In the grand scheme of things, writing the novel is supposed to be the hard part. Compared to writing my query letter, writing the novel felt normal. Easy. It took me just over two weeks of daily hacking at the keyboard (and, let’s be honest, more than a little bit of anguish) to get it right. I ended up running it by twice as many beta readers as my novel…
Before I begin, let’s get something straight: there’s no “typical path to publication.” There’s only what happens to you, when it happens to you. Remember, this is a business where the only effective marketing advice are dollar signs and shrug emojis. That said, my journey is actually fairly typical. I call publishing “the eye of Sauron,” because you’ll find yourself living through long stretches of time where nothing much is…
You know how they say you should never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear? I know why. It’s because if you poke around in there with something that actually fits, like a q-tip, you might slip up and accidentally jab yourself in the eardrum. Which is really painful. Much like querying. You can see where I’m going with this. I’ve been racking my brain to come…
While you know that I’m not the mushy type, I do tend to gush a bit when I’m asked about my agent. My agent rocks. Laney Katz Becker, of Lippincott Massie McQuilkin, has edited me, supported me, pushed me, consoled me, and made it clear all along the way that she’s in my corner. I found out the hard way, when my first novel didn’t sell, that Laney is a…
I’m sensing a pattern at the Ball this week and, as it turns out, I won’t be the one to break it. I, too, obtained my agent without a query – though I have several years (and four trunk manuscripts) worth of queries in my past, so I can speak to the topic from experience. Like Deb Kelly, I found the query an excellent vehicle for distilling my novel’s essence….
Queries. Ah, I have such fond memories of the query process. Formulating a hook. Trying to cram all of the important story elements into a paragraph so perfectly written that any agent could see this was the best and most wonderful book ever, an absolute must read. Such wonderful productive hours reading websites and databases to research agents, their wants, their likes and dislikes, what genres interested them, how they wanted their…
Queries, queries, queries. Every new writer gets all worked up over them. You think if you can just compose the elusive Magic Query, all your writing troubles will be solved. Agents will come knocking at your door, clamoring to represent you. Your only dilemma will be choosing the right one, the one who will get you that seven-figure advance (and the yacht, and the cabana boy, the maid, the butler,…
