I've finally gotten sick of all the spam on Livejournal, and am moving my blog to http://foxliterary.blogspot.com/.

If you want to keep reading me on LJ--and yes, I will someday write another blog post!--you can subscribe to this feed: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/foxliterary/

I'll also be crossposting any blog updates to my Twitter and Facebook.

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you all around the Internet.

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I know I said last week that I would post about contests, and while I must depart for the NEC RWA conference shortly, I leave you with two contests.

1) This contest is to win either Rosemary and Rue or A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire. To enter, all you have to do is buy a copy of either book (or have bought one at any time during the past month), take a picture of your receipt, and email it to Seanan. If you win, she'll send you a free copy of whichever book you didn't buy... which means you get both books for the price of one! Details and other rules are here.

2) I decided I liked this idea, so I will be holding a contest offering a similar reward for purchasing Alcestis by Katharine Beutner.

The prize: Your choice of one book--possibly signed, depending on the book!--by any Fox Literary author (see my Publishers Marketplace page for titles), or a $20 Amazon gift certificate.

To enter: Buy a copy of Alcestis any time between now and April 15th, and email a picture of your receipt to contest at fox literary dot com.

The rules: The receipt must be either a paper receipt from a brick-and-mortar store or the packing slip with order information shipped from Amazon (or whatever other online bookstore you order from) with the book. Your name, the date, and the name and price of the book must be visible, but feel free to black out any other identifying details if you so desire. Unfortunately, the high cost of international shipping means that I cannot mail any books anywhere outside the US or Canada, but the Amazon gift certificate offer is good internationally.

And now Boston awaits, but I hope you're all having a great Friday!

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Hourglass by Claudia Gray debuted at #4 on the New York Times YA series list!

A Local Habitation by Seanan McGuire, the second book in the Toby Daye series after Rosemary and Rue, is in stores now... if you haven't read Rosemary and Rue yet, Seanan is running a contest which includes signed copies of both Toby Daye books among the prizes. For the less artistically inclined, check back here next week or follow me on Twitter to find out how you can win a free copy. Hint: when you buy books, hang on to your receipts.

Feed by Mira Grant has gotten a starred review in Publishers Weekly! German rights to Feed and the other two books in the Newsflesh trilogy have been sold to Egmont; the three titles will be published in German under the name Seanan McGuire rather than Mira Grant, but they will still be packed with all the same zombie goodness (or scariness, depending on how you look at it).

In other news from Germany, a German edition of The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas will be published by Rowohlt in the spring of 2011.

Both halves of Anna Katherine (Anna Genoese and Katherine Crighton) will be giving a talk about "Writing as an Editor" at the NEC RWA conference on March 27th in Framingham, MA, 10:15 - 11:05 AM. Anna also has a post related to the ongoing debates over e-book pricing here.

And finally, Gwynne Garfinkle has just finished a new novel--on her birthday, no less!--and sent it to me. I can't wait to read it.

Congratulations to all!

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I decided to give away not one but two ARCs for Friday's contest, and the winners are Amanda Makepeace on Twitter and ladyfox7oaks on livejournal. Email me with your addresses at submissions at foxliterary dot com!

I also have an addition to my 2010 conference appearances: I'll be at the Backspace writers conference (May 27-29, 2010 in NYC). I don't have my schedule yet so I don't know how many days I'll be appearing, but as I'll post it as soon as I do.

Now, back to reviewing the final draft of AFTERLIFE (I feel a little guilty that the rest of the world will have to wait over a year to read this book, because it's so good and such a satisfying conclusion to the Evernight series... but only a little!).

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Congratulations to Katharine Beutner on the release of her debut novel, Alcestis, earlier this week!

Katharine and Alcestis were featured on John Scalzi's The Big Idea a couple of days ago, and the official book launch party is happening this Sunday at BookPeople in Austin, Texas... so if you're going to be in the neighborhood, drop by to meet Katharine and get a copy of the book signed.

I've also decided that because it's Friday and I like Fridays, today I'm going to be giving away an ARC of the second book in the Toby Daye series by Seanan McGuire, A Local Habitation. For a chance to win, you can do one of three things:

1) Become a new Twitter follower of dianafox, and retweet the contest announcement;

2) If you already follow me, you can either list me for Follow Friday today (make sure to use the hashtags #ff or #followfriday) or retweet the contest announcement;

3) Leave a comment on this post on either Dreamwidth or Livejournal mentioning the contest.

The contest is open to anyone in the US or Canada--sorry, but I can't ship internationally right now--and a winner will be selected at random. Entries close at midnight Pacific time or 3AM EST tonight. Good luck!

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I just spent the day critiquing query letters at the sold out Backspace Agent-Author Seminar in Manhattan, and had a great time! Hopefully it was equally fun and productive for the authors in attendance. This was my first event with Backspace, but based on my experience today I would definitely recommend their 2010 Backspace Writers Conference, which takes place May 27th-29th in NYC.

The other exciting thing which happened today is that Realm Lovejoy posted an interview with me here on her blog. She's doing an ongoing series of interviews with agents, editors, and authors, with original art to accompany each one! I was thrilled to have the opportunity to participate, because Realm is an amazing artist (plus she didn't kill me for asking her to go back and tweak her drawing of me multiple times, which I really appreciated).

Finally, here's my schedule of appearances for the first half of 2010:

2010 RWA New England Chapter Conference
March 26-27, 2010, Framingham, MA.

DFW Writers Conference
April 10-11, 2010, Dallas, Texas

Las Vegas Writers Conference
April 15-17, 2010, Las Vegas, Nevada

Chicago-North RWA Spring Fling 2010
April 23-24, 2010, Deerfield, IL

BEA
May 25-27, 2010, New York, NY

My current plan is to spend the first week of May sleeping.

On that note, I now go to collapse into bed and sleep the sleep of the exhausted. There may be some watching of Supernatural first.

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I haven't updated in five months, and every time I go to make a post it seems more and more daunting after so much time has passed--such are the dangers of procrastination! I spent a lot of time this summer traveling, had a bout of really nasty flu which took what felt like forever to recover from, and I've been working on some agency-related projects (including, finally, a real website) that I hope will be done by the new year. I'm also looking forward to attending more conferences in 2010, and will be updating my list of confirmed appearances soon.

The other big change that 2010 may bring is that I'm considering taking on an intern for the first time. My submissions have increased significantly and continue to do so, and the colleagues I've spoken with about it confirm that this is true across the board. One reason I've heard put forth is the economy; with more people unemployed, the amount of writers with time to finish books and query agents has grown. However, the very same economy is forcing agents to be more selective than ever in taking on new clients, which results in a lot more slush to read for fewer positive results... and more work for less profit for the agents. (Of course we're not alone in that, given how financially tough things are for so many people right now.)

Whatever the reason, it's both more important and more difficult than ever to keep up with new submissions, and interns can be an invaluable resource. I know this because like so many other publishing professionals, I started my career as one! I'm not sure if I'll look for online interns or someone local or both, but I'll announce it here when I'm ready to begin actively recruiting.

Next, I have some client news:

The Second Duchess by Elizabeth Loupas has sold to NAL/Penguin! Based on Robert Browning's classic poem "To My Last Duchess", Elizabeth's historical debut is the story of the Duke of Ferrara's second bride Barbara of Austria, who sets out to learn the truth about her new husband’s murdered first wife. It's got elements of mystery, romance, palace intrigue, and all the opulence and danger of an Italian Renaissance court--I like to describe it as Philippa Gregory meets The Lovely Bones.

This next deal happened earlier in the summer and you may have already seen it mentioned in GalleyCat and Io9 as well as on her blog, but Seanan McGuire has a new trilogy and a new pseudonym! Her Newsflesh books will be published by Orbit US and Orbit UK under the name Mira Grant, beginning with Feed in May 2010. Part science fiction political thriller, part late-night movie gorefest, and part satire, Feed is an epic tale of blogging, politics, and, of course, zombies. I can't wait for this book to come out.

One other exciting piece of news from Seanan: her debut novel, Rosemary and Rue has been chosen as the first selection for the new book club at Genreville, the Publishers Weekly science fiction and fantasy blog. The book is in stores now, and there's still time to pick up a copy before the discussion begins on October 19th.

October also sees the release of Immortal: Love Stories With Bite, an anthology of vampire romance from some of today's most popular YA fantasy authors, including a story by Claudia Gray set in the Evernight universe. Technically this is a re-release since the book was first published as a Borders exclusive last summer, but Ben Bella has repackaged it with a new cover and wider distribution, so if you like sexy, scary young adult vampire stories--and as I think we've seen conclusively of late, who doesn't?--you might want to check it out.

Finally, Nadia Lee will be doing a free ebook giveaway of her novella, A Happily Ever After of Her Own, in serialized form with updates every Monday. She also has some interesting posts on her decision to release this story online for free and on working with the cover artist here, here, and here.

That's all for now! And to everyone getting a day off because this is a national holiday, I hope you've been enjoying the mini-vacation.

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Seanan McGuire's debut novel, Rosemary and Rue, officially comes out today!

If you live in the San Francisco area, there will be not one but two parties happening this weekend--the details are on Seanan's blog here. One lucky person can also win what will perhaps be the last ARC to be released into the wild (now that the book is available in stores) by commenting on this post at The Swivet with your urban fantasy recommendations.

Finally, if you fall in love with Toby Daye and her world the way I did, you'll be happy to know that the next book, A Local Habitation, is available for pre-order now... and March isn't that far away!

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I will be attending several conventions over the next few months, so I wanted to post a list of where I'll be and when:

May 22-25, Wiscon (Madison, WI)

May 29-31, Book Expo America (New York, NY)

June 12-14, DucKon (Naperville, IL), with Seanan McGuire

June 25-28, Writing Popular Fiction Retreat at Seton Hill University (Greensburg, PA)

I had been hoping to make it to RWA National this year, but as of now I am not registered. See you next year in NYC!

I'll be updating and adding to my schedule as I confirm more events, and maybe someday will even graduate to putting things in the sidebar like a real blogger. (One of my goals for 2009 is to finally embed this blog within my website and add some content to it to replace the placeholder splash page that has been there for way too long, so isn't it wonderful that Dreamwidth makes crossposting so easy?)

Next, two contests:

ARCs for Rosemary and Rue have arrived! To win one, comment at Seanan McGuire's blog before Friday, May 8th... and trust me when I say you want to enter so you can get to read this book.

Anna Katherine has a new blog and a guest post up at Darque Reviews here, where she is giving away a copy of the just-released Salt and Silver. (I already talked about how much I like Salt and Silver in my last post, so I think everyone should enter this contest too.)

Happy Thursday!

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Three announcements:

First, this week saw the release of Salt and Silver, a new urban fantasy by Anna Katherine. My favorite things about this book are the heroine, Allie, because her voice really stands out for me, the strong worldbuilding, and a New York that feels like New York. Of course, there's also a yummy hero and lots of demon hunting and magic and sex and a Hellmouth Door to Hell (what? I know what I like in an urban fantasy/paranormal romance!)--and if you like that sort of thing too, I strongly recommend you pick up a copy.

Second, I have changed my submission guidelines. I will still look at snail mail/hard copy submissions, but if you do choose to query me the old fashioned way, you must include your email address in your letter as I will respond to all queries exclusively via email from now on.

I repeat: I will respond to all queries exclusively via email from now on. Do NOT include a SASE with your submission, as I will no longer be sending out paper rejections. As always, I cannot return unsolicited manuscripts, so please do not send them. I apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause, but please understand that it is being enacted in the interest of saving time, money, and our planet's resources.

Third, I am crossposting from a new social networking/journaling service called Dreamwidth (you can find me there as dianafox.dreamwidth.org). While I have no intention of abandoning Livejournal yet and will continue to reproduce all my posts in both places, I'm supporting Dreamwidth during open beta because I like their policy of no ads, the level of communication between the site owners and the users, and the cool new features. The best part is, if you want to import your entire journal or blog over there, you can do it with a couple of clicks! They're still working out some technical issues, but I tested it by importing this blog there last night and it seems to have reproduced everything. Now we will see if it crossposts as well! And if any of you also have Dreamwidth accounts , drop me a comment there and say hello.

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I'm ecstatic to announce that Claudia Gray's STARGAZER will be debuting on the New York Times best-seller list at #4 on 4/12, and on the USA Today list at #105. Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen!

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I'm out of town this week, but today is the official book birthday of Stargazer by Claudia Gray--congratulations, Claudia! Stargazer is a fantastic continuation of Evernight, and while I love the "sneak preview" aspect of my job and getting to read books by my authors early, I also kind of envy the readers getting to experience the story for the first time. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!

For those already familiar with Evernight, you can now buy or win some really cool stuff (t-shirts, mugs, stickers, etc.) by going to the Evernight store or entering Claudia's latest Stargazer contest. (I'm trying to decide which kind of mug I want, and torn between the commuter and the 15 oz. classic white.)

Stargazer shares a release date with Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott, who is one of my favorite YA authors. I had the pleasure of reading Something, Maybe in manuscript form, and I highly recommend the rest of her books as well. Elizabeth is running a contest on her blog with some excellent prizes (like, good enough that I'd enter if I could) here, among them the chance to win a copy of any of her earlier titles... so if you are looking for a chance to try one of her books, go over and enter!

And now, I return to my regularly scheduled reading.

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I can't believe it's been almost three months since my last post, but that doesn't mean there hasn't been any news! Here are some updates on what's been going on with Fox Literary and with my fabulous clients:

Stargazer by Claudia Gray comes out on March 24th! The book was mentioned in an article in yesterday's USA Today, and Claudia is once again holding some terrific contests over on her blog (claudiagray) every week leading up to the release date. Warning: the USA Today article contains major spoilers for Evernight, but if you haven't yet read the first book in the series, it's just been published in paperback so now is the perfect time to catch up.

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire is available for pre-order on Amazon! Seanan also has a story in the new anthology Ravens in the Library, a limited edition collection dedicated to defraying medical costs for musician S.J. Tucker. Some of the other participating authors include Neil Gaiman, Laurell K. Hamilton, Holly Black, Charles de Lint, Carrie Vaughn, Midori Snyder, Catherynne M. Valente, Storm Constantine, Terri Windling, and Francesca Lia Block. Quantities are limited, so if this sounds like a book you might want to buy, you should order a copy as soon as you can.

My first auction at Fox Literary! It was also the first sale for author Catherine Knutsson, whose debut novel The Shadows Cast By Stars will be published by Simon & Schuster's Athenuem imprint. It's a dark, literary post-apocalyptic fantasy about myth, spirituality, and one girl's journey to healing herself and the world around her; Catherine is a musician and poet, and her voice reminds me a little of Ursula LeGuin and Elizabeth Knox.

Speaking of poetry, I discovered this fun blog, My Poem Rocks, when they published a poem by Gwynne Garfinkle. I always enjoy Gwynne's poetry--more of which can be found here--but I especially liked this one: The Thrill of It All evokes memories of what being a music fan was like when she was growing up, that devotion and sense of discovery, and the world before we had MySpace and a thousand Internet channels and could get video on our cell phones 24/7.

Hannah Harrington's first novel Saving June sold last week to Harlequin's new YA imprint, Harlequin Teen, in a two book deal. Harlequin Teen launches later this year, and editor Natashya Wilson previously worked on Harlequin's canceled Bombshell line as well as acquiring for the current paranormal Nocturne imprint. Needless to say, Hannah and I are both thrilled to be working with her on this latest exciting venture.

On the personal side, Nadia Lee has just gotten engaged--congratulations, Nadia!

Also, I want to wish a warm welcome to new Fox Literary client Elizabeth Loupas, the first author I've signed in 2009. I can't wait to start submitting her book.

Finally, check out the beautiful cover art for Alcestis by Katharine Beutner. This was one of those happy cases where every single person who saw the cover loved it straight away, which doesn't always happen (but is very nice when it does!). It reminds me what fantastic luck my clients have had with their covers in general, and I hope to be able to have some more examples to show soon.

I have been busy hibernating (winter can be over now, thanks!) and of course working (and, as always, catching up on slush... the backlog seems to be shrinking by an infinitesimal amount, but I keep chipping away at it). I also plan to post some minor changes to my submission guidelines soon, so watch this space!

What's new with all of you?

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I’ve been seeing some comments around the Internet expressing surprise in response to revelations by agents (myself included) that they have day jobs. I am likewise surprised that anyone would think this was strange! I guess this is a post I should have made a while ago, but it honestly didn’t occur to me that there were people who were unaware that not all agents start out earning a full-time living as agents. In fact, most don’t.

Here’s something I know most of you will not be surprised to learn: publishing pays very little, especially in the beginning. There are always exceptions--particularly for those becoming agents after establishing careers elsewhere in the industry--but the vast majority of new agents are either working in some other capacity at a literary agency in addition to representing their own clients, are independently wealthy (or lucky enough to have a partner who can afford to support them), or have some other source of income. I know agents who are bartenders and bookkeepers, freelance editors and website designers, sales clerks and substitute teachers... basically, whatever pays the bills while they build their lists and start making enough sales to be able to give up their day jobs.

I had the honor and privilege of working with Robin Rue at Writers House for two years, and for that whole time I performed the duties of an assistant, as well as those of a junior agent after I began taking on my own clients. (This is roughly the same as how editorial assistants begin acquiring their own projects and eventually become editors, by the way.) It was an invaluable apprenticeship and I can’t say enough good things about Robin or about all the wonderful opportunities to learn the business that I was fortunate enough to have at Writers House, but I was still working forty hours a week doing something other than representing my own clients. Any time I had for reading my own slush, developing my own list, or selling projects for my own authors had to be made after I did my other work, and with the support and permission of my boss. Again, I was lucky that she was incredibly supportive, but for practical purposes a lot of my own agenting was still being done “on the side”.

Now that I think about it, I can of course see why the default assumption given the lack of any other information might be that all agents do this full time, but the reality is that it takes most agents several years to get to the point where they can support themselves on their commissions alone. The reality is also that not everyone can afford to pursue this career for that long, but I know people who work full time and/or support families while putting themselves through law school, medical school, and so on, and are successful at it. If they can do that, why would it be any different in publishing?

Finally, one of the things I think is important for me personally is not feeling like I have to take on projects which I consider marginal just to pay my bills, because that’s not the kind of agent I want to be. I don’t think being that hungry is good for either author or agent in the long term, and whether someone ultimately ends up being in this business for a few years or a lifetime, I believe it’s important to try to see the big picture in terms of the career longevity of every client I take on: not just, what books can we sell now, but where will that author’s career be in five years? Ten? Twenty?

Naturally the answers to this question will vary, and I’m sure everyone can think of cases of an author who only had one book in them--preferably an immortally beloved bestseller, for my money--but as far as I’m concerned succeeding as an agent is just like any other success in publishing: you try to always do your best work, and if you’re gifted and lucky maybe you will be one of the few to grab that brass ring, the bestseller (or better yet, series) that makes your career and gives you financial security. Or, you carve out your financial security by focusing on quantity and representing many books that might never make bestseller lists, but which will consistently earn out smaller advances and lead to more contracts (for example, with category romance the agent may only make a few hundred dollars per book after expenses, but people buy a lot of books in that genre and the money adds up). Or, you win the lottery. The good news is that until any of these things happens, you can still have a career in the meantime...

You’d just better be able to pay your rent.

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Okay, I rarely blog, but even if I updated more often I doubt I would ever blog much about my slush pile in any specific way (other than how far behind I am on it). That is because while a lot of other agents frequently write about their query stats, and I know a lot of readers enjoy such posts, I personally find it... boring.

There, I've said it: I find reading about other people's slush boring, for the most part. That is absolutely not a criticism of agents who write about their slush or readers who like to read about it--I think these posts provide a valuable resource, and are often both hilarious and well written--but in and of itself it's just not that interesting to me, because I have my own slush pile and live with it every day, I talk about slush with the people in my life, etc. For me, reading posts about slush is like reading a book which draws on insider knowledge of a profession or world few readers have any personal knowledge of (high fashion, forensic investigation, deep sea diving, whatever): if I am one of the few who is familiar with the subject, there has to be something more there to draw my interest. and usually that's either the way the author writes about it, or some new-to-me information about my own area of knowledge.

All of which is a just long lead-in to my making an atypical post about slush, since I have recently had a completely new experience. I'm sure it isn't unique in the history of the submission process or the annals of publishing or anything--but where slush is concerned, it's the first thing to have happened to me in years that I've never seen before.

This past weekend, I received the following email [names removed]:

Dear Diana,

Per your request, please find attached chapters 4-6 of my ms.

Thank you for your interest!

X

_____________________________________________________________

From: Diana Fox [[email protected]]

Sent: Monday 11-24-2008 17:35 AM
To: X [address redacted]

Subject: manuscript proposal

Dear X,

Please send three or four sample chapters that I can look over.

Cordially,

Diana



Now, you might think this was a perfectly normal exchange... except, I HAD NEVER EMAILED THIS AUTHOR. Or rather, I never sent him the email in question; I checked my records and found that I actually sent him a form rejection on November 18th. I then responded:

Dear X,

I can't understand why you would compose a fake request email from me as you have done below, but I didn't send out any requests on Monday, November 24th. It's also very clear that you have never received a request from me as I would never phrase it as you did, or ask for chapters 4-6 of a manuscript, or open a .doc attachment.

I concluded by asking him never to darken my virtual door again, but the thing that I can't understand is, what would possess an author to do something like that in the first place? The dude made up a FAKE REQUEST EMAIL from me after I rejected him! Did he think I request so many things that I would believe I'd somehow just forgotten I requested his manuscript? It takes a lot to surprise me, but seriously, what was he thinking?

It's not just the dishonesty of his tactics that I found so unpleasant, but I hate incompetence--after all, if he'd done his research and found this blog, he'd have known I always request full manuscripts to save time. Moral of the story: being dishonest is bad, being dishonest AND stupid is worse. (And also, of course, that aspiring authors should never do what this person did... but I can't believe any of my readers would need to be told that!)

Has anyone else either had this happen to them, or heard of it happening?

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My email is back, after over 24 hours of downtime. Needless to say I will be leaving Dreamhost and finding another company for my email service as soon as I can arrange for the data migration (I always picture flocks of birds made of numbers when I think of that phrase). I did receive some email from the past day, but am by no means sure everything came through--however, it should now be safe to resend!

Kindle news: I am loving the Kindle so far. I have already read several manuscripts on it, and transferred a bunch of other manuscripts and e-books to read at my earliest opportunity. Even better, Amazon doesn't appear to be billing me for any of the documents I have emailed to myself (I haven't done that much emailing yet--for the most part I've been converting various file formats to .prc with MobiPocket Creator and transferring them to the Kindle via USB--but having the ability to receive documents by email too is wonderful).

And now I am going to go back up all my email and collapse in an exhausted & relieved heap.

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I've been experiencing an email outage since approximately 3:30PM today, and will post again when my email is restored. If you tried to email me after that, please wait until I post that this issue has been resolved, and then resend. I'm very sorry for any inconvenience.

(Also, Dreamhost? I STABINATE you! No love, Me.)

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Continuing my trend of only updating around major holidays (and yes, today counts, especially this year), happy Election Day!

I am still insanely busy. I have been finishing up a long term independent project for my day job, and between that and dealing with boring stuff related to the collapse of Western capitalism as we knew it, I haven't had a second to catch up on slush. However, as of this coming Monday I will be taking a few weeks off to concentrate full time on agenting... so if you have something under consideration with me, I hope you'll be patient just a little longer.

I have been having a fantastic day today. This morning my brother and I drove up through the gorgeous fall foliage to vote in our suburban hometown, and I got to cast my vote in my old elementary school gym, the same place I have gone to vote my entire adult life. Then we went and bought cupcakes at the bake sale, where a little boy was earnestly telling us our money was going to help the school; I had flashbacks to standing in that same hallway a few feet away from where I was standing today and doing the exact same thing when I was his age. My brother confessed that he always gets chills pulling the lever back in the voting machine.

Then I returned to Manhattan and went to the office, where I sent out a bunch of submissions for various clients and made some phone calls. Then it was off to Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's for a free ice cream cone and coffee, and now I am sitting on my friend's couch eating takeout from Veselka, responding to queries, and watching the returns.

One more thing worthy of note about today: MY KINDLE HAS ARRIVED! Yes, I finally gave in and bought a Kindle. My strong anti-DRM sentiments aside, several agent friends convinced me that it would change my life and I wouldn't be able to live without it, and I look forward to proving them right.

How are all of you? I am looking forward to seeing the results of this year's NaNoWriMo in my inbox in a few months (after any necessary polishing and revision, of course), and I really admire all those who are doing it. I once tried to do my own version of NaNo in which I committed to making one blog post every day for the entire month of November, but I bet you can all guess how well that worked out.

Finally, a picture behind the cut



Picture taken by my friend Paul, who also baked the pies (Obamapple on the left, cherry on right).

He adds: "By the time you get this message they will be on their way to local Obama office." I would be jealous--because come on, who wouldn't want to eat pie for Obama?--except I already ate a cupcake and an ice cream cone for Obama today and the night is still young. (I might have purchased some emergency organic Swiss dark chocolate earlier today just in case we need it later, since neither my friend nor I are drinking.) All I can say is, I hope everyone reading this is enjoying this historic evening as much as we are.

Okay, off to watch the Stewart/Colbert special now, and I plan to be back with some publishing-related posts later this month. Have a great night, everyone!

ETA: The CNN holograms are the best thing ever.

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So as some of you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a couple of months. This is exactly what I advise my clients never to do (that is, start a blog and then not update it), so it is past time to mend my ways... I feel like I should somehow make up for my unannounced hiatus with some actual content, but in lieu of that, I will just say, I'm sorry! Here, have a puppy!



Real post to follow soon.

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First, thank you to everyone for the get well wishes! I meant to update sooner--are you beginning to see a pattern here?--but I was mostly better by the time I posted last month; any continuing delay in responding to submissions has been due to lack of time rather than to illness. (I have been holding off on blogging for the past few weeks in the vain hope that I would be able to make a triumphant Caught Up On Slush post, but I need to give up that fantasy. I mean, I am catching up all the time, but I think there’s like, slush denial where agents and editors don’t want to admit that it’s impossible for us to ever be completely caught up... or maybe that’s just me?)

Anyway, I have started getting queries mentioning that I haven’t blogged in a while, so I figured it was time to say something. Other than that I am behind on submissions, but you all knew that, right? Queries are up to six weeks, requested manuscripts between 2 and 3 months. Patience is the order of the day.

I am never quite sure what to say when I begin these entries, but I don’t really feel like talking about publishing so I am going to talk about (other) things which are awesome instead. (I use the word awesome a lot, without irony. Don't judge me.)

First awesome thing: Somebody got me an anonymous LJ gift! It is a purple rhino, and I love him. (You can see him here.) He supports PFLAG and everything! In fact this is such a perfect virtual gift that I now feel no one else ever needs to get me another virtual gift from Livejournal, although links to your favorite free LJ icon communities would be welcome.

Second awesome thing: contracts. Okay, I wasn’t going to talk about publishing, but I love contracts, and one of the most fun parts of selling some books is that now I get to go over the contracts for them. I am also enjoying working with my contracts consultant, with whom I had never worked before. I made the decision to use a contracts consultant early on because as a new agency, I’m very concerned with establishing the best terms for my boilerplate with different publishers... plus I think it’s good to have someone else be the go-between so I don’t have to be the one personally doing the arguing.

(Not because I wouldn’t be into it, but--and this is something it took me years of fighting with my landlords in housing court to learn--part of the reason people hire lawyers is because lawyers are objective and therefore usually won’t get too emotional and want to strangle said landlords, which is not a helpful mental state to be in when it comes to winning arguments. Similarly, my contracts manager is less likely to take a clause in a contract as a personal insult than I am, even if on a rational level I understand that it’s just business. This is of course one of the main reasons writers have agents too, to help preserve the relationship between author and editor by acting as a buffer when necessary.)

Third awesome thing: the Iron Man movie. If you haven’t yet seen it, it’s worth seeing if you can still catch it in the theaters. This is a public service announcement because I saw it after almost everyone else in the world, even though that may have been partly my own fault since I spent so much of my time at New York Comic-Con going "am I the only person on the planet who has absolutely no interest in seeing Iron Man?"... thus leading my friends to conclude that I had no interest in seeing it with them. Then every single person I know who saw it loved it, and I had to wait almost two weeks before I got to go myself! However, it was worth waiting for, as it was a group excursion preceded by a pedicure and overall turned out to be one of those lovely evenings with friends that just make me happy to be alive.

Which brings me to air conditioning. I put the invention of air conditioning up there with modern medicine and the Internet as one of the greatest advances of our era (and there's an interesting dilemma--which would you rather live without, the Internet or air conditioning?). Given the stress of everyday life, I feel like I forget more often than I should to appreciate the basics: health, food, shelter, privilege, and the dizzying variety of choices and experiences that are available to me right here, right now, simply by getting to live in this place at this moment in history.

It's the everyday pleasures that I find the most extraordinary; not just the moments of happiness I feel, but being grateful that I’m able to be happy in those moments. I wasn’t always able to feel these things (happiness, or gratitude), and I know now that they’re connected. So being able to simply enjoy a passing moment in my day, whether it’s leaving the gym all sweaty and glowing from endorphins, or seeing a cute dog (or person!) on the street, or savoring the first sip of a decaf iced cappuccino, or taking in the quality of the air and the light as I step outside, or just a random fleeting awareness of being really here, I try to appreciate it all and not take any of it for granted. Even if I do still act like a bitch and yell at cab drivers sometimes.

Finally, from claudiagray: counteragent's little sister-in-law, Jenny, is very sick. It would be so wonderful if you could take a quick moment (just like 3 minutes) to check out her family's blog (http://jenjensfamily.blogspot.com/) and see if you think you might know anyone like Jenny. They are looking for "comparables" (people who have similar symptoms) that may have had success with treatments Jenny's docs haven't yet tried. They would also really appreciate it if you post about this on your blog and thus help them spread the word.

Thank you.

And, wow, I have just written two single-spaced pages in Word... it occurs to me that maybe part of why I have such a difficult time with blogging is that if I really let myself go, I would never shut up. Perhaps I fear creating a blogging monster! At any rate, I think I will stop now.

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans, and an early happy weekend to everyone!

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I just realized I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks, and I wanted to announce that I am Officially Behind on slush.

This month has included a bout with stomach flu/food poisoning, a sinus & ear infection, and slamming my finger in the door--fortunately my finger sustained no significant damage and I am now on antibiotics for the infection, but all of that combined with a freelance project deadline this week has led to things languishing in my inbox for longer than usual. If I still haven't replied to your query, I apologize. I'm going to try to get caught up on all queries through the end of April in the next few days, time permitting, and I am working my way through requested manuscripts as quickly as possible.

In other news, today is the official release date for Evernight, the first in a terrific new YA vampire romance series by Claudia Gray. To wish Claudia a happy book birthday--and for a chance to enter some great contests!--check out her livejournal (claudiagray).

Finally, urban fantasy author and new Fox Literary client seanan_mcguire has a pro writing blog and some exciting news here.

So... what's new in your world?

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My blog can now be found at foxliterary.tumblr.com.

If you're looking for my submission guidelines, you can find them--and find out more about me and what I'm interested in representing--at Publishers Marketplace and AgentQuery.

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Somebody sent me a query last night from a BlackBerry. At midnight.

(I will post a real entry soon, I just found that too hilarious not to share.)

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I spent all day answering email, and now have less than a hundred queries left in my inbox. To celebrate, I thought I would pick out a new (already published, not by one of my clients) book to read for pleasure, and as usual thinking about what I was in the mood for got me thinking about what I represent.

My current authors write in genres ranging from science fiction to fantasy (urban and historical), YA fantasy (literary & commercial), other YA (contemporary), literary fiction, romantic suspense, thrillers, romance/erotica (contemporary & paranormal)... and then it occurred to me, you know what’s missing from this list? Historical romance! Historical fiction, period. I have very few historical fiction writers right now, and NO writers of historical romance. I worked with an amazing agent who represented lots of it, I’m an avid reader of the genre, and somehow I have no clients who write historical romance of the kind I love to read... yet.

It probably doesn’t help that I’m extremely selective about what I like in historical romance--more so even than is normal for me--but I grew up devouring the work of Laura Kinsale (my all time favorite romance novelist), Jo Beverley, Mary Jo Putney, Loretta Chase, Judith Ivory, Anita Mills, Mary Balogh, Anne Stuart, Susan Johnson, Madeline Hunter, Julia Ross, Gayle Feyrer, Tracy Grant, Carla Kelly, and many other authors I still read to this day, although some of them are no longer publishing or have stopped writing straight historicals.

(If anyone is interested, I also cut my teeth on Julie Garwood, Judith McNaught, Jude Deveraux, Catherine Coulter, Johanna Lindsey, Meagan McKinney, Bertrice Small, Virginia Henley, Brenda Joyce, Marsha Canham, Rebecca Brandewyne, Iris Johansen, Jayne Anne Krentz, Gayle Wilson, Christina Skye, Marjorie Farrell, and again, a host of others I can’t think of off the top of my head right now. I am leaving out authors like Georgette Heyer, Dorothy Dunnett, and Jane Austen as well, because I feel they are in a separate class as inventors of their own subgenres.)

As far as what I’m looking for now--to read and represent--recently published books by new authors which I’ve adored include The Duke of Shadows by Meredith Duran, Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas, The Spymaster’s Lady by Joanna Bourne, and pretty much everything Lydia Joyce has ever written. So, if any of you can think of other historical romances I might like, I’d love suggestions in the comments. (And if you write books like this and are looking for an agent, please query me!)

Finally, would it be good if I posted more lists along these lines? Or other types of lists? I can’t promise I’ll do so, but I enjoy list-making and find it a relaxing and useful means of procrastination.

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I haven't blogged before now because I have been busy working and clearing out my inbox... I am down to less than 200 messages to answer, which is heartening but took most of the weekend to accomplish. An update on the slush situation, partially re-posted from Verla Kay here:

I usually try to answer queries in a month or less, although I've gotten kind of slammed so I'm a little behind at the moment. I hope to get through most of what's left from the end of March and beginning of April in the next few days, and it's always okay to re-query if it's been a while, or you're worried that I might not have gotten your email... I don't mind! (And by "a while", I mean if it's been more than a month on a query, or more than 6-8 weeks if I have your manuscript. If these response windows change, I'll post about it to my AgentQuery and Publishers Marketplace pages.)

Some people have written to ask which of my two email addresses they should use for querying me, and the answer is that either my first name or 'submissions' at foxliterary.com will work; I do have the spam filters set up a little differently for these two addresses, but mail should get to me from both of them. I prefer to be queried at the submissions address because then I can just look at the header and know it's a submission--also, if you put the word query AND the title of your book in the subject line, that makes my life easier when sorting through email.

I should also add that any preferences I state here should be viewed as helpful suggestions, not draconian rules which will cause me to auto-reject a query! I see receiving submissions as a privilege, not a right. I appreciate how hard people work at this process and I'm not interested in judging anyone for things like accidentally sending the same email twice, forgetting to include sample pages at the end of your email, using the less preferred address, etc. (believe it or not, these are mistakes even agents have been known to make--sometimes even with editors!--because we're human too). And, yes, I realize it's somewhat contradictory to encourage both perfectionism and detachment, but querying agents is hard enough on both sides that I sometimes just want to tell authors that it's all right to relax a little. Neither they nor I are ever going to be perfect. At our best, we're still going to learn and improve.

Which leads to today's question (from takroc) --

What is your opinion on critique groups? Live face to face ones and the online variety?

I am very much for them, with the caveat that just as with anything else it's important to have a good one, and a dysfunctional critique group may be worse than no critique group. Overall, however, I think they're invaluable and almost all my clients have made use of them.

As far as online vs. face to face, it's what works best for the individual that's important. While the Internet offers wonderful resources for helping people find and participate in a critique group that is right for them (as well as a way for people to measure whether a group is helpful by talking to people in other groups about what does or doesn't work for them personally), I don't think it matters where the group meets as long as it helps create better writers!

And with that I will go back to answering queries.

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