It seems like almost every movie that includes some sort of battle--be it epic fantasy, war, even a sports film--features a scene in which Our Heroes prepare for the coming fight. We see Our Heroes gearing up for battle: sharpening swords, fletching arrows, shining armor, taping up sticks, lacing up the cleats, all while looking strong and determined and ready to carry the day. You've probably seen it so many times you don't even think about it!
Some time this week, maybe as early as tonight, I will step into the fray and fire my opening salvo in my latest battle to break into the world of the published. It will be a long fight, with many battles. How have I been preparing myself for this battle?
The manuscript: Like the armor Our Heroes wear, this has been polished to a high shine. Holes have been patched and repaired. Excessive bits that add unnecessary weight or could get in the way have been trimmed and removed. (Of course, me being me, i.e., a writer, just yesterday I thought of something I could easily add somewhere in the first thirty pages of the manuscript that would add just the right touch to the scene. This could go on forever.)
The query: Like the unending supply of arrows Legolas fires into unending legions of Orcs, my query is straight to the point.
The list: There are thousands of literary agents out there in the world. As of right now, I have over 150 on my list that could be a match. Almost every day, I learn of a new one. Good thing I have a Quiver of Endless Arrows!
Synopsis: What can be harder than boiling your story down into a 250-word query? A synopsis! It doesn't seem right, but the query letter is really just the hook--WHO is the protagonist, WHAT is her problem, WHAT happens if she doesn't solve it? The query needs to make the agent want to read. The synopsis, on the other hand, is the condensed version of the whole book, a reduced outline. I have somehow managed to create a single-page synopsis for my nearly 400-page manuscript, in case anyone asks. And speaking of things agents ask for:
Excerpts: Some agents ask for the first five pages of your manuscript when you query. Some want to see the first ten. Some want thirty, some want fifty. Some want 'the first few chapters.' Some agents want sample pages embedded in the e-mail, others want them attached as a word or pdf. To prepare for any and all eventualities, I have created multiple files with titles like PROJECT NAME--10, PROJECT NAME--20, etc. That way, I can just grab the right file whenever needed instead of having to go back into the massive manuscript and cutting and pasting (every time I select a large block of text in my manuscript, I have the near-paralyzing fear I'm going to inadvertently delete it all and not be able to get it back).
And finally: Something to help me forget I'm querying.
Actually, this is ideally the time to be working on The Next Thing. Usually, I've had the idea of The Next Thing right around the time I'm wrapping up The Last One. This time around, The Next Thing is not presenting itself. Maybe I've had too many of those martinis.
So, that's it, that's how I've prepared myself for this latest round of the publishing wars. Many of you have elected to skip this step in favor of doing it yourselves. For anyone out there who reads this blog that isn't self-publishing, are there any items in your arsenal that aren't in mine? How do you prepare yourself for this battle?
Oh, hello, Square One, I...wasn't expecting to see you here. How are you? It's been a while, hasn't it?
Four years? Really, that long? Time flies, huh? Sorry I haven't kept in touch, you know how it is.
Well. I'd love to stay and hang out, but--
Yeah, sure, we can hang out a little. Catch up a bit, sure, I guess I can do that. Is there anything you'd like to do?
...
Sure. Yeah. I guess we can look at the old spreadsheet. I guess it's around here somewhere...yeah, there it is. Geeze, what a lot of work we put into that, huh?
Yeah, I guess we can update it. Wow, what fun. You really haven't changed much in four years, have you?
Wait, you want to do what? Query writing? I haven't written one of those in...four years. But I do sometimes write query-like paragraphs, so I'm not totally out of practice. Oh, but guess what I still do a lot of? Waiting! Yeah, I'm still pretty good at that.
Well, it sure has been fun catching up with you, Square One, but I'm sure you've got places to be and I don't want to hold you up, so....
Oh, you've got time? Lots and lots of time?
...
Yeah, that's great. Just...great.
***
Welp, as you may have figured out, I am once again agent free. It's a business decision, one of those things that happens from time to time. I want to express my gratitude to Carrie for taking me on, showing faith in me and my work, and working on my behalf, and I wish her well in her new position at Laura Dail Literary Agency.
***
Interestingly, on my way to work on Tuesday (before I became a free agent, so to speak), I heard this song on the radio, and remembered how much I like it, and considered slipping it into a blog post somewhere soon. Now, it's more appropriate (I also think I may have done this once before, but if I did, I didn't tag it specifically, so if it's a rerun....). The song is, when you get right down to it, pretty sad. Chrissy Hynde wrote it shortly after the death of Pretenders guitarist, James Honeyman-Scott from a drug overdose, which itself came about two days after the band fired bass player, Pete Farndon for his drug use. Despite this, I've always found something optimistic and uplifting here, and I'm going to be positive. Hope all is well with all of you, what's new?
As I mentioned last week (or maybe it was Monday, which would make it this week), January saw the anniversary of me becoming an agented writer, as it was late last January where I signed on the dotted line with Carrie Pestritto at Prospect Agency. I have very much enjoyed working with Carrie thus far and am quite hopeful that 2015 is the year that I will join the ranks of the authors who are sold and are in the publication pipeline. So, how did it come to pass?
On the surface, it's not all that different from the typical story: author writes book, author searches for agent and queries many, is rejected by many, finds agent. But there is a little wrinkle in this story.
Back in the spring of 2011, I was finishing up the first draft of a manuscript (PARALLEL LIVES) and learning about what it took to get published. I was, I admit, operating under the delusion that I would soon have a deal and be published, but then I re-read the manuscript and crashed to earth. However, I did start combing through blogs and author sites and agent sites and Query Tracker and Absolute Write and on and on, and for Christmas that year I received a copy of the 2012 Guide to Literary Agents, and a year after typing ### at the bottom of my manuscript for the first time, I was ready to start querying. By then I had amassed a list of agents to submit to. Carrie was on that list. Her agency had a good reputation, and from what I had seen of her online presence, she had a good personality and was still a new agent building her client list. Some people may not be comfortable with new agents; I had no such qualms. It looked like she was doing good things, and doing right by her clients.
A note about the list: the list was generated primarily by finding agents who took what I was selling, and then priorities were built based on sales record, reputation, and personality. Personality is a tough one, because there are a few agencies out there that have no web presence at all, but have a great reputation. It's also tough because I remember submitting to one agent who looked really good, but afterwards, I found some of her twitter posts and found myself wondering if this was really a person I could work with.
Now, there are many different approaches you can take to sending queries. Mine was to release 10 of them at once, then I was going to release roughly five more each month until I got an offer or ran out of names (hint: I'm not sure it's possible to run out of names; there are a lot of agents out there). I didn't quite stick to that plan; there was a little more space between query batches, and that space included continued research, continued query revising, and much angsting. I did not actually query Carrie until December of 2012. Somewhere between unleashing my queries on the agent world in April, 2012 and December, I found Carrie's blog and started leaving comments. You may remember this causing me some doubt (of course it did)--will it look like I'm sucking up? What if I leave a really stupid comment, or accidentally offend? Blah. Anyway, it turns out in this instance, it was a good thing.
About a month after querying Carrie, I was rejected. A form rejection. Ouch. Ah, well, part of the process, pick myself up by the bootstraps and carry on, right? However, as spring wore on, I was facing a depressing reality. Two queries in that first batch of ten received full requests. Both were rejected, one without any particularly helpful comments, the second one after 9 months with a note that essentially said, "I didn't get to read the whole thing, not for me, sorry." Other than those two fulls, I was like Charlie Brown on Halloween:
Naturally, feeling rather bad about the whole thing, I did what any writer would do: I blogged about it.
It was only a passing reference, a short note that said, "Maybe it's time to bury this." I honestly didn't know if it was the query, the pages, or something else. And then it happened. A few days after, an e-mail turned up in my box notifying me of a new comment.
"Jeff, have you ever sent this to me? If you want
to email me the query and first 3 chapters I'd be happy to take a look and
provide feedback if you'd like it!"--Carrie Pestritto
!
!!
Who even knew this agent was reading my blog? Not me, though when I looked at my followers, she was down there in that sort of "hidden section" of followers, along with my wife and one of my closest friends--who knew they were reading this blog, too?
Now, as they say, my momma didn't raise no dummies (although when I sent the query to Carrie, I told her she had in fact already rejected the query, so maybe she raised one). The query and chapters went, and Carrie sent me some feedback on both the query and the first chapter, along with an invitation to send the first 100 pages once I'd done some work on it.
!!!
Naturally, I put off my current project in order to fix up PL. I sent it, thinking, "Yes, this is it!"
No, this was not it.
Carrie rejected it, with some helpful feedback. It wasn't quite right, I don't think she even got through all 100 pages (or she stopped commenting after a certain point, recognizing a sinking ship of a manuscript), but again she offered to look at it again if I ever did a substantial revision, and she told me to send my next project directly to her e-mail, skipping over the Prospect Agency's online submission form. We had an exchange or two about PARALLEL LIVES, then I backed out the door, not wanting to abuse the relationship. I should also point out that at this point I developed an even larger degree of stage fright about commenting on her blog. I decided to continue doing so. When the manuscript formerly known as BARTON'S WOMEN was finally ready for query, Carrie got it, and the rest, as they say, is history. It's been just over a year and I like the way Carrie works. She's doing a great job, is pleasant and positive, and I'm confident that we will have a long and productive relationship.
That's it, that's the story. Note that I'm not suggesting you go out and start spamming your prospective agents' twitter social media sites, but interaction can work out. Also, it's another good reminder that you never know who's reading. That's it, have a great weekend, everyone!
Back in the long ago, shortly after I started this blog, I
made a vow: I wouldn't be that guy.
You know the type—the one that, after he gets the agent, is constantly playing
The Agent card. Kind of like this:
I haven't had an agent very long, and I've done fairly well,
so far, but once in a while, I'm going to have to do it. This weekend, I
completed another set of revisions on the project still being known as BARTON'S
WOMEN and sent them back to Carrie. When I opened up her latest marked up version, I sped
through it, to get a sense of how many suggested changes or comments there
were—there weren't. And, at the risk of divulging too much, Carrie's cover
e-mail indicated that we would pretty soon be ready to start the next step,
the submission process.
Now, let me tell you, the temptation was strong to just go
and answer the one comment she had put in the MS, save it, and send it back.
Submission time, woot woot! But I remembered advice I had given a week or two before to someone on Absolute Write: this person had completed a draft and
was trying to give it a month or two of resting time, but…but they were worried
someone else might have the idea, they were tempted to polish it now, etc.,
etc. My advice: DON'T. RUSH.
Just like that, two sentence fragments, all caps. Thinking of that, I spent
most of all day Saturday and Sunday going through the manuscript, and I'm glad I did. In addition
to finding some typos that Carrie and I both missed, I found some other silly
mistakes—missing periods, double periods, missing and extra words. I also
cleaned up an inconsistency I had as to whether one of my characters had a
brother and two sisters, or one each, and made some further fine tuning throughout.
Odds are, none of these things would have been cause for rejection by an editor, but
it's up to us to send out the best possible product we can.
The temptation to rush is even greater when one is near a
major milestone, just as one sometimes rushes when they near the end of a long
journey. I'm reminded of the fact that most car accidents reportedly occur
within 3 miles of home. While this is likely due to the fact that most driving
is probably done within 3 miles of home, I expect a good part of it is either
due to being too comfortable on that familiar ground, or because of the
"Hurry up, I need to use the bathroom" (or kickoff, or Project
Runway) factor. I didn't want to rush and miss something important. I didn't want to be a statistic. Take time with your projects, friends, that's the best thing to do.
*******
On a sad note, I saw in my blog feeder last night that
author/blogger Cynthia Chapman Willis passed away earlier in the month
following a long fight with lung cancer. I didn't know Cynthia, except through
our respective blogs, but she always struck me as a positive individual. I
always enjoyed her posts, and the personal way she interacted with everyone who
stopped by her blog. Condolences to her friends and family.
"One step done and another begun and I wonder how many miles"--New Speedway Boogie, Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia
Entering senior year of high school, my biggest concern wasn't whether or not I'd get to go to the college of my choice (I did) or whether I'd get to go to the prom with the girl of my choice (I didn't); no, my biggest worry was what I would write for my senior quote.
The quote was a 30-word blurb that would appear in the yearbook underneath my picture. Unlike the Magpie, who had something like a half a page to play with in her yearbook, we had a whopping thirty words. It was like twitter without the hashtags, only know one knew what twitter was, because it didn't exist. After a lot of worry and scratching my head, I finally came up with something that I liked. It led off with a quote from a Grateful Dead song (you're surprised by this?), managed to reference my friends, and paid homage to my family. It was pretty good, I think, except someone screwed up the song lyric, turning "Gonna leave this brokedown palace" into "brokedown place." I was a bit upset about that, you can bet.
At the time, I was actually thinking ahead. Long-range planning, as it were. The way I figured it, if they did senior quotes in high school, surely they would have them for college. So, there I was, a high school senior, trying to come up with an appropriate song lyric for something that was going to happen four years later. And of course, I did. And, of course, I went back to the Grateful Dead, the lyric quoted at the top of this post: "One step done and another begun and I wonder how many miles." It's a great line, and I thought it would make sense at that point in my life, graduating from college. I was all set.
Of course, we didn't have senior quotes in college.
Truth be told, I don't even think I have a college yearbook. If I do, I can't find it, but no matter, because by the time I got to that point, I was no longer worrying about senior quotes; it just didn't seem as important as it had in high school. The lyric, however, has remained with me to this day, and it often comes back to me when I find myself on the cusp of something new, when I find myself at the start of a new stage of life. Like now. I am thrilled to say that this week, I signed an agreement with Carrie Pestritto of the Prospect Agency, and I am thrilled. Carrie has a growing list of clients, a growing list of sales, and she's enthusiastic about agenting, and my work. We hit it off really well, and I am looking forward to a long and successful partnership.
But now, back to that quote: One step done and another begun, and I wonder how many miles? The lyric is a reminder to me that getting an agent is not the end of this journey, it's merely a step on what is still a long road. The real goal is getting published, and getting published well. I believe we writers sometimes get so consumed in the search for just the right agent that we forget that goal. Getting the right agent is just one step; now it's on to the next. I have enjoyed the moment, but it's time to get back to work, time to take that next step.
Conventional wisdom holds that agent-hunting writers should stalk agents on Facebook, Twitter, blogs--whatever social media watering holes agents gather at (yeah, that doesn't sound at all creepy, does it?). There's a good reason for this: agency websites are often not updated a whole lot beyond major personnel changes and latest client releases, whereas an agent's personal blog, Twitter feed, or Facebook status posting can clue you in on what an agent is looking for RIGHT NOW, and can tell you how deep in the slush pile they are.
I have yet to join the Twitter-verse, and I keep my Facebook friends list under tight control, so I tend to read and follow agent blogs. Many agents use their blogs as a way to educate writers, to help them--us--understand the ins and outs of the publishing world, to help us craft better books, better pitches, better queries. I've learned a lot from agent blogs over the last few years. For agents, not only does it give them a higher profile, it might--might, I say--help improve the quality of the queries coming in over the transom. Maybe.
Whatever your social media platform of choice, the big question is: do you engage? Do you comment, ask questions, relate your own experiences?
There's a certain degree of fear and doubt that goes along with leaving a comment on an agent's blog, especially if that person is on your query list: Will I sound stupid? Will I say something offensive? Will they track me and find my blog to be the most pointless drivel ever committed to the internet? Almost as bad: Will my comments come off looking like self-serving ass-kissery? This is over-thinking of the worst kind, paralysis by analysis.
There is an eventual point to this (I think), but for today, I'll leave it at that. So again, the question: Do you engage with agents on social media? I look forward to your answers.
And finally: Something to help me forget I'm querying. 
