Thursday, February 23, 2006

~Querying Chaos~

and ~Marketing Mayhem ~

So in the midst of editing, while I have beaten my muse into tentative submission, I have decided to send out a flurry of flying queries. I still ponder over the first wave of rejections on "Father" and remember kindly those agents and editors who took the time to send me "nice" rejections. Those ones went to the top of the list to recieve queries for "Forgiven".

I have hopefully improved in my marketing/pitching/querying ability in the past year. I have rewritten my basic query letter forms until I practically have them memorized (or would if I had any sort of memory). With the help of a few online classes and chatting with other authors I have made some adjustments that I hope will make a difference.

First I took a hard look at exactly what it is that I write. Just what sub-genre is "Father of the Wolf"? What would an agent call "Forgiven" if they were trying to describe it to an editor? This is when I realized that "Father" is definitely not paranormal romance. In fact it really isn't romance, but it is ROMANTIC. It is PARANORMAL. And I think what ties it together is the suspense. (Though I actually plan to beef up the suspense more in the next edit.) "Forgiven" is more romantic but also fits the name Romantic Paranormal Suspense very well.

Second I rewrote my queries to use better blurbs. The new descriptions are more catchy and more accurate than the previous ones. :)

Third, I rewrote my synopsis for each using the "bare-bones" method which I can't find on the internet now. (I do hope it comes back) I think the synopsis for each is much more clear and easier to follow now even in its short forms.

All this together may not make any difference. Or maybe it will... So far I sent out 5 e-queries to agents and recieved 3 rejections and a request for a full on "Father". Yippy! I queried one Ny editor (Avon) and have a request for a partial for "Forgiven." I also have 5 more paper queries out with no news yet. And another stack of queries waiting to hit the mail. Mostly they are for agents. The only of editor that I will be sending to at this point is for Tor. Last year I received a nice rejection from Anna Genoese for "Father" and she offered to read more of my work, so I will be sending a partial for "Forgiven" at the same time as I send it to Avon.

Shannon
editing like a loon to "Fall to Pieces"

3 comments:

  1. I hate editing. I love writing, but editing for me is worse than the dentist. I think at heart I am a storyteller. Once I get the story told the way I want it, then I want to move on to the next story. I understand that most writers feel this way. :) So I guess I will jsut have to find a way to cope.

    I joined a two month challenge with pretty high goals and am so far not hitting them. I plan to jump in and try to finish the edits for Lost Soul of the Wolf tonight and tomorrow. I have gone over it bunch of times, but think it still needs more tweeking before I send it back to the editor. Then on to Of Blood and Blessings, then on to Forgiven, then on to Destiny, then on to Dead Men's Nails ( I consider this my reward *lol* Warped aren't I?)

    Today I heard a song on the radio that might unblock one of my characters. I could almost hear him singing this. It truely fit him more than any words I could string together. The song is "Hate Me" by Blue October. The hero... well maybe I won't say. If you would like to guess... I might be convinced into revealing his name. LOL

    Shannon
    just bought "hate me" and will be playing it while I edit :)

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  2. The challenge is going ok. I met my goals in week one, but missed by a long shot in week two. I may yet catch up in week three. :)

    As for queries... I think I still have 13 outstanding including one requested full, two (1 requested) partials and many queries (some of the initial queries were partials but I figure those don't mean as much since everyone is sending partials to them. :)

    I haven't gotten a rejection in several day. There is a reason to smile.

    Shannon
    was writing to "just like you" but will be going to sleep real soon...

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  3. Well I submitted Father to an e-publisher. I know I said I wasn't going to but this new house looks very promising. I really like how they seem to be very author friendly.

    The responded with an offer within just a couple days. :) The owner was very kind in what she had to say about Father. I am considering accepting the offer. Infact I think I really want to, but I am waiting to see if I hear anything back from the agent who was considering a full ms of Father. I mean I didn't really have high hopes for her accepting it. But I also don't want to do something dumb if I can avoid it.

    S
    writing to "because of you"

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