Flashback Post From My First PitchWars but as true as it ever was! Querying PitchWars mentors, agents, or publishers.
What To Expect After You Query
It really is just like dating…
1- Anticipation
You start by joining the Facebook groups, the twitter chats, and incessantly checking your email. Just knowing, they’re going to start #PWTeaser your novel now. Meanwhile, you’re trying to engage with the other writers in your genre and cheer them on (while not-so-secretly hoping yours is better).
2- Rationalization
With my superpower of being able to rationalize anything (the perfect skill for a great henchman, or a decent writer!), I start making lists:
TOP 5 REASONS YOU HAVEN’T GOTTEN A REQUEST YET:
- Your chapter was so good, they don’t think they can help
- They see where you need work, but do better at the other type of editing (line edits vs big picture)
- It’s too close to what they’re writing, they feel it’s a conflict of interest
- They like your genre, they just like a different type of it better (action, adventure, quests, etc.)
- They read it on the 1st day, along w/the huge crush of submissions and have it blended with a different one. You’ll get the request when they reread
REALISTIC 5 REASONS YOU HAVEN’T GOTTEN A REQUEST:
- It’s great, but the market is saturated and they don’t think it’ll sell
- Your query or chapter misled them and they don’t know it’s going somewhere AWESOME!
- They wanted more (diversity, action, poetic descriptions).
- It’s well done but just doesn’t POP.
- It uses too many tropes without subverting them.
3 – Bargaining
You start to think, maybe if I engage just right, I can entice the mentor to pick me!
(I may have started a #PWQueryTeaser tag for those things that didn’t fit in my query, but might entice someone to give it a try.)
You think, if I skip dinner and write for 3 hours, the writing karma will be paid back.
If I don’t check my email for 4 hours, I’ll be rewarded with a request.
4 – Distraction
You try to get back to work. Depending on what stage you’re in, you try different things.
Writer Style Distractions
- Write on your other WIP.(1)
- Start outlining your sequel.
- Participate in word sprints.
- Research Agents for that picture book you’ve been sitting on…
- Edit your synopsis and full, one more time. Checking for passive verbs, formatting, and typos.
- Find a Critique Partner on the FB groups and start helping each other. (CHECK!)
Non-Writing Distractions
- Pokémon walks.(2)
- Clean your house, catch up on that neglected laundry.
- Cook some tasty meals.(3)
- Read all your webcomics.
- DO ALL THE SOCIAL MEDIA.
- Visit your friends.
- Remember what the gym looks like.
- Catch up on your reading! (4)
5 – Acceptance
The choice is entirely out of your hands at this point.
Be honest with yourself. Look inside yourself.
- Did you polish it, making it agent ready?
- Are there any plot points that make it weak?
- Did you fail to market it appropriately?
- Is it too much like whatever else is out there, with nothing to differentiate it
- Did you bandwagon on Dystopia or Steampunk, without really doing anything new, without bringing the love to it?
- Can you fix the pacing?
- Is it clearly a first novel: great for the learning experience, but not so much for the sharing?
Which stage are you in? What’s your coping technique?
1 – Work In Progress
2 – Hey! It’s walking, it totally counts as healthy, self-care!
3 – Because if you get in, ain’t nobody got time for that.
4- If one must read to write well, it’s really just helping yourself grow as a writer! Clearly.
WRITING TIPS & WRITERLY MUSINGS 
Ha! Made a giggle.
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This is wonderful. Made me laugh, but it’s all true. The stages occur differently or more intensely for some, but keeping distracted is (in my opinion) the most important.
Personally I’ve
-written a short story
-Done edits on my second book
-Been trying to keep up the moral of some submittee’s who seem to have lost hope. (It is not over until it’s over and even then it just means to keep trying! ^~^) Don’t stop or give up on yourself. Ever.
-Playing with my pets because they are just so darn cute and distracting (Love the paw prints, I totally understand!)
-Joined the group you so wonderfully created on FB for all of us YA peeps and am working on finding CP’s. ^~^
-Been eating delicious foods, Which is always a great distraction ^~^
-Been reading. Lots of reading. I currently have three manga’s going, one contemporary romance, a historical fiction (that one is slow going, but good), an epic fantasy aaaand a YA dystopian Science fiction.Yes, I am one of those ‘read-a-dozen-books-at-a-time’ people.
Thank you for sharing your Week One!
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I can’t read a dozen-books-at-a-time. I’m too plot oriented. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!
Luckily (?), I read about 100 pages an hour.
Unfortunately, I have no will power.
I try not to start books after 9pm on school nights….
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Not starting books on school nights is a very good idea. I’ve been there and it is not pretty in the morning when you got so into the book (just one more chapter) that you only got two hours of sleep.
As for the books, I normally have two or three that I slow read. One in the bathroom, one in my room, one that comes with me when I go out anywhere. Then, I sometimes pick up a book that super draws me in and I devour it. I’m always looking for the next book I can obsess over, which is why I end up reading so many books at a time.
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Haha!! YES!!!! (Though the first time I read #5, I thought it said alcohol, and I’m still torn about whether that means I’m suffering from fatigue or wishful thinking. Will ponder with a glass of wine.)
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Acceptance and Alcohol START with A’s and um, have C’s as the 3rd letter?
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Great post, Morgan. I am in fact completely done with my first novel, and I’ve begun the search for an agent. I read a bunch of “How to Write A Great Query Letter” articles and got totally depressed, especially the part where you’re supposed to get “personal” and tell the agent how much you “loved” that last novel they put out and how it’s dang near just like yours!
Blah. I wonder if I can just skip that part. I listened to an agent podcast a few weeks ago, and she admitted that she often SKIPS the query letter and simply reads the requested ten pages. Hmmm.
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Best of luck querying! The trenches are hard.
Some agents do want the flattery portion of the email — why you picked them. Although, it’s often just to make sure you’re not just blast-sending the same thing to 20 other agents than actually wanted you to stroke their ego.
But I follow the QueryShark guidelines, where unless you actually have a connection more than “you rep what I write”, you skip that step and go straight for the story in the query.
You’ll see me do that a lot in my Query Corner posts.
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Ah, very good point. I’ll check out the QueryShark guidelines. Thank you for the good advice. 🙂
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LOVE those cute kitty paw prints!
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Me too!
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