Its off to the races!

I've just spend the better part of my Saturday afternoon going through Jeff Herman's Guide to Book Publishers, Editors & Literary Agents looking for some agents! I already had a few in mind, but I went through a chunk of the book (its a BIG book) and found a few more.

But you know what? I won't lie. I honestly have no idea how to look for an agent. Short of finding one that is kinda sorta interested in a political thriller/young adult/aldultish/fictional novel there isn't much to go by. You'll never really know if you're going to "click" with that person until you start working with them. And lets be honest, with my charmigly abrasive personality, it'll be a rare find for me to find one that gets along well with me! So basically what I'm trying to say is that it's mostly just pulling names outta the hat at this point.

But the good news... I just sent out my first two query letters! (Cheer!) No, I haven't heard back from Dooling just yet about my synopquery letter, but these particular agents were only looking for a short introductory letter. If they are intrigued by the letter, they'll ask for a plot synopsis later. Since I already had a handy dandy little query letter on hand (see one of my previous posts for that letter) I just tweaked it a bit to meet their requirements and sent 'er off in an email!

So now begins the period of dreadful anticipation for the responses.Hopefully I'll still have nails left by the time its over.


Meanwhile, I'll be working on the synopsis letter that Dooling is reviewing right now. He said he'd have it back to me by Monday. If it IS back by Monday, and I don't have hours of problem spots to work out, I'll be able to shoot out a few more queries. Yikes! Thinking of all the potential rejections that are about to be sent my way, I can't help but be reminded of a line by George McFly in Back to the Future...

"What? Well what if they don't like it? I just don't know if I can handle that kind of rejection!" Yeah. Well. Me neither!

I used to suck at taking constructive criticism.... who am I kidding?? I still suck at it!! I have to admit that I've been getting better. But the argumentative side of me always kicks in when people try to criticize my work.

(sigh)

This could be a VERY long process! When the time comes, please kindly remind me not to talk back to any potential agents...