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A PS to the above: I have in my entire career only ever approached an author once with a request to see work that hadn't been submitted to my wee house through the usual system. I'll go no further here than to say that he's an active and well-liked member of this forum.
The genre was not for me, but -- because I'd issued the invitation -- I felt duty-bound to move his full ms to the top of my in-tray and read it fully. TWICE. The genre is still not appropriate for BB (yet), but I'm in process of moving that superb piece of work to another publisher ... my first stab at agenting non-BeWrite material.
Never met this chap. We're thousands of miles apart according to the map. Swapped a few emails, yes. But it's not his presence that gripped me; it was simply his words on the screen and how the email exchange was subtly and expertly modified as we got to know each other. After all, that's how a writer aims to arrest and hold the attention of a whole mob of readers. If he can't intrigue me on a one-to-one basis, what chance has he got in a mass market of folks whose names he'll never hear?
Who-you-know is becoming less and less important, especially since 21st Century communication facilities are making international book fairs all but redundant. It's what you know and how you present your ideas that matters.
Cheers. Neil
A PPS to my PS:Book fairs redundant? The international London Book Fair was a huge flop this year because a volcanic ash cloud from the north grounded pretty well all flights into the UK capital. Agents, scouts, authors and publishers resorted to electronic pitching. Not effective? Guess what ... pre-bookings for the 2011 London Book Fair are at an all-time low now that cash-strapped companies have found that it's better to scrap the old-pals partying and get down to work. N
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