“I began writing 'Matterhorn' in 1975 and for more than 30 years I kept working on my novel in my spare time, unable to get an agent or publisher to even read the manuscript.” WritingYearsNovelAgentsSparesPublishersManuscriptsSpare TimeMatterhorn Author:Karl Marlantes
“If Edgar Allan Poe were alive today, his agent would be constantly slapping him upside the head with tightly rolled copies of his brilliant short stories and novelettes, yelling, 'Full-length novels, you moron! Pay attention! What's the matter with you -- are you shooting heroin or something? Write for the market! No more of this midlength 'Fall of the House of Usher' crap” IfsWritingMatterStoriesWould BeTodayFallHousePayAttentionNovelAliveBrilliantAgentsPay AttentionShootingLengthCopiesShort StoryCrapYellingHeroinLive For TodayMoronSlappingAllan Poe Author:Dean Koontz
“Over a four-month period, I sat down and wrote every day. And then there was a novel, and all of a sudden, there were agents and offers.” NovelFourMonthsPeriodsOffersDown AndAgentsSat Author:Melissa Marr
“A year after I'd graduated college, I went to a weeklong conference intensive in Boston, and that's when things kicked into high gear. My workshop leader was a Harvard professor and editor. At the end of the week we met one-on-one over breakfast, and she said, in essence, "Look, you're ready to turn pro." She gave me a list of literary agents to query once I had something to show them. I came home and wrote my first real novel, and the agent that sold it to Tor Books was on that list.” YearsFirstsLooksSaidBookRealEndsShowsHomeTurnsLeaderNovelWeekCollegeReadyMetsEssenceListsAgentsBreakfastEditorsProfessorsConferencesBostonHarvardGearsWorkshopsOne On OneQueriesLiterary Agents Author:Brian Hodge
“You need to learn to write on demand, and to get critiqued without flinching. When someone can rip your work to shreds without it feeling as though your arm has been hacked off, you're ready to send your novel off to an agent.” NeedsWritingHas BeensFeelingsNovelReadyArmsDemandAgentsRipHacked Author:Jodi Picoult
“I had a novel in the back of my mind when I won an Ian St James story competition in 1993. At the award ceremony an agent asked me if I was writing a novel. I showed her four or five chapters of what would become 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' and to my surprise she auctioned them off.” IfsWritingMindStoriesBehindsNovelFiveFourSceneCompetitionSurpriseAgentsAwardsMuseumsChaptersCeremonyOf My MindBehind The ScenesAward Ceremonies Author:Kate Atkinson
“All my writing-life people kept telling me that I should stop writing short stories and start writing novels: my agent, my Israeli publisher, my foreign ones, my bank manager - they all felt and keep feeling that I'm doing something wrong here.” PeopleShouldWritingStoriesFeelingsFeltNovelAgentsManagersShort StoryPublishersWriting LifeIsraeliWriting ShortWriting Short Stories Author:Etgar Keret
“Going from memoir to fiction was fantastic. I had been afraid to move away from memoir; I'd written some novel drafts, but they weren't well received by my agent at the time, and it had been drilled into me that "memoir outsells fiction two to one" (not sure if that's true anymore, or if it ever was), so I felt like the only smart thing to do, professionally, was to keep mining my life for painful moments to recapitulate.” IfsWellsTwoMomentsMovingFeltFictionNovelWrittenSmartPainfulMemoirAgentsFantasticThings To DoNot SureMiningPainful Moments Author:Janice Erlbaum