The fluffy entry now
Sep. 1st, 2005 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shalannaI won a critique!
There was a contest on The Knight Literary Agency's blogspot. We posted one-line pitches for our novels, and others critiqued and commented on them. Then three winners (out of the people who posted pitches) were drawn out of a hat. Numbers 1, 3, and 31. (Cosmic.) Guess who was #3?
So now I decide which book to send off.
(O! M! G!) I'm excited. But halfway ashamed to have won, after all these other writers had such fantastic pitches. So much good stuff, and great help found here. I think they should form a critique group out of the ones who posted on that thread. I want to join it. (No time to administer it, or I'd set one up.)
*NOW* the dilemma: should I send something that I think I really do need advice on (because I wonder if it needs changing to be marketable), or should I send my best work in hopes of being picked up by the agency (oh yes you KNEW I had an agenda, yes you did too)? I've already sent what I feel is probably my best work, as a requested submission, to the agency . . . however, that's in the mail and will be in the stack of to-do stuff. On the other tentacle, I always think everything is my best work.
Oh, the dilemma. This is a GOOD dilemma. But if anyone has any advice, I need it *now*. My brain is fried from a two-day marathon of staring at the media coverage of the disaster in NOLA and along the Gulf coast. (If I just had a boat or an airplane so I could go get the ones who are still stranded on roofs and on third/fourth floors, with no water and waiting, waiting. They need CARE packages from the sky.) I need advice because I cannot think properly (and it is arguable whether I ever think inside the box.)
I have to send the one I secretly love, but have been told is not marketable. . . the reason being (said these three agents whom I respect, one after the other) that if the POV character is a runaway adolescent, that makes the book YA, and I am dealing with too wide a scope for today's YA. (Forget "Rainbow Party" and "Sandpiper" and all the other X-rated YA novels, mine is "too dirty" because I explain that my runaway is turning the occasional trick to survive. Ha!) I do NOT buy that "if the POV character is an adolescent, it makes the book YA," in the first place. Do they think _To Kill a Mockingbird_ is a YA novel? If they THINK that, they are a few fries short of a Happy Meal. There aren't as many chicken nuggets in their serving as there are supposed to be. Feh. Many, many "grown-up" literary novels are written from the POV of MANY different-aged characters. Some are reminiscences, and others aren't. That, for me, is not the discriminant of whether a novel is YA.
I'm leaning toward sending the book that's going to be tough to market. After all, it deserves to wear the bridal gown now and then instead of having to wear all those tacky, ruffled "dewdrop-opal" dresses that make its butt look huge! (Meaning it should be the bride instead of the bridesmaid.) Interestingly enough, the beta reader of mine who is so suspense-and-action oriented that she skips over any scenes that aren't all action and complains that there's thinking in books (ha) LIKES this one. She was swept along by the action. So I think they're all wrong. But then I always think that.
Swbelcdf,
Shalanna
(That's the verification word I had to use last time on a blogspot comment--isn't it kind of cool and mystifying? Sort of a telephone vibe followed by the alphabet's neglected consonant contingent. "Swbelcdf! I can't get a dialtone!")
There was a contest on The Knight Literary Agency's blogspot. We posted one-line pitches for our novels, and others critiqued and commented on them. Then three winners (out of the people who posted pitches) were drawn out of a hat. Numbers 1, 3, and 31. (Cosmic.) Guess who was #3?
So now I decide which book to send off.
(O! M! G!) I'm excited. But halfway ashamed to have won, after all these other writers had such fantastic pitches. So much good stuff, and great help found here. I think they should form a critique group out of the ones who posted on that thread. I want to join it. (No time to administer it, or I'd set one up.)
*NOW* the dilemma: should I send something that I think I really do need advice on (because I wonder if it needs changing to be marketable), or should I send my best work in hopes of being picked up by the agency (oh yes you KNEW I had an agenda, yes you did too)? I've already sent what I feel is probably my best work, as a requested submission, to the agency . . . however, that's in the mail and will be in the stack of to-do stuff. On the other tentacle, I always think everything is my best work.
Oh, the dilemma. This is a GOOD dilemma. But if anyone has any advice, I need it *now*. My brain is fried from a two-day marathon of staring at the media coverage of the disaster in NOLA and along the Gulf coast. (If I just had a boat or an airplane so I could go get the ones who are still stranded on roofs and on third/fourth floors, with no water and waiting, waiting. They need CARE packages from the sky.) I need advice because I cannot think properly (and it is arguable whether I ever think inside the box.)
I have to send the one I secretly love, but have been told is not marketable. . . the reason being (said these three agents whom I respect, one after the other) that if the POV character is a runaway adolescent, that makes the book YA, and I am dealing with too wide a scope for today's YA. (Forget "Rainbow Party" and "Sandpiper" and all the other X-rated YA novels, mine is "too dirty" because I explain that my runaway is turning the occasional trick to survive. Ha!) I do NOT buy that "if the POV character is an adolescent, it makes the book YA," in the first place. Do they think _To Kill a Mockingbird_ is a YA novel? If they THINK that, they are a few fries short of a Happy Meal. There aren't as many chicken nuggets in their serving as there are supposed to be. Feh. Many, many "grown-up" literary novels are written from the POV of MANY different-aged characters. Some are reminiscences, and others aren't. That, for me, is not the discriminant of whether a novel is YA.
I'm leaning toward sending the book that's going to be tough to market. After all, it deserves to wear the bridal gown now and then instead of having to wear all those tacky, ruffled "dewdrop-opal" dresses that make its butt look huge! (Meaning it should be the bride instead of the bridesmaid.) Interestingly enough, the beta reader of mine who is so suspense-and-action oriented that she skips over any scenes that aren't all action and complains that there's thinking in books (ha) LIKES this one. She was swept along by the action. So I think they're all wrong. But then I always think that.
Swbelcdf,
Shalanna
(That's the verification word I had to use last time on a blogspot comment--isn't it kind of cool and mystifying? Sort of a telephone vibe followed by the alphabet's neglected consonant contingent. "Swbelcdf! I can't get a dialtone!")
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-01 01:07 pm (UTC)That's very frustrating that your novel is being classified as "YA" but then isn't fitting their requirements for the YA novel. I'd be very tempted to send this one in just so you can get some constructive critique.
But if you're looking to just publish one as soon as you can, I'd go for your best. Once you're "in" then they may be more likely to work with you on the harder-to-fit-in-a-box one. Hope that made some kind of sense.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-02 09:16 am (UTC)You know, Deidre is both an agent and a writer, so you could approach this from many angles. Still, she's made it clear that its a crit (and not a submission) so I'd go for the one you most want feedback on, which sounds like the it's-not-a-YA book.
Good luck with whatever you decide!!