Publishing is brutal. It's the first thing you learn as a new writer, and it's a lesson reiterated at every step along the way. From drafting to critiquing to querying to subbing. Brutal. All of it. Previously, my record on receiving a rejection for a query was thirty minutes from the time sent. Thirty minutes. [...]
I shoot some stats just about every year, mostly to prove to myself that, yes, I *am* actually moving forward in this thing called a writing career. Given the craziness of 2020 all around, *I* wouldn't even blame me if I'd chosen to fall off the face of the earth, or hide under a blanket [...]
Welcome to December! I should be working on my WIP right now instead of tallying up numbers from this year, but what is a writer if not a procrastinator, right? So I bring you my 2019 writing stats. People often ask me how long it takes to get a book written and what a writer [...]
Hey, writers and readers! It’s once again that time when everyone you know in the writing world looks back and reflects proudly on their accomplishments throughout the past year. I’ll admit that when I look at the writing statistics of other writers & authors this year, I immediately relapse into another bout of Imposter Syndrome. [...]
Hooray! This is the last installment of my querying series. (Read: I think this is the last installment of my querying series, unless, of course, the person who is critiquing it as I type comes back with drastic changes that need to be made... Never done, people. It's never truly done.) I used to read [...]
By now you've probably got a pretty good idea where I'm going with my queries. (Progressively better with each version, but still not quite "there.") This particular version netted me requests (both partial and full) from several agents. It's better, but it's still lacking. Dear (Agent), Though your website lists that you are currently [...]
After a year and a half of constant rejection, I finally revised my first query into something a little more focused. It’s not quite as rambling as my first and it seems like maybe I knew a little bit more about what was going with my own book on at this point. Dear (Agent), I viewed [...]
Any writer can google how to query, so contrary to the title of this post, I won't be teaching you how to query. There's tons of information out there regarding how to query a literary agent — what to say, what not to say, how to say it, and how to say it well. No lie. Querying is hard. In a [...]
I’ll admit that I’ve been slacking a bit when it comes to blogging (for the obvious reasons), but as I’ve scrolled through my Twitter feed, I’ve seen a lot of my writer friends elated either because they are about to send out their very first query letter or because they’ve received their very first rejection [...]
Once upon a time, writing was really a very solitary activity. Writers would hole up in a room by themselves, channel their inner muse (and hope that she showed up), and tap away on their typewriter (or - GASP - word processor) until a finished manuscript managed to produce itself. This was before the time [...]
L. Ryan Storms 