Lezlie, congrats on your accomplishment!  That's a lot of hours spent in 
the classroom and on scholarly pursuits, indeed.

Quinn, let me know when that booklet is out there and available.  I must've 
done something funny, because the link didn't work for me today.

And now for the totally surprising market news (ha):  I heard from the 
agent again yesterday.  (Okay, let's not be coy--it's the patient and 
blessed Andrea Somberg at the Donald Maass agency.)  She read that second 
mystery of mine--for those who know, the Jacquidon tale in third person, 
after seeing the first-person Ari tale and deciding it needed more 
suspense--and says that she read it all the way through before realizing 
that it was way too long for a category cozy mystery.  It's (ahem) 150,000 
words, and I thought nothing of that, because I personally counted the 
words in a couple of mystery novels I had on the shelf (eep) and they were 
up there in that range.*  But she says that it would be impossible to 
market a newcomer's cozy at more than, say, 85,000 to 100,000 at the 
most.  She suggested I could reduce the book in size and try again.

*(I hadn't realized.  I personally counted 410 words on one page and 402 on 
the next page of the hardcover of Davidson's _Chopping Spree_, a novel that 
could have used some tightening itself; it has 300 pages, which (assuming 
400 wds/pg) comes out to 120K words. And it's not one of her longer 
efforts.)  I should've, but all the market lists now just say, "Get an 
agent," rather than telling word count.)

However, since she's been corresponding with me a bit more than the average 
agent (who basically slams the door and doesn't even let me pull my tail 
out, a la A Christmas Story and the dogs next door), I decided to e-mail 
back.  (I am told that the simple fact that we're talking by e-mail means 
that she thinks I'm a live one, because most of the time you just get a 
form letter in the mail.)  I asked her whether perhaps taking out the 
entire romantic subplot with Fred (the employment counselor who helps 
peripherally in solving the murder in the book) would make the book 
salable; that would take out about one-third of the book, if I removed all 
references and tightened out that whole "job-seeking" aspect of the book, 
and would bring it down to, say, 100K or a bit less.  I knew that would be 
a chore and it would be bad artistically for the book, but I wanted to do 
it if it would make the book salable, in her opinion.

She wrote back later that day and said that unfortunately, no, that wasn't 
going to do it.  She liked the Fred subplot and thought it added greatly 
tot he book.  What she had in mind was me going through just about every 
paragraph and deleting half of it (basically, half, because 80,000 is about 
half of 150,000!).  She thought the voice would still be there after this 
operation.  Yet she said that it *would* be a lotta work and wouldn't 
guarantee the novel would be salable or sell.  So she thought that if I had 
another book in mind, I should move on and she'd like to see whatever else 
I came up with.

(Ha.  Little does she know.  I have so many of these.)

Sure, this isn't the first time I've heard this advice.  In fact, as some 
of you may recall, it's almost identical to the main advice that the 
sainted Will Shetterly gave me after looking at _Dulcinea_ for a small 
honorarium (it really wasn't enough, I now realize, because the going rate 
for pubbed authors to give you an evaluation is now in the $400 range or 
higher.)  Will said that although the book flowed well and so forth, that 
YA fantasy should come in around 80K, and that Emma (Emma Bull, his wife) 
had to cut every other word in one of her books to get it ready for the 
editor she had written it for.  He thought Dulcinea's voice could survive 
that.  He also said that I might not want to mess with the book and it 
would be less work to just write another.  he stared out by saying, 
"Breathe.,  You can do this."  So he's on my "bless
you" list along with 
the others who've said nice things over the years, including Peter Stampfel 
at DAW and the ever-blessed Harlan Ellison.  At ANY rate, though, it's 
apparently the same kind of "problem."

I place the word in quotation marks because I firmly believe that if I'd 
been born sooner and was submitting these books in the early 1960s or even 
1970s, before the MTV generation came of age and got into control, 
demanding ever-quicker paces, I would have been able to sell these books at 
the longer lengths.  marketing concerns were different then.  However, when 
I find a time machine, even if I can get the manuscripts to travel with me, 
I have more important issues I have to take care of back there before 
thinking about mailing out books.    And you have to bloom where 
you're planted, which means playing by the rules until you're a brand name 
and can do whatever.

So I replied by saying that I didn't want to spin my wheels working on one 
book all my life, and that I already had a paranormal/fantasy in progress 
that's targeted at Tor's new line headed up by Anna Genoese *or* (failing 
Tor) at the new Harlequin Luna fantasy romance paranormal thingie.  I 
offered to send the first fifty pages of that by file-attachment.  That 
one, I told her honestly, is aiming to come in at about 75K words as its 
natural length, w/o serious deletion or modification.  (This is the one 
about Camille, the character who popped into Devon's story by Rebecca and 
didn't really belong there at all, but has her own tale to tell.)  Ms. 
Somberg agreed to let me send it.

So that's where it stands.  I don't know whether to say, "Wish me
luck," or 
not, because it might be like breaking a leg in the theater (we don't wish 
luck to actors, because it does the opposite), and also I always get all 
excited and hepped up and then it all pans out to nothing, do you hear, 
nothing.  However, there's some potential in this one, I know.

I thought that was better than the usual batting average I have with 
agents.  I truly believe that I'll come up with SOMETHING eventually 
that'll sell.

ANYway, I've run out of space for the quotation.  Next rock.

Shal
- - -
The only thing that flies faster than an F-16 is your guardian angel
- - - -
Nine out of ten doctors recommend reading my books.  The tenth is a quack.
Shalanna Collins   http://home.attbi.com/~shalanna/>
_Dulcinea: or Wizardry A-Flute_  (e-mail me 4 excerpt)  ISBN 0-7388-5388-7
New!  I'm trying out a blog/jrnl http://www.livejournal.com/users/shalanna/>

--- Rachel's Little NET2FIDO Gate v 0.9.9.8 Alpha