Miss Snark Retirement LinkLove
You may have read the news: Miss Snark is retiring from blogging.
In the two years that Miss Snark has been pseudonymously writing about the life of a literary agent, the public perception of agents and the publishing industry has been irrevocably changed. Sure, there were blogs by publishing professionals before, and will be after, but her contribution is difficult to overestimate.
Gone is the illusion of agents as stuffy guardians of literary elitism, and the contradictory illusion of talent-blind failed writers conspiring to undermine creativity. We now know that agents are human, have educated and informed but necessarily subjective tastes, genuinely love reading, have a job to do that goes well beyond reading unsolicited submissions and only so many hours in the day, and have a virtually bottomless well of patience and respect for writers and their sensitivities. (The good ones, at least.)
Miss Snark's blog set a high standard for what could be achieved with a (free and ad-free) blog about publishing. From amusing rants on publishing in general, and nitwit slushdwellers in particular, the blog grew to become a major destination for writers looking for advice on seeking representation, and demystifying the publishing process. Many stayed, forming an impromptu community in the comments section of each post, where her advice was argued, clarified, expanded upon and sometimes refuted. Successful writers, industry professionals and passionate readers mingled with hacks, ne'er-do-wells, nitwits and wannabes, mostly with the shared goal of making publishing seem less daunting, confusing and capricious.
But it was her combination of humour (from the sublime to the cynical), deep understanding of how publishing really works, unpolished tell-it-like-it-is bluntness, sheer frequency of updates, and astonishing dedication to providing opportunities for unpublished writers to learn from their and other's mistakes that kept us readers coming back.
In her pithy posts, a dose of publishing reality became our drug of addiction, and the writing blogosphere is waking up today to some heavy withdrawals.
Thankfully Miss Snark's blog will remain, so if you still have a question for her, search the Snarkives.
And please remember to always FOLLOW THE DAMN DIRECTIONS.
I love Miss Snark. You probably love Miss Snark, unless you're a nitwit. Time to show her a little of that love.
Here are some web badges I've whipped up so you can let Miss Snark know that you miss her, without seeming like an email stalker. Feel free to use them on your blog. You can copy and paste the code below each image into a post, or your blog template.
Please Note:
- The link goes directly to Miss Snark, so this isn't some sneaky exercise in linkbait. If you want, you can link to this post so other bloggers can get the code.
- If you use one of these image, please leave a link to your blog in the comments, so you'll get a little linklove from me.
- If you'd like to contribute an image, email me and I'll add it to this page.
Images are hosted by ImageShack.us.
