Last night I made a big choice, one that probably should have been a no-brainer, but for me it wasn't. I decided I would take the next step in trying to get my book published. What that basically involves is trying to find an agent. To find an agent you basically have to send out a million emails containing your "query". A query is just a brief synopsis of your book and a author bio. Doesn't sound to hard right? Well, yes and no. But I'm getting ahead of myself already.
See, I've pretty much finished with the editing process, obviously I had a ton of help from THE Laura Case, who I'm sort of indebted to forever. And I've reached the inevitable "now what?" phase of the writing process. As of last night I was fully convinced that e-publishing is the way to go. All you do is upload your PDF file, set your price and BAM you get %70 of the profits. Which means if I'm lucky, I could make fifty bucks! As soon as I told Matthew this idea he adamantly told me no. (The nerve!) He said he wanted me to try getting published for real. I immediately went into this huge tirade about how that's a one in a million chance and I might as well try and win the lottery or American Idol for that matter. I emailed Laura (rather frantically a few times, sorry) and she basically said the same thing. GO BIG OR GO HOME!
Well....I'm not going home. After googling around a little I found an amazing website that helps put aspiring writers in touch with agents who are looking for clients. It made me feel so much better to have the next possible step laid out in front of me. For now I have a to-do list in my head before I can start sending out my queries. For one, I've got to get my query written. I've been doing a lot of brainstorming on my synopsis and hopefully I'll have something ready soon.
So, big deal right? I mean, for me, just saying I'm going to go for this is a HUGE step. I know there are many people in my life who won't let me give up with out trying, and that is a great feeling. As scary and daunting as the road ahead of me may be at this point, something did occur to me last night. I wrote a book. Already. It's done! I did it. I have more coming. That in itself is a huge accomplishment for an aspiring writer, and I shouldn't let myself forget that.
Basically, it's a long shot, but at this point it seems like a shot worth taking.
What IS NOT a long shot in life?
ReplyDeleteWhen you get down, just think of JK Rowling and freaking Stephanie Meyer. They were JUST LIKE YOU.
HUGE accomplishment! And what Janna said :)
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like you have been getting some great advice. And I'm so excited that you are taking it.
ReplyDeleteThis is so exciting! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for you and have so much respect for you following your dream. I agree with Laura, SM and JK were JUST LIKE YOU as were so many others out there and they made it happen and so can you. I am glad you found someplace to give you an idea of what to do. I knew the sites and info was out there because I had a friend from a Twilight fan club (WAY, WAY BACK, BEFORE THE MOVIES, LOL) and she was going through the whole process too.
ReplyDeleteI think the fact that you don't have mythical creatures and its not dystopian is in your favor. Who wants what is trendy now? A good publisher will be looking for the next big thing,which really just has to be a good read.