So today was the day that the first of the Query letters went out. Popping up in Agents’ inboxes all over the country is my novel. Or at least my query letter and synopsis and pages as requested. Fingers crossed that someone likes what I’ve written enough to (at the very least) read more.
So now I wait…and draft more query letters…and start return to OUTSIDE THE TENT.
After weeks of critiques from classmates in my last class through UCLA Extension and copious notes and restructuring help from the amazingly wonderful Caroline Leavitt (visit Caroline’s blog here) and long rambling conversations about character development and motivation with my best friends, my debut novel WHO’S THE NAME OF THAT SONG? is done! Bring on the fireworks.
But now I come to the next step. Finding an agent. Eek!
After years of dutifully saving up all of the lectures and tips on this topic I have begun my quest. But a quest implies that I can do something to effect the outcome. Back in my acting days, I could rehearse and stage and perfect my audition. If it was a big test, I could study and study and study. But this, all I can do is write a letter that I hope makes it out of the masses and catches the eye of the person who can make my dreams come true. The one phrase that came up over and over again as I was researching who to query was prepare for the rejection letters and in the world of email, you might not even get a rejection letter. All of my teachers from the Writer’s Program at UCLA Extension offered their advice to the class on the subject but nearly all of the their versions differed in some way or other. The other crazy part is figuring out who to query. The websites all seem to blend together. The ones that I think “Wow! I want that person” after reading their blog or bio or interview might not even make it past the first paragraph of my letter.
So I guess all I can do, at least in this first round, is be myself and hope for the best. A difficult thing to stomach after years of preparing and rehearsing and studying. So cross your fingers everyone. Away we go.
Jessamyn Foster 