Ousted

They posted the results of the pitch round for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Contest today. I did not make it. This is the first time of the five times I've entered that I've not made this first round. Am I shocked? I have to admit, a little. I've used pretty much the same pitch the last four times. It was bound to eventually fail me.

Maybe I was a bit over confident.

This round of course tells nothing of what kind of writer I am. It only tells that my pitch was worse than 400 other YA entrants. Oh well. Moving forward. Here are my plans:

• Wait for editor to finish reading An Unbalanced Line. If she rejects, that is the novel I'm planning to self pub. If she wants it, revise Lockdown and self pub.
• Revise Dissection and send back to agent that wants to read it. If she doesn't want it, self pub.
• Continue working on other books, Rumpelstiltskin retelling, post apocalyptic YA and other things I've started. I need to buckle down and get some of these written.
• Continue with side projects.

No matter what book it be, I am going to self pub this year. I cannot fathom the idea of not having a book out for another two to three years.

I congratulate and wish all the contestants still in ABNA the best of luck.

F³A: Frustration

I kind of ranted  yesterday to my supports at the Class of 2k12. I'm frustrated with this business. I'm burnt out. I'm tired of promoting the same book. I want a new book out there to promote. But these things take time and time is something I have very little of. I already have three books done. But I need time to revise, to query, and to get a new one written and go through the same process.

While I'm doing that I have to work a day job, attend kids soccer games and music performances and spend time with them. Spend time with my boyfriend. Shop for groceries, clean, do laundry, exercise, eat, sleep.

Promote that damn book.  I think I'm going to hang it up with the book though. I'm tired of it. It's going to have to sell itself from now on. I mean, I have a couple visits already scheduled, one each month until February, but then I'm done. Until the next book.

And the next book...I think I'm only going to agent shop until the end of the year, then I'm seriously going to look into self publishing. I don't know 6% of sales as opposed to most of the % of sales. Yeah, I'll need to hire an editor, maybe a cover designer, or at least someone to consult because I can pretty much design my own. I can make my own trailer, design my own swag.

I have friends that have done this. They like it.

I have a fan base. Many of them are just waiting for my next book to come out. If I wait to be traditionally published, if that even happens again, I'm looking at 2-3 years from now. Are those fans even going to care by then? Probably not.

I do feel good about one thing. I'm writing a new book during NaNo. I still like writing.

What would you do?

Friday Scribbles:

Next Pandora Song: Icky Thump by White Stripes (Beck Radio)

Book of the Week: Um, book: I've not had a damn moment to read, so...we'll go with my Rainmaker Retreat manual from my legal marketing conference.

Redbox of the Week: The Avengers "Puny God" favorite line.

Quote of the Week: "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward."
Kurt Vonnegut

Happy Friday 

The Query Process.

I'm deathly scared. I've sent another query out today. I'm sick to my stomach. I know the feeling will pass shortly, but I always feel this way after I hit the submit button.

For those of you who've not yet made it to the query process, let me give you a rundown. A query is nothing more than a one page letter. It should state book title, genre, and word count.

Then you need to summarize your book in a way that gives them a feel for your writing and makes it pop off the page.

Any credentials, list them. Of course first time writer don't normally have any, so there's that.

Lastly, you need to personalize the letter. Tell the agent why you chose to write to them. This tells them that you know who they are, what they represent, who they've sold.

That's it. You're done. Most of them don't want to even see a page of your work. They judge you on that one page letter, so you better make it good.

This is why I'm sick to my stomach. I think finding an agent is the hardest part of the business. Writing, awesome, revision, not as fun, but a necessary evil. Getting published? I only have one experience with that and it was less than two weeks. But it took me a long time to find an agent. Over a year for the superhero book, which is now being transformed into something else. Probably about six months with Never Eighteen.

Be prepared. Thicken your skin. You will get rejected. Don't take it personally, agents get thousands of queries a year, have piles of manuscripts on their desks to read, plus have to represent the clients they already have.

If you're getting ready or are already in the process, good luck. If you could send some good vibes my way too, I'd sure appreciate it.