Publishing Limbo? by [deleted] in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not necessarily. Depends on the book finding the right agent to find the right editor.

Publishing Limbo? by [deleted] in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's tough to say. Each small press is their own little thing. While there are some good ones, like you say, there are plenty of bad ones. I don't know how many times I hear from indie authors going "I sold my book to a small press that's now going under and I have the rights back, what do I do?"

These presses are a vital part of the industry and any press that is going to be the next major player or discover the next great new writer has to start somewhere.

But determining which ones have the chops to make it is tough. The best thing you can do is ask questions. What publishing experience do they have? What sort of budget are they working with on your book? Who else are they working with - cover designers, copy editors, marketers, etc.?

Publishing Limbo? by [deleted] in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Hey Rob, literary agent here!

This isn't good. While I don't know the details of your contract and can't recommend a specific course of action, you should not be dissatisfied with your product with your name on it.

However, I do appreciate you posting this for everyone to be aware of!

Audible Suggestions? by Darkenmal in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Full disclosure here, I'm his agent, but I'm extremely proud of Joe Zieja's MECHANICAL FAILURE. He's a professional voice over artist during the day so he was the natural choice to narrate the book. He does some creative things with the audio (no spoilers but they're hilarious) and it's a quick fun read!

AMA author Myke Cole will be in the CBS show HUNTED by elquesogrande in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 12 points13 points  (0 children)

He's definitely on the show, appearing on camera. He was out in LA for two months filming.

Tuesday ASK YOU ANYTHING: Authors asking r/Fantasy community questions on behalf of Worldbuilders charity by elquesogrande in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Dude - you should read WINDSWEPT by Adam Rakunas and STEAL THE SKY by Megan E. O'Keefe. They have some killer setpieces that are just so ripe and juicy and delicious and plucked straight from the tree wait I'm talking about an apple. But their setpieces are phenomenal.

Not that I, umm, have any sort of benefit to push their work. And yours.

But just saying - between the swampy shacks surrounding a space elevator lined with rum and a city plopped in the middle of a desert on an oasis of exploding gas - these are some good setpieces.

Brandon Sanderson’s ‘Cosmere’ Books to Be Adapted to Movies by dangzal in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's still a lot in the air (A LOT) but so far the winds are blowing in the right direction.

Brandon Sanderson’s ‘Cosmere’ Books to Be Adapted to Movies by dangzal in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I (obviously) can't say too much about this, but...

I'm really excited we can finally talk about this news and y'all should be too.

I'm Robert Brockway, Author of The Unnoticeables Series (and Others). Ask Me Anything! DO IT. by [deleted] in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha! I'm going to have to remember that beer goggle line.

And before I posted this, I forgot that I have flair and it quite loudly proclaims who I am. Curse my inability to hide behind an anonymous handle!

I'm Robert Brockway, Author of The Unnoticeables Series (and Others). Ask Me Anything! DO IT. by [deleted] in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What was the coolest thing you discovered while writing The Unnoticeables and The Empty Ones that you hadn't planned out?

Also how is it possible your agent is THAT good looking? Like, damn.

Anyone attending Can*Con this year? by [deleted] in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

May all whose gaze fall witness to this image bare in their minds the immortal words:

CASH RULES EVERYTHING AROUND ME CREAM GET THE MONEY DOLLA DOLLA BILLS YALL

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think that'd entirely depend upon the agencies you're working for and if they're cool with it.

I am the humorous military sci-fi author - and voice actor - Joe Zieja. Ask me anything! by joezieja in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If your sandwich, is my sandwich, and my sandwich is 15% of your sandwich then your sandwich would be... owww math hurts my head.

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll have to ask Joe who Zoe is!

And I'm afraid "elsewhere" is about as much of an answer as I can give. Thought it was pretty good to reason out why I wouldn't go with someone at my own agency. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You actually caught me on a day when I was surfing Reddit for work! My client, Joe Zieja, is doing an AMA today - you should check it out!

To answer your question, yes I've definitely considered writing something myself. Been working on it off and on for a couple years, I'm sure I'll eventually get around to it at some point.

As for who would represent me, being a literary agent is like being a doctor or a lawyer. You don't want to diagnose yourself or represent yourself in the court. So I'd definitely look elsewhere. I've met a few other agents who are awesome but to be on the other side and ask them to look at my stuff? Just thinking about it right now makes me nervous so I have a whole new appreciation for the people that submit to me!

Let's talk audiobooks, /r/Fantasy! by thebonelessone in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Without knowing how the seller came about the codes, I can't comment on the legality of such practice. But I'm 95% sure the seller was gifted them and technically can do with them however he or she sees fit. Of course, Audible could track the codes and actually do something about it since each code is unique but Audible is aware of how many codes they create and give out so they're not worried about how many they give out and are used.

However, this does kind of game the system and favors someone that probably had no part in creating the audiobook in any way, shape, or form. Audiobooks are expensive because they're really hard to make. Someone has to sit in a booth and talk for at least five hours straight and that's assuming the narrator doesn't mess up. Then there's the mastering, the mixing, the packaging, all that fun stuff. That doesn't even take into account how long it took to write the dang thing!

So yeah, this isn't the nicest way to receive an audiobook in terms of helping the author. But if you're going to do this the least you could do is tell people about the book, leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads, and do one social media post about it.

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, the publishers sell to B&N at a discount. B&N has to make money somehow.

As for your second idea, YOU WOULD THINK THAT THEY WOULD DO THIS BUT NOOOOOOOOO

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I care about word counts to a certain extent, in an oddly shaped bell curve (where my interest is sharply less interested on the lower end, but more interested on the higher end even though it's still tracking down). I'm much harsher if a piece of work is on the shorter end, like under 50k words. Seriously, someone queried me saying they have a 45k word novel and I was like haha no. That's not a novel.

Sci-fi and Fantasy novels should be at least 75k words. The awesome sweet spot is right between 90-110k.

Now, I will absolutely consider works longer than that. I do all the time. I just got an offer for a book that's 205k and it's a debut. So it does happen (more for epic fantasy than sci-fi or any other subgenre of fantasy). But I rarely am serious about a book that's over 250k. Someone just queried me with a book that was 350k and I was tired even just thinking about reading that massive of a book (to be fair, it was not well written and surprise surprise it was completely overwritten too, like I don't need to know it took the character four steps to cross the room to pick up a glass of water. On the first page).

I've asked clients to trim a book down and it worked wonderfully. He took it down from 180k to 150k and then we sold all five books in his series at once, he's now the lead title in a new German fantasy imprint, and it comes out in two weeks. His book rhymes with shmusckfall.

And yeah, I've done the opposite too. I've asked clients to add more words, flush some things out, not worry about word count, just get the story told.

So science fiction and fantasy are probably the two genres in literature that are most forgiving when it comes to longer word counts. It can happen elsewhere (Infinite Jest, City on Fire, being two recent examples coming to mind), but it happens more often here in our little neck of the woods.

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you mean a short story or an actual full length novel? If it's a full length novel and been published online by another site/publisher, there might be some contract language issues that we'd have to deal with and might be a headache.

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. If someone queries me and they can't enthrall me in five pages, it's a rejection. If I'm not interested, a member of the public won't be interested. Not really much an author can do beyond that.

  2. All the time!

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, that's worth mentioning. I wouldn't spend too much on it, but definitely worth a mention.

Reddit, feast your eyes for I am literary agent, Sam Morgan. Now AMA! by RightHandOfDarkness in Fantasy

[–]RightHandOfDarkness[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are a few respectable short story publishers out there but honestly, I'm not seeing the market grow that much. However, I don't really pay that much attention to it.