A discord group for writers of all skill levels to find community and help each other grow 🌿
We are open to all writers over the age of 18. The only requirements for the group are that each member must participate by contributing at least one submission per month, and participating in one workshop or critique per month.
There are also a number of regular optional group events including readings, group prompts, casual voice chats, and more. These are encouraged (they are fun!) but not required.
Please feel free to join us: https://discord.gg/FveUkB9
One of the biggest questions I receive from authors today: Should I traditionally publish or self-publish? In response, I've been sharing this chart on key publishing paths since 2013. Here is the latest iteration.
Masking. The idea of wearing masks is as old as a human being can imagine. It is proved that the earliest use of them was for ceremonies, rituals and entertainment about 7000BC. Nowadays, the masks are the part of the culture known to everyone as ,,Halloween". Children, youngsters and even adults wear masks so as to hide their own identity to have fun, kill spare time and the most important - to be someone else.
Even after thousands of years, people are still wearing masks but not ones used for celebration. Emotional mask, the mask we hide behind lest experience fear, unpleasantness and pain. The reason why people wear such masks is that they are afraid of unveilng their true selves. Who does not want to be respected, admired, liked and loved? We put these masks on in order to create the perfect picture of ourselves in somebody's eyes. Therefore, we create them so as not to be rejected by love, friends and colleagues. There was my friend, whose name is not relevant here. He was always trying to impress everyone around, even people who admired him already. He was changing his self every time he talked to another person. He used to put different masks on his face, starting with funny and ending with the empathic one. Having observed him for a while, I did not recognise the same person I had met a long time ago.
Behind the masks, we've created illusions as if we ever cared, as if we loved, as if we ever wanted. But why? There is no simple answer. Desire might be one of the possibilities. We can change our behaviour, language and even mind to get what we want. While we meet a new person, we are constatantly focused on positive traits, freatures and pluses forgetting about minuses. However how intelligent our date is, how smart and bright... We can always create one of those masks to have the ideal, perfect and flawless image that will cover our true self behind them.
Never should we pretend to have the same values. Never should we pretend to be someone else when getting along. Never should we lie. Never should you tell anybody you love them after three days of knowing each other.
Take the mask off as soon as you can. The sooner you do it, the better for you. It's exhausting to live an inauthentic life. You put on one mask, them put it off, later you put other two at the same time. Tiring... You forget who you are, have been, were.
There is such a thing as a bad literary agent — just like there is such a thing as a good one. It’s also possible — good or bad — the agent is just wrong for you.
The truth is, to become a literary agent all someone has to do is get a website and say — hey, I’m a literary agent! No one is gatekeeping the term or the job. So, yep, there are bad agents out there (also schamagents) and I want to help you avoid falling into their traps.
WARNING SIGN 1: THEY CAME OUT OF NOWHERE
Make sure to double check their website for their credentials (triple check, even). Where did they come from? And most important, do they have specifics? What you want in an agent is one of the following (or a combination of them is extra great):
They have a proven history in publishing and worked at a publishing house (one of the top five, or one of the big players right below the top five like Bloomsbury and the like)
They have worked for other literary agencies before (and make sure to note what sort of work, assistant literary agent? Was an internship? Have they interned for multiple places, or just the one?)
They are specific about where they worked (The vague “with a decade of work in publishing” or “having worked for years at a publisher” is not okay — if they aren’t willing to say specifics, it’s probably because they don’t actually have great experience. Either they’re making it up, or they worked at a small digital press that isn’t actually training for becoming a literary agent.)
They have a long history working at the current agency they are at, and they have sales to backup that long history. (If they aren’t new, but have been at this agency or another for a long time and have the sales to back up their agenting then you’re good to go too.)
If they don’t have one or a combination of the above, then red flags should be popping up all over the places for you. Don’t even query them.
WARNING SIGN 2: THEY MAKE THE OFFER DEADLINE
When they offer, they make a deadline for you. They say they need to hear from you within the week, or worse, within the next 24-48 hours. I know of a few agents that sell well at prestigious literary agencies will do this, but it’s bad practice and I would never sign — or recommend a friend or client — sign with someone like that.
It’s your book. It’s your career. I don’t care how badly they want your book or to represent you, if they respect you, they will give you the time you need. If they make the deadline, they aren’t respecting you (they’re actually bullying you) and just imagine what it would be like to work with them.
WARNING SIGN 3: THEY’RE PUSHY AF
This is after the offer has been made. Are they sending you nudging emails while you are discussing offers with other agents? Or while you are still taking your time to decide? It’s great if they are enthusiastic, it’s another thing entirely if they are being emotionally manipulative. Worse is when they email “so have you made a decision yet?” “have others offered?” things like that over and over again during the process.
If you feel like someone is being too pushy with you and it rubs you the wrong way, trust yourself.
You deserve to take your time making decisions. You really, really do. You put in all that work to write the book, you deserve to make the best decision for you. Truly, no agent is better than the wrong agent. The wrong agent can derail your career for years.
WARNING SIGN 4: THEIR SALES HISTORY IS NONEXISTENT OR WITH NOT-SO-GREAT PLACES
This is a very important thing to look up. I have talked with writers who didn’t bother to check sales history before signing or knew that the sales history just wasn’t there and decided to sign anyway and take that risk. Years later, they still regret it.
Truth is, it’s not easy to make money as a literary agent — and if they are new and not making the money they need to make within the first three years, they usually close up shop and change their profession. So beware, you could sign with someone and be orphaned when they realize they can’t make any money off of it.
But if they have no sales history, and no proven history in publishing, then it’s time to really think about whether you want to work with them or not.
More importantly, if you notice their sales history is only to digital publishers that take unagented submissions run for the hills. You could sell to those places and not give 15% of your money to the agent. If you are signing with an agent, it’s probably because you want to end up with a place that you can’t get to without them, right?
WARNING SIGN 5: THEY PROMISE BIG
If they are promising you the moon and the stars for lunch tomorrow, chances are they aren’t going to deliver it. Even the greatest agents can’t guarantee they will sell something. They can be really optimistic and think there is a great chance at it, but if they are promising you a 6-figure deal with your dream publisher and a TV deal, that’s a red flag. Good agents know better than to set up unrealistic expectations like that.
But there’s a flip side to this: Even if they have the sales history to seem like they can guarantee a big sale, it’s definitely what they are expecting to happen. So what if it doesn’t happen? What if your book doesn’t sell right away in a 6-figure deal to the editors they think it will sell to? That’s not a reflection on you or your book, but on timing often — maybe editors aren’t acquiring as much fantasy all of a sudden, maybe they just acquired a book and can’t acquire another like it.
If they are expecting it to sell right away, and sell big, and it doesn’t their enthusiasm in you could die out. It seems harsh — it is harsh, an agent should be invested in you for your career, not just for one payout — but I have actually seen this happen. I’ve seen writers be promised the moon and the stars by certain agents and when they didn’t actually get the moon and the stars they were suddenly dropped by those agents or it was impossible to get those agents to reply to their emails.
So 9 out of 10 times, if they are promising big, it’s not good.
YOU DESERVE BETTER
You deserve better than all of this. I know how much you want an agent when you’re querying but there are better agents out there for you. Maybe this book you are querying doesn’t land you an agent, but you don’t know the potential for the next book your query yet. It took me three books to get an agent. There’s no shame in that. And if I had signed with the agent most interested in my second book, I’d have regretted it.
So remember: You deserve a great agent. You deserve someone who will stand by you throughout your career, not just one book. You deserve someone who treats you well. You’re the one putting in all the effort and love and tears and sweat of writing that book, you deserve to give that book — and yourself — the best possible chance of success.
