Friday, May 19, 2006

New York Is Deserted

It seems as if all the literary agents have gone off to Book Expo America. That's part of their business, making connections with the people who do the buying, and just about every high ranking agent is networking away.

Today's agenda includes such exciting items as Norton's drinks party, where famous authors can talk up their latest release. How could anyone expect an agent to be spending time reading through queries and manuscripts at such a time? They're busy, busy, busy with conferences and parties and presentations, and that query that you slaved over is left to gather dust.

Waiting is bad enough, but these interruptions are maddening. There's nothing to be done besides wait patiently, for the expo will eventually end and the agents will go back home to piles of query letters. I've fired off an e-query to BJ Robbins because she updated her Publishers Marketplace page and gives the impression that she's looking for some new clients. Even JetReid Literary is open to submissions again, according to the website, so let's hope that the agents are going to come back from BEA all refreshed, ready for new work.

And then there's hoping that your work is exactly what is needed. Whatever topic your novel covers is precisely the topic that the acquisitions people at Random House or MacAdam/Cage are clamoring for. All you can do is wait, and hope, and dream a bit until the form rejection turns up in the mailbox. Here's hoping and wishing for success.

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