Length

[Aakaakaak]

TBH, once I've written things out I won't be sending to Jennifer Jackson. At least not with much hope. Wrong Genre. (see? staying with your main point.)

She's probably more flooded with requests than others due to her popularity.

[Kali]

Jessica Faust of BookEnds receives around 50 query letters a day.

Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown gets around 125 a week (going by his "6,000 - 7,000 queries a year" quote, and that was in 2007).

In February of 2010, Janet Reid claimed to have rejected 50 query letters in ONE HOUR.

How many more do you want to hear from?  The field is PACKED with would-be authors writing hundreds and hundreds of query letters.  Do you really think I'm wrong about this?  Or do you just want me to be because your book breaks a lot of the "what agents want" advice?  All I'm saying is don't HAND them reasons to reject you.

Unless you (the universal 'you', directed toward the lurker who hasn't posted an opinion yet) happen to write urban fantasy.   In that case, please make every mistake in the book.  Thin out the competition for me.  Thanks!

[Aakaakaak]

Um....I was....erm....agreeing with you.....

and adding that the fewer query letters someone gets the fewer rejections they need to send out...

...and I'm writing poli-sci fic. Nothing fantastical or supernatural. Completely out of her realm from what I hear.

[Kali]

Um....I was....erm....agreeing with you.....

and adding that the fewer query letters someone gets the fewer rejections they need to send out...

...and I'm writing poli-sci fic. Nothing fantastical or supernatural. Completely out of her realm from what I hear.

Ah...

Well then...

Okay.

I wasn't trying to sound snotty with the question, it was an honest query if you thought I was wrong or wanted me to be wrong.  I read a lot of writing advice blogs and threads, and the number of people who utterly refuse to believe writing is as competitive as it is simply beggars the imagination.  I had to interrupt a thread where people had generally agreed that the more popular agents get a lot of queries, maybe a couple of hundred a month.

Maybe I should have let them persist in their happy ignorance.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

There is a reason why my 470kword Christian-mythos end of the world fantasy is not a thing I am trying to sell. (Actually, there's also the reason that it was mostly planned out between 1996 and 1998 and it's set in a very pre-9/11 world.)  Even thought it would split neatly into three, four, or indeed anywhere up to nine volumes.

While not handing agents "this is unmarketable because it does not fit the market" reasons is a good plan, so is not handing agents "this is unmarketable because it looks like a generic rehash written solely with an eye to the market that does not have any actual orginality".  If there's a middle path between that particular Scylla and Charybdis, it's not an obvious one, particularly in terms of how much gets left out if you sum up a novel of any lenght into a couple of paragraphs of elevator pitch. 

Knowing that successful, major-award-winning novelists with careers and many books published still find the elevator pitch hellishly agonising is a comfort of sorts, but not that much of one.  So is having heard publishing professionals talk about the publishing process at conventions, in that at least I am sure it would take a deliberate effort for me to write something as unsellably bad as some of the things I've heard mentioned. 

[svb1972]

I'd pay to read that Neuro.
Even if it is pre-911 world.

[meh]

Have e-reader.   Have price of coffee. 

[svb1972]

420k words?
I'd go as high as $20
or I'd read the first 'volume' for $5.  And if I got hooked, I'd happily pay $5 a volume for the rest.

[Kali]

Yeah, there is sort of a narrow road between "follow all these rules to the letter" and "give us something we've never seen before".  Objectively, my novel is very much a generic rehash.  It just happens that I've been writing urban fantasy since the 1980s (mostly for my own amusement, a couple of things done for presents) as I love the genre, but now what used to come off as fresh and original is just the norm for the genre, alas.  I'm still writing what I love, though.  In the case of genre, I'm aware the odds are tilting slightly more against me given my subject matter.

The next thing I have in mind to write (aside from this stupid fanfic idea that won't go away) is more original and has fascinated me since the beginnings of the concept occurred to me a few months ago.  To stay on topic, it's a genre-buster so the optimal length will be hard to determine, but the question of length doesn't come up for me until the first draft is done.  So I'll write the thing, see how long it is, check out the market at the time, and adjust accordingly.

[Aakaakaak]

There is a reason why my 470kword Christian-mythos end of the world fantasy is not a thing I am trying to sell. (Actually, there's also the reason that it was mostly planned out between 1996 and 1998 and it's set in a very pre-9/11 world.)  Even thought it would split neatly into three, four, or indeed anywhere up to nine volumes.

Were you robbed by Tim LeHaye, author of the Left Behind series? JUST KIDDING!

From what I've seen and read and heard, it's strict adherence to /how/ you write, but complete originality on /what/ you write. You just need to stick with the preferred format of the genre you fit into. Am I reading it wrong?

[meh]

420k words?
I'd go as high as $20

Two coffees and a spicy tuna roll.    My absolute limit.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Were you robbed by Tim LeHaye, author of the Left Behind series? JUST KIDDING!

You've been paying enough attention to my psoting about how Jim handles Christian-mythos stuff in the DV, I think to reaonably and accurately guess that how I write about it myself will not have much in common with Left Behind, unless you count "No ! You are doing it wrong !" as commonality.

[svb1972]

I have a proto-uber mythos fantasy series in my head.  That will insult every religious leader in the known world.
Using Christian Mythos, but returned to it's pre-christian Pagan links. It's been in my head for 20 years, and I can't seem to get it into paper.  But it is really fun to play with those Mythos and turn them on their heads.


Well, you can pay 2 coffees and a spicy tuna roll.  But that does not preclude me from paying higher? 

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Well, you can pay 2 coffees and a spicy tuna roll.  But that does not preclude me from paying higher? 

Bidding war ftw ?

[meh]

Bidding war ftw ?

^There's something redundant in it.