Closed for the Holidays

All right, so I’m not a scorge or anything, in fact I love Christmas but I hate it when places close early for the holidays. Mainly I hate it that agents, editors, and publishing houses close like a week in advance for the holiday season. Hey! I’m still writing here and waiting! All right, so I understand that they don’t want to start new material before they are closed for a few days. But this brings up a point to me. What is the proper amount of time to wait to her from a publisher?

At our monthly GCCRWA meeting this subject was brought up by a young lady who was waiting to hear back from an editor that she pitched to in March. Now, I pitched to the same editor and sent my material right then to her. I heard back from her on a short story in mid September. Two days ago I received an email from the same editor apologizing for her delay in getting my material back to me. I was like “What are you talking about?” turns out I’d sent her another story in September and she was sending me a “please submit more material but we pass on this ms.” rejection. So for this editor the first time frame from submission to rejection was about five months. The second time was about three months. I like how her time frame is going down.

And just this past week I received a letter in the mail from an agent that I’ve queried many, many, many times. I hadn’t remembered I’d sent her anything either. Which I had sent her the partial back in August. She apologized for the delay, saying that it had gotten lost on her desk. I’ve seen the work load this agent has and completely understand. Again this was a rejection but the personal hand written note was very appreciated. Her time frame:about four months.

Now for another editor, I sent a story to one editor after nationals in July. I emailed said editor to ask if she would like the partial via email or mail. This editor is in Canada so I figured she’d want to do email. NOPE. And she warned me that with taking over her new position that she was swamped and I wouldn’t hear back from her until December. Thats six months! Oh well. But its December and they are closed for the holidays and still no word from her.

I hate emailing agents and editors to ask if they’ve read my material yet. I feel like its tacky and makes me look needy. But at the same time if their website says that an author will hear back from them in three months shouldn’t I go with that and expect them to also? I just don’t know. What would you do? Would you begin emailing away at three months or let it ride and see when you receive answers?

Ok, enough scorgey talk lets get to Holiday Giveaway Part 3!

On Rachel Firasek’s blog http://www.rachelfirasek.com/ author Daryn Cross is giving away a free ebook.

Author J Rose has model Jason Aaron Baca on her site, no giveaway but its a model and a playgirl guy!!! http://jroseallister.blogspot.com/2010/12/interview-with-cover-model-jason-aaron.html

Author Terry Spear’s is at star-Crossed Romance today giving away two copies of her new book Wolf Fever! Yeah I’ll be stopping by to comment and hopefully win one! http://star-crossedromance.blogspot.com/2010/12/guest-terry-spear.html

All Romance Ebooks has a copy of Hero by Cheryl Brooks for free! http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-hero-450474-143.html

Thanks everyone! Happy Holidays! I’m officially CLOSED Bawhahaha!!

Holiday Season Giveaway Part 1

Hello everyone. As we begin kicking off our 2010 Holiday Season I’d like to share some giveaways with you all. Tis the season for promo and boy oh boy, authors know how to promo. How?? By giving away free stuff!! One of my favorite things is free books. I love getting free stuff. Well, as long as it doesn’t eat, poop, or drink., those giveaways usually cost me too much money in the end.

But today I’m sharing places where you all can go and enter to win lots of cool things.

First is at http://Booknibbles.com 

Holiday Rush is great because they have a large number of authors giving away gift cards, mugs, shirts, books, and lots of other goodies.

Second on my list is:

 

Night Owl Reviews is a great website for not only reviews but fun contest all year round. This one I’m really excited to participate in as they’re giving away a KINDLE!! Plus my publisher is participating in the give away goodies!

Third on my Holiday Season Give Away:

Author chat on December 12,2010 at Love Romance Cafe. A large number of authors and publishers are getting together (including me) to give away items. I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to give away but I’m thinking of giving away a copy of my favorite book, but then I’d have to decide what book that is. Instead I may give away a gift card to The Wild Rose Press. Who knows but it’s sure to be alot of fun during the chat!

Fourth: Blogs!!

Oh my goodness there are a ton of authors just giving away all kinds of cool things. Here are some links to check out!

Anna Kathryn Lanier: http://annakathrynlanier.blogspot.com/2010/12/holday-cheer-little-christmas-

Terry Odell: http://bit.ly/g6xMi2

Sandra Sookoo http://sandrasookoo.wordpress.com/

Wendy Gray http://betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com/2010/12/victoria-gray-guest-blogs.html

Terry Spear(1 of my favs!!) and Suzanne Johnson  http://suzanne-johnson.blogspot.com/

Samantha Gentry http://theromancestudio.com/party

All right boys and girls. Thats it for today’s Holiday Season giveaway segment. Stop by next Tuesday for more updates and giveaway connections!