One of the misfortunes of not being forty is an inability to recognize when I've got too much on my plate. My grades came back yesterday, and I did wonderful in both English and Biology, but abysmally in Economics, my own major. As of now, I've resorted to begging my professor to reconsider the grade he gave me. It's with regrets that I now have to shut down my art commissions business. No income for a while, until I get my grades up again.
On another note, two more queries sent last night, and one came back requesting a full manuscript. No rejections yet, but the one I sent last week is awfully quiet. Strange ...
Status
Queries sent: 4
Responses: 2
Partials sent: 1
Whole Manuscript Requests: 1
Partial rejections: 1
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Day 4: Lots of Updates
Two weeks of no writing; I'm embarrassed, but at least Finals are over. Now I'm on Spring Break. In the past two weeks:
- Partial came back. No go. The plot was "Too casual", so I'm putting more content. I'm not really disappointed, since the manuscript was shallow, and I'm thankful for the suggestion. There are plenty of hormonal girls out there already; I don't need to add another. I'm afraid my book is about to turn literary... Hopefully not. Commercial fiction is my forte.
- Read a wonderful play, which is helping me with speech pattern and getting rid of excessive words. "Trite", "Sin" and "Carnal embrace". Wonderful.
- Finals happened. I will say this about it: my fear of getting bad grades is greater than my fear of query rejection. Maybe this is a good thing. I wonder if all student authors feel that way.
Status
Queries sent: 2
Responses: 1
Partials sent: 1
Partial rejections: 1
Whole Manuscript Requests: 0
- Partial came back. No go. The plot was "Too casual", so I'm putting more content. I'm not really disappointed, since the manuscript was shallow, and I'm thankful for the suggestion. There are plenty of hormonal girls out there already; I don't need to add another. I'm afraid my book is about to turn literary... Hopefully not. Commercial fiction is my forte.
- Read a wonderful play, which is helping me with speech pattern and getting rid of excessive words. "Trite", "Sin" and "Carnal embrace". Wonderful.
- Finals happened. I will say this about it: my fear of getting bad grades is greater than my fear of query rejection. Maybe this is a good thing. I wonder if all student authors feel that way.
Status
Queries sent: 2
Responses: 1
Partials sent: 1
Partial rejections: 1
Whole Manuscript Requests: 0
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Day 3: Small Updates
Nothing exciting so far... sent out the manuscript on Monday, but haven't heard back yet. Websites say that it usually takes agents a month to get back to writers, which I suppose is good news. I have to study for finals.
In the meantime, my manuscript has shrunk a bit. I found some chapters clunky after another read, so another 3000 words hit the recycling bin between chapters 4 and 5. Now I'm down to 84,000. My roommate points out that Chapter 6, 17, and 20 need to slow down even more... maybe that's where I'll make up for the extra words.
An amazing new idea hit me yesterday. I was looking through my stack of feedback when I realized that my Spirit World ended up being "just funny". This is suppose to be a mystery...
After I worked in my new idea, I gave the revised story to some of the guys in the study lounge, and they agreed that it was much better. (My book is chick-lit, but I hope it won't turn into Twilight-chick-lit. Most of my friends are guys, and I don't want them throwing it at me later if it ever gets published.)
It's amazing how, no matter how many times I read it through, I can always find something to improve upon. I believe Tony Morrison said something about revision being a never ending process, but I wish she mentioned when it'd be a good time to send in the manuscript. Here's to hoping I didn't send it in too early...
I don't think I'm suppose to send out more queries until I get my partial back. I heard that partials are suppose to be exclusive...
Status
Queries sent: 1
Responses: 1
Partials sent: 1
Whole Manuscript Requests: 0
In the meantime, my manuscript has shrunk a bit. I found some chapters clunky after another read, so another 3000 words hit the recycling bin between chapters 4 and 5. Now I'm down to 84,000. My roommate points out that Chapter 6, 17, and 20 need to slow down even more... maybe that's where I'll make up for the extra words.
An amazing new idea hit me yesterday. I was looking through my stack of feedback when I realized that my Spirit World ended up being "just funny". This is suppose to be a mystery...
After I worked in my new idea, I gave the revised story to some of the guys in the study lounge, and they agreed that it was much better. (My book is chick-lit, but I hope it won't turn into Twilight-chick-lit. Most of my friends are guys, and I don't want them throwing it at me later if it ever gets published.)
It's amazing how, no matter how many times I read it through, I can always find something to improve upon. I believe Tony Morrison said something about revision being a never ending process, but I wish she mentioned when it'd be a good time to send in the manuscript. Here's to hoping I didn't send it in too early...
I don't think I'm suppose to send out more queries until I get my partial back. I heard that partials are suppose to be exclusive...
Status
Queries sent: 1
Responses: 1
Partials sent: 1
Whole Manuscript Requests: 0
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Day 2: Reply!
If I knew how to cartwheel, I would. Yesterday, after sending out my query, I read online that the agent I sent it to normally does not reply within two weeks, if at all. I admit, that made me a little depressed.
But this morning, I received an e-mail from him, asking for the first 50 pages of my manuscript. Can this be true? I've asked my roommate to pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming. So far, it hurts.
I'm not sure what this means, but I believe it's a good start. In the mean time, I should probably print out the rest of my chapters and find a manuscript box.
Where in the world would I go to find the box?
Status
Queries sent: 1
Responses: 1
Whole Manuscript Requests: 0
But this morning, I received an e-mail from him, asking for the first 50 pages of my manuscript. Can this be true? I've asked my roommate to pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming. So far, it hurts.
I'm not sure what this means, but I believe it's a good start. In the mean time, I should probably print out the rest of my chapters and find a manuscript box.
Where in the world would I go to find the box?
Status
Queries sent: 1
Responses: 1
Whole Manuscript Requests: 0
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Day 1: The search of an agent begins
Now that I've finally finished editing my manuscript for Sincerely, From the Other Side, I figured that I'd start a blog to monitor the progress of my agent search. Not that I expect it to end within a few days or even weeks, but it never hurts to be organized for once. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll look back at this and laugh.
As for today, I've decided to send just one query letter out; the rest of them still needs editing/ personalizing. I keep getting this nagging feeling that one of these days, I'll end up sending Agent Jones's letter to Agent Smith and vice versa. That would be terrible, worse than the angry bee that chase me today.
I've also been looking through agents' and writers' webpages. Someone has been looking for an agent for two years now and still has nothing but rejections. I wonder if that's normal, or if I'm going to end up just like him. I wonder if I should give up after two years...
On a side note, it's raining outside. My roommate is out getting takeout for us... she lost the game of rock-paper-scissors earlier.
Status
Queries sent: 1
Responses: 0
As for today, I've decided to send just one query letter out; the rest of them still needs editing/ personalizing. I keep getting this nagging feeling that one of these days, I'll end up sending Agent Jones's letter to Agent Smith and vice versa. That would be terrible, worse than the angry bee that chase me today.
I've also been looking through agents' and writers' webpages. Someone has been looking for an agent for two years now and still has nothing but rejections. I wonder if that's normal, or if I'm going to end up just like him. I wonder if I should give up after two years...
On a side note, it's raining outside. My roommate is out getting takeout for us... she lost the game of rock-paper-scissors earlier.
Status
Queries sent: 1
Responses: 0
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