If You Want to Get Your Manuscript on the Desk of a New York Editor, You Need an Agent
Barb here. Okay, that title probably lays out the point of this blog post pretty clearly, but this is a complex topic.
Of late, I’ve heard some rather “loud” voices in the industry telling new/hopeful writers that not only do they not need an agent to be successful, but that an agent will actually be damaging to their careers.
In one online discussion, I recently (stupidly) jumped in to say, “Well, of course if someone is self-publishing, he or she doesn’t need an agent, but if a novelist wants to be traditionally published, an agent is necessary. How can a writer get a manuscript on the desk of a New York editor without an agent?”
I was instantly—and quite vehemently—told that I was “wrong,” and that no writer requires an agent to get a manuscript on the desk of a New York editor… and that unagented writers sell novels to New York editors all the time.
I bowed out of this discussion quickly, but I did worry that a lot of new/hopeful writers were listening to what I considered very poor advice.
Cover Your Ass(ets), Part 1: Structuring Author Files (and Folders)
Whether you are (or aspire to be) a professional writer or specifically an author, the files you create and edit are precious commodities. Treat them so, like the blood in your veins.
The loss of even a fraction can be (1) dangerous or devastating to your career and/or (2) lead to a recreation process that might not (re)capture your original data. And no, just copying files to another location after a day’s work is not enough, though it is an adequate but temporary solution. READ MORE >>
