Querying - #AtoZChallenge

Querying: That annoying process that writers have to go through to get their books published. 

I mean, these days it's not as necessary because self-publishing and e-publishing is so easy (or at least, easier). But I have decided to shoot for the moon and go the traditional route to publication. 

My former work in the States was in business writing. For fun, I wrote a one-act play for my theatre, but that was it.

In China, I modified or created short plays for children's drama camps.

Since moving to Vietnam four years ago and finding myself with extra time, I've been writing novels. First I took the one-act play I had written and turned it into a novel. Then I discovered Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) and have basically added another new novel per year. But they were all first drafts, with some incomplete editing in between.

A year ago I decided to focus on editing, and since October I've been querying that first book out to possible writing agents. It's one step toward publication, and it's a long slog. Here's why:

First, general wisdom that I read or heard from agents in writing workshops, says not to send to too many agents at once. Because as soon as one agent says, "Hey, show me more," then you have to go back and contact all the other agents still holding your query and say, "Someone's interested, so never mind," or give them an opportunity to show interest, too. Therefore, I've been keeping about 10 copies in circulation at a time. 

Second, not all agents or agencies give a time-frame to expect response. Nowadays it seems quite common that "if we're interested, we'll let you know" is the standard. Of the places that offer a time frame 8-12 weeks turnaround is common, so for every agency that has no turnaround time listed, I consider that query "active" until at least eight weeks have passed. So therefore, I may go weeks without either sending a query or hearing back.

It's a long slog, but I'm not discouraged. Time was, authors bragged about how many rejection letters they received before publication. Now the letters don't always come, but they still count as rejection. The first rejection email I got, I cheered because it meant I was on my way. It's less exciting now, but I still think of one popular author who had her first manuscript rejected for a full year before turning around and querying with a different book and finally achieving publication. It's only been six months for me. I'm good.

P.S. That's one reason I do Flash Fiction Fridays during the rest of the year - just working to keep ideas fresh. Drop a prompt if you have one!