I haven't posted in a minute, but here I am, posting to market a fellow writer!
One of our writers at the Writer's Center and in the fiction group is launching his first novel, Wild Salvation.
I am honored and excited to say that we workshopped this last year. While I do not normally read Western novels, the plot and characters in this novel pulled me in quickly. The descriptions are fantastic, and I wish I could attend the book launch: It’s Friday, February 4th from 6-10 pm at Howl + Hide and Wild’s in Fountain Square (a leather and barber shop) in Indy.
At the risk of overanalyzing this whole agent thing, I'm going to share another story about a recent rejection. Here's most of the rejection email:
Thank you so much for thinking of ____ Agency for your submission. Unfortunately, it's not quite what I'm looking for at the moment. I wish I could offer a more personalized response, but do know that we read every query letter and sample we receive. Even though your project is not right for us, it might be right for another agent, so don’t give up.
Good luck with all your publishing endeavors.
I cannot imagine how difficult agents' work must be. Writing rejections must be very difficult.
However, this one makes me laugh a bit.
"I wish I could offer a more personalized response" points this out a little too much. Although I kind of know that most rejections are not personalized, this one says so--perhaps a little too directly.
But then, the email goes on to add, "that we read every query letter and sample we receive." Huh. Two things about this. First is that despite the computerized response, they do read everything.
Then the second part of this is a little more subtle: the rejection shifts from a singular, personal pronoun (I) to a plural, personal pronoun (we, us) in the second part of this email. The connotation appears to defuse the responsibility from the singular agent to a group (i.e., a group of people, not just me, decided against your work).
The ending of this impersonal rejection is a resounding good luck. Don't give up.
I've seen more than a few of these emails over the years. For some reason, this one made me laugh a little more than the others. I didn't take this one as personally (ha) as I did in the past.
Maybe I'm finally developing a sense of humor about all of this.
My husband found this video the other day. He shared this with Randy and me. It's a little long, but if you have 45 minutes, watch it to the end.
So I'm stuck in the traditional world of storytelling with plot, character, setting, and all the rest.
But I'm so intrigued by this. Creating a fictional storyline in Twitter has its own development--even plot, character, POV, and setting, if on a different level. This is clever on so many levels because it creates suspense and readers and a platform over time.
This is a novel form of storytelling, and I'm sad to think that by the time I could draft a "Twitter fiction," this will probably be overdone and old news. It's like a novel in series or comic books or trilogies--but the platform is very unique and timely.
As I am dreaming up ways to market and to build a platform for my own writing, I wonder if this could build a foundation for upcoming publications. Could this be a new way to market and to build interest for an upcoming book?
Could GR3GORY88 be building a world for his own writing? This is a wonderful piece of storytelling, and if GR3GORY88 is building interest and marketing for an upcoming book, well done.
So what's the next experiment with fiction?
How would you use social media to tell a story?
