The Personalized Query Reject

I've started sending out query letters (slowly...only three so far) to agents to get a feel for what I need to work on.

QueryTracker.net (QT) is awesome in keeping track of who/when/what happened when you query agents.  You can sort the agents in their system in a variety of ways, search for agents that meet certain criteria (i.e. represents your genre), and see comments from who else has queried them and been rejected/selected.

For my first agent of this round, I selected one person at a top listed agency.  (Only a query letter.)  I got a quick rejection the next day.

For the second one, I sent the query letter to an agent I was very impressed with at a conference I attended.  She is one of the most queried agents.  It took a month to hear back but I got a personalized rejection letter!  Woohoo!  Through QT, I had been monitoring when other people heard back from her and they were getting one-day turn-arounds.  So, the fact that it took a month and it had my name instead of "Dear Author" was encouraging.  Plus, she added an extra line up front about something I said in my letter.  It was probably the nicest rejection letter ever.  I assume it is the next level of rejection form-letters but since it had the extra line and my name, I'm counting it as personalized.

For the third one, I am still waiting.  I selected a colleague of an agent I had a one-on-one with.  (I really liked the agent I met with but she had said at the time that the story was something that would appeal more to her colleague.)  The agency says to give them three months since they ask for the first three chapters.

If nothing else, I am feeling better about my query letter that it made it over one well-known agent's immediate reject pile.

The Awesomeness of Workshops

In case you’re new to writing, or you don’t write but I guilted you into reading my blog, I wanted to talk about the awesomeness of workshops.

In education, workshops often refer to a training session where you learn about something new or get to understand something at a deeper level.  However, in writing circles and programs, it refers to something different.  It is where you bring a passage you wrote to share with others who will read very carefully and critique it.  It goes beyond people saying that they liked what you wrote and identifying the strengths and weaknesses of what you wrote.  In turn, you do the same for the others.

The first time one participates in a workshop, it can be very scary.  You are taking your work that you put so much blood, sweat and tears (well, hopefully not that much blood…) into writing and you are letting people criticize it.   I’ve had workshops from one to forty pages and everywhere in between.  They’ve all proven useful.  (I’ve blogged separately about the one-on-one session where my whole book was read…loved that…but not what I’m talking about here.)

I went to a couple workshops at conferences several years ago where 15 people and two agents listened to my first two pages.  After hearing the agents’ comments, I was ready to curl up into a fetal position in my hotel closet.  However, that experience helped me to figure out how to make my opening stronger. 

Subsequent workshops I’ve done have been online.  I really like the time that particular approach gives to digest the feedback before responding.  Some of the harsher sounding feedback I received has been the most helpful…although it took a few days of pouting for me to appreciate it.

By having multiple people reading and commenting on your passage, you can get a feel for how others would read and interpret what you wrote.  I looked at each person in my workshop cohorts as representing ten people each that might read my story – kind of like how the Nelson ratings have representative people that determine how well a TV show is doing.   

Why have one person represent 10 views? For me, it helped to realize that the one person I could have thought was crazy for thinking about something in my book would not be the only one to think that if my book made it to the general public.  Otherwise, it might be too easy to dismiss a comment from a lone individual.

On the other hand, if one person out of 15 says one thing and the rest say something completely different, then perhaps you need to listen to the majority and how to tweak something.  The real challenge occurs when the group is split evenly about an issue in the passage.

The main challenge with workshops is that the readers are only seeing a limited portion of the book.  As a result, when my whole book was read, there were repetitive sections, there were repetitive sections, and there were repetitive sections due to each chunk having received separate feedback.  ;)  Keep an eye out for that issue so you don’t fall victim to it. 

Otherwise, remember – Workshops are Awesome!

BookCon Recap

I loved BookCon!

It was so much fun.  Well, okay, when I was waiting in some of the huge lines to see panels, get autographs, or go to the restroom…not so fun.  But, even then, there were awesome people to talk to in line including a lot of other aspiring writers.

So, quick recap of the first ever BookCon.

I woke up around six and the BookCon app already had teens messaging that they were in line.  What???  Well, I was too old to do that so I left my hotel around eight-ish and was in line by 8:30am to get my badge since I was pre-registered.   That line went quickly and they were able to scan my registration code from my phone so I could get my badge. (Phew!  Forgot to print it out.)

The line to get in was huge by that time.  BookCon opened at 9am for us regular folk.  My portion of the line didn’t move until about 9:15 due to the size of the crowd.  The front book stalls were already picked over for their free books. (Those teens – I tell ya, they are quick!)

There was a HUGE line to get the tickets for certain autographs.   But, there were others that did not require the tickets and were in the publisher’s booths instead. 

In the end, I got about five books autographed in person at the booths.  Including Cary Elwes,  (Side point - He is so charming.  We need to get his character from Psych, Pierre Despereaux a spin-off.  In the mean time, I'm looking forward to his book As You Wish coming out this fall.) 

Jeff Kinney (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) was a total sweetie.  He was so patient when I realized I had turned off my phone.  I also got a photo with him too but I'll post the one of just him here.

I also went to a couple of book panels that were a lot of fun. There was a New Adult panel on Bad Boys in novels.   The authors were hilarious and we got one book from each.  I also went to the Dystopian YA panel lead by Veronica Roth (Divergent) and got a couple of chapter samples. 

In all, it was a great day for $30.  Twelve free books, 3 chapter samples, 5 autographs and a ton of memories. (Ah, isn’t that sweet!)

I hear next year they are thinking about making it two days.  Sounds like a great plan since there were some things I didn’t even try to go to but wanted to see.