Nathan Bransford - The Forums

My "dream agent" came about much the same way Charlee's explained. I just kept seeing that agent's name in the acknowledgements section of books I loved. And I think it's a great way to discover agents to add to your list. However, let me play devil's advocate here. There are a couple of i...

Congratulations, maybe! Loved the story on your blog of how it "came to be".

Charlee, I've seen conflicting advice on this. One school says to send the first batch of queries out there to test your query to see if it's good enough to get you requests. The other school says to put your agents in order of preference and start at the top. I say, if you haven't put your manuscri...

Jay Kristoff will have a Japanese steampunk novel coming out in 2012, the beginning of a new series. It's an English-language novel (he's Australian). I'm quite excited about it.

How a Toddler Made Me a Better Writer - And Can Help You, Too

http://hillaryjacques.blogspot.com/2011/09/but-why.html

As a rule, no, agents are not looking to sign a client and invest their time and effort for a novella. The market for traditionally-pubbed novellas is small, and I would guess it's almost obsolete for debut authors. However, if you believe the novella to be of publishable quality, there are some pub...

I haven't, but I'm regularly confused by people commenting while they read ARCs because I think I've mis-remembered the release date.

I'm eagerly awaiting Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, and someone I follow on twitter has been reading an ARC. Every time she mentions it, I get very excited, then very sad.

5 Steps to Surviving the Soggy Center of Your Book

http://hillaryjacques.blogspot.com/2011 ... er-of.html

Whaaaa? Waiting is awesome, almost as awesome as writing a synopsis. :/ Yeah, it stinks. And it never really ends in this business. You query, you wait to partner with an agent. You land an agent and go on submission, you wait for an editor to partner with. You sell a book, you wait for edits and co...

Ermo, it very much depends on what you want in both the short and the long run. Are you looking for an advance? Do wish to publish a single book, several, a series? Do you wish to sell domestic rights only, foreign rights, audio rights, e-rights? Are you able to understand and negotiate your own con...

My best non-writer friend reads history and historical fiction. She doesn't understand fantasy or contemporary or futuristic, or why one would need to write/read that. But, she doesn't blink when I change directions mid-conversation, and can riff with me for hours on hypotheticals (though with a cer...

Congratulations, Cheeky!

I'm at the point where I now do two drafts (what I call zero draft - getting the thing done - and first draft) before handing over to writers. I don't want to spend months agonizing over edits only to have a major issue (also known as Opportunity for Improvement) pointed out to me, which often happe...

BORN OF WINTER: Roots of a Character
http://hillaryjacques.blogspot.com/2011 ... acter.html

I don't think this is too unusual in the industry, Hillary. Editors and agents both may request changes to a manuscript with no guarantee of acceptance. I've seen it referred to as an R&R - revise and resubmit. I think usually, as long as you adequately make the changes they're requesting (some...