One of the hardest decisions to make as you start receiving feedback on agent submissions is whether you should stop querying and revise. The tricky part of the equation is that the publishing business is subjective, and it’s challenging to sort through the comments you’ve received and determine whether they’re leaning toward “Yes, you definitely…
querying
The Search for Solid Comp Titles
As writers, we’re often told to include comp (or comparative, for the non-writers) titles in our queries letters. But it’s tricky. These titles can’t be too well-known, or we’ll look ridiculous. Or arrogant. “I’ve written the next HARRY POTTER! HUNGER GAMES! TWILIGHT! DIVERGENT!” No. You haven’t. Sorry. Or even if you have, there’s no way…
5 Signs You Should (or Shouldn’t) Be Submitting/Tweeting Tomorrow
So there are a couple of amazing opportunities out there tomorrow for writers who have a manuscript ready to query. One is the incomparable Authoress’ new On the Block contest, a progression from her very popular Baker’s Dozen contest. The other is #PitMad, a twelve-hour pitch session that happens four times a year, dreamed up…
Quick Tip: What’s Happening on Page 20? 50?
A wise critique partner of mine once got to page fifty of one of my manuscripts and said, “Think about what’s happening here. This is page 50!” And although it was still a fairly early draft, I realized she was making an important point. When you’re ready to query a project, agents have varying submission…
What I’ve Learned in Four Years of Querying
It’s here! I have officially been querying for four years. (Actually it was July 11, but since that’s a Saturday this year, we’ll just consider it today.) And in a strange coincidence, four years ago I sent off my first round of queries and then we packed up and drove down to Springfield, Mo., to…
Why Subjectivity Is Your Friend
Like many writers, I have a love/hate relationship with the concept of subjectivity. It’s the indefinable reason for countless rejections in the publishing world, many of them even quite complimentary. It’s also the source of invaluable opinions from other writers who provide feedback on your work. (I’ve blogged on the benefits of multiple subjective opinions before.)…
Celebrating Three Years of Blogging! (and giving away books, of course)
I’ll pretty much take any excuse to celebrate, but this blog merits celebration for me anyway. I started it on May 2, 2012, to participate in The Writer’s Voice contest, and it’s been a fantastic outlet for me to talk about books I love and share my writing journey. I’ve been storing up a few…
A Prayer for My Future Agent
As a person of faith, prayer plays an important part in my life. I pray about pretty much everything, including my writing journey. I prayed about whether my manuscript was ready to query. I’ve prayed about when to wait and when to move forward. Most of all, I pray for patience. Lots of patience. Like,…
Revising from Public Critiques: Baker’s Dozen Edition
Hi everyone! I took Monday off from the blog due to Thanksgiving (which also happened to be my birthday), followed by Black Friday shopping and Christmas decorating. It was a crazy but fun-filled weekend. Oh, and I participated in a little contest called Baker’s Dozen. If you’re not familiar with this annual contest, it’s hosted…
How to Research Agents: Ready to Query
It’s here! The final post! When I started this series, I had no idea it would take so many weeks to get through populating an agent spreadsheet. Wait. That’s not true. I knew it took that long to do the research. I just didn’t realize it would take me that long to explain it. But…
How to Research Agents: Querying Rounds
Ah, querying strategy. There’s no right way to do this, as I’ve written about once before. I’ve had a couple of people comment on the fact that I have 25 columns in my spreadsheet. Well, I didn’t originally have so many columns at the front of the spreadsheet. I added more columns with successive manuscripts…
How to Research Agents: Fun with Statistics
In case you’re just joining this series, I started it because a writer queried me and brought it to my attention that some newer writers may not know how to build an agent spreadsheet. We’re now on the fifth post in the series (sixth if you count the one I’d written last year on finding…
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