Adventures in Querying...
"All right, I'm ready!" ~ Anastasia
in the song "Learn to Do It" from Anastasia
Yesterday I had the oh-so-fun moment of "Oh crap, how do I calculate my word count? And format my manuscript? And... and... and...?"
So I went to Google and started searching. Word count came in pretty simply with only two methods dominating the search: Whatever Word tells you OR 250 x # of pages (either way rounding to nearest 1000). Right now I'm going with Word, but I might switch if I'm told to do otherwise (until then, I almost feel like I'd be lying!). They're somewhat close, but not exactly the same.
Formatting, however, was so much more fun to research because everyone seems to have a different formatting pet peeve that someone else says is how you're supposed to do it. Ah, how exciting. Underline vs. italicize? # vs * * * vs white space for breaks? Bold anything ever? How to indent paragraphs? Where to put the word count? How much white space starts a chapter? *twitch*
Now, before any of you swoop in with "Oh, no, calm down! It's okay!" and other such comments... I'm not freaking out (at least, about that stuff!). Actually, some sick part of me finds all these contradictions highly amusing.
After reading about a zillion "articles" and random blog posts on every topic, I think I've got the basics. And I know when something doesn't look professional. So I'm not particularly worried on those fronts. I'd love to do everything "right" the first time, but that doesn't necessarily look possible. So I'm going to do the best I can, using as much information as I can find.
Next up, the query letters! I've got three at the point where I'm going to have to call them done or drive myself crazy rearranging commas. I'm planning on always having five out at a time (we'll see how that goes...), so that means two more!
Except... I'm having some trouble "personalizing" some of the queries. I really want to show people how I have done my research (seriously, chime in if you've seen my querying research binder- my thesis adviser said it could be a book itself!), and that I'm not just querying them because they're an agent. I'm querying people who I genuinely feel I would work with well. Who rep what I write. Who seem to have similar tastes to my own. I want an agent, yes, but not just so I can say I have one- I want a professional, working relationship with someone who can sell my book.
Alas, my Google skills are somewhat failing me. There are a few people who I can't find quite enough information on for me to feel like I'm truly personalizing the letters. This frustrates me. In fact, a few of them I'm thinking of switching who I'm querying in their agencies because of this*.
Well, I've been at this research & query-writing for about four or five hours now, so I think I'm going to take a reading break.
Anyone want to chime in with their current or past querying adventures? No names, no bashing of anyone, please. I'm trying to keep this somewhat light and I'm not locking this post. (If you have anything you'd like to share privately, you can email me at kathleenfoucart at gmail dot com)
*This is only in agencies where I'm so torn btw. 2 or 3 agents that it was sort-of arbitrary which one I decided to go with. Why are so many fantastic agents in the same agencies? So hard to choose!
in the song "Learn to Do It" from Anastasia
Yesterday I had the oh-so-fun moment of "Oh crap, how do I calculate my word count? And format my manuscript? And... and... and...?"
So I went to Google and started searching. Word count came in pretty simply with only two methods dominating the search: Whatever Word tells you OR 250 x # of pages (either way rounding to nearest 1000). Right now I'm going with Word, but I might switch if I'm told to do otherwise (until then, I almost feel like I'd be lying!). They're somewhat close, but not exactly the same.
Formatting, however, was so much more fun to research because everyone seems to have a different formatting pet peeve that someone else says is how you're supposed to do it. Ah, how exciting. Underline vs. italicize? # vs * * * vs white space for breaks? Bold anything ever? How to indent paragraphs? Where to put the word count? How much white space starts a chapter? *twitch*
Now, before any of you swoop in with "Oh, no, calm down! It's okay!" and other such comments... I'm not freaking out (at least, about that stuff!). Actually, some sick part of me finds all these contradictions highly amusing.
After reading about a zillion "articles" and random blog posts on every topic, I think I've got the basics. And I know when something doesn't look professional. So I'm not particularly worried on those fronts. I'd love to do everything "right" the first time, but that doesn't necessarily look possible. So I'm going to do the best I can, using as much information as I can find.
Next up, the query letters! I've got three at the point where I'm going to have to call them done or drive myself crazy rearranging commas. I'm planning on always having five out at a time (we'll see how that goes...), so that means two more!
Except... I'm having some trouble "personalizing" some of the queries. I really want to show people how I have done my research (seriously, chime in if you've seen my querying research binder- my thesis adviser said it could be a book itself!), and that I'm not just querying them because they're an agent. I'm querying people who I genuinely feel I would work with well. Who rep what I write. Who seem to have similar tastes to my own. I want an agent, yes, but not just so I can say I have one- I want a professional, working relationship with someone who can sell my book.
Alas, my Google skills are somewhat failing me. There are a few people who I can't find quite enough information on for me to feel like I'm truly personalizing the letters. This frustrates me. In fact, a few of them I'm thinking of switching who I'm querying in their agencies because of this*.
Well, I've been at this research & query-writing for about four or five hours now, so I think I'm going to take a reading break.
Anyone want to chime in with their current or past querying adventures? No names, no bashing of anyone, please. I'm trying to keep this somewhat light and I'm not locking this post. (If you have anything you'd like to share privately, you can email me at kathleenfoucart at gmail dot com)
*This is only in agencies where I'm so torn btw. 2 or 3 agents that it was sort-of arbitrary which one I decided to go with. Why are so many fantastic agents in the same agencies? So hard to choose!