Andrew Wille

I know of another writer who does similar stuff (and is absolutely brilliant) but has had a tough time getting agents interested enough to take them on. I wonder if it would be possible to track genres and styles that are more or less likely to attract attention quicker – not so people can tailor their writing so much as know what to expect when subbing

No problem. It looks like a decent prize at any rate!

Another excellent blog, Richard. You got me to invest my beer-tokens in Keith Roberts and now it looks like I’ll be blowing the dust off my wallet for James Cabell.

One issue I can foresee with moving the competition here is that when it closes for entries, we may well have entrants who do not wish to join another forum in order to participate. Also, I don’t have a way to contact all members except via the Cloud should it go toes skywards. I think I will be backing up topics and the wall as we go along once…[Read more]

Yes I’ve noticed a change these last few days. For me, slower, no pictures showing and headings all over the place. Notes have been made just in case.

I was wondering that, but it was happening to me just as much before the announcement.

Without wishing to sound too pessimistic, what happens if the Cloud finally breaks beyond fixing before the conclusion of the challenge?

Sounds interesting – will look it up

Thanks PB – I realised when I blogged about this on the Cloud it was almost a couple of years ago and there had been some significant developments by then. I’ll put something in the Lifeboat in the next couple of days

Also while keeping an open mind to the feedback you receive, don’t forget you’re in charge and you can ‘Accept, adapt, reject’. You don’t have to take on board all advice you’re given and the best way to decide what is and isn’t useful is to read feedback and then give yourself time to think about it, coming back to it after a little break with a…[Read more]

Ah! Now I understand. Welcome Elle/L, good to see you

Fascinating stuff Richard. Not an author I recall coming across, though the title quotation is familar. It soulds as though he had throughly subverted many of the common tropes of fantasy before that genre really got going.

My agent experience is sh!te, so I can’t help much except to say that, so long as you don’t utterly muck up the cover letter, it shouldn’t matter hugely. I honestly believe that any agent who likes your work will like it regardless of the cover letter, and any agent who dislikes you because of your cover letter regardless of the quality of the…[Read more]

Can I add something extra to this list, Jules?

By all means, give examples of how differently something could be written when you give feedback – sometimes seeing the work written differently helps you as the author to understand what difference that kind of change could make to your story. But don’t be tempted to completely rewrite the whole…[Read more]