Do you have the right outfit?(Aka:Is your query letter up to par?)

Do your shoes match and will anyone have the same pair? (Does the story match the tone of your letter and OMG is it original enough. The last thing we want to do is be Cliche’)

Will the hot popular kids like you? (Can we say Nathan Bransford? And every other agent on your FAVORITES list!)

What if nobody likes you? (Le Sigh…rejections…)

The list goes on and on. But really they are no different. It’s nerve wrecking. It’s terrifying. And more often than not the negative things DO happen.

So what is a writer to do when they are so nervous they are thinking about doing an entire extra round of edits just to postpone the scary hairy rejection scene?

STOP!

You’ve gotten this far have you not?

Have you not worked and toiled and edited and pulled your hair out and cried and laughed and written till your fingers bled and cramped and made everyone you know and their mother read and reread your manuscript and and and and and!?

Take the chance already!!!

If you are worried about agents rejecting, pick a hand full of your not so super duperlicious favorites and query them first. See what happens.

Do they love it? Do they hate it?

Do they all request a full? If so, start querying the big dogs. If not rework your query. Enlist some help!  Purchase Elana Johnson’s From the Query to he Call. Do everything you can to make your letter shine.

THEN query a second handful of agents.

Repeat the process until it cannot be repeated. If it gets to the point where you are getting no where then maybe it’s time to rethink your strategy. But don’t give up. And don’t hold back out of fear.

Get your book out there already! And good luck!!!

(Says the pot calling the kettle black! Wait…I kinda want to be the kettle. You can be the pot today!)

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Marybeth is an aspiring novelist currently working on her second novel. For more information visit her website www.marybethsmith.com. She also has a blog Desperately Searching for my Inner Mary Poppins where you can keep up on her moments as mother, wife and writer..

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She finds herself attracted to the mysterious man, praying that he is not one of the bad guys she’s worked the last year to bring down. But as it turns out, he’s DEA, and possibly responsible for her partner’s death.

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Pitch::Intense visionary dreams transport Alexis to Avalon, the unseen world of faeries.
Until recently, she believed the stories that Night told her of these magnificent creatures were simply her overactive imagination. The tales are now entering a darker, depraved realm, and are creeping into her days.

She finds her visions are real—intended to prepare her for the truth.
The reason she’s felt so different since she was a child….
She was born into Avalon, yet raised by unknowing humans.
But now it’s time to venture back with her own kind.

A horrible evil has been brewing—waiting just for her.
Something is killing people and Alexis is the only one who can stop it.

While attempting to do so, and learn her new place in the universe, she discovers more than she wishes to know of her true self. The nature of faeries is to test the limits and mess with the balance.
Will she be able to stay strong and save the humans?
And what will she do when she finds the way to protect them means subjecting some of her own to a horrible death? She must choose between her two worlds. Which is the right choice?

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Can you hook your readers? An agent?

We want the hooks for your book. This is not a contest, it is to see if you have what it takes, in 3 paragraphs or less, to hook us. Email them to us and we will give you a post. You can get comments on the perfection of your ability to hook a reader or how to improve it.

I’ll put up some of mine as well.

Let’s see if we can’t come up with those first lines of the query. A great hook.

And if you need help with your hook, check out Querytracker’s blog. Elana Johnson has great helps with your query. Here’s the link to the hook.

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Sarah is writer looking for an agent. She is currently working on novel # 4, editing novels 2 and 3, and querying novel # 1. For more insight to her work, visit: http://legendoftheprotectors.wordpress.com/ or http://legendoftheprotectors.blogspot.com/

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Sometimes we are blessed to find a great critique group or friend to help us edit. If we are REALLY lucky we get someone who will tell us how it is, without having to pay for it! But let’s be honest, not all of us are lucky enough to find someone in the industry that gives the right kind of feedback.

Although friends and family are GREAT to boost your ego and tell you how wonderful your book is and how every little edit has made the book a sure fire seller, they aren’t the best people to take advice from.

So what’s a writer to do? How can we tell if our book is really ready or worthy to get published?

Here are some good indicators that your book may need some help…

1. You’ve found a few beta readers who are also writers. They were super excited to read your novel, but two chapters in…they stop reading and suddenly you aren’t hearing from them. It’s possible your book may need some help. If they aren’t begging for more, chances are, you’re not hooking them enough.

2. You’ve broken down and sent out tons of query letters. You’ve been reassured that your query is flawless, but you are still getting form rejections. It’s a good indication that your book may need some help. If your first chapters are not able to get you any type of feedback, chances are, you’re not hooking them enough.

3. Your friends and family aren’t too excited to keep up with your changes, updates and edits. In short, they are bored. Friends and family are usually our BEST critics, if we can’t hook them our book DEFINITELY needs help!

If you have experienced any of these my best advice is to work on the beginning of your story. Make it full of hooks and impossible to set down. Just like Julie Andrews said, “Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start!” (Oh how I love The Sound of Music!)

Have you ran into any other signs that make you sit back and think, “Maybe my book needs a little more help?”

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Marybeth is an aspiring novelist currently working on her second novel. For more information visit her website www.marybethsmith.com. She also has a blog Desperately Searching for my Inner Mary Poppins where you can keep up on her moments as mother, wife and writer..

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Here are the links.

Query + 500 # 1

Query + 500 # 2

Query + 500 # 3

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So here is what I now beleive are the most important things to have when we attempt a career in the writing industry.

1.  Patience:  Patience with the writing process.  Patience with the revising process.  Patience with the query process. Patience with the submissions process.  Patience with the submissions process after we get an agent, because it starts all over again.

2. Professionalism:  Professionalism in our query letter.  Professionalism in dealing with rejections. Professionalism when dealing with multiple submissions. Professionalism when speaking to agents and/or editors on the phone. Professionalism when critiquing the work of our colleagues.

3. Persistence:  Press on!  Keep writing.  Keep making it better.  Keep up the query.  Keep up the WIP to query if the first four novels fail to get attention.  Persist in the love of the void that you fill when you write the words that have never been strung together the way you are stringing them.  Persist inside the dream.

What about you?  What are you own personal p’s (or c’s or s’s or whatever you need to get by?)

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