Another Assignment for the Class

Things are going well, according to the students, on the email assignment.  I believe that more than 400 emails have been sent to potential agents.  A few replies have been received already, but we'll cover those all at once.

We will be setting up a HALL OF SHAME for agents who are too busy to reply to email queries.  We'll allow agents EIGHT WEEKS to respond before they make the list.  Anyone who responds after being inducted into the HALL will be removed, but will receive a special induction into the Procrastinator's Wing of the Hall.

Meanwhile, I sent my class out on a little bit of an assignment.  Here's what I had them do.

1.  Go to the Library.
2.  Pick out four books, all fiction.
       a) one must be from the current NY Times or USA Today bestseller list
       b) one must be from their favorite author
       c)  one must be chosen at random from the shelves
       d)  one must be chosen at random from the new books shelf (published in the last four months)
3.  Photocopy the first page.  Look at the first paragraph.
4.  For each book, tell me from the first page only, WHY this book got published.

See, in my class, we not only WRITE fiction, we study fiction and publishing as well.

Those assignments are due next week.  I'll let you know how the kids did.