Three more queries sent

I have finally found an hour to myself to assemble three more queries for Liz. I am loving this email query delio. It is so much less effort on my part, and, presumably, less effort on the part of those who receive the queries, too. Plus, I am thrilled with the shortened response time I've seen with the email queries.

In addition, I love, love, love Publisher's Marketplace. If you are an author with a book to sell, do yourself a favor and sign up for their $20/month service so you can access their databases. They tell you who buys what and for approximately how much. You can really get a sense of what particular editors and agents actually purchase or sell. That means you can target your queries very accurately.

On the subject of agents, for the first time, I have sent a query to an agent as well as to editors. I have a friend who sold his first book through an agent, and even though this seems to be the conventional way of submitting works, I have so far only been sending queries directly to editors. This agent, however, has not only sold romances and other women's literature, but she also works with shorter books. LSCTS is under 70,000 words, and though it could be expanded, the book likes being that size. That size is a little shy of the 80-90K wordcount most editors say they are looking for. Perhaps this agent knows someone who wants a fun little book.

Anyway, all of this, including this blogpost, is eating into the one morning a week I have for writing, so I'm going to sign off.

Good luck, writers!
m

Monthly update

January new word total: 9,105
January goal: 25,000
Rejections: 2 personal rejections (really good in a way)

This has been a bit of a rough month for me (whine, excuses, whine). The whole family has been sick for the last couple weeks, which chewed away at my writing energy level. Plus, it is the middle of the term which means that there is lots of stuff to grade.

So, I still wrote 9K even in the throes of a new term. I found a new direction for the book I am writing (titled Something...I know. Illuminating.) and I am excited about it, even though (especially because) I don't know where the book will end up. I received personal rejections that were written by kind editors who saw enough in LSCTS that they felt the need to encourage/direct me.

I've also discovered that I am doing too much to maintain a good writing life. Aside from the 2 year old and my farm, I am teaching four classes. I can control how much I teach, not so much the 2 y.o. or the farm work. Unfortunately, I have committed to teach 4 classes through June, which is five long months away. I plan on refusing to teach more than 3 classes then now on, though.

In the short term, I may have to consider putting the child into another morning/afternoon of daycare. I don't like that option. I want to raise my child. That's why I had her. But writing keeps me sane and happy, and our little Agent of Entropy deserves a sane, happy mother, right? Right?

That's what this guy says:

What Happy Women Know: How New Findings in Positive Psychology Can Change Women's Lives for the Better

Until then, I really need to learn to say "no." It's the hardest word for me to say, because I've always been super girl who can do anything and everything. Heavy on the everything. You would think I would have learned my lesson by now.

m

Robert Olen Butler

http://penonfire.blogspot.com/2009/12/robert-olen-butler.html

Pen on Fire is the blog associated with the podcast/radio show Writers on Writing, which I've been listing to on my iPod for two or three years. This interview is one of the best I've heard recently about how to get not only the words on the page, but the meaning in the words. I don't think Mr. Butler would put it that way, but he's a creative writing teacher and has lots to say about what makes a literary fiction writer.

Plus, he's the author of one of my all-time favorite stories, "JEALOUS HUSBAND RETURNS IN FORM OF PARROT." http://webdelsol.com/butler/rob-5.htm

Enjoy!

Weekly update #3

New words: 2,067 (last week0+ 1079 (so far this week)
Rejections: 2, both personal

I'm fighting a cold, so I probably won't be particularly eloquent (though perhaps a teensy bit bitter) today. Sorry.

A word or two on rejections. There is a hierarchy of rejections. At the bottom, there's the slip of paper that says something generic about how the magazine/publisher didn't want/need your work (or waste a whole 4 cents on a full sheet of paper on you). Some Ed. Assistants soften the blow by writing "Thanks!" in loopy letters and signing them with purple pen.

Next up is a rejection printed on letterhead with your name and address and the title of your work included in the text. Somebody had to put those things there (though I suspect that there are computer programs that may do this). Bonus if someone signed a name in blue pen (not purple). At least you warranted five minutes of someone's time to fill in a form letter. And it's on a full sheet of paper.

Finally, as rejections go, the two I got this week were wonderful. Both of them were on the aforementioned full sheets of paper with my name spelled correctly, etc. The bonus is that each of them gave a brief critique of the work by way of explaining why they passed on it! One actually complimented my "voice" and hinted that another publisher might very well be interested (though she didn't mention any names...damn). The other suggested that I was hunting in the wrong genre (she didn't really like anything but the concept of the book). Still, good advice.

This is truly useful information!

The thing about editors/agents/publishers is that "it only takes one." That is, it only takes one person to fall in love with the book and push it through the publishing process. The editor who complimented me on my voice is getting more of my work in the future because she likes the way I write, even if she didn't like that particular book.

For more on "It only takes one," read this post by Dean Wesley Smith (search the text for "It only takes one."). Yes, I posted a link to this post a week or two ago, but it's worth reposting.
http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=720

So, those are my thoughts on rejections. I'll take any win I can get, especially on a day when I don't feel well.

m

Games Writers Play

http://scottwilliamcarter.com/games-writers-play/

This is a link to a writer buddy's blog. Every Tuesday he's aiming to post a writing game that is meant to help writers write more. I'm spreading the word! Halleluia!

He's part of the more words = more success school of thought, which I subscribe to, also. Any way I can get more words on the page, the better, as more words are at least practice, and at most, money. :)

Be sure to check back on his blog for more games. I'll send links about the ones I love the most.

m

Killing Sacred Cows: Agents

Dean Wesley Smith is a very successful writer who is trying to kill the sacred cows--as he calls the harmful myths--of writing. The article below is about agents. Be SURE to read the comments, especially those by Laura Resnick.

http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=720

Enjoy!

maren

Week 2 update

Words this week: 5,092 all of them for the new novel.
No contact from publishers this week.

I had a bit of an epiphany this week, too, thanks to reading Dick Francis. In the novel "10 lbs. Penalty," Francis condenses three years in a span of a a couple chapters and a light went on in my head. When I "finished" the novel on Nov. 30, I thought I had a book I needed to fill in plus three or four ideas for a sequel. Francis showed me that a story can have a lull of months or years, after which the writer can pick up the threads and continue the story.

In my case, I don't have ideas for a sequel, I have ideas for the next 30-40K of the book. Yippee! This means that I have abandoned the idea of revising the first part of the book until I'm done with this second part. I'm pretty excited by this.

So, I met my goal! Hooray!

m