Small Bits of Advice
So the other day I was on the phone with my agent, and we were discussing blogging and silly things that people do in their blogs.
"An author should never ever ever mention rejections in their blog," he said to me. "Because agents and editors like to websurf too."
And while I've heard this tidbit of advice before, that was the first time it's ever really REALLY stuck in my head. Because the first time my agent read my blog, I thought, cool! And then other people in the industry started reading my blog, and I thought, cool! And then I thought back to all the posts I had made when I was a young author noob, and I thought oh $%^*&.
Because the nerds that follow publishing (like myself) are on both sides of the transom. Editors and agents love to blogsurf as much as us writer-goobs do. And if they're interested in your book, and surf over to your webpage, they're naturally going to look at your blog. And if it's filled with "OMG Jennifer Jackson, Caitlin Blasdell and Ashley Grayson have all rejected my query and said that it was an overdone subject. Fools! At least I have queries out to 142 other people, cross your fingers!!11!1!"
Yeah. Not gonna make a terrific impression. First of all, you're telling them that 1.) Other professionals think your stuff isn't up to snuff. 2.) You think their peers are fools. 3.) You don't know when to keep your mouth shut. What if you mess up an auction later on? You could cost your agent (and yourself!) a big chunk of money.
But this isn't really about blogging inasmuch as it's about gems of advice. I thought this was terrifically handy information. What 'tidbits' of info have you been handed (about writing or publishing) that you want to share? I'd love to hear what words of wisdom everyone else has acquired. :)
- Jill Myles
PS - I'd tag this but it says I cannot add a tag. Boo! Boo I say!
"An author should never ever ever mention rejections in their blog," he said to me. "Because agents and editors like to websurf too."
And while I've heard this tidbit of advice before, that was the first time it's ever really REALLY stuck in my head. Because the first time my agent read my blog, I thought, cool! And then other people in the industry started reading my blog, and I thought, cool! And then I thought back to all the posts I had made when I was a young author noob, and I thought oh $%^*&.
Because the nerds that follow publishing (like myself) are on both sides of the transom. Editors and agents love to blogsurf as much as us writer-goobs do. And if they're interested in your book, and surf over to your webpage, they're naturally going to look at your blog. And if it's filled with "OMG Jennifer Jackson, Caitlin Blasdell and Ashley Grayson have all rejected my query and said that it was an overdone subject. Fools! At least I have queries out to 142 other people, cross your fingers!!11!1!"
Yeah. Not gonna make a terrific impression. First of all, you're telling them that 1.) Other professionals think your stuff isn't up to snuff. 2.) You think their peers are fools. 3.) You don't know when to keep your mouth shut. What if you mess up an auction later on? You could cost your agent (and yourself!) a big chunk of money.
But this isn't really about blogging inasmuch as it's about gems of advice. I thought this was terrifically handy information. What 'tidbits' of info have you been handed (about writing or publishing) that you want to share? I'd love to hear what words of wisdom everyone else has acquired. :)
- Jill Myles
PS - I'd tag this but it says I cannot add a tag. Boo! Boo I say!