Posts Tagged ‘agents’

What’s on my iPod : Red Morning Light by The Kings of Leon

Well, I thought this might a good time to blog about my own personal journey to publication. The basics are the same : write a manuscript from start to finish, edit, revise, and repeat. Then write a hook and query/pitch and begin to query agents. Along the way thicken your skin, either with some tough (But great) critique partners, and getready for hte rejections. You’re going get them. Don’t take it personal, becuase it’s not. It’s business. An agent may not like your story, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. What it means is its just not in their particular taste.

So where I’m at right now. I’m in the querying process and the revising and tightening process. It means I’m querying, and not everyone all at once, but a few agents at a time. As I query I’m tightening my manuscript. This is also the time when I read everything I can get my hands on, and not just in my genre (YA paranormal) but everything, including craft books.

This really is a slow process, so I’m also working on my next manuscript, not as diligently as I did my first. And I’m networking - connecting with fellow writers and agents and editors. The internet has really brought the publishing community out of an elite status and into a more homegrown, grassroots movement. Well at least I like to think so.

What’s on my iPod : Kings and Queens by 30 Seconds to Mars

QUERY CONTEST ENDS FRIDAY

I just found this out on Twitter, but associate agent Kathleen Ortiz ( @KOrtizzle ) is hosting a query contest to celebrate starting her blog. You can check out the contest rules here – Neverending Page Turner Contest Post

She will be randomly selecting a winner to recieve a critique of your query letter. A word to the wise before you enter, make sure your manuscript is finished and polished. You never know.

Check it out! It’s a contest for YA and MG writers to enter their first 500 words of their COMPLETED manuscript.

Here’s the link : Kidlit Contest
 

or you can go here to read the official rules to enter.

What’s on my iPod : Final Moment by Veer Union.

Happy Turkey Day everyone in the US. I thought I just might participate in Thursday Thirteen with thirteen things I’m thankful for related to writing and my MS BROKEN. And so in no particular order, just how they pop in my head :

1.) Awesome beta readers and critique partners. Without you, I would have never gotten my rough draft in shape.

2.) The Foo Fighters and Evanescence. Without their music, writing BROKEN would have been a lot different. And because the Muse insists that “The Pretender” is his theme song.

3.) Romance Divas Forum. Because you Divas rock with support, knowledge, and humor.

4.) My kids and parents for understanding (some of the time) how crazy this undertaking is.

5.) My friends for reading the MS and liking it. I know you guys were just saying that, but hey, thanks anyway.

6.) #askagent and #yalitchat for connecting unpublished writers with agents, publishers and published authors and getting invaluable information to us.

7.) Twilight (I know) because if I hadn’t read the book at a time in my life that made the book have more meaning to me, I would have never realized there was a market for young adult and written BROKEN.

8.) My laptop. Where would I be without you. I can’t function without you.

9.) Diana Gabaldon for writing Outlander. If I had never read that book and the others that followed, I would never had decided I wanted to be a published writer in the first place.

10.) Coffee. OMG. I need you, I want you, I dedicate an entire Madonna song to you – Justify My Love. And Starbucks because of the special little place I hold for you in my heart. I am thankful for White Chocolate Mocha Latte, Peppermint Mocha Latte, and Pumpkin Spice Latte. And for the quiet moments I sat and worked on BROKEN in your store.

11.) The Muse incarnate. With your physical pictures I try to develop a more well-rounded characters. And you’re just too sexy to look at or ignore.

 12.) Sticky notes. You are a godsend. So many used on my plotboard. In fact, I had the widget on my old laptop and for over 6 months it said on there “Angels a new story.” Yep, that was the seed that got water and grew and flowered into BROKEN.

13.) For the patience and the ability to write stories that people enjoy.

That’s All……

What’s on my iPod : Slow Poison by The Bravery

Well, I’m so excited that two of my fellow YA writers are recently agented. Bria Quinlan just signed with Kim at Book Ends Literary Agency, and R F Long just signed with Colleen Lindsay. YAY, girls!!

Catch up with Bria on her blog here.

and RF Long here.

ON MY iPOD : Rehab by Amy Winehouse

Well, I thought that my first official post on my new website would be a reflection. I just sent in my full MS to an agent, and it got me thinking about the uneasy feeling, as a writer, one gets when they first send that well-polished manuscript out. We give it wings and hope to God that the thing can fly on its own. We pray it will sing. But as we patiently wait weeks, even months, we begin to feel that perhaps our precious little creation maybe has Icarus Wings and might fall to its death just the same.  That’s my thought, and sums up how I feel currently.