Agent 99 read my novel's second revision under her care and had this to say:"I think this is much, much cleaner in the second half. My one (tiny) remaining comment is that [very small logistical fix about the placement of a character during a specific scene]. Also, maybe the importance of [one character's search] can be more apparent in the first third of the book? I also think [a scene idea I had about revealing a specific character's inner drive] early on would be nice- [then some specific advice about where to place the new scene]. Lovely work, sorry to send you back to the grindstone! You're so close now." I've already made these changes and had been working on the additional scene already, so I'm going to send it back for a final read today! It's amazing when revisions click and everything falls into place. If you don't think about the 13 previous years of toil and torture, it's like magic. Have a good weekend everybody.
6 comments:
This is great!!! However, I do wonder why some agents insist on getting some pretty picayune details into place -- it's not as if, say, that character's position in one scene is going to make or break the sale (unless, maybe, it's the first scene). The editor's just going to go over it with editorial changes, anyway. Doesn't it drive them nuts to read the same book over and over again with minor changes -- doesn't it get confusing?
I guess what I'm thinking is, hey, Agent 99, SELL the book already!! :)
You have a high opinion of editors editing in the modern age!
I'm pleased as punch she's invested enough to figure out that a character who has a major thing happen in one scene had never technically exited the previous scene, making things a bit confused.
Her opinion is that with literary fiction, the closer to perfection the manuscript is, the more likely it is to sell. I have to say I'm down with that.
This is going to work out great. And Rejection Queen is going to be next...
Congrats, WR! This is fantastic progress. Very happy for you!
You know what?
This is going to work out.
Yeah, I know they say that editors don't edit anymore, but all the books whose births I've witnessed have gone through considerable changes post-acceptance. (Plus I had a terrible experience editing frantically for an agent who never got around to sending the book out. Never again!)
This sounds fantastic, though -- keep us updated (as if you wouldn't!)!
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