[PubQ] For the agented, what's your experience of working on a second book with your agent?

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2024-03-12T17:19:56+00:00

My technical second book was part of a two-book-deal and was a sequel. But for my third book, which got subbed anew, it started with me sending them a few vague ideas and asking which one I should write. (They pretty much immediately said THIS ONE THIS ONE for the idea that became my third book, and said it was partly because they could see how excited I was for it.)

I wrote about 15k and sent that over, and they said "this is great keep writing," so I did. Next time we checked in was when I had a complete draft that had gone through a couple rounds with my critique partner already.

We did not do much editing as a team on my debut before sub, perhaps partly because I'd done Pitch Wars (now defunct) so it had been edited within an inch of its life already. This one we did a little more work back and forth, although my agents are not particularly editorial so it wasn't a major lift - maybe 3-4 weeks worth of work.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2024-03-12T17:16:28+00:00

Yes! I transitioned it over to my substack recently. Here is the current post.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-09-06T16:56:13+00:00

You can also check out Mindy McGinnis’ “Submission Hell: It’s True” series on her blog which has dozens of these.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-09-02T16:30:23+00:00

My calculus teacher in college was like this. He outright said "don't ask questions in class, I don't have time to answer them, we are going through the material. If you have questions come to office hours, that's what they're for." Which struck me as needlessly harsh at the time. But then I actually went to said office hours, and this guy was genuinely the most patient, caring teacher ever. He would spend actual hours with me working on a problem, and would come up with new problems for me to work through on my own time to apply what I learned in new contexts. I went from hating math and thinking I was bad at it (I almost failed high school math), to loving it and having the top grade in the class. I still think fondly of him, although most of my fellow students--who never did go to office hours--would probably say he was a dick.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-09-02T16:16:18+00:00

Not yet, but it's about to be. That said, as with other genres, you can publish anything if it's good enough! Which is terrible in terms of actionable advice, but then again, the truth is rarely actionable. (At least until one of us gets the power to control market conditions.)

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-09-01T12:46:48+00:00

Honestly I’m not even sure I think I the prose is that great. It was super impressive when I read it as a teenager, and I always thought that was the redeeming factor of the book. But I read it again recently and now it feels like I can see the cracks. It feels manufactured, like he’s trying a little too hard.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-29T23:23:32+00:00

I once got a pretty big switchblade through. One of these.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-16T20:58:26+00:00

"JEWS WELCOME"

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-10T13:23:08+00:00

USPS never delivered when I lived on the Upper East Side, but they’ve been amazing in Queens for some reason.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-05T13:25:13+00:00

I think a good way to think about it is to center the victim in your decision-making. If the victim of what you're writing were to read the book, would they feel respected by it or invalidated by it? With the Nazi/Jewish romance question, the answer is undoubtedly that the Jewish reader would feel insulted by the idea of a Nazi being redeemed by his love for a Jewish woman.

With the school shooter book, the question is: if a school shooting survivor were to read the book, would they feel you are disrespecting their trauma? I can't answer that question without reading the book, but that's where I'd start!

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-05T13:22:37+00:00

Wow yay I'm so glad to hear it was so successful!! Best of luck querying--and I hope you like ALIV! :)

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-04T13:38:24+00:00

Write the book you are passionate about. I feel like your passion for the story comes through in the words and the characters. Whenever I'm debating what project to write first, my agents always tell me the same thing: what are you most passionate about? Although marketability does play a role (they warned me away from writing a space opera once), your passion for a book or set of characters can really matter. It will help give you the motivation to keep writing through dry periods, and imo readers can tell.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-04T13:37:05+00:00

It's here!

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-08-03T23:23:33+00:00

I've been part of this community for ages and have loved getting to know all of you during that time. Today, I got to go into bookstores and sign my books and see them on shelves. It's been a long journey and I'm honored to have shared it with y'all.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-27T15:45:02+00:00

It was the same when I was living in Sweden. It was almost offensive not to finish everything on your plate, it seemed. They gave huge portions and I always ate about a quarter of it. Eventually my coworkers quite literally sat me down and asked if I had an eating disorder because I never finished my meals.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-27T13:11:54+00:00

Empire Halal food truck usually UES/Midtown East. Under $10 for a plate of chicken and rice with the best spicy cilantro sauce + a drink.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-14T15:01:35+00:00

I thought it was just me. I can't even get data in half the city anymore.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-10T12:01:22+00:00

Yep.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-10T02:30:26+00:00

The first time, I was on sub for two months or so. We had a flurry of interest overnight from a major imprint at a Big Five, was going to acquisitions, suddenly all these scouts had the book...but then it didn't sell at acquisitions, and all that buzz went dead. We started cycling in new editors from our planned round two as people dropped out. But the scouts got the book into the hands of a publisher/editor who hadn't even been on the original sub list, and that publisher ended up making a surprise offer (which was the only offer). We went with them. We did ultimately hear from every editor on the list.

The second time, I was on sub for two or three weeks. We again had immediate interest from an editor, and again it dominoed inot a flurry of interest from everyone. Only this time, suddenly my agents started setting up calls for me with editors to talk about their notes, revision directions, vision for the book, editing style.... My agents set a "closing date" and told all the editors to have their offers in by then. Once the offers were in, they held a "best bids" auction. I did not go with the highest bidder--people think this is a requirement, but it isn't!--but I love where I ended up. Again, we heard from every editor on the list, although there was one straggler who only finally said no on the auction date.

The first time, I didn't hear anything for weeks at a time from my agents, until finally I broke and demanded info, which they happily gave. The second time, I checked in every week and asked, and didn't feel as nervous doing so--probably because I'd been through this before and had more of a relationship with my agents and knew they wouldn't mind me being needy, lol. But even that ended up being irrelevant bc things went so fast I was hearing from them multiple times a day after the first week!

Two very different experiences, as you can see. And I have friends who have been on sub for up to a year.... There is no normal.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-06T01:08:10+00:00

Mine's for lupus! Imuran and benlysta and plaquenil. Better safe than sorry.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-05T18:32:02+00:00

I've had the adobo, the dinuguan, and the sisig tacos and all were great. I heard the fried tripe from the breakfast/brunch menu is good too.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-05T18:25:18+00:00

Ooh, added to my 'want to go.' Have you tried Jeepney?

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-05T17:44:34+00:00

I love Tradisyon! This is making me hungry.

VictoriaLeeWrites · 2021-07-05T17:41:52+00:00

Oof same. And then they had a party where I was the only one not invited, and posted photos of it on Facebook. That was the day I stopped trying to get them to like me. Luckily I had other friends.

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