So I started writing a book…..

Hard part over?

ha! You must be joking?

I absolutely HATE when people say “writing a book” is the hardest part…. sure, most people don’t sit down and knock out 200 pages on a word document but writing is the easy part. I have been telling stories since I was kid, writing in my notebooks, scraps of paper, even using the back of those cover papers they give you during end of grade exams to write my thoughts down.

Well let me tell you if you think writing the book is the hardest part you’ve never had to query.

So what is a query?

Its basically a cover letter for your book to send to agents and its fucking soul-crushing. How do you sum up this entire story in two paragraphs? And then on top of that…. how do you have the time to scroll through endless literary agencies websites (which are all formatted differently), read through agents wishlists, and then get to the submission part when you find one that might vibe with your story only to discover their queries are closed.

Honestly, getting a tattoo by an in demand artists with a six month waitlist is easier than querying. I don’t wish it on my worst enemy. Actually… if it’s my enemies, sure, I hope they have to query to do anything and everything in their lives because it’s THAT BAD.

But let’s start from the beginning…….. from the year 2012-2015 I was working on a novel, writing screenplays in hopes of making it to LA, and after a script got stolen and made into an NBC original that only lasted 2 seasons (seriously if you want to know more about this story I will HAPPILY SHARE - cliffnotes version, always copyright your shit) I focused on this “new adult/early 20-something” novel only to re-write it over and over and get no where with it.

After some good feedback I was told it wasn’t marketable right now, so I put it on the back burner and focused on turning one of my old screenplays into a book. 250 pages in, I asked myself the same question ——- was this marketable for the current trends?

Probably not…. so I sat down during the pandemic and wrote ANOTHER novel. A 1980’s themed punk YA novel that took place in Sacramento, a city I’ve never been to in my life. (It’s funny my two most finished novels take place in cities I’ve never been to unless you count the insane hours I’ve put in on Google Earth)

And then I finished it.

Game over right? NOPE.

So then I spent hours editing it, re-working it, beefing it up, and luckily my husband gets free printing at work, because he’s brought home over 1,000 pages for me to mark up.

Then I sent it out to my beta readers, asked for a friend to edit it, and THEN I began the query process. Writing the query was the hardest part and I’m not going to lie I paid someone on Fivver to do it for me because between my full time creative job, and working on this book for almost a year, I was just fried. Don’t worry, I’ve no re-written it and have been submitting with the more condensed version after getting some feedback from Reddit and a kind lit agent who took pity on my on Twitter. (Also can we take a moment to talk about how relevant Twitter was for publishing? I had no clue. There should be a whole class on like “how to stay relevant for lit agents”)

I’ve had A LOT of rejections…. like A LOT (cue spreadsheet), tons of Ghosting, which I’m used to thanks to people never getting back to photographers they inquire with, and ONE Hail Mary. Yes, that’s right! I’ve had one agent so far ask me for a partial, and now a FULL request.

Trust me, I know how easily these things burn out, fall through, completely crumble, so I’m trying to have expectations low (a trait I find that I’ve adapted in all aspects of my life so then I can be pleasantly surprised when something good happens, which is definitely how I felt when she asked for the full after the partial I sent had been re-worked yet again and I feel is way stronger now)

So now I’m on step 3 of 4 of getting representation and I’m crossing my fingers it works out (not that means I’ve stopped querying because I’m noting if not pragmatic) but I actually really felt a connection with this agent when I read her bio and MSWL so I’m really hoping she feels that way as well.

Til then I’ll be trying to create this snazzy website. Working on a newsletter, and I guess making my socials more “YA appropriate”