Posted by Christine on Jun 7, 2007 in Publishing, Scottsdale |
There is so much information on the Internet. It’s an incredibly useful resource and I cannot image not having it at my finger tips. When I decided to start writing queries I naturally began investigating the Internet to learn how. I learned a great deal. One of the most useful sources of information I have already mentioned was agents blogs. (Have I mentioned Thank you to all the agent who blog and give such helpful and informative advice.) Even now that I have crafted a query I am still reading the blogs of five agents regularly. One problem is that I find myself running into information that I wished I had known 10 minutes ago. It happened this morning… I was reading on an agents blog, the post took apart a query and was very helpful over all. The agent advised only using your pen name once you adopted one. Honestly I had asked myself about this when crafting my query. Should I use my real name or me pen name? I thought since I had nothing published maybe it was best to use my real name with the agent and editor until after I had been published. I guess my thought was Christine Brant does not really exist till her name is on a book. But I know I exist, at least I think I know – ok that’s a discussion for another day. Really though the advice makes sense. I mean I have adopted my pen name for this blog. I have adopted my pen name for the critique group I attend. It makes a great deal of sense to adopt it for my queries as well. I used my real name on my first query, no big deal, but all the queries I send from today forward will use my pen name only. You can read the post here BookEnds...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 5, 2007 in Publishing |
I made the decision yesterday that I was at the point of diminishing returns with my query research and writing efforts. Not that I think my query is perfect, I am sure there is a great deal I can still learn. However I think at this point the more I look at it the harder it gets to SEE it. So this morning I sat down, I read through the query, synopsis and first page one last time and I hit send on the e-mail. Off went my first query to my first agent. I divided the list of 14 agents into first round and second round. It was pretty random how I divided the list. I am hoping to get some kind of feedback on my query from the first round and then send out to the second round. Am I nervous? No, that doesn’t begin to describe the butterflies in the pit of my stomach. Am I eager? YES YES YES. I know- absolutely know that it takes agents up to three weeks to respond to an e-mail query and then they only respond if interested. So I have been really good. I have limited myself to only checking my e-mail once an hour in the three hours since I sent it. 🙂 In all honesty as much as I know to expect no response I have to admit I can’t help the little day dream that things will be different for me. My first agent will ask for a partial. Fortunately I have enough to do to occupy my time that I can stay busy and not sit around and wait for a reply. I have 6 other query’s to get out after all. I hope everyone has a lovely...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 2, 2007 in Randomness |
So I am new to the world of blogging. I probably just proved that to everyone with that simple sentence. I think it is referred as the blogoshere – at least according to Wikipediathe source of all knowledge in the universe. 🙂 Well, at least all the knowledge worth knowing that isn’t on a blog. 😉 Now I find myself in this community and, to my great shock, enjoying it. I have visited many blogs over the past week and it’s been very educational. I hope that one day my blog is just as helpful to someone. So I wanted to post something interesting and insightful today. Unfortunately I attended nine hours of training for my day job – yes on a Saturday BLAHHH. I have nothing and I mean nothing insightful or interesting to say. All I can say today is a word of thanks to all the blogging agents and authors out there who have inspired and educated me over the past few months. I deeply appreciate the time and effort you put into your blogs. I am learning so much from all your experience. Maybe tomorrow I will have something inspirational of my own to...
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Posted by Christine on Jun 1, 2007 in Publishing, Scottsdale |
You can actually see that but you know – I had to state the obvious. I hope everyone enjoys the updates. In other news I have a synopsis written. I cannot tell you the hours and hours I spent researching how to write a synopsis and what agents were looking for. I visited many different agent and author blogs. I read critiques of other synopsis’s. I read articles on how to write a synopsis, articles on how not to write a synopsis and articles on why the synopsis is important. I think that the hardest thing was when I found conflicting information on what should be in a synopsis. One thing I did find over and over was that almost uniformly people dread writing a plot synopsis. However I also found everyone has to do them. Even published authors write them for future projects. So I guess in writing, and dreading, my synopsis I’m in good company. So now I’m ready. I have a synopsis written that I hope is what agents are looking for. I have a query letter written that I can adapt to the agents and editors I plan to send it to. I have a manuscript that flows well with an opening chapter I hope will really hook the reader and still stay true to the rest of the story. Now I need to start sending the query letters. I am completely terrified of the coming rejections, but also totally excited by the idea that someone somewhere will love my story....
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Posted by Christine on May 31, 2007 in Scottsdale |
The first chapter is back up in it’s new and updated form. I have done a lot of revision on this chapter for those who read either of the first two versions you will see that right away. Hopefully this works better. I hope you enjoy, please feel free to leave any feedback in this post.
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