Sending Out Queries

I am sending out queries for Midnight In Vegas. I am trying to find the best matches for my book. I have been using my Writer’s Market book in conjuction with www.writersmarket.com and have come up with a good system.

I have already gone through my Writer’s Market book with a highlighter and bookmarks and identified all the potential markets I might query. I then added them to the MyMarkets section of writersmarket.com it has a handy tool you can use to track your submissions.

Then I find the website for the market I want to query and read all I can about the agents that work there. There is a great deal of information posted online. There is more than the simple lists of what they are interested in or not interested in. After reading about the agents I determine if they would still be interested in my work. I am surprised to find out how many this eliminates. You might think that eliminating agents is a bad thing but it isn’t. I don’t want to waste time submitting my work to someone who is predispositioned against it (or waste their time either, I wish more authors did this it would probably help the query process immensely.) Instead, I am sending my work to people who express interest in the type of book I have written (and are thereby less likely to reject it.) I am also looking for people who have similar business/writing philosophies to mine. I see an agent as a business partner. It is important to find somebody I think I can work with. I hope to have a lasting relationship with this person. A business relationship is often like a marriage, I don’t want to get stuck in a bad one.

After I have read the bios and selected an agent I carefully read their submission guidelines. Since I am being selective it is important to make sure that I send my work in the proper format. Every agent and agency wants something different. I don’t know if this is part of a test to see if writers are doing their homework or just the personal idiosyncrasies of the people writing the guidelines. Whichever it is (I suspect it may be a little of both) I carefully tailor my submission to match the given requirements. I don’t want my work thrown out because I sent in 5 pages instead of 10.

I am shocked by how time consuming this is. I thought that once I was ready to send out my query it would quick; just a matter of changing the names on the top of the letter and firing it out. This is definitely not the case. I suppose that in desperation you could do that, (I can even write a macro in Word that would do it for me) but I won’t. I think that part of the slush pile problem is too many people are doing that. My hope is that the time and care I put into this process now will pay dividends later.

Tchuss

Lystra

Published in: on January 9, 2010 at 12:02 pm  Comments Off  
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Novel Synopsis

 

I am done with my synopsis and in slightly less time than it took to write the whole novel. It was a daunting task for me, full of mental hurdles to overcome.

I really struggled with this one. I have mercilessly deleted pages upon pages of failed attempts. I killed them slow too, using the backspace to wipe them out letter by disappointing letter, no CTRL+A delete for those bastards. 

I know a lot of my problem was the pressure I put into the synopsis. I thought that if this was the only thing the publisher or agent read, I wanted it to be perfect. That is a lot a pressure, enough pressure to make a guy just go play with the kids instead of sitting down and working. 

The other issue I had was the fact that I actually have two separate story lines going simultaneously through the book. That made it hard for me to write a linear synopsis as I was constantly jumping between the story lines. I have to thank Chuck Sambuchino and his Guide to Literary Agents blog for the solution for that problem. He started posting up sample synopsis he found on Wikipedia for movies. This helped immensely. I looked up movies that were plotted similarly to my book and came up with a good way to write my synopsis. Standing on the shoulders of giants, it’s the only way to see the world. 

So now that I am done with my synopsis I am going to start querying again. This time I’ll be ready with a synopsis in hand when they ask for it. 

Tchuss

Lystra

Published in: on January 6, 2010 at 10:38 pm  Comments (3)  
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Query Letter V3.0

Okay in addition to writing my synopsis I have been polishing the old query letter.

Here is my latest version.

Dear Agent type person

Jeff Heaven is a small time Ecstasy dealer working off-the-strip clubs pawning pills. Jeff’s friend Charles brings him a hit of a strange new drug called Midnight. The black pill is so dark that it seems to dim the lights around it. Jeff is concerned with the drug’s appearance but the effects are so incredible that he agrees to help his friend sell it.

As the drug spreads through the clubs and casinos, Jeff begins to realize that everything might not be what it seems. He hears whispering in the back of his mind and he doesn’t like what it is telling him. People who are using the drug start behaving strangely, violently, a crime wave breaks out in the city.

Niccolo Casciano is a straight laced Las Vegas Metro Officer, he knows little about street drugs and less about the supernatural. In one night he is about to learn a lot about both.

Tymon can feel the growing evil in his bones the way other men can feel approaching storms. The ancient priest scrambles desperately to find out what it is, and how to stop it.

Deep within the pastel shadows cast by neon lights a demon patiently watches as her essence is consumed by thousands. She grows in power and influence; soon she will have enough to return to our world and exact her vengeance.

Midnight in Vegas is a 125,000 word supernatural thriller that takes the reader from the high tempo club scene of Las Vegas and into the twilight realm of the Perimeter, the world between worlds.

 Thank you for your time and consideration, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Respectfully,

Lystra Pitts

Published in: on June 5, 2009 at 5:23 pm  Comments (2)  
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BEA Writer’s Convention Observations Part One

The first thing the convention taught me was that I am not alone. As much as I read about the overwhelming number of query letters agents receive every day, how many times I hear about the thousands of manuscripts in slush piles overflowing out the doors and windows of publishing offices. There is nothing like a convention room filled to the brim with writers to illustrate how desperate my situation is. These writers, who I am sure believe in their work as much as I believe in mine, all paid their hard earned money, money they didn’t earn writing, to be there. THERE WERE HUNDREDS OF US IN THAT ROOM. Hundreds, who like me crossed great distances and spent extravagant amounts of money to get a few precious moments with an agent. Writers are not in short supply.

I wondered what would happen if every person in that room had a brilliant masterpiece, a novel of unequalled quality, the magnum opus of their genre in our time would the agents be able to take them all? Would they all get published? I believe that the sad answer to that question is no. There are too many of us for all our talent to be recognized. The system cannot take everything it is offered, no matter how good it is.

Luckily, I am sure that only a handful of the people in that room had good stories. Right? That is what they would have you believe, that is how the system is set up. But I don’t know. I heard a lot of pitches, both practicing with strangers and overhearing the guys and gals in front of me and I liked most of the story ideas I heard. I am sure that a lot of people in that crowd had mediocre stories or mediocre writing skills and they will be rightfully culled from the herd. Won’t they? Again I am not sure. I have read a lot of really bad books, and I know you have too.

The system cannot guarantee that it will discover all the talented writers nor can it weed out the untalented. So I have to wonder how does one succeed in such a fundamentally flawed establishment? The only answer I have is luck. You have to get lucky, bottom line. It sounds bad right? But it isn’t as bad as all that. You can work with luck.

What is that? You ask.

Work with luck? How is that possible?

Sit back and listen to the Nevada boy.

LUCK IS ODDS. Odds are probability. Probability is a mathematical equation. Equations are manipulated through the use of variables.

Here are the variables: Number of books published and the number of submissions received.

If the givens are that your work is good enough to be published the more you submit or query the better the odds are you will be published. I warn you the odds are really shitty to start out with, but I’ve pulled to an inside strait with no outs, if the pot is right, you just have to go for it. (I do not mean to spam query or do anything stupid or rude that will get you blackballed in the publishing world, I am only saying, query or submit to every available and viable source.)

You see what I mean?

So here is the pot. Your work being read, and enjoyed, by a person you’ve never met.

I hear so many people talking about wanting to see their names on the cover, or their book on a shelf at Barnes and Noble, or just seeing their work in print.

I think all that stuff is awesome, but it isn’t what I am writing for. I am writing to entertain people with my stories, as many people as I possibly can.

So with that illustrious pot piled up on the table before me, I’m going all in, and seeing where the cards take me.

Published in: on May 30, 2009 at 6:31 pm  Comments (4)  
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I have seen the elephant

In Victorian England the British Empire spanned the entire globe. It was so expansive that the Brits bragged that the sun never set on the British Empire, and it was true, there were colonies and commonwealths on every continent. No matter what the hour, it was daylight somewhere in the vast empire. During that time, the empire’s most unruly and combative subjects were found in Africa, India, and Asia. Veteran British soldiers were said to have “Seen the elephant.” because if they had gone into battle it was more likely than not that they had done so in a place which, quite simply, had elephants. Today the term is more loosely used to describe any veteran of any endeavor.

After Writers Digest’s BEA Writers Convention, I can say without a moment’s hesitation that I have seen the elephant and what an ugly beast it is.

I have to say on the whole the convention was great. Karin Slaughter was an awesome keynote speaker, the breakout sessions and seminars were informative and fun, the lunch speaker was great, and the pitch slam was exactly what I thought it was going to be.

At a safe distance any elephant can seem charming. Everybody loves elephants, in a zoo, behind a sturdy fence, maybe even a moat. Do you dare climb over that fence, swim that moat and cavort with the great beasts up close and personal? I did, and I’ll tell you what I saw.

In my next couple of posts.

Published in: on May 30, 2009 at 3:17 am  Comments (1)  
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