Thursday, January 5, 2012

New Year Resolutions, Dude Colds Stink, and What To Do After You've Written A Novel

 Happy Belated New Year!
As you can guess from the title, I've been a little sick recently. So has Baby Girl and The Husband. It's made for a rather interesting start to the new year, but we're working through it. And by "working through it"  I mean we have a crapload of tissues and cough syrup lying around. Which is always fun.
This cold has made me start my resolutions a little late. Just like a bajillion other people, I have goals of getting more organized, being better about money and losing weight. Actually, I've made it a goal to try and run a 5k sometime this year, which will be completely awesome if it doesn't kill me.
Let's hope for awesome.
Another goal of mine for 2012? Find a literary agent for my book.
A what, you say? An agent? Whazzat??
Basically a literary agent is a super awesome person who helps you get your book published. You can try and go it alone without an agent but everything I've read says that's really not a good idea. An agent is an amazing partner who wheels and deals with you in the giant crazy publishing world.
Problem is, you have to get one to like your book first.
How do you do that? Well, first you write a book (I know, duh! But hey, it's a lot freaking harder than it sounds. Believe me.)
So your book is all done. After you have done SEVERAL revisions and forced a friend or critique partner to go over it, you can start querying an agent. There are several super cool websites that can help you learn how to write a good query. My favorite is QueryShark, but watch out. The shark can bite.
Then you send your query to a few favorite agents you've found by either stalking your favorite authors online and seeing who represents them or googling literary agents.
Now I'm not going to recommend you stalk your favorite authors, but usually you can find out a LOT of information from their websites or blogs (do not confuse this with THE alot-and if you have no idea what I'm talking about check out Hyperbole and a Half. You're welcome).
I'd suggest at least taking a look at your favorite author's site before you query.
So you send an agent or two your query letter. Then you reread said letter. Then you freak out. If you're anything like me, your freak out will sound like this:
"Oh crap, this query is terrible, WHY did I press send, how do I get it back?!?!"
Then you groan and console yourself with Cheez-Its and wait for your "I'm sorry, but we are looking for other things" response. Because the sad truth is, you're probably going to get a no. Which sucks. :( But you have to keep your head up. Just because it doesn't work for that agent doesn't mean it won't work for another. And if you're lucky you get advice on how to make your query not suck. You go through and revise before sending it to other agents. (NEVER resend to an agent who has said no. They don't like that and then you become annoying query author which is never a good thing).
The good news is, all it takes is one Yes. So you hope and hope and hope that somewhere out there, SOMEONE likes your book.
In the meantime? You write another book. And then start all over again :)