human girl and an immortal guy, and all the trials and troubles that ensue when they fall in love...but I like to think that's where the similarities end. If my protagonist was as vacuous and irritating as the perfeckt, speshul Twilight heroine, I'd have killed her off in the first book. Quickly. In a magnificently violent way. And if Hades had even remotely resembled Sparkles the 100Year Old Virgin...dear gods, I'd have left him to rot in the chasms of my imagination, never to see the light. I like to think that my women are strong and smart and butt-kicking; not all Buffys (no-one I create will ever be THAT awesome), but certainly no Bellas among them.
And those Harry Potter fans who found something to like about my book...they give me hope, because they clearly have great taste in literature. It's for them that I keep at it, and hopefully I will steadily get better and won't let them down.
Hades, Harusame, Poseidon and Axel // image by Saeki Annika
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Sunday, 10 October 2010
and so...
Submitted to Conville and Walsh. On friday, actually, just too lazy to update every day :)
My 'you represented this author and I'm similar (so pick me, pick me!!)' hook this time was Ali Shaw's gorgeous The Girl with the Glass Feet. I mean gorgeous literally; the hardcover makes your eyes bleed from the prettiness. I haven't read it yet, but want to. That book recently made the bestsellers list too, so reminding them of past successes can't be a bad thing, right?
Goodies of the day for aspiring authors!
The art of the query letter is always a fun thing to explain to the uninitiated...I remember how my little jaw hit the floor as I realised that the writing of the damned novel was relatively uncomplicated compared to the task ahead. You suddenly have to *SELL YOURSELF!!!111!!!* like one of them crazy hopefuls off dragon's den, and all in 3 teeny paragraphs. It can be scary to do it without help, so here's a lovely little downloadable e-book (TIS FREE!FREEEEE!!!!!) that tells you in a simple way all the dos and don'ts of getting an agent to sit up in interest, rather than yawn and throw you aside for the slush pile. It's brilliant. And written by a successful agent who knows what he's talking about. And did I mention it's free?
http://www.lukeman.com/greatquery/download.htm
Off topic, Skeleton Crew is great nighttime reading! The Mist story was better than the movie, but with an ending as epic fail-tastic as the movie was (the hero shoots everyone including his child, yes, his child), that's not much of an achievement. Mrs Todd's shortcut made me smile. Some of King's finest isn't horror at all. *loves him*
My 'you represented this author and I'm similar (so pick me, pick me!!)' hook this time was Ali Shaw's gorgeous The Girl with the Glass Feet. I mean gorgeous literally; the hardcover makes your eyes bleed from the prettiness. I haven't read it yet, but want to. That book recently made the bestsellers list too, so reminding them of past successes can't be a bad thing, right?
Goodies of the day for aspiring authors!
The art of the query letter is always a fun thing to explain to the uninitiated...I remember how my little jaw hit the floor as I realised that the writing of the damned novel was relatively uncomplicated compared to the task ahead. You suddenly have to *SELL YOURSELF!!!111!!!* like one of them crazy hopefuls off dragon's den, and all in 3 teeny paragraphs. It can be scary to do it without help, so here's a lovely little downloadable e-book (TIS FREE!FREEEEE!!!!!) that tells you in a simple way all the dos and don'ts of getting an agent to sit up in interest, rather than yawn and throw you aside for the slush pile. It's brilliant. And written by a successful agent who knows what he's talking about. And did I mention it's free?
http://www.lukeman.com/greatquery/download.htm
Off topic, Skeleton Crew is great nighttime reading! The Mist story was better than the movie, but with an ending as epic fail-tastic as the movie was (the hero shoots everyone including his child, yes, his child), that's not much of an achievement. Mrs Todd's shortcut made me smile. Some of King's finest isn't horror at all. *loves him*
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
three strikes doesn't mean I'm out...
So, got a (personal, wow) email from Laura Cecil saying she enjoyed HADES and found it interesting, but isn't sufficiently enthusiastic enough about it to represent me, as she feels without enthusiasm she won't be able to do it justice. What a nice lady. Agents don't bother to bullshit or flatter people they're not taking on (they don't get any money out of it, for one thing, and they don't have the time, for another) so I'm taking this as the most positive rejection so far. (I will when I stop fighting the urge to weep, anyway.) Conville and Walsh are next on my hitlist!
Anyways, I promised to unveil my agent-choosing process, and *drumroll* here it is:
1. skim the writer's and artists yearbook for 5 agents who accept your genre (eg children/YA and fantasy is my priority, general commercial fiction is standby). No more than 5 at a time, or your head will explode.
2. research the agents (google!!) - what authors do they represent, their submissions policies, and does it sound like an actual human being put up and maintains their website, or a robot.
3. can you find at least one author in their rota who has written in your genre/style/similar subject matter. if more than one , jackpot. if not it's ok, but it really helps to be able to say 'you represented so and so and I feel my book is similar' in the cover letter. all of this is time consuming, but so worth it.
3. if all of above checks out OK, the agent earns a spot in my special Agent Book (as an author, your Agent Book will become your dictionary and your bible all mixed into one. Any old notebook will do, but a sparkly cover will lend it grandeur, if not authority.)
4. this bit's crucial, find out which agent in the agency you're aiming at. If it doesn't say online, contact them and ask. The don't mind - it shows that you took the initiative. Cover letters addressed to 'to whom it may concern' or 'dear agent' should never be sent. Ever. But don't ask which agent to write to if it is clear that there is only 1 agent in the agency. You will look thick.
Well, TIZ is finished (that's Zeus, by the way, but I love the abbrev so much I'm going to be using it a lot) and I'm currently back to tinkering with H3. Will update with useful resources for writers next time...
Anyways, I promised to unveil my agent-choosing process, and *drumroll* here it is:
1. skim the writer's and artists yearbook for 5 agents who accept your genre (eg children/YA and fantasy is my priority, general commercial fiction is standby). No more than 5 at a time, or your head will explode.
2. research the agents (google!!) - what authors do they represent, their submissions policies, and does it sound like an actual human being put up and maintains their website, or a robot.
3. can you find at least one author in their rota who has written in your genre/style/similar subject matter. if more than one , jackpot. if not it's ok, but it really helps to be able to say 'you represented so and so and I feel my book is similar' in the cover letter. all of this is time consuming, but so worth it.
3. if all of above checks out OK, the agent earns a spot in my special Agent Book (as an author, your Agent Book will become your dictionary and your bible all mixed into one. Any old notebook will do, but a sparkly cover will lend it grandeur, if not authority.)
4. this bit's crucial, find out which agent in the agency you're aiming at. If it doesn't say online, contact them and ask. The don't mind - it shows that you took the initiative. Cover letters addressed to 'to whom it may concern' or 'dear agent' should never be sent. Ever. But don't ask which agent to write to if it is clear that there is only 1 agent in the agency. You will look thick.
Well, TIZ is finished (that's Zeus, by the way, but I love the abbrev so much I'm going to be using it a lot) and I'm currently back to tinkering with H3. Will update with useful resources for writers next time...
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