Thursday, July 09, 2015

Industry question: competition clauses

I read with some amount of trepidation the post about competition clauses in publishing contracts. How does someone deal with a potential offer to publish something when one  (OK, me) has already self published a series of books with the same characters? There might be rioting in the streets (OK, a couple of middle aged women hanging out at the National Zoo panda house) if my other books had to be pulled off the market.




Here's an example of a competition clause in a publishing contract:


the Author will not, without the Publisher’s prior written consent, publish or authorize publication by
anyone other than the Publisher of any text-based edition, adaptation, abridgement, or
condensation of the Work, or of any text-based derivative work based on the Work or bearing
substantially the same title (prequels and sequels shall not be deemed derivative works) (however,
nothing in this subparagraph (i) shall prohibit the Author from disposing of performance rights); (ii)
the Author will not publish or authorize publication of any similar material on the same topic in a
book or article which, in the Publisher’s judgment would directly conflict with the sale of the Work,
provided that, subject to coordination with the Publisher, nothing contained herein shall preclude
the Author from publishing or authorizing the publication of articles to promote or publicize the
Work; 



If I sell your novel "Felix Buttonweezer Goes to Carkoon" to LicketySplit Publishers LLC, you cannot sell an adaptation, abridgement or condensation of the book to another publisher. 

Nor can you sell "Felix Buttonweezer Went to Carkoon but Now He's Home" which is a derivative work.

Which does mean, yes, if you have self-published the novel that I sell to LiSP LLC, you're probably going to have to take it off the market.

However.

Contracts are NEGOTIATED. They are not handed down to supplicants like the ten commandments, no matter how many trumpets and rings of fire the publisher would like you to believe accompany its arrival in your inbox.

If you've got works for sale that are related to the novel for sale, you'll tell me about it ahead of time, and I'll tell the editor and we'll discuss how to handle it.

This clause predates the burgeoning cottage industry of ebooks on Amazon. It was intended mostly for non-fiction books. Editors didn't want to buy "The Bakeries of Carkoon" only to find much of the content of the book repurposed in "The Food Trucks of Carkoon."

This is something you do NOT need to worry about until you have an offer of publication.
It IS something you'll tell your agent about before your work goes out on submission.

You do NOT want to be the author who keeps her agent in the dark such that the editor calls the agent with the very bad news that something that looks a lot like this book on submission is already for sale on Amazon.

Yes, this happened to me.
Yes, I was royally pissed.
Yes, the client is no longer my client.
Yes, you can learn from her tomfoolery.

 

63 comments:

DeadSpiderEye said...

That paragraph provided above, seems pretty lightweight in terms of restrictions, I've seen a lot worse in a more general context. I can still see why it might inspire a case of the heebies, in the face of uncertainty over the success of the publication but shouldn't that be ameliorated by the previously discussed, in print and minimum sales clause?

LynnRodz said...

Seems to me OP does realize there's a conflict of interest. When you sign with an agent everything you have stashed away in your closet needs to come out, as far as writing is concerned.

Janet, when do you sleep? I was one of the last people to comment at 4 am and I wake up from a crazy dream about your blog and here you already have a new post up. It wasn't even 11 am and now I'm hungry for some croissants because you mentioned The Bakeries of Carkoon. Don't tell me Felix Buttonweezer penned that as well?

Anonymous said...

Whoa, yeah! Early, EARLY blog post! I thought I must have read my clock wrong :D

And thanks, Lynn- NOW I WANT CROISSANTS.

This is on you.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Wah, we have Dunkin Donuts here in Carkoon, thank the sugar Gods.

If I had known I would have been here sooner, I was up. Oh well. And regarding OP, a contract is a contract is a contract.

Lima bean and kale strudel anyone?


Carolynnwith2Ns said...

So let me get this right. You have to (contract-out) because they own you before, during and after? Would they take a first born child instead?
Aw jeez now I'm going to be late for work, y'all have a nice day, I won't be here to bug the comments :)
Hey, I can the eye rolling and signs of relief ya know. Cut it out.

LynnRodz said...

Carolynn, you can keep the lima bean and kale strudel. Btw, I left a message for you yesterday. Good luck!

W.R., okay I'm off to the Carkoon bakery. I hope no one else wakes up early and I have to make another trip.

Unknown said...

Simple rule; tell your agent everything, writing related. KISS.

And, Lynn, what is this about the EverReady Shark hosting a panel of some sort somewhere with Lee Child's signed, stuffed, and six foot boa constrictor? Anybody else hear about that?

Colin Smith said...

Contracts are negotiated--good to know. Completely irrelevant to Carkoon, however, where contracts are executed, as are the authors who fail to comply with them.

And yes, I have seen Dunkin Donuts here on Carkoon. I'm not so much afraid of the donuts as what they expect me to dunk them in... :\

Beth H. said...

The Carkoon Dunkin Donuts isn't all it's cracked up to be. My "iced" coffee was boiling, and the pastry cream in my doughnut was curdled. I threw them to the Sarlacc.

LynnRodz said...

Amanda, did you hear that through the Carkoon grapevine? Well, it's true! Janet will be the banquet speaker for Midwest Writers Workshop 2015. The title of her speech is: Forget Kindergarten, Everything I Know About Publishing I Learned From Jack Hanna.

Apparently there's a 10 foot snake autographed by Lee Child in there somewhere. Oh, did I forget to mention, the snake is stuffed and not a real one because Lee Child said that goes beyond his author duties signing real snakes. Janet was disappointed, but what could she do? There are limits, you know.

Anonymous said...

Aw! :( But snakes are cool! I would definitely sign a snake!

Remember that for when I'm a *coff* rich'n'famous *coff* author and you all come to my international book signings :D I expect at least one of you to bring me a snake.

Slightly more on-topic, I guess there's a lot that's changing in the publishing world RE: contracts as the publishing world tries to get the best out of ebooks, enhanced ebooks, audiobooks, et al. It's good to know that contracts are still being negotiated, however. Sometimes all I hear is the bewailing of unnegotiable boilerplates, and it's nice to know that it ain't necessarily so.

Lynn- thanks for the croissant! I'm here munching on it as I type. Those specks you see are the crumbs.

Rakie said...

Spooky. For some reason i was really craving a croissant for lunch, before i even read this post. Are the commentators here so attuned they're broadcasting a hive-mind?? :)

Colin Smith said...

Rakie: You should know the answer to that. If not, just wait... it'll come to you. ;)

Anonymous said...

Those last four bullet points were PAINFUL to read.

I'm shocked someone would try to pull such a stunt. And I'm more shocked that she must have assumed she'd get away with it.

There's plenty of boilerplate in record contracts, but unless you're already selling 50,000 albums a year, you'd have a better chance of finding a dinosaur at the zoo than arguing your way out of it. I like that the 'unknown potential' quality of a new author has its own inherent worth in bargaining. I think that's how it should be. But this also makes me wonder...

Janet, how often do big deals with big advances end up hopelessly unrecouped? I think you've mentioned in publishing this doesn't fall back on the author, nor on the authors future works, but I'm just wondering if a large number of new authors signing six-figure or big deals end up performing much closer to all the other debut authors.

I know, I know... it's Thursday and Janet mentioned in the WIR that there'd be a writing contest this week (so probably tomorrow) but I had to ask! :)

Colin Smith said...

LynnRodz: I believe Janet schedules these posts, which is why she knows what's coming up this week. Which also means she has probably scheduled tomorrow's contests, so I doubt "dongle" will be one of the words. Aren't you glad? :)

Colin Smith said...

Contests? I meant contest! :)

Theresa said...

Another good question that reinforces the need to be honest in professional dealings. Don't hold back information on your writing from your editor, then she will be able to negotiate the best contract possible.

Last week I picked up a quart of coffee and donuts ice cream because it reminded me of Dunkin Donuts. Though I'm a big fan of all three (coffee, donuts, ice cream), they do not work well together here.

Jenz said...

At Carkoon's Dunkin Donuts, all the donuts are pre-licked by Ariana Grande.

Megan V said...

Another great post on how the world of publishing is navigated and negotiated and why an agent is vital to the process.

As to those last bullet points though...well...writers that shoot themselves in the foot should not expect to walk away unscathed just because they have an agent.

LynnRodz said...

WR, your welcome, I had two! I couldn't help myself the croissants were so light and airy and still warm straight from the oven.

Rakie, we'll even tell you what you'll want for dinner tonight if you like.

Brian, I think it all depends on your contract. For example, there is what's called joint accounting rather than separate accounting. If I understand correctly (Janet can correct me if I'm wrong) let's say you have a 2 book deal that allows joint accounting in your contract. This allows the publisher to apply all the earnings received from both book to the advance that was granted. If the book deal allows separate accounting, then each book's earnings apply only to that particular advance.

In other words, if you have joint accounting, you're not going to receive royalties until both books earn out the advance. If you have separate accounting and one of the books earns out, you'll begin to receive royalties on that one book even though the other book still needs to earn out. Obviously, an author would prefer separate accounting.

Oh yeah, don't mention dinoaurs please. I'm still mad at Colin for torturing me with the dino porn I had to edit.

Colin, I know, but today Janet posted hours earlier than usual. Now that I think about it, poor Janet. She can't do anything out of the norm without all of us (me) commenting on it and wondering what's going on.

Eww, Jenz, you had to go there?!

Colin Smith said...

LynnRodz: Perhaps she's trying to accommodate people who don't live in Eastern Shark Time, and are up before the sun rises over Manhattan by scheduling them earlier. That's what I do anyway: I schedule my blog articles for 3 am Eastern Time. That's about 12 am Pacific, and 8 am GMT.

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Bullet point #4, Tom Foolery.
I dated him. He had a sister named Jeez Louise and a brother named Harry Cary. Hahahahaha. Notice I didn't LOL, don't want any confusion.
Gee, I miss being part of the clan, (cult), today. I'm typing on my Kindle rear-view mirror screen, it sux. Anyway my break is over and it's back to work.

Donnaeve said...

Geez. I've got to either get better at proof reading or expand my window so I don't cc/paste crap in the wrong area.

Trying this again.

This (timestamp 4:16 a.m. by DeadEyeSpider) after 2N's said posts were coming at 7:30??? I think QOTKU is trying to keep us on our toes. Or maybe trying o accommodate all time zones like Colin said. Or putting the 7:00/7:30 competition to rest. Or..., I have no idea really.

As to the post, I also have no idea why a writer wouldn't disclose they'd already self-published a book they were querying. I thought about how this might have gone down while I made a rhubarb pie this morning. Baking is a meditative activity for me. It's also why I run. What a vicious cycle. Anyway, as I'm rolling out the pie crust, I went through this thought process.

Maybe the writer was stunned into speechlessness when offered representation by QOTKU, and all her brain matter went SPLAT, on the floor. After she'd gathered it all back up and crammed it back into her noggin', maybe she knew she ought to tell La Sharque, but as time went on, she became more afraid because, NOW the book was on submission. Maybe it was under a different title and she figured she could skate by and it wouldn't be noticed. Which introduces this question - how did the editor find out it was out there? Do editors sleuth the internet looking for self-pubbed books on submission?

This is truly perplexing to me. What a HARD lesson to learn for her. Now, this next question, is she "blackballed?" Will another agent ever work with her? I have to think so..., I mean, we all make mistakes. I think it's important to understand was this deliberate or just ignorance?

Last, the way ya'll go on about Carkoon reminds me of that exercise we used to do in school where someone makes up a sentence, writes it on a piece of paper, and it gets passed around to the rest of the class who add their own sentence, building out a story. Then the teacher read it. They were always, always surprising and hilarious!

Colin Smith said...

Donna: .... sorry, did you say something? I didn't get past rhubarb pie. Mmmm... I LOVE rhubarb, but have it so rarely these days. Are you making custard to go with it? That would be awesome!! Can you send some this way? :)

LynnRodz said...

Donna, I'm easy. No custard for me, just a slice of rhubarb pie. Mmm, I love RP. Yeah, I know, I already had two croissants this morning, but I'm going to run (*cough-cough* pats self on the back) this evening, so it's all right.

Christina Seine said...

Holy cow, that was some tiny print.

Also, I Lots-of-Loved "LiSP LLC." Janet do these things just roll right off the top of your fin or do you think of them ahead of time and put them on your dongle for such auspicious moments as this?

Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash is now going through my head, by the way. Wall of Voodoo did an excellent rendition as well, but you just can't one-up the Man in Black.

Regarding the actual topic at hand (literally, because I had to hold the screen right up to my face to read it) (see what I did there?): I wonder what happens to said books once taken off the market in accordance with said contract. Do they just ... go away? Are they relegated to a vault somewhere in Area 51? Are they re-worked into reality TV shows for NatGeo?

I read "Food Trucks of Carkoon" by the way, before it was remade into that movie with Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. In the book though, it was not "fava beans and a fine Chianti" but "lima beans and a cranky auntie." That's Hollywood for you.

Panda in Chief said...

You all are so funny. It's probably my fault that Janet posted so early, because I sent my question in so late from the outer western edge of the crumbling continent, thinking she was off work for the evening and wouldn't read my question(s) till the next day.
I'm in a rather different genre universe than you all, as I write and draw panda satire cartoons rather than actual text based novels. Self publishing is more the norm in comics because they have much more niche audiences than say, thrillers or romance.
Panda satire does have a small following, oddly enough, and if I were ever lucky enough to snare ( I meant entice) an agent I would definitely reveal all of my previous (5 and counting) comics collections.

Meanwhile, I would really like a croissant now or maybe a donut with chocolate frosting. Pandas love donuts. Or maybe some of that rhubarb pie. I'm easy.

Dena Pawling said...

Donna - if QOTKU ever offered me rep, you can bet your right arm that my brains (what little is left of them) would be floor-bound along with my jaw and various other body parts. Probably my entire body, fainted dead away. This would of course have immediately followed a scream which set off car alarms all over the state. For sure I'd need a new phone, having dropped this one and/or placed it on a pedestal in a vacuum-sealed room, surrounded by flower petals and lit candles.

There is NO WAY I would risk losing that offer of rep by hiding ANYTHING from ANY agent who offered me rep. How long and hard do we work at getting that offer, only to mess it up by doing something like that?

*shudders*

That definitely would have been a scary conversation - "Hi, this is Janet. We need to have a serious talk...."

Yikes.


Terri Lynn Coop said...

Discussions I've had with hybrids and former big house writers is always around non-compete clauses and self-pubbing. For example if my YA "Twister Meets The Breakfast Club With Shotguns" garners interest, will I be stopped from selfing the rest of the totally unrelated Juliana Martin series? Or my short historical romances set in Bleeding Kansas?

As for a previously self-pubbed work, only Hugh Howie can leave them up while agent negotiating. That's beyond tomfoolery.

Now, before I get back to work . . . *glasses on nose* *schoolmarm expression* Lexan is bullet-resistant, not bullet-proof. That cracked me up. When I was in the industry I was corrected about 3 times a day until I developed a twitch.

And now I want a croissant . . .

Terri

Colin Smith said...

Christina: Have you ever seen a shark with a dongle? I can't believe you even suggested such a thing on Janet's blog. Shocked. If you weren't already on Carkoon... I guess you'll be rinsing out the slush pile tonight! :)

TLC: I've read DEVIL'S DEAL, btw. Bought and read, in fact. I figured why not? It's TLC, it can't be bad! And I wasn't at all disappointed. It's one thing to write great flash fiction, but another to write a cracking good novel. Lots of twists and turns, and the finale with Juliana and the knife and... eeek!! Great work, my friend! :)

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

Competition clause or no, I know it can be a concern if there are characters from one work who appear in another. As a delicate woodland creature, I was sensitive to the possible pitfalls of that. As a very pleased with herself smilodon, one of my werewolves appears in the novel I'm querying. She isn't named, but I know who she is, and I feel like readers of both works will recognize her. As a reader, I like it when I find that kind of in joke. As a compliant woodland creature, I would certainly put this information on my customs declaration form as early as possible.

Food Trucks of Carkoon? Maybe you can get Anthony Bourdain to blurb it. He loves food trucks, it seems.

Christina Seine said...

Colin, wait .... *rinsing* out the slush pile?
You mean, I'm not supposed to *drink* it?

Oh dear. =\

So sharks don't have dongles. Huh. I was pretty sure I saw that in a commercial once. Unless ... maybe that was Pringles?

I actually saw a shark with a *dangle* once. We were scuba diving off the coast of Mexico and our guide brought us a helluvalot closer to a "sleeping" nurse shark than I was at all comfortable with. It had a sort of dangly thing hanging from it, but there was no way I was going to get close enough to see what it was (because I'd assumed sharks didn't have dangly parts, but anyway). Because anyone who reads this blog know that sharks don't sleep. Not *really.*

Donnaeve said...

Ah, Colin, custard. Custard. Rhubarb Pie. Custard. Rhubarb Pie. Custard. Rhubarb Pie. Custard. Rhubarb Pie. Custard. Rhubarb Pie. Custard.

Colin?

I've hypnotized him. He's still up at the top line reading.

Rhubarb is not considered a southern food, but it arrived here in the south sometime ago - or maybe it's just my mother's northern roots that brought it here for us. My aunt in Connecticut grew it, and I remember visiting her on our way to Maine, and helping her pick it. I thought it was red celery.

Lynn - soon as the freeze dried ice arrives, pie is on it's way! Camouflaged packaging - so Colin doesn't eat it all!

Donnaeve said...

Dena, I understand completely. I still can't find my head/brain when I email/talk to my agent - and I've been with him for over three years. I keep thinking I'll settle down - hasn't happened yet.

Miz b - if you can keep Colin off the pie, you're more than welcome to a slice!

Christina, methinks that was a remora on the sharkie.

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

Of interest to the blog, though off topic:#SharkBooks is trending on Twitter. The example I saw was "Eat, Prey, Live"

Anonymous said...

"prequels and sequels shall not be deemed derivative works"

Could those previously self-pubbed books be considered prequels or sequels?

This is very interesting. In my own series, I have short stories from the same series, with the same characters, that I've been submitting to short story markets. None of them even mention the events of the first novel of the series (which is the novel I've been shopping around.) Would these be considered under the 'prequels and sequels'? I've always considered the possible sales of these items to be more promotion and gaining a readership than a conflicting interest.

Not that I've sold any yet. I still haven't found the short story market and editor that are a good fit for my stories.

If the sales do happen, I will definitely mention them to my future agent - in my query letter.

Ann: Regarding 'dictating the rules': Most of the rules I've seen (and I've seen a lot) are simple business practices that it seems many writers don't understandh, such as writing a business letter short and to the point, or sending the letters to the right person. Of course, query letters are also marketing letters, making them trickier (and even more important).

Publishing is a business. There are contracts in every manner of business. We all sign a contract when accepting a job offer, and that contract has terms and responsibilities for both the employer and the employee. While most probably never consider negotiating that contract (how many of us do consider doing that, in any profession?), the opportunity was there.

It does seem at times as if the publisher has entirely too much power in a contract, but so do many employers. No one *has* to sign a contract. Nor do they have to sign a contract as given - much is open to negotiation. But contracts are meant to give each party something they want: "I'll let you publish my book in exchange for royalties and an advance" & "I'll give you royalties and an advance for the honour of publishing your novel". Or, "I'll pay you this much money to do this work for me" & "I'll do this work for you, and you'll pay me this much money".

Donna: If you could make that rhubarb pie gluten-free, I'll buy two of them off you. Or one virtual slice. Virtual food has no gluten.

ReCaptcha gave me salads again. I hate salad. Donna, may please have a double helping of ice cream on top of that virtual pie slice, to get the sour lettuce taste out of my mouth?

Colin Smith said...

mmmm... salad... I love salad... and rhubarb... 8-D

Panda in Chief said...

Why does captcha always give me boring numbers and not pie or even salad? And Donnaeve, if you you knew my real instead of virtual self, you would know that no one, not even Colin could get between me and a rhubarb pie.

I once (and never again) got involved with a reproduction print house to produce posters of several of my paintings. I spent all of my advance on a lawyer who looked over the contract, and the publishing house got very huffy about her contract corrections even though as written, it said that I couldn't use similar or derivitive imagery in other print work. At the time I was doing a lot of hand pulled etching which, of course had similar imagery.
They got so snarky about it that they never promoted my work, so I had to sit on doing any other reproduction type work, but at least I had the "similar imagery" clause out of the contract. Oh, and I did have an agent, and she went to work for the print company and so was no help. I fired her, natch, or she fired me for not caving to the publisher who was now her employer.
Needless to say, I would reveal all to an agent and would read the contracts very carefully.

As my lawyer says, it's not what they SAY the contract says in a discussion, but what is actually WRITTEN in the contract.

Now I will quit worrying my fuzzy little head about this until I have several pieces of that rhubarb pie.

Anonymous said...

I'll save my salad for you, Colin. I'll trade it for... well, just about anything will be a step up from salad.

This time it wanted me to choose ice cream. I could swear, though, that one of the choices was really custard...

It's true! ReCaptcha really does pay attention to what we're saying! *cue Twilight Zone music*

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

Hi, bye, on break. Rhubarb, raw, dipped in sugar, I sorta-useta like it. But watch out, the leaves are POISON.

Karen McCoy said...

Negotiate. Always negotiate. It often turns out better than you think it will.

And I'm with Christina on the question of happens to the previously pubbed books. Area 51? Or perhaps the Bermuda Triangle?

Anonymous said...

OK, so I know the post says NOT to worry about contract terms until you have an offer. Which I sort of take to mean we should worry incessantly, just in case . . .

No, seriously, I have a question about this. What if a writer gets a two book deal and both books get published (see how cavalier I'm being about that? like it could happen?) and maybe things don't go as well as the publisher expected and they decide not to offer a contract for anything further from that writer. In the meantime, the writer has written a third book, maybe even a fourth, and they are absolutely similar material on the same topic, with recurring characters. Or maybe things didn't go as well as the writer had hoped and she wants to find a different publisher or even self-publish the related books. Is the writer then stuck complying with a non-compete clause and those books are dead in the water, forever?

And I'm NOT WORRYING about this. Just curious. Since you brought it up.

Now I'm hungry for the strawberry-rhubarb crumble my mom used to make. We'd eat it hot out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream melting all over the top of it.


Off topic and crossing platforms: Carolynn, thank you for the compliment. Made my entire week.




Christina Seine said...

Donna, ah a remora! That must have been it. Of course!

*Googles remora*

remora (n) 1. my favorite character from Firefly (which was/is awesome and should never have been cancelled THANK YOU VERY MUCH. 2. that nasty white chemical stuff you put in your coffee when your kids use up all of the delicious International Delights French Vanilla stuff (aka "heroin"). 3. a wee sucker fishie that latches on to a shark in order to feed off the morsels it provides.

*blinks*

Not. Sayin. Nuthin.

Karen McCoy said...

Just started Firefly, Christina. Loving. It. Saw the movie Serenity years ago, and I'm incredibly delayed in getting caught up.

Christina Seine said...

I WILL say that when I look out my kitchen window I see eight humongous rhubarb plants just begging to be cut. Usually I harvest, chop, add strawberries or raspberries and can the stuff. My 7yo eats the stalks RAW (eewwww). Yes the leaves are poison, but I've watched moose eat them on more than one occasion.

Christina Seine said...

Karen, isn't it awesome? =D

Donnaeve said...

Christina - hedge your bet towards the wee sucker fishies, sort of like dangling fishies...not to be confused with dangling participles.

I have no idea about the other two offerings.

Miz b - oooooh! A mystery. Now, why am I thinking you're a professional baker....

LynnRodz said...

Miz "b", sorry the croissants went like hotcakes this morning, but thank goodness Donna decided to make a rhubarb pie today.

Btw, Donna, I kept an eye out for the FeL-Ix* truck and the pie arrived in record time. Thanks for shipping it so quickly. I wasn't about to let Colin Smith confiscate my pie. A good thing too, yours was one of the best I've ever eaten.

*Those Buttonweezers have their fingers in every pie.

Gingermollymarilyn said...

Snakes: My yoga instructor's body moves like a snake. Gliding effortlessly from one pose to the next, contorting and slithering. Really a beautiful thing to watch.

@ Colin - Lucky (?) sharks have two dongles!

Donuts: I'll have a George-Clooney-licked-stawberry-iced donut

Carolynnwith2Ns said...

I want some of kdjames's mom's crumble, warm and with the ice cream. And you're most welcome for the compliment, you deserve it, heel well my friend.

This post has me a bit concerned regarding my practices. Actually I think I'll email my laundry to the reef-master rather then hang it on the line for all to see.



Donnaeve said...

Ginger Mollymarilyn - let me pull this one out - LOLOLOLOL!

Lynn, phew! I'm sure I saw Colin lurking behind a sand dune on Carkoon's Webcam, hoping to waylay the driver.

Colin Smith said...

Ginger: I'm staying away from you and Christina and your shark dongle comments--that's dangerous water you're swimming... :)

Panda in Chief said...

Donnaeve, no, I'm not a professional baker or a professional eater for that matter. :-) I was very sorry ti miss the croissants, Lynn. But the pie was most excellent. I'm wondering if Felix Buttonweezer has ever worked at one of the panda ranches in China. I thought I noticed a suspicious amount of black and white hairs on his jacket last time I ran into him in line at the food truck on Carkoon.

My comics are all about recurring characters. I have a WIP that is a graphic novel panda satire mystery, at middle grade level. But many of the characters in the GN are regular characters in my weekly cartoons posted on my blog/website.

Amy Schaefer said...

First, a bit of housekeeping: Julie, your Jailhouse Ice Cream was a hit. It took a couple of days to go from a pudding-like consistency to "ice cream," but that likely had to do with the aged UHT heavy cream I had to use (the last of my supply). Luckily we are a patient folk (by necessity if not by nature), and the ice cream turned ice creamy in the end. The kids and husband loved it.

Back on topic, I'm left wondering why people don't share information with their agent. I'd like to think it is simple ignorance rather than a darker impulse. But really, people. Just put it out there. Your agent can't work in the dark. Put another way, your agent can't help you solve a problem she doesn't know you have.

I heard rumours of a contest tomorrow. I'll be ready!

Colin Smith said...

Amy: I can only imagine some people have difficulty with the idea of the agent as the author-advocate. Maybe they see the agent as just another industry pro, a necessary evil, not to be trusted lest they get taken for a ride..? I can't think why else they wouldn't share as much info as possible.

Karen McCoy said...

Christina: So much yes!

Anonymous said...

Speaking of snakes (someone mentioned snakes), and of Colin's favourite mind-cleaner, here is a fluffy bunny:

Cute mother rabbit goes after snake that killed her babies (There's a story in there somewhere.)

Colin Smith said...

bj: Wow! See--fluffy bunnies trump dongles and sentient wotsits anyday! :)

Colin Smith said...

Just a quick reminder: competition weekends present a great opportunity to visit fellow commenters (and even a few lurkers). Click on the link on the top right of the blog to see where you can find us all! :)

Jennifer R. Donohue said...

bj: That's some Watership Down stuff right there. Poor baby bunnies :(


I missed in the WiR that there was going to be a contest! I'm excited (though Camp NaNoWriMo is taking up most of my headspace....there's a new short story that's intruding. But, up to 20,154 words!)

Her Grace, Heidi, the Duchess of Kneale said...

1. I love Firefly. Cancellation was a crime.
2. I hate rhubarb. Sorry.
3. I spent my college years with the devilbunnies. Fun bunch.
4. I want croissants now. I can't have croissants, so I give you Katharine Hepburn's Brownie Recipe. Baking in my oven right now. Home made ice cream pending.
5. Am considering a standalone prequel and sequel to my fantasy trilogy currently on the agent train. Will have to mention to the lucky soul who becomes my agent. Also wondering where the line is between an agent's, "I wish you'd told me that," and "I wish you didn't tell me that."

Her Grace, Heidi, the Duchess of Kneale said...

6. The LD-50 for rhubarb leaves is much, much higher for moose than it is for humans.

Gingermollymarilyn said...

@ Donna Eve - Thanks, and right back atcha, regarding this phrase when speaking of 'dongles!' - "let me pull this one out" LMAOO!!

@ Colin - To live life is to "live dangerously!"