2/7/2021 0 Comments Journeying Toward PublicationI haven’t talked much about my personal journey from writing to publication, other than with some of my closest friends and family, and even that has been limited. Those who are closest to me all know that I started writing a few years back and some have read my stories, so they know I have a dream of someday holding my own books in my hands. They know I look forward to the day when I can sign a paper copy for some adoring fan or answer questions about why I wrote the things I wrote. But not very many have followed my path from day one to today. Day one of my official writing journey (not the one where I journaled about the births of my sons or the annual family newsletter) was joining my soon-to-be good friend Alexandria Sure at my first write-in for NaNoWriMo. It was a small eclectic local user’s group held at a local eatery and run by an amazingly warm and welcoming municipal liaison who has volunteered for many many years and who, to this day, makes every person who joins feel like they instantly belong. Back then, Alex and I were more casual acquaintances than friends. She had discovered my penchant for writing and asked if I would considered reading and editing a novel she was working on. The following November, after several editing and critiquing conversations, she invited me to join NaNo, and the rest, the parts where she and I became author sisters is, as they say, history. It took me over a year to write that first novel, and another year to edit it. I researched querying and failed miserably at it because, for all the research I did, I just didn’t really “get it.” I thought my queries would race out the door into the hands of the waiting agents and they would call me immediately. I didn’t realize I was driving a horse and buggy and they were thinking, “Cute horse” instead of “Great story.” My queries were lackluster and didn’t really capture the essence of my story the way a good query would. My biggest failure, though, was not that my queries sucked, it was that I gave up. I didn’t do enough homework. I sent out only a small number of queries and decided my book wasn’t that good. I gave up. Rather than continue to query, I decided to put the novel on Wattpad, a reader/writer platform where I had seen another author friend have what I considered amazing success. She now has three books available in paperback for one series and continues to write other great stories that teens love. Wattpad, though I didn’t have the success of my friend, was both a good move and a bad move. I learned more about my story on Wattpad than I had from all of the beta readers with whom I had initially shared my story. Wattpad readers are great for pinging – you can ask them what they think about a chapter or a character and they gladly share their opinions – but they also have a knack for pointing out small details that helps an author laser in on things that can be make a story stronger. You often get their comments in real-time as they read the chapters, so you can sometimes see where they are confused or reading something into a character or setting that you didn’t intend. After six month of having my story on Wattpad, I knew how to fix a weak spot in the ending. It was something I had known all along was wrong with the story, but was blind about how to fix. My story is better thanks to my Wattpad readers. On the other hand, having my story on Wattpad has all but taken the option away for querying that story. Many agents will not touch a book that has been published anywhere, whether that is Amazon (which is all I thought “published” meant), your personal website, or a platform like Wattpad. Learn from my mistake, friends. If you think there is any chance you might want to go the traditional route of publication, don’t put your book out there on a platform, yours or anyone else’s. (A possible exception: Wattpad has started their own publishing arm. Those books that do really well on the platform or that catch the eyes of the powers that be may get a proposal for representation. Some stories are being optioned for movies as well. At this time, those books are rare, but it could happen and I don’t want to downplay was an amazing journey those writers who have gotten publishing deals on that platform must be having.) In the third year, and the fourth, and all the years since, I have continued to drop everything in the month of November to bang out words and, barring one year when I broke a finger just days before the event kicked off, I wrote 50,000 words toward novels to be completed. I now have a backlog of novels that need editing. I’m proud to say that even being mildly depressed during the pandemic (who wasn’t?), I managed to complete and edit my year two novel, Key of F, and am now querying it. This time, after a ton of additional research and some really hard work that took a whole lot of hours, I think I am at the point where I have a pretty solid query. Or at least I think I finally get it. I have some solid comps, determined who my intended audience is, know how to write and personalize my query letter, and have worked out a synopsis. (My synopsis still needs work – clearly, my learning process is not over.) This time, I’m vowing not to give up. Or maybe I should clarify. I’m vowing to give my queries a good college try. That means, I will keep querying agents that I think will be a good fit and whom I think I would like to work with. I have started a list of “dream agents” but my dream agents aren’t necessarily a good fit for this story, so I have a long list of people to research. Research for me almost equates to stalking. I look at their agent page on their agency’s website, check to see if they have their own website and/or blog, read their blogs if they do, filter through their Twitter feed, and dig for any interviews they may have sitting out there. I check to make sure their name and their agency isn’t on a shadow ban list or Writer’s Beware. The goal is to make sure they will represent my book well AND that they will be a person I will enjoy working with. Doing this thoroughly takes a couple hours, sometimes three or four because some of them have incredible amounts of information and resources that they have shared on their blogs. I have gone right down the rabbit hole with some of them, only stopping for lunch or to make dinner for the family. Anyway, I did my homework and found a dozen agents who look like phenomenal matches. They seem to be looking for the type of story I have written and I like the things they say and do. Queries were sent. Then it’s the waiting game. I queried some agents through the holidays (some take much deserved breaks from queries at that time) and know to give a little extra time for answers. Some don’t reply and post that information on their submissions page so you know if you don’t hear back in six or eight weeks that it is a No. It’s been around six weeks at this point. I received a couple form letters back thank me for my submission and notifying me that this wasn’t what the agent was looking for at this time. I started back through my list to find more agents. A couple weeks ago, I queried a couple more. For good or bad, I tweaked my query. I think it improved and I had some people in a Facebook group review it to tweak it a little more. One more rejection came back from the first group. Yesterday, after a whole day of researching, or stalking if you will, I queries six more agents. After reading some resources posted on one of the agents website, something clicked. It may have been the combination of taking an author advertising course, talking through a friend’s key word selection for her book, and the agent blog post, but I finally found a good comp for my book. I finally understand what a good comp is. My queries improved a bit more. I feel like I’ve upgraded from a horse and buggy to a Mustang Convertible. I know there are fancier cars out there than the Mustang Convertible, but I’m enjoying the wind in my hair right this minute. Next week, I’ll get back to researching.
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