"How do you publish a book?" That's what I typed into my computer one hot summer night. I was sitting outside my little boy's bedroom as he fell asleep, slightly out of his view, but ready to spring into action the moment he took off all of his pj's and painted "special" artwork on the wall, his newest favorite activity. I had finished the first draft of my childrens book and did not want to waste any time. I thought I would just send it off to a publishing company, I had plenty to choose from as childrens books were in every corner of our house. I would just get their website from the back and be on my way. Well that was my first in a long line of "I have no clue on this earth what it takes to get a book published."
While, yes I could send my manuscript directly to a publisher, most of what I have read says DO NOT. It will end up right in the trash can. There is a fantastic job out there that I had never before heard of. It is called a Literary Agent. And these are the people that, I learned, I need to contact first. I read that it is crucial to get to know the literary agent that you plan to contact.... just don't write to every agent blind. What genres do they represent, what do they like and dislike? Read interviews with them, read their blogs (if they have one), follow them on Twitter. I became immersed in the Literary Agent world and am still there and will probably be there for some time to come. It is fascinating to me. They became instant celebrities to me. Still in my pj's with dishes piled in the sink at 2 in the afternoon, I love to think about what a romantic job it is: meetings, lunches and trips to Starbucks. Famous authors calling, possible best sellers in their hands at all times... high heeled boots and stylish clothes, big clunky necklaces hanging down to fiddle with as they swivel in their comfy office chairs and peruse the latest query that just fell on their desk.
Which brings us to the query... my other new vocabulary word. Never heard of it before, and I wasn't even sure how to say it. According to Webster's: an inquiry from a writer to an editor of a magazine, newspaper, etc., regarding the acceptability of or interest in an idea for an article, news story, or the like: usually presented in the form of a letter that outlines or describes the projected piece. Pronounced: kwer' e (both long e's). So I dove into the land of query letters as well. And I have to say while there are definitely aspects of the query letter that everyone seems to agree on, there is a whole lot of it that has kept my mind racing at night, trying to figure out the best pitch, angle, and just generally fretting that I won't do it "right".
I spent hours working on my first query letter, thinking I had it just right, then I would read something new that said, "Don't do this," and I thought, "Damn, I did that." Finally I had a query ready to go... I was happy with it; it seemed to follow all the "rules" and I was going to send it for the first time. After researching agents so much that I felt I could pick them out if I was on that old dating game on t.v. where the dater is separated from the datees, I choose my first agent to query. I think I was as nervous as a teenage boy about to ask a girl on a date for the first time.
On September 26, 2011, I began the process of querying my first literary agent. I had everything checked and double checked and ready to go. I began at 11 p.m. Then OCD set in. I checked the agents name and spelling probably fifty times, saying the letters of her name out loud over and over again, stopping to take a deep breath from time to time. I checked my query letter and manuscript and read them out loud... even read the punctuation out loud and sometimes I would even say "period, space, space..." I did this, three, four, five times and then would check to make sure I had everything in my letter that the agency's website asked for, crossing off the criteria from my notebook over and over again, until I couldn't even read it anymore. I even checked my own name... and the spelling of it twenty times or so, you know I have only been writing it since the first grade... one can never be to careful. I checked for 3 hours and then finally at 2 a.m. I took one last deep breath, said "Oh my god, I'm really doing this," and then I did it. I felt so excited and proud and nervous and of course I fully expected to hear later that day, when the agent's office in California opened up, that I have a bestseller on my hands...
To Be Continued...
Fabulous Resources:
www.agentquery.com
www.querytracker.net
www.queryshark.blogspot.com
www.caseylmccormick.blogspot.com Literary Rambles Spotlighting Children's Book Authors, Agents, and Publishing
