Author | Joseph L. Selby

Tag: agents

  • Sticking It to the Predators

    I want to query known predator agents so they’ll request my work. They’ll tell me they charge a reading fee because they’re so busy. I’ll respond that I charge a writing fee because I’m so busy. I will gladly pay their reading fee if they pay my writing fee. Bitches.

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  • Reject’d

    I was kind of down on the way home today. Thinking about my (very few) experiences with my father. Specifically, when they took me to the hospital to see him right before he died. I was three years old and he was in the ICU. Children aren’t allowed there because they’re petri dishes of germs.…

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  • Does Boston Make Me a Bad Writer?

    Once upon a time, I had thought to craft a blog post entitled “The New Yorker’s Guide to the Rest of the Country.” Many of the agents whose blogs/tweets I follow not only work in New York but grew up there as well. They will then jet off to various parts of the country for…

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  • Trading at $1,365.00 an ounce

    A good beta reader is worth his or her weight in gold. As of closing October 13, 2010, gold traded at $1,365 an ounce. An ounce is equal to 1/16 of a pound. (2.2 pounds equals 1 kilogram for you metric folks.) Assuming Elizabeth Poole weighs about 110 pounds (when she’s soaking wet maybe), that…

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  • Pay Attention, Stupid

    Google Home Page has been increasingly deficient in updating modules with new blog posts. I follow a collection of industry people who post daily and lately, some of their posts haven’t been showing up until days later. That was another impetus for me to switch from LJ to Blogger. The Blogger Dashboard is much more…

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  • The Hard Part

    I got a pass on WANTED: CHOSEN ONE, NOW HIRING today. This particular agent has looked at BLACK MAGIC AND BARBECUE SAUCE as well and is very good about giving feedback with rejections. What struck me today is that his comment was very similar to a comment Elizabeth Poole gave me when she beta-read the…

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  • QUERY: THE TRIAD SOCIETY (a draft)

    Part of the webinar I posted about earlier is a query critique. I’ve already queried out BM&BBQ and WCO, so it’s time to bite the bullet on TTS. Below is a first draft query letter. Your constructive feedback is greatly appreciated. Otwald d’Kilrachen intervenes when Torvald d’Bluefire’s dissolution of an affair turns violent. Otwald delivers…

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  • An Incredible Opportunity!

    Kristin Nelson, founder and queen bee of Nelson Literary Agency has just turned it up to 11. Thursday, September 30th, in conjunction with Writer’s Digest, she is hosting a webinar on improving your SF/F queries. It’s as if she’s been reading my journal! (Um…high Kristin!) Yes yes yes! This is totally for me. I’m always…

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  • Query Doldrums

    I’ve pretty much known what was wrong with THE TRIAD SOCIETY since I finished the first draft of the manuscript. It’s taken all this time to articulate what’s wrong with it, but there is a reason I did not launch immediately back into revision. There was something seriously wrong. I knew it. And I needed…

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  • Per Your Request…A LIST!

    The ladies over at Coffey. Tea. And Literary have started a meme. I have 25 minutes to kill at work, and thus will fill that time with this meme rather than being productive. 1. If you could have a superpower, what would you have? Why? I would be a cypher. I would speak every language…

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