Weekend Update #10

(This WU covers last week, ending 18/3. I spent the week in a hotel that thought I should choose between Internet access and eating. I could get a monthly broadband deal for what they charged per day. So this WU is a little short on detail, as I compiled it largely from email and RSS feeds.)

Slush Pile Diva is back! Woo-hoo! Her first post in months has some advice you probably never thought of.

Nathan Bransford has part two of his honest-to-goodness real live actual Editor guest post. If you read it, tell me what it says, because Nathan's RSS feed cuts off after a couple hundred characters. I got as far as "Here's the second part". I hope it's good. Oh, and funny. I hope it's funny. Or insightful. Funny and insightful would be cake.

Nathan also comments on the encouraging trend of young adults buying more books. Not yours, of course, but I'm sure the first wave of trendspotters are positively beaming while Tony Hawk teaches them to skateboard.

Sarah Crown at The Guardian looks at books you buy but don't finish.

Jenny Rappaport demonstrates that the 90% rule applies, even when the agent requests a partial.

Dr Hack has some useful advice about handling rejection, the way Hemingway would. But he forgot give the hell up. So, exactly how many rejections make a consensus?

Lori Perkins explains why the slushpile is way down the priority list for agents. Just because your novel represents all your hopes and dreams does not mean that anyone is ever required to give a shit.

Paul Vallely of The Independent unearths the real reason you haven't found major-league success -- you don't have a longstanding, bitter feud with another famous author. This is an oft-overlooked aspect of a literary career. I'm hoping that after a few middling novels, I can get John Scalzi to punch me in the face, while Joe Konrath holds me down. (Via The Elegant Variation.)

Agent Kristin posts her standard rejection letter, plus a revised version that does a better job of concealing the vast publishing conspiracy. You probably have this memorized. If you're new to the writing game, stop writing now and save yourself the pain.

The Rejecter wonders if there's a code to the rejections at Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine. How about "Yes means we like it enough to publish, No means we don't."

And finally, Miss Snark lets loose. Bookmark this one and read it over, before you submit anything.

You think a writer just pours words onto paper in a fever of creativity, and originality? Yea, they do. It's called the first draft. Then comes the writing.