Reader Mary asked a good question about writers with day jobs vs a full-time writer. At first, I read it and thought, “That’s the silliest question ever, of course I don’t care!” Then I realized that I was just thinking myopically…and that some writers may not realize that I don’t care, duh, and that you aren’t all mind readers. So it turned into the perfect question for a post!
Do agents sign writers who have other day jobs (and always will), or only full time writers, or writers with day jobs aspiring to be full-time?
What a writer does with their days — unless it directly relates to the project they’ve written — is of very little concern to most agents.
Writers with Day Jobs: Your 9 to 5 Doesn’t Really Matter
Few published authors succeed at writing for a living. And it’s very rare to be a full time writer before you publish a book (since a lot of the lucrative book deals, the ones that allow writers to become full time authors, are orchestrated by agents who work with large publishers).
So when people are looking to find a literary agent, there’s only a very small chance that they’re already a full time writer. What a writer does with their days or what their day job is — unless it directly relates to the project they’ve written and I can use that factoid to help them build a platform — is of very little concern to me. I have clients who are doctors, who are stay-at-home-moms, who are teachers, who are grad school students. When I signed them up, a question about their job usually came as an afterthought in the initial phone call, the “getting to know you” small talk.
Even well-published authors still fall into the category of writers with day jobs. A lot have jobs that are tied to their other careers as published authors, such as speaker or university professor or editor or magazine writer or English teacher or bookseller. But a lot still have either the drive or the financial need to work at more than being a full time writer.
Having a Day Job Makes Writing Time More Valuable
In fact, I think writers who have to make time for their creative writing practice are often more committed to their writing work. When you have all day to do something, you usually figure out a way to take all day to do it (the constant drama of someone who works at home and can’t afford to take a whole day to do one simple thing). A task stretches to fill the time allotted for it. But when you have to extract rare writing time from a busy work day, it becomes precious, like gold extracted from base metal in the ancient pursuit of alchemy. You focus more, you value your writing time more, you get more done. (Read tips here for finding time to write.)
This isn’t universal, by any means, but I do find that some writers with day jobs who have to struggle to find time to write, even if it’s just at the beginning of their careers, come out a little heartier for it. So no, I don’t care what your day job is. But I respect you all the more for balancing a job, a family, and your writing life as part of the daily grind.
When you hire my editorial services, you have access to the knowledge I accrued in my five years as a literary agent. I’m happy to share that knowledge with my editorial clients, no matter how big or small the question.
A few months ago, wonderful agent Kristin Nelson wrote about the book bidding war and getting a literary agent on her blog. She talked about feeling like some of her recent offers of representation have felt more like entries into a bidding war. I’ve felt the same way, as I mentioned in a post last week. The last six months, when I’ve offered rep, the author almost always already had other interest or got other interest after my offer. (I read very quickly when I’m interested and tend to be the first to offer. This is sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing.) Most of the book bidding wars I’ve been involved in have been me and two, three, sometimes even five or six other agents. All fighting for the same happy-but-overwhelmed author.
There’s a book bidding war on your manuscript — which agent will you go with?
Is the Book Bidding War a Dream Scenario for Authors?
Sounds like a dream scenario, right? Well, not for the agent, obviously, but not for the author, either. They’re stuck making a very important business decision when getting a literary agent: between people who all love their book, who are all good at their jobs, and who are all trying to be persuasive. It’s stressful (I say that having been on the writer end of this situation myself in the past, with six offers blurring on the table in front of me).
I’ve been in this situation a handful times in the last six months or so. I recently saw two of the books I’d offered on announced as sales in Publisher’s Marketplace, under other agents’ names. I was happy for the authors and I love the books, obviously, but gosh darn, I sure wish I could’ve been the happy agent listing those deals. I’m not whining about losing out on these manuscripts at all, and it’s not sour grapes. The author went with the best fit for them and that, at the end of the day, is the best possible thing for everyone involved. The clients I get and the books I sell all happen for a reason. And I do genuinely mean it when I tell the authors who go elsewhere when getting a literary agent that I look forward to reading about a huge sale in PM.
Consider Different Agenting Styles When Getting A Literary Agent
But for me, there are other issues at play in the book bidding war and getting an agent other than, “Gee, I wish I’d gotten that client!” Being the first to offer (usually) and being myself and losing makes me wonder what types of things the other agents are saying that tip the scales in their favor. The last thing I want to do is to disparage any of my brilliant and hard-working agent colleagues, at my agency and outside of it. But there are different agenting styles, and I wonder if my particular agenting style isn’t serving me in this regard. Follow my train of thought a moment…
I pride myself on being a very realistic person. In my line of work, I do a lot of “managing expectations” and I practice a lot of cautious optimism. Lots of writers think they have the next HARRY POTTER meets TWILIGHT on their hard drives. Runaway bestsellers like that are very rare, and they can’t be manufactured. Of course I want all of my clients to do well and to make a living at their writing. And I’d love a runaway bestseller (who wouldn’t!). But I’m also realistic (some might say skeptical).
My Approach: Cautious Optimism
When I offer representation, I don’t make big promises. Of course I love the book. And of course I think I can sell it to a great editor. And of course I’m an editorial agent with ideas for how the manuscript could be even stronger. Otherwise, I would have no business offering representation. It isn’t my job to gush over a book or tell the author how brilliant they are (though I often do). It’s my job to sell that book. So if I think I can do my job, I offer representation. (Learn more about an offer of representation literary agent.) But I also caution the writer that there are no guarantees. And that agents aren’t a magic bullet. (Check out my post that addresses “when an agent doesn’t sell your book” for more info.) Besides, I offer for the long term. I’d love to sell the first book but, if it doesn’t happen to sell, I know there will be another manuscript, or another, to try with. I’m a very longview type of person, which plays into my agenting style.
What I don’t do in the book bidding war is offer the author any sure bets, tantalizing dreams of big sales or tasty foreign rights possibilities. “This’ll be a movie, dahling, starring Robert Pattinson. I’m already casting it in my head!” is a very LA way to go about the whole agent stereotype (sorry, LA!), and it’s really not my style. I obviously want all of that and more for my clients but I wouldn’t talk big and promise even bigger. I’m much less “wining and dining” and much more “let’s work together to create something irresistible to editors.”
There’s also, of course, the issue of track record. I’m a newer agent. I have six sales listed on Publisher’s Marketplace. Though that’s not a comprehensive view of my sales, that’s the only thing writers can check. The first books I sold won’t be out for another nine months or so. I don’t have years of track record or bestseller clients to woo with… yet. And I’m very conscious that in a “beauty contest” (as we call these competitive situations), these things really do weigh in. (See my how to select a literary agent post for more on this.)
Getting a Literary Agent: What Qualities are You Looking For?
What’s the reason for this recent trend of offers from multiple book publishing agents, then? Or for those times when the book bidding war and getting an agent didn’t go my way? (Luckily, I’ve offered and won many, many more times than this, and I’m thrilled for the clients I do have.) I don’t know. But I’m really curious. As the comments on Kristin’s post mention, it could be an issue of agents hopping on the bandwagon when they hear about an offer. I have to admit, when someone comes to me and says they have an offer of representation, my interest is definitely piqued and I read fast to see if I want to throw my hat into the ring. I want a chance at the fantastic manuscript, too! But it seems like every offer has competition these days. I wonder why that is and, I have to admit, I’d love to be a fly on the wall and see how other agents are offering representation.
What would you all prefer in your offer of representation (other than, you know, getting that offer in the first place)? Big, exciting promises or my preferred brand of “cautious optimism”? Is the offer phone call the time to really rip out all the stops and get the writer hyped up or is it a frank chat about the business, the market, and how this manuscript will fit into the big picture?
This whole issue of the book bidding war and getting a literary agent is fascinating! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
As a former literary agent, I know what agents and editors are looking for in a manuscript. When you invest in my novel editing services, I’ll help you get over the very first hurdle of having an agent-worthy project to submit.
My fantastic client Josh Ferrin designed an incredible new header image for the blog. It is so awesome! I am so happy. Leave your header love in the comments.
Should an unpublished author maintain a writer blog? This is a fraught topic for many writers. Some seem forced into blogging. Others love it. If you’re happy to blog, please do it. This post is geared mostly to people who are on the fence and who are feeling pressure to start a writer blog because they hear that’s what they’re supposed to do. The tone of this question is usually, “Do I have to blog?”
If you’re not already maintaining a writer blog, should you start?
The Unpublished Author Quest for a Platform
This is a question that comes up a lot at conferences and from people who email me. It’s the familiar scenario: You’re an unpublished author chasing publication. You don’t have a book or a deal to blog about yet, but you’ve heard that you need an author platform and Internet presence, and you’ve heard that a writer blog can get you friends and traffic and riches and unicorns, and you’ve also heard about this Twitter thing. Yet it sounds overwhelming. And you wonder if you have enough to blog about. You wonder if you have the time to keep up with all these things.
But if the online writing groups you see other unpublished writers enjoying keeps bugging you — You have to blog! You have to Tweet! You have to Facebook!
What’s an unpublished author to do?
Your Time Is Better Invested Writing
I’m going to say, probably, the exact opposite of what you’d expect. See, I’m a person who blogs. And I have a Twitter. And I’m on Facebook. I also grew up in the Silicon Valley and worked for a bunch of Internet start-ups before I got involved in publishing. You think I’d be totally into unpublished authors blogging, Tweeting, flickring, Buzzing, Facebooking, and all that. Right?
Wrong.
I never look at the writer blogs of people who query me unless they can give me some kind of impressive fact, like “30,000 people visit this blog per month” or “I draw a daily web cartoon and have a following” or “I’ve created an interactive game that you can play” or whatever.
The Worst Thing You Can Do Is Blog Halfheartedly
If you’re iffy on blogging and worry, already, that you’ll run out of material, I say don’t do it. There are too many bad blogs, blogs about people’s cats (I swore I would never blog about my cat…then she got sick and I freaked out and I blogged…at every writer’s conference I attend, people still ask me about my cat!), blogs about their word count for the day and what book they’re reading, blogs by people who think they need a blog. Don’t add one more to the pile. Blogs without good, useful information or blogs by a clearly reluctant author are the worst.
The thing about blogs is that they’re a living thing. Blogs take your most recent entry and post it first. For the savvy, content-rich blog, that’s great. For the reluctant blog, that’s bad. Readers can log on and see the exact date when you lost your zest for blogging or ran out of content. And I’d say that a blog last updated in September 2009 is worse than no blog at all. It makes you seem out-of-date, irrelevant…maybe even dead. (Old blogs frozen in time are almost creepy.)
Being Practical About Platform
Fiction writers don’t need to pay attention to that whole “You have to have a platform” myth as much as nonfiction writers do. If you’re writing a novel or a picture book…what is your platform? That you like writing and you’re writing a novel or a picture book. Just like all the other writers out there. Unless you happen to be an expert in a subject matter that plays into your fiction, or you’re some other kind of professional writer who is crossing over, you’re not going to have any more platform than that.
The reason why I’m so negative about unpublished authors blogging and Tweeting is that it’s usually not good content. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Internet from actually working for it for all those years, it’s that users come to the Internet to see, “What’s in it for me?” They want valuable content that speaks to them. They Google: “How do I get this stain out of my white carpet?” “Is it okay that my baby is turning sort of purple?” (It’s probably not.) “How do I stop the hiccups?” “What’s a great summer BBQ recipe?”
A Writer Blog Works Best When The Content Helps Others…Not You
Most writer blogs — and most blogs in general — are about the writer of the blog, not about the user. I have a blog, but you’ll notice that I try to keep myself and my life out of it (and I was doing a dang good job until my cat got sick!). I want to use this space to give you valuable content, because I know that’s what people want from me. At the end of the day, they have their own cats to worry about, but they would like some writing and publishing advice.
The Benefit of Blogging Before Publication
Unpublished author blogs do one positive thing, usually: they foster community among other unpublished writers. You can come gripe about book rejection, brag about word count, share your successes and frustrations and make friends.
While that’s nice for you, it has little value to an agent or editor (and not all of us feel this way, so please take this as my opinion) who comes to visit. Unpublished authors also write about writing in their blog, and that may attract other unpublished writers, but it does have a limited reach. Published writers who write about writing usually attract a wider audience, as they have perceived authority.
If you have a writer blog where you can give people really valuable content, tips, and things to make their lives better (or at least to give them good cocktail party conversation), do it. If you are just thinking of blogging because everyone else does it or you heard that agents won’t consider you unless you have a writer blog, don’t.
Spend Your Time Writing
Plus, Web 2.0 (social networking) is a time suck. You can go pretty far down the rabbit hole with Tweets and Facebook updates. Then you lose sight of the thing that’s really going to get you published: writing.
Focus on your writing. And if you feel the need to be online, which you should, at least in some small way, put up a simple three page author website: main landing page with info about your work, about you page, contact page. That’s it, and it should be cheap to make a page that actually looks good and professional.
Once you’re under contract with a publisher, of course, everything changes. You’ll have stuff to say. You’ll have a book to sell. You’ll have events to publicize. You’ll have readers who want to know more about you. For now, though, don’t bow to the peer pressure if you really don’t feel comfortable blogging or Tweeting or Facebooking.
Do you have strategy questions about how to best use your valuable time? Need writing career advice? I’m happy to be your writing and publishing consultant, and we can come up with a road map together.
I had reader Dave write in and ask about writing children’s short stories and the market for this type of work. This is a popular form of writing, whether you want to do a short story collection that features a lot of disparate work or a linked short story collection that tells one cohesive narrative over the scope of the manuscript.
Before you sink a ton of work into writing children’s short stories, or a short story for teens, do some research first. Is there market appetite for your idea? Would it work better in another format?
Writing Children’s Short Stories: A Hard Sell
It is arduous to break into publishing with a traditional novel as your debut. It would be exponentially more difficult when you’re writing children’s short stories or a short story for teens. When we go to meetings with editors to discuss their tastes and acquisition needs, short story collections have almost never come up, except for in the sense of, “Please don’t send me any.”
An Exception
There is an interesting new series coming out from Balzer + Bray and Walden Pond…the GUYS READ anthologies, edited by Jon Scieszka. I’ve read the first one, the humor anthology, that comes out this fall, and it does indeed feature a handful of short stories meant to be consumed in 20 minutes each and to encourage reluctant readers. I’m very curious to see how this line of anthologies does since, yes, short stories are more accessible to some readers, and they do have a place in the school curriculum.
Not My Speciality, But Your Work May Still Find a Home
But for someone who wants to sell to a wider market, for the trade, I would say that placing a debut manuscript that’s a short story collection would be extremely difficult. And, you know what? I’m perfectly fine with saying that something isn’t my specialty and that I wouldn’t be a good advocate for people who are writing children’s short stories or a short story for teens. This is definitely the case here.
I can’t dissuade any writer, obviously, and certain writers may find a home with a more curriculum-oriented publisher, but I wouldn’t represent a short story collection unless it was just the most brilliant thing I’d ever read, and then I’d probably ask if the author could turn it into a novel.
There are lots of other market options for people who are writing children’s short stories or a short story for teens, though, from curriculum-based publishers to magazines. A lot of the time, the novel premises or picture book ideas I receive read more like short stories than stories that deserve a longer execution. I know that’s not what any short story writer wants to hear, but there are lots of avenues that might not be trade publishers.
When you hire me as your developmental editor, I can help you decide if a story idea works best as a novel, short story, or picture book.
Hey all, here’s my post from Tuesday, edited with today’s information:
My query critique sold over the weekend (to fabulous blog reader Marybk, who got it for herself as a Mother’s Day present! Yay!). I’m so thrilled to be able to help (with your help, of course) the flood victims in Tennessee.
Next up from me is a full manuscript critique that you can bid on until midnight, central time today: Do the Write Thing for Nashville. (Direct link to the item here.)
This opportunity includes:
One full manuscript (up to 100,000 words, please) critique of a YA or MG novel
A 30-minute post-critique phone call for the winner to talk about the notes and answer any publishing or career-related questions
My critiques are in-depth and thorough, as many readers would know from the workshop series I did on the blog a few months ago. Now imagine that for your whole manuscript! Plus, I don’t know you personally and have no other goal beside making your manuscript the strongest it can be, so you’ll get honest, professional, constructive, helpful feedback that’s not sugarcoated. I want you to grow as a writer and really get to that next level.
So head on over to the blog and bid on my full manuscript critique. You have until midnight Central time today to bid. I’m so grateful to all the people who are bidding over there and changing lives with their generous donations!
Check in with the blog tomorrow for the promised BIG NEWS!
My favorite thing about children’s publishing is that it’s really a community, above all. I don’t know of a more supportive, loving and nourishing group of people, and I’m so happy to be a part of it.
Every now and then, members of our community, friends, and colleagues come together to mount a truly heroic effort in the face of disaster. My client, Amanda Morgan, and a group of other writers (including the fabulous Victoria Schwab) have witnessed the flood devastation in central Tennessee firsthand…and they’re doing something about it.
These wonderful ladies — with donations from many people — are putting on an auction over the next few days. You can check it out here:
Exciting book/publishing/writing-related items are posted every day and interested parties have exactly three days to bid in the blog comments to win the item they want. The highest amount bid by someone in comments wins the auction item. The winner pays by PayPal, gets a receipt for their taxes and receives the critique, book, phone call, or whatever, that they bid on. All auction proceeds go to the Community Foundation of Central Tennessee to provide disaster relief.
Here’s where I’m hoping you come in.
I have donated the following items and they will become available over the course of the auction:
one query critique
one PB manuscript critique
one YA or MG manuscript critique (of one manuscript of 100,000 words or less, please. This one is really special, guys. I have never offered a full manuscript critique before because they are so in-depth and time-consuming. You won’t get another opportunity like this unless you become a client!)
My auction items will become available over the next several days. If you love Kidlit, if you’ve ever wanted to be critiqued by me, if you want a really in-depth look at your manuscript, if you’ve got some spare tax refund cash lying around, even if you’ve never heard of me but love to help people in need…please bid generously to support the writing community and the greater community of central Tennessee.
So check out the Do the Write Thing for Nashville Facebook page and blog to see if you can bid on a critique from me or any of the other fantastic items generously donated by my colleagues in publishing. I can’t wait to see all the good we can do together. Now go and bid on something, the first items have just been listed. None of my items have popped up yet, but keep checking back, and bid on some other goodies in the meantime.
To all the writers who blog and Tweet and Facebook and post on Verla Kay and Absolute Write: please get the word out about this auction and about the items I’m offering (not in an annoying, spammy way, though, please). Even if you can’t bid on an item, lend a helping hand by spreading the word!
In much more fantastic news, Kidlit has been picked as one of the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers. I’m one of 5 agent blogs chosen for this honor! My readers are a huge part of this success, and I want to thank you all so much!
I am using up a valuable Monday post to make sure you all are reading and checking the Critique Connection post. There are about 90 people on there who are looking to find a good critique partner. It’s overwhelming, I know, but read through them. And let me know if anything you find through that venue works out!
Speaking of overwhelming, my schedule has been INSANE. I’ve loved meeting all of the blog readers (and welcoming any new ones!) I met these last two weeks. However, three consecutive weekends of travel (NYC, Dallas and Reno/Tahoe) have really taken their toll. I’ll be back with a new post on Wednesday.
Here’s a submission from Tricia. Here’s what she had to say:
Does too much happen too soon? Is there enough detail or too much? What (if possible) turns you off and would stop you from reading more?
Let’s take a look at the material. First, without my notes, then, with.
***
The voice invading Jeremiah’s head must be Darrah, the woman who called herself messenger of the gods. Jeremiah tried not to listen to the voice or obey; it was useless. She’d put something in his arm when she scratched him. It throbbed, the pain spreading through the rest of his body. Darrah had control over him for as long as she wished.
Jeremiah took one of the torches that framed the crude doorway. The door needed no lock. A cold breeze smelling of decay greeted him. He hid his mouth and nose in his red cloak. The smell remained. Darkness swallowed the stone staircase. It wound down into the mountain under the castle to the dungeons.
Bloodthirsty monsters found the mountain’s caves a most agreeable home. Some came out of the shadows. Jeremiah spun in a superstitious dance, touching the torch from hand to hand, foot to foot, then over his head. Hot embers spilled down his scrawny neck. He brushed them off. As long as he swung the torch the creatures kept their distance. Sweat covered Jeremiah’s goose-pimpled flesh.
Even if Jeremiah didn’t get caught freeing Lord Dennison’s prisoner, he’d probably be thrown out of the scribe guild.
***
The voice invading Jeremiah’s head must be Darrah, the woman who called herself messenger of the gods. Jeremiah tried not to listen to the voice or obey; it was useless. She’d put something in his arm when she scratched him. It throbbed, the pain spreading through the rest of his body. Darrah had control over him for as long as she wished.
The first line here is distracting. We get a fact that sort of grounds us in the story — there’s a voice in Jeremiah’s head — but then we’re whisked off to a character introduction and some facts. Starting with the voice also raises a lot of questions. What does the voice sound like? Is it normal to hear voices in this world? If she was a messenger, why didn’t she just TELL him things instead of scratching him and gaining control? Or is this how messengers and the gods operate? Also, instead of hearing about a voice and hearing about the commands its giving (telling), I’d love to see some actual dialogue.
Jeremiah took one of the torches that framed the crude doorway. The door needed no lock. A cold breeze smelling of decay greeted him. He hid his mouth and nose in his red cloak. The smell remained. Darkness swallowed the stone staircase. It wound down into the mountain under the castle to the dungeons.
The transition here is a bit jarring. And we still don’t quite hear the voice ourselves, even though it seems like it’s pretty insistent. I’m not quite grounded here. If there’s a door to dungeons, why wouldn’t it have a lock? Or is he standing at some other door? I seem to think that underground air is stagnant, not breezy. I’m also losing Jeremiah’s interiority a bit with these descriptions. Instead of saying the remote, “Darkness swallowed the stone staircase,” try something like (and I’m not trying to be prescriptive, I’m just trying to provide an example to illustrate a point) something like, “Darkness swallowed the stone staircase directly in front of him.” This a) grounds the reader (he is standing in front of a staircase), b) puts the focus on Jeremiah, c) implies action (that he is about to go down this staircase).
Bloodthirsty monsters found the mountain’s caves a most agreeable home. Some came out of the shadows. Jeremiah spun in a superstitious dance, touching the torch from hand to hand, foot to foot, then over his head. Hot embers spilled down his scrawny neck. He brushed them off. As long as he swung the torch the creatures kept their distance. Sweat covered Jeremiah’s goose-pimpled flesh.
Be careful of narrating around your action instead of narrating your action. What do I mean here? As with above, you said, “Darkness swallowed the stone staircase.” What was really going on, however, was that Jeremiah was either about to go down the staircase or actually going down the staircase. But the description of the staircase only vaguely implied the action going on there. Here, again, we have, “Some came out of the shadows.” But it isn’t until the sentence after that we find out that Jeremiah is in the dungeons and getting spooked by the monsters. Don’t be afraid to give us pieces of simple narrative, like, “Jeremiah descended to the first level of the dungeons” to keep us apprised of what’s going on. When you say something like, “Bloodthirsty monsters found the mountain’s caves a most agreeable home. Some came out of the shadows,” you could be talking vaguely, theoretically, in general about these dungeons. Instead, you’re trying to say that Jeremiah is already in the dungeons. Transitions us through the action more directly. I do like the physical detail of “Hot embers spilled down his scrawny neck.” We get into his body a little bit. You might want a comma between “torch” and “the” in the penultimate sentence here.
Even if Jeremiah didn’t get caught freeing Lord Dennison’s prisoner, he’d probably be thrown out of the scribe guild.
This comes out of nowhere. We have no idea he’s even in the scribe guild or what it means to him, so we can’t really feel the high stakes of him possibly getting thrown out. Don’t tack it on like this or it won’t seem significant. Also, my biggest overall issue with this is we get all action and no motivation. A great place to say, “He was going to the dungeons to free Lord Dennison’s prisoner” would be with a command from the messenger in the first paragraph or so. We need to know WHY he’s going down into the dungeon. It’s more important than the fact that he is. Otherwise, we don’t care about it. Or we think he’s an idiot for putting himself in danger when we can’t figure out a good reason for him to be there. Motivate your character so that every time we see them in action, we know why. BEFORE we see them actually in action. That will give you maximum opportunity for stakes and tension. If we know what they want and why they want it, we start to actually get invested in whether or not they’ll get it.
***
My advice here would be to really narrate the story. Don’t hop from image to image and moment to moment. A big part of storytelling is knowing when to guide the reader. Give us a motivation, then show us a bunch of action. Tell us what the character is doing, then show him doing it. There’s a huge balance between actually giving us information we need to know and letting the story unfold. Here, tip it back a little more to the informational side. The reader will thank you because they’ll know what’s going on from moment to moment.
And that wraps us up for workshops. It seems like a lot of you found this a very useful exercise. Like I’ve said many times, it helps to see pieces that are in process, not just polished pieces that win contests. I think a lot of you have also come around to realizations about your own work from critiquing the work of others. That’s a very valuable skill and one of the reasons that critique groups are so valuable. You really hone your editorial eye that way and, one day, after a lot of work, that’ll translate to seeing your own stuff as objectively as possible.
I know some of you who submitted didn’t get chosen for critique. I wanted a diverse sample so that I could make a variety of points. My decisions weren’t based on the quality of the samples but on what I could say about each one. For some, I had more to say, so those are the ones I chose.
Because of the time this took, I don’t know when I’ll be able to offer another critique scenario, but it will be sometime this year, so do stay tuned. Now, I’ll be posting questions and answers, articles, and otherwise going back to normal on the blog.
