BETWEEN THE LINES

A few hours after the nice rejection letter from one of the editors I queried, I get another email from an editor at a major publisher that said:

Your premise is intriguing.  Could you isend me a full manuscript?  Email would be fine.

Yay!

I gotta tell you all that I have been praying for this book to be pubished.  All my friends who pray are doing that as well.  On top of that, I've decided to query agressively with an attitude I didn't think I could muster:  That I have a great product to sell and any editor would benefit from making it their product as well.  And doing the research to find the right editors, emailing directly to them with confidence in my letter.  All this, I'm sure is helping. 

Not getting my hopes up too high, but I'm feeling good about all this.  I know it's in God's hands and He will provide the perfect publisher and agent, as I've dedicated this book and all books I'm writing to my mission of spreading the good news of hope and grace.

So far, I have:

2 Partials (100 pages) out to 2 agents
1 Partial (50 pages) out to one agent
1 Full MS out to one Editor

So I did  another agent blitz.  This time to seven different agents in the same house (Trident Media Group).  They have some A-list clients and big agents.  I also sent a query to an editor at Berkley.

So the stats are now:

37 queries out
3 requested partials from agents
11 rejections (I forgot last time to list the editor rejection for my full manuscript)

The research takes a lot of time and energy.  But as you can see, I'm only about 50% to the 75 query mark that Dean Koontz hit before selling his first novel.  I'll keep plugging along.  Next wave is an editor/publisher blitz!

Over the weekend I got two more rejections via email.  Both were very kind and intimated that my book was really good, but they have too many clients on their list now.  Might just be a nice excuse, but I have a feeling they were sincere, based on the words they chose in their response.

But the good news is that I got another request for sample chapters and proposal from another agent.  That brings me to a total of three agents who have requested partials for my novel BEYOND JUSTICE.  One of them, I really hope signs on to represent my book.

Must keep trying.  

stats to date:
30 queries out. 
10 rejected
3 requested (3 chapters-100 pages)

So I am officially up to 30 queries out there for my novel BEYOND JUSTICE.

Today, in less than 2 hours since I queried one particular big name agent, I got a request for a 100 page partial and synopsis!  Wow.
She was concerned a bit that my book of 74,000 words seemed a bit short.  Funny because it started at 165,000 words and has since been cut down.  But she said it might not be a problem.

We'll see if this turns into anything.  Dean Koontz said he got 75 rejections before his first novel sold.  So I won't quit until:

1.  I get a sale
2.  I pass 75 rejections (even then, I won't quit, I'll just slow down a bit in the querying and focus more on my current projects.)

Things are a-movin'!  Thank God. 

 

 I think I'm getting the hang of it.  Or at least starting to actually have fun with it.  Scott Carter's blog Selling Your Book: Ten Tips on Creating a Sense of Urgency Among Agents and Editors"  said something about taking on a certain attitude with querying.  I devoted most of my day to researching and querying agents today and decided to take on the attitude of: Just go for it.  No fear, just query anyone who seemed a good fit.  And I decided to start querying via email, since I've never tried before.

So I snail mailed one query and emailed 8 others for my book BEYOND JUSTICE.

The more query letters I wrote, the more confident I became.  This sort of goes with the "dare to be bad" writing mentality.  A freedom that only comes when you aren't afraid (nothing to lose).  Finding that really good, personalized first paragraph is proving the biggest challenge, but when I get it right, it's kind of fun.  I think it was Noah Lukeman who said something to the affect of making the first paragraph all about the agent/editor you are querying.  This makes it immediately important.  I can see that.  If I get an unsolicited email and it's all about the person sending it or the product he/she is trying to sell, my finger hovers over the delete key.  But if this email points out something about me, or my work (in a positive light, of course) you can be sure I'll want to read on.  I guess this is pretty basic.

One agent replied within three hours from an email query and asked me to send her a proposal and 100 page partial!  That was the quickest turnaround I've ever gotten.

Anyway, it's almost 2:30 AM and I just sent off my last query for the day.

I'm not going to get too excited about that one request for a partial, but I am pleased that I did this query blitz.  Recently I've suffered from query block.


PS:  Thanks Scott, you're an inspiration. 

The good news is that after sending out nearly a dozen queries, I've only gotten back about 3 rejections.   Not sure that's good news, but I'm glad it's not more than 3 for now.

So I'm sending out four more queries, 1 Editor and 3 major agents today.

I'm feeling good so far.  One day, BEYOND JUSTICE will sell.  Just a matter of time and persistence!

My novel BEYOND JUSTICE  got a review by Publishers Weekly on Amazon.com.  Now, before you jump the gun, this book is not yet published.  I am a semi-finalist for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award which means a publication by Penguin Books and in order to get to this point Publishers Weekly has reviewed my entire book.

Below are some of the things Publishers Weekly said in their review of my novel.

 BEYOND JUSTICE:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/B00124COP2/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Editorial Reviews

Part of the process to make it to the next round is to have as many people as possible read an excerpt from my book (free download linked below) and give it a favorable review.  (Please tell your friends about this too, you like and believe my is worthy of a good review)


Here's where I could use your help:

To get into the finals and eventually win grand prize, customer reviews are needed.  So, while I hate to burden people with extra reading, if anyone is already inclined to check out my book (excerpt) and lend a few lines of review (hopefully positive, if you feel it is warranted), I would greatly appreciate it.  It can be downloaded free and reviewed on amazon here.  (scroll down to the review and click on create your own review.)

I realize that semifinals are kind of premature to be excited about and they only narrowed it down from 5000 entrants to 1000, but it was nice to see kind words from PW.  Now I'm pushing for top 100 semifinalist status.

Here's how it works:



I think I have until the middle of February before they start picking the top semifinalists, so if any of y'all are interested in helping me with a review, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks everyone,
Paul

This time for sure. 
I'm done.  After a year of writing and redrafting. 
I've printed out the manuscript of 455 pages but it looks like 2 reams.  It's going to a professional writer's workshop end of this month and then out to the editors/agents.

For the records, this is my third completed full length novel (112k words) .  My first one BABEL REASCENDING was 120K words, my second, HR was 90k words.



 

It is finished!  I am now ready to send it out to agents and editors.
The final word count is..... drumroll, please....
117,000 words!  That's a far cry from 160,000.  

So many people to thank, but y'all know who you are and will be in the acknowledgements when this book gets published.

On to the next book, THE BEST DEFENSE.

BEYOND JUSTICE - I've actually cut the first 10 chapters at the recommendation of two very trusted and exellent writer friends.  I'm feeling so much more free now.  The truth is, the story really does begin at Chapter 11.  Actually, since the very beginning, I'd already cut 4 chapters.  So in effect, I've already cut the first 15 chapters of this book.  Wow.

You know, if you are not willing to look at your SFD (Shoddy First Draft) with a scapel (or chainsaw, perhaps), and cut away that which needs to go, then you aren't quite ready to be a professional writer.  You can't be in love with your words.  Words are your tools, not your babies.  So if they need to be removed for the sake of the book's sellability, and quality, cut 'em.  You won't die, you'll find new life for your book.

Sol Stein calls it liposuction.  This trimming the fat out of a manuscript.  Writer's all know that idea of cutting the first two chapters after finishing a book.  I've already cut the first four.  And still...

Today I've realized that my novel BEYOND JUSTICE really starts on chapter 11 of my current manuscript.

This is a good thing because my 90,000 word book topped off at 150,000!

So I would no longer call this a liposuction, but rather, an amputation!

But it's all good.

"Scalpel!"

I just completed my chapter map of my entire book BEYOND JUSTICE. It's 100 chapters and currently 135K words. There will probably be some significant changes to improve character arcs in the book and I'm looking forward to making this the best book I've ever written.

Props to my buddy, erdnase2000 for daring me to look objectively at my work. It can be scary, but the best thing.