Second Mad Max Draft

I've polished my first Mad Max manuscript until it is as squeaky clean as I can make it. So, I've put the Fantastic, Scrubbing Bubbles, Mr. Clean and Swifter dusters back on the shelf.

And now it's on to editing the second Mad Max, Shades of Pale. I finished the draft a few months ago and put it on the shelf. I had to get away from it so that I could approach it with clearer eyes. I've done a two-day read-through and see where I need to add the back story, flesh out characters, solidify the storyline and look at every sentence, every word to be certain that each is needed and drives the story forward. In other words, time for a detailed revision.

As you can see, I'm not the only one rethinking or re-visioning a work. My friend Becky Mushko posted this entry on Monday. Great minds think alike??? Or maybe we are just at the same point in our respective drafts.

I shared a chapter or two with my two critique groups and will share more in the upcoming weeks.

I can't wait to get started!!

Catching Up

Sorry about being MIA for a couple of weeks. Nothing bad happened. Just too much work and too little time to do everything.

So, what's happened in the last three weeks?

I recorded a radio essay for WVTF two weeks ago. It's called You're Never Too Old with a main theme of it's never too late to behave like a little kid. It has a smooshed cake in it.

My novel, Unintended Consequences, was selected as a finalist in the Smith Mountain Arts Council Unpublished Novel contest.

I sucked in my breath and sent a poem (!) called Three Weeks to a MAJOR national magazine. Three months wait to see if the editor is interested. Fingers are crossed, but hey, nothing ventured, nothing sprained.

I sent out six more query letters and collected three rejections (two form, one personalized and quite nice -- must be a new agent!!!) from the first batch. It's a dead heat between my short and long query letter.

I went back to Jeff Herman's Guide and was surprised at how many agents still want snail-mail. Some agencies have gone totally green, but many agents clearly said they gave more credence to snail-mail.

I got to thinking about this and saw the rationale behind using USPS. Why? Because when you physically sign a letter, put it in an envelope, remember to put stamps on the SASE and march it out to the post box at the end of the drive, you give more thought to what you are doing.

Even though we all know that an e-query must be as professional as a hard-copy query, and even though we know we have to check and double-check whether we are querying the right agent, it is somehow easier to pick an agent, tweak a letter slightly, cut and paste a chapter into the e-mail message (if requested) and hit the Send Key.

Yes, I'm keeping track of snail- versus e-queries. More to report later.

Query Letter Hooks

Two weeks ago I sent out a couple of e-mail queries. I know we need a hook at the beginning of the letter to rise in the slush pile. Mine was a wee tad different.

I read about this agent in an interview on Chuck Sambuchino's blog. In the interview, the agent said she preferred to receive e-mail queries with the first chapter attached. I checked out the web site where I learned that the agency preferred snail mail, query and SASE only. There was an "if you must send e-mail. . . " statement. So my query letter began with:

"I read your interview in Chuck Sambuchino's blog today and am submitting a query to ask you to consider representing UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, a complete work of women's fiction. While the agency web site states a preference for snail-mail queries, I am following what you said in the interview and am submitting an e-mail query, plus the first chapter."

And the response from the agent:

"Thank you for being savvy enough to know to send an e-query--and for
bringing this to my attention. You make a good point: I'll be sure to
fix that on our site.

Thank you for sending your query and sample chapter--I'll take a look."

At least it was a response. And I wait. . . .

Mixed messages

Imagine that you have a novel coming out. Imagine Publishers Weekly giving you a review. Imagine it reads something like this (author, title and character names redacted):

"[Author]'s debut introduces a likable if predictable hero, [Senior Detective], a white knight in the dark city of New York. Though pondering retirement after 27 years on the force, [Senior Detective] is content to nurture a new partner, [Junior Detective], a young NYPD detective who's quickly risen in the ranks through equal parts skill and political opportunity. . . The author excels at moving his plot forward and creating a realistic landscape that shows both the politics and practice of police work. A wonderful husband and dad, [Senior Detective] drops chestnuts of wisdom at every turn. [Junior Detective] . . . comes across as fawning and naive. Through several subplots [Author] lays the foundation for future entries, but their success may require a new dynamic for the syrupy monotony of the two main characters' relationship."

Hmm, imagine your review likening your work to a root canal.

The kicker? After less than a stellar review for a debut novel, this is a 100,000 first printing.

There is no way to underestimate the desire of some agents/publishers to present dull characters that have no originality.

Sigh.

Another rejection

Yes, another rejection. But not from a query letter this time.

I entered a short story in the Sherwood Anderson contest for grins and giggles. It didn't win, but I did receive a very nice letter from the Bland Library, which puts on the contest. Snail mail, blue ink signature.

Time to send out a query letter to replace the rejection. Must keep at least six in queue at all times.

Query Letter Update

My friend and fellow Valley Writer, Keith Martin, received his first rejection for a short story from a prestigious mag on April Fool's Day. He received his second for a different story today. His birthday! Happy flipping B'day, Keith.

As Keith said, the mag will run out of holidays before he runs out of stories. Keep up the fight. It's the only way to win.

I too received a form rejection on Monday. I sent out six queries in the past week. Within 24 hours, I had my first form rejection. A very nice form rejection, but a form rejection all the same.

After checking the agent's site, and learning in advance that s/he was looking for books in my genre, I realized that there was one word missing. The agent wants new authors with original voices and who write women's fiction. The missing word was "blockbuster" women's fiction.

No blockbuster from me, but could be the start of a solid midlist series.

Onward. More agents await my attack!

Querying is Hard Work

Okay, I began my marketing research by sending the short query letter to three agents today.

This is hard work. One wanted a letter only. One wanted a letter, a synopsis, and the first chapter, the synopsis and chapter as attachments. And the third used an e-form. Cut and paste chunks of the query letter into various boxes. Then add 50 pages in the final box. Only problem with the 50 pages is they had to be reformatted from Word into plain text.

I copied the material from Word and pasted it into Notepad. I added all the line breaks and then pasted it into the form, only to have odd lines added in mid-sentence. So, I had to rework the 50 pages into plain, plain text, checking each line break to be sure it fell in the right place. And since I couldn't send it to my other e-mail address first, I have no idea what the final will look like when it arrives.

Three agents for three said, "If you don't hear from us in X weeks, we aren't interested."