Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Conferences are great, but they aren't designed to help you polish your manuscript while you are there. Feedback is generally limited to the first twenty to thirty pages at most. Sometimes it can be as little as two pages if you are doing a read and critique type workshop. There are usually classes ...

Guardian wrote:Maybe it's not my best art, but this is my favorite about my WIP's MC. Finally I had some time to work on her...

Very nice. I'm impressed, Guardian. I wish I had the talent to create my characters in pictures.

I just had my first male beta reader give some feedback on my decidedly female-friendly novel, and he liked it even though it is a genre he would not typically read. Small success, but one I'll gladly take.

ajcattapan wrote:I pitched to four people (3 agents and 1 publisher) at a conference this afternoon, and all four requested fulls! :)

Woohoo!! Congratulations. Kind of makes up for that bad crit you paid for. ;)

This would be a grown man killing a little boy with either a sword or a metal club or something like that. Anyway, thanks for the replies, everyone! I've been watching the Spartacus television series on Netflix. It contains VERY graphic scenes of violence -- over-the-top, graphic novel, cartoon-typ...

Congratulations again!

And in case you haven't seen this already, here's a link with some suggestions on what to ask your prospective agent when you talk on the phone. :)

http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/2010/ ... agent.html

When I queried her, I did check her out & I just doubled checked after your post. She's a new agent with a recent sell to a major royalty publisher. Maybe I should give her a couple more days before emailing or calling her? Glad to hear it. And, yeah, maybe just try being patient for a few more...

ajcattapan wrote:I've worked up two versions of my pitch. If anyone wants to say which they think is better, I'd appreciate any feedback. I'm pitching at a conference this weekend. Here are my two options:

Testimony to the subjective nature of this stuff: I like option B. Good luck this weekend!

I think asking Nathan is a good idea, but I'll tell you that I had some red flags come up after reading what you wrote. I have to admit I had the same reaction when I first read this. Just make sure you've checked the agent out on the Predators and Editors website to make sure they are legit, and c...

Margo wrote:"Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit." -- Oscar Wilde

Ummm, but paraphrasing...does that qualify? :)

It's a reasonable substitution for wisdom. :)

Margo wrote:To paraphrase Plato, the reward or punishment for being the person you are is being the person you are.

*big smile*

I am about 25 pages in on "Water for Elephants" and I love it already! I don't know why it took me so long to pick up this book. Sara has a great narrative voice! Love that book. :) I just finished reading Fahrenheit 451 for the first time. Yes, I'm lame. I could really see, in the contex...

cheekychook wrote:New Blog Post - Last Weekend aka More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About My Experience At the Writer's Digest Conference

Includes details about the infamous speed-dating-style Pitch Slam

Wow, what an experience. Congratulations to you and KarenB. Well done!

The problem I'm having is this: the boy is only five years old. I'm not sure how much graphic violence is considered "acceptable" when it's directed at children in this type of scenario. I'm not a parent. I can't say how a parent would react if they read this bit of the book. I have a pre...

1. Character names with same first and last name initials (Kate Kennedy, Jack Johnson, etc, etc...) I had to laugh at this. I did this with THREE characters in my first draft. I didn't even notice the names were doing this until I started to revise. Doh! Needless to say, I had to change a few chara...