Comments on: SIOA, Part IV: some tips on combating the “Oh, God — have I blown it?” blues

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:47:42 +0000

Yes, yes, do keep breathing, Ruby. Remember, these people WANT to like you and your work –they’re at the conference to discover new talent. And remember not to lock your knees when you are standing around with publishing types; many an overstressed aspiring writer has fainted as a result of too-stiff legs.

I hope you found the HOW TO WRITE A PITCH category on the archive list at right (or at least the HOW TO WRITE A PITCH AT THE LAST MINUTE category). Run through that, and do speak up if you have questions! And for your own sake, please say your pitch out loud to another human being before you get to the conference — trust me, it will make your first pitch to a pro SUBSTANTIALLY less stressful.

By: Ruby

Ruby — Fri, 14 May 2010 18:33:47 +0000

Thank you for the much needed information.
I am really nervous about attending my “FIRST” Writers conference next week. I am in the process of creating a fiction novel and have submitted the first 15 pages to an editor. I am certainly looking forward to his/her remarks (criticism). And I haven’t the slightest idea of how to pitch.
Guess I’ll have to keep reminding myself of your post and the most important thing, “BREATH”!

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:03:23 +0000

Thanks, Joon, and welcome!

What a meaty question. I think it deserves a post of its own in response, probably sometime next week, because I am positively bursting with advice.

But to set your mind at ease until then: no, you haven’t necessarily blown it. We can work with this.

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:58:08 +0000

That was my initial response, too, Jenyfer — and then I started teaching pitching classes. My current theory is that so many writers find the actual pitching process so mysterious and terrifying that they are afraid that the post-submission process will be equally so. (It very seldom is.) So they talk themselves out of submitting, often by convincing themselves that the agent didn’t REALLY mean it when s/he requested materials.

I’m going to devote a post to the second part of your comment, but the short answer is: time. I’m not happy with this answer, personally, but it is the actual reason.

By: Joon

Joon — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:19:11 +0000

Dear Anne,
Thank you so much for this blog. It has been both extraordinarily useful and entertaining.

I am afriad this particular series was written with me in mind (though, with your prodding, I am sending my pages out this week – whee! – so hopefully not for much longer). I have a question about extensive time passed. I know you’re a busy person, but if you have time to answer it or to touch upon it in the continuation of your SIOA series, it would really help me (and probably others who’ve helped put the Pro in Procrastination).

Back when I was a real newbie, I submitted the first 20 pages of my first novel for critique at the SCBWI conference where it was read by Stephanie Meyer’s agent (!!!). She told me she loved it, nominated it for a conference award, and wanted to see the rest of it. Problem was, she’d read almost all of it that was presently to be had (yes, I now know it was really unprofessional to submit something that wasn’t essentially ready to go. No, I would never do such a thing again. Yes, I know editors and agents hate people like me. Mea culpa!). I confessed as much and she said she still wanted to read it, in any amount or condition, as soon as I had written more. She gave me her e-mail address and a code word to put in the subject heading, and asked me (against her agency’s submission guidelines) to e-mail it to her. I went home with a will and got back to work.

It took three years!

My question is not whether to send it (you’ve amply answered that), but how? Has too much time passed for me to use the secret e-mail? Should I go back to the end of the line and send in a query as though we’d never met? Should I not send it to this agent at all (and let that be a lesson to me)? And should I still reference the fact that we met at this long distant conference?

I want to break away from my prior SIOA folly, but I’d like to take advantage of my chance to snag the AOMD if I haven’t already bungled it too badly.

Any advice?

Thank you for your time (and also for your humorous blog. Many’s the otherwise unproductive work hour I’ve spent brushing up on my craft via your blog),

Joon

P.S.
I attempted to send this earlier today, but my computer froze, so if this double posts, I apologize. It was an unintended glitch.

By: Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer Johnson — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:16:24 +0000

Here, here to all indomitable submitters!

By: Jenyfer Matthews

Jenyfer Matthews — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:04:24 +0000

You know, I have heard this before – that a huge percentage of materials requested at conferences is never submitted and when I first heard it, all I could think of was “WHY???” Maybe I’m just an optimist, but if I managed to deliver a pitch worthy of an invitation to submit, I’d be all over that (with an appropriate delay for one more once over of course).

What I wonder more is why it is that once an agent asks to see the material and the material is actually sent, the agent can’t be bothered to respond. It’s one thing to ignore an unsolicited query / partial, but if they actually request it, you would think they could at least say “thanks, but no thanks” if they aren’t interested. Surely I’m not the only one this has happened to?