Sorry for the long absence. I’ve just been sitting in my corner of the world overthinking everything.
Seriously. The amount of blog posts I start to write in my head is astounding. Even more astounding how few of them come out.
It’s all about tone. Should I be pithy and blithe , and will anyone actually find me funny? Should I be sentimental and write about my cute kid or will that alienate people who don’t want to read about my cute kid? Should I stay informative about the writing process?
I have deemed several hundred blog posts not worth finishing. And have started almost none of them.
But this is the second version of a post I started over a month ago trying to explain how out of whack writing can make me feel and how difficult it can be to find a balance with it. Wait. No. It’s not writing that does that. It’s writing a query letter that does it. (What‘s a query letter I hear you asking?) A query letter is possibly the most important page an unpublished author will ever write. It’s approximately 500 words in which you give a little back of the book style summary, introduce yourself, and suck up to the agent you’re writing to.
And if you think that’s easy to do WELL in 500 words or less, you’ve never tried writing with such constrictions.
Note that agents receive hundreds of these things a month, so in just 500 words, you have to stand out and make your book sound like something they HAVE to read.
A few months ago, I thought I was READY to do this. But after trying it, sharing with a fellow writer I met online (who has been invaluable in her advice and assistance), and trying some more, I found myself hitting walls. Maybe I wasn’t as ready as I thought.
Luckily, there’s a plethora of information and advice available for free online. Unluckily, there’s a plethora of information and advice available for free online. I started spending free time either writing new queries or watching YouTube videos of authors giving their advice on how to write them, much of which contradicts itself. They’re always like, “I used to be an agent, so here are query writing rules, but also, every author I signed broke all these rules.”
And suddenly, I found myself feeling incredibly depressed. I couldn’t figure it out for awhile, until I realized that my mind was completely absorbed with query letters. (And synopses, which are 1-2 page summaries of your entire book, ending and all, that you also send to an agent with your letter, but my focus hasn’t been quite as heavy on that.) I composed them in my head while I was teaching or falling asleep or even having a conversation with someone that I wasn’t entirely absorbed in.
And I could never quite get it right. That was the most frustrating thing. I occasionally thought I was on to something, but my writer friend would tear it to shreds (with specific reasons for why it wasn’t right), and I would find her criticisms backed up by videos and articles. So more thinking, more writing, more frustration. More depressing feelings.
Then life took over a little, and I had less time for query work. Somehow, as if there was some correlation between the two (sarcastic wink to tip you off that I know there’s a correlation), I felt a lot happier. A lot lighter.
Once I figured that out, I put off query work again. For AWHILE. Weeks. Over a month. Far longer than I should have let it go if I’m serious about getting published.
When I went back to it, the frustration crept in quickly. I probably didn’t even work on my letter for an hour before I was close to slamming the top of my laptop down because I just couldn’t get it. And as much as I love writing, this kind of stressful writing is NOT FUN.
But I still have to get through it, and I know that. I also know the chances of success are slim to none. I read an informative but disheartening article recently that gave the statistic from a specific agent that she only offers representation to .01% of hopeful authors per year. Unenthusiastic yay.
Of course, this article also went on to say that if you follow its “easy” 3 paragraph method for writing a query and follow an agent’s specific guidelines (like not sending more pages than they ask for), you put yourself in the top 97% of all submissions.
Crazy to think that aspiring authors apparently can’t read well enough to follow important directions.
But you see what I mean about contracting information about queries, right? Do I have a good chance just by following directions or do I have a next to nothing chance because there are just so many dang queries received a year?
Either way, I’ve got to reframe this to keep my sanity. I have to look at it as a game, maybe, so I can at least pretend it’s fun. I have to be proud of the fact that I wrote a dang book.
And I have to remember that I have to be in it to win it. If I don’t send out materials to agents, I have a 0% chance of getting one. So no matter how small a chance I have once things are sent, it’s better than nothing.
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