Link below to The Agony Column audio/MP3 interviews with writers, editors, etc. To anyone trying to get published, I strongly recommend listening to the interview of 9th July 2008 with Douglas Carlton Abrams. He was an editor, now an agent, also a writer. He talks tremendous sense, out of long experience on both sides of the publishing game.

http://www.trashotron.com/agony/indexes/audio_interview_index.htm

Terry

Thanks Terry - I look forward to listening.

Sarah

Thanks, Terry. A very articulate man who talks a lot of sense.
The only bit I take issue with is that he advises writers to be choosy about which agents they work with (of course we need to research and direct our submissions to what seem the most appropriate agents) - but so many published authors give this advice, as if those of us who are submitting our novels have any real choice in the matter. He says that if you have a story that will sell, agents will be crawling all over you - which I'm sure is true, providing an agent actually reads your submission, but for most writers it's a case of taking what (if anything) is on offer and hoping that there will be a 'fit'. It's a paradox that keeps surfacing, together with the one about 'paying a professional editor to help you with your plot' - you have to have some money to do this, and, as he says, writing is not likely to make you very much!
I loved what he had to say about melding together the two elements of 'expressing what is in your soul to say, together with what the culture is able to hear.'
Susiex

I agree it's a paradox - how to find the right agent instead of just taking what's on offer and hoping there'll be a fit. But then that's the mountain we writers have to climb. I've had two agents so far: the first I approached by pretty much sticking my finger in directory. I'd had a novel published and had a contract for the next, so it wasn't difficult, I guess, for her to say Yes. The second was recommended to me by an editor and sure enough we were a good fit, at least where writing tastes were concerned. But overall, neither did a lot for my career, and partly that was because I used to be pretty vague about what I wanted.

One of the reasons I switched to science fiction is because there are lots of gap-filling opportunities there. The short story market is extensive, albeit highly competitive; and there is a healthy networked infrastructure of fans, writers, editors, agents, etc, kept alive through internet forums, workshops and conventions. However, there is still that gap . . . I'll let you know when I find a way to close it!

I agree with him on the need to 'pay to play'. Yes, money is tight in writing but I also think a lot of writers shy away from the need to pay for help, and even convince themselves they don't need it. Instead, they submit flawed manuscripts hoping an agent, then a publisher, will pay, in effect, to put it right. This is very different to, say, classical music where musicians expect to pretty much be paying more than they receive - for lessons, and, where most amateur orchestras are concerned, even to play in the orchestra. I'm not suggesting that authors should necessarily expect to be paying amateurs for the rest of their lives, but they do need to see that the publishing world has changed: most of the money now goes to the big-hitters; and therefore perhaps they need to expect to spend more time and money perfecting their craft - just because they love story-telling - before getting paid a lot to do it.

Terry

Yes, I agree too about the 'pay to play' thing - to some extent. But ultimately you are still paying for ONE PERSON'S OPINION. Like the agent 'fit', if that person is correct, then you are very, very lucky. I have had two professional critiques so far and, whilst both picked up one thing that needed changing (and that has improved the novel hugely by being changed) they have been diametrically opposed on another issue. But the underlying idea that writers need to revise, revise, revise is of course spot on.
Susiex