A New Year and a few concrete resolutions

Yes, my postings have been few … and no, I still haven’t found an agent. So here a few of my resolutions for 2011

• Rewrite query letter for finished novel
• Complete and polish second novel
• Post to writing blog at least once a week
• already doing that on my genealogy blog
• Get another short story published
• Cold Hard Steel accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of by Adventures for the Average Woman ezine and print magazine
• …and I’m sure I’ll think of several more over the next few weeks

In the upcoming weeks I’ll be blogging about agents, publications to submit stories to, contests, some video blogging, and much more

Self doubt and agony

Okay, so I promised myself that I wouldn't allow myself to feel down about my rejections. Unfortunately, after updating my list of submissions to agents to include big fat NOs on the queries that I haven't received a response on for months, where I must assume rejection, my rejection rate has increased all the way up to an earth-shattering 18. Clearly, my query letter wasn't good enough to generate any interest. And, yes, after reading Noah Lukeman's How to Write a Great Query Letter on my nook, I see some glaring issues with my query letter. Time for a rewrite.

Thinking out loud ... or in print

Well, anyone who has been keeping up with my blog knows that I am now up to 15 rejections - translation, 15 agents weren't enticed by my query letter. I know that there are many now-famous writers who were rejected many times (sometimes in the 100s) before an agent finally took an interested. So, I know rejections are to be expected. Still, I think It's time to revise my query before I go any further, so that this ...

... doesn't sit in this neat little pile forever

Before I exert too many brain cells in the painful process of rewriting my query, I'm doing some research on agents I might consider. Since each agency has it's own set of guidelines, it pays to study those before proceeding further.

Some agencies I'm considering querying in the future

There are literally hundreds and hundreds of agencies. Here are just a few agencies that consider fiction queries and represent the type of fiction I've written (suspense/thriller). Each agency has multiple agents, each with different interests. This is where it really pays to do your homework - who you send your query to can mean the difference between a request for more, or an outright rejection.

Zachary Shuster Harmsworth

This agency has offices in New York and Boston. There are eleven agents, each with different interests. They obtain most of their clients via recommendations - so, this one is a long, long shot. However, Esmond Harmsworth represents commercial and literary fiction. He may be a good agent to try. the worse that could happen is another rejection.

Waxman Literary Agency

This agency is located in New York, NY. There are five agents and the beauty of the website is that it gives exactly what the likes and dislikes of each agent are. I'm impressed with what I've seen on their website, so I might move them up to the top of the list when my query has been revised.

Spencerhill Associates

This agency is located in Chatham, NY. The website lists three agents. Their, very user-friendly website gives lots information and clear instructions. They represent commercial fiction and non-fiction. After reading the information posted on their site (as well as information that I found in Writer's Market, I think this agency should move to the top of this group.

Foundry Literary + Media

Located in New York, NY and has ten agents listed on the website. It's refreshing that this agency doesn't just ask for that pesky one page query, but also wants a synopsis, first three chapters, and an author bio. Although, I'm sure that a faulty query might make them lose interest in reading further (just my theory). Also a sampling of the books they represent shows a wide variety of interests. Definitely worthy of consideration.

Well, these are just a few agencies. There are so many yet to be discovered in the further adventures of this writer.

Video blog regarding query letter and synopsis

Here is another video blog. I am fairly new to this, hopefully my videos will continue to improve.

I give some reviews on books that are helpful with query letter and synopsis writing in this video blog post.



Well, it's always something isn't it.... my YouTube video was too large for the space allotted by the original blog page design. I changed backgrounds and now it almost fits, close enough.

A form rejection to my query ....

Woke up this morning and looked at my email and - tada! - there it was... yet another rejection letter. This time the rejection did not say "Dear Author." It didn't call me anything. There was no salutation at all. It did apologize, however, for being a form rejection. That leaves just one query letter out there without an answer. According to that agent's website, she only responds if she is interested in seeing more of your work ... so I must assume that I will likely never hear from her.

Time for another retooling of the query letter. I will also begin work on my synopsis today. I'll be using two books to help me do both of the above: Your Novel Proposal by Blythe Camenson and Marshall J. Cook and The Marshall Plan for Getting Your Novel Published by Evan Marshall. Though they give slightly differing advice, I'll try to pull out the best each has to offer. I also will consult a couple websites.

This 4th rejection got to me today - it created tremendous self doubt.

I know from my reading that many successful and/or famous authors have endured rejection and continued to soldier on. So, I went to google to search for some inspiration and came up with the following websites full of rejections - some of the rejections are laugh-out-loud funny

Famous Rejections by Susie Smith
James Patterson: first novel rejected 26 times by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Writers and rejection: don't give up by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

And I roll the dice one more time...

... actually will probably roll the dice until I get a yes from someone ... I may be as old and grey as Rip Van Winkle, but someone, someday will say yes...

Revised the query letter one more time and sent it and the first 5 pages to another agent. Keeping fingers crossed... Hope I don't get a form rejection so fast that I get whiplash.

one issue, then another...

I revised my query letter and, I must admit, the story sounds far more interesting. I sent the query out via email to another agent and am bracing myself for another rejection.

According to one source I read, if you continually query one agent at a time, it could take years before someone requests your manuscript. So, I will seek out agents who don't mind simultaneous submissions. For those who do mind, I will query them separately after rejections and before querying other agents.

One of the agencies that I am interested in querying requires a synopsis for the query package. Gulp ... a synopsis ...

.... more to come

To query or not to query, that is the question...

Having received my first rejection, I have some decisions to make. The first decision, to revise my query letter, is an easy one - it obviously needs to be revised. The second decision, who to query (agent(s)), is not an easy one. I'll deal with each issue separately.

Query revision:
I have read multiple books and websites and they all give different guidelines regarding the number of paragraphs and what to say in your query letter. Most agree that a query should be one page. Some say to use a standard three paragraph query, while others give examples of winning queries that were longer than, and more detailed than, the standard three paragraph query. Confusion abounds here. I recently read a query letter in the 2010 edition of Writer's Market - their example of a good query letter was one page, but consisted of eight paragraphs. So my trying to force everything I had to say into three paragraphs could have been my undoing (may have led to my first rejection).

Query to agents:
Some agents require exclusive submission while others state that they accept simultaneous submissions. Much as I would like to increase the statistical likelihood that an agent might want to see my entire manuscript by sending out multiple submissions, I must say I'm a one agent/one relationship-type. Which leads back to the first question: with each rejection, do you continue to revise your query letter?

UPDATE: Just created a submission tracker in excel so that I can keep track of submissions, rejections, and form rejection vs. rejection with comments.

First rejection

Got my first rejection today ... bummer. I only submitted to one agent so far. Back to the drawing board with the query letter - will have to spend some serious time retooling it... After I am satisfied taht my query has improved substantially, I'll try submitting to another agent.

Have reached the query stage

I finally completed the third and final draft of the novel. I crafted a query letter and have queried my first agent. I expect complete and utter failure in the form of a rejection. Therefore, if I receive a rejection, I'll only be marginally crushed. If I receive a request for the full manuscript, I will be dancing with joy.

Wish me luck.

Drum roll please ....

The second draft of the novel was finished on schedule and has just been through the hands of a trusted reader. The 3rd, and hopefully final, draft will be finished by this weekend.

What comes next? The dreaded query letter. How am I supposed to craft a beautiful query that summarizes my story's plot and gives a little information about me in a short, three paragraph query letter?

Must do some research on the topic. I would like to have a letter completed and ready to mail by Sunday night (2/7/10). I've already picked out the first agent that I plan to query.

Yikes!

A really good article about query letters can be found here: Agent Query