The Word Cloud

I just found this blog and had to share it with everyone. I think it's a case of how not to do it…

Thanks for this Spangles. I'd sadly enough just had a little cry at Forrest Gump and needed something like this to cheer me up. Hilarious! x

Brilliant!

And it just goes to show why on one hand it is sensible to take advice on how to submit, there's no point in getting too angsty about it: whatever you do it'll almost certainly be better than these!

I am just astounded that people would say some of these things to a potential agent... I suppose they were trying for irreverent, but just came across as idiots?

I do love the '100 pages' one, though. That's the kind of thing I would do... XD

It's that old truth that the really, truly ignorant in any part of life don't even know there's stuff to know.

It makes you wonder what their manuscripts are like. Hilarious.

"No, you've written a pamphlet." My sides hurt now.

Somewhere in the house I have an alternative to this. Rejection slips given to authors whose books subsequently got published and, in quite a few cases, the authors became famous.

I admit it - I laughed till tears rolled down my cheeks. Now I'm wondering. It's quite possible I sent submission letters every bit as stupid in my time.

I'm so glad everyone is enjoying them. What's even better is that they're added to each day. I particularly like this morning's offering.

A great coffee break, Spangles - thanks. I'm with Aonghus - hate to admit it, but I may have come perilously close to some of those, a while back. Oh, the shame.

There is an awful lot about the book trade which is counter-intuitive. Some of these, though very, very funny when you know anything about the trade, would be perfectly sensible approaches in other industries. Some are clearly just foolish by any measure.

Haha i'm only 17 and even I know these are just ridiculous.

I love the wonderful arrogance on display on those. It is comfortable to know you could do a lot worse.

I sent out my first novel with a rubbish covering letter. (Would have been a good letter in my old industry - investment banking - but I hadn't quite understood the different mores). I have to say tho that at the WW we've seen everything. I mean everything. Client confidentiality wouldn't allow us to release snippets, but we have had some truly remarkable emails in the past.

Of course, nearly all our clients are very clever, literate and lovable people. 99.9% of them, anyway ...

An excellent start to my day!..I loved the entry for June 16th..*chortle*

I think the entry for June 19th is my favourite.

"If you'd like me to consider representing you, go to it'sgonnabeacolddayinhell.com" - I'm off there right now!

it'sgonnabeacolddayinhell.com appears to really exist. Marion, did you buy any of those T Shirts?

Otherwise this is priceless, I am particularly taken with June 17th.

Yes I did Alan. I bought the one that says 'Talented Writer' on the front and 'WAHAHA' on the back. I'm not sure what WAHAHA is supposed to mean but I figured it was an acronym for something really cool.

I have this link saved to favourites and thought I'd post to bump it up to the front page once more - new joiners may not have had the chance to read these gems. He doesn't post so often now - perhaps once a week? But still some guilty pleasures to be had from reading.