Correcting the lower orders

To correct the many misapprehensions that users of the second-worst blog platform seem to manifest:

• Meghano, kiddo, what I have are well written, beautifully-typeset, and illustrated proposals, which are always well received by people who have read them. The books just have not fit the publishers’ specific lists. While disappointing, it isn’t unexpected news and, when dispassionately delivered, is no problem for me.

  As I have been published for 20 years, I am not just airlifting entire manuscripts into agents’ offices; I pre-query. Hence in fact there were no unsolicited submissions at all. You have this quite incorrect, and could have clarified it had you bothered to ask.

  Additionally, none of the books I’m working on is a novel, let alone one I’ve been “working on for 15 years.” (Hence, Ambrosia/Lamebot, I am not attempting to “get a literary-fiction book deal.” Fek, take note.)

  So not a lot of accuracy there, Meghano. In fact, none.

• Who exactly is Josh Olson?

• Actually, Turbine, I am quite a competent writer. Check my reviews. Your opinion is noted, though. Also, there were no “perceived slights”; I am merely reporting what happened. There is no book on a slush pile, as I have already explained. Unsolicited submission of an entire manuscript is unwise. I’ve never done it and don’t intend to start.

• Fek will by now be aware that I have made no unsolicited submissions. And actually, Fek could have verified that before “reblogging.” To again explain what is obvious to all professional writers, one queries an editor or agent to determine if a book is in their general subject area, then, if the answer is yes, asks if they’d like to read a proposal. Then one submits a proposal. One does not submit a manuscript and one does not do anything without solicitation.

  So we can add Fek to the list of people who have gotten this quite wrong – through inexperience and because they didn’t bother fact-checking with me beforehand.

  And finally, while I am quite capable of being cantankerous, I’m not being that way here. Not even now, when there’s ample reason.

• And again, Lindsay Robertson Liz Spiers, no, nothing “unsolicited” is being sent, including “pitches.” You could have verified this but didn’t.

  When an experienced writer pre-pitches an editor on a project, the editor has an obligation to respond and respond nicely.

  If they asked Joe to pitch them, yes.

  They did. Well spotted, Lindsay Liz; your writing experience has stood you well there. Your comparisons with publicists are inapplicable, though.

• Bibliothèque, would you like to read one of my proposals? (Confidentially, of course?) You can read both of my previous books online, or buy a print version of the first one for next to nothing. Hence you could put your thesis to the test.

• Katie Bakes seems to like the idea, though. Doesn’t that help? I think it does. And Skybarn was quite amusing.

There seems to be an assumption that I am a beginner at this industry while people who run Tumblrs are the experts. Somebody has that backwards.