Ready: Write your manuscript
Set: Edit your manuscript and write your query letter
Go: Research Agents – just find out as much about them as possible. Pretend you’re Sherlock Holmes.
Then send out your query letters with hope and confidence. Then wait, wait, wait…
Research the next agent and send out the next query letter. After more than 10 or more versions of your query letter, you will become an expert and also want to quit writing them.
Repeat this process until you get an enthusiastic response from an agent who impresses you. Of course, while you’re chasing the agent, you also have to build your platform. This is even more complicated then writing the elusive query letter. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. and more social networks are waiting to hear from you. Then there’s blogging which sounds a lot like jogging. It’s best to do often and with energy.
I am not mentioning the proposal because I am still struggling with putting ours together. It is like a jigsaw puzzle, writing a long term paper, and filling out your taxes. It is no fun and takes real discipline and patience (also coffee and chocolate to keep you sane).
If all this sounds frustrating, you are in good company. I don’t think Jane Austen had to do all this. But then she had to write with a quill pen and deal with outdoor plumbing and not have many opinions or wardrobe choices. She didn’t give up and neither are we.
Recent Picture at Lake Park, Coshocton, Ohio
Ron: I’m glad we’re working on this project together.