· query letters

The Long & Winding Road: Part 1 – Writing The Novel

March 8, 2012 in lit reactor, long and winding road, my book, publishing, query letters, writing | Permalink

For those of you that have expressed interest in my experience with my novel – the writing of it, the query process, securing an agent, shopping the book to publishers, and beyond – look no further! The first in a series of essays about my experiences with my first novel (once upon a time called Superhero Junkies) is up on Lit Reactor.

The Long & Winding Road: Part 1 – Writing The Novel

I hope you all enjoy it, and for those of you engaged in some phase of novel writing, that it might also be helpful. Enjoy and as always – comments, likes, and retweets are much appreciated!

Tags: iit reactor, novels, shameless self promotion, the long and winding road

It’s Done.

April 26, 2009 in acceptance, agents, awesomeness, being made of win!, query letters, writing | 6 comments

Thank the gods. The novel is finally done.

I do have do a final edit and proofread tomorrow but the novel is officially done. It’s clocking in at a massive 440 pages (119,743 words). I’m hoping to cut that down a little bit tomorrow, getting it closer to 400 pages, but done is done is done. Right?

It goes on Monday to my writing group and an agent that has been waiting for it for months (and by waiting for it I mean he probably has forgotten all about it – but technically I have an email telling me to send it on through when it’s done – so I’ll be sending it).

Monday will be Adam’s and my “big day of celebration that we cannot afford” which will include at least the following things: An afternoon showing of Duplicity in our neighborhood theater (movies on a weekday! this is what unemployment should be about!). Dinner out (probably at a seafood restaurant we like on the West Side). And when we come home we’ll probably watch another movie and just hang out while I drink an entire bottle of champagne, already purchased and chilling in the fridge for the last two months waiting for me to hurry up and finish.

I also already placed an order on Amazon for a few things I’ve desperately wanted but told myself I wouldn’t buy until I finished. I bought them about thirty minutes after declaring it complete

Tuesday a small selection of queries (six maybe?) will go out to agents.

And on Wednesday, glorious Wednesday I’ll move on to new projects, which include posting good posts more frequently, working on Jilted League, building my website, drawing some sample Shiksa pages, and hopefully finding a super talented artist to work on another graphic novel project I have up my sleeve – I’ve actually already found the artist I want for this – but she’s playing hard to get – read: not returning my email

Man it feels good to move on to something new. I just wish I’d managed it before it turned 85 degrees outside. I hate New York in the summer…and that’s not supposed to mean late April, but apparently this year, it does.

UPDATE: It took an extra day, but the final revisions are done. I wasn’t able to cut as much as I wanted, but font changes alone saved me 50 pages. Final draft is 388 pages (approximately 118,000 words).

Writing Submissions Phase II

August 27, 2008 in cartoons, query letters, short fiction, short fiction submissions, writing | Permalink

So I’ve submitted a “Phase II” round of short fiction submissions, sad that at 32 I’m only in Phase II, but what can you do? Nothing that’s what. A few more contests and publications I’m interested in open up for submissions in September and so I’ll be adding a few to the pile, but in the meantime cross your fingers for all my precious little short fiction babies out there in the big bad world…

There are four submissions currently out, two that were submitted in May and two submitted in August. There are another two to four that will go out for submission in September. Eight would be a good ratio – if I can get to eight we’ll be looking good. And then, depending on how long it takes me to finish a decent polish on my novel redraft and how long it takes my excellent readers to read and comment, and how long it takes me to revise (that’s a lot of “how longs”) I hope sometime in early winter to begin seriously re-querying agents for my novel. And so we will then be able to begin the sad and desperate ‘Query Letter Tracking Posts’ again…

Actually, technically I still have one agent that requested a full that never got back to me…maybe I should email them…hmmm…

Query Update…

June 16, 2008 in agents, publishing, query letters, rejection, writing | 3 comments

Another rejection. Sigh. These things seem to come in groups, so I’m steeling myself for a few more.

This was an official rejection from the smallish literary agency that had a partial of my book (since January). I was optimistic (until recently) on this one because they’re a small house that seemed to have a lot in common with me, and my work, but alas it is not to be. For the record the rejection was quite nice, though it is likely their form rejection as it doesn’t even have “Dear Ms. Thompson” on it. It’s nice that they have a “nice” form rejection, but after two personal emails to me and keeping my 50 page partial for almost five months it would have been nice to get something at least SLIGHTLY personalized.

Oh well, onto the next. Here’s the summary for those keeping track.

#1. Partial Requested and Rejected. Took about seven weeks from receipt of partial. Door left open to submit future work.

#2. Never heard back on regular mail Query. Over six months ago, considered Rejected.

#3. Never heard back on email Query. Almost six months ago, considered Rejected.

#4. Partial Requested and Rejected. Took five months from receipt of partial.

#5. Full Requested. Full Sent. Manuscript sent four months ago. Emailed three weeks ago as follow up, no response as yet.

#6. No response to email query. Almost five months out, considered a Rejection at this point.

#7. Rejection to regular mail query from huge agency, about a ten week turnaround.

#8. Rejected Query, about a 30 hour turnaround.

So, five rejected queries; two rejected partials; one requested full. And no more queries living in oblivion. Time to slam my nose into the grindstone again it seems. Oy.

Query Update…

March 31, 2008 in query letters, rejection, writing | Permalink

Ah, rejection. There’s nothing like the smell of rejection first thing in the morning on your way to your writing group. Sunday I got a little form rejection card on the query for my novel to a huge agency. Since it was for a HUGE and seriously major house, and my work is not necessarily mainstream, I’m not really surprised, but it’s still a bummer.

Here’s the latest summary:

#1: Partial Requested and Rejected. Door left nicely open to submit my graphic novel when further along (it is sadly not further along).

#2: Never heard from them, which is frustrating as they show a 3 -4 week turnaround and I think I got lost in the shuffle (or am up on previously mentioned “laughing board”). I have also submitted this “no reponse to a query, though they say they will get back to the sender regardless” question to an “advice” blog, called The Rejecter…one week out.

#3: Dead. No response to email query. I’m considering it a rejection.

#4. Requested Partial. Sent Partial (first five chapters) via mail about ten weeks ago – no word yet.

#5. Full Requested. Sent Full via mail about seven weeks ago – no word yet.

#6. No response to email query as yet, about ten weeks out.

#7. Rejection to regular mail query from HUGE agency, about a ten week turnaround.

#8. Rejected Query.

So, 3 Rejected Queries; 1 Rejected Partial; 1 Requested Partial; 1 Requested full; 2 Queries still living in limbo…not so bad, although worse than the last time I posted an update. Please continue crossing your fingers and holding your breath for a couple more months okay? Thanks.

Query Updates…

February 13, 2008 in blogging, comics, query letters, rejection, writing | 3 comments

Excellent news! Got a request for a full version of my manuscript yesterday via email. For those keeping score (wait, is that just me?) here’s the summary:

#1: Partial Requested and Rejected. Door left nicely open to submit graphic novel when further along

#2: Never heard from them, going to resubmit the query as they show a 3 -4 week turnaround and I think I got lost in the shuffle (or am up on previously mentioned “laughing board”).

#3: Dead. No response to email query. I’m considering it a rejection.

#4. Requested Partial. Sent Partial (first 5 chapters) via mail about two and a half weeks ago – no word yet.

#5. Full Requested. Full will be sent via mail tomorrow 2/14/08.

#6. No response to email query as yet, about 4 weeks out.

#7. No response to regular mail query as yet to HUGE agency, about 3 1/2 weeks out.

#8. Rejected Query.

So, 2 Rejected Queries; 1 Rejected Partial; 1 Requested Partial; 1 Requested full; 3 Queries still living in limbo…not bad. Everyone cross your fingers and hold your breath for about three months okay? Thanks.

The Torture Continues (an update)…

January 18, 2008 in publishing, query letters, rejection, writing | 6 comments

Following through on my mind-numbing research, I submitted five queries for my book this week.

Three via email, as it was the “preferred method” for those agencies, one via regular mail, and one with their “online form” which is that agency’s preferred method. I hated using the online form, however I must confess that it does eliminate a lot of the mistakes it is so easy to make when querying.

Five queries still isn’t exactly a wide net, and it only brings my total since August 2007 to eight, but I figured I’d track them here (much like my short fiction submissions) so you could all share in the anguish (lucky you!).

Of the 8 Queries, they languish in these stages:

My first query, we’ll call it Query #1 (shocker), received a request for a partial. Partial was then rejected within about two months, with a few helpful and some not so helpful comments. Agent did nicely leave the door open for me to send my graphic novel when complete (or further along) which is great.

#2, submitted via regular mail almost three months ago. This agency claims to respond to queries within 3 -4 weeks. Hmm. Did I get lost in the mail? Did they hate it so much that it’s pinned up on some “laughing board” (I made that up…but it totally exists in my paranoid mind). Is it just a mistake…should I re-query? Ah, questions with no answers – love them!

#3, submitted via email 3 weeks ago, no reponse as yet. This agency does not promise to get back to you if they’re not interested. Sigh.

#4, #5, and #6 submitted via email this week. Of those, #6 got back to me within 24 hours with an incredibly nice note and a request for a partial (first five chapters) and bio etc. Nothing yet on #4 and #5.

#7 submitted via regular mail this week to a HUGE agency which I have little hope of cracking.

#8 submitted via “online agency form” this week, which was rejected within, I think, 18 hours. Sarcastic Joy!

So there it is. Of eight agency queries, two have requested partials, one never got back to me, one rejected me immediately, and four are still out there simmering. It’s hard to feel too badly about this when I’ve gotten two hits, out of four…that’s 50% and that’s pretty damn good. If the other four come back as rejections though those numbers will not look so great.

It’s also sad to realize that my strength may in fact be in query letter writing and not in novel writing. *big sigh*

#58 Comic of the Day

January 14, 2008 in comic of the day, comics, publishing, query letters, seafood, writing | 15 comments

How was everyone’s weekend? I literally buried myself in this depressing query crap, it was so disheartening. I also realized that I probably should re-write my book, which I’ve always considered a “part one of three” into just a massive one book epic. Sigh. Last thing on earth I want to do, but all the advice seems to point to that being the “smart choice”. I did escape for a few hours on Sunday to see Juno (it was pretty good, but overhyped) and to get a Lobster Roll, which though still good was the worst one I’ve had since I discovered them last June… A bit of a bummer weekend overall I guess. I’m feeling pretty low about all of it. How about you guys…do anything good this weekend?

#57 Comic of the Day

January 11, 2008 in agents, comic of the day, comics, publishing, query letters, rejection, writing | 8 comments

Ack. I think we, and by we I mean the insanely talented but tortured writers out there (joke), all feel this way about the query letter process. I don’t know about many other actual personal experiences outside of my own (except what I read about on my best friend ‘the interwebs’) but for me I can’t decide if I’ve been blessed or cursed.

I had the advantage/disadvantage of having my very first agent query letter (to the agent I researched and really really thought I wanted) come back within a week with an email request for a partial (the first 50 pages). JOY! This partial was rejected by email about 2 months later with some helpful (and some less than helpful) notes. Less than joy.

I have sent two queries since – one has been out there for almost three months with no response and the other for three weeks with no response. I completely recognize that this is not exactly a “wide net” to cast. I also recognize that I already have great statistics considering what I’ve actually put out there and the response I’ve gotten. It it still a completely frustrating and self destructive process. Also, I felt good initially that though my first agent didn’t want me or my book he apparently thought I had a good query letter. Good right? A good query letter is almost as good as a good novel…yet no response to my new queries, which though tailored to the specific agents, were largely the same as the first. *SIGH* Apparently my query letter was not made of magic.

I often wish I could be one of those writers that is totally convinced they are brilliant – and that their novel is the best novel ever written. Although agents, and agent assistants, and really everyone, hates those kind of people and nine times out of ten (okay ten times out of ten) they’re delusional anyway, it still must be nice to just feel so confident in your work. I have doubts about my work every moment…actually that’s a lie, I vacillate wildly (especially when I’m actually writing) between “I AM A GOLDEN GOD! I AM A GENIUS!” to ten minutes later “I AM THE WORST OF HACKS. I AM THE HACKIEST HACKY HACK HACK THAT EVER DARED SIT AT A COMPUTER”. These two thoughts can be about the exact same sentence, plot, arc, character, or even title, merely ten minutes apart.

I think I’m also pretty realistic about the state of ‘the process’ and the state of publishing in general. The reality is that you CAN actually have written a great book and that STILL does not mean you are ever getting published…so what hope is there for those of us that maybe have a great book idea that is maybe well written or is maybe timely…it’s pretty debilitating.

I am making a concerted effort this weekend though, no excuses and “sad pile of low self-esteem and mania” be damned, to cast a wide net of query letters. Look out world…a mediocre bi-polar mess is comin’ out…

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