Friday, September 21, 2012

Teens Can Write, Too!

This weekend, I'm one of the agents judging the pitch contest over at Teens Can Write, Too! Unfortunately, I'm late posting about this so it's too late for you to enter. But the contest was for writers between the ages of 13-20. The top ten pitches were posted on the site's blog, and have a chance of being read by agents.

I think it's a really cool thing, and I've already requested something. If I had been a teen writer (of more than crappy fanfic) then I would've love to participate in this. I definitely think writing is a muscle that has to be developed and all writers need encouragement.

So go and tell the winners how amazing their entries sound!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Rejections

If you are an author (or a human, really) you are going to have to find a way to deal with rejection. Please don't go attacking agents, or editors.  This sort of thing rarely helps your cause. I know it's not fun, so cry, beat pillows, eat ice cream, whatever helps you through. You've got to find something that doesn't involve assaulting people.

My first real taste of rejection was the college admissions process. Until then I'd been one of the smarter kids in my grade and felt I could do stuff pretty easily. I also had big plans about The Future--all of which involved me becoming Very Important. And then colleges I applied to said to me, "Actually, you're pretty average. Sorry."

I had this fantasy that one day they would be sorry. And since I was going to be Very Important, they would invite me to speak on their campus. I would respond by sending them a copy of the rejection letter they sent me. ("Due to the the strong pool of applicants, I regret to inform you that I will not be able to speak at your Very Important Thing...")

And I used that whole "prove them wrong" thing as motivation to do well at university and later at grad school. But I don't have copies of those rejection letters anymore. I guess that's why the "use it as fuel" metaphor is often used. Fuel is good to get you places, but eventually it burns away.

Louise, Louise, Louise

Last night, our own Louise Fury won Agent of the Year from the New York City Chapter of RWA.

I hoped to have pictures but my camera-phone made everything blurry. So you will just have to imagine. (The award is a golden apple and Louise is Louise.)

Louise is great. I'm lucky to work with her. And it was a great night to celebrate her, because she just posted a "major" deal on PublishersMarketplace to top it all off.

Friday, September 7, 2012

Widgets

Playing around with Amazon widgets. These are some books that my agency has worked on recently.