Black Rose Writing features many writing services, let us do your editing and rewriting, write your query letters or proposals, initialize contacts, or even simply just offer our consultation on any writing platform.
A very fair question: Have you ever been commercially published? I have. Many times. I'm still stinky at writing queries and leave the contracts to my agent who has more experience at that sort of thing.
What the heck does "consultation on any writing platform" mean? The sign of good writing to me is being able to clearly communicate an idea to another party. "Writing platform" just gives me a mental picture of off-shore oil rigs. I've tried to shake it, but without success.
Pop quiz for new agents: What is joint-accounting, and is it a good thing for a writer to have in a multi-book contract? What about for a publisher offering the contract?
Who are the acquistions editors for St. Martin's? Random House? Harlequin? Ellora's Cave?? My agent knows, I sure don't.
A couple years back a neo in one of my workshops was giddily enthused about her book about writing. She and her (also neo) pals had written a lengthy non-fiction effort on how to be a writer, how to write, even what food is good to chow down on while writing, and other stuff. She'd located a printer. They even remembered to use the spell check. It was going to be a hit with struggling writers everywhere.
Just one catch: not one of them had published so much as an editorial in the school paper, let alone sold anything to a commercial house. I was astonished they thought they could teach anyone anything about writing, and at the time "blind leading the even more blind" flitted through my brain.
But they weren't going to let a little detail like
that stop them!
I was told not to rain on their parade. It would have been cruel.
They sold a couple copies at a convention, lost money on the deal, and ten years later the one who headed the project is STILL not professionally published. Apparently she was unable to follow her own writing advice in the book.
So, yeah. We beez skeptics.
Jim Baen of Baen Publishing got his start in the complaints department of Ace.
Lester Del Rey sold short stories, flipped a lot of burgers, and later took a job as a reader at the Scott Meredith literary agency.