status: I'm feeling more positive since I realized that I can salvage about thirty pages or so out of the eighty plus I've written on the earlier pre-writing draft (WIP).

music: “It's a Fight” by Three 6 Mafia

On today's #askagent, someone asked if agents check a potential client's blog before offering. Colleen Lindsay responded:

Always. And I don't want to see whining about how many times you've been rejected. A huge turn-off.

I'm always amazed at the kind of information people put on their websites/blogs and other public places. Nobody wants to work with someone who is high maintenance or crazy or just doesn't know how to act professionally. Would you put the following on your blog while job hunting?

It's been five months since I sent my résumé to fifty companies. Only ten wanted to interview me. I went to all of them, but they all said no. I hope I get a better result from the other forty.

Writing feels like “art” and therefore some may feel that they're entitled to act like artistes. That's a huge mistake. Creating a story is art. The other aspects are anything but. Treat getting published like a business and you'll have more success.

P.S. My agent read my blog before offering. I was amazed at the amount of information she was able to garner from my posts, including where I lived, my quirks, etc. So beware!

I'm planning to do fast draft for my WIP 1st draft. Basically this is how it works for those of you who've never done fast draft before.

You write 20 manuscript pages* a day for 14 days. That's it. That's your fast draft. (For the math-impaired, you'll end up with a 280 page manuscript, which is about 70k, assuming that each page has 250 words.)

I'm going to start on August 15 and giving myself an extra day since I'm flying to Asia during that time. Anyone interested?

If so, comment here or tweet me @nadialee. I'm going to post my progress, etc. using #writegoal and #fastdraft.

* I use Courier 12 double-spaced, 25 lines per page.

Joely asked me to share my thoughts on Samsung NC10, so I figured it's about time I post something.

The unit's very solidly built. It does not feel cheap like some other brands I've seen. The keyboard is non-chiclet, large, and types very nicely. (FYI — I really don't care for the chiclet keyboards that seem to be so popular with MacBooks these days, and I actually like Samsung's keyboard better than an Apple MacBook's.) The battery lasts for a very long time. The trackpad is indeed small, but I got used to it within 2-3 days. Besides, I bought it to type, not to play with the trackpad or play games on it.

It's also very light, and doesn't seem to get that hot. At least I didn't notice anything bad about it. It sports a non-glossy screen, if it matters to anyone. (I like non-glossy screens for working outside.)

On the performance side, it boots, hibernates and restarts very fast, something that was helped by my upgrading memory to 2GB. It can run Office 2007 and Firefox, etc. with no problem, and the system is very stable (no crashes, etc.). The CPU is generally quiet on the standard manufacturer's setting.

IMHO Samsung's NC10 is better than the AlphaSmart Neo for writers, although if you have trouble staying away from the Internet, perhaps the Neo is the way to go. I'll post more thoughts later after a month or so of using both. :)

…check out Lynn Viehl's post on the reality of a NYT bestseller.

…just because I write paranormal romance.

According to Mary W. Walters‘s open letter to editors:

…your desk is piling up with flimsy bits of vampire literature, fantasy, romance, detective stories and the kind of first-draft bubble gum that used to be called chick-lit but is now shuffled in with other women's writing in order to give it heft — although as far as you can see, neither the quality nor the subject matter has improved — which you are required to somehow turn into publishable books.

…

…fine fiction writers who are crappy copy-writers attempt to write fast-paced pitches about their own serious novels that will make those novels sound as much as possible like commercial drivel.

And literary agents are like rabid dogs — or was it vampires? — trying to destroy fine literature and screw editors:

They are the literary agents — that league of intellectual-property purveyors who bring you every new manuscript you ever see, those men and women who are so anxious to gain access to the caverns of treasure they believe you sit upon like some great golden goose that they would likely hack one another's heads off were they not united by one self-serving mission: to ensure that quality fiction never hits your desk.

Then Mary goes on to say that her novel was rejected by over sixty agents, “mainly sight unseen”. I assume this means her query letter was rejected by lots of agents. If your query letter can't get you some decent partial / full requests, you need to rewrite your query.

Oh…it also helps if you don't say all those nasty things about agents on your blog.

Jessica Faust opened up her blog for #agentfail and oh boy…! A lot of anger and frustration from everyone there.

I skimmed most of the comments and here's my take on the entire topic.

No Response = No

It's just like how recruiting for my first job hunting went. You can send your resume, but unless the investment banks and consulting firms wanted to interview you, you didn't hear back.

I understand the frustration, and I think it's always ideal to have agents write you back and say “no”. But I never let this deter me from querying agents who I thought would be a good fit. It's absolutely silly.

OTOH — I never gave agents who sat on my query for months a chance to offer. I didn't even tell them I got an offer. I figured if they go by no response = no, I don't owe them the courtesy of withdrawing the query after two months or so.

BTW — requested partials and fulls do deserve the courtesy of notification and a chance to offer.

Requested Partials / Fulls Deserve Personalized Rejections with Specific Comments on Why They're Being Rejected

I disagree with this. The only thing an agent owes a non-client writer is a yes or no. If you want some detailed feedback, join a critique group.

Timely Response to Slush / Non-Clients

I think this is a nice wish item to have, but I don't think a slow response should deter one from querying agents. First of all, reading queries / slush is the last thing on an agent's to do list. And it should be. An agent should give top priority to her clients.

Besides, things happen. Maybe the agent is in the middle of negotiating five different deals. Or maybe the agent's busy dealing with a client crisis. Or maybe the agent has a big personal issue that must be dealt with ASAP.

You never know.

I was very lucky; I had an offer of rep from my agent within a week of querying her. (Note: I already had a polished manuscript ready to go. Don't query unless you have a finished and polished manuscript.) I've also had very fast responses from other agents.

But some people had to wait longer to hear back from my agent and the other agents who had been very timely with me. And the vice versa has been true as well.

The most important thing for you to consider if you're an unagented writer is whether or not the agent is responsive to her clients.

My list of #agentfail:

• agents who neglect clients
• agents who can't sell anything to big houses (nothing to do with personality, but having an agent who can't sell anything to big legit houses is pointless)
• dishonest agents
• incompetent / ignorant agents (the kind of people who don't have any publishing industry experience, don't understand publishing contracts, etc.)

Of course, YMMV.