There are some very interesting ongoing discussions by Authoress and Screaming Guppy about writing rule breakers. The points made by these two astute bloggers are informative and important, if unsettling.
And my naive little self can't help but be a bit shocked. Why are writers trying to skirt the protocol of querying/publishing?
I could understand if the "rules" asked you to hand over your first born a la Rumpelstiltskin, but Authoress gives aspiring authors wonderful venues to learn the craft AND the chance to show their stuff off to Secret Agents. She's doing the writing world a great service - so I had an eye-bulging episode when I heard she'd had entrants who cheated on the contest rules.
These sad, sobering tales of evil shortcuts is even more shocking to me because I've found the writing community to be such a cooperative and welcoming one. When I hear horror stories about authors forcing manuscripts on agents at conferences or submitting blanket queries addressed "Dear Agent" I wonder who these folks are. Certainly they aren't the wonderful writers I've met in the blogosphere and at conferences.
Real success in this endeavor isn't about cutting corners and getting ahead, it's how much we learn from each other and help our fellow writers traveling on the same road.
A few bad apples should not be allowed to taint our beautiful word orchard. At the end of the day writers, agents, publishers are all on the same team with the same goal.
Team: Book Love
Goal: Get more great books out into the world
Time for campfire songs! Or even better, Beaker doing torch.
I'm definitely on Team Book Love. And I love the blurb on the Witches' War Saga! Can't wait until it hits the stores.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. I'm glad I'm not the only one out there who thinks some people are downright insane. Authoress works to hard for people to ignore her rules.
ReplyDeleteBoy, you sure do find the perfect image to complement your dead-on swing at the head of the nail. I have a slow dripping hydrant down at the garden, and I hang a pail over the handle to be constantly amazed at how quickily it fills up. I dump the saved nutrients on my thirsty eggplant or melons. Too bad there isn't some off-world briar patch we could dump such twits in. Because THEY make it harder on everyone else. I've never been able to understand some of these so-called writers and find it hard to believe some of the horror stories put out there by agents like Janet Reid. I blame the computer age. It's easy with all the writing programs out there for anyone who can buy a computer and find the home position on the keyboard to see themselves as a "writer". And we all know that there is a cure for ignorance but none for stupidity.
ReplyDeleteOops...quickly,I mean, quickly. See....I'm in too much of a hurry to get down to the beans and eggplant before the heat of the day (but can't let such a glaring error go uncorrected). In the heat of the day I like to sit on the shaded porch with my laptop on my lap. Oh joy.
ReplyDeleteelizabthe law (editor) said if you have to wonder who is doing this - it is not you :) the people who do it don't know b/c they don't know much about the industry.
ReplyDeleteI was just at the bookstore yesterday on my lunch hour, and I saw all these people there with armfulls of new paperbacks. I almost cried with love. I wanted to drop my breakfast tea and hug them!
ReplyDelete