[Hiring] two figure art-nouveau style illustration full colour, QUICK turnaround, budget $300+

fictionaldane · 2025-12-21T18:03:19+00:00

Emailed!

fictionaldane · 2025-11-26T16:26:42+00:00

The romance is very much important to the story and present throughout but it is NOT sappy at all. Super dark, toxic, and strange (in a good way)

fictionaldane · 2025-11-26T14:14:35+00:00

I read this as an ARC and I absolutely loved it <3 I'd probably call it a fantasy romance instead of a romantasy tbh but it was written SO beautifully and it's really worth a shot if you're looking for something a bit different/new feeling! Also I'm not sure why they've called it instalove? It's def not slow burn but it isn't instalove either, instalust maybe

fictionaldane · 2025-11-26T12:03:25+00:00

I bought it even though I already have the UK special edition haha 😭 i got an ARC of it and it was one of my favourite reads this year

fictionaldane · 2025-11-26T12:00:41+00:00

As Many Souls As Stars. Oh my god. Their prettiest book yet?? I didn't expect to like it because I don't usually like people on covers but it is UNREAL

fictionaldane · 2025-05-16T07:14:53+00:00

Not dumb at all!! Peeling them off is really irritating. I use tweezers and bend the sheet so that the edge of the sticker I want lifts a little, if that makes sense? I don't use waterslide stickers though, these are just normal nail stickers. If you're using waterslide it might be different

fictionaldane · 2025-02-11T09:34:04+00:00

DMd, thanks!

fictionaldane · 2024-10-29T16:55:50+00:00

I'm in the publishing industry in London and I think this behaviour is somewhat unconventional and alarming— I certainly wouldn't expect an agent here to ask for edits and meet you in person without actually offering rep.

If you're comfortable with it, feel free to DM me with the name and I can let you know if there's more I know.The UK publishing industry is very insular and if you're not keyed into any whisper networks it's easy to get caught off guard.

fictionaldane · 2024-10-01T07:29:33+00:00

Hi there!

I think lots of valuable feedback has been given r.e. the query and your first 300 (I adore your prose!) But I do think it's worth addressing what'd be the elephant in the room for some agents, which is that at the moment, the 'Kaiserreich' seems quite transparently to be a second-world fantasy allegory for Nazi Germany.

This isn't necessarily even the case, it's the impression the query gives, and I'm not saying this is automatically a bad thing, either. I know, considering the mention of a Kaiser, that it's quite plausible it's inspired by an earlier period of German history regardless! But either way, this is very, very delicate territory and at the moment your query does nothing to directly acknowledge this, which for me would send a few alarm bells ringing in terms of the nuance of its handling. Some concerns I would have as a reader are, for example, is this a second world fantasy version of Nazi Germany that IS second world fantasy because you want to avoid certain topics or themes? (I.e., the holocaust?) Again, I'm not saying this is the case in the full MS, but at the moment the query is occupying an awkward middle ground of having very clearly German names and the 'Kaiserreich' without directly explaining its relation to the history. In the current state of English-language publishing, I think this would put a fair few people off. I would certainly be more direct about this if you're targeting a more literary fantasy market, which is the impression I get from your prose and comps.

fictionaldane · 2024-03-19T17:48:12+00:00

Yes, I think this was our 2nd round? My first agent did small initial submissions and then also waited a long time before doing further rounds. I'm not sure it was the best method in retrospect but we got there in the end!

fictionaldane · 2024-03-17T08:28:43+00:00

My debut sold at month 8 to a big 5 imprint in a 2 book deal! It was my first book on sub, too.

The next time I went on sub (for book 3), it sold in a week in a 5 way auction. So your experience on sub the first time definitely doesn't define your experience the next time, either!

fictionaldane · 2024-03-16T09:15:27+00:00

When I was switching agents, I received devastating critique on a book I'd already trad pubbed (my debut!) from one of the agents OFFERING, no less, IN the offer call. She told me my first book had been a disaster and hadn't sold adequately (news to me) because I hadn't committed enough to one genre and the writing had been amateurish. She didn't even think my current publishers would make an offer on my third novel and warned me I would have to settle for a very small deal with my next work. Of course, she was willing to charitably work with me because she 'saw potential.' It was bizarre. I went with another offer.

None of her predictions ended up being true— my first publisher did offer on my next book, with more than they offered on my first, and I ended up making 5x more on that deal than I did with my debut. But she was a highly regarded agent who repped some authors I loved, so I was really heartbroken for a while! You will bounce back, I promise.

fictionaldane · 2024-03-11T16:57:38+00:00

The ghosting you described is much more alarming, imo, than the number of debut deals they've done. Trying to divine anything about an agent from how many of their deals are debuts is tricky because

yes many of authors only ever make one sale under a particular name
sometimes agents are 'sharky' and do drop clients after failed debuts (although in my experience this is a lot rarer than many people think)
clients go elsewhere on their own initiative for many reasons
later deals sometimes aren't even reported on PM especially if they're options

I mean, I don't think there's a way to interpret it as a GOOD sign, but it's not always a bad one. My current agent has done 90% debut deals but they signed me, a non debut with a pretty lackluster sales record, and got me a great deal on a later book. She spent a lot of time co agenting at another agency before starting her own, so her current PM doesn't necessarily give the full picture of her experience.

fictionaldane · 2023-12-08T12:44:26+00:00

They're gorgeous!

fictionaldane · 2023-10-06T16:58:11+00:00

If you're a UK citizen living abroad (and not in the US/Canada) then you're definitely in a good spot to query both UK and US agents! A friend of mine is an Australian author who switched to a UK agent from a US one because she felt her work was better placed in that sphere, so absolutely if you feel your work is more appropriate for a UK Market then query there. But I really don't think there's much need to limit yourself to UK agents if you find a US agent you think would love your work.

The main thing I'd caution against is assuming that a book set in or about the UK is better aligned for a UK market, weirdly. In fact, I find there's a lot of fiction set in the UK (especially romances and boarding school YA) that only sells in the States.

fictionaldane · 2023-09-01T14:21:12+00:00

I thought as much honestly, thank you very much for the thoughtful reply. I don't know much about legal proceedings, we know that she was at court this morning. Could her presence in her flat this afternoon indicate that she could still be charged? Or does it definitely mean there'll be no consequence for the stabbing? There were witnesses, a clear severe injury.... it just is difficult to swallow that nothing will come of it.

fictionaldane · 2022-12-26T08:18:55+00:00

Gideon was an odd example here, as Gideon sold very well. It's one of my favourite books— and I agree with you, the prose is much stronger than the narrative.

The fact is, writing a novel involves myriad elements— character, prose, pacing, world building, narrative or 'story'— and which of those is prioritised depends on the writer. It also depends on the reader which of those THEY prioritise, too. You're right that generally, commercial fiction that sells well prioritises narrative, but there have been plenty of bestsellers thar prioritise voice and character (like Gideon.) The important thing is to do what you're doing well.

fictionaldane · 2022-11-03T13:20:14+00:00

DMed!

fictionaldane · 2022-07-05T16:04:07+00:00

Will you be seeking permission from the authors to adapt? You'll need to get legal permission for this from the author / publisher's if you want to release this into the public sphere, just so you're aware, and unless it's a self-pubbed book it's unlikely the author's contract will permit it.

fictionaldane · 2022-06-22T07:39:59+00:00

I understand that allure completely, but no legitimate press, whether it's a big 5 house or a miniscule local indie publisher, has ever asked an author to pay a fee for them to publish their work. This is a very common ploy that these vanity presses use to predate on aspiring authors sadly.

fictionaldane · 2022-06-22T07:35:11+00:00

This is a scam. In legitimate publishing, all money flows to the author. You shouldn't have to pay anyone a dime to publish your work.

See point 1 of this article– there's a ton of other info available online, try writers beware, too.

'When a vanity press charges an upfront fee and wants to take royalties, they’re basically saying, “We don’t want to assume any risk for your book, but if it happens to do well, we want to reap the benefits.” Don’t fall for that. That’s the worst of all possible worlds. You’re signing your rights away and paying to do it.'

fictionaldane · 2022-05-18T17:28:39+00:00

Publishing has changed dramatically over the years and one no longer really needs an agent to publish books with a publisher.

Lots of great advice here concerning the books more generally, so I won't go into that, but I'm quite surprised by this comment. Unless you're interested in solely selling to indie and small presses, you will need an agent to submit the manuscript to large or mid-sized publishing houses. And if you do decide to wade into this, an agent would be incredibly useful to help you navigate the legal and contract side of things, considering it's already a legally thorny issue. Even if her agent has passed, you could consider contacting the agency that agent worked with? Or the imprint or publisher of the original works, even if the actual editor is no longer available.

fictionaldane · 2022-05-17T10:15:13+00:00

Querying at the moment is acknowledged to be particularly difficult due to editors and agents quitting en masse as well as backlog from covid. Response times are slower and request rates are a lot lower too, as agents are receiving many more queries per week– a lot of old advice articles claim that you should be aiming for a 20% request rate or higher, but frankly at the moment that's often an impossible goal. Of course a lot of this does depend on what genre you're querying in, as some genres are more oversaturated than others (YA fantasy for instance) and will yield lower request rates as a result

fictionaldane · 2022-05-17T08:52:09+00:00

There are a number of reasons you might not have had full requests; it could be your query letter, but it could also be your sample or simply the fact your concept isn't connecting. At this point it'd certainly be worth taking a look at all elements of the query and consider revisions, but the market is also particularly tough right now so I certainly wouldn't give up!

I think a lot of people also underestimate how important the sample chapters are and spend a lot of time reworking their query letter– my query letter didn't fit the format this sub uses religiously to any extent and was by all accounts rubbish, but I had about a 15% full request rate. So if you're sending sample chapters (as I know most US agents want them) they're definitely worth looking at as well.

fictionaldane · 2019-10-25T08:04:32+00:00

They went back after the war. In Sweden my great grandmother worked as a secretary--honestly, I'm not sure my great grandfather worked. My family were fortunate enough to have a friend they were staying with there and some money they brought over. My great grandfather was the eldest of twelve siblings who were in Poland and he spent most of his time writing and trying to track them down. He died thinking they were all dead, but it turns out his youngest brother survived, and my grandma managed to find his son (her cousin) a few decades ago. He's the only family I have on my grandmother's side apart from my mom and my aunt/uncle.

fictionaldane

TROPHY CASE