More Thoughts On Secret Agent Protocol

Sounds like an introduction course for the CIA.

Anyway, so I've been thinking. Two things, really:

1. If you submitted a first page during our last Secret Agent contest, please don't re-submit the same page unless you've done substantial revisions.

Here's why. You've already gotten a lot of feedback and critique on your page. If you submit it "as is" you're going to get the same feedback and critique. You're also going to annoy all the folks who recognize the excerpt.

Now I don't really have the time to track this. So it's the honor system. If you get publicly lynched by the crit mob for submitting an identical page, you can't claim lack of fair warning.

2. I'm certain there were two things, but now I can't remember what the second one was. (And this is the person you're entrusting your submissions to.)

Ah! I've just remembered.

On leaving feedback:

The vast majority of you are gracious, tactful, helpful, appropriate. However there were a few -- a very tiny bit of few -- comments that I felt compelled to delete last time. They had that lack of grace and tact that made them feel astringent instead of beneficial.

I mean, if something doesn't grab you at all, you could write:

"If this were the last book on the shelf, I wouldn't buy it."

Or...

"Someone should have chopped your fingers off before you learned how to hold a pencil."

However, if you choose to do so, your comment will be short-lived, as I will annihilate it as soon as I find it.

A better choice for something that doesn't grab you at all:

"I'm sorry, this didn't grab me. The main reason is..."

Okay? And like I said, most of you don't need to hear this.

That's all for now. I don't want to clog up Monday's submission guidelines with all this extra stuff, so keep your eyes open for anything else I end up rambling about in the next two or three days.

Aren't you glad you've subscribed to the blog? (And if you haven't, um...why not?)