t hyperventilates
I just emailed my partial and synopsis to Mary Balogh for critique. Maybe half an hour after I sent it, I got an email back saying she was already printing it out, and that she looked forward to reading it, and that she already liked the sound of it from the synopsis.
Total OMG SQUEE! territory for me, because I'm 99% certain the partial reads better than the synopsis. And if
Mary Balogh
ends up liking my book and/or the way I write, that's just all kinds of huge and flattering.
Susan, that is such exciting news. Sending much fall-in-love-instantly~ma her way.
I can't believe I'm asking this, since I'm usually the kind of person who knows this stuff, but when you send an editor or agent a partial, do you use a binder clip or just leave the pages lose? (This particular partial is going to come in around 70 pages counting the synopsis, so a regular paper clip wouldn't do the job.)
Well, you don't want to staple, in case somebody wants to take pages home.
For something this short? I thought that was just for full manuscripts, once you're in 200-page-plus territory.
I can't imagine a binder clip being substantially different than either a regular paper clip or a rubber band -- they are all easily removed ways to keep papers together, just for different volumes of paper.
I know. I'm just in the irrational stage of preparing a submission where I'm afraid one tiny meaningless misstep will reveal me to be a Rank Amateur whose work is only fit to be sneered at and used as a coaster for the agent's morning latte.
Hey, I said it was irrational.
I mean, I've gone so nuts that I just went to Amazon to confirm the spellings of the names of all the authors in the paragraph where I talk about what kind of readers might like my work. (I don't say, "I am the next Susie Bestseller," since that's arrogant, and what if she hates Susie Bestseller? It's more, "I believe my work would appeal to readers who enjoy the blahbitty blah romances of Jane Popular and Mary Longcareer and the historical fiction Joe Critically-Acclaimed and Bob Pageturner.")
I know how to spell their names. I do. I mean, I've read their books. But I was so afraid of being like all those people who rave about "Jane Austin" that I looked it up to be sure.
I haven't done this seriously since 2003. I have to work through this neurotic phase for the first submission or two.
