Wow.It sounds like, to put it mildly, they are focusing on the wrong end. The whole "having the book in the store" bit instead of having some story they want to tell, you know? Kind of the opposite side of Anne Lamott's K-Fucked.(One station says you're not worthy, and the other side plans to hang out with David Letterman or someone.)ETA: Deb's critique-seekers not Tep's group. Tep, I had the same problem with the group I was in.

erika, I think part of this is the couple themselves. She spent years immersed in soaps, as a reporter for a Hollywood rag on the subject; he's a go-getter, runs a PR agency. They decided to write the thing, rented a cabin in the woods, spent three months doing nothing except writing the thing, and came out with (please, Jebus, help me) 135K words.

I don't want to paint them as arrogant or evil or stupid. I don't get that impression and besides, would they be asking for help so easily if they didn't think they needed it?

But non-arrogant, non-evil and non-stupid aside, I think they're clueless about what a novel is, and how to write one.

Oh, they went for the cabin in the woods thing, huh. What, is bullfight season over? No, I'm kidding. And also jealous.Sounds like reading more books would not come amiss(probably not for anybody, actually.)

At least they didn't go rent an attic in Paris.

Bwah. I think maybe my whole life's writing, including posts, might reach 135K, so I can understand their being excited by their productivity and thinking that meant they were really "hot".

See, the longest one I've written was Fire Queen at 93K, and I consider that an epic and thought it was too long, although there really wasn't anything extraneous. I think in smaller, more concise books.

I really, truly, do not understand how people work best in epic form. My take on it is always dude! This is three books! Get an editor, damnit!

I can also understand that people with experience in journalism and PR would assume they had writing skills enough between them to transfer to a novel. But I'm still boggling that they sent out so many queries--you'd think with their background they'd be more savvy about figuring out how these things are generally done.

Yeah, I don't think you get into that without wanting to write stuff.And Susan, just figured out your tag. I was thinking like 'dracula bat" duh.(smacks forehead0

I should probably get a new tag. (For posterity, current tag is "The ping of an aluminum bat is an abomination before Almighty God.") That one is from something my DH said when they kept advertising the College World Series on ESPN with lots of those high-pitched pings, but that was weeks ago now.

Well, I thought your neighbors kept their Halloween decorations up too long. Kiss Rocks? Why would anyone want to... oh, I get it.