Open Thread

[onyxhawke]

Anyone who has questions to ask, now is the time. Be it about the Winter Workout, or about anything else publishing, Onyxhawke or my tastes... type now or forever miss your keys.

I also have a question:

How did you hear about me?

Comments

[arithion.livejournal.com]

I heard about you through a friend, who'd heard about your last mass send in. I friended you on the hope that one day (when I've actually completed a longer work) I'll feel up to sending in that first chapter, and you'll actually still be offering these workouts ;)

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

My slush pile has never closed. It does get backed up, but it has not closed since i opened the agency. These events are almost purely for my amusement.

[makoiyi.livejournal.com]

I heard about you through user who I've always found an interesting lady.

There's very much a 'network' on lj, which I absolutely adore. Many authors who are willing to pay it forward and help those of us who are still trying. In turn, if I regularly read an author's blog, you can almost guarantee I will read their novels and blog some kind of review.

Question: Do you feel there is much market for science fiction these days? I do see some sales, but not many agents seem that interested.

Is there a market for science fiction which blurs the lines between science fiction and fantasy? By that I mean, not space opera or 'hard' science fiction, but very character driven stories?

The market does appear to be awash with Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. No agent/editor can predict what the next 'big' thing will be, but are there areas you would like to see more of?

[makoiyi.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that, I must have used the wrong tag - that was meant to be - sartorias.

[aeamek.livejournal.com]

I think I was bitching to a friend about not being able to find an agent and he recommended that I check you out.

My question: how does one show an agent in their query that a modern mythology story idea can sell?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

The same way you show anything else can sell... by writing well.

Thank you for the opportunity. . . .

[shalanna.livejournal.com]

I followed the wondrous sartorias's link to the announcement of your Winter Workout.

One of my books is urban (paranormal) fantasy, but it's a YA (I found this out from a powerhouse agent who said she loved the book, but didn't sign me because of . . . well, I will never know why, because I did the revisions and I don't THINK I acted that weird on the phone.) Agents who take YA have said they don't want to handle fantasy, and vice versa. I think this one is a Scholastic or HarperCollins novel. Have you handled genre-weird novels with any success?

I also have a novel that is a fantasy BUT has a chicklitty voice, in the vein of Shanna Swendson or Candy Havens' witch books. Same thing--agents get flummoxed. How do you feel about something like that (or would you have to read it to see)?

By the way, you said you hate query letters. Should we use your legal name* as the greeting in the cover e-mail that we send when we file-attach our Winter Workout entry to you? I don't want it to look too much like a cover letter.

* A secret which only I know, along with the few others who have discovered The Magic Trick

Re: Thank you for the opportunity. . . .

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

Magic trick? Reading?

Without reading it, all i can say is ... send me your best.

And genre blurry is unpopular with agents and editors because the sales schleps who sit between the finished or soon to be finished product and the chain stores and distributors don't know which stock phrases to insert into their pitch.

[gerriwritinglog.livejournal.com]

My question is more how did you hear about me? I discovered that you'd friended my LJ, and after poking around to make sure you're legit (once bitten, twice shy and all that), I friended you back.

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

In truth i have no idea. At a guess you were probably saying something interesting on a journal/community i read.

[saraphina-marie.livejournal.com]

You worked your magic on me in person at last year's Arisia and then again at Pi-Con!

Question for Winter Workout...are you taking proposals and first 50 pages, or do you need the manuscript to be 100% complete? Aside from my two you already know about, I have one more that got halfway done before non-fiction ate my life, and about 3 others in proposal stage.

Let me know!

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

Whole thing.

Patience is not my forte.

[kitsch-witch.livejournal.com]

What's your favorite food?

Did you ever do anything so insanely dangerous as a child that you'd surely die if you tried it again as a smarter and wiser adult? If yes, please explain.

*This relates to publishing because, uh, agents are human, too. And because you can tell a lot about an agent from their tastes and their risk-assessment abilities.

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

Agents are human too? Are you sure? I've heard the most amazing stories about some of the other critters who are or were agents...


As for insanely dangerous things i did as a child? Um,of course i've eaten my moms cooking, i didn't learn to cook well until I was a teen. But mostly the difference between the stuff i did as a kid to late teen and the danger it would present now is that i'm in nothing like the shape i used to be.

[eneit.livejournal.com]

I followed sartorias's link. I'm certainly intrigued by both your sense of humour, I looked at your tags to the Winter Workout thread, and immediately thought of vodka slushies; and your masochistical tendencies.

Question: Do you have any problems with working with writers who live on the other side of the rock?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

I currently have clients in four countries...

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

Are you doing this again next year? I know I said I was never going to publish a novel. But my awful novel turned out really good. (I should've listened to you at Pi-Con! You were right! But I wasn't ready to deal with that possibility at the time.)

It's just not ready yet. I could use another year.

To answer your question, I saw you at Boscone and remembered you when I met you at Pi-con.

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

My slush pile is always open, and 98% of the time you'll get a faster response sending something there than waiting around for me to prove the need for me to be in a padded cell by doing stuff like this.

[cedunkley.livejournal.com]

I stumbled across your lj site when I read one of your comments on an author's lj I came across because they also participate on the DeepGenre website.

Do you have an all-time favorite book?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

All time favorite book... of stuff that's published... possibly Lois Bujold's "Mirror Dance", its so evocative, it takes you through the emotional ringer a couple times and does it wonderfully. But there are a good dozen other books i've loved that dearly, but that one seems to have stuck at zenith for a while.

[fibro-witch.livejournal.com]

Um we meet when I was wearing this low cut tight shirt, and you invited me to sit next to you. And we have a lot of friends in common, and I like hugging you.

I don't have anything but lots of tiny ideas for novels, but no novels. Sigh..

So my question is... If I can get my little writing group to agree to a sit down, would you join us and let them meet a real agent. (not to worry, only a couple of people have lengthy stuff)?

Question number 2, I am sad, can I get a hug???

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

:-) You i know.

Give me notice and i'll see if i can do it.

to #2: sure.

and the A.I.C. method works best for producing novels.

[(Anonymous)]

How do you feel about ebooks and epublishing?

And I heard about you from sartorius. :)

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

I like ebooks... although for various reason i don't read many. I think that in the current market E only publishers are not very useful. The only real exception to that is Fictionwise, but they are really a special case anyway.

[tcastleb.livejournal.com]

I got one of your pens at WFC in Austin, though I don't think I actually met you there, and then sartorias mentioned your LJ and I followed. I still have and use that pen. I like it. :>)

I do have a question. If we sent you something for the last contest, but you said no thanks because of reasons X and Y, but since then we rewrote the book and (hopefully) fixed X and Y, can we send it again? Or would you rather not see duplicate subs?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

Um... I prefer to see your best. If you think its the best writing you have, go for that.

[aiuna.livejournal.com]

I found you in... a writing community. I wish I could remember which one.

Question: Do you think it's a good idea to bring up other books in a query letter? As in: "I believe my novel would appeal to anyone who enjoys the descriptive prose of ___." I've read that some appreciate getting the gist of the writing style while others don't like comparisons. What do you think? Is there an effective way to utilize this technique?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

It really depends on how you say it:

"I write prose like Bujold, action like David Drake, characters like Robin Hobb and have the subtle social consciousness of Aldus Huxley." is probably not going to impress me with much more than how much you need meds.

OTOH... to me (read that twice) the quality of the book is the most important part.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

ann_mcn mentioned your Winter Workout when I wrote that I was looking for an agent.

Are you the same Onyxhawke who used to discuss things with Ex Aero on Baen's Bar?

And are you interested in a 90% historical 10% fantasy? With romantic elements? Or are you more pure SF/fantasy?

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

sounds like it could be interesting. And yes. Ex Aero is good lizard. O:-)

I'm not entirely sure i know Ann... although I won't say i don't either.

[rosencrantz23.livejournal.com]

How did I hear about you? It's rather hard to browse the Bar without running into you, you know.

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

piffle child, i dont post that much.

[vorpalkeith.livejournal.com]

Like with most things, I blame the Monkey.

[robert-gage.livejournal.com]

Met you in chat, did not know release you were an agent. Someone at publisher who liked a manuscript but could not publish as it did not met the SF they published, suggested to send it to you.

[cordova829.livejournal.com]

I've known you for years. Can't say how we met, though... although I do remember our first memorable instance involving alcohol...

Yay LJ Flist!

[zurizip.livejournal.com]

Someone mentioned your Winter Workout on my flist - I still have to go thank them profusely, too busy furiously making sure my manuscript is up to my standards for submission.

First: I love your icon/emblem - very pretty.

Second: Would you say that Scifi/fantasy are harder Genres to break into as a writer than, say, romance or general fiction? If so, why do you think so?

Third: What incited the idea for the Winter Workout? (This parenthesis will be used for thanking you for being cool enough to do such a thing...thanks!)

I think that's all >.>

Re: Yay LJ Flist!

[(Anonymous)]

A) Thanks, a lovely lass named Jen Miller did it for me. http://featherdust.critter.net/
2) I don't read or rep the other stuff.
IV) Self amusement, and the hope of picking up a client or two.

[(Anonymous)]

Baen's Bar of course.

Or perhaps I've suffered permanent brain damage, having just read the start of a manuscript which pictures all the dead people in Limbo dressed as clowns.

Question: What is the weirdest manuscript you have ever attempted to read?

MataPam

[lonfiction.livejournal.com]

Was out of town over the weekend and just diving far back into my F-list.

How did you hear about me?

We talked about superhero movies and tv near the only cool air in the building at one of the parties at Readercon (or at least I think it was Readercon, might have been Boskone) and then a bit more at the Brotherhood without Banners party at same.

[onyxhawke.livejournal.com]

I've not been to Readercon. I think it was actually this years WFC out in Saratoga that i met you.

[tezmilleroz.livejournal.com]

May I see a list of your clients, please?

Thank you, and have a lovely day! :-)