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