Wishing the best of luck to writers and agents alike, that the new relationships that have a chance to start today can flourish into beautiful books for readers and lasting careers as well.
Wow, 13 bids in the adult section and 27 in the YA/MG section. That's over two thirds of the YA entries with a result! O_O Whoo, go you guys! ^_^
On the other hand, just over half of the adult fiction has the same claim ...
*calculating*
If this year gets the same ratio of those with bids to not as last year, then around 12 people (like me) will be needing to brace themselves for nothing and 8 more are waiting for that first bid. It's a personal theory, granted. But I'm interested to see if it'll be right and whether it’ll be some of the remaining adult fiction and none of the YA/MG be all the YA/MG and none of adult or a mixture of both. Seeing what does and doesn't get through has always been a fascination for me.
Yet, even knowing the figures, I'm still hoping everyone will get something. Guess I’m a closet optimist. ^_^
Authoress, you're right - being one of the ones without any bids doesn't feel good. At all. I do feel like YA *anything* is the way to go. But that said, fantasy is my first and favourite genre, and what I intend to build my name on. But this story, a women's fiction, has been in me for years and been in the process for five years, and I'm still convinced it's worth something.
BUT I am so grateful to Authoress, Jodi, and everyone involved in making this happen, and so thankful to have made it through to the auction because at least that means that at least one of you thought my excerpt has some hope *grin* And I got a few very nice, *very* encouraging, sweet comments from lovely people whose work I hope to read as well. So thank you to those awesome peeps, too.
I've always believed strongly in my goals and made so many of them happen, against the odds, so I will not give up writing because I believe it's what I'm here to do, to work at, to polish, and to ultimately make other people happy with. Rejection I've never been good at though, sadly. I was born with incredibly thin skin and I'm afraid to say it seems like it's gotten thinner as I've gotten older, not thicker. But it's obviously the thing God wants me to work at, and maybe He's using this as one of many other steps to help me on that quest.
(And heck, I got ENGAGED this week. So it's definitely not all bad!!! ;)
Thanks and hugs to all, and congrats to those with bids :)
I wish I could hug the one-third of writers who didn't get a bid yet! Please don't think it's your writing... Agents are people with subjective tastes, too. And YA is very popular right now -- and the agents bidding are skewed toward YA. This doesn't mean you won't get an agent. Hang in there.
Wow, so many great enthusiasm going on around here! I love this community, and I'm hoping so much that everyone will get something out of this: whether it's an agent, a bid, or an experience you'll never forget! :D
@Cheyenne Inspirational message, and CONGRATS on your engagement! :D
Thanks to everyone!!! (ESPECIALLY Authoress and Jodi!)
I understand why my piece did not receive any bids.
A) My piece needed some tweaking. It truly did. With the critiques in mind, I rewrote it and am very pleased with the new version. B) Some readers didn't realize that my piece was a prologue and were confused by the character's juvenile actions.
Even if more of the agents were amped to grab adult fiction, I don't think my entry was strong enough and that's okay. It is nothing to be ashamed of or depressed about. If we keep on, keeping on, we will grow. This is a learning process.
Thanks so much, Authoress, for this wonderful opportunity. I shall return...bwah, ha ha ha!
What I've learned from this is that you should know the market. I felt lucky to be be chosen as one of the top 60 for the auction, however, I wasn't prepared for the amount of agent interest in the YA fantasy market. I must say it was a bit of a let down when I saw the results. Good luck to all of you who were asked for a submission from an agent.
Anon at 10:41 AM - I'm in the same boat as you. I've been following/commenting in this community for awhile mainly because I love how AWESOME most people are, how warm, inviting, welcoming, friendly, chatty and eager to help one another every seems to be.
However, I guess I haven't been around long enough to realise that most people here (agents and writers alike) are very YA-focused. I've yet to find a good community like this one that's not mainly focused on YA, which is why I've stuck around!
So in that spirit, I feel even luckier to have been chosen! I really do enjoy reading and hearing back from the people here. From everything I hear on Twitter and in the blogs I read, it does seem like these days anything but YA-teen girl stories are very hard to sell. I can understand why but I don't understand the market well enough to see how it's not over saturated I guess ;)
Wishing the best of luck to writers and agents alike, that the new relationships that have a chance to start today can flourish into beautiful books for readers and lasting careers as well.
ReplyDeleteLOL Some of the agents are cheating by bidding several times in a row so they can bid for the full. :D
ReplyDeleteI don't think that is cheating! *looks around innocently* I mean, it worked, anyway. :D
ReplyDeleteVery sneaky. The Authoress didn't state in the rules you couldn't do that, so it still counts.
ReplyDeleteShould be writing, but...can't...tear...eyes...away!
ReplyDeleteNo, they're allowed to do that. It's in their Official Bidding Rules. ;D
ReplyDeleteWe've got some cutthroat maneuvers going on in here. Well-played, agents!
ReplyDeleteYikes! Where do I go to see the bidding?
ReplyDeleteBidding is taking place in the comment boxes.
ReplyDeleteWow, 13 bids in the adult section and 27 in the YA/MG section. That's over two thirds of the YA entries with a result! O_O Whoo, go you guys! ^_^
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, just over half of the adult fiction has the same claim ...
*calculating*
If this year gets the same ratio of those with bids to not as last year, then around 12 people (like me) will be needing to brace themselves for nothing and 8 more are waiting for that first bid.
It's a personal theory, granted. But I'm interested to see if it'll be right and whether it’ll be some of the remaining adult fiction and none of the YA/MG be all the YA/MG and none of adult or a mixture of both.
Seeing what does and doesn't get through has always been a fascination for me.
Yet, even knowing the figures, I'm still hoping everyone will get something. Guess I’m a closet optimist. ^_^
Authoress, you're right - being one of the ones without any bids doesn't feel good. At all. I do feel like YA *anything* is the way to go. But that said, fantasy is my first and favourite genre, and what I intend to build my name on. But this story, a women's fiction, has been in me for years and been in the process for five years, and I'm still convinced it's worth something.
ReplyDeleteBUT I am so grateful to Authoress, Jodi, and everyone involved in making this happen, and so thankful to have made it through to the auction because at least that means that at least one of you thought my excerpt has some hope *grin* And I got a few very nice, *very* encouraging, sweet comments from lovely people whose work I hope to read as well. So thank you to those awesome peeps, too.
I've always believed strongly in my goals and made so many of them happen, against the odds, so I will not give up writing because I believe it's what I'm here to do, to work at, to polish, and to ultimately make other people happy with. Rejection I've never been good at though, sadly. I was born with incredibly thin skin and I'm afraid to say it seems like it's gotten thinner as I've gotten older, not thicker. But it's obviously the thing God wants me to work at, and maybe He's using this as one of many other steps to help me on that quest.
(And heck, I got ENGAGED this week. So it's definitely not all bad!!! ;)
Thanks and hugs to all, and congrats to those with bids :)
<3
I wish I could hug the one-third of writers who didn't get a bid yet! Please don't think it's your writing... Agents are people with subjective tastes, too. And YA is very popular right now -- and the agents bidding are skewed toward YA. This doesn't mean you won't get an agent. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteWow, so many great enthusiasm going on around here! I love this community, and I'm hoping so much that everyone will get something out of this: whether it's an agent, a bid, or an experience you'll never forget! :D
ReplyDelete@Cheyenne Inspirational message, and CONGRATS on your engagement! :D
Thanks to everyone!!! (ESPECIALLY Authoress and Jodi!)
I haven't had a chance to critique entries yet. Sorry!!!! How long do we have to do so? Thank you, Awethoress. You are Awesome!!!
ReplyDeletehm... very interesting! thank you for sharing your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteAmazing! Thanks a lot for this post.
ReplyDeleteI understand why my piece did not receive any bids.
ReplyDeleteA) My piece needed some tweaking. It truly did. With the critiques in mind, I rewrote it and am very pleased with the new version.
B) Some readers didn't realize that my piece was a prologue and were confused by the character's juvenile actions.
Even if more of the agents were amped to grab adult fiction, I don't think my entry was strong enough and that's okay. It is nothing to be ashamed of or depressed about. If we keep on, keeping on, we will grow. This is a learning process.
Thanks so much, Authoress, for this wonderful opportunity. I shall return...bwah, ha ha ha!
What I've learned from this is that you should know the market. I felt lucky to be be chosen as one of the top 60 for the auction, however, I wasn't prepared for the amount of agent interest in the YA fantasy market. I must say it was a bit of a let down when I saw the results. Good luck to all of you who were asked for a submission from an agent.
ReplyDeleteMy worst fear came true. Two years in a row with no bids. Yeah, ouch.
ReplyDeleteI'll lick my wounds and keep working on other avenues.
Thanks to Authoress and everyone else behind the scenes.
Anon at 10:41 AM - I'm in the same boat as you. I've been following/commenting in this community for awhile mainly because I love how AWESOME most people are, how warm, inviting, welcoming, friendly, chatty and eager to help one another every seems to be.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I guess I haven't been around long enough to realise that most people here (agents and writers alike) are very YA-focused. I've yet to find a good community like this one that's not mainly focused on YA, which is why I've stuck around!
So in that spirit, I feel even luckier to have been chosen! I really do enjoy reading and hearing back from the people here. From everything I hear on Twitter and in the blogs I read, it does seem like these days anything but YA-teen girl stories are very hard to sell. I can understand why but I don't understand the market well enough to see how it's not over saturated I guess ;)
@Julianna - thanks!! :)
ReplyDeleteNice pics! How about the continuation of new photos?
ReplyDeletePhotos are adorable! Waiting for new ones!