A Few Things

Kristin Nelson's talking about the market on her blog. She's currently in NY relaying what the editors there are saying is HOT right now. If you write (or want to write) erotica, it seems now is the time to break into the published author's world. Seems the majority of the "first" sales I'm hearing about are erotica sales. One girl on RWC recently announced she sold her first ms in a 6-book deal to Kensington's new Aphrodisia line. Too bad for me I write RS - sexy RS, but not sexy-enough to qualify as erotica.

In other news, I'm playing ostrich. Lin will appreciate this. Some time ago I got the bright idea to query a publisher about an RS ms of mine. When I didn't hear back after several months, I figured it was a no go. Last week I got a full request from said publisher on said ms. Cool news, right? Not really. The novelty of full requests has definitely worn off for me, even though I haven't spent much time targeting publishers at this point.

So here's the deal: I'm close to finishing the wip (okay, how many times have you heard me say that? Lord Almighty). Like one or two chapters away. Granted, it's the climax - which I hate writing - but I'm still close. If I bail to give the requested ms a read (ahem, which means I'll tweak and change and get pulled into it AGAIN) I'll lose my momentum on the wip. So that's my ostrich excuse as to why I haven't already printed and mailed. Sounds good, right?

Not.

Okay, here's the REAL deal: Said ms has been read by several agents - full requested but eventually rejected. It hasn't made "huge" rounds, but has been with a handful of agents. Part of me thinks it's not the one. I don't know how to explain that, it's just a feeling even though I really like this ms. One agent said she loved the characters, had issue with the plot. One agent said she loved the plot but had issues with the characters. One agent loved the dream sequence intro, another recently blogged about how awful romance novel dream sequence intros are. See my dilemma??? I'm hearing way too much conflicting advice which has me stymied, so my answer is just to ignore it for the time being. Hence, playing ostrich.

Someone give me a good kick in the ass and tell me to get to work.

Here's some uplifting advice. On the PRO class loop, Anne Stuart and Judith Arnold are talking about the author/agent relationship. Here's my favorite bit of information:

...nowadays getting an agent is almost harder than getting published. One of the best ways to get an agent, if you haven't gotten one already, is to do your research, sound them out, and then approach them once you have your first contract. I know, it seems stupid to give someone 15% when you've done the hard part, but trust me, keeping track of things is an important part of the job.

Gee, I guess that means we should be targeting editors on our own? Gah. More conflicting advice. I can't tell you how many times I've heard people say not to target editors because then agents have less places to send your work. Perhaps I should ditch the wip and go work on that requested ms.

Oh, and I almost forgot I'm giving a talk at my local RWA meeting next week with a fellow writer. She sent me her portion of our presentation. Did I mention she's a plotter and I am not? Ahem, I am not a plotter in anything really. I wing it nine times out of ten. That's what I did when I was teaching and what I still do now. (Subs could never go off the chicken scratch lesson plans in my plan book.) Guess I need to go get to work on this so she thinks I'm at least a little prepared. And yes, it's a good excuse to ignore both the wip and said requested ms.

Later...