Do the Thing You Fear and the Death of Fear is Certain

Writing a full length novel is difficult at best, impossible for many, and downright insane for most. Writers take on hours of solitude and angst over storylines or characters. We brood over scenes we love, but don't need. We tinker and revise and polish until we feel ready to...revise again. Most people spend years in this loop. They never feel ready to show their work. They're afraid its not perfect.

Then there is the query. Does it reveal too much or too little? Will the agent "get" my story idea; will they love the characters like I do? We cut and paste and show it to our blog buddies. We stare at the one page we're allowed to send. Our hopes go will go with this one-page herald...our sweat and tears. But you have to send it, for it to do any good. My old writers group had a lady that spent months on a query she never sent out. Her reason? She was afraid if she took that step, the one that opened her up to rejection, that the result would be devastating. She loved writing. She didn't want to quit. Fear.

Proposals are hard to put together. There’s market analysis and author bios to wrangle into place. We have to include marketing ideas and why we're qualified to write this particular book. Its intimidating. It can seem overwhelming. Then there are the three chapters or the fifty pages we're allowed to send. They must be perfect, so we go back to our revision loop and agonize over every adverb and comma. We're afraid they won't ask for more.

Waiting, for me, is the hardest part of writing. Waiting to hear back on the queries I sent. Waiting to hear back from my proposal packages. Waiting. Waiting. Will they want the full manuscript? Have I missed their email? What if they all say no? Do I keep writing this series? This genre? Fear.

Then you get an agent and it all starts again. He sent your proposal out to the editors and now we're waiting again. What if you get too many rejections? Will you be dropped by the agency? Will they keep trying? Should I write something vastly different to show my range?

Say you're picked up by the publisher...will they spend enough on marketing? What if you don't sell like they wanted? The list goes on and on and on...And yet we do it anyway. We type and fret and hope desperately.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

Because to not write is the worst thing I can imagine. To not slip into that wonderful world that blinks to life when my fingers hit the keys would mean a life less extraordinary. Fear may cause me to hesitate, but never to turn back. I encourage all of you to send out your queries and proposals. Give them a kiss and slip them through the mail slot...the worst that could happen is you never did it.

Another compelling character waits on the fringes of your mind to be written; another world. This one comes more easily...the story more vivid. Glance over your shoulder at the fear you shed and trampled on the road to better things....Now Go Write!

Photograph by The 5th Ape.

A Juicy Sample...Chapter?

I went to the farmer's market today. Tented tables lined the blazing asphalt. Guys in straw hats offered samples of succulent summer fruit cut with pocket knives right in their hands.  They talked about their groves and gardens. Where they find the best fertilizer and how they know it's ready to harvest.

One guy sold the most amazing salsa made out of tomatillos and packaged in the town he grows them. I had a taste, thought it awesome, and bought a jar.  Never would have pulled it off a grocery shelf...I really don't fancy salsa all that much. But he seemed so proud and had a sample right there, so I gave it a whirl and BOOM! I was sold.

Why can't writers have these types of gatherings?  Wouldn't it be great if we could have a set gathering place, put out our wares, and talk face to face with agents as they meaner by?  I'm not talking about writer's conferences...those are for writers.  We flock to them, scramble for a time slot with an agent, and babble through a 60 second pitch...one of many they've already sat through.  We're nervous, they're tired, and the time is rushed.

No, I'm talking about proud writers showing off great selections of our finest work and shooting the breeze with the casual confidence of the nectarine dude - I bought two pounds. I guess the closest we come to that is our blogs. We fine tune, color tweak, and background change to help pass the days as we wait for our queries or proposals to render results.

If only a pretty table cloth, a juicy slice of a great story, and the twinkling smile of the one who wrote it were the way we got our novels sold.  Like the tomatillo sauce guy says..."I guarantee, if you try it, you'll love it."

T is for Targeting the Right People

I was talking with another writer the other day and she told me she'd just finished sending out her last batch of queries and proposals to agents. Baffled, I asked her how many went in a 'batch' and she said the ones that made up the last seven letters of the alphabet in her guide. Surprised, I asked her if she'd done any "T" is for Targeting before doing all of that work. The resounding chorus of crickets gave me my answser.

Targeting is simply researching the market and finding out who represents your genre. It amazes me that many writers in my group do not do this. They take the shotgun approach to queries and this results in much more work. This is true for both seeking agent representation, and polishing your proposal for submission to publishers.

One of the best ways to find out if an agent even represents your type of book is to go on their website. An agency may have several agents representing many different types of books. Some agents take only non-fiction, or historical romance, and it makes no sense to query them.

Tip Sheets are a great way to take the pulse of the publishing houses out there. They list editorial needs, including information on the types of books they'd like to see, including word length for a certain genre. You can pick them up at conferences, online, or with a SASE to the publishing house.

Leigh Michaels has a wonderful collection of romance publisher websites for easy perusal. Whatever your task, securing representation or pitching a book, it pays to not waste time and money. Take some time to target the right people, the ones that are looking for a writer like you.  Until next time...Go Write!


Photograph by cliff1066, Uploaded on December 25, 2008.