In 2004, a fledgling writing teacher got busted giving this stunningly bad advice to fledgling writers about cover letters to publishers:"No awards? Ask your best friend—let's say her name is Martha Green—to give you the 1999 Martha Green Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fiction. What's the Martha Green Award worth? Not much, unless it entices an editor or agent to read your work."
That commentary inspired a bitter debate on the Making Light blog--a bustling writing site run by Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, two editors at the coolest fantasy publishing house in the world. It pays to heed Tersesa's warning:
"One of the pitfalls of the writing trade is that anyone who has basic writing chops can spout authoritative-sounding advice about the biz, even if he doesn't know a bare pope from a hole full of shinola."
That's why I spend almost 99 percent of my time pointing you towards Good People instead of my crackpot theories. In honor of my humble laziness, I would like to send you over to The Deep Blue Journal's mighty useful interview with fabulist Sarah Langan...
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