Floundering fledgling - CrimeSpace2024-03-29T02:32:56Zhttp://crimespace.ning.com/forum/topics/floundering-fledgling?commentId=537324%3AComment%3A231542&feed=yes&xn_auth=noThank you for your encouragem…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-08:537324:Comment:2320152010-04-08T15:15:48.237ZSharon Mckanehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sharonmckane
Thank you for your encouragement, Julie. I still haven't sat down to write, but I will.<br />
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I'll check out your blog later as I have to open my shop, Consignium, in a half hour. I understand It's going to be a beautiful day in NY. I hope consumers choose Main Street instead of the malls today!
Thank you for your encouragement, Julie. I still haven't sat down to write, but I will.<br />
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I'll check out your blog later as I have to open my shop, Consignium, in a half hour. I understand It's going to be a beautiful day in NY. I hope consumers choose Main Street instead of the malls today! Fascinating discussion. Sharo…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-08:537324:Comment:2320122010-04-08T14:28:08.869ZJulie Lomoehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/julielomoe
Fascinating discussion. Sharon, like others, I encourage you to hang in there. It sounds as though you got some unusually positive feedback early in the game, so you have reason to be encouraged - and to follow those leads aggressively.<br />
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This discussion reminds me why I dropped out of the competition for traditional agents and publishers and went the self-published route. That's an option you might want to explore somewhere down the road.<br />
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By the way, everyone, please visit my blog - lots of…
Fascinating discussion. Sharon, like others, I encourage you to hang in there. It sounds as though you got some unusually positive feedback early in the game, so you have reason to be encouraged - and to follow those leads aggressively.<br />
<br />
This discussion reminds me why I dropped out of the competition for traditional agents and publishers and went the self-published route. That's an option you might want to explore somewhere down the road.<br />
<br />
By the way, everyone, please visit my blog - lots of posts you may enjoy catching up on.<br />
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<a href="http://julielomoe.wordpress.com" target="_blank">Julie Lomoe's Musings Mysterioso</a> With each response I learn mo…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-03:537324:Comment:2315452010-04-03T08:12:19.733ZSharon Mckanehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sharonmckane
With each response I learn more. I must thank you for being so candid. You have accomplished so much and here I am complaining about floundering. I wish you the best of luck and hope you will be announcing good news to the forum in the near future.<br />
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I'll hang in and start writing again. Thank you!
With each response I learn more. I must thank you for being so candid. You have accomplished so much and here I am complaining about floundering. I wish you the best of luck and hope you will be announcing good news to the forum in the near future.<br />
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I'll hang in and start writing again. Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. Th…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-03:537324:Comment:2315442010-04-03T08:11:36.103ZSharon Mckanehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sharonmckane
That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for filling me in on the process.
That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for filling me in on the process. Thank you for putting my wack…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-03:537324:Comment:2315432010-04-03T08:03:47.941ZSharon Mckanehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sharonmckane
Thank you for putting my wacky brain at ease in reference to self defeating stuff. When I focus I can get the job done, but getting me to that point can be a difficult task, I dither as well. I wrote the novel in thirty-one days. Then I did two re-writes because my friends said, "Too much information." I think I stopped writing because my thoughts weren't on a sequel, they were somewhere else.<br />
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Thank you for letting me into your world for a peek. I appreciate your honesty and I'm going to take…
Thank you for putting my wacky brain at ease in reference to self defeating stuff. When I focus I can get the job done, but getting me to that point can be a difficult task, I dither as well. I wrote the novel in thirty-one days. Then I did two re-writes because my friends said, "Too much information." I think I stopped writing because my thoughts weren't on a sequel, they were somewhere else.<br />
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Thank you for letting me into your world for a peek. I appreciate your honesty and I'm going to take your advice and the advice of the other friendly writers in this forum. You're right, I was counting…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-03:537324:Comment:2315422010-04-03T07:59:17.301ZSharon Mckanehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sharonmckane
You're right, I was counting on a response even after I knew the judge reading my ms was on deadline. Duh!<br />
Please read my reply to Minerva re: fibbing to the agent. At this point I'm hoping the rockier the road, the better the ride will be in the end.<br />
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I will get back to querying and work on the synopsis as you suggested.<br />
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Thank you for your advice.
You're right, I was counting on a response even after I knew the judge reading my ms was on deadline. Duh!<br />
Please read my reply to Minerva re: fibbing to the agent. At this point I'm hoping the rockier the road, the better the ride will be in the end.<br />
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I will get back to querying and work on the synopsis as you suggested.<br />
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Thank you for your advice. I did contact the agent last…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-03:537324:Comment:2315392010-04-03T07:31:42.589ZSharon Mckanehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sharonmckane
I did contact the agent last week. Usually, I am brutally honest, but for some reason I couldn't admit that I ignored her request in order to enter a contest, instead I fibbed. I can't believe I told the agent that her request for the full was sent to my spam box and I just discovered it (which has actually happened with other friendly emails) and would she like me to send the ms via email now. She didn't respond, I got what I deserved. Moreover, you are right, I will learn from my mistakes.…
I did contact the agent last week. Usually, I am brutally honest, but for some reason I couldn't admit that I ignored her request in order to enter a contest, instead I fibbed. I can't believe I told the agent that her request for the full was sent to my spam box and I just discovered it (which has actually happened with other friendly emails) and would she like me to send the ms via email now. She didn't respond, I got what I deserved. Moreover, you are right, I will learn from my mistakes. Next time the fib should be more creative. Only kidding. :-)<br />
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Thank you for your advice. Sounds like a plan. Thank you…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-03:537324:Comment:2315382010-04-03T06:56:43.054ZSharon Mckanehttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/sharonmckane
Sounds like a plan. Thank you for your advice.
Sounds like a plan. Thank you for your advice. All of the above, and don't b…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-02:537324:Comment:2314902010-04-02T18:53:02.911ZDana Kinghttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/DanaKing
All of the above, and don't be discouraged. I wrote a PI novel about ten years ago, and found an agent for it. I continued writing the series while she looked for a publisher. A couple of years down the road we parted ways amicably. The book hadn't sold, and I wanted to take the series in a different direction than she envisioned. I found another agent for the second book I wrote. She tried to sell it and I kept writing. She was enthusiastic, but couldn't sell it to a big New York house, and…
All of the above, and don't be discouraged. I wrote a PI novel about ten years ago, and found an agent for it. I continued writing the series while she looked for a publisher. A couple of years down the road we parted ways amicably. The book hadn't sold, and I wanted to take the series in a different direction than she envisioned. I found another agent for the second book I wrote. She tried to sell it and I kept writing. She was enthusiastic, but couldn't sell it to a big New York house, and wasn't interested in looking at the smaller houses and working up. I held off on the series for a while and wrote a standalone, which she had no interest in. We also parted ways--not as amicably as with the first agent, but that's half due to my inexperience with how to handle the situation--and I wrote what might be the start of another series. I took a break from that to re-write some of the second PI story, a full manuscript of which is in the hands of an agent as we speak.<br />
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So it's frustrating. I have five books in the drawer, with a sixth near completion. Two agents have liked my work enough to take me on, and the third passed on the manuscript because those types of stories aren't selling now; she was quite complimentary about the writing. (Which was why she asked for the full she's looking at now.) I can't help but think I'm close, but I've been close for a while now and it's been ten years and almost seven books.<br />
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It's alternately frustrating, discouraging, and frustrating. A writer I respect greatly recently reminded me that a professional is an amateur who didn't quit. Hang in there and keep plugging away. All of the above. There was n…tag:crimespace.ning.com,2010-04-02:537324:Comment:2314692010-04-02T13:58:33.465ZI. J. Parkerhttp://crimespace.ning.com/profile/Ingpark
All of the above. There was nothing to prevent you from entering the contest while editors and agents were looking at your manuscript. And the Minotaur contest, like the Private Eye contest run by the same publisher, gets an enormous number of submissions. It is impossible to critique each one. Finally, judges are frequently overruled by the publisher who has final pick.<br />
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Immediately do what Minerva suggests and contact the people who showed an interest.
All of the above. There was nothing to prevent you from entering the contest while editors and agents were looking at your manuscript. And the Minotaur contest, like the Private Eye contest run by the same publisher, gets an enormous number of submissions. It is impossible to critique each one. Finally, judges are frequently overruled by the publisher who has final pick.<br />
<br />
Immediately do what Minerva suggests and contact the people who showed an interest.