Sorry I've been away so long, but I've been crazy busy lately...
I teach AP Economics to high school seniors and we are taking our AP Exams this Thursday. This is always a very intense time of the year. The whole focus of the year is success on the AP Exams (microeconomics and macroeconomics). If students do well (a score of 4 or 5) they can usually get college credit for the course. This makes success potentially worth two thousand dollars.
In a few days my school year eases up in a big way. Just have to make it through this final push.
On to writing... I've been analyzing and re-analyzing my query strategy. I don't want to mass-query every possible agent all at one time. However, a limited-query effort will mean a lot more waiting. So who do I query first? Patience, patience, patience....
Query-time is a good time to think about the next project. What's been on my mind?
1) The sequel to Eternal Knight.
2) Another novel set in the Eternal Knight world.
3) Re-writing a sci-fi novel I completed (and then abandoned) years ago.
4) Write an oil/espionage thriller.
I did manage to finish the Turkey Hill Classic bike race I mentioned in my last post. "Finish" being the key word. I placed 27th out of 50 starters in the Cat 5 (beginner) race. Don't let this fool you--I was way off the back of the pack. Twenty starters never finished the race.
I enjoyed the experience of the bike race, but was disappionted by my performance. I was dropped by the pack (peleton) in the first half of the first lap (of four 10k laps). I was really hoping to see what it would be like to mix it up in the peleton. The pace was incredibly fast off the start. It was much more than I excpected from a Cat 5 race.
Off to bed! Have a great one!
I'd recommend querying small batches of agents, mixing A-list with B-list agents, until you start to get a sense (based on requests/rejections) of how good your query is.
ReplyDeleteI also recommend not writing a sequel (unless the sequel can standalone), just because you never know: what if the first one doesn't sell?
Good luck with (your students') APs, and of course good luck with querying!
A good query batch is 10. You're right about the waiting being agony, but you never know what feedback you might get back on the query or the novel that might be helpful. You don't want to lose too many agents off the same query.
ReplyDeleteAnd if anyone is beta reading for you, you might need to make some changes to the novel. Patience is hard, but worth it.
Congrats on finishing the race. Sounds like something else that required patience and practice. Stick with it; you'll get there. Lucky you, you've got all that free time coming up :)
........dhole
Well done on the Race, and good luck with the agent hunt. I've also heard it's good to bulk submit, but not in large numbers. This gives you the opportunity to correct any errors or bad feedback that you get from the first batch.
ReplyDeleteAs for your next project, I agree with adam. a sequal is a bad idea unless your first has already been sold. But writing a stand alone story set in the same world as Eternal Knight could be a really good idea. It's similar to a series and publishers and agents apparently love that idea. It'll stand for you when submitting...