What keeps you writing?

From the first day you start writing you being for yourself. Clearly for the love of well...writing. But as you read all these blogs and as you discover how to get your novel published that’s what your goal is. The simple joy of writing is well...gone. Admit it.




You still enjoy to write and it is still your passion but would you write that novel if you knew it would never be published? If only a few family and friends praised it and then you were forced to stash it in the drawer? As I think more and more of this, most of us do write to be published.



Most of us want to be those 1 in a million people that become famous with writing, even if we know its practically impossible. But when critiques come in and say that there is no chance how do you take it? If you really love writing you won't give up. Instead you will keep going and improving, using those critiques to improve but if you are writing to be published you might as well trash your novel now.



What about you? What keeps you writing when you are feeling rejected by agents?

Contest Alert!

''Dear Lucky Agent'' Contest: Middle Grade and Young Adult (with agent Regina Brooks).  *This contest is being held by guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog not me.  Check out their site for more information. I pasted the main things you need to enter below:

HOW TO SUBMIT


E-mail entries to fourthagentcontest@gmail.com. Please paste everything. No attachments.

WHAT TO SUBMIT

first 150-200 words of your unpublished, book-length work of middle grade or young adult fiction. You must include a contact e-mail address with your entry and use your real name. Also, submit the title of the work and a logline (one-sentence description of the work) with your entry.

Please note: To be eligible to submit, I ask that you do one of two things: 1) Mention and link to this contest twice through your social media—blogs, Twitter, Facebook; or 2) just mention this contest once and also add Guide to Literary Agents Blog (www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog) to your blogroll. Please provide link(s) so I can verify eligibility!

CONTEST DETAILS

1. This contest will be live for approximately fourteen days—from March 31 through the end of Wednesday, April 14, EST. Winners notified by e-mail within 14 days of end of contest. Winners announced on the blog thereafter.

2. To enter, submit the first 150-200 words of your book. Shorter or longer entries will not be considered. Keep it within word count range please.

3. This contest is solely for completed book-length works of middle grade and young adult fiction (kids novels).

4. You can submit as many times as you wish. You can submit even if you submitted to other contests in the past, but please note that past winners cannot win again.

5. The contest is open to everyone of all ages, save those employees, officers and directors of GLA's publisher, F+W Media.

6. By e-mailing your entry, you are submitting an entry for consideration in this contest and thereby agreeing to the terms written here as well as any terms added by me in the "Comments" section of this blog post. (If you have questions or concerns, write me personally at literaryagent@fwmedia.com.)

PRIZES!!!

Top 3 winners all get: 1) A critique of 10 pages of your work, by your agent judge. 2) A free one-year subscription to WritersMarket.com.

Exclusive Query letters

We all want the greatest chance of getting an agent. Do exclusive queries really make agents pay more attention to us? In one way they are worse because we have to wait. But at the same time patience is everything in the publishing world. The other way if this is a reputable agency that you really want to land then maybe its worth the wait...Personally I sent out one exclusive query letter and am still waiting for a reply. The only reason I took that step was because the agent is surely reputable and because they are looking for a novel just like mine. How about you, what is your take on exclusive  query letters?

The Query doomed to EPIC failure

This is how to NOT write a query. It's horrible and yes I am brave enough to share it with you guys because I admit to not having developed my skills when I wrote this and I certainly hope that my current query will not be dissected in such a manner for its epic fail. Also I will be posting the rejections I got for it which was 2 rejections out of a whole pool of 11 no replies. My manuscript is completely different now and I am practically querying a new novel but I though some hopeful writers can learn something from my experience...And now the awaited epic failure query...


Dear (Insert Agent name),
I am seeking representation for my fantasy adventure novel “The Coming”, complete at 90,000 words. I am enclosing a synopsis and a sample chapter. The sequel, “The Return”, is nearing completion and the third book in the trilogy “The Sacrifice” featuring the same characters, is in outline form. “The Coming” can stand as a stand alone novel, though can also be extended to a trilogy.

Like I usually say to everyone else. No reason to mention anything about trilogies or what not. First get your first book agented then you can talk.

Earth - A planet which is divided in two outstandingly different worlds…

Cliché Alert!!!

Millions of years ago the very first settlements of civilized humanity included one man which invented something brilliant, yet destructive and unwanted.

That sounds ridiculous since the nuclear bomb wasn't invented a million years ago. Back then I thought it sounded cool... Ha!

A nuclear bomb. The mechanism brought nothing but doom, resulting in a complete collapse of the opposite dimension and destroying all living beings and plants into the simplest of all particles - dust.

Dust isn't even the simplest of particles. I should have learned my basic science before writing this!

As thousands of years passed, the opposite dimension evolved into what humans are today, at the colossal year of 2024.

That isn't a colossal year and this becomes Very confusing. There is no hook and the main Character hasn't been mentioned. Rejection if I were an agent. I am not surprised I got so many no replies.

Not many know of the other dimension which lays right below our finger tips, except for the many scientists which had spent their lives work on research. Mutated humans and animals roam the opposite dimension, some created by scientists of the other dimension and some modified by radiation. The dust had long gone, but a completely different atmosphere evolved, leaving the isolated human settlements fighting for life, and simple survival.

This is all confusing back-story and the query doesn't even speak of the MC. Practically already a failure on EPIC proportions. This is probably what someone could come up with if they were competing in the worst query contests.


16 year old Fidencio finds himself in a military base.

And? Here is another cliché I know I have committed. The dude waked up with no memory and no thoughts making him COMPLETLEY and ANNOYINGLY clueless through the rest of the novel. When I revised the only thing that keeps me from not calling it a completely new novel was the fact that I used my antagonist for my new MC. Other than that this has nothing to do with my new story line.

His memories, and thoughts erased.

Cliché Alert!!!

As he plans for escape, he finds himself lost in the outskirts of the other dimension. With romance and suspense, he finds himself tangled in a war of wits, power and strength. Races of changed humans collide against one another, conquering the battlefield with blood thirsty swords. The adventure novel entangles a web of complex characters in a want for justice, freedom and love.

I am not even going to critique that. You know what I mean to say. Epic fail.

“The Coming” is my very first novel. I'd be glad to send you my complete manuscript for your review. Thank you for your time and consideration, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

 I sound like the amateur that I was.

All the Best,

So what do you think? How horrible is it really?

For me the verdict… The worst query you can EVER dig up.

Types of Rejections

Good Saturday morning and happy Easter weekend. I realize I just posted up my organization post and I have missed two days of blogging, but I do have an excuse guys. I was in Guam running far and wide from the CIA who believes I have started spreading a nuclear conspiracy far and wide to literary agents. All right, that's just a joke. Truthfully I simply didn't have much in mind to review on Thursday and no query stats for Friday. Other than a little update on my query which I will post at the end here. So today I wanted to talk about rejection letters, for I am afraid I am going to be getting some...There are quite a few of these babies that you may hope or not to get after you have sent your query. Here goes a list I have created.


Personalized Rejection: This probably means that the agent really liked your work. So good news so far. The only problem is that it most likely isn't right for them. Resend to someone else and hope for the best.

The Idea rejection: In this type of letter the agent will most likely ask if you have any other novels up your sleeve because they like the way you write but your idea either really compares to an already published one or simply your project is far from original. This is also good news for you as a writer but bad news for the manuscript you have been slaving off of.

The Revision Rejection: This is probably in my opinion worse than the personalized rejection but its still fairly good news. They like it. They only have a problem with the opening, ending, middle, climax, MC, plot holes, whatever. There is so much I can list, but either way all you have to do is revise like crazy and return to the agent hoping that they will accept, but keep this in mind. Some agent's revision suggestions are very personal and may not apply to others so don't accept what your gut tells you not to.

Last but not least...The dreaded form rejection: Ok, fine. The form rejection isn't so dreaded because at times the project isn't right for the agent. Still this is probably the worst rejection you can get, particularly if you got it from 10 or more agents. That’s a hint for you to stop querying, and take a look at your query. There are countless things in an idea or a query that can make agents reject. This is what I have come up with...

• They just don't like it and it’s boring. I hate to admit it but some *winning* queries I have read are great but the idea doesn't appeal to me. It sounds like a boring read. Just like us agents have personal opinions so respect them because if they don't like your novel better they don't represent you. Let me rephrase that... They will just hit the big red rejection button.

• You messed up with the guidelines. That seems just careless to the agent. No salutation, spelling issues, wrong formatting and so on.

• Your word count is too long. 120,000 is the highest word count for a first time author, unless you want to pile up on rejections just for your count. If your story is stellar and you have a higher word count you may have a chance but still I personally wouldn't risk it.

• You didn't mention the story in your query. Don't talk about how amazing it is and how epic oh and how amazing you are. If the story really is that amazing it will talk for itself.

• don't mass submit. That has been said so many time I don't even know why I am repeating it.

Anyways. There you go. So how do you react to rejections and what make you keep going when it looks like there is no hope. (I hope that you aren't in that situation. lol.)

My Query Stat: Ok so I have sent off one query and I may be too hopeful but I sent it off to one agent. Yes, its exclusive and I did mention it. I just want to see a first reaction because I feared blowing my chances with 10 great agents. The agent has preference and likes that exactly fit to my novel so I hope that goes well. According to people on AW they reply quite quickly so I will be looking forward to a reply and will update you guys. Again, I am not too hopeful and don't start thinking that I expect myself to be represented after sending only one query. I wish. Happy Easter!

Interview with Margay Justice Author of Nora's Soul

So the first interview on my blog will be with Margay an author published with a small press that has a novel out called 'Nora's soul'.
Firstly Margay,  can you tell us a little bit about your novel ‘Nora's Soul’?
Sure, here is the blurb from the book:
When angels of light and dark collide on earth…
Once he held a favored position in the heavens. But one moment of weakness casts Dante out and now he is cursed to walk the earth, collecting the souls of vulnerable women to buy his way into hell.
All hell breaks loose…
But standing in his way is Peter, an angel of light. Peter is everything Dante is not. Pure, above reproach. And determined to prevent Dante from achieving his goals. Peter will stop at nothing to protect the souls in his charge, even if it means achieving the impossible – leading Dante back onto the right path. And no one is safe from the fall-out. Nora Kendall believed in angels. Once. But then she lost her brother to cancer despite all of her prayers – and she lost her faith in all things angelic. Now, she is a lost soul who wanders through life like a sleepwalker, playing it safe and leaving the risk-taking to others. Kyle Cameron is one of those risks. Burned by a bad marriage, his only concern now is providing a stable life for his children, who are left motherless by the unexpected death of his wife. This means working overtime to grow his architectural firm into a viable business – and leaving the care of his children to the care of someone he trusts. Despite his past connection with Nora, Kyle isn’t certain that she’s the right person for the job. He also doesn’t want to reconnect with her and repeat history. But fate – and the machinations of two angels – has other ideas.
That sounds very interesting, what is your writing background up until now?
I have always pursued my writing dream, even as I worked through corporate America and have won some local contests for my writing along the way. Just before the publication of Nora's Soul, I entered the blogosphere with my own blog and have since expanded to writing for a few more, including Moonlight, Lace and Mayhem and Pop Syndicate. You can visit Margays blog here.
What inspired your idea for your currently published novel?
It actually came from two dreams I had in one night. The first was of this woman who was dancing the night away with a gorgeous man who, when she turned away to go to the bar for a drink, became quite...devilish. The second dream was of the same women, dressed in a more prim and proper way, moving into a garage apartment as she prepared to take on the duties of being nanny to a widower's twins. Separately, these dreams wouldn't have caused such a stir in me, but because they happened in the same night and with the same woman in them, I knew I had to explore them further. Who was she? And why did she present two such different sides to me? The result, of course, was Nora's Soul.
Do you have any specific daily writing routines you stick to?
I wish I could say that I did, but I don't. I write whenever I can. No set time, no set word limit. Just whatever comes before the body says it's time to quit for the night.
So now that you have published ‘Nora’s Soul’ are you planning a next novel we should be looking forward to?
I have so many books in the works and/or in various stages of the submission process! There is one with an editor now that I am waiting to hear about, cross my fingers!
After you completed ‘Nora’s Soul’ how difficult was it for you to land an agent?
I actually am still on the hunt for an agent. This is challenging because it takes time and perseverance to find an agent that likes your work and wants to represent you. I was actually published by a small press.
The moment you got a positive reply with an offer for representation, what were your initial thoughts?
Since I haven't got an agent yet, I can't answer that, but I can tell you that it was thrilling to get that email from the small press publisher telling me that he wanted to publish my book. I think my first thought was, "Finally!" I had been trying, with varying degrees of success, for many years to get published/find an agent, so this was just thrilling for me to know that I'd finally see my words in print.
How many rejections did it take for you to finally land that agent?
I am still getting rejections! I never counted, but it's safe to say that they are pushing the double digits.
Would you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Never stop honing your craft. Even when you think you know what you're doing, someone will come along and criticize your use of grammar, syntax, etc. So take those classes, rewrite those manuscripts, and get someone you trust to read them and give their input. And write.
Would you have done anything differently?
I think the one thing I would have done differently is to keep on going the first time I received a rejection, rather than not sending the book out to someone else. I let those first rejections get to me too much; I let them shake my confidence in my ability to write and it took awhile before I was brave enough to try again.

Thanks so much to Margay for doing this intreviw and sharing about her novel with us! You can check out her site at: http://margayleahjustice.com/ and if you would like to know more about her and Noar's soul click here.

Spring Cleaning!!!

Time for a clean up on my blog and no more random blurby posting! Ok so I saw a couple blogs organizing I think one of them was Justine’s (go check it out) and I thought it was a great idea! So here goes my lovely new organized stuff. Mondays: Will be publishing day. So any types of tips re queries, synopsis' landing an agent and such. Tuesdays: I will leave blank for now because I am not starting a military regimen here people! Wednesdays: Will be interview day! Awesome right? Agents, authors and just us writers! I have lots of authors already interested and agents and interns and editors are on their way. If you are interested to be interviewed let me know or leave a comment. Thursdays: will be review days when I can make a review on a book on an agency that replied quickly or on whatever I please. Fridays: Well I am about to let loose my queries so when I do fridays will be my stat days with updated about how many rejections I got and with rejection letters posted for you guys to laugh at.. JK Saturdays and Sundays: I will give keep those freebie days to myself for now! so there you go and today I will be posting an intreview with an author of the novel called 'Nora's Soul' .