Querying

I sent out another query today - that makes two queries wandering the publishing void.

Here's how it works:
Back in October, when I was ready to start sending, I had a small stroke of luck - I happened to notice on the net that the excellent Toronto Romance Writers were about to have an editor/agent panel. I emailed them and got permission to come as a guest. It cost me the best 30 bucks I ever spent.

I pitched to two agents, both of whom asked for a partial. So I sent them out. Agent 1 has sent me a rejection; Agent 2 hasn't responded. It's only been 8 weeks, and their site says to give them 10 - 12; plus, Christmas was one of those 8 weeks. So technically, I could still get struck by lightning. I'm a realist, though, so I'm working on my next round of queries.

I queried Agent 3 today because they are a younger agency and the books they sell look a little different than the cliched norm. In my humble opinion, I sent them a good query letter; they might not like what I'm offering, but at least the letter will get a read. I have Agent 4 picked out as well - this time, the agent of an up-and-coming writer I like. I'll get my shit together and send it out to her this week.

Then, well... I wait.

There's other stuff to do while you wait, besides writing. I joined RWA; after that, I joined TRW as well. I'm still getting my feet wet in both these organizations, trying to figure out what they have to offer.

RWA in particular is hard to crack; they send you passwords, and you have to confirm back and forth, then log into their site, then change your password and confirm back and forth again. After all that, the site is strangely inhospitable and unhelpful; links take you round and round to the same pages, and one of the most important links (the one taking you to the members-only page) is so obscurely buried, it took me forever to find. When I finally got there, I found a list of listservs; these sound interesting. But you have to start with the first one before you can join any of the others. So I email for permission, and get a password, and... well, you get the idea.

Anyway, the newsletter is good. And the conference looks amazing, if you can afford to go. I wonder if they make the site so humorless in an attempt to be taken seriously? TRW is better; I will probably get more out of it. We'll see.

Oh, and research. I've been doing my agent research. God bless the internet, really. How did people do it before 1989?

Later,
Abby