What Gives You Pause?

As I trudge through my love/hate relationship with Query Hell, I read a lot of posts/comments/blogs while doing my research. I’ve moved beyond the wide-eyed aspiring author who only wants someone to love my work and take it on. I’m now the author who asks, “Are you the best person for my novel?”

Now, there are glaring reasons why one would say no to an agent:

They charge fees.
They have an editorial business that they push on rejected authors.
They have a known history of unprofessional behavior.
They have bad reviews from other clients/submitters. *This is why scrolling writer’s forums are so invaluable.*

While there are many more reasons to remove an agent from your list, (which happens to be the question all searching authors should ask, “Do you deserve to be on my list?”), what this post is about is what gives you pause?

I’m talking about the little things that aren’t the obvious reasons to say no, but may raise a red flag.

For example, I was researching an agent the other day and couldn’t find much information about the agent online. I kept going to the sparse website rereading everything posted. I kept looking for different ways to Google said agent, and reading what little information I found. Then I saw the agent’s email address. It was through AOL.

Is this a reason to keep the agent off my list? Not necessarily. Does it seem odd that an agent—who has been in the business for several years—doesn’t have an email address linked to their business? Little bit, yeah. The AOL address was enough to give me pause, and on its own probably wouldn’t be enough to keep the agent off my list. But combine that with the lack of information, and this agent didn’t make it on my list.

So tell me, have you come across something while researching an agent that made you pause and rethink sending them your query? Was it so-so feedback from other authors? Typos on their webpage? Or comments made on their blog that rubbed you the wrong way?

I Have Stepped Into Query Hell…

…AND IT BURNS!!!!

A few days ago I started trickling out queries. Fifteen! I know for most people fifteen is not a trickle, but when you consider on my last novel I sent out close to one hundred, fifteen is modest.

I’ve received 6 rejections thus far—Ouchie! But the way I’m looking at it is each rejection will clear the way for the right agent to step in. So, from now on, I’ll be sending out one query—to a well researched agent—for every rejection I receive. This is keeping my attitude positive. I realized, I thrive on that hope of hearing that ding on my Blackberry, hitting the button, seeing it’s indicating an email to my gmail account and then opening that to find a request from Mr. or Ms. Dream Agent.

Giving up is not an option. I mean, what else would I do if I gave up writing? Sit and drool in a corner? No, that’ll never do.

Tell me, how do you keep yourself motivated? Are you in Query Hell right now and is there anything I can do to help you?

Feedback?

I’ve had a nice run of requests for my novel Light Bringers and I’m totally appreciative of all the feedback, although I’ve only really had one agent actually spell out clear reasons why the story didn’t work for them and that was from the awesome Kate Testerman. While I didn’t agree with all of her comments and didn’t make all of the suggested changes, I knew exactly what didn’t work for her and why. Plus, her feedback helped to make Light Bringers better. (wish she would have asked for a revise and resub *pout-pout*)

Well, the rest of the feedback from other agents who have read my full manuscript has been less than helpful. And I’m not saying that in a whinny kind of way, I’m just saying I don’t really know what to do with their feedback.

One agent said that she found nothing really wrong with the story, it was just at the end of the day it didn’t resonate with her. That’s fine. It’s not going to resonate with everyone, but I can’t really take that and make my book better. Someone should totally market Resonating Dust. Just sprinkle it on your manuscript and it will guarantee to make it resonate with everyone who reads it!

*Don’t steal my idea. I’m totally thinking of marketing that!

Another agent said my conflict didn’t come in soon enough for her—that’s constructive and something I can fix, but then she said my main character was whinny and self-indulgent—not much I can do about that. Well, I could but I don’t wanna-lol.

Just had another request for a full from a pretty impressive house so I was on cloud nine when the request came only three hours after I sent the partial. I knew the response would be fast so I’m grateful for that.

He said he thought the premise was great and I had a good frame, but he had concerns about the writing, for example, he didn’t know why Heath needed to be British and what was the deal with me saying Ryan used fruity shampoo on his hair? Does he have an aversion to fruity shampoo or herbal?

Um…WTH?

Heath’s British because I want him to be and it’s MY NOVEL! One of my friends said that he was probably wondering if it will have some bearing on the story, does it move the plot along? Since when does someone’s nationality have to move the plot along? Maybe I’m mistaken, and if I am, please enlighten me, but I don’t see why my choice to have Heath be British should make a difference. I think it’s mentioned twice in the entire novel and shown through his speech. And Heath’s background as well as England will be featured in the third novel. Still, I have no idea what to do with that feedback.

As for the shampoo and Ryan’s “aversion” to the fruity scent, well, that scene was taking place in his mother’s house so he wasn’t pleased that the only shampoo available to him had a fruity scent. He’s a soldier, a macho type guy, and not too keen on showing up for work smelling like strawberries. Most guys would probably feel the same. I’m not sure what to do with that bit of info either.

I’ve just ordered Donald Maass’ book, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, so I’m hopeful that the exercises will help me strengthen my novel, maybe even answer some of these unanswered questions I have about this feedback.

As I said, I’m not complaining. I just figured that sometimes when you talk things out with others going through the same thing, they may help you make sense of it, so…HELP!

DOH!

See, this it why you should not sneak and send a query when you should be working! I was reading the query blog today and saw that Andrea Brown Literary has a new associate agent…Mary Kole.

Well, I got all excited reading her bio, so I got out the old query letter, addressed, read it over and just before I sent it, thought, “Hmm, have I queried them already?” I open up my agent list file, search all the names and don’t find a listing for Andrea Brown. I even took it a step further and did a ctrl-F for Andrea and Brown—nothing.

So I thought, cool, gots me another agent to submit to! I get the submission together and click send. The moment I get the auto-confirmation, I’m like, “Um…this looks familiar.” I do a gmail search of my account for @andreabrownlit.com and wouldn’t you know up pops an email to another agent there that I’d sent a query on August 12, 2009!!! WTH? How could that NOT be on my list? My list is iron tight, well organized and highly efficient! Well, obviously not. How could I NOT have them on the freakin list?

What is the number one rule of most agents? DO NOT QUERY MORE THAN ONE AGENT AT A TIME!!!! I’ve never had a problem with this as I can read AND I have relative common sense.

Although this is highly unlikely, but what if they both say, “Hmm, that Karen is a snappy writer and I’d like to see a partial, nay, a full!” –cause I’m sure they talk just like that—
What do I do, blame it on a brain-fart? Blame it on the alcohol? Blame it on the dog?--my invisible dog can so address a letter and email it, but he sucks at research, obviously.

I’m thinking I’ll just have to place them in the reject pile and be done with it. Anyone out there ever do this? If so, how did it turn out?

Holy-crap-ola Batman!

I won the Secret Agent contest on Miss Snark’s First Victim’s blog!

I really can’t believe it, not because I don’t have any confidence in my work, but because this business is SO subjective and you just never know what will work for an agent and what won’t. I think it was just good timing. I had tried to enter the contest a while back when Authoress did it as a lottery and, alas, my number wasn’t called. Then after that, it was either that my genre wasn’t being represented or I missed the submission because I got the email alert late and submissions were closed.

Now I have my fingers, toes and eyes crossed because not only is agent Emmanuelle Alspaugh looking for something with shape-shifters in it (which Light Bringers has) but she’s looking for a werewolf story and I currently have a werewolf WIP.

Okay, I’m jumping a head of myself.

Nevertheless, if things don’t pan out the way I want, she will still be the third agent to read my full and that can’t be a bad thing!

I’m going to submit to her tomorrow because I’m dog tired right now and fear I’ll address it to the wrong person, spell her name wrong, or something just as stupid. So, I’ll send it in the morning after I’ve had my morning shower, and a cup of coffee.

I’ll keep you all posted…wish me luck!

Back to the Drawing Board…

Well, I’ve received a rejection from the last agent who had my full. She gave me some good feedback—some I’ll be taking and some I won’t. I sat on the feedback for a few days. I had to read over the email again with a brain that wasn’t clogged with disappointment and my ears weren’t ringing with sadness, (dramatic, aren’t I?).

I don’t want to be the type of writer who can’t take feedback because lord knows that would be the death of my career, but I also don’t want to be the type of writer who takes everything that someone says to me and runs with it.

Unless I’m truly delusional, I think I have a healthy balance. One of the things this agent said was that I could build the world a bit more. She felt like it was whole in my head but lacked a bit on the page. She was right. I didn’t have to think twice to answer the questions she posed to make my world more substantial. So obviously I had these world building facts fleshed out, but hadn’t put them to work in my story. I sprinkled them into my ms, and hopefully solved that issue.

This next thing she said was what I decided not to take. My story is told in the pov of more than one character. It’s not head-hopping, but as I’m sure you have all read a story that will give you say, the killer’s pov and then the cop, and then the protagonist, this is sort of what I do except I don’t have a killer or a cop-lol. The agent felt that I did myself a disservice by doing this, and maybe I should consider telling the story wholly from the female or male lead character. The majority of the book is told from the male lead’s pov, and I feel like I would lose something crucial to my story if I changed it all to his pov or maybe the female's.

I realized, (when I was through being bummed) that this agent--as much as I love her personality--was probably not the one for me. I know it’s what we all tell ourselves when we're rejected, but if she doesn’t care for something that is actually my style of writing, and something I’ll most likely do in all or most of the books I write, then she would probably have a problem with every one of my manuscripts. Granted, like she said, I might be doing myself a disservice and I guess only time will tell, but I have to be true to what I believe is right for my story, my writing style and my writing career.

And now I have compiled a new list of agents, revamped my query and when I get back from vacation, I’ll get back out there into the big bad world of querying!

A Rejection That Made Me Smile

So today I get home and there is only one letter in my mailbox. As soon as I see the golden envelope that I've addressed, I know it's from an agent and more than likely, it's a rejection as all the requests I've received came via email. Well, I open it and yes, it is a rejection, but it’s definitely the nicest one I've ever received.

Now this was not a reply from a request for a partial or a full so I was VERY surprised to see that it was addressed to ME and not, Dear Author. This is one of the agents who allow you to send along a sample with your initial query so I sent 3 chapters. This is what the letter said:

Thank you for giving us a chance to represent your novel, Light Bringers. While it is clear from the excerpt that you have much talent (really, there is some fine, polished writing here), we are taking on very few works of fantasy at this time. I'm sorry to say that Mr. Agent may simply be the wrong agent for it.

Truthfully, any rejection sucks, but this is the best one I've ever had. I especially like the part in the parenthesis! First time a rejection has made me smile.

Aches and Agents

So, I joined a new gym...Brick Bodies. Let's hope I get a brick body soon enough. Well, do I really want a body like a brick? They're pretty hard and no curves whatsoever. But I digress, I really enjoy the gym so far. I have my first meet with a personal trainer on Tuesday. Apparently, they take all of my measurements, height, weight, BMI and feed it into a computer (gulp) then show me what I'll look like in 6 months if I commit to 3 times a week and stick to a sensible eating plan. I'm really kinda stoked to see that because I think it will be a real motivator.

In 6 months my mother is having a "gala" 60th b-day party and I'll have to wear a gown. I would say that I'm looking forward to turning heads but as the majority of the party guests will be 60 years old or older...or family, I don't want to turn any of their heads! I just want to feel nice in my gown and sexy should I have a date to bring with me.

I started using the gym from the very day I joined last week. I just took a "Body Pump" class. It's aerobics with weights...can you say, FEEL THE BURN!!!! Good Lord! I'm still hurting! Saturday, I took a "Body Flow" class, which is yoga with some mild pilates. I've discovered I'm only flexible when both of my feet are on the ground :D Who'd a thunk stretching and bending and being one with the freakin earth would work up such a sweat! I looking like someone had dunked my head in the toilet! (not that that has ever happened to me!) but I looked like a drowned rat! My hair is cut in a style where one side is longer than the other. Well, the shorter side started drying and thus grew frizzy. I looked CRAZY! But it was a lot of fun. I'll do it again, but I'll wear a bandanna the next time-lol.

Friday at work, my cell phone alerted me to an email. I had received an email entitled: Query Submission. Whenever I see this, my heart always skips a beat. I've gotten so used to seeing, "Thanks you for your submission, Unfortunately..." Or, "Sorry, while your story has merit, it's just not right for our list..." that when I read the words, "We would like to see the first 30 pages of Light Bringers..." I had to read it like three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating!

I was so pumped that I couldn't do any more work Friday! Good thing the email came at 3:45pm so I was only slacking off for 45min...not that the hospital would like that either-LOL.

I'd queried this agent last year and was rejected. I decided to try again because I'd made considerable changes to the manuscript and to the query letter. I took the ms from 102k words to 76k words and restructured the query to just the introduction, summary and closing since I don't have any publishing credits to include. I know this made a difference.
zellie_bean really helped me see the redundancies in my story and pull out text that, while I may have loved the witty banter or clever phrasing, didn't move the story along. It's empowering to look at your work and be objective enough to say, I love this sentence but it's gotta go. I still, and suspect I always will, struggle with letting go of some things but I realized that they don't have to stay away. I can use them elsewhere if I can work it.

So it's been a good week. I'm still plugging away at my queries and the dreaded 1 page synopsis as I still have about 45 agents left to query!

And can I just say, I and LOVING the Fray's new song, You Found Me. It's kinda depressing but man I LOVE songs about something! Enough with singing about sex, and money, and drinking...songs about something deep always RULE!

Agents Queried

Okay, so I've sent off NINETEEN queries today and man, am I TIRED! Well, I started last night after midnight then went until about 2am and then started again this morning. It's an exhausting task especially if you are like me and check the websites again for just to make sure I got the information right. I'm glad I did that too because I ended up finding someone better to query on some of those sites.

So anyway, I already got one rejection...that had to be at the speed of freggin light! LOL. I'm not too upset about it, I was really pushing it to query him since he said he was really only looking for YA if it was Urban SF...a genre I've never really heard of, but since I had YA Urban Fantasy, I thought I'd give it a shot.

Here are the Agents I've queried today:

Jenny Rappaport
Shawna McCarthy
Robert Astle (or rather filled out the online form)
Rachel Zurakowski
Whitney Lee
Caitlin Blasdell
Ann Behar
Kirsten Manges
Alyssa Henkin
Nicole Kenealy
Cameron McClure
Sarah Burnes
Robert Brown (the one who rejected me already-lol)
Jaime Weiss Chilton
Rosemary Stimola
Wm Clark (online form)
Sara Crowe
Jack Byrne
Robert Fleck

So now I have about 30 more to submit to. The rest of them want sample chapters to go along and some are snail mail only so I'll be printing things out over the next few days.

Wish me luck!!!!

Starting the Query Submissions Again!

Well, I'm just about to start my...well, I guess this would be my second attempt to query this manuscript. Right now I'm sending out to agents who only want query letters and no sample chapters. As I look through the websites and query submission guide lines (even though I've thoroughly checked all of these before when I compiled the list) I'm finding things that annoy me about some of the agent bios.

Now, agents blog quite a bit and I've seen a common complaint from those who blog about people sending them genres they don't represent. While most agents state clearly what they want or rather what they do not rep (such as screneplays, poetry, picture books etc.) there are quite of few of them who list things we, as aspiring writers, do not need to know.

I'm not really interested that the agent has lived in Maine most of his life with his chocolate lab. Some agent bios go on and on about them liking wine tasting and traveling, but have NOTHING in the bio about the type of manuscript the agent is looking for. Truthfully, it's not helpful to know that the agent likes wine and has been to Spain.

I'm ranting and probably won't make any agent friends with my complaints--sorry, not trying to be a jerk. My point...if agents want to make sure they aren't bombarded with useless queries then they shouldn't waste space on the bio section telling writers about their dog and how they've developed a love for needle point. Sure, give us the credentals and resume type stuff, but if you're going to squeeze in some info that has nothing to do with your agenting abilities, please--for the love of God--put in what you want to represent!

On the flip side of this...there are some agents who spell out very clearly what they want and STILL get crazy submissions. Well, there is nothing to be done about that, sadly. So my point, tell us all you want about your travel and your pets, but also tell us what you want to see and more importantly, what you don't want to see.