agents

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POINT OF VIEW: Standing at the Gates

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Standing at the Gates

Traditional Publishing is infamous for its “gatekeepers.” They are the first line of defense against the ravening, unwashed hordes of authors trying to get their books published by Big Publishing. When I was growing up, you had two options – traditional publishing (the gold standard), and self-publishing, which usually meant a vanity press – a printing company you would pay to print your book and ship you a pallet’s worth of copies which you’d then try to sell to readers and bookstores, often out of the trunk of your car. This is where much of the stigma came from for … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: The Publishing Industry

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Stress - Deposit Photos

Joel Arellano asked me to talk a bit about “Dealing with the volatility of the publishing industry.” I’m going to go a step beyond that and talk about the industry in general. I love publishing. I have been a book fanatic since I was a little kid, and always wanted to be a published author. When I was in my teens, it was a lot harder. There weren’t nearly as many publishers, and the big ones had the gates locked down tight. Sure, most took open submissions back then, but that was basically an invitation to languish in the slush … Read more

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Point of View: Waiting for #100

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100

100 is a magic number for authors. There’s an old saying – let’s call it the “Rule of 100” – that you’ll get 100 rejections before you make your first sale. I had maybe twenty, so it’s certainly not a hard and fast rule. But it does give aspiring authors a reason to keep going – what if that golden ticket is just around the corner, and you gave up at 99? They say something similar about trying to get an agent. Agents are the gatekeepers of the mainstream publishing industry – it’s nearly impossible to get noticed by the … Read more

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POINT OF VIEW: Here We Go

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rocket - pixabay

So things are a ‘changin for me. I have finally completed the two trilogies I’ve been working on for the last two years (well, four years for Oberon) and I am looking ahead to what’s next. I have decided to take my shot at the bigtime. I have discussed this with my current publishers – the wonderful folks at both Mischief Corner Books and Dreamspinner Publications – and I am going to try to get an agent for my next book. My ultimate goal is to break into one of the big publishing houses to see where it might take … Read more