David Weller Author Blogspot

The problem with an author editing their own work is that they become blind to the errors it contains. In a previous post, I detailed some of the strategies I use to overcome this. However, not only does an author become blind to the errors in their work, but they also become deaf to it as well. I didn't really appreciate this until I started using the Read Aloud function on Word to check my writing. It was unbelievable just how many misplaced or missing commas I found. Listening to someone else's voice also enabled me to tighten up some of the sentence construction. The Read Aloud function really has been an asset, and I wish I'd discovered it sooner.

 I recently came across a tweet from an acquisitions editor, who complained about authors who accept an offer of publication or literary representation, but don't inform the other editors/agents they queried. I might have had some sympathy for this particular individual if I hadn't dealt with her personally. She solicited a five page sample from me during a PitMad event. I waited patiently for more than three months for a reply. I gave a polite nudge and waited several more weeks for a response. When I heard nothing, I emailed her and withdrew my interest. That got a response within an hour. An author who had read this editors post responded with " You snooze - you lose." I couldn't have put it better myself. I think the point of this post is to illustrate that courtesy should flow both ways. If an agent or editor operates a no response equals no interest policy,  or keeps an author waiting for an unreasonable amount of time, then they shouldn't expect to be i...

 Litopia is the Net's oldest writers' colony. Run by writers for writers, it is a place where you can hone your writing skills and take them to the next level. Every Sunday,  submissions by five aspiring authors are showcased, live on air, and commented on.  There are links to these broadcasts at Litopia.com. Alternatively, type in Pop-Up Submissions on youtube into the search engine and you will find a link there too. That is all I'm going to say about Litopia. Half the fun of discovering what they can offer is to check them out for yourself.

Once upon a time literary agents didn't exist, and authors submitted their work directly to publishers who'd wade through piles of manuscripts searching for the next best seller. When the first  literary agents made their appearance they were regarded with suspicion, and authors were advised to steer well clear of them. However, publishers soon began to see the value of using agents to sort through their slush piles as it freed up their own time to attend to more important matters. As the years rolled by the power and influence of agents increased, and they began to exert a strangle hold on unpublished authors ambitions to secure a traditional publishing deal. Indeed, even today, most large publishers still refuse to accept unsolicited submissions from first-time authors. Mind you, publishers also ended up at the mercy of agents who demanded increasingly higher advances for their authors work.  Getting an agent to represent you has becoming increasingly difficult. The adva...

SECRET OF HEATHCOTE MANOR was the winner of Litopia's Pop-Up Submissions programme, broadcast to a world-wide audience, on 13th October 2019. Due to other considerations it has languished in my bottom drawer for a while now.  Just recently, it has been screaming to go out on submission, so I've decided to devote some time to preparing it for the big, bad publishing world. To listen to an extract, go to my twitter page @DavidWeller06 and click on the pinned tweet.

First two agent queries sent out his year both resulted in a request for more pages. Things really are looking up.