No Luck So Far

More rejections coming in. Well, by "more" I mean "two more" since I got my first one less than 24 hours after I sent it out. The second rejection letter I got was from someone who has a policy of not actually sending out rejection emails, and the third was probably the most polite letter I've gotten yet. It didn't say anything about my writing itself, they (it was sent by the agent's assistant) just said Seafear didn't seem "right for their current list of projects."

Curiously, the rejections I've gotten were from all three agents who specifically asked that I include the first five pages of my book with the query. After I got the first rejection so quickly, this really doesn't surprise me. I recognize that when an agent asks for sample pages, that's what they're looking at instead of the query letter. I also recognize that the first five pages of Seafear aren't the most exciting things ever written.

But it's essential to the story. Agents, editors, and other writers are consistently harking on "show not tell!" And I agree -- it's best to show something rather than telling it. So I say Matthias has seafear and that its effects are pretty bad -- do I just talk about this, or do I show it? I show it, of course -- I show why at 17 he's not okay at all with going on a ship, and why that provides a significant amount of tension throughout the novel. I have to show what happened to him when he was seven, simply because the plot dictates it.

And I have faith in my plot. I believe that it's good (and, I guess more importantly for these agents, able to sell). I don't have enough conceit to say that I'm the greatest writer who has ever condescended to transcribe his eminently important thoughts on paper, but I do know how to write well.

So I still have faith that my queries with other agencies will solicit some interest. I sent the first ten pages to one agent, and I think the second five more than make up for the first five, in terms of style and suspense. The other four agencies didn't ask for any sample pages, so I just have to hope that my query itself is enough to garner attention. If they all say no, I'll be querying more and more agents. Because it only takes one yes.

Sequels and Rejection

I got my first rejection letter yesterday. It was very prompt and polite, which I suppose is the most I can ask for in a rejection. It was more diplomatic than the rejection letter I got when I was shopping a short story around last year: "We can only accept the very best quality prose fiction in our magazine, and your submission fails to meet that standard." That one was rather clumsy, to say the least. (Incidentally, the story that failed to meet up to their standards is right here.)

In other news, I'm working on the outline for the sequel to Seafear. I'm reluctant to actually get much writing done on the sequel, because I don't know what's going to happen to Seafear. If, God willing, it's published, there will probably will be some changes made to the manuscript. I don't want to have to rewrite half a book because of one changed line of dialogue in Book I.

I like where Book II is going, though. It's not quite as frenetic as Seafear, but it's still got a lot of action and intrigue, and the all important character development. Here's hoping I'll get to bring this one to fruition.

Submitted

Sent out six query letters tonight.

One of the agents had an auto-response on, telling me that he was out of the office until tomorrow.

I still freaked out over it, thinking, "HOMG THAT WAS A REALLY FAST REJECTION!"

Now I play the waiting game.

Agent Hunting

Hunting around for a YA agent is difficult, especially because my book is geared toward a male audience. A lot of the profiles on AgentQuery have agents saying they specialize in women's interest and chick lit, and if they're looking for a YA book, it's something similar to that. Which is fine for them, but not for me, because it makes this process harder! (But hopefully more rewarding.)

Still, there's something really exciting about finding an agent who might just be the right one to submit to. It's especially great when they give interviews with places like Absolute Write, because then I can see a lot of information about this agent in a short period of time.

I've found five agents to submit to. My goal is ten; I'm wondering if I should do the first five and see what they say, and then do a second five, or if I should do all ten at once. Part of me wants to do the first option, because writing is a very slow business and I am very tired of waiting, but patience is a virtue. A virtue I lack. Which makes this business all the more galling.

And all the more fun.

Queries

Working on my query letter. I have a basic template that I've made; I add an introductory paragraph for each agent I plan on submitting to (after dutifully snooping around the Internet and reading up on the agent), but other than that, it mostly stays the same.

AgentQuery.com has drudged up three agents who are pretty legit -- I'm going to query each of them. My goal is to submit to five agents in the first round, and we'll see what happens from there. I'm not quite yet ready to start submitting. I have to wait for my early readers to get back to me and let me know what they think about Seafear. (Already Dylan caught an error where I had "hinds" instead of "hands.")

I'm particularly worried that my query is boring and stuffy, but I don't quite know how to spice it up. I don't think I should bother spicing it up -- just let the story speak for itself. I think I have a good story, and I think it stands up on its own. Now is not the time to be wracked with enough self-doubt to... do something good and analogous to whatever self-doubt does. It's late, I can't come up with a good analogy.

I have also discovered something interesting: "I want to read your book" is one of the most flattering things I've ever been told. "I am reading your book" is one of the most frightening.

Editing, Round 3

I finished editing the rough draft of Seafear the other day. I sent it out to nine different people to read, and when they get back to me on the whole thing, I'm going to start sending it out to agents. I'm starting work on my query letter now, but it's not going so well.

I am both frightened and excited.