On Wednesday I submitted Query letters and Manuscript samples to 11 Agents. We are starting with an Author update in this post but don’t worry I will be glad to share some insights to what I experienced during my submission process. First of all, I would like to start out by saying how stressful it is. You may hear some Authors say that it wasn’t that bad. Honestly though, I almost chickened out a couple of times before I submitted but my bravery won over. That’s right whether you have self-published or submitted Queries to be traditionally published you are BRAVE.
There is no other way to say it other than you WILL get rejection letters. It is very rare that you hear an Author, even the famous ones, who got a deal right out of the gate. It takes courage as Authors to send out those Queries knowing that you will ultimately get several No’s before that one Yes. You are not alone. You are brave and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
This was the order of events that took place to get to this point:
- First the idea (of course) that leads to the first draft
- The editing that turned into lots of additions and removals of information
- The long process which had several rounds of edits
- The beta reading process
- During the beta reading process, came the start of the Blurb and Synopsis
- Finished the blurb, struggled with the synopsis but got there eventually with lots of complaining, snacks, almost crying, and a grey hair or two.
- Then finally being finished with the novel
- Which led to writing the Query letter and finishing it after multiple rewrites and edits.
- Then I discovered that my novel was not formatted in the right font or font size.
- I changed the font to Times New Roman, the font size to 12, the margins to 1 inch, made sure there was a header that had the page numbers, my name and my book title, which is all the suggested formatting that I found online from reading multiple sources. I know I should have started with this but now I know for future reference. We are never truly done learning.
- Then I felt completely ready to start researching agents. It took about a week (considering I have a busy day job and other life things to take care of that keep me fairly busy, I am proud of it being only a week). Being who I am (slightly organized) I wanted to make some Excel worksheets (which I thanked my husband for doing, so I had more time for research) to help keep track of the information I found. I compiled a list of about fifty literary agents. I rated them by my favorites (based on the agency as well) and did a five star system. One star obviously a least favorite (meaning they didn’t quite fit with my future plans as an author and I didn’t quite fit with them). Five star was, they checked every box and I thought we would make a great fit to expand my career. Honestly there were no one stars on the list and only one person who was a two star. I based most of the choices on, a combination of if I liked what I saw with the agency in general, the description of the Author between what genres they were interested, experience and a sense of humor in their description was a major plus.
- Then I found a day where I had some time and started submitting. I felt prepared and ready to start sending out those Queries. The first submission was easy. It was a copy and past into Query Manager kind of submission so It was an online ready to go submission form. However, the second one was an email. Which had to be a pasted Query letter and an attached manuscript sample of ten pages. So, I ended up having to make a few other Word documents that were formatted the same and with a copied and pasted 10 pages, 25 pages and one that was 3 chapters pasted of my manuscript. Some agents wanted the 10 some wanted bigger samples. With them being attachments they had to be separate files from the full manuscript.
- Then came the waiting game
Now to elaborate on all of the Querying process I can tell you that I liked the ability to just copy and past into the body of the email instead of adding an attachment. It made it so much easier. I found my favorite way to Query was through the Query Manager website though. Like I said, it was like a submission form. Which was all laid out for you and super simple to use. There was a link to follow from the agency website and it was a matter of sometimes adding an author bio or a list of novels similar to yours, copying and pasting and clicking submit. You even get a link to the website to check on your Queries.
The Author bio wasn’t too difficult as I already wrote a paragraph in my Query letter so I discovered that I can write about myself a little so that helped. However, the list of books like mine was difficult. Just because I tend to stop reading a certain genre for the time I am writing the first rough draft of my novel because I don’t want any chance of ideas from another novel spilling into mine. I never want to use another Authors ideas accidentally in my novels.
With my rough draft being written for several years now that wasn’t the biggest issue as much as time is. Don’t get me wrong I love to read, it’s honestly one of my favorite things to do. But I love to write more, so reading a novel takes me awhile to get through. Most of the time I take months to finish one book. Unless I am beta reading or doing a review for someone of course (than I find the time). The problem is that there is just not enough time in the day. When I find that I have a few mins to work on reading or writing, I usually choose the latter of the two. When I need time to relax my brain, I’ll typically choose reading instead.
So, when an agent asked for a list of novels like mine, I didn’t have an idea other than the genres that it is similar to. I am a multi-genre Author as well as a multi-genre reader so I read all kinds of genres. Right now I am reading through the Harry Potter series, I have been on Year 5 for a month now and am about halfway through. I started them because I have never read them until now, I am a fan, I love the movies but just started reading and loving the books.
That being said, the lists of novels similar to mine thwarted me. My advice is that if you are working on the editing process of your novel, then it is a good time to read a few books like it and start compiling that list. Not all agents ask for it. Of the eleven I submitted to, only one did but I felt unprepared for that question. I know why they ask it. It’s to see what the market might look like for your novel, to see what genre you see it fitting into, where you see your novel going in terms of popularity, sales etc. Even knowing why, still made it difficult.
There you have it as far as the submitting process went. When I was finished with the 11 submissions, I had set a goal of 10 for the day, so I felt accomplished. Some took like five minutes to Query, others a good 15 minutes or so. It all depends on what they are looking for. Some it’s a Query letter and 10 pages of manuscript, others that includes a synopsis, and an author bio separate from what’s in your letter. Each submission was a little different, because you want to make sure you address each agent by name in your letter. If you can personalize it a bit is a good idea as well. Which is other advice that I have compiled from reading several articles about Querying. So in all, submitting to 11 agents took me about 4 hours (taking out the breaks lol). At the end of it, I had a migraine but I felt accomplished.
That brings me to Friday. Two days of waiting for anything to happen with my Submissions. Granted I haven’t really been expecting anything until maybe weeks so I wasn’t that anxious yet. That morning I received my first rejection email. Then soon after a second one. Now, I wasn’t upset or anything because I expected it and am expecting more. But the first one wasn’t a straight rejection letter. They said that my current novel was not a project that they felt would be a good fit with them right now but that any future projects I have they encourage me to Query again. So it was a nice rejection letter. The second was just a straight they didn’t think it was a good fit for their agency letter.
After all that, I am welcoming the rejection letters because when I find the right agent for me then it will be an offer instead. I am also anxious to get my first rejection with some in depth feedback. If it doesn’t happen, its fine but I really am ok with constructive criticism because its how we grow. For now, I will continue to be hopeful that my Query finds the right agent. Then we can get the show on the road with the publishing part.
Those of you that I am very grateful to have following me here on my blog may not aware that I also have a Facebook Group and Author Page. Please click on the links below to check them out. You can follow me on my Author page for updates as I post there more often. As well as please check out my Facebook group, it is for Authors to promote their work as well as readers to find new materials to read. Please agree to the rules for your request to join the group to be accepted.
Thank you for reading my blog…Until Next Time…JUST KEEP WRITING.
Tiffany’s Writing Journey 