Researching Literary Agents

So you finished your novel, all the revisions, you have fallen in love and hate and love again with your story, and you think you can finally tackle a literary agent with a query letter.

First off, congratulations! You have already gotten farther then most people who start writing a novel. Secondly, I’m so sorry. Querying is the least enjoyable part of writing. But it is a necessary evil my friend.

From my experience, I would research into Literary Agents and make a list of your top choices before tackling writing a query letter. The reason I chose this method is because every agent has their own personal taste and wants of how a query letter should be formatted.

One query does not fit all! If you take anything away from this blog, take that.

Make sure to personalize your letter to that specific agent. Trust me, that will help your query in a big way! It immediately lets the agent know you have done your homework and shows your professionalism.

Below are 4 websites that I have found most helpful when researching literary agents:

http://www.agentquery.com/

http://querytracker.net/

http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/

http://www.literaryrambles.com/

When you find an agent you like, make sure you go to their direct agency website. That way you can get their most up to date information on how they want to receive a query and what genre’s they are open to representing.

What websites do you find especially helpful when looking into literary agents? Let me know in the comments!

Best of luck,

Missy

I Am Writer, Hear Me Roar!

Confession time!

Querying is a very long process like I have mentioned before. I am actively sending out The Immortal Curse but I decided I should return back to my previous book The Termination.

I will always have a special place in my heart for The Termination. There’s just something about it that I love and I will never give up on that story. That being said, I haven’t touched The Termination for over a year while I focused my attention on finishing The Immortal Curse.

I’ve grown as a writer and stepping away from past projects is refreshing! When you return to it, you don’t have the same eyes you did before and you see things through a clearer lens. So as I returned to The Termination there was a glaring flaw that I couldn’t be more surprised (and yet not) about.

I have The Termination labeled as a Sci-Fi. As I read through it, a voice in my head kept saying “No…no…no…this isn’t Sci-Fi. This book is Fantasy.” But I’m like, ‘voice you’re wrong. I have it written as a Sci-Fi”  and my head reply’s, “Yes, it is written as a Sci-Fi, but the story isn’t a Sci-Fi”.

Wham! I could have thrown up. That voice in my head was right! I was forcing Sci-Fi upon my book because that’s how I originally wanted it to be. Now that the story was done, it clearly didn’t want to be a Sci-Fi, but I refused to listen to the story stubbornly.

In so doing, the beginning was clunky with its paragraphs of world building explanation (that you should never do). As soon as I took that simple two pages of world building out, the rest of the book already wrote itself as a fantasy! I didn’t need to add anything to hit that point home. It was a fantasy this whole time!

I remember now as I wrote the story, there was a little voice in the background telling me it was a fantasy but I was able to ignore it. But I couldn’t any longer. And I couldn’t be more pleased with the results of finally listening to my story. It reads so much smoother and effortlessly I don’t know why I didn’t do it soon!

But actually I do. As a writer we are the creator of this world. We have all the power, or at least that’s what we think. In actuality, the story writes itself. Writers are simply the vessel and when we try to take all the power and say “Nay! I am God and you will be what I tell you!” we destroy the heart of the story.

I challenge you to look through your own writing and listen to it. Is it really supposed to be something else that you have been fighting tooth and nail against? Yes, it will be hard to change what you have written to accommodate the story’s heart. But trust me, its well worth it in the end.

Cheers,

Missy

Finished Another Novel, Now What?

Hi there!

 

It has been a while. I have been quite the busy bee! This is what happens to me and Rosie when we are locked in the Writing Cave for too long.

I finished my 4^th complete edit run through of The Immortal Curse and I am very pleased with it! I made a list of my top agents and I have sent out my Query letter to three so far. My fingers are crossed and I’m feeling good!

You might be asking, well what now? I could take it easy and wait the month it will take to hear back from the Agents, but that’s just not my style! How do you think I have managed to have 4 complete novels by my age? You gotta keep working! Keep writing and keep thinking ahead!

So, I have started a new project! This one is a YA spy novel. I’m so so so excited about it. I’ve always stayed in Fantasy/ Sci Fi realm, so stepping out of that will be a challenge I look forward to! Personally, I don’t know of very many YA spy novels, so I think it will be different for the market as well and possibly very intriguing.

I get a lot of people thinking I’m crazy. They think I’m wasting my time by writing another novel. But they couldn’t be more wrong!

Writing is what I want my career to be. I’m obsessed with it, I HAVE to write. I don’t have a choice. On top of just loving to write, I can’t rely on my newest book to get me my goal of being published. It might not receive any interest at this time. I might have to shelve it. But while I wait to see if anyone is interested, I’m working on my next book that might take my career where I want to be! You got to follow your dreams whole heartedly, and keep plowing ahead. Never accept defeat!

Plus, a little tip. How do you get better at writing? By writing! Every novel I write, I grow as a writer by leaps and bounds. My writing always gets better which gets me one step closer to hitting my dream.

Now how can that be a waste of time?

Missy