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Bill Park (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 65.69.70.59
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 03:44 pm: |   |
After a year of rejection slips/letters (one was a card with a wide black border - didn't know if it was a rejection or a death notice) concerning my fourth novel, OVERLAY, an international suspense thriller - I received a positive response from an accredited literary agent (AAA, Authors Guild, B&N affilate) who read the synopsis and first two chapters. They wrote: "We are excited by the opportunity to examine your manuscript - and look forward to hearing from you and the start of a long and successful literary relationship with one another (there are two other completed manuscripts in that series)."
How was this accomplished? We all know, have experienced, have heard and read about the hundreds of query letters agents receive each week - and how selective they are. If they or an intern does not recognize your name - forget it!
Several months ago I was presenting at a writer's seminar and a fellow in the audience asked if we could meet for coffee (we've had coffee twice since then) to ask me some questions. He's a lawyer who has written a book and has an agent. Two weeks ago I asked his permission to send my material to his agent and use his name as an intro. Bingo! That opened the door. He also e-mailed the agent and put in a good word. I asked him if the agent knew he was a lawyer? He said yes. I said that knowing how lawyers stretched the truth apparently did me no harm.
Of course, they may reject the manuscript for various reasons, but it proves the old adage: "It's not so much what you know as who you know." One client's recommendation to give someone's work a look - works!
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Matt Dinniman
Hunger Member
Post Number:
69
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 04:23 pm: | |
Congrats! And good luck.
The only luck I've ever had with agents has been through networking as well.
Tell us about the book. Post your synopsis or sumtin.  |
Bill Park (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 65.69.70.59
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 04:30 pm: | |
Matt...he is the short version.
Defense ministers in Arab nations are systematically being assassinated. All eyes stare suspiciously at Israel. The Middle East is a powder keg ready to explode. Only a handful of covert U.S. government officials are aware that the heads of Russia and China are targeted next–-and that the elderly and senile American ex-President is responsible.
Rance Colby, the man who never existed–-presumed dead–-and torn by internal demons, enlists the only men he can trust, the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs and the highest ranking Russian general, to aide him in stopping the real brains behind the assassinations, in my novel, OVERLAY. Trapped in the Great Khufu Pyramid, blown up on an isolated Greek island, attacked repeatedly by assassins, kidnapping the Russian president–-and nearly losing his life in the icy waters below Norway’s Pulpit Rock–-our protagonist provides all the ingredients of an intriguing international political suspense thriller with general mass-reader appeal.
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Todd Hunter
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
750
Registered: 02-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 04:33 pm: | |
Congrats on the good news!
Keep us informed on how it turns out... |
Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
650
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 05:06 pm: | |
Wonderful Bill, Hope it goes well and you and the MS are accepted in full. Good luck!!!!!
Claudia
(Message edited by cltvcoyote on September 30, 2003) |
Laurel Johnson
Unity Member
Post Number:
2316
Registered: 01-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 05:31 pm: | |
Wonderful, Bill and a big congratulations!! |
C. E. Winterland
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
1171
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 05:54 pm: | |
Nice, Bill!
Now we know why we are all here talking to each other, yeah?
Good luck!
CEW |
Steven Shrewsbury
Wandering Member
Post Number:
252
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 06:02 pm: | |
Glad to hear it Bill |
Nancy Marie
Unity Member
Post Number:
1613
Registered: 08-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 30, 2003 - 06:39 pm: | |
Great news Bill, go get 'em!
Kitty
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F.E. Mazur (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 171.75.101.46
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 05:59 am: | |
Great title, Bill. Best of luck. |
sophie simonet
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
656
Registered: 03-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, October 01, 2003 - 11:20 am: | |
Bill, I know you've had frustrations in the past. Hope this is the beginning of great literary success for you. |
Bill Park (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 65.66.152.28
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 21, 2003 - 10:02 am: | |
Thanks to everyone that wished me luck with the agent who requested my complete manuscript. But it appears that luck wasn't sufficient...I needed a miracle! After seven weeks they responded with: "You have expressed some very good ideas and have shown a great deal of insight in your work. There are truly fascinating aspects to the manuscript. The writing, while good, does not contain anything to raise it above the rest of the field. I realize the amount of literary effort you have invested in OVERLAY, but unfortunately the manuscript does not fit our agency needs at this time."
I invest 2 hours a night reading novels for entertainment and writing technique...and can humbly say that my writing is on par with 80% of the books I read. Well within the field the agent referred to, yet admittedly well below Ludlum, Higgins, Silva, Cussler, Clancy and others, but I've been at this for only four years.
It's further proof of what's ruling the publishing game today. The bottom line. Their god is spelled with a capital 'P'. Is it any wonder that there's thousands of authors searching for alternative publishers. To fill the void created, small publishers are popping up like weeds. Some legitimate, some not so legitimate. Do I sound bitter. Maybe a tad. I've gotten over the nightmare publishing experience I endured with Willy and his not-so-merry band of imposters...so I'll just stay the course and press on.
The week before, I received a letter from an interested publisher who wrote: "William, you are such a good writer! OVERLAY is an excellent piece." Then it went on to say that the story was too close to the truth. Therefore it was rejected. Go figure!
If anyone knows of a solid small publisher that will accept returns from bookstores, I'd appreciate the information. If you wish to contact me covertly (use that word alot in my new political international suspense thriller series)...my e-mail address is: wrpark@sbcglobal.net
Thanks |
Tony (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 24.31.215.202
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 21, 2003 - 11:10 am: | |
It is so easy to become devastated, especially when you think you may be on the cusp of something terrific [ being accepted by a real literary agent and then being published by one of the big NY houses, etc.,]
I hope you are not devastated. But the chances of everything unwinding exactly as you want them are really not that good.
I'd like to tell you to keep trying. As long as you have not been rejected 800 times and have not run out of people and places to submit, then keep sending out queries and manuscripts. If you have reached the end of your rope, however, I recommend - as I always do - to self-publish your book.
I'm not talking about Print On Demand houses. Please don't run off to one of them.
I can't tell you how many times I have been turned down, rejected and just plain ignored. The major publishing houses don't even want to have contact with you or your work unless you have an agent. Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't know.
As an author friend of mine once told me, a NY editor wouldn't waste the time to cross a room to spit on an unpublished author without an agent who could first point you out.
Tony
http://www.abandon-hope.com |
Claudia Turner VanLydegraf
Mindsight Moderator
Post Number:
725
Registered: 06-2002
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, November 21, 2003 - 11:14 am: | |
Sorry Bill,
Sometimes there is no pleasing the powers that be, no matter how you write or WHAT you write. The only thing that they really want is a quarantee that the books that they print will sell, and all to often, only those with a NAME attached to it will sell, even though that book is on PAR with all the stuff that never even gets looked at, because of lack of same NAME.
I am trying to read "Cold Mountain" and aside from the storyline, I can't for the life of me get interested in it. It is way too flowery for my tastes and because of all the description, I spend half of my time going back and forth to figure out what has happened in the actual story. I have put it down for weeks at a time and try to pick it up again and get back into it, and I simply can't. Yet it won the National Book Award and some call it great literature. It may be great literature, but at many times in this story, I have found myself bored, and if it is great literature, then there is something lacking in great lit. Boredom shouldn't' be one of those ingredients that are NOT lacking. I think a book should flow evenly and with a tide, sort of up and down, but not down for very long, or you lose the reader, like it keeps losing me.
I just a while ago, finished the "DaVinci Code" and while the book was exciting and well written with an eye to keep the reader involved, there were a lot of holes in the storyline. I checked on the historical parts of the story and found many amiss in both time sequence and reality. And I must say, I really did like the whole overall story and premise of the "DaVinci Code" because while it was sort of amiss historically and and in reality, it held me and the possibility that it was or could be real, kept me tied.
It just seems to me that in most books that are out today, you can't get a wonderful storyline without the boredom and predictability that so often you get when you have the same kinds of books being pumped out by the same kinds of writers all aiming at the sales and nothing more. What happened to the writer who really has something to say, and maybe not the way to get the book to the public? The bigger houses only want the tried and true and are not willing to invest time or dollars, (it seems) on someone such as yourself or PAC or Dennis, or (oh, I could name lots here, but the gist is) they simply want the name to go with the story, and that name will sell, even if the story is a total dud, cause how many return a book after you got it home and read 50-75 pages? It just goes to the bookshelf and sits to taunt a person into finishing it "someday". And once the book is actually "sold" to a reader, it is chalked up to being a royalty, and that reader will buy the next book, because of the "name" and the hopes that "this book will be better".
Claudia
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Victoria Strauss
Awareness Member
Post Number:
4
Registered: 11-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2003 - 07:33 am: | |
Bill, was this agency Authentic Creations? (The AAR, Authors Guild, B&N affiliate thing rings a bell). If so, don't feel bad. Yes, this agency has some sales, but I've gotten a number of complaints about its business practices and treatment of authors, and I believe its track record to be small. You will have a better chance with someone else.
- Victoria
Writer Beware
http://www.writerbeware.com/ |
Jan Fields
Wisdom Member
Post Number:
563
Registered: 09-2001
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2003 - 08:31 am: | |
Thanks, Victoria,
though...you know, I heard somewhere that we aren't supposed to listen to
you because...
well...
you write *whisper* fantasy. *horrified gasp*
Jan |
Bill Park (Unregistered Guest)
Work-in-progress guest
Posted From: 65.64.125.67
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2003 - 10:51 am: | |
Victoria...you hit the agency on the head! Yes, the agency an author friend turned me on to was Authentic Creations. He's recently complained that they seem to be dragging their heels with his project. I'll pass on your remarks to him. Thanks. |
Matt Dinniman
Wandering Member
Post Number:
104
Registered: 04-2003
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2003 - 12:07 pm: | |
I was represented by Authentic Creations way back in 1998 for a children's picture book manuscript that never went anywhere. While they didn't ask for any money, and they did send me copies of the rejections they got from various publishers, I wouldn't consider it the most positive experience in the world. They said they were going to send it out to some more publishers, but I didn't hear from them for 6 months. I called them up (at the time, I didn't have an e address as I'd gotten their info from the Writers Market and all our correspondence was via snail mail) and I was pretty much given a 'don't ever call again unless you sold your manuscript.' (huh? ME sell it?) After that I never heard from them again. |
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