oliver yeh

Literary agent Kristin Nelson conducted her “Agent Reads The Slush Pile” workshop at the Missouri Writers Guild Conference in St. Louis this past weekend. In it, she asked a writer to read aloud the first two pages of his manuscript intended for submission to a literary agent. If the first two pages were good, the writer read through. If she found an issue, where she would stop reading if in her own office, she said, “Stop,” and then explained why.

Kristin stated that 99.9% of what she sees in the workshop is not ready for an agent to read and this weekend only one submission made it past the first page. The majority of the others were stopped by the second paragraph.

The top ten problems:

1. Telling instead of showing.
2. Including unnecessary back story.
3. Loose sentence structure that could easily be tightened
4. The use of passive sentence construction.
5. Awkward introduction of character appearance.
6. Awkward descriptions/overly flowery language to depict.
7. Starting the story in the wrong place.
8. Not quite nailing voice in the opening.
9. Dialog that didn’t quite work as hard as it should.
10. A lack of scene tension even if the opening was suppose to be dramatic.

(Source: pubrants.blogspot.com)

If you ever get the chance to submit your novel directly to an editor, think twice. You get only one shot as Kristin Nelson explains:

First being that editors who take submissions directly log those submissions. So if one editor has passed, it will be on record so that pretty much nixes it for any other editor at that imprint.

… even if that newer editor loves it, she’s going to have to get second reads and support to take it to ed. Board. Well, if that senior editor nixed it and then it pops up again, well, it’s going to get shot down again. And on top of that, the newer editor is not going to have very warm feelings toward you for putting her in an awkward position.

(Source: pubrants.blogspot.com)

Ouch.  Thorn.

Kristin Nelson of Pub Rants points out a potential issue with “enhanced” eBooks (multimedia sBooks).  While reviewing a contract with a film studio, she saw this clause:

Electronically Read Editions: The right to publish the text of published print editions of the Property via the Internet and in the form of CD-ROM, DVD, videocassette tape or similar electronically read devices individually purchased by the end-user. Such electronically read editions may not contain moving visual images (other than the text) or audio tracks of any kind.

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If your limit for the Picasso was $106,499,999.99, cry not.

Kristin Nelson over at Pub Rants posted a reminder that Brenda Novak’s 6th Annual Online Auction for Diabetes Research is on.

There are plenty of offerings for writers.  What I find most interesting are the opportunities to have your work critiqued by an agent.  Note that a critique does not guarantee representation or sale.

I just have one word: mulligan.

Kristin Nelson’s, “Starting A Novel In The Wrong Place,” is a good read.  It’s humorous in that I’m certain she’s thinking to herself, “Shit… nothing changes.”

The two main issues displacing the proper start?

1. Back story
2. Minutiae (overelaborate “set-the-stage” before the story really begins)

If you’re thinking to yourself after reading the above, “Check, and check,” you might want to put your pencil down, and toss out the first few pages.

Kristin Nelson, over at Pub Rants, brings up an interesting point that is little discussed (at least from what I’ve read so far) in the arguments over whether one should self-publish, (and as an aside) if one should post work online.

Recently, we were presented with two opposing viewpoints on posting work online.  Strike that — one viewpoint seeks to clarify and refine why it may not be a good idea.

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