Once I retired, I polished up the book, wrote a summary, several in fact, wrote an author's bio, and a query letter. I purchased a book on agents, and started at the beginning of the category the book fell into, initially suspense, ending up in mainstream.
The first e-mail query I sent out was responded to within a half hour. I was amazed, and shocked, as I was not fully prepared for a response that quick. I replied to the agent and sent them what they requested, which included a summery that had not been completed. We corresponded back and forth several times, with the agent sending me some extremely helpful information. The manuscript at that time was over 105,000 words.
Along with helpful comments about shortening the length and finishing the summary, she said that she really liked the premise of the book, but that at the current time, what with the economy being what it was, it was very difficult for a first time author to break into print.
So it went. I sent out around 50 queries, some e-mail, some snail mail. I received many standard replies, but I also received some definite encouragement. The encouragement came from agents that had some interest in the story, but again indicated that it was really difficult for an unknown to break into print. Several suggested I go right to the publishers, as they were not taking on new clients unless you knew someone in the business that would assist. I didn't. And, I don't.
Finally, after nine months of "close, but no cigar", I decided to retrench. I reverted to writing short stories and sending them off to contests. The first one I sent to Writer's Digest Short Story contest finished in the top 100. When I received the certificate I found that the word 'artist', a word in the title of the story, was misspelled on the certificate. Coming from a writer's magazine it makes one wonder...
I then wrote three short short stories, stories under 1500 words, and sent them off to the Writer's Digest Short Short contest. If anything comes of those I will not know until sometime in late January of 2010.
In the meantime, I intend to continue to write short stories, and submit them for publication. I have had some success in this in the past, and hope there will be more in the future.
Also, on the book front, I will continue to research my second book, a sequel to the first, and begin writing that sometime in the second quarter of 2010. As for the first book - the title is "The Girl Who Lived In Colours" - I intend on submitting directly to publishers starting in the second quarter of 2010 as well. I have no intention on quitting the attempt to have this published. The length has been reduced to around 90,000 words, and several things changed to tighten up the story. I will make one more pass through it starting after the holidays while I am researching publishers.
So the dream of sitting in Barnes and Nobles, or Borders, or the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont, anywhere for that matter, is something I was not able to fulfill this year, but I do have that to look forward to, perhaps in 2010. We will see.
In the meantime - keep writing! Keep reading!
And drawing - more on that plan later...
