Hi! There is a query contest on kidlit.com, from agent Mary Kole at Andrea Brown. Click below for details, it runs until October 31. If you can’t click on the link below then it is because I am a tech-idiot and did it wrong! If that is the case go to kidlit.com. Good luck!
<a href=”http://kidlit.com/kidlit-contest” target”_blank”>Kidlit Contest</a>
I am thankful to head into the weekend, and to have had no query rejections waiting in my inbox today! Life is great!
My last story was laid out quite well, in my mind, and I didn’t spend a lot of time organizing my writing. It worked fine, I think, and I did use an index card system, and a notebook to write down random ideas to put in the beginning, middle, and end areas. So how do you plan out your stories? On the computer? In notebooks? Plotted on big paper? Do you use graphic organizers or story maps of some sort? This next story needs more time spent on planning before I write, so I’d love to hear how you do it. I’d like to have a great system, so I’m not ripping out my hair wondering where the heck I stuck that Post It note that had the great idea on it!
Hello, I haven’t posted anything for awhile because I’ve been reading all of your postings. I do get a lot of entertainment from them, so thank you, but I also waste a lot of time!
OK, it has been almost two months since I started querying. As of today I have done 40 queries and have gotten 3 partial requests (2 of which earned me another punch on my Loserville card) and 21 rejections. I am waiting on a response on a partial request, and waiting on 18 agents to respond. Each day I get all excited to get home from work and use my precious two hours of quiet, kidless, husbandless house to work on my new story. Then I find another reject in my Inbox and head straight to the couch to watch Days of Our Lives. Today I actually made popcorn for lunch while I watched! How can a person get motivated after daily deflation?
Other than that, I am happy for fall and Halloween and the blustery weather we have, which makes me want to bake, and eat it of course. My baking is lazy now that I can’t have wheat/gluten anymore-I bought those pre-molded, pre-cut, jack oLantern stamped cookies for my kids to ‘make’ today. They don’t taste good, but heck, they have sugar in them so of course I ate two (even though I am not supposed to have gluten).
My sugar rush did motivate me to send out 3 more queries though, and make compile my different list of agents to check out, in one spot. Holy cow, there are at least 70 more. Have a happy week everyone.
When do you start your next story? Part of me is itching to start the next one, yet trying to find an agent for the first one. I feel like I’m abandoning the first one, like the sack of junk I left at the Goodwill last week. My heart wants to stay with those characters, while the brain is yelling at me to stop ignoring new ideas. How long did any of you wait before you started? Also, I am in week four of querying, with 7 rejections, one partial (still waiting), and the rest I haven’t heard. Okay, so that’s two questions: how long did you wait before starting the next story, and how long did it take get an agent? Thanks, and happy Sunday!
I am patiently waiting for responses on quite a few queries and a partial. I miss my characters so much that I am going to keep editing so I can spend time with them, plus I don’t have the heart yet to start on the next story. What does everyone else do while they are waiting?
I am happy no one told me querying was a full-time job, otherwise I may never have finished my story. Holy crow! I can’t believe how many hours I’ve spent on this process! Now I have 3 full-time jobs-teaching, mothering, and querying! Oh, and somewhere in there, maybe I can write some new stuff!
As of today, I’ve queried 22 agents, and spent at least 22 hours querying those 22 agents-I’m quite sure. So far, three rejections (new one today, Tara), and one partial request-which I’m waiting to hear on. This last rejection to my email query was so kind and personalized that I was compelled to send a tiny snail mail thank you note-I appreciate kind rejection-definitely tosses a pillow under your butt on the fall down.
On an unrelated note, I am depressed to say I found one more thing I cannot eat anymore-Mentos-one of my favorites. Dang things have wheat in them.
Hi, I have nothing really to say today, except that I am so in love with the True Blood series, the and the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. How will I ever get any new writing done when I can’t put down those books, stop Net Flixing True Blood, and oh, yeah-working?
Stress over writing query letters made me eat 3 cookies, when I am not supposed to eat wheat! Writing is making me fatter already!
Hi! I am a mom of two, and wife, and kindergarten teacher. (oops and writer)
This is my first entry on my crooked, cobblestoned, pot-holed road to publication. I just finished my first YA novel and have started the query process. All those addresses-I feel like a postal worker! Thanks to email queries, I have been rejected twice, in speedy-fast time! I am already starting to huff and puff, and I’ve only been at it a few days. How am I going to wait? Will be worse than a kid on December 26th, waiting for Santa’s next visit!
shannon grogan, young adult author 