At the time I sold to Bombshell last spring, there were a couple other aspiring authors targeting the same line whose experiences were fairly parallel to mine. Similar number of requested manuscripts, a round or two of revisions, a painful rejection or two, and some long, LONG wait times. I know a lot of people would argue with me on this, but I really truly believe that the biggest reason I sold isn’t because I have any more talent than those other writers or that my story was particularly fantastic. I honestly believe I just did a better job of kissing ass, behaving myself, and making sure the editor(s) I was working with never had a reason to think of me as impatient or difficult to work with.

Now I’m not suggesting that I never would have sold a book if I’d slipped unrequested pages in with a submission. But why chance the possibility that an editor or agent will remember you as “that writer who’s trying to get away with something”?

Do I think editors sit around cackling as they add a name in Sharpie to a permanent list? No. Do I think editors and agents recognize names of people who did something they didn’t like, and do I think that may cause them to look unfavorably on that person in the future? Yes, I think it’s possible. It depends on the editor (or agent).

Breaking the rules is all fine and good. I don’t follow them all myself. But I think everyone should know what they’re doing when they do it. For example, I can think of several agents who have posted on their blogs that if they didn’t say to send it, don’t send it. I’d hate to follow general advice that got me rebounded because I didn’t know the agent was a stickler. You know?

My opinion is also predicated on the fact that I am extremely, extremely picky about who I want as an agent. If I were sending 100 queries a month to agents, it wouldn’t matter if 75 of them deleted/rejected me because I sent five pages they didn’t want. But I’m not. I’ve never submitted to more than 6 or 8 specific agents, and right now there’s only one I want. So that makes a big difference in how the advice is viewed.

I also disagree quite heartily with the idea that “how you get it to them doesn’t matter.” It would be lovely if “a good story” was all that was necessary to get an agent, and to get published, but there are a lot of other factors involved. The infamous (now clichéd) manuscript-under-the-stall-door is going to work against you, for example, and if you piss them off right away, they’re never going to SEE the story to know how good it is.

I agree with Kathy W. in that if it’s a good story, they’ll want to read it.

Just my two cents.

Marley = )

kathy w.

I do think that houses/agencies that HAVE specific guidelines about what to send (some agencies, for example, want to see proposals straight off) then you should send them exactly what they ask for. But many do not get so specific.

The “sample pages” advice was really meant to be for agent-queries (because, well, think you’re wasting your time sending query letters to agent-only houses at all) but… Blacklisted? Really? One of the editors that told me about this “stick in sample pages” thing was an editor from an agents-only submission house. Like I said, I’ve never done it, but I keep hearing about it with greater and greater frequency as being the way to do it, from all manner of trustworthy sources.

Perhaps we should run a poll? Nobody hsould listen to me “because of the big contract” — they should listen to me because I’m right,a nd if I’m wrong, they should totally call me out and say “show me sample pages that worked.” I know Liz maverick did it, and advocates the method, and a lot of agents say they want to see the writing sample, a few pages, witha query letter. But I think it might be poll time.

Also, I don’t advocate sending 5 pages unless you know the agent or editor is okay with it (i.e. Nancy Yost, I think it is) because, for example, if an agent-only house will accept unagented queries and you stick in five pages? They’ll rubber-band it back with a nice little note telling you that you broke the rules. I suspect that might get you on a blacklist, too, but I could be wrong about that.