Season's Greetings

Christmas is looming. This means:

The family are all home all day every day so no time to myself.

The housework, long dismissed as irrelevant while I tap at my keyboard, refuses to be ignored any longer.

My elderly relations will need to be fed and watered.

So, blogging will sadly have to drop down my priority list. I wish you all a very nice holiday and may all your dreams come true in 2009. I'll see you when I get the chance.

If you're interested in my friend Edie Tor's plans for Christmas please see them here. And feel free to leave any comments - I'm having trouble convincing her that anyone is reading.

http://edietor.blogspot.com/

YouWriteOn (Again)

The YouWriteOn POD debacle shows no sign of cooling off, with some individuals making some pretty extreme and probably libelous accusations against the site and its founder, Ted, on the various message boards I visit. I don't want to add to it, there's enough hot air being expended already. But I will say this.

YWO was my first taste of an internet writers' site, and my experience of it was good on the whole. When I joined it had no forum to speak of so there was no "networking". The system seemed beautifully simple: post your work for review, and review other people's work. The positive feedback I got gave me the confidence to go on with my writing, and for that I am grateful to some lovely, well-meaning people.

The POD offer is free and no one is being forced to do it. In some cases, years of frustration and rejection have left people with no alternative. It's a free country (mostly) and they are free to choose that option. If it gives them the opportunity to see their work in print then good luck to them.

Introducing Edie Tor

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce...Edie Tor.
My good friend, confidante and editor par excellence. Hopefully her useful insights will help us all view the publishing business with less innocent eyes.

Visit Edie on her own blog "Edie Tor Talks Turkey".

http://edietor.blogspot.com/

editsRus

I'm thinking of launching another blog. This one will star my alter ego, the editor from hell, Edie Tor. You know how all authors are really a split personality; the tender sensitive creative writer and the hard-as-nails bitch who edits the hell out of everything. Well Edie is my other half.

Watch this space.

Not right for our list

Finally heard from the agency who requested my full two months ago. While they enjoyed reading it they didn't think it was right for their list. No feedback other than that, so I've emailed to ask.

Oh well. It's disappointing of course, but I don't feel too bad on the whole. I'd more or less convinced myself this would be the outcome. So it's back to subbing and waiting.

YouWriteOff

You may recall I mentioned the YouWriteOn free POD offer in an earlier post.
By all accounts, with the promised Christmas deadline looming, it has not gone swimmingly, with huge delays and many books listed on Amazon with mistakes on the covers. It's caused a lot of worry and distress, lots of bad publicity for the site and much frantic posting on writers' boards. I have to say it doesn't surprise me. The aim of publishing 5000 books in a few weeks always looked like wishful thinking.

But I really feel for the people who put their faith in YWO and have been let down, so I won't be joining in with the I-told-you-so gloating that some are indulging in. Nor will I be joining in with the condemnation of YWO which I believe provides writers with a useful free peer-review service. The whole thing just makes me sad.

Email from Agency

Someone give me a valium.

Just got an email from the agency I sent my full manuscript to seven weeks ago. They apologise for the delay and say it is currently being considered. She promises to get back to me as soon as possible.

There goes my concentration.