You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2012.
My family survived Frankenstorm Sandy. We were extremely lucky and did not lose power or property.
Hope everyone who was affected by the storm is safe and well. And that the recovery process is faster than from Irene.
If you aren’t on the east coast, I hope you have a terrific night of trick and treating.
So you’ve finished a manuscript and polished it up. Your ready to submit but you have no idea who to submit to. Your at the gate like this lovely goat, trying to break through to the other side.
I’ve been here a while too. I’ve put together spreadsheets of agents for my YA and adult manuscripts. So here are my tips on how to build a nice list of agents to query.
- Start with Agent Query and/or Query Tracker. These are databases of agents that can be sorted by genre. I prefer Query Tracker because it creates a spreadsheet-style list that includes who is and isn’t taking submissions and if it’s via email or snail mail. These are very big picture so the research doesn’t stop here.
- If you’re writing YA, check out Literary Rambles blog for in-depth profiles on agents. These profiles include links to interviews and articles and give real insight into the agents. Some of the agents also take adult so it’s worth perusing their profiles if you have a list of agent names from Query Tracker.
- Subscribe to the Guide to Literary Agents blog. Chuck Sambuchino has alerts and overviews of new agents seeking new authors.
- If you’ve read a book similar to yours, look in the acknowledgements and see who the agent is. Target them for your query list.
- Conduct a quick Google search on the agent’s name. Click on a few links and research the agent. If there is an Absolute Write thread about them, pop over and see what was said. Sometimes an agent changes agencies, retires, passes away, or does something shady–people come here to find answers and share info.
- Go to the Preditors and Editors website and verify that the agent/agency has no reported issues.
- This is most important: Make sure you visit the agency’s website and adhere to their submission guidelines. This is the most updated spot for an agency address and submission format. It supersedes what is written anywhere else.
Those are all absolutely free ways to find an agent. If you have some money to spend, I recommend adding a few more.
- Attend a conference. There are usually several agents and editors at local conferences and then you can submit to them and rise to the top of their slush pile because you can reference the conference. To get you started, there are a few conferences in the column to the left of my blog post.
- Pick up a copy of the Guide to Literary Agents book or subscribe to their online version (it’s a massive directory of agents compiled by Writer’s Digest).
I’d love to hear how you go about targeting agents. And please let me know if I left anything out. 
This has been a heck of a week. But I stumbled upon an excellent and inspiring post on writing from a terrific writer and blogger, Audrey Kalman. If you’ve had ups and downs and you need a pick me up about your writing life, check out Audrey’s post…
It definitely inspired me. Cue the Rocky music. Now where are my boxing gloves?
Thank you to the most amazingly supportive blog commenters! Seriously, you guys were a huge part in my recovery.
It took me two days to regroup. The first few hours I was inconsolable. I cried on and off for 7 hours. The next few were devoted to hopelessness. Wallowing in the pointlessness of all that I do.
A breakup. That’s what this felt like. It took me two days to realize the agent dumped me. While I thought we were moving in together, she was just having fun.
I’ve had lots of rejection in my query wars. Had dozens of fulls requests end in rejection. I’ve learned to handle it.
But this time someone asked for the full, gave me revision notes, then dumped me.
That had never happened before.
And I wasn’t prepared for it.
I thought if I made it this far, probability was on my side.
But I forgot.
Life doesn’t work that way.
At least not for me.
But it’s exhausting to be depressed.
Luckily, 48 hours later, anger came calling. Tidal waves of rage. Floods of frustration. A desire to prove this agent wrong.
I sent out submissions to editors and queried new agents.
I took action. And it felt AMAZING. To not be beaten down anymore.
But it was just part of my natural progression.
Rejection hurts. It makes you doubt yourself. It paralyzes you. It sucks all hope out of you.
But that passes. And then anger fills the void. It drives you to act. To move forward again.
I believe in this book. I believe in me. And that’s enough for now.
And I’ll keep writing and querying and submitting until I win this query war.
I was so excited in May when a huge agent requested my full. I was delighted two weeks later when her assistant praised my novel and sent me two pages of editorial notes. I was determined to get to work when she said my take on the underlying issues and possible solutions seemed fine.
I spent the next 3 months revising. I incorporated all the things I’d laid out in my reply to her feedback. I felt so excited. This was the best book I’d ever written. My crit partner loved it. I loved it.
And then I sent it off last week. The waiting began, but I was relieved to have time to devote to chores and finding a part-time job. I was on a mini-break from writing. Three days later, the agent wrote me back.
I saw her email in my inbox and thought OMG, 3 days–she must like it.
WRONG.
She didn’t like it.
In fact, she listed new issues she never touched on in her previous letter and made it sound like I ignored them. No. This was the first time she ever broached the topic.
All her previous emails had exclamation points and were so positive. This one was business-like and cold.
Like I was called to the principal’s office. It was humiliating.
All the hope drained out of me.
I reached mile 25 in a marathon and was told to start all over again.
It all feels completely pointless.
Like I will never be a published writer.
Like I’m the stupidest most delusional person in the world.
Like this was the dumbest undertaking of my existence.
My stomach devours itself. My heart aches, like an invisible hand is squeezing all the blood out of it.
I’m scrambling to process this.
I had a plan to start revising my next book, but that has to be delayed. I can’t approach it with anything resembling hope. All hope has fled. And until it returns everything I do is pointless.
I sent my revised manuscript to the agent on Sunday.
1000 lbs off my shoulders.
And Monday morning I faced a new unknown…
What comes next.
I still had blog posts and social media stuff to do.
But this was a week without drafting or revising. A week off from novel writing.
So I started with shaving my legs and taking out the garbage.
Things I neglected during my writing.
I walked the dog.
I called all the doctors I needed to make appointments with.
I scheduled a 4-day trip to NY to see them and my friends.
And I finally deleted all the junk in my old email account.
Then I got to work. Because I can’t not work.
I started drafting a list of editors and agents to query when I finish revising my next book, a YA fantasy.
Prep work. Groundwork for the next novel.
Because it is always good to be prepared.
And though the waiting is hard, I’m going to do what I always do: keep moving forward.
Boyfriends bring several things to the table: emotional, mental and physical connections.
Friends don’t. Friends only bring emotional and/or mental connections. So they’ve gotta be stellar at maintaining those connections.
They can’t off-set their deficiencies with sex.
Boyfriends can.
But take away that magic maker and they’d never meet the minimum threshold for friendship.
That’s why boyfriends will never ever be friends after a breakup. They aren’t worthy of the title.
Also there’s that pesky problem of backsliding. No matter how much you think you’re over each other, inevitably one of you will backslide.
Then you’re in a mudslide of emotional muckiness.
Either way a rollicking disappointment.
Better to cut the cord and move forward.
Some of my best life lessons came from Japanese manga and anime. During the worst of my back injury, I inhaled them. There’s not much to do when you can’t sit. Most avenues of time spending are cut off–no dining out, no going to the movies. So you learn to distract yourself with what remains.
For me, it was manga and anime. Some of the phrases forever imprinted on me. They became my rallying calls. Even now, I still invoke them.
“Live the life you want.”
“Hold on to your dreams, tomorrow knows where and when.”
“You are not alone.”
Powerful moments in beautiful stories that I treasured. Life lesson imparted not through personal experience, but by immersing myself in their story world.
Any great story quotes you absorbed into your life?
The second hardest part of revising?
Battling my inner critic, Miranda.
It’s been 10 weeks since I started on this re-vision of my manuscript. Drafting new scenes, reworking old scenes into an alternate POV.
10 weeks of hearing Miranda say I can’t do this. Or it won’t be good enough.
She swore I’d ruin the book.
Every time she said I couldn’t, every time she made me fear I’d never write another decent word, I sat down at my laptop and faced the fear.
Just work on this chapter, this scene, this sentence.
Eventually, I got so immersed in the words, my characters drowned out Miranda.
I forgot to worry about failing. I forgot about finding the right way and let the story guide me. I fell in love with my novel all over again.
And I promised my characters that I would write the absolute best book I could for them.
As I proofread the manuscript for the last time, fear seizes me. What if it’s not good enough? What if it isn’t what the agent envisioned? I swear Miranda is cackling somewhere.
It’s the best thing I’ve written. And that counts. That matters. No matter what Miranda says. No matter what happens next, I’m proud of the book I have in front of me.
Kourtney 1 Miranda 0
As I’m finishing up revisions on my manuscript, I needed a shot of August’s infectious positivity. This is one of my favorite posts by her and I’ve wanted to share it for a while. Please enjoy:
http://augustmclaughlin.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/daydreams-really-do-come-true/
