I've written both, and I've never understood readers who'll ONLY read first or third or whatever.

Well, of course, you know of my irrational fear of writing in third POV, although I seem to be working my way through it. I don't think that's necessarily the issue here, but more that the stories came to me in First, hence, I wrote them that way. Will they still feel like the same stories after a switch of that magnitude? (Probably, but this is me, angsting.)

I'm also with you-- I don't get the readers who say they'll only read one POV. It's so severely limiting, IMO.

I have a telecon with Agent Kate tomorrow as well. Worlds, they collide.

Heh. That they do.

A question and a gloat:

Question: Given that it's going to take a few months for me to edit the WIP into submission-ready shape, should I email the editor I met at the conference and explain that it's not quite ready but I promise I'll get it to him by the end of the year? Or should I take the "never apologize, never explain" route and skip the email and just send when it's ready? If it makes a difference, the editor strikes me as being the reverse of the cuddly, hand-holding type--but in a good way. I really like him and would love to have him for my very own acquiring editor. I mean, above and beyond the fact that I'd like to have ANY editor from a major print publisher acquire my book.

The gloat: They've finally actually posted the winners of the PNWA contest: [link] Somehow seeing it in print makes it cooler.

I have only written fanfic, but the times I've changed POV or verb tense it's been because the story wasn't working until I changed it.

With books that are already done, my feel is that it wouldn't be bad. Third person can still be pretty intimate.

should I take the "never apologize, never explain" route and skip the email and just send when it's ready?

This.

And congrats again on the win!

Susan, my feeling is if you promised an editor something (even with no timeline) and have reason to expect that editor is expecting it sooner than she (or he) will receive it, I'd let that editor know, rather than having it come as a surprise. In short, I'm pretty sure any editor who is expecting something from you wants to know when they will receive it. Nothing to with handholding.

Hmm - OK if Barb and I disagree Barb is published, so she is right. But it surprises me. I've heard a lot that keeping your editor informed as to when stuff will arrive is essential.

Ah, but that's if you have an editor and a deadline and yeah, definitely, you want to keep them in the loop. And while I am way, WAY far from knowing everything, I've at this point met enough editors and asked enough questions to know that the majority of them would receive an email like that with a "Buzzah?" sort of response. Because they'll be totally blank, in all likelihood.

Whereas receiving the submissions package with the big REQUESTED MATERIALS on the front and a lovely letter saying something along the lines of "Dear Fantabulous Editor, It was lovely meeting you at Conference X and getting the opportunity to discuss my story, Manuscript X with you. As requested, here is the partial... etc., etc. Nice sign off," is at least poking their memories with the added benefit of having the material Right There. Plus, what if Real Life intercedes and you can't the manuscript to them by the date you promised?

You seriously don't want to become That Author, who appears to be emailing for the sake of emailing. Because that has a tendency to make editors, at least the ones of my acquaintance, very cranky.

I've heard conflicting advice on this one. If he were REALLY my editor--if he'd bought the book--I'd have deadlines, and if anything unforeseen came up that made meeting those deadlines impossible, I'd tell him right away, with ample apologies and explanations. But in this case, well, it's a requested partial from a conference, one step up from the slush pile. What I need to do is A) prove to him that I can write a damn good book, and B) prove I'd be good to work with. In an ideal world I should've admitted at the pitch session that the ms isn't quite ready, but I was winging it under pressure and didn't think to do so.

Anyway, I'm not sending this out until I'm sure it meets criteria A, which means I'm not sending him the partial now. The first 75 pages are OK, but I'm planning changes, and there's enough MAJOR rewriting needed in the rest of the book that there's no way I'm taking the risk of him getting to the partial right away and requesting the full.

So I've just got to figure out if being "good to work with" in this case means not pestering him with trivia about the length of my editing process or keeping him up-to-date.

Plus, what if Real Life intercedes and you can't the manuscript to them by the date you promised?

I'd thought of that. I mean, to look the ugliest of my realities in the face, my mother has cancer, and it's not going to go into remission. At some point, and I don't know when, I'm going to need to take time off from everything in my life.

You seriously don't want to become That Author, who appears to be emailing for the sake of emailing. Because that has a tendency to make editors, at least the ones of my acquaintance, very cranky.

Yeah, that was my concern. I think I'll hold off, put his business card somewhere I'm sure I won't lose it, and use the need to submit before too ridiculously much time has passed as a goad to the Muse.

I've been terrified of sending my stuff to Agent Kate. Since we have a meeting today, I emailed her what we have so far and she said:

OMG I love this.

What happens!? What happens!!!??? I can't wait to read more.

YAY ENCOURAGEMENT!!!!!!