Yesterday I sent my first three queries to literary agents. Eep! While I haven’t entirely quelled the fantasy that I’ll get signed by one of my dream agents immediately, I do think I have realistic expectations about how long this is going to take and how many rejections I’m likely to receive. And three is just a start—general wisdom is to send about 5 to 8 queries at a time. So I’ll send more this week, and with a better estimate of the time involved now that I know I will spend an hour+ before sending each submission re-reading my materials in terror that I have somehow spelled the agent’s name wrong, spelled my own name wrong, or used the wrong draft. 😂

I hired a total of three editors to look at my query letter—one full submission package edit from an editing agency, and two query-letter edits from Fiverr. I didn’t agree with every suggestion, but I took something from every edit that improved the letter. There are twelve query letter drafts in my folder, and that doesn’t even include all the work I did before I started saving each draft as a separate document! One of the Fiverr packages included two passes, and when the editor read the final and said, “I think this is ready to send out,” I decided to believe her. I could spend literally forever making tweaks and wording adjustments, but at some point you just have to give it a go. Right? And this was my Big Goal. “Querying agents” was the destination for ten months of obsessive work and focus, and I did it. I know this is just the first step in a long process, and gosh I’ve had some help along the way, but I’m proud that I made it this far.

This is a photo of the ✨fun✨ agent tracker that now lives on a wall in my living room (names redacted). I’m hoping that the galaxy stickies and butterfly pushpins will remind me to celebrate the entire journey, rejections and all.