That Querying Journey, Part One
I started writing, like many do, when I first learned to read. Many terrible middle and high school short stories and poems and a few high school and college one-act plays later, at some point in my twenties I started in on novels. Bad novels. Starter novels. The first novel I ever queried was so long ago, I went to the library to research agents in Writers Market, wrote down their mailing addresses, and sent off pages by mail. Not surprisingly, it went nowhere.
Years passed. I tried different genres. I wrote probably four or five things I never sent anywhere. I wrote something new and did a workshop through Writer’s Digest that taught me a lot about querying and opening pages. I sent it off (this time via email, thank goodness) to 25 or so agents. I had one or two ask for a few more pages, but it didn’t go anywhere.
Cue COVID. I poured my energy into writing a new project, taking courses, attending conferences (online and eventually in-person), and learning as much as I could. Together with some dear friends, we started a writing group and met monthly to give one another feedback. I gathered a group of beta readers and sent them pages for feedback. Another dear friend invited me into her book group. I listened to every single episode of The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast and attended many of their Deep Dive and one-off workshops. I worked with a professional editor on the query and opening pages. I sent the manuscript to 100 agents over a period of months. Around 10 requested pages but ultimately all passed.
I’ve always been a pantser and at that point decided I needed to learn how to plot. I always wanted to write a mystery and had an idea I liked and figured I couldn’t do so without plotting. When it was complete I went back to the same editor for a full manuscript edit which made clear that manuscript needed a complete rewrite. Instead, I used that feedback to start a new project. I plotted. I wrote. I revised. I sent it to my beta readers. I revised more. I did a couple of sessions with agents via Manuscript Academy. And then I decided to submit it to the The Shit No One Tells You About Writing podcast. And to my great surprise, I was featured on the show which you can listen to here. That was a couple of months ago, and I've sent it to eight agents so far.
My point is this: Rarely is anyone an overnight success, no matter how it might look on the outside. Rarely does anyone know what they’re doing right out of the gate. Anything you want, anything you want to do well, takes practice, takes persistence, takes dedication and a willingness to do your homework. And even with all those things, it doesn’t mean it’s going to work out as you want. There’s rarely a straight line from where you start to where you end up. But here I am, decades later, still working, still learning, still honing my craft. I’m not there yet. But I’m a little bit closer, which I’ll share more about in a future post.