The Nobodies: It’s Away!
After much inadvertent procrastinating (honest!), I sent the first query for The Nobodies to an agent Wednesday night. Consisting of a one-page write-up and the first chapter copies and pasted into the body of an email (so formatting flew out the window faster than Kate Moss on a windy day), I simply tailored it specifically to the agent in both the body and the subject line and was home free.
One hold up I had that almost derailed the query another night: indicating popular authors to which my style is similar. I’ve always had the hardest time with this, despite reading more than twenty books a year on average, and last night was no different. I simply don’t understand how so many up-and-comers can sit back and say, “I sound exactly like this author!” or “Wow, if you loved this book by this shmuck, wait until you read mine!” Now lacking input from anyone who’s read the thing certainly didn’t help matters, either.
In the end, I simply looked over my somewhat vacant bookshelf (the variety is extremely lacking at the moment as I’ve yet to have much shelf space in the new house) and picked a few I thought reflected my work the best. My picks? Michael Connelly and Frank Herbert. Complete opposite ends of the spectrum content-wise, but style-wise, certifiably-arguable comparisons.
As an aside, having thought about it, I should have listed Alex Garland instead of Frank Herbert. He’s got just enough screw job-nutcase in his work that the similarities would be perfect.
Here’s hoping it goes better than it did for Sanity’s Flaw, even if this doesn’t prove to be the last submission this round. I plan on giving each agent two weeks to respond, with a polite follow-up at 1.5 if I haven’t heard from them in hope of at least a “Hold on, haven’t gotten to it” response. It may be asking for much, but I’d rather move on than hold my breath for something that never comes.
After all, the potential list of agents is considerably long, and I don’t want anything to hold up this book any further. You see, I’ve got plans….
One hold up I had that almost derailed the query another night: indicating popular authors to which my style is similar. I’ve always had the hardest time with this, despite reading more than twenty books a year on average, and last night was no different. I simply don’t understand how so many up-and-comers can sit back and say, “I sound exactly like this author!” or “Wow, if you loved this book by this shmuck, wait until you read mine!” Now lacking input from anyone who’s read the thing certainly didn’t help matters, either.
In the end, I simply looked over my somewhat vacant bookshelf (the variety is extremely lacking at the moment as I’ve yet to have much shelf space in the new house) and picked a few I thought reflected my work the best. My picks? Michael Connelly and Frank Herbert. Complete opposite ends of the spectrum content-wise, but style-wise, certifiably-arguable comparisons.
As an aside, having thought about it, I should have listed Alex Garland instead of Frank Herbert. He’s got just enough screw job-nutcase in his work that the similarities would be perfect.
Here’s hoping it goes better than it did for Sanity’s Flaw, even if this doesn’t prove to be the last submission this round. I plan on giving each agent two weeks to respond, with a polite follow-up at 1.5 if I haven’t heard from them in hope of at least a “Hold on, haven’t gotten to it” response. It may be asking for much, but I’d rather move on than hold my breath for something that never comes.
After all, the potential list of agents is considerably long, and I don’t want anything to hold up this book any further. You see, I’ve got plans….
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