Send. Send. Send. Send.
It’s no secret that I’ve given a great amount of thought to the prospect of self-publishing my first novel, Sanity’s Flaw. As mentioned previously, it holds great appeal, from leaving me with full creative control to increased profits, to any number of other positives. However, something must be said about the merits of running through the editorial processes of major publishing houses.
After all, their books are typically those found atop the New York Times bestseller list, not those found only on one platform (believe me, after tracking bestseller lists for three years, I know).
The first step, as I’ve repeatedly noted throughout this blog, is to query. This simple introduction of the writing can be sent to either an agent or directly to a publisher, and consists, usually, of a query letter hooking the reader and a writing sample for them to satisfy their hunger upon.
At this point, I’ve queried both publisher and agent, the former mostly with an early, though complete draft of The Nobodies and the latter more recently with the finalized copy of Sanity’s Flaw. However—again, as has been repeatedly noted—none of these queries have been met with even minor success. No one has shown interest. Not one person has even asked to read further.
Now, this is certainly more than enough to become disheartened (I certainly felt the blow a few posts ago), but there’s an interesting point to be made regarding the format of queries:
Not every submission includes actual samples of the book.
This is encouraging because it means that, more than likely, it is the query and not the book that is at fault, either due to being poorly written or simply lacking an angle interesting enough to be considered book material.
Confronting this fact, I begrudgingly took it upon myself to rewrite my query this week, remembering the difficulties I had with a former college professor who believed himself a literary God (you’ll never have heard of him, don’t worry) when I refused to change several plot elements of a story simply because he disagreed with them. Because, although I felt his changes were unnecessary, he was, inevitably, the one giving me a grade. He had the power, just like the agents.
Focusing the brief narrative on a different aspect of the plot entirely, as well as another character, the new query flowed onto the page quite easily and, when compared to my original, was met with positive results from those I asked to consider the two. It seems a bit of a hat trick, really, but the query still easily embodies the tone of the novel and, in my opinion, actually serves to better establish the story’s introductory section—that which is sent alongside the query when requested.
I’ll begin submitting the reworked query to agents Monday morning, and will be certain to let you know the responses as soon as I receive them.
Meanwhile, work continues on my revamped version of The Nobodies, as earlier this week I completed Section Two and began earnest work on Section Three. Now midway through the section’s second chapter, I’ve realized that, although it is somewhat shorter than the previous two (at least for now), it is by far the most epic of the bunch. I mean that in the best possible way, as, in terms of both all-out action as well as character development, there hasn’t been anything else in the story that can compare.
Seriously, as I've dug through the narrative, it’s been a real treat just to read through it once again. It’d odd seeing the end just on the edge of the horizon, but it’s been a long journey for this story. I’ll be sad to see it end.
One more thing before I go. I don’t believe I mentioned my New Year’s resolution here just yet, have I? Well, no matter. Not only was it to complete my second novel and work on getting the first published, I would also like to fully outline the third book by the year’s end.
Given my current pace, I should be able to do it. We’ll see how the R&D goes though, eh?
At least I managed to finally decide on the title. Look forward to seeing that in… oh, I don’t know. Awhile.
After all, their books are typically those found atop the New York Times bestseller list, not those found only on one platform (believe me, after tracking bestseller lists for three years, I know).
The first step, as I’ve repeatedly noted throughout this blog, is to query. This simple introduction of the writing can be sent to either an agent or directly to a publisher, and consists, usually, of a query letter hooking the reader and a writing sample for them to satisfy their hunger upon.
At this point, I’ve queried both publisher and agent, the former mostly with an early, though complete draft of The Nobodies and the latter more recently with the finalized copy of Sanity’s Flaw. However—again, as has been repeatedly noted—none of these queries have been met with even minor success. No one has shown interest. Not one person has even asked to read further.
Now, this is certainly more than enough to become disheartened (I certainly felt the blow a few posts ago), but there’s an interesting point to be made regarding the format of queries:
Not every submission includes actual samples of the book.
This is encouraging because it means that, more than likely, it is the query and not the book that is at fault, either due to being poorly written or simply lacking an angle interesting enough to be considered book material.
Confronting this fact, I begrudgingly took it upon myself to rewrite my query this week, remembering the difficulties I had with a former college professor who believed himself a literary God (you’ll never have heard of him, don’t worry) when I refused to change several plot elements of a story simply because he disagreed with them. Because, although I felt his changes were unnecessary, he was, inevitably, the one giving me a grade. He had the power, just like the agents.
Focusing the brief narrative on a different aspect of the plot entirely, as well as another character, the new query flowed onto the page quite easily and, when compared to my original, was met with positive results from those I asked to consider the two. It seems a bit of a hat trick, really, but the query still easily embodies the tone of the novel and, in my opinion, actually serves to better establish the story’s introductory section—that which is sent alongside the query when requested.
I’ll begin submitting the reworked query to agents Monday morning, and will be certain to let you know the responses as soon as I receive them.
Meanwhile, work continues on my revamped version of The Nobodies, as earlier this week I completed Section Two and began earnest work on Section Three. Now midway through the section’s second chapter, I’ve realized that, although it is somewhat shorter than the previous two (at least for now), it is by far the most epic of the bunch. I mean that in the best possible way, as, in terms of both all-out action as well as character development, there hasn’t been anything else in the story that can compare.
Seriously, as I've dug through the narrative, it’s been a real treat just to read through it once again. It’d odd seeing the end just on the edge of the horizon, but it’s been a long journey for this story. I’ll be sad to see it end.
One more thing before I go. I don’t believe I mentioned my New Year’s resolution here just yet, have I? Well, no matter. Not only was it to complete my second novel and work on getting the first published, I would also like to fully outline the third book by the year’s end.
Given my current pace, I should be able to do it. We’ll see how the R&D goes though, eh?
At least I managed to finally decide on the title. Look forward to seeing that in… oh, I don’t know. Awhile.
Comments
Post a Comment