I know I’ve been quiet lately. At least blog quiet. I’ve taken a long break from the submission process for Cheater, but plan to start up again this month. And the most important thing is this: I have been writing. A lot. I’ve found a great rhythm and balance between working part time and writing part time, and have been happily delving into a YA novel I wrote as a 13 year old. It needs a lot of work – but the bones are good. It’s been fun (yet angst inducing) to return to the teenage world. Mostly fun. And I have to say, I love the voice I’ve found, and it is so easy, scarily easy, to slip into my inner teenager. This character is flowing over with potential, and I can see myself writing many, many stories with her. Changing my focus from searching for an agent back to craft has been rejuvenating. Just what I needed to do some revising on Cheater and jump back into the toil of the querying process!
Word Count
For those of you who, like me, have been confused by word count expectations for novels, agent Colleen Lindsay of FinePrint Literary Management has an excellent post on this subject. The numbers I’ve heard vary widely depending on the source. Thanks to Colleen for giving us some solid guidelines.
Discussions this week in the writing world
There were quite a few interesting conversations going on in the blog world this week. I’m late posting links – I needed some technical assistance (meaning my husband) and Stephane’s had a long work week. But, better late than never:
Nathan Bransford, a literary agent with Curtis Brown, posed an interesting question on what is and is not a publisher’s responsibility. He cites two recent events: (1) a book Random House chose not to publish, citing fears of backlash and possible acts of violence and (2) a book Simon and Schuster did publish – a less than truthful smear of Barack Obama. At the heart of the matter – moral responsibility and questions of censorship. Check it out, here.
Another blog that caught my eye was posted by The Rejecter, another literary agent. Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, is apparently being returned to stores at an unprecedented rate. I’ve never even thought about returning a book simply because I didn’t like it – I tend to sell those to a used book store or donate them to the library. The Rejecter hosted a discussion on the practice of returning books to the store for a full refund, and the implications of this practice, here.
