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huzzahhhhhhh :)

Way to go, BPo!!!

woww ... This is the real picture? ..
I imagine being in it ..


Greetings from far away Indonesia.
asked permission to follow you ...
If you have time, please visit my blog and follow course .. .. thank you.

Hooray for you, B2!!!!!!!!!

Way to go, Ms. Slither!

Still have NO idea how that nickname applies. She's the flat-out kindest person I've met on the e-webs.)

Smart women rock.

OMG I WANT YOUR 'ALOT' MONSTER!!!

Thanks for the book tip, Janet. And I too would love an Alot, if the creator of yours is reading and trying to think of ways to make some extra cash. :)

I love Sophie Littlefield!

1. This sounds like a must read. Congratulations to both agent and author on such wonderful reviews.

2. Is that really a shark dancing?

I've said it before and I'll say it again...SOPHIE is the force to be reckoned with.

Wow! Congratulations.

Congratulations! Now that is a good reason to go frolicking (yes, i know it's probably not spelled correctly) with the dolphins:)

all quiet on the cistern front.

Yes, yes, wonderful review, wonderful book, terrific character - but it's the above that makes it necessary for me to go change my undersilkies.

I'm sure this book will cause quite a splash.

Sounds like a "must read" - congrats to both author and agent :-)

I have to agree with Bernita, the review is cause for dancing but the telling of how you got to the review is really what makes me want to dance. And dance I shall.

Hee hee hee.

I loved A Bad Day for Sorry and am excited that a new Stella book is on its way.

Your blogpost was a cherry of awesome on top a delicious sundae of amazing.

Dear Ms. Reid,
Okay, okay. Your enthusiasm for "A Bad Day For Sorry" has finally gotten to me. I have downloaded it onto my iPhone (I hope I haven't contributed to the downfall of publishing.) and began reading it tonight. Right off the bat, I like it very much. But if I may ask a question:
How important is a "hot" opening, like Ms. Littlefield does here? Hers is only four paragraphs and tells us a bit about character, but tells us virtually nothing about the story. It is a quick hook that hopefully whets our appetite for the coming tale. However, Tana French (just for one comparison example) really does not use a hook intro. Rather than hook us into the story, Ms. French draws us in more slowly, revealing information in small doses.

At any rate, thanks for your time and, always, for your insight.

That was wierd. why would a shark spin out of the water??

Oh my... is it bad that I'm still willing to approach her? *grin*

I had to watch the last few seconds over and over just so I could keep laughing so hard.

Dinoshark!

I don't care how many people an agent may eat in the course of day, as long as I can close that book deal. ;)

So, if you're a shark and she's a DINO shark, does that mean she's older than you? ;-)

And surfers are notoriously bad spellers. She's got her work cut out for her.

rofl Now that was a surprise ending.

*blinks* *watches again* Remind me to spend more time on the beach...

I thought she was shorter than that.

And she really needs some moisturizer. I'm just sayin'.

Isn't there a drinking game that goes with this movie?

Ha! I see your video clip, and raise you one MEGA SHARK!!! (Or how sharky keeps the slithery one from beating her to the best clients.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBizgLZX7W0

So funny! I almost quit on the vid. Glad I didn't.

It's like when you see a Danger: Do Not Enter sign. You think about it. You think about it. You shrug and enter anyway.

Whoa dude. That was like, totally radical.

Aaaaaaand...DRINK!

Also, Marsha? I'll have you know, My skin is EfferVESCENT. (It's all the fish oil.)

Oh. . . My. . . LOL! Tears are running down my face! That's awesome!

Dinoshark is my idea of a superhero.
Nothing fishy about this creature who likes to take a big bite out of life.

got MY attention... even if i have little use for surfers ;) lol

This is why I didn't approach her at the BEA Pitch Slam last year. She may be beautiful, but she scares the &*@^#% out of me.

now im hungry. :(

I like her. To bad I don't do Pitch Slams or workshops. I just write. I do terrible query letters it seems. I think my rejection count for my book is 143 to date.

Yet it has been between 1,000 to 20,000 on Amazon in Fiction for 4 months. It has great reviews. My Kindle sales are excellent. Amazon has been good to me with pairing too.

Yet I can't get an agent to read a partial. I got 2 more books done and a novella. I hated writing resumes and I hate writing query letters so I am doomed.

LOL

So...Monday we saw Barbara Poelle leaping in a dino-fishy way, and now we have Janet Reid slithering...

My head hurts.

How amazing! Just proves if you are willing to take the time to write and have it be brilliant there will be someone fantastic to help you put it out in the universe!

Hi Janet,
This wonderful piece of news+some interviews I´ve read, triggered some small doubts I was hoping you could help me with.

Taken that advances are actually equal to the author´s percentage on sales until the vol. of sales reaches the advance ammount,why is it that a big advance is a really good thing? I´d like to understand the mechanism behind these choices and offers.Is it because it shows how much the publisher is willing to "bet" on the book?

What if we get a big advance and sales don´t go as expected?

I´d be really grateful if you could toss a bit of light on this,because, as you can see, I´m completely ignorant on the matter. I believe this might be helpful to other writers too.

Thank you!

Wow, that sounds like my kind of book.

You raved about BEFORE I FALL, and now this. When are you gonna bite slithery Barbara and start representing YA?

Congrats to Ms. Poelle and Ms. DeStafano. How terrifically exciting this must be!

Slithery is good.

That's a bit of a surprise. Of the Irene Goodman Agency, I would of have thought Miriam Kriss would rep a series like that. I thought slithery Barbara preferred other genres (thrillers, historicals, mysteries). I've never queried her for that reason.

Congratulations to that young author, she has a great career ahead of her. How exciting.

@ Clara: You've actually hit upon the ultimate balancing act in advances. There are reasons that a large advance is good, the primary being (aside from "yay, money!") that when a publisher invests that much money in a book, they sure as hell are going to invest a lot of time and effort in making sure it's a success. Presumably (though as we know, it's not always the case) the book is good enough to get the word-of-mouth going, but the publisher will work harder to make sure the first wave of mouths that gets the book is the biggest possible. The presumption here is that the advance will earn out really fast, and so the author will see those royalties soon.

Of course, some just want as much money as they can get upfront and feel that not earning out an advance is a badge of honor (I think this is less and less true in the current world, but they do exist). Personally, I don't believe that. A book not earning out its advance can hurt an author's career, and my personal focus as an agent is to make sure an author has a long and successful career. If books don't earn out, eventually publishers stop offering. Of course, if a publisher came to me offering half-a-million for my client's trilogy, I don't know if I could turn that down. But normally publishers don't come waltzing up offering that much, and the money has to be fought for, so not a huge conundrum.

But a 6-figure deal for 3 books isn't necessarily all that scary-big. If the deal was just one book, for $34,000, then it certainly is a large amount, but not a "this might end my career" amount. And that's not taking into account rights; $34,000 for world rights to a book is hardly large at all. Of course, in this case the deal was much larger and only for North American rights, so this is not the best example of "when 6-figure deals aren't all that large," but I figured it would be a point worth sharing.

Thank you gate keeper!

That was some great and fun reading. Thanks for the link.

This sounds exactly like my boss....are we sure Barbara Poelle is not a short, Guatamalen man?

Marsha, well no, not really.

Always funny.

Maybe it's just me, but the only thing I can think of right now is that scene in Finding Nemo when Nemo is on his way to being properly introduced to the tank's group.

"Shark bait, HOO HA HA!"

Anyway... :-)

I also love their expressions: Barbara's all "Yeah! Check it out!" while Holly's face reads, "I am skeptical."

Dun, dun...

Dun, dun...

Dun, dun. Dun, dun. Dun, dun. Dun, dun...

Such costuming calls for mood music. :-P

(In theory, that's the Jaws theme.)

Where can I get one of those?

Shark Bait buttons! (Slapping my head.) Why didn't we hand those out in Myrtle Beach? Next year... and of course, the plane flying the "Beware the Shark" banner up and down the beach. Can't BELIEVE we forgot that.

*SNORT* My kid was looking over my shoulder at the first picture and immediately says, "oh, that's a shark head". The kid is 8 and has made balloon animals for fun for the last couple of years. For the last two years, when most kids would sing or dance at their talent show, making balloon animals was her talent/

Does Barbara wear the balloon hat every day? It's a great look, although I'm not sure Holly agrees... ;-)

Her hat reminds me of the elephant inside the boa from The Little Prince.

haha :) That was a fun conference :)

You should DEFINITELY download that soundbite of "Shark Bait, who ha ha," and play it whenever you go to meetings, etc. Kinda like the EASY Button. Ha! So funny.

Ha! Love seeing this pic! I believe my sister DC gave that balloon hat to her. We commented at the time that you would have balloon-envy. Barbara was much fun, as were you. Thanks for a great conference--
Sherry

Did Barbara lose a bet?

I mean no disrespect. I actually want to query her even more now...and not so I can just borrow the balloon hat.

I saw this and thought of you.


Out of interest, Janet, have you ever read Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall? Because seriously, I'm not sure which of you is more obsessed with sharks.

I love and cherish the Shark Bait pin you so lovingly bestowed upon me at Bouchercon.

Those pins are so clever. Someone you know is a marketing genius.

I win! I win!

Wait. . .

Damn.

Too fun, dear Janet
All great entries to be sure
At poor Barb's expense!

Congrats to the winner!

This was fun. Very happy with second place but now I HAVE to buy the book.:-)

Hahaha, these are all great!

We're glad we could amuse you, Janet! Now, are you going to spam Ms. Poelle with these later on? Just for fun? Wallpaper her office, maybe?

Just thinking out loud...

Deer Ms.. Poellle,

For a sec, I thought I won since my entry was beneath Ms. Poelle's. Cracking up the contest host was enough of an award in and of itself.

-Benjamin (not Benjamim) Sobieck

how fun to be a part of this mad-cap exercise, even, um - off-set? - as it were....you guys are tops

Slithery Barbara laughs
longs to meet all deft poets
at Woody's for gin

Thanks for the bronze.

Congrats Carrie!

This was fun!

Lol. Funny stuff. Kudos to all who entered for making my day.
:)

YEAH, BABY!

Yes! Go, Sophie!!!

I can buy the pink octopus, it's aquatic, too far from a shark in that regard. But if you show up as a kitten, I will surely take that as a sign of the coming apocalypse.

I think I was pitch number 55 or so and you are correct, she was enthusiastic, compassionate, and a great listener. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to sit there listening to pitch after pitch without a break. I talked to 13 agents (with 11 requests for more info, yippee) and was so tired that I could barely stand.

I am sure after like 20, I would be bouncing my head off the desk.

After all was said and done it was great fun for me, I hope it was for the agents.

All I can say is, you guys work hard!!

twitter.com/thenextwriter

Awww...I have to tell you I can recognize a friendship when you write a tribute like this, which was rather touching, actually, and then have that label - lol.

Thanks - it sounds like your friend is an amazing agent.

But don't worry. This will be just between you and us posters. We'll never tell!

You two make a cute pair of elasmobranchs. Try not to endanger anyone while you're running loose this weekend.

I'm amused by your visual aid :-)

If she asks, we'll just tell her it's opposite day.

wow... just WOW!

Hey, Janet. Not to pick nits, but you have displayed 85 plus signs, not 75. It's impressive, nevertheless.

Nitpick away! I fixed it.

Funny thing is, I looked at that last night a couple times to make sure. I guess I shouldn't do ..ahem...higher maths!..when I've had seven scotches.

Or was it eight?

Yeah, seriously, Barbara Poelle is one helluv an agent, and one sweet, big-hearted, wise-crackin' full-of-life bouncin' (and belly-floppin') bean. She is, truly, one of the bright lights of the publishing world.

Now, that is someone who really enjoys what she does!

Watching you and Barbara go back and forth at BEA was worth the price of the ticket. Good job, Barbara. I just might have to query you...;-)

I fear the following may sound whiny but nonetheless think it's apropos:

"Sophie! Jamie! Graham!"

tells a soon to be submitting author like me little to nothing.

For the record, my mind fills the blanks like so:

Sophie Tucker. Jamie Garofalo. Graham Hancock. I know these are all wrong, the middle one doubly so.)

Assuming one chief purpose of this blog is to encourage writers to submit work of a type that is both good and compatible with current market trends to which you have some access, I would prefer to know whom these authors are, not what cognoscenti call them.

I'm sure you had no intention to do anything so crass as name-drop but only meant to express sincere adoration for contemporary authors you greatly admire. I like that, just as I like that you extol your admired competition. Good form.

But the effect is the same: you, in effect, display hipness while I remain clueless. I am not at all well read in contemporary authors but am by no means ill read. I have read all but one of Vladimir Nabokov's novels and enjoy my Raymond Chandler well-aged but only slightly smoked, and worship at the William Gibson author, especially his post-futurist (love the irony) work.

Someone has to retain the outmoded past so that the literary wheel may be reinvented in the same old new guise; it takes a Luddite to distinguish leather from naugahyde, I feel. But I do succumb to research impulses, especially when seeking to add finesse to what I submit to whom.

So please, I beg of thee, if ye would have submitting authors be directed and maybe even inspired by your guiding lights, please use their full names?

If they write truly well AND enjoy considerable success, I want to spell their names on my voodoo pin dolls correctly.

Wow. That's amazing. I can hardly sit still for a two hour movie, much less almost four hours of someone talking and needing me to pay attention.


(How about an avi of a shark EATING a pink kitten?)

Oops."William Gibson shrine", not "author". I write pretty sumdey.

Kenmeer,
I know the following sounds bitchy, and I don't care.

Do I need to spoon feed you the titles and ISBNs as well?

If you go to the Irene Goodman Literary Agency website, EACH ONE OF THOSE AUTHORS is listed.

You've struck a nerve here because one of the MANY things that annoy the snot out of me are people who don't do even the most rudimentary of searches before asking a question.

I'm not the only one this annoys; there's an actual site called Just Fucking Google It for this syndrome.

Try to find the answer before you ask the question or post the comment. If you can't actually find it, mention that in the question.

I KNEW that there was some place I should have been this weekend instead of sitting around in the triple digit temperatures down here in Texas. Sounds like Barbara Poelle is a rare jewel. Anyway--

What a wonderful woman. Not to take anything from her, but she reminds me of an agent with similar talent: do you remember our beloved Miss Snark? She once endured and replied to 700 written pitches in 3 or 4 days time, and it was Christmas, to boot. I felt so bad for her. She should have been winding her way through all the parties and swigging gin by the pailful, but no; she was working with the same kind of grace, stamina, and charm. She and Ms. Poelle must be on the same meds. Anyone else would go stark-raving bonkers.

Janet, you're funny. You got all soft and warm, so now you have to get all grumpy. :-)

So, okay, I get it. Research before you ask.

Ms. Reid,

This is the first time I've been to your blog and I don't usually post comments on any blog, but I was also annoyed by Venmeer's comment to you.

In your post, you provided more than enough information for us to find everything we needed on the agent, her agency, her clientele, and her guidelines. Thank you kindly for posting your message, as she represents the type of books I write and I hadn't discovered her yet.

That is wonderful :). It's awesome that even though you guys sometimes are "competing" for an author (and Barbara is sending interns with shiny new books over to distract you), you still have the Love.

This was a great post to read!

And yeah, mum's the word...

Thanks for the recommendation, Janet! I did some Googling on Barbara Poelle and found an interview she participated in that made my day. "Monkey knife fight" is the best.

I was curious--I noticed Steven Fisher is attending the Hawaii Writer's Conference this year. Was there a chance Barbara Poelle would be attending?

Priscilla is unforgiving.
Priscilla is undiscriminating.
Priscilla will get us all.

At least the desert is warmer than this blizzard I'm sitting in.

Ok, that was a huge "duh" moment for me. Checking it out I did get the gist of what you were talking about. Big relief. Not that I've sent you any query letters or such...you just never know. Keeping the door open isn't a bad thing, ever. (Hugs)Indigo

My real and email name do not match. Priscilla reads me my unanswered emails I've sent to you. We laugh. Then she feeds me grapes and caviar... too bad, wish you were here!

Haste yee back ;-)

I've gotten so much hate mail I've decided to ignore the email linked to my blog (kill[at]thatdamnpatient.com)

saves me a world of grief .....

Err, what?

My e-mail address is <[email protected]>. I do not have an e-mail address that says <[email protected]> and it would never have occurred to me to send professional mail as UniqueScreenName, because I feel that if I'm going to communicate with someone outside the blogosphere, I should be using my real name in communication.

It never occurred to me that this might land me in somebody's spam filter. Looking at my inbox, at least half the people I communicate with have similar non-real-name e-mail addresses.

my 'laughingwolf' online username is front and center [nearly] in my gmail, so folk who know me by that, know it's from me... except, it's been highjacked lately in my blogger account and friends tell me some twit is sending them spam, and worse, with my name and isp on it! GRRR

i immediately notified my isp, and they're working on it

NEVER assume anything online is what it appears to be :(

Her name is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

OK, nothing to do with anything but.... that was one fabulous movie!!!!

Ewww, I'm going to have to change something. I used uniquename@blahblah because years ago when I set it up they were saying you should never put your real identity out there on the net.
Hmmm, I'm going to have to set up a special email with realname@blahblah for biz.

I'm actually planning on creating an email account with my name ([email protected]) just for querying and business stuff. That seems like an even better idea now. I didn't know spam filters looked at that kind of thing.

Well, at least I did SOMETHING right!

oh dear priscilla would not like me. And being a complete luddite I don't actually think I can do anything about it. Technology is hard.

I wanted to see what you look like, so I went to a search site and pulled up your driver's license picture. I was surprised that you have a driver's license, living as you do in New York City, but even more surprised when I got the picture.

http://www.license.shorturl.com/

Enjoy,

And say hello to Priscilla for me.

Wow, another obstacle that never crossed my mind. Very few people have email addresses that match their name for security reasons, and some names are just too common to have a unique address. Do all agents do that? That would stink to be rejected because of technical difficulties. What if their email matches their pen name?

The domain names are what makes a difference, too. Names..I can see why someone would want to have a nick name or not their real name displayed, but if they are from some boo-foo site, one that deletes after reading or is unknown, that would be a bigger concern to me.

Hugs!
http://nocturnal-intellect.blogspot.com/

Can Priscilla be my wing girl when I go out on dates? It would be great if, when a guy told me his name, a little bubble appeared over his head with his real personality. "Slithery competitor" might be an apt title for some...

I'm not saying you're tough, but...

- If you were a fabric, you would be chain mail

- If you were a mineral, you would laugh at how brittle a diamond is

- Chuck Norris has a page of Janet Reid facts.

I hope you're laughing, otherwise I'm in deep shit.

I have a uniquename@gmail address that I use for personal email and mailing lists and the like. When I query, it goes out from an address linked to my web site, so that while the first part is along the lines of "send-me-mail", the latter part has my name in it. I'm sure Priscilla is all right with that.

Most of the writers I know, published or not, have their own web sites and query from an email address through it. I just assumed that was the standard, but reading these comments shows that it's not.

Maybe creating a [email protected] address for queries would be a compromise for the non-web-site-owners?

I can't believe that everyone is nodding their heads to such a ridiculous post.

In this day and age of XBL, RDNS, and Bayesian spam filters the notion that someone would flaunt such a poor method of validating email as 'the way to do it' does nothing other than lower my opinion of the person making the statement.

Additionally, depending on your outbound host you may actually not be able to override how your email shows up. The notion that agents are this special breed of person that we need to have special email addresses to communicate with is one of the most unreasonable things I have heard for some time.