Out With the Old...

It's still Spring around here--the tulips and daffodils have gone the way of the Dodo, but my lilacs are still hanging in. Everything is still green and fresh, for now, until the summer heat kicks in.

And I'm working on a new project. It's actually an old project (I listened to my gut) but with all the changes I'm making, it's quite new. It's like in the old days, when they took a hat and ripped everything off of it and turned it inside out and stitched new stuff on it to have a new hat. That's pretty much what I'm doing with this story, that I wrote sixteen years ago. I'm making it timely, and current. And I'm having fun with it. And laughing at how melodramatic my writing was, back then. I was trying to write like Jane Austen, and NO ONE writes like her. Nope. No one. Silly me.

My good friend Devon pointed out that writers submitted TONS during the holiday weekend (I didn't, so I didn't assume everyone else did) and agents are currently machete-ing their way through their inboxes. Makes perfect sense. Only my submissions were the second week of May, so I'm hoping I'm a little closer to the top of the pile, if you get my drift. ;-)

In the meantime, I have this old hat to work on, and keep me occupied.

It's Too Quiet.

I haven't received anything lately. No rejections, no requests, NOTHING, but complete email and mailbox "silence," for a week, now. Crazy. It must be a busy time of year for agents or something. I'm the type of person who thinks hey, if it's going to be a rejection, just hurry up and REJECT ME, so I can move on, and not wonder, and not get my hopes up, thinking you're actually taking the time to read and discuss my query/sample chapters.

REJECT ME ALREADY, PEOPLE! I NEED TO MOVE ON!!!

I'm an impatient little brat, I know.

Although requests for additional material are indeed welcome.

Anyone?

I especially like the "if you don't hear from me within six weeks/eight weeks/six months, you can assume I am not interested in your project" submission guidelines.

THOSE are the WORST.

The Tale of a Story...

So, I have a story I wrote in college. I have a long, tawdry history with this particular novel. I first drafted it in 1993, and when I got married in 1996 I started to work on it again, because I was going to be a writer, dang it, and I was going to support us by selling a novel overnight and becoming famous and getting a HUGE advance, to put Hubby through Law School.

Heh heh. I know.

Well, I got an agent for the story fairly quickly, and her name was Melanie Mills. (Just Google her, I dare you--she was notorious and faked her own death, ran down her own mother with her car, etc. etc. etc. ETC.)

Believe it or not, she was only ever professional and super nice to me. Unfortunately, her M.O. was to have a major house interested in your story (in my case, Random House) and offer her (very expensive) services as an editor. I declined politely, and soon after, she "died." My hopes sort of died with her, because I never realized I was wasting my time and the novel wasn't getting subbed to any publishers at all. I was being conned. What a mess.

I rewrote the story, gave it a new title, and sat on it, for seven years.

Got excited about it again in 2002. After all, it was a good story, and it was my first. My baby, if you will. I started querying agents. Nope, not for them. Rejection after rejection. Finally, on my TWENTY SEVENTH try, I got a bite. With a real, honest to goodness agent, who himself, was pretty new to the agent business. He fell in love with my story against his will (his words--he doesn't like fantasy elements in stories) but he signed me and we began the submission process.

Eleven rejections later (and one REALLY close call where an editor raved about it and to our mutual surprise, did an about face a month later and rejected it, asking US if she was making a mistake) my enthusiasm waned. He wanted me to write more--only stories that didn't have magic or fantastical elements in them. I dragged my feet. I was overwhelmed with my three kids and so, eventually, we parted ways. Amicably of course, and I look at his website now, and he is a SUPER successful agent, and I am still grateful to him, but he doesn't like fantasy. We're not a good fit.

Now, five years later, I've pulled the story out of the proverbial "drawer" and dusted it off, and last night, I started reading. And tweaking. Then I began to get excited about it. *I* wrote this? It's a great story! (I'm also biased and super humble, I know!)

I changed the title. Changed the names of the three main characters. Grabbed a machete, and chopped and cut, then patched and sewed and now I have a story that I think is pretty darn good.

Problem is, NOW what the hell do I do with it???

Quiet...for now...

All is quiet on the query front for now. I haven't heard anything from anyone, and I have three queries out there as of this moment. I really want to wait to hear from them, JUST IN CASE, but part of me is urging to query one or two more--just for good measure.

And of course, I committed the most egregious of querying sins a few days ago, I realized I ACCIDENTALLY (as in UNWITTINGLY, I DIDN'T MEAN TO, etc.) queried two agents at the same agency! EEEK!

I screamed when I found out. Yes, screamed. Luckily Agent B rejected me, but I still haven't heard back from Agent A. Probably because Agent A was snail mail and Agent B takes e-queries.

So, I'm waiting for the rejection from Agent A, just because I didn't follow the rules. I could really smack myself! Agent A is my dream agent. Not a good impression.

I really am not very good at this process. But you have to start somewhere, right?

Mea Culpa

It was bound to happen---is it me, or do agent's names start to sound alike after a while? They all seem to have traditional names, and if you're not REALLY careful with your agent research, you might end up querying simultaneous agents in the same agency (haven't done that yet, thank heaven) OR, the big boo-boo--querying someone who doesn't even represent the genre you write.

As was the case with me, and agent X yesterday. I got her name totally mixed up with another agent, and the rejection was polite and swift, but along the lines of "Uh, I'm not the right agent for this story, seeing as I don't rep Fantasy."

She didn't say it that way, she was a lot nicer, but I certainly got the point.

*Lara hits forehead* D'OH!!!

It was a waste of her time, and mine, and I could smack myself for being so careless.

ALSO, I am having the big problem of my opening chapter wasn't compelling enough. So I switched it with one that is pretty action-packed...AFTER I queried my dream agent with the first ten (boring) pages!!!

Yeah...waiting for it to get sent back to me in my SASE any day now...

Live and learn. The trouble is, you only have one shot with these people. You have to make it your BEST and really leave a good impression. Because once they've rejected you, unless you've written some other fabulous story, you're screwed.

I have three or four of them I've queried just as many times over the years, (with different stories, mind you) and I've noticed a couple of things: A) the response time, which might have been 24 hours years before, is now 6-8 WEEKS, possibly more. And B) I swear some of them deliberately prefer snail mail queries only because it might weed out all the "lazy" writers who only want to get the instant (or not so instant) gratification of an email query process, versus the old fashioned "watch for the mailperson with white knuckles" routine. And yes, shooting off an e-query is SCADS easier than printing it all off, stuffing it into an envelope, TRUCKING YOUR BUTT to a post office to get proper postage for your SASE, mailing it, etc.

I have the running spreadsheet in Excel I update. And I've discovered that I HATE querying, because no matter how many things I throw myself into, I find that this general feeling of "ants-in-the-pants" never goes away, no matter what. It's like a toothache, festering in my brain, making me run to the mailbox (or stand by it as the mailtruck comes) and check my email 36759363857 times a day.

Querying sucks. But it's a necessary evil! Therefore I embrace the Antsiness...

Dilemma

I have a story out on submission. I got my first official "Not-Right-For-My-List" rejection yesterday morning. Boo. I was saddened, but hey, it's part of the process.

Hubby's reaction to the rejection surprised me.

"You should resubmit that GARDEN story you got the agent with. You know. It's been five years since you had it out on submission. They probably won't remember it. It's the best work you've ever done."

I wasn't sure if that was a compliment--Hubby seems to think that I would have a better chance if I resurrected a story that was rejected TWELVE times by publishers (although one editor loved it and we came thisclose to a sale--only to have it fall short). Granted, the last rejection was in 2005, but as one blogging agent wrote in his blog--"What worked in 2005 would not necessarily work in 2009."

I would have to dig it out of my archived files (I seriously haven't looked at it since 2007) and see if it's worth saving.

But is it even worth the effort of trying? I certainly haven't given up on my Fairy story, but what about dusting it off?

That is my dilemma. Do I try and put it out there again? Would editors remember?

????????

And....We're OFF!!!

Now that my story is marinating and out on submission, I need to find another project. I have the rewrite of one novel pulling at me something fierce...but I also need to work on the sequel to the project on submission. I won't lie, I'm wishy washy. I love my story and my characters, but I'm "kinda still sick" of editing them.

So, I think I will pay some attention to the project that's "pulling" and give it some love. If I get interest (as in AGENT interest) in the other one, then I'll go back to work on the sequel. I still have to write a synopsis. I think I'll tackle that first, and THEN work on my EMMA rewrite.

I have EMMA written in third-person. I think it will be much more snappy if I make it in 1st person--Emma's POV, because, frankly, she's a hoot, and the stuff in her head needs to be shared with the reader. :-)

I am UPTIGHT and WAITING on the query-go-round right now, but I think this is just what the doctor ordered. DIVERSION.