Agents and Editors

[guitarbabe]

Ha, you guys are cracking me up. One quick thing before I have to go to work, there's a fantasy convention that one of my friends suggested, and I wanted to know if it was any good? The World Fantasy Convention in Texas? What can you expect from those anyway?
PS: You definitely should ALL write romance. I'd love to see the crazy adventures you'd come up with.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

any convention where the agents and publishers will be. WorldCon is in Anaheim this year, and there's a thread about for the TWGers who are going. It's a good one to show up for.

[stacer]

World Fantasy is the networking con for writers, so yes. Go. EUOL met his editor at World Fantasy. Or was it his agent? He can answer that better than I can. All I know is that it seems to be one of his favorite stories to tell, how he met his editor and agent, and how much World Fantasy can do for new authors. I have an author who goes to it, too, and she says for her adult SF/F, it's the best con she goes to all year, though she's still starting out on that side, too.

[CtrlZed]

Parker and I went to World Fantasy in November.  I met a lot of great people, sf and fantasy writers, editors, and a few agents.  Parker's story's even better than that, but I'll let him tell it.  The convention, though, was definitely worth the money to go.  If I had more days off, I'd be in Austen in a heartbeat this coming year.  Heck, I might even take it off without pay in order to go.

[House of Mustard]

We're going to become the focus site for LDS fiction chat.

My plan is coming along nicely.  Excellent...

[Fellfrosch]

World Fantasy is excellent, if for no other reason than that there is no "fandom": no gaming, no costumes, no furries, and hallelujah no filking. It's sort of a professional insider con that's a great place to network, and, as mentioned, it's where EUOL met his editor (I met him too, but he didn't like my book. Some people have no taste).

[Parker]

Yeah--World Fantasy worked for me . . . sort of.  EUOL's agent called me a few weeks ago to say that he didn't not like my story enough to reject me right away.  He wanted to see another 50 pages.  I believe the direct quote was "I'm just not sure if I want to read another 480 pages of this."  Although he balanced that by saying "You win the award for the best synopsis I've seen."  Right now he's theoretically reading through the next 50 pages that I sent him.  Who knows--maybe I can sell it to him as a serial.  (Mr. Bilmes, if you happen to read this, please note that I'm trying to be funny--and likely failing miserably.  I am seriously grateful for your phone call and your willingness to read more.  And I think this whole serial idea has merit.  j/k).

Anyway--back to World Fantasy.  If you're willing to go up to strangers and force yourself to talk to them and put yourself way out of your comfort zone, then go for it.  It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, but I did it--and I'll do it again, dagnabit.  They all get drunk, anyway, so what's there to be afraid of?  I'll almost certainly be going again this year.

[CtrlZed]

Yeah, nothing to be scared of unless one is a drunk ninja editor and happens to hate your story pitch.  The cheese they had there was scary, too.  And that guy that jumped out at me on the way to the Greek place.  He was scary--and I don't even think he was a ninja.  And the Greek lady at the Greek place that told me that she'd lose her job over my visa-swiping. Scary.  Yeah, World Fantasy in Wisconsin was better than Halloween.

[MsFish]

I'm strongly considering trying to make it to World Fantasy rather than WorldCon.

[CtrlZed]

Well, World Fantasy is definitely the more professional of the two.  But there won't be any anime rooms.  

[Parker]

Are you trying to convince her not to go or to go?  No anime rooms would be a plus in my book.  Why not go to both, MsFish?    

[guitarbabe]

You talked me into it. I'm going to that convention (and that means a lot from a girl who still needs to fix her brakes and transmission--actually my brother took care of the brakes this weekend--sorta--he made me stand out in the cold doing absolutely nothing while every guy in the neighborhood had to wander over and inform me that I had the most obsolete brakes in the history of man--cool! He kind of jimmyrigged it, so we'll see if it lasts.)

Anyhoo, (hey, I used a space between my paragraphs, so this would be easier to read...I'm learning), I totally know what you mean by being willing to throw yourself out there and talk about your book--that probably HAS to be the hardest part. I remember handing out fliers at the Wilk for my book. Man, those girls get catty. At least I will be going with a friend to this convention who knows a little bit how to do it. She'll be excited that I'm going!

So, that means I'll have to be majorly prepared in November (of course that's a while away BUT...), what did you guys (excuse my vernacular, this means the girls too--I'm so used to saying guys--I even call the kindergarteners that). Anyway, what did you all bring? Query letters? The first three chapters? Pictures? What was the most effective thing that you did? And I have more than one book, should I just choose one?--and then go from there?

Thanks, this is awesome advice!

[Eric James Stone]

You should not take a manuscript or even sample chapters.  The agents and editors are most likely traveling to the convention, and they don't want to get weighed down with more stuff.  If they want to see your manuscript or query, they'll tell you to mail it to them.  (But you get to put the magic words "Requested Material" on the envelope.)

I take business cards, but those are more for handing out to other authors I meet than to agents and editors.

What you really need, in case you get asked, is your verbal pitch.  You'll need a one-sentence logline for your novel(s), and if they want to hear more, a spoken version of your query letter's explanation of your book.

[Parker]

Yeah--good advice about that verbal pitch.  And I'd recommend practicing it like 85 times.  I still don't have mine down, and I sound like an idiot whenever I'm forced to talk about my books.  Bringing anything on paper wouldn't be a great idea.  If you're REALLY worried that some agent/editor is going to want to see your story NOW, then maybe you could bring an electronic copy and print one out if the need arises.  But don't get your hopes too high.

[MsFish]

Why not go to both, MsFish?    

Money.  Do you think you guys will be going to WF this year?  Travelling companions would make things cheaper.  

My rationale is that if I can only make it to one, I should go to the more professional one where I'm less likely to end up spending my time goofing off with friends and marvelling at fandom stuff.  I love my friends, but I can't justify the money for fun.  It has to be a buisness trip, or I just simply can't go.