The Query Process

            There are many writers who complain about the query process and, while I don’t join them, I can hardly blame them. It’s a long and arduous process that, in the end, often results in feeling like all that time was wasted. Yet, it is the most important step for someone who wants to get published – even more important than writing a book in the first place.

            It all starts with writing a query letter and, let me tell you, there is very little that is as stressful as that. You have roughly 300 words in which you have to introduce yourself and describe your book while having to make it sound as interesting and unique as you possibly can. Not only that, but you have to do it with the pressure of knowing that the entire fate of your book hangs on this letter.

            Next comes the research. You need to find agents and/or publishers to send your letter to – specifically ones who would be interested in publishing your book. There are various sites to help with this, but I've discovered that there’s no all-inclusive list. You also need to check up on their backgrounds to make sure they’re legitimate – there are many people out there who would love to take advantage of an unsuspecting author and all their hard work.

            Then you need to find out how to submit your work to them. Some of them only accept e-mails, others only snail mail. Some of them want only a query letter, others want samples of your work and a synopsis of the whole book (another nightmare to write) or any combination of the three.

            Finally you get to send the letters out – being sure to personalize them to each agent/publisher you are sending them to. There is some debate on the need to do this; I read one article by an agent that it takes so much time that she doesn't think authors should need to add it to their workload, while I've seen more often that it’s essential because it shows you really want to work with the person.

            Once the letters are sent, you wait.

            Sometimes the replies come quickly, sometimes not. The average response time is four weeks to three months. That is, if they respond at all, which a number specifically say they don’t.

            When the response comes, it is usually a form-rejection letter – pre-typed and sent with a click of a button. After all that work, this is a huge let-down. Not only is it hard on the self-confidence, but it feels cold and impersonal. You just want to ask them, “What did I do wrong? Tell me what to fix and I’ll fix it!” But if you do your research properly, you’ll know you’re not supposed to. So, you’re just left wondering if you’re actually good enough while you wait for the next response to come in.

            Now, while I’d love to hear back personally from every agent I've queried, I fully understand why this is their process. Some agents get as many as 300 books submitted in the span of a week. 300! Per week! Out of that, they end up representing 2-10 new books in a year. It’s little wonder they don’t have time to respond personally to everyone.

            But, once in a while, they do. Their feedback is usually as brief as a form rejection, but you know they’re talking specifically to you. I received one of these this past week and I can honestly say that the only thing that could have made me happier would have been if the agent had wanted to represent my book. She told me that my story was strong and it drew her in from the start. She said I have talent, but she didn't fall in love with the story the way she needs to if she was going to represent it. She also said that she’s certain that it will find a home soon.

            Not only did this wonderful rejection give me a confidence boost, it also shed some more light on the whole query process. The agent took the time to tell me that my book was good enough to publish, but she just wasn't the right one to represent it – and that’s what most writers don’t understand. In order to represent a book, an agent had to fall in love with it. They can’t simply like it.

            So, more often than not, a rejection isn't the “You’re not good enough” that it feels like; it’s more of a “It’s not quite right for me” which, incidentally, is usually the exact wording in those form rejection letters.

            Hopefully that can bring some consolation to other writers, as it did to me. Agents work very hard, so it’s little wonder they can’t often take the time for a personal response – it’s better that they spend their time working with the people they do represent. That makes the times they respond personally mean all that much more.

            The querying process isn't perfect, but it’s the best system we've got right now. Until someone comes up with a better method, all we can do is work with it and hope for the best. Perhaps we should consider renaming rejection letters, though. Rejection feels too harsh for what they actually are. I think Not For Me letters would be a more apt name. Too bad it doesn't roll off the tongue as nicely.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Last Blog of the Year

            And so, another year passes, as they do. They just keep flying by, don’t they? It was a decent year, as years go.

            Business went well for Ringcrafts, although we’re currently pouring time into improving it more – we've realized we’re spending too high a percentage of our income on materials and booking shows, so we’re looking to streamline everything. Unfortunately, this probably means our prices will be going up throughout the year (although we still have a lot of numbers to crunch before we know for sure).

            On the writing front, while I didn't get published this year, I got something nearly as valuable – actual feedback from a number of agents. This means that I'm getting to understand the query process well enough to get my foot in the door. The downside is that I learned my first book straddles the middle grade and young adult target audiences and, as such, is unlikely to be picked up in the publishing industry (which wants everything to fit neatly into a category).

            Since I did the silly thing that writers aren't supposed to do and wrote a full trilogy as my first books, this means I can’t query for any of my first three books until I rewrite the first one so that it’ll appeal to publishers. On the bright side, my fourth book is ready for querying in the new year and I have very high hopes for it. Meanwhile, my fifth book is nearing completion – although I'm cutting it awfully close on the book a year thing.

            I could summarize the rest of the year, but if you’re interested, all you have to do is read the previous blog posts. So, I’ll finish by wishing you all a happy New Year. I hope it brings much joy and chocolate. I mean happiness.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Know Your Audience

            During my quest to get published, I've learned a lot about the publishing industry. However, one lesson I've learned stands out as the most important is Know Your Audience.

            When I first came across this rule, I half disregarded it for two reasons. The first was that I did know my audience. I was writing my books for everyone – adults can enjoy them, but they’d also be able to read them to their kids and the kids would enjoy them, too. The style of writing and content fit snugly into the Young Adult category, thus I was covered (or so I thought).

            The second reason was that I was supposed to Know My Audience before I started writing my book, but I didn't even look into publishing until I’d finished my first book – it was a little late to be learning that rule.

            So, while doing research to better understand the categories that books fit into, I discovered a major flaw in my first book – one that was most likely (and feedback from at least one agent confirms this) preventing the book from getting into the publishing industry. Believe it or not, the most important factor when selecting a target age group for a book isn't the content, but the main character’s age.

            For example, the age range for main characters in Young Adult books is 12-18. In my first book, the main character was 9 for the first half and 16 for the second half. After learning this information, I upped her age to 12 for the first half (not a major issue, as the character acted old for her age anyway). I thought that might solve the problem, but there was another factor that – while I knew about it – I couldn't really do much about it: apparently, young adult readers will read about characters older than themselves, but not younger making the true ideal age range for Young Adult book characters 16-18, placing my split-aged book in no-man’s-land.

            All is not lost, as I just need to re-write the book entirely in the upper age range, using flashbacks and such to bring in the important bits from the younger age – a big task, but not impossible. In the mean time, my fourth book, which was written with knowledge of my audience, will soon be ready for querying agents.

            However, I felt I should pass my experience on to all the other aspiring writers out there who might not have completed their first book in the hopes that you may be saved some trials and tribulations. Do a lot of research on target audiences before starting your book (or in the early stages of writing) and make sure you fit perfectly into a category. It isn't impossible to get published if you don’t, but it’s a whole lot harder.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Write On Con

            There is nothing quite like a gathering of aspiring authors, at least from my experience. The online conference I attended last week, Write On Con, was set up perfectly to cater to the crowd it drew.

            Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate as much as I would have liked, but I did try to keep up with what was going on. I’ll try to give you an idea of what the event was like.

            The conference mostly took place on the forums, which actually opened for business long before the actual event. This was wonderful because it allowed attendees to come early, meet each other and share advice on their books and query letters.

            There were sections of the forum designed specifically for that – authors could post their query letter, the first 250 words of their book and the first five pages of their book. Because authors are such a friendly bunch, they were more than willing to step up and share their knowledge. As far as I could tell, everyone who posted something got at least one response.

            Then, when the conference officially started, the Ninja Agents came out. This was a group of agents who volunteered their time to cruise through the queries on the forums, giving advice and possibly even requesting work. Again, they were exceptionally helpful and that alone was worth attending the event for.

            The forum also had a section for authors to find critique partners. A critique partner is nearly essential for an author because, no matter how impartial you try to be, you can never be the best judge of your own work. You can also never catch all your own mistakes. Luckily I have Colleen for that, as well as my parents (someday I’ll tell you about my extensive editing process), but not all writers are as lucky as I am. For them, who better to look over their work than another author?

            There were also live events where authors could directly ask agents questions. I can’t tell you about those as I didn't manage to get to any, but from what I heard they went very well and were quite informative.

            Of course, there was also the off-topic section, where just about everything was being talked about. The one topic, however, became a highlight of the event – Larua Tisdel (author and artist) made the extremely generous offer to sketch other authors’ characters. She’s still working on the list now, after the conference is over. She’s very close to mine, so drop by later this week to see what she’s done.

[Insert Picture Here]

            That about covers it for the conference. Even with my limited attendance it was exceptionally fun and informative. I fully intend to return next year, although hopefully I’ll be attending as a helpful published author by then.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

The Hunt for an Agent is On

            Agents are the unsung heroes of the publishing world. I haven’t even met one yet and I'm astounded by the amount of work I've discovered they do.

            First and foremost, they are talent scouts. They wade through piles upon piles of submissions sent to them by authors hopeful of representation, seeking out the ones they want to represent. Note that I didn't say the best ones – every agent turns down plenty of books they enjoy depending on the current book market, what they are specifically looking for and, sometimes, because of how busy they are. The rejections they send out are frequently as hard for them as they are for the author whose book is being rejected.

            Next, a large number of them offer editorial services – they will work with an author to get their book into peak condition before moving on to sell the book to a publishing house. At this point, they turn into lawyers, negotiating contracts that ensure that their authors not only get paid what they deserve, but don’t have any nasty surprises such as discovering they no longer own the rights to their own book.

            After that, many agents stay on to help with marketing the books, which in this day and age is largely the author’s responsibility. This is ongoing work they do throughout the course of the book’s printed life.

            It should also be noted that most of this work is done before the agent gets paid. In fact, until that contract is negotiated, the agent isn't even certain they will get paid. What if no publisher wants the book? All that hard work goes down the drain, along with a crushed and defeated client.

            Needless to say, agents are a valuable resource to any author – not to mention, having an agent is often the only way to catch the attention of the major publishing houses. That’s why I'm currently trying to get one.

            It’s a challenging process, involving finding agents who are interested in my genre of book then writing a query letter to them. A query letter is much like the cover letter you write when trying to get a job, only instead of telling an employer how perfect you are for the job, you’re trying to get the agent interested in your book at the same time as telling them the entire plot, the length of the book, who you are and why you’re the right person to write this book, and why the agent is a good match for the book. All of this in a page or less. If the query isn't good enough, you get an impersonal form letter of rejection with no feedback on where you went wrong (you can hardly blame them; I just told you how much work they do).

            To add to the challenge, agents have tons of these queries to go through. One agent I follow on Twitter had over 400 submissions come in overnight last week! So this query letter has to stick out – it needs to be both personal and professional, at the same time as saying “Hey! Look at this great book!” as modestly as possible.

            Luckily I've had a bit of help in this department. I had the privilege of beta testing some of the courses offered at getabookdeal101.com which have helped me gain a great deal of insight into the entire process – not to mention a lot of positive encouragement.

            Now, armed with knowledge, I have begun my hunt for an agent. With any luck, I should have an agent within the next few months and those of you waiting eagerly to read my whole book will find that the wait is nearly over.

            Incidentally, I should mention that this blog was in no way written to flatter any agents who might happen along while investigating my queries. Really.

            But the thought did cross my mind...

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.