Great. Another book I own but haven’t read. When am I supposed to have time to write?

I’m allergic to emotional gore.

That, and I don’t really believe in writing by committee. Makes more sense to show it to one or two select people.

I love the slush pile in Foucault’s Pendulum.

If I didn’t already love you, I’d be crushing on you like crazy right now. That’s one of my mostest favoritest books EVER by one of my mostest favoritest authors EVER!!!

when I see forums where aspiring authors get feedback on query letters

That’s so painful. I never look. I’m allergic to emotional gore.

Speaking of…. I love the slush pile in Foucault’s Pendulum. Half the pile is conspiracy tomes about the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, or Masons. Apparently you can always identify the crazies, not necessarily by the quality of the writing but by the subject matter : )

Advice A by Workshopping Agent: Don’t make it like a back blurb.

Advice B by Workshopping Agent: Make it more like a back blurb.

One interesting thing I do notice is some agents have ‘day jobs’ since things are getting/have been so bad.

Huh. Well, agents have to eat, too. This isn’t going to be an easy ride for any of us.

I’m with Zoe though. How long before authors are going to need an agent to get an agent? I do wonder if agents are getting more inundated with submissions or less. One things for sure based on Bransford’s recent blog, agents are a little nervous now with economic publishing cut backs.

One interesting thing I do notice is some agents have ‘day jobs’ since things are getting/have been so bad.

It’s hard to know how my own querying habits serve me. I can’t tell if a new query makes more difference than a different editor. And I don’t see, oh, Bennington or Iowa funding research to double-blind editors and agents to see what difference there may be.

As the prefab query gains traction, do you think this will become more help and less liability?

Could go either way, I guess. The article said that particular agent has been skimming the queries and going straight to the writing sample. I can’t think but that he’s representative of others who won’t actually say so.

On the other hand, most of the agents I’ve seen want query letters and nothing more. I’ll start being suspicious of this trend if more agents start wanting to see writing samples with the query letters.

I DO think this attitude about query letters has a long way to go before it tips, though.

Um, no. I’m quite serious.