Query and Baseball

I sent my newly revised query letter yesterday and after rereading it once or twice (okay, it was like 4 or 5 times) I feel REALLY confident about it.  I'm proud of the query, I feel like it's interesting enough, it's in my voice, it's written the way I feel about the overall book, and it conveys the story the way I want it to.  This is exciting because it means that other than continuing to edit the rest of the manuscript, I can rest easy and just keep requerying that email to various agents after I get the rejections.  These agents I've been querying require that I attach the synopsis (which is also just a page and a half of the general conflicts and main events in the book, and I feel okay about that) and the first 2-5 chapters.  And after reading the first two chapters that I sent yesterday, I feel really good and really confident about my chances of getting an agent with this round of querying.  I know, it's still a freakin long shot, but I've read a whole lot of successful queries and I think that sometimes one that might work for one agent at one specific time might then not even work for that same agent at a different time.  As long as there's nothing structurally wrong and the grammar isn't awful, it really just feels like luck.  And other than a misspelling of 'pierogies' in the fifth paragraph of the prologue, I didn't see any obvious errors (hopefully I'm not just missing ones because I'm ignorant of proper grammar, but that's extremely likely).  And in my defense of pierogies....(sorry Chocci Marie and Dad)...the computer and Scrivener all think that it's spelled pirogies, which might be a different word all together, but I went with it and didn't double check myself online.  Damn it.  Anyway...if whoever is reading the query is in the right mood and mind for it, they might love it and pass it on to the agent, who might feel similarly.  I just have to get the manuscript up to par.

Me and the husband are taking J to a baseball game today.  We're getting lunch at a Mexican place in northern Phoenix that he saw got great reviews on Yelp.  We're hoping we can keep her awake until after the afternoon events and have her take a late nap at home, but I'm pretty sure she'll either be super cranky at the game, or will pass out on the car ride home (meaning a 20 minute nap, compared to her 2-3 hour regular nap).  Or both.  We'll see.  It can't hurt to get my hopes up and expect a fun afternoon, right?

:/ I probably just jinxed myself.

Agent Query Connect, and No Journal Again Today

I posted my query on Agent Query Connect hoping to get some good advice on what I need to do to sharpen it up and my goodness, it's disheartening.  I've only even had two people critique it so far but I just feel smaller and smaller after each one.  I know, I know...critiques are not to be taken personally, but that's like saying I don't take my writing personally...and why the heck would I be writing it if I didn't feel a personal connection to it?  So no, I'm not crying or shutting up shop...I'm just feeling more and more mindful of how much of an amateur I really am.  And even that is super disheartening.  I've been writing in journals since I was 13 (obviously).  I've been starting novels since I was about 18 (just not finishing them...the Earths Project that exists today is the third version...it's the only full book I've actually completed).  But until January of this year, I've never let anyone read my writing.  I guess that isn't true, I blog...I've let people read parts of my journals...I've written papers in college, etc.  But January was the first time I've ever seriously urged people to critique my fiction.  Jesus, it's rough.  I imagine the three that read this book having conversations with their spouses or friends where they laugh at me behind my back and compare me to those terrible singers on American Idol who don't have a clue how horrible they are.

Oh please....don't let me be that awful.

Eh....I guess if I am, I still have a chance.  Like I've said before, there are really awful books out there making tons of money and gaining tons of fans.  But when I reread chapters I've edited and polished until they shine in my eyes, I don't feel awful.  I feel hopeful.  I guess that's what's still driving me to do this.

Here's the latest revision of my query...go critique it if you're a member of AgentQuery...

Melanie Foster is a 17-year-old with few friends, a crush on the new boy in school, and trouble deciding what she should do with her life after high school.  For Melanie, life is as ordinary as the next person's, until her parents are kidnapped and she finds out she’s from another planet. Always expecting little green men, Melanie is surprised to discover that extraterrestrials are actually just more humans and that the planet she grew up on is the Third Earth discovered and populated by the human race in a process known as the Earths Project.

Trying desperately to find and save her parents, Melanie is sent on a mission to the dangerous and unstable Second Earth. After its violent secession from the Earths Project, the Second Earth wasted their remaining resources, bred a population of deceitful liars, and is now plotting to steal a newly-discovered Seventh Earth by kidnapping the scientists who discovered it, Melanie’s parents. Posing an even bigger problem, Melanie discovers that her Third Earth is out of their own natural resources and will need the new Earth in order to survive.

If she can successfully complete her mission and help a group of allies known as the Visionists start a revolution on the Second Earth, Melanie will not only save her parents, but also the only world she has ever known.

Earths Project: Book One, First Earth is a YA Adventure/Sci-Fi complete at 82,000 words. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Editing a Manuscript-Using Scrivener and Goodreader

I know I've written about this before, but I have to reiterate.  Saving my manuscript from Scrivener into a PDF, opening it on Goodreader on my mini iPad, using a stylus and the freehand writing tool and making edits directly onto the page, then flattening the file and sending it back to Scrivener is the easiest and most efficient way I've found to edit my manuscript thus far.  I then can open the edited version in Scrivener (having saved it in the "Research" section), split the screen, and type out the edits right in the actual manuscript like so:

So today, for my 'work on Earths Project' task, I finished editing and polishing up to chapter five, made sure I was happy with the synopsis, and sent a query to another agent.  The agent requires the first 50 pages, synopsis, and query.  I like the idea of sending more in the query, even though I was grumpy about it when I first realized it was a requirement for so many agents.  The reason I've warmed up to the idea is because if the query itself catches an agent's eye, they can easily read more and decide what they think.  And since I've obviously got confidence in my work (or else, why would I be working so hard on its behalf), I feel like my chances can only get better the more they read.

That's all for today...I'll continue with my 1996 journal tomorrow.

Exciting Response

So back in March, a few weeks after I finished my first edit on my manuscript for Earths Project: Book One, First Earth, I decided to try out my first batch of querying agents to represent my book.  I sent out five queries.  Within days, and then weeks, I received my standard rejection letters.  Each one looking similar to the next.  Sorry, try someone else (and usually nicer than that...but obviously standard emails that they just mass send out to each manuscript they don't consider at all).  One response was actually really short and sort of mean...but I am prepared not to take rejections personally (you know, unless someone takes the time to actually personalize a mean rejection...something like "This is the worst idea for a book we have EVER seen"...then I would have no choice but to cry for a little while).

Annnnnyways.......like I said, I got four out of five rejection emails.  I always assumed the fifth would just never come, but could be brushed off as another rejection.  My response came on 6/10/2013 at 2:38 pm (EST).  Don't get too excited, it's a rejection, but I'll put the letter here to show you why it still made my heart race a little faster:

Carmella Dillman,                  

 

            Your query regarding “The Earths Project: Book 1, First Earth” has been evaluated. The concept of numerous Earths, with each unaware of their origins or the existence of other Earths, is definitely a novel concept. The journey of the protagonist as she uncovers these truths and learns what must be done to save her own Earth have a lot of potential and could make a solid place for itself in the sci-fi genre. Unfortunately, ******* is not able to represent your manuscript at this time. We concentrate on high-quality fiction and non-fiction works that have the strong possibility for crossover to film and television. Additionally, as digital technology and social media has advanced, it has become a fact that it often takes more than good work for a publisher to recognize the value of a manuscript. A strong social media presence is necessary to demonstrate a guaranteed readership and assure publishers that the cost of publishing and distributing a book will result in commercial success. Should you bolster your social media presence or otherwise demonstrate a dedicated following of your work, please resubmit your query to ******@**.*** with evidence of this for re-evaluation. I wish you the best with both this and future endeavors.

 

Additionally, a Time Magazine article featuring one of our clients, Sir Ken Robinson, is enclosed regarding his book, “Finding Your Element,” which will be on the New York Times bestseller list June 16th.

 

Regards,

*******

They even took the time to take a photo of the Time Magazine article and attach it as a jpg.  So, I'm super psyched that from such a small batch of queries, I got one real personal response (granted, it's a rejection, but it's still something they took the time to consider).

As you can see in the response, it might be helpful to start focusing more on the whole social networking world.  I certainly have the tools and knowledge to be more active through those avenues, but I'm just unsure of how to go about getting more followers.  I don't even have enough followers on this blog to ask for advice.  But if you happen to be reading this and you're an expert at building a large amount of followers by blogging and/or tweeting, please comment!!

In the meantime, I'll try and decide the best way to approach that suggestion.  I also have to finish doing a second round of good editing on the manuscript, but with the job I have now and the jewelry shop doing really well lately, I've had a really limited amount of time to focus on the book.  I'll have to come up with a better system...

So, hopefully I didn't put too many readers to sleep through this long-winded blog post.  Everytime I think about that query response I get excited and feel more motivated, so I couldn't help but share :)

Have a great weekend!!

First Two Queries Sent, First Two Rejections Received

So I finally buckled down recently and finished my query letter.  I have no idea if it'll be good enough to catch an agent's eye, but I felt pretty good about it.  If I get any type of positive response from it I'll probably eventually post it here, but for now, I'm going to wait and see.  My sister also gave me some really great feedback on the book after she read it.  So far, I have feedback from three people, and I've been going back through the manuscript trying to fix it up and tweak it so it works.  I need to put more effort in the synopsis, which I hadn't written yet as of a couple of days ago, but writing it is making me really doubt myself, which I hate.  

I sent out the query to two agents so far and I have already received two rejections.  I really assumed it would take longer to get responses.  I saw somewhere that email queries typically don't even get responses, and I'd honestly rather not get any if they're planning on rejecting.  So far, no such luck, so I get to deal with rejections from jobs and NOW rejections from agents.  I'm really hating the number 13 right now (aka, the year 2013).  I'm gonna  get a whole lot more rejections, from jobs AND agents...so I hope it makes me better at handling it....because it has always been a major weakness of mine.  

Back to sending out the query, working on the synopsis, and sharpening up the manuscript.  I'm going to be unrelenting.  I'm determined.  This is what I want in life, above anything else ever, so now that I've finally written an entire manuscript, I'm not going to quit that easily.  Or at all.  One really great part about the entertainment industry, it's so subjective that even books like 50 Shades of Grey can make millions of dollars.