Friday Roundup - and some appreciation

I've decided to follow the example of my fellow bloggers and use Fridays to list links to articles etc I've found interesting over the last week that I'd like to share with you guys.


But first.

Evidently some author somewhere decided that today would be Agent Appreciation day, and I think that that's just a lovely idea. Often I see agents vilified as little more than gatekeepers, keeping hardworking authors away from their dream of being published, or as thieves taking the hard earned money from the authors they represent. You can read my post called "15%" in response to that attitude (in short: it's ridiculous).

So I'd like to offer up some agent love and take the time to send my appreciation to the amazing Becky Stradwick at the Darley Anderson Literary Agency.

Now some of you who've been with me awhile will remember that my original agent at the agency was Julia Churchill, and I spoke often and highly of her until she decided to leave to pursue her own dreams. But I realise I have been remiss in writing about Becky who is as equally worthy of attention and admiration. I suppose the reason you haven't heard me talk about her is because I haven't had any recent book sales and haven't been reporting too often of late on the goings on behind the scenes of my writing career, but that goes back to the misconception about agents. Just because I haven't sold another book yet, does not mean Becky hasn't been totally amazing to me.

First off, she works so carefully and closely with me to make my manuscripts as awesome as possible. She puts so much work into them, it's kind of overwhelming having someone else take so much time and care so much with something I've written. Next, of course, she works on getting them sold, sending them to publishers etc.

But most importantly she puts up with a neurotic author worried about the future (both for her and her books), and someone who likes to rant possibly a bit too much. Becky has been there for me to give me pep talks, make me laugh when I'm feeling down, and to steer me in the right direction - by which I mean away from self-pity and towards self-motivation.

And she's always been in my corner.

So Becky thank you so much for everything you've done for me this year. I know I can be a handful at times, but your advice and help has been invaluable to me.

I'd also like to thank Madeleine Buston who is another agent at the agency. As some of you may know, agencies can have many different agents who work there, and many work with specific sub-rights etc. Madeleine is responsible for selling my books to the States (quite an important market), and she too has been amazingly supportive and wonderful in all she's done for me.

Oh what the heck, to everyone at the agency, including of course the man himself, thank you! You've been so amazing to me and believed in me even when there were times I didn't.

I appreciate you.



And now . . . on to some links!

- Here you can find the most interesting bookstores in the world. Be warned, they will make you sigh with longing.

- With all the doom and gloom circulating the net of late about the state of publishing, it's nice to read something relatively positive.

- I've a couple new industry blogs I've been enjoying reading of late (just a note, some of the content on these blogs could be considered PG 13, with some bad language at times, and discussions of mature themes):

- The Rejectionist
- Agent/Author Betsy Lerner
- Agency Gatekeeper

And that's it for now! I decided to do this link thing kind of last minute, so I promise next week I'll keep my eyes peeled for more links for next Friday, now that I know I'll be sharing them with you!

Happy Weekend!