I've been spending all morning trying to come up with something to blog about today. To tell you the truth- I got nothing. My mind has been totally taken up with querying.
It's been a long time since I've actually queried. Last fall to be exact. It was last August that I got my first two full requests. One I heard back on almost immediately- a very nice pass. A month later, I won a pitch contest and sent out a partial. That partial also got a pass but with some very helpful crits on some things that could be tightened in the MS. With that one full still out there, my plan was to wait until I heard back from that agent. I hoped that if it was a no, she'd have some comments also, then I'd go back to the MS and revise.
December hit and I still hadn't heard so I nudged. She had never received the full! Aaahhhh!!!! That's how I felt anyhow. (So if you're ever wondering if you should nudge, here's proof why it's a good idea.) So I sent it off again. In the meantime, I'd written a new MS and was busy with that so the waiting wasn't so bad. Then came February and a contest. I entered- another full request. March- another contest, another full request. Then of course May and The Writer's Voice. Two partial requests. When the Xmas in July contest hit, I decided if I made it in, it was time to revise. So I did- finally.
I've since heard back from some of those subs, not all. But I've made the decision to get back into those query trenches. I'm not gonna lie, I'm starting to despair a little over this story that I love so much. But I need a few more rejections (I can't believe I'm saying that!) before I decide it's just not gonna make it out into the world and I shelve it for good. Really, I haven't actually queried it with my sparkly query all that much. So even though it's been awhile, I'm giving it a chance. After that, I've got another MS waiting in the wings.
So, querying. This post isn't advice. It doesn't tell you how to survive. It doesn't tell you what to do or what not to do. It's probably not useful to anyone but me- a chance to unload the stress that is crowding up my brain. If you've been in the query trenches, you'll know what I'm talking about.
So what about you? Any of you querying out there? How's it going?