So, I am about to enter that stage where I will be sending queries off to agents, etc, etc. I already have the Writer's Market. What other books are must-have? I ask because I know these books are expensive and I want to get a couple essentials.
you don't really need any nowadays, thanks to the internet... i have agent listings i'll be happy to send you if you drop me a line... and www.duotrope.com lists publishers for free... for $3 a month, you can access writer's market online and save the 40 bucks or so it costs in print... though you can probably find used older editions for a buck or two, the updated entries online are worth a month's subscription, even if it's a tad more than 3 bucks now... that said, the pro tips and query samples, etc. are much the same from edition to edition, so a cheapie used one is still a good thing for a beginner to have around... good luck!... love and hugs, maia
There's a lot of free info on the internet, for example for UK/Irish markets there is this for agents: http://writersservices.com/agent I don't know what there is for other markets though.
It should go without saying, but make sure your work IS ready for submission. A final pass (or more than one!) of proofreading is more important now than at any earlier stage. Even if you didn't make use of them earlier, dust off your dictionaries and grammar/punctuation references (Strunk and White is compact but good; The Chicago Manual of Style is great for looking up the stickier points of SPaG, even though it isn't written primarily for fiction writers). Make sure they are right next to you while you are proofing, and force yourself to look up any construct or word you are even slightly unsure of.
I must say that Stephen King's On Writing helped me a lot. Also, that book made King grow on me, I never liked the man before reading that. But now I have a lot of respect for him, both in the things he said and in his little autobiography.
I meant that side of it, too. Like, I just picked up the 'Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Ronni Browne yesterday. I'm in the stage where others are reading my work and waiting for feedback. Tobias Wolff is reading it and once I get his comments, I'm going to start revising for the 'final' draft and I would like to prepare all elements simultaneously. Is there a site that can be a replacement for the grammar books you mentioned? I ask, because the accumulation of books get expensive! Haha, or I could just do my editing at the library.
He's a professor here at Stanford and, on paper at least, my advisor for the english major. I just wanted advice on how to go about seeking publication, but then he offered to read it. So, I'm excited about that. Someone threw out the idea that if he says something good about it, I can quote him in my letters in seeking agents.
great lucky catch!... nothing like being in the right place at the right time... just make sure you have his permission to quote him... here are some sites i use and recommend to writing mentees, to reduce your book load: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/index.html http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_overvw.html http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/tenses.html best of luck with your book!... love and hugs, maia
