tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post8648452032903668814..comments2024-02-16T00:48:56.686-08:00Comments on The Man Who Painted Agnieszka's Shoes: From Pitch to Perpetuationof Privilege: why publishing MUST change its application proceduresAgnieszkas Shoeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-7477893809620153062009-08-14T01:34:19.199-07:002009-08-14T01:34:19.199-07:00:-) cruelty personified! Like those awful lunches ...:-) cruelty personified! Like those awful lunches where you're actually being interviewed so you daren't actually have that third pudding!Agnieszkas Shoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-20011839374743791112009-08-14T00:38:36.505-07:002009-08-14T00:38:36.505-07:00spare chair = teaching assistants enter classrooms...spare chair = teaching assistants enter classrooms to support pupil, look around them for somewhere to sit...is this a spare chair?<br /><br />another interview story - 30 years ago, I wanted to be a speech therapist. Interviewees all sitting together in waiting room, chatting amongst ourselves until ourturn. <br /><br />It became clear during my interview that in fact there was someone in the waiting room taking notes and reporting back to interviewers.Heather Leavershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11330793797439133950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-41756903732214292582009-08-14T00:09:36.059-07:002009-08-14T00:09:36.059-07:00Hi, anonymous. Lovely to meet you, whoever you are...Hi, anonymous. Lovely to meet you, whoever you are. Anecdotes like that sound daft, and are written off as urban legends, but there's more than a little truth. When I told people I was applying for Oxford, I was told all kinds of stories about interview questions (a tutor telling interviewees "surprise me" and so on). It's tempting to disregard the stories, but in my day at least, that wasn't so far from the truth.<br /><br />Very best with the mystery - I wrote a thriller a couple of years ago. My impression is it would be very hard to market because I wouldn't know where to start (it's much easier with niche books), but I think the best piece of advice would be to find the places people who read that type of book like to hang out and hang out with them there.<br /><br />NK, that's a rather super title - it ALMOST sounds like one of those daft business jargon things - like Who Moved My Cheese or Six Thinking Hats. I often think the people who come up with those titles ought to write slightly whacky fiction, but I guess jargonese pays better.Agnieszkas Shoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-14189886126077362762009-08-13T23:53:19.332-07:002009-08-13T23:53:19.332-07:00LOL - there's an excellent blog for teaching a...LOL - there's an excellent blog for teaching assistants called (if I remember rightly) "the spare chair".<br /><br />So much in life comes down to chance!Heather Leavershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11330793797439133950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-79420293484663451772009-08-12T10:24:30.575-07:002009-08-12T10:24:30.575-07:00Excellent blog. I couldn’t agree more.
Years ago...Excellent blog. I couldn’t agree more.<br /><br />Years ago, a doctor coached me, preparing me for the final, stressful step of getting into medical school—the interviews. He told a story of a candidate entering an office and being asked to take a seat, any one of the three chairs set before the magistrate’s desk. The candidate settled into the nearest chair and immediately received a disapproving scowl with a quick invitation to leave. In confusion, the candidate asked for an explanation.<br /><br />“Wrong chair,” was the simple response.<br /><br />The anecdotal story illustrated how arbitrary the selection could be. I got into the medical school of my choice, and I attribute much of my acceptance to being lucky enough to fall into the right chair. My best interview was all about football. The interviewer was a big football fan, and the university’s star quarterback (Scott Mitchell) was from my home town. So that’s what we talked about.<br /><br />I wrote a murder mystery several years ago. Upon completing the draft version, I began studying the submission process. Multiple synopses and draft query letters all seemed to fall flat. They were never submitted. The odds of being published and promoted seemed overwhelming, even impossible, as if I would have to be lucky enough to fall into the right chair out of thousands.<br /><br />I haven’t given up hope for publishing my story, but gave up hope on the publishing industry long ago. I have a sister-in-law that works as senior editor for a small-time publisher. They have published two of her books. But after seeing the scanty returns on her emotional and time-consuming investments, I’ve refused to submit my manuscript to her company. I’d rather self-publish and make my book available on-line for free.<br /><br />The big-house publishers will adapt or die—just like the newspaper and magazine companies. Paper and ink are disappearing.<br /><br />High-quality magazines arrive at my home, completely unsolicited and absolutely free. After a period of time, as long as a year or two, such magazines include a notice that this will be my last issue unless I subscribe.<br /><br />But I don’t subscribe. Too many online choices. Information instantly available, completely customized to whatever momentary whim I may have. And today, I happened upon this blog—first time ever—and I wasn’t even looking for author/publishing information. I fell into this chair simply by screening and following multiple links of interest.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-88199274680125589002009-08-09T09:13:09.837-07:002009-08-09T09:13:09.837-07:00Exactly.
My main memory of teaching interviews wa...Exactly.<br /><br />My main memory of teaching interviews was being told I had to take a GCSE class on "worship", and trying, amongst other things, to get people to listen to Taize on a walkman. The person who actually got the job gave a class on David Beckham. How could I cmpete with that?!Agnieszkas Shoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-64428504696267989162009-08-09T04:02:52.139-07:002009-08-09T04:02:52.139-07:00I'd certainly never heard about the "quer...I'd certainly never heard about the "query" system, but it reminds me of my teaching interviews. As a teacher, my most important "tool" is my relationship with the children I teach. Yet to get a teaching post, I have to teach a bunch of kids I've never met and achieve brilliant results in half an hour.<br />One more reason why I left teaching.<br /><br />I wonder if unknown writers (whether they can spell correctly or not) even know there is an "approved manner" of querying? Blogs being free to the reader means they're not much of a livelihood to the writer of course!Heather Leavershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11330793797439133950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-62179414413736035982009-08-08T15:23:38.233-07:002009-08-08T15:23:38.233-07:00Hi, dijeratic. I'll tweet you the link as well...Hi, dijeratic. I'll tweet you the link as well, but you must take a look at jay Adler's amazing www.sadredearth.com<br /><br />I blogged about just the problem you are alluding to a couple of posts ago - there is a grave danger that global internet access will create a cultural exploitation that sees many stories die or change beyond recognition before they are documented - I don't think I went too far when I likened it to a potential repeat of the colonial cultural pillage of a few centuries back. Whcih is why groupd like teh endangered languages fund are so important - the internet is a great tool for cultural good, but we need to think about what happens and how before it's too late.<br /><br />Osiander, I agree on access to means of production - also that this is not publishing's problem - but access to the internet is moving very fast - and at that point, from an economic standpoint, it may BECOME publishing's problem.<br /><br />On you other points, I think we see literature, and its place in the world, differently at a fundamental level, and will just have to disagree amicably.Agnieszkas Shoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-62922208818698583992009-08-08T14:40:52.327-07:002009-08-08T14:40:52.327-07:00There are a couple of things tangled up here, I th...There are a couple of things tangled up here, I think. If you are talking about giving people who have a story to tell a chance to tell it, well that process is going on and is alive, well and vibrant. Producers, documentary makers and many others are always on the lookout for good stories.<br /><br />If what you want is a way for a slum dweller or disadvantaged homeless person to have access to publishing, that's a different thing altogether. Such a person has far more problems than a query letter - first of all is access to the means of production (a computer, or pen and paper, and somewhere non-chaotic and non-violent to work) and that is not a publishing problem.<br /><br />To be honest, if you're talking about 'stories' then someone who is disenfranchised has a better chance of telling their story to a third party - someone with a camera or a notebook, who can take the raw material and turn it into something else. In which case it is the person with the notebook who has become 'the author'. <br /><br />If you are talking about someone wanting a means of literary self expression, then there is no way about it - they must be able to competently write and shape a narrative and do it with correct punctuation, spelling and so on. At a minimum. And if they can do that, they can write a query letter.Osiandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-72586579458797478822009-08-08T14:37:13.699-07:002009-08-08T14:37:13.699-07:00Hi Paul. Lovely to see you.
Talking of poetry, i...Hi Paul. Lovely to see you. <br /><br />Talking of poetry, it's the 2009 National Poetry Slam in the US this week. I've been rather tickled pink that about 50 American slam poets have piled in and joined the Free-e-day Facebook group. I'm rather hoping we will get to have some live performances on the day. I don't know if you fancy reading something? We have lots of things going on in the UK and US, but lacking in Aus at the momentAgnieszkas Shoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-78646507504227357212009-08-08T14:31:46.783-07:002009-08-08T14:31:46.783-07:00I hope I'm reading your ideas correctly, its c...I hope I'm reading your ideas correctly, its complex but I'm simplifying this way - any system (workable or not) is created in order to facilitate the work that needs to be done. A publishing company is set up in a certain way so that it makes money - end of story. A query letter is nothing but an introduction to an agent who is out to find works that will make money. End of story. <br /><br />Unfortunately, we live in a world of the haves and have-nots, where the winners decide what is written in the history books and who is remembered. There is nothing fair about any of it, but there is something practical: if your goal is to be published, then you must follow a certain system to get there. If you do not agree with this system, you are, at least, free to develop your own. <br /><br />Is the publishing industry eating itself alive and losing possible revenue by not exploring all of the possibilities over whom it could publish? Of course it is. Publishing houses are behemoths that could topple at any moment - what keeps them going is the fear that in losing them, we lose another tradition and once more the world becomes unsettled and unnerved and on its way to hell. This need not be the case, of course, but that is the perception (jobs lost, income lost, etc). <br /><br />Fortunately, technology is narrowing this gap over what is published (outside of free content, ie: blogs) - and how we obtain access to it. Perhaps if we start with literary agencies (and I'd love to hear from one on this topic) - but I'm unsure they could run any differently than they are now (on the query system). Given infinite number of resources, certainly, but, as almost any hard-working agent will tell you, they are simply not paid enough, nor have the time, to look at every little thing that comes through the door. <br /><br />So what will the publishing companies of the future look like? I think with the emergence of e-publishing and print-on-demand, we are seeing the greatest glimpse. I hope it does not mean an end of 'books' as we have known them - but the possibility that a, for example, unemployed fisherman from Sitka, Alaska, who has hundreds of stories to tell from his fishing days and wants to see them in book-form, could, potentially find online access and, through e-publishing or blogging, share those stories with the world. Blogging is, after all, the closest thing we have to the self-publishing model, even if it is not in print form. It is simply free - something publishing companies cannot bend to. This is a capitalist society, after all - whether anyone likes it or not (I don't). <br /><br />As long as expense is involved in the creation of a piece of work, there will be limits as to whose work is published. It isn't fair - but we can continue to diminish its power by expanding technology to where it has never been (if that is a moral thing to do) and 'spread the word' as it were wherever and whenever we can. It is possible to get around the system (ie: bloggers whose blogs have become printed books or films like Julie and Julia without the benefit of going through an agent first), but you must have to want to get around the system. <br /><br />I am convinced that our technology - which allows for greater access, independence and, most importantly, archiving of material - will continue to show up the publishing world (it already has) and, at some critical point (soon, I'm sure), a new model will be developed that may help facilitate an introduction to a broader range of authors. <br /><br />In the meantime, I would encourage anyone with the resources and the ability, to go out there and find the stories that are waiting to be told. Document, archive, take a deeper look where no one else does. We are moving so fast I'm worried that we are not stopping long enough to take a look at and preserve what is already there, what is being left behind (culturally and otherwise). If it isn't online, its probably being ignored.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-49100093318108034772009-08-08T14:21:00.503-07:002009-08-08T14:21:00.503-07:00"Poetry has become nothing more than a class ..."Poetry has become nothing more than a class adornment" Phil Hall. Great work, keep getting the message out.gingataohttp://gingatao.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-12691177041518182902009-08-08T13:10:12.305-07:002009-08-08T13:10:12.305-07:00Absolutely it is too big a topic to pin on the que...Absolutely it is too big a topic to pin on the query letter (I hope I made it clear this is one of many issues, as well as the huge question of the way we approach culture as a subject - on the other hand, this is a blog rather than a book, with all the time and space restraints that entails). <br /><br />The point is I don't know what the alternative is for the publishing industry (as an "outsider" I don't, either, have a vested interest in finding it). I DO know what some of the alternatives will be for people wanting to put their story out - and they often involve bypassing books altogether (and ALWAYS involve bypassing "publishers") - so I think publishing SHOULD be looking.<br /><br />"articulate and intelligent enough to put a publishable manuscript together, is more than capable of doing the research to find out how to put a query letter together"<br /><br />I am sure you can anticipate my response :-) I am quite at a loss as to how someone living in the shanties of Quito who has a story they long to share, and a wonderful way of expressing their experience and worldview through words so that it connects with people in the slums of Mumbai would ever have HEARD of a query letter. Or someone who's been sleeping rough in london for 15 years - how are they supposed to "research how to put a synopsisi together"? And why should they? And, movig to a slightly different category - people on benefits in a housing project who want to know there are people going through the things they are, and coming out the other side. How are these people, who will increasingly - especially with cheap e-books - be able to purchase fiction - for whom every second of every day is a struggle, supposed to teach themselves to convey confidence and professionalism to someone from a different world? And what relevance is that to their readers who want to hear stories told by people like them?<br /><br />The problenm is that "a publishable manuscript" is, actually, one that can be sold commercially. Give that more and more previously silent people are becoming cultural consumers adn producers, "publishable manuscript" in 5 years' time will, by this definition, have nothing to do, in many cases, with being able to do with passing a test that is irrelevant to the subject supposedly being examined.<br /><br />Again, I don't have the answers for publishers, but am extraordinated that publishers don't think there are questions. <br /><br /><br />And I really ought to have plugged this amazing projcet earlier:<br />http://www.abctales.com/Agnieszkas Shoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-86242510671582884502009-08-08T12:07:30.320-07:002009-08-08T12:07:30.320-07:00there really is no getting around this problem. An...there really is no getting around this problem. Anyone, almost by definition, who is articulate and intelligent enough to put a publishable manuscript together, is more than capable of doing the research to find out how to put a query letter together. You don't really need to follow queryshark obsessively to get the drift.<br /><br />So first of all I would question the assumption that there is this tremendous talent out there that is being blocked because of this single letter.<br /><br />The really important part of the query letter, truth be told, is how much confidence and professionalism it exudes. That's a very hard thing to teach - it comes from actually having relevant experience and publishing credits.<br /><br />Query letters are a bit dumb, IMHO, but they are not an insurmountable obstacle to publication.<br /><br />The issue of exclusion etc is a very big topic - too big to pin on something as trivial as the query letter. And, also, what's the alternative? What is the actual alternative to having to read 50 or more query letters a day?Osiandernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-241885262794200192009-08-08T11:41:38.296-07:002009-08-08T11:41:38.296-07:00Long time, no see, Osiander. What a pleasure :-)
...Long time, no see, Osiander. What a pleasure :-)<br /><br />Of course publishers must have a culling process - what I'm saying comes from two angles - 1. I think there's a moral/social problem that you can get a "leg up" by being coached - query letters are something we can learn to do better, can be taught to do better. If we have no way of knowing that bokos are made by a process that starts with a query letter, how do we possibly compete with people who spend their lives stalking QueryShark? We don't. We just say "I'm not the sort of person who writes books" - and everyonw loses out. <br /><br />2. The publishers are the ones who are going to lose, because people will find other ways to get their stories out there, and they'll find other media to spend their money on<br /><br />Publishing really has to address this - there is a whole new generation of cultural consumer, and publishing has to find a way of getting a slice of the pie - but to do that it has to have stories written by people like the consumer - and to do that it needs a culling process other than the query letter.<br /><br />I've no idea what the answer is. I'm just saying I find it ALARMING that I haven't really come across the question before. <br /><br />So like I say - I'm not saying agents nad publishers have to read the whole caboodle. But they have to find some way of getting to that talent - or "the market" will do it for them - at their expense.<br /><br />And on the subject of teh Olympics - I have a feeling you might be talking about "competition" - which is what I want to promote, not quell - I want the BEST storytellers to get their books published - not those who know what a synopsis is. If, however, you're making a point about privilege, I agree - sport favours those whose parents have the money and inclination to suppotr their training and buy equipment. And that sucks just as much.Agnieszkas Shoeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07831763071877082489noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8020036606005757534.post-34917304104179088662009-08-08T11:12:50.580-07:002009-08-08T11:12:50.580-07:00Your complaint about query letters reminds me of c...Your complaint about query letters reminds me of complaints about theatre/movie auditions: how can you possibly judge an actor based on less than two minutes of them doing a rehearsed speech, that may or may not be like the thing you are currently casting? It's patently unfair - except the only alternative is to cast someone you know. <br /><br />When you are dealing with thousands and thousands of hopefuls, you must have some culling process.<br /><br />The Olympics aren't fair either.Osiandernoreply@blogger.com