I Got Google Babe
by on February 26th, 2010
filed under On Writing
Adventures in Query Land continue…
It’s a numbers game.
Writers hear that all the time when it comes to querying. Yet I’ve read agent’s blogs and interviews where they talk about being offended when a writer pulls their name off a list & blindly queries them.
I can see their point.
Everyone wants to feel special like they’ve been chosen. I get that. But the fact is, I have met in person only a handful of agents (and even less editors-ya’ll are slippery eels), so if I can’t query you based on a happenstance meeting, how else am I to query you?
I’ll tell you how.
The list of acquiring agents my writer’s group lists (in my case Romance Writers of America). Absolute Write’s Water Cooler. Predators & Editors. AgentQuery.com. I could go on & on….
But. My most important tool in vetting out an agent is Google. Crimenelli but you can find out anything about anyone on Google! There’s no hiding from Google. So let me tell you my wonderful, intelligent, chosen, potential agent… I Googled you (oh yes it’s a verb now!) and I’ve read every blog you’ve guest blogged on, every interview you sat through, every mention of your name, agency name & client names, I follow you on Twitter, Facebook & Myspace. I know what you had for lunch, what your favorite ice cream flavor is (or if you’re lactose intolerant), I even know what color underwear you put on this morning (okay, maybe not that).
In other words, I spent a good deal of time choosing you to query. So when you get my letter or email know that I chose you. I chose you because I thought we would work well together, you would appreciate my work and you could be the one to guide my career to soaring heights of Best Seller-dome.
Feel special.
Stay tuned for more adventures in Query Land.
Queries sent-60
Requests for a partial-2
Requests for a full-1
No’s-19
Rejected but not dejected
by on March 7th, 2008
filed under Undecided
Getting your book published is hard.
I’ve heard that a lot since I finished my first novel Hairassment last November and as I’ve been working on finding the perfect agent so I could do just that-get my book published. I sent my first round of queries out in December. The response was less than enthusiastic. So I revamped my query letter and synopsis and sent out a second round in January. Of that second round I got a request for two partials of my manuscript and one full. At my first RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter meeting I was told that was very good. Everyone seemed really impressed but I remained cautiously optimistic. Success in my opinion, was actually getting a fabulous agent to represent me and then having that fabulous agent sell the bejesus out of my book.
The two partials came back with nos. Then last week the agent that had requested my full also said no.
Until that time I had been taking the rejection pretty well. I had even taped up my rejection letters all around the walls of my desk until they overlapped each other. My DH complimented me on the stoic way I was dealing with all the rejection.
It took me two days to tell him about the rejection of my full manuscript.
Since last week I have been concentrating on other things like my new blog and writing my 2nd novel Gift With Purchase. Yesterday the new RWR (Romance Writers Report) landed in my mailbox. I took a quick moment to scan through it and discovered an article all about rejection-perfect timing for me since I was still trying to deny how much my rejection was bothering me.
That night I sat down to watch American Idol with a stack of things I needed to read during the commercials-hey I’m a woman, we multitask, I could have baked bread and knitted a sweater too. But I digress. The RWR article on rejection was well done and I felt better after I had read it. Then I skipped through a little more and discovered an interview with the very agent (she’s great-I’m sorry we couldn’t work together) who had rejected my full ms.
Whoa! Here’s irony hitting me over the head. Twice.
I read the interview and I understood some of the things I got wrong and some of the things I got right (because that’s important too). I learned. But mostly it cheered me up, it brought back my hope. So this weekend I’ll be gearing up again and putting myself back out there. I really believe in my book and I really believe that the right agent for me and my book is out there just waiting for me to query him/her.
So prepare yourself agents, here I come!
