Query Time 2018 #2

February is my month. I do a major query send out once a year. When that fails, it's back to editing, editors, beta readers and rewriting.

I have accumulated a list of around 30 agents. That's not a lot. I need at least 2o more to feel okay. I took an online publishing class where the agent/instructor reccomended at least 50 agents.  
Last week, some agent on Twitter, said she was putting together a lecture on query letters and wanted examples. I expressed interest and sent my query to her. She wrote back saying she like it for the lecture and she would have it edited for me by the end of the week. Well,
haven't heard from her and I'm still waiting...

I'm almost done with my current editing process. I worked with one editor and two beta readers. I think it's improved my manuscript.  I'm actually looking forward to this querying stage 2018.  I've put a lot of work into these recent edits.

I also need to find new Comp. titles.  The two I have now are not from literature. One is from a movie and the other from a TV show. I'm sure there are a lot of agents that don't like that. "It shows that I'm not well read in my genre."  

Sending out Queries is like walking on the edge of a valcano. 

Query Time 2018

It's that time of year again. I have compiled a list of appropriate literary agents (hopefully) 
and I'm working on editing my manuscript...again. 
I've spent the past three months hiring editors to work on my manuscript. Like a 
real professional. 
It's been worth it. I've recieved some helpful feedback. I think the manuscript got a
good clean up. It does read better. I haven't finished the editing work, but I like
it a lot more. Beta Readers say some crazy things. In general, the feedback has been positive. One
of them saying they think my book could become a classic. My target reader for this book are women, 18-40 so that's what I'm picking for beta readers, in general.


I know I have about a 1% chance of getting a literary agent. I have more 
work ahead of me . Now I have to research small publishers and better self-publishing.

I'd rather have a literary agent.  

 

Literary Agent Scavenger Hunt

I got three weeks off from my job, no chores-commitments or mandatory places to go...so what will I be doing???

WRITING!!

I want to finish my 4th novel. Ambitious I know. I also need to research new liteary agents for my 3rd book, Q.M.E. Finding new agents that I haven't looked at before is difficult. Reasearching them is difficult. The majority of their profiles (on their websites) are pretty vague. I'm looking for Liteary agents that are looking for: Adult fiction, Commerical, Action/Adventure and Social/Political.
I got all the resources bookmared. I follow Liteary Agents on Twitter and make note of any new faces. #MSWL points toward trends but a lot of Lit. Agents on Twitter say don't write for trends.
I write what I love and what I would like to read. Now, I have to find someone else who loves what I write. I have had one Lit. Agent offer me representation, which was awesome but I'm still looking. Writing the book really is the easy part.

I'm super excited to have this time. I'm going to do my best to make the most of it.

5 Reasons Writing a Novel is Difficult.

Writing the story, the book, the novel is the easy part. It would all be easy and fun it I never wanted my efforts to see the light of day. But, since I do, I want a career, I'm stuck with the hard part as well.
Beta readers, revisions, editing, query letters, feedback, it's all so helpful and my efforts are better for it. I'm the biggest barricade to my success. These other things are part of that.


Procrastination: I got things to do . None of them are as important as writing.  They shouldn't be. I'd rather be writing. But, I need time to think. I need to relax.  I need time to be myself.

 Time Management: Some writing blogs say pick an hour and write during those same 60 minutes every day. That's nice but I can't do that. I work a swing shift and I'm not available at the same time everyday, week after week. Sometime I only have the time to write on the weekends. I do try to do something writing related everyday. Editing, proofreading, research, reading blogs, watching writing videos, taking notes, brainstorming.  I do something to further my cause.

Story Ideas: I have a lot of ideas.  I'm not sure if any of them are any good. I'm sure some of them are boring as hell. Some of them have been done before. Some of them are stupid.

Life: My mom needs me to do something. My job has raised my hours to 50 a week. Family dinners. My friends need help. I have an event to go to.

Motivation: Rejection is tough. Revisions are tough. Feeback is tough. I do love constructive critisism. Real help. My main motivation is the fininshed work. I love seeing my finished manuscripts and knowing I did that. I wrote them and finished them all by myself.

What I got is good...

What I'm hoping to have is even better.  But I only have the basics.  I have a manuscript that I love, no one else seems to. The editing process is a long and weird one. I don't mind it . It's awfully interesting. Fascinating, in a way. I still love my manuscript, so I don't care what anyone says about it.

It's tough. It's worth it. I know my manuscript isn't perfect. It's a difficult one because it doesn't fit into any of the genre tags. It's like five of them. It's different. Maybe it's not genre fiction.

 "A blend of erotic romance meets action/adventure
with political undertones"

A new Job, a Husband, my own Place and a Car

I need all four of those things, not necessarily in that order.

I got a job but working a job you don't like is exhausting and demeaning and just sad. It's my responsibility to make myself happy and get myself to a place of calm and contentment but it's an up hill battle. I take that job seriously but it's so damn difficult. My dream career is being an author. I'm working towards that. Putting my heart and soul into it. 

* You do the things you don't want to do so you can do the things you do want to do. 

I can interchange husband with boyfriend, significant other. I think having a loving, committed relationship would be interesting, maybe even helpful. 

My own place, apartment or house, rent or own. I need more space. My own space.  I think my creativity would flow more. Maybe. It's just a thought.

I am in the market for a car. I like those cute little Toyota Scions.
 

My New Handbook

I bought The Dictator's Handbook. It's the most interesting thing I've read recently. I bought it for research. I think it'll give me some helpful insight going forward with The Black Queen series.  I'm going to let the election and the new President Elect inspire me, for what not to do.
I've doubled my writing workload, new independent novel and the second book in The Black Queen series.  It's slow going .  Research this, research that and keep going until it gets me somewhere.

Last Winter Was The Coldest

I am super excited that Benedict Cumberbatch is hosting SNL in two weeks. I get all schoolgirl giddy.  I just discovered Sherlock and I'm impressed. Totally updated but true to the original source material. I can't get over how well it's done.

Currently querying The Black Queen. So far, I've got three full manuscript request to work with. I'm grateful and excited.  It feels like I"m finally getting somewhere...but who knows, right?
I'm working on book 4, the working title is "The Boyfriend" and I'm going to start working on the 2nd book in The Black Queen series. So much to do.

How to Make Things More Difficult

They're working me 48 hours a week on 10-hour shift. Who wants to start their job at 5am one week and then work till 1am the next week?  Not Me!
How do you parallel park?  Really. I need to know.

Next month (July) I'm starting on my 4th, yes 4th novel. I'm so proud of myself , yet so weary.
It's the lack of sleep and mind-numbing long hours.
I don't know whether to continue The Black Queen series (title could change to Obduro) or start on something new, entirely. 
I have ideas for two other stand-alone novels, I'm really excited about them.  No. I can't get excited right now, too exhausted.

There's something about fresh red nail polish.
July also brings the querying period for The Black Queen/Obduro.

Make things more difficult.  

Versailles 2015

I just finished the first season of Versailles. BBC, 2015.
It's too bad I have to wait till 2017 for another season but at least it got picked up for a second season.
Twice as expensive as Downton Abbey and it looks it.  Money well spent. I wonder what the wig budget is. Those look like some expensive wigs. 
George Blagden is good in the role of Louis XIV but, for  me, the stand-out role is Alexander Vlahos. It's hard to think of Louis XIV as the main protagonist. He is, but it's difficult to think of him that way. The show is called Versailles . It doesn't exactly share the same problem as Marco Polo. Speaking of Marco Polo, that's suppose to be back in July!

The Rush To Be Ready

This week I signed up for an online class from the Editor Devil. Nail Your First 50 Pages.  I have a new strategy for Querying out my third novel but let's face it, I need all the help I can get. Because I attended the writer's conference, it was only $30 bucks so I'm curious. Why not?
I need to figure out a way to get away from my job that won't involve going hungry or being without healthcare.  Any ideas?

L.V. Writer's Conference

My first ever writer's conference.  Done. Did it. It was a success. I'm considering it a success. I got what I paid for. It's the most money I've ever spent on myself and it was worth it. A friend of mine calls it "investing in myself."
I have a lot of new insight. What worried me was going all the way there and experiencing something that made me rethink everything.  I thought everyone would be worlds ahead of me, that I wouldn't like my ideas anymore...troubling stuff, right?
I found it better than I could have thought. Actually, it was a lot more simple than I thought it would be. I'm not a big talker so I mostly observed and absorbed information. I got a lot of information. Good information. I have a lot to do now.
I love my novels even more now. They're not bad.
I would go to another writer's conference, maybe not so far away. I spent a whole day travelling back to Pitt.

New Cover Art

The Secrets of Slade Sanders has new cover art. I love it.

That's done . Now onto getting the 2nd book "The Secret Life of Slade Sanders" edited
And I'm still working on this third novel. Which is coming along. I can't complain there.
Not having to work for a month is a big help.
I'm going to miss having so much time off to write.. An author's work is never done.

So Much Work, So Little Return

I hired a new illustrator to re-do the image on my book cover.   The first one didn't work, they couldn't complete the project.  Found the new one on Twitter. We'll see how this one works out.
The new Illustrator seemed perplexed when I told her I simply wanted an image from her and not a whole book cover. After I told her that I am a designer myself, she then proceeded to give me her resume, not sure why. 
But we came to agreement, I'm looking forward to it.

Small Favors

I'm bloody happy that I only have 7 days of work left.  I basically have the entire month of December off.  There's nothing bad about that.  Not going to that survival job is always  a good thing.
Plus I get 5 days off for Thanksgiving.    Two more work days till that little break. 
Even so, things are starting to pile up.  I was thinking what would I do for an entire month, well, the gaps have begun filling themselves in. 
I need a website.  
Doctors appointments
Gotta do my hair....

To name a few. 
But I have an entire month. 

What did I do on Halloween?

I went to a Halloween attraction called The Haunted Hillside, in Uniontown.
It was $20 dollars and much better than that last Halloween attraction I went to.
The one up in Wexford.  The workers were actually there in substantial numbers, it was warm and the whole thing started on time.
They had some awesome costumes, I saw several I genuinely liked. No consistent story line though.  It started off promising, Black Ops against mutants but that quickly moved to ghost and then a haunted cornfield, then the finale was a Deliverance, inbred, red neck , homicidal hillbilly thing.  It was all done well, just not cohesive.  We spent an hour walking from where they dropped us off at back to where we came in.  Brilliant.

Did I mention it was $20 dollars?

Holloween Hayrides and Painting with a Twist

I haven't taken a painting class since college.  I don't remember enjoying the painting class in college.  So, a BYOB, step-by-step painting class should be good. And it was.  I got me some green apple Smirnoff Ice and had a good time.

Overall, not too bad.  I would do it again.
Halloween  Haunted Expedition...it was $15 dollars of exercise by walking through a cornfield in the dark.    It was cold so they said at least 15 people didn't show up to work the event.  Our little group was alone, walking through a cornfield along the linear path, trying not to trip over anything. I did succeed in doing that. 
There was a distinct feeling of "where is everyone"?   There were 3 interactive attractions (if you want to call them that)  and some Spencer's Gifts masks but little else going on.
It was my 2nd Halloween feature type thing. I don't get to go to these that much.

No Rest...

There really is no rest for the weary.  I got the weekend off from survival and now I am to ponder how to promote my novels. 
Free, is of course better than something I have to pay for.  

I am still trying to catch up on all of the TV I missed during the week.  I only have The Originals left.  I am desperately trying to cut some shows out and I have but there are so many left that I still like watching.  Thursday nights alone, I have 7 shows.  That's  over 7 hours of television!  

Gotta make time I guess.

Poetry and other things I'm not ready for...

I guess Matt and Trey didn't make the cut this week.  It's suppose to only take them 3 days to  make an episode...

I've been checking out poetry books lately.  I want my character's dialogue to flow like poetry.  Hannibal (Tv show) is my inspiration for this.  I loved the dialogue on that show.  I'm already planning for my 4th book even though I'm not finished with my 3rd. 

I have to survival work extra this week so this will cut into my author's time substantially.  It's pretty fucking bad.

Published at last!

This was two years of hard work.  I loved writing this book, I love writing all of my books but I'm relieved that it's done.  At least phase two is done; I know a lot of hard work is still left.  I'm in for a whole new can of worms.  Now I have to promote this thing.

The Secrets of Slade Sanders is available. 
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0165YX402

I have to promote this one, continue writing my third novel and prepare my second novel for publication as well.  Writing is definitely my second job but it's also my chosen career.