Stupid Stuff Writers Do to Literary Agents

Last updated 10/21/20 Because I keep finding more and more of these on Twitter, I am curating a list of “Stupid Stuff Writers Do to Literary Agents” directly from the keyboards of the agents themselves. This will be an ongoing addendum to my article on “Abuse and Stalking of Literary Agents.” For advice on how […]

October 2020 Housekeeping

A few noteworthy things: -Due to the widening focus of topics I’ll be covering, I’ll be renaming the website and will have an additional domain of www.foxliketheanimal.com. The old URL of www.bryanfoxjr.com will still work for the foreseeable future. My wife had made a good point that I needed a catchier sounding name for the […]

EARCS and Piracy

Yesterday on Twitter, indie author Jasmine Gold mentioned that she found her book on piracy websites. Due to the timing and file format, she believed that it was an EARC (electronic advanced reader copy) reader who released the book. Warning to writers new to self-publishing: When I published my novel last summer, some supposed reviewers […]

Schmagents: Perverted Predatory Agents

This one’s been blowing up big on Twitter the last 48 hours… When it comes to predatory agents, everyone instantly starts thinking of the schmagent-types trying to scam you out of your money. Stuff like the Edit Ink scam or ones who want to charge you upfront come to mind. Nope, we’re not talking about […]

When Authors and Critics Should Engage

A few weeks ago, there was a Twitter beef between an author and a critic who gave a negative review of her book. The author challenged the critique by saying the critic only read an ARC and the critic countered this by saying the final copy of the book had the same issues. The author […]

Write Critical Reviews, Not Negative Reviews

I was him-hawing about posting my review of Watersong because it was to be the first critical review on my blog. I even postponed it two days for this reason.  Some people are good at taking thoughtful criticism, and some aren’t. Hannah Conrad took my critical review in stride which was a relief. She even […]

To Pay an Editor or Not?

I had another blog post ready for today, but since this is a hot topic on writing Twitter, I just belted this one out now. So should you pay an editor or not for your manuscript? It depends on your goal. If you’re going after traditional publishing, then I would recommend against it. Most agents […]

Why You SHOULD Judge a Book by Its Cover

It’s a phrase you always hear from your role models when growing up:  “Don’t judge a book by its cover!” Yeah. I get it. It’s good to not be superficial. You’re reading the blog of a cheapskate who drives an inexpensive car, owns an inexpensive phone, wears inexpensive clothes, and is by no means a […]

The “Running From the Bear” Book Opening

Of the few writer’s conferences I’ve been to, there’s a coveted event that writers love: “The First Page Gong Show!” There’s a few variations of this event, but it usually goes something like this: A panel of literary agents reads your first page aloud. The agents will raise their hand when they get to the […]

The NA/YA Bait & Switch Submission

For a fleeting moment in time, book marketers were trying to make the age group of “new adult” take off the way that young adult exploded into popularity in the early 2000s. It failed miserably. Since then, some authors and agents still hope that it’ll catch on, but that hasn’t been the case. I say […]