Dr. Catherine Schaff-Stump

Here's some place I'll be going a lot...an ambitious writer who centralizes all those industry/agent blog commentaries for you, again so you don't have to do it yourself. Courtesy of Patrick, over at Querytracker. The writer is Deborah White.

http://writesabouteverything.blogspot.com/

So now I can go to one spot and see who has some hot, new advice for me from out there in the blogosphere.

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Reading the entries on numbers really makes me think. I've compared the process of trying to publish to a job search before, so of course professionalism is a must, but the window of opportunity is more like the eye of a needle, if you buy these stats.

NO WONDER so many good writers have a hard time breaking in! If you make it to partial status or request for full status, and you don't quite grab the prize, you're still like 95 percent ahead of others, but wow.

I guess if I wanted a sure thing, I wouldn't be trying to publish. :) I'll keep at it, even if only you, my legions of internet friends, are reading. :)

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So last night, after a mango margarita and some fun with fellow profs, I went home to play with my new toy, the updated querytracker. It's nice. I can prioritize agents in the order I want to send to them, I can put in notes that only I can see, I can see stats about their acceptances and rejections all on the same screen! I can also do a genre specific search to get their stats in my genre. And of course, there are all the lovely search engines and ways to check up on your favorite agents, to see if they are legit, big money makers, and so forth.

I wonder if agents ever feel stalked. I wonder if, as old Chinese folktales have it, they sneeze a lot because they are talked about. I wonder if a percentage of them become agents, because among geeky, isolated, repressed writers, they represent a sort of celebrity.

I wonder if I've had enough coffee this morning.

Anyway, there are several features I haven't tried out at Querytracker yet, but I will get to them in good time. There's a place to build a showcase of your writing that you can point agents towards. Less useful to those of us with websites, but pretty useful if you're looking for another place to put your stuff.

My advice? Try querytracker.net out, and if you like it, send the man $25. :)

I really need to get up to speed on Publishers Marketplace as well. I will. It's another thing to add to the list. I could see how this could become a full time job. If only it paid something like a living wage!

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So, as soon as I get the agent sort done, it'll be time to do some website modifications. I also intend to send out more queries this week. Almost got that new spiffy conflict oriented query letter ready to rock. Stay tuned!

Hope your imaginations are fertile and the words are flowing.

Catherine

Yesterday was lost to real flu and fatigue. I rarely stay in bed until 1 pm. I would have stayed longer, but the cat kicked me out. Really. She sleeps on the bed during the day and made it known that my staying made her daynap impossible. As soon as I made the bed, she jumped on it and hit the hay.

But before I went down, on Wednesday, I started into chapter 7 oral read. Yes! And it looks to be a fairly mellow weekend, so I'm optimistic about getting some more done. Ideally, I'd like to have the oral read through done by October 31st.

I'm itching to get back to the creative side of writing. The business side is important too, but right now, with my focus on agent sort and editing, I want to get down to some planning, plotting, and making the magic happen.

Next Wednesday and next Friday, I'll be sending out a couple more messages in a bottle to agents. For those who have been keeping count, you might remember that my current messages are out to Ethan Ellenberg and Kathleen Anderson. I'm eying Gary Heidt, Kate Menick, and Jessica Regel for my next round. Any data?

Okay, off to read your stuff!

Catherine

Good bye to Stephen Barbara, who thought I had a good query letter, but that the project was wrong.

Hello to Ethan Ellenberg. I will wait until Halloween for Mr. Ellenberg, because if I haven't heard in that 2 week period, I won't.

Next up: Nathan Bransford.

Earnestly, I don't expect Ellenberg or Bransford. They are very popular and get a ton of submissions. But, you gotta knock on the doors, right?

Ooookay. Dinner, papers for tomorrow, and a chapter of actual editing. Seriously.

BTW, this:

http://www.querytracker.net

has pretty much eliminated my need to do a big list of agents. While I'll still look through Agent Query and Preditors and Editors, this service found me 216 agents to research AND helps me keep track of my queries. I will, as soon as I get the chance, send them $25 dollars to support the site. I could do it for free, but then I'd be a lowlife, and that wouldn't be cool.

At least email makes the whole query/rejection process so much faster. Remember kids, just because it's getting rejected doesn't mean it's not good. It means a lot of things, but it doesn't mean that.

Catherine

Added a great many more agents to the Agent Search List.

I have always heard that agents should be members of the AAR. However, I'm finding many high profile ones that are not. I'd love to hear opinions about that, and will have to look into this more.

Off for some serious reading tonight.

Catherine