February Update

February 14, 2024 ~ Grace ~ Leave a comment

I’ve now submitted seven queries total, and I’ve already received three form letter rejections. It has been amazing and unexpected to hear back so quickly! But I’d also, like, hyped myself up for weeks of endless waiting, you know? I only had all seven agents in the “submitted” column for four days!!!!

Last week, I was accepted to the online Futurescapes Spring Workshop in March. I’ll be workshopping my query letter, my synopsis, and the the first 3,500 words of my novel with a faculty of three literary agents and a small cohort of six fellow students—and my faculty group leader is an agent who represents some of my very favorite books. She has been at the top of my agent list since I started making the list!

Timing-wise, I suppose it would have been ideal to workshop my stuff before submitting to the first round of agents (including my faculty lead, haha), but it WILL be nicely timed for my second round of submissions. And no regrets—it was important to me for personal/existential dread reasons to start querying before my 35th birthday. The workshop does guarantee that I’ll receive some personalized feedback from one of the agents I’ve queried, and this is such a win in itself even if the response to my query is no.

Otherwise, I am trying to slow down. I am trying to stop obsessively rereading my 3,500 word excerpt and panicking about whether the people in my workshop will like it. I am trying to accept that there isn’t any work to do right now on any of my submission materials. I am trying to take a break. I am wondering if anyone actually feels well-rested when they wake up in the morning. I am hoping to get back into painting. I am thinking about what to write next, and I am asking strategy questions I’ve never had to ask before. For instance: Should I start writing my half-baked sequel idea even though I’m not sure it will turn into anything? Wouldn’t it be smarter to start something new, so I’ll have something to query next year if this one doesn’t work out? And…am I a romance writer now? What if I don’t have another SFF romance in me? What if, for me, last year’s struck-by-lightning writing experience is the best it’s ever going to get?

So, nothing is new. Everything is terrifying, and you gotta do it anyway. I do think it’s important to celebrate the milestones when you hit them. We got lo mein and crab rangoons from China Taste in Yarmouth on the day I submitted to the 7th agent, which has become a ritual—we got the same lo mein when I finished the first draft, and when I finished revisions and let people read it for the first time. I can’t seem to find a good closing line for this blog post, because, like, everything feels like it’s still in process? But, you know, I’m processing. I’m waiting. I’m resting. I’m looking ahead. I’m doing my best.

First Query Letters

January 29, 2024January 29, 2024 ~ Grace ~ Leave a comment

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.

Query Letters, Man

September 26, 2023 ~ Grace ~ Leave a comment

I had this idea to get back to a spot where I’m blogging more regularly, and I’ve actually drafted a couple of posts about my writing process and what’s actually worked for me, but I haven’t posted them because I’m just SO TIRED of writing about writing. As electrifying as a wordcount tracker is for me when I’m in the zone with a project, I am finding my own words about my own process incredibly boring right now. At the end of the day you’re either writing or you’re not, you know? You either did the thing or you didn’t. You either finish your book or you don’t.

I don’t actually believe anything is that absolute, but I have a headache and I am impatient with my own prevaricating—and my impatience is running up against the lack of a clear step forward for the novel that has been commandeering every extra iota of brain space since the idea first hit me over the head back in April. Because from here on out, there isn’t a right answer, is there? Like, there’s no one out there to tell you which edits and changes are correct. No one’s going to give you an A and say, “Good job, you’re ready to start querying agents!” So…how do you know? Can you trust your own assessment? If people are telling you it’s already really good, do you believe them? How much time do you spend trying to make it even better? How do you know if it shines?

I’m still collecting some feedback before diving into manuscript edits, so I’ve been trying to get a head-start on query letters. I’m hoping to hire some professional advice for my submission materials and would like them to be as polished as possible before then, and at this point I’m not expecting to make any major plot changes. And that’s wild, right? Like, borderline delusional, to feel so confident about a first-ish draft that I’m not expecting any major plot changes??? But query letters, man. Holy heck. The whole time I was writing this book, I was like, “This is the most marketable book I’ve ever written! It’s going to fit right into this queer sci-fi/fantasy niche, right next to Everina Maxwell and Freya Marske and Rainbow Rowell!” But actually writing that sales pitch, actually distilling four months of your life (200 single-spaced pages, 110,000 words) into a 2 – 3 paragraph summary—it’s grueling. It’s exhausting. It’s impossible. You’re endlessly twisting and polishing and rearranging, trying to hone and reshape the sentences so that you can see through them to the gold beneath, with no way to know if you’ve gotten it right, or if what’s beneath is even really made of gold.