Query Kombat 2014

Query Kombat is back!

Bloggers SC, Michael, and Michelle are teaming up once again to bring you the second annual Query Kombat tournament. It’s a new year, so we’re bringing in some new rules!

The Basics

Query Kombat will host 64 kombatants in a single-elimination, tournament style query-off. Entries will go head to head (one on one) with one another until only ONE entry remains. There will be a total of six rounds in Query Kombat. 64 entries in round one, 32 in round two, 16 in round three, 8 in round four, 4 in round five, and 2 in round six. 

As we said, some things have changed. We’re doing away with tournament brackets this year. Instead, matches will be matched up based on target audience and genre. We'll continue grouping that way until it's no longer possible.

If you secure a spot in the tournament, your query and the first 250 words of your manuscript (to the end of a complete sentence) will be pitted against another query and first 250 words. Judges will read each match-up and vote 'Victory' on the best entry. Remember, this is subjective. Considering last year, votes may come down to personal tastes.

The entry with the most ‘victories’ at the end of the round will advance to the next round until only one champion remains.

One of the biggest changes we’re implementing this year is doing away with the mentor round. Why? Because we're moving up the agent round. Yes! You read correctly. This year the agent round will be held right after the first round. That mean 32 entries will make it into the agent round. 32!.

Of course, there's a twist!

This is what happened when we came up with this twist.

The agent round will be conducted in secret. And by secret, we mean TOP SECRET. Entrants won't know who requested what--or how much--until that entrant has been eliminated from the contest. Evil. We know. On the plus side, winners of the first round will be able to resubmit their entry prior to the agent round. So, any feedback the judges give you can be implemented before the agents see your work.

The Query Kombat tournament is open only to unagented writers seeking representation. Your manuscript must be complete, polished, and ready to submit. Submissions for MG, YA, NA, and Adult works will be accepted. No picture books or non-fiction.

The submission window will open on May 22nd at noon and close at 11:59:59pm on May 23rd, OR WHEN WE RECEIVE 225 ENTRIES. We will have email confirmation. If you don't receive it within an hour of submitting your entry, contact us via twitter and let us know. You may submit entries for two manuscripts (in the same email) but we will only consider the second entry on the last day of the submission window. Kontestants will be revealed on May 30th, and the tournament will kick off on June 1st.

Important: The Query Kombat team reserves the right to disqualify any entrant at any time. If an entrant is disqualified before the agent round, an alternate will take its place. If an entrant is disqualified after the agent round, the opposing entry will automatically advance to the next round.

So...none of this!

In order to enter the contest you MUST follow formatting guidelines, and submit during the contest window. All entries that follow those guidelines will be considered. In the event that we receive more than the available spots, Michelle, SC, and I will savagely attack the slush pile in attempts to build the best team. We will pick (and announce) three alternates in case a submission is disqualified.

Entries will be sent to:  QueryKombat (at) yahoo (dot) com

Formatting guidelines:

Font: Times New Roman, 12pt font, single-spaced with spaces between each paragraph.

Subject line of the Email: A short, unique nickname for your entry [colon] your genre (audience included). Do not skip this step or your entry will be deleted. (ex. Death Isn't So Bad: YA Magical Realism)

For the nickname, make it as unique as possible so that there are no duplicates. These will be the names used in the tournament (or an abbreviated version if it's too long) so keep it PG-13 and try to have it relate to your story in some way.

In the body of the email (with examples):

Entry Nickname: Death Isn't So Bad

Name: Mike Anthony

Email address: QueryKombat (at) yahoo (dot) com

Title: My Best Friend Death

Word count: 66K

Genre: YA Magical Realism

Query:

Damien Crown devotes his life to being his brother's superman. Like all heroes, he's locked in a deadly war with a formidable foe—his brother's depression. Instead of perishing in a climatic battle as comics suggests, he dies at the screech of tires and the blare of a car horn. But in those last precious moments, he regrets not taking off the cape and living his own life. 

But that changes when Death becomes his life-coach. 

Given a new body and one more year to live, Damien seizes the opportunity to reinvent himself. Forbidden from making contact with his old family, he know the trek will be hard, but he's happy to have a clean slate. At least, until his brother attempts suicide. 

Knowing the only way to help his brother is by breaking Death's rules, Damien finds himself stuck between who he was, and who he wants to be. With a life any kid would kill for, he has a hard choice to make—don his cape and die for his brother, or hang it up and finally live for himself.

(Only include the meat of your query. No bio. No Dear, and no sincerely. Just the good stuff. Queries may be up to 350 words, but 250 is preferred.)

First 250 words:

First 250 words. Don't include the chapter title and please, don't stop in the middle of a sentence.

Also, no indentations. Indentations are evil.

All queries submitted are FINAL. We will not edit them in any way, shape, or form. Please read, reread, and rereread your submission before you hit send. You have several weeks to polish your work. Take advantage of it. Competition will be fierce.

Because the immense amount of work ahead of us, the tournament will be hosted on three separate blogs. In order to enter the contest, you MUST following all three blogs. All three blogs will host the first round and agent round. The second round will be hosted by Michael and Michelle. The third round will be hosted by SC. The fourth round will be hosted by Michael. The fifth round will be hosted by Michelle. The final round will be hosted by SC. Have no fear, each blog will have links to all rounds so you will not get lost.

Agents and judges will be revealed soon. (As of now we have 8 agents and 8 judges!)

Questions can be left in the comments and I'll answer them as quickly as possible. As always, Query Kombat announcement call for celebration.

Hit it Poképeeps

The Journey Continues

So you know how people say self-publishing is time consuming and difficult? It is. But don't get me wrong, I'm having a blast!

I never imaging how many subjects I had to become a professional in during my journey to self-publishing. Not only that, but there are sooo many little things that are just so tedious and boring, but they must be done (Like adding tags to all my blog posts. *le sigh)

I've got about a month left before my novel, My Best Friend Death, hits Amazon, and I'm on cloud nine right now, but this next month will be hell. Not only am I working on edits and retouching my novel before a final proof, but I also have to juggle Query Kombat, which will start soon. Throw in working on my site, two jobs, and my personal life, and you can see why I'm spread thing.


Going though and accepting or rejecting edits to my novel is easy... but time consuming. My editor is amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Her edits are insightful, well researched, and clearly written. She takes the time to explain why she made specific edits, and is incredibly supportive of indie authors. She also gave me some invaluable advice. Because of the content and subject matter in my story, she recommended I add this disclaimer to my blurb on Amazon: *This book contains strong subject matter that may not be appropriate for some readers, including suicide, school violence, and teen alcohol and drug abuse.*

I would never have thought to do that, but it's brilliant. That simple sentence could save me from bad reviews by readers who don't like the subject matter.

As for the cover design... I am bouncing off the walls right now. I couldn't have imagined a better cover if I tried. She's going to get back to me early next week with a mock up including some suggests I made.

The Waiting Game

Alright! My editor is currently working on my novel. I'm psyched!

Just like with traditional publishing, you play the waiting game with self-publishing as well. Currently, I'm in a holding pattern when it comes to publishing My Best Friend Death. Without a cover design available, doing a promotional blog tour isn't a wise idea, so all I can do now is plan and do as much research as possible about marketing an promoting a self-published novel.

I take that back. Planning isn't all I can do. I'm also working on my next novel, The Thieves Guild. With a little luck (and a bit less procrastinating) I can e-pub it sometime between September and November of this year. That's my goal anyway. I'm a little under halfway done with the first draft. I hope to finish it by the time My Best Friend Death is published. Wish me luck!

Book Cover, Editors, and Friends

A lot has happened over the last two weeks. I must say that, at this point, I'm more committed to self-publishing than I was before. Why?

Monetary investment.

The beauty of publishing traditionally is that there are no expenses for the author. Editing, marketing (to a degree), book cover design, print, etc are expenses the publisher takes on. That's not the case with epublishing.

So far, I estimate I'll spend about $550 for a book cover and an editor. Cover designer costs $150 USD, and the editor costs $435 CAD (That's about $400 USD). Admittedly, I could have easily spent twice that for the same services. Easily. But I'm not made of money, and the cover designer and editor seem topnotch, with great reviews and happy clientele.

My cover designer is Annette Tremblay aka Midnight Whimsy. I found her by accident while browsing the AQC forums. I saw some of her cover designs, and read customer reviews. The designs blew me away, the reviews were icing on the cake. Her process is straightforward: you make a $50 advance payment to hold a spot, then you pay the remaining balance when you choose a concept/mock-up. Just after you pay the deposit, Annette sent a very detailed questionnaire to gain a better understanding of your story and what you're looking for in a cover.

My editor is Cynthia Shepp. I found her via Google. First thing that caught my eye was her prices. Charging $0.0065 (Max) per word is a great deal. Admittedly, I've found individuals who charge less (and more. So so so much more) but her experience and customer reviews were the reason I contacted her. I hired her because of the detail sample edit I received. Which leads me to my next bit of advice: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EDIT YOUR OWN WORK FOR PUBLICATION! YOU NEED A KEEN/EXPERIENCED SET OF EYES!

I had JUST finished a round of edits to kill time. When I got my chapter back from her, you would think it was my first draft. She makes excellent suggestions, and explains why she made those suggestions. I'm super eager to officially start working with her. She start my manuscript on April 10th, 2014. Annette starts working on my cover on April 28th.

My plan is to publish on June 8th, 2014.

The last person I want to give a shout out to is Nicole Conway, author of Fledgling. We met in the chat room on AQC. She was a previously self-published author who sold an impressive number of copies of her book. With her success, she found a publisher and an agent. I message Nicole because I wanted to know what she did differently, and how she stood out in the crowd. I expected an email interview, but she gave me her number instead.

Just speaking with her lifted my spirits. She's very personable, eager to share her experiences, and genuinely excited about telling stories. We talked for about half an hour, and though she didn't reveal any trade secrets (not that she had any to tell), she did share what she felt added to her success. She also gave me advanced knowledge of things I should prepare for, and what to do in the event of being contacted by a publisher. You can expect everything she told me and more to be shared throughout this blog series.

As always, if you have an questions or comments...

Leave them below.

In other news, I made it into the second round of the ABNA contest, and Query Kombat discussions have started. Great things to come.

A Nightmare Query Success

Success in this industry is a beautiful thing, especially when the writer shares her story. Straight from the Nightmare on Query Street contest, I'd like to introduce the wonderful Aimee Hyndman, and let her share with your her journey to success. 

I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait to read her novel. I wonder if she'll sign it for me... :o)

Aimee Hyndman
Author of Hour of Mischief

I've wanted to write a story like this for some time. Mostly because 'How I Got the Call' posts were always really inspiring to me. Every time a rejection got me down, I read a success story and I felt a little better. And I thought maybe, just maybe, I might get to write a post like this someday. 

Well, here we are, and as I sit here typing this, I am floating in surreal clouds of happiness. 

I was a sophomore in high school when I finished my first book and decided to get it published. Not that I had any knowledge of what publishing entailed. For all I knew, the magic book fairies came by and *poof* a book was made. But, just in case book fairies didn't exist, I plunged into research. I wanted to educate myself before sending my query into the great unknown. I wanted to find the best agents for me, write the best query, and have the very best book. So when I finally sent off my query, I was sure I would get a positive response. After all, I'd done everything, right? I'd done my research and it was going to pay off. 

Well, I didn't get any bites. Because no matter how much research I did, my first book really wasn't ready. It belonged to a saturated genre and the pacing wasn't where it needed to be. In the end I got two partial requests in all: one from the slush pile and one from a contest. But both partials were rejected because, honestly, the writing wasn't ready. No matter how many stories I heard about failed manuscripts from other querying writers, I never considered that mine might also fail. I thought I had done everything. I had gone through all the motions. But it didn't matter. I still needed practice. I loved my first book but in the end I set it aside, deciding to work on other projects before I took it back to the editing stage. 

I wrote HOUR OF MISCHIEF, the YA Steampunk Fantasy that would eventually be my winning manuscript, for fun in the fall of my senior year of high school. I expanded it off of a short story I had written at a writing camp and planned to expand later on. I started typing and before the month ended, the manuscript stood completed at just over 60,000 words. I edited the novel over the summer, but I hadn't really considered querying it any time soon as I wasn't sure I wanted to jump into the fray again. After all, it was my freshman year of college and I had a lot to focus on, so querying would just cause undue stress and-- 

Yeah, that lasted about two weeks. And within those two weeks I stumbled across #pitmad, a twitter pitch contest. Without giving myself much time to think about it, I cast my story to the wind. Just like that, I was back in the trenches. 

This time, I was met with different results. Agents actually requested partials and fulls, a phenomenon which I hadn't been expecting at all. I mean, HOUR OF MISCHIEF was something I wrote for fun because I liked the characters. I didn't consider the possibility of it being my winning manuscript. 

I guess that shows you what I knew. 

The surprises continued with one too-good-to-be-true event after another. I entered in the Nightmare on Query Street contest, hosted right here on this blog. Again, I expected nothing. Again I was surprised. Michelle selected me for her group of minions. The contest was better than I'd ever hoped for and I walked away with several requests. And the same weekend I got a full request from another agent with my partial. I didn't even know how to handle myself. 

I didn't know it at the time, but my road to an agent started with that weekend. As the end of the year hit and things slowed down, I tried to distract myself from the waiting game with homework and more writing. But a few agents had had my manuscript for longer than their stated response time so I figured I should nudge. I'm so glad I did. The agent who requested my full during the weekend of the contest had never gotten my email. In fact, I had email problems with this same agent, with my initial submission back in the fall. Apparently our emails didn't want her to see my MS. From the get go, this agent was super helpful and communicative. When I nudged her about the full, she told me that her email had eaten it. And, even more excitingly, that she had been thinking about my MS the other day, wondering why she rejected it. 

Wait really? Thinking about my manuscript? Really? 

I was over the moon as I resent the full MS to her and she promised to get back to me quickly. My mind flip flopped endlessly between 'maybe this is the one' and 'maybe it isn't'. A few weeks later, I woke up to an email asking to schedule a call. Perhaps THE call. I recall rolling out of my bed, crawling over to my roommate's bed and poking her until she woke up so I could scream about it with her. Then I breathed and tried to keep a level head (which worked for two seconds), and emailed back to schedule a time. Then I waited for the call, trying to convince myself that I shouldn't get my hopes up and this was probably a revise and resubmit at best. 

I was surprisingly coherent for the call. I didn't black out which I think was a good sign. Not even when she offered me representation, though I came close to swooning at that point. I certainly started belting Let it Go at the top of my lungs as soon as I hung up (As that is the only proper expression of happiness). 

In the end, this agent did up being the one. I only received one offer but several congratulatory step asides. And I was fine with that. Because my now agent, Laura Zats of Red Sofa Literary, was the perfect fit for HOUR OF MISCHIEF. 

When I look back on my querying process, I realize that ALL of my major success came from contests. Laura found me through #pitmad and most of my partial requests came from Nightmare on Query Street. I got a few bites from the slushpile but not nearly as many as I got from contests. My point is: enter in contests. They help you stand out from the pack and they help you connect with other writers. They're subjective of course (I entered into several contests with HOUR OF MISCHIEF and only got in one/ THANKS MICHELLE!) but they can really pay off. Take a risk and enter. You might find the beginning of your own success story. 

 And now what everyone wants: Query Stats- 

Books queried: 2 

Books picked up: 1 

Queries Sent: 52 (27 for first book, 25 for second book. I am not a mass querier) 

Contests Entered: 6 (2 for first book, 4 for second book)

Contests Accepted into: 2 (1 for first book, 1 for second book) 

Partial Requests: 12 (2 from first book, 10 from second book) Full Requests: 4 (0 from first book, 4 from book second book) 

Offers of Rep: 1 

Offers Accepted: 1 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Aimee picked up a pencil as soon as her toddler fingers could and started writing stories in the underappreciated language of gibberish scribbles when she was four years old. Since then, she has always known she wanted to create, and whether on stage, in video editing software or on a blank word document, she has done just that. 

Aimee is currently a freshman at Coe College, attempting a triple major in Creative Writing, English, and Film Studies because, according to friends, she is crazy. She is also an intern to the Kimberley Cameron Agency and enjoys reading the work of other aspiring writers every day. She is now, of course, represented by Laura Zats and crossing her fingers for good things in the future. 

Links: 

On Twitter: @AimeeHyndman 

On Pintrest: http://www.pinterest.com/AimeeHyndman/

Website: Kallypsowrites.blogspot.com 

By Hook Or By Ebook

As you can tell, I've changed some things.

In preparation for my self-publishing venture, I wanted to update my blog to make it brighter and more inviting. After a lot of research, I discovered that something like 70% of people preferred brighter webpages to darker ones. Trivial in the scope of epubing, I know. But every little bit counts. I think it will be interesting to see if my daily page views increase. Either way, I'll keep you posted.

For those who don't know, the title of the work I'm going to epub is My Best Friend Death. Below is a brief summary of the novel for those interested (This is also a subtle attempt at marketing, but don't tell anyone).

Damien Crown dedicates his life to being his little brother's superman. Like all superheroes, he's constantly at war with a formidable adversary: his brother's depression. Instead of going out in a climatic battle as the comics suggests, Damien dies at the screech of tires and the blare of a car horn. Sadly, it's in his last moments that he realizes he hadn't quite gotten around to taking off the cape and living his own life. 
 
But all that changes when he meets Death. 
 
Waking up in someone else's body is...odd, but having Death volunteer to be his life-coach takes the prize for the world's screwiest conundrum. Given one year to make the most of life as a new kid in his old school, Damien seizes the opportunity to shed his superhero persona and live among the ordinary. With Death guiding the way, he discovers a new side to life among a zany and lovable group of friends.  
 
At least, until his brother comes to school with bandaged wrists and bruises. 
 
Damien wants to don his cape once again, but Death warns that the laws of nature forbid him to make contact with his old family. Stuck between living his new life and fixing his old one, Damien has a choice to make: put on his cape and die for his brother, or hang it up and live for himself.

Along with my manuscript, the above pitch was entered into Amazon's ABNA contest. Self-publishing is still my plan A (because I have terrible luck with contests) so I'm going to proceed accordingly. My goal is to publish just before Query Kombat (so mid to late May). Blog traffic will be high so that means more potential readers. Genius right :o)

Back to the subject at hand:

Self-publishing takes time and money. How much time? I'm still not sure, but I clocked about twenty hours last week (I'll get into that more later). How much money? Conservative estimates: $200 for ebook cover design, $500-1000 for editorial services, and $20 for a domain name. That's all the expenses I've discovered so far. If I find more, I'll let you know.

Time: Redesigning my blog took a lot of time, a lot of trial and error, and a lot of Googling. I'm not a web designer so everything I've learned about HTML and CSS code are the product of extreme dedication. EXTREME. I spent about four hours on this blog. It may not look like it, but the few things I added (header, updated contact page and bio, social icons (I have RSS now!), larger profile image, etc) were time consuming. That doesn't even take into account the things I tried to do but failed at. My Google-fu was no match for my high hopes.

My website (which I will reveal when it's finished) took about twelve hours. Going the cheap route, I purchased a domain name and redirected it to second blog (And ho-ly shit. Redirecting is way more complicated than it needs to be).

I'm currently in the process of completely restructuring my second blog so that it resembles a regular website. Is it hard? Sort of. Is it time consuming? Yes. Is it worth it? I don't know. I think epubing is a game of luck and preparation. If I'm going to dive into this pool, I'm going to prepare as much as possible, and pray that lady luck is on my side.

More next week.

Changing Directions

I've been neglecting both Twitter and my blog as of late. Why? Because I'm neck deep in writing another novel while juggling two jobs, a family, querying, and the prospect of being the uncle of twins. TWINS!

My brother is a year-and-a-half older than me (I'm 23) and he's the first of my generation to have children. To be honest, that got me to thinking a lot about my life. Now, I still feel I'm too young to have kids, but my rationale for as long as I can remember was, as soon as I accomplish my dream of being a published novelist, I'll close my laptop and for a bit and enjoy life.

The fact is, it's easy for me to spend an entire day (or week) living in a world of my own creation. I feel felt that throwing all of myself at my dreams would be worth the moments I miss. The time that I lose.

But... it's not.

As a writer, I've sunk so much time, energy, thought, and emotion into seeking the validation of someone with the title Literary Agent. I've cried, scream, begged, and prostituted myself (not literally) with hopes that an agent would validate my talents. But none have. So...what does that mean?

NOT A DAMN THING.

You know why? Because I'm a good storyteller. I don't need an agent to validate that. With every novel I pen, I'm getting better and better. For a long time I forgot that the only two people that truly matter to me (as a writer) is myself and the reader.

That realization led me to making a decision that I never though I would make: self-publishing. I thought about it for a long long time, and it was only until recently that I realized what my true passion is. I want to tell stories. That's it. Agents, publishers, editors, query letters...all that is background noise for what I really want to do.

So, as I begin my journey to self-publishing my first novel, I'll chronicle the highs and lows on this blog for all to see. I'll chart the money, time, and energy spent to get my book publish-ready. I'll publicly celebrate my first sale, and cry when days/weeks go by without any downloads.

It's going to be a long, hard road, wrought with potholes, setback, and maybe even failure. But you know what? I'm okay with that. I really am. To clarify, I'm not giving up on traditional publishing, I'm just not putting my eggs in one basket anymore. I'm taking charge of my dreams, not passing the reins to someone else.

Wish me luck :o)

A Quick Laugh

This is how it feel to get a form rejection on a partial or full.

The Querying Process (in gif form)

When someone decides to become a novelist, no one tells them that writing the novel is actually the EASY part. Don't get me wrong, writing a full-length book is one of the hardest feats known to man. But, in the scope of the publishing process...the publishing journey, if you will...it's like taking candy from a baby.

Well, maybe not this baby.

So you've slaved over your novel for months or years--or even decades! You've worked just as long and hard on your query and synopsis. You have everything in place and all your CPs and Betas are sure your work is going to knock the socks off anyone who reads it. I mean, you have a unique plot, 3 dimensional characters, the the most epic of

Get it? Plot twists :o)

You've opened up QueryTracker in one tab, your email in another, and Absolute Write in a third tab. You're going fishing for agents and you just KNOW you're going to snag a big one. You're going to make a catch so impressive no one else is going to believe it.

You send out fifteen twenty queries because you fucking KNOW every agent's going to love your story. You aren't going to be vying for agent's attention. They're going to be vying for yours. They're going to be begging YOU to be their client. 

Two days go past and you get your first email. You wave it off. You're not going to bother reading it just yet. I mean, you know it's a full request so why bother with it. There will be more where that came from. A week passes. You've got three more responses. You know it's about time to check em out. I mean, you've kept them on the edge of their seat long enough. You've got THEM checking their inbox every five minutes. You do a little dance before heading over to your computer.

You take a gander at your inbox and browse through the email previews. The preview doesn't give you much info so you open the first email, then the second...then the third and forth. Rejections. Your heart drops. But not much because four rejections isn't enough to jar your confidence. I mean, those agents responded wwaayy too fast. They probably didn't even read your work. They were probably like...

You're a little flustered but you don't let that get you down. You wait another week. Silence. Utter Silence. Your inbox is completely naked, minus the BS gmail or yahoo sends you. You start to sweat a bit. It's not a panic because it's only been two weeks. But your writing is awesome. They should have gotten back to you by now. You go over to QueryTracker and check the comments.

Oh hell to the naw, you think. That person sent their query after yours and they already got a response. This is bull. They forgot about me. They didn't get it. They're dissing me. They didn't like my work. I'm a terrible writer. My book isn't as good as a thought. Shit.

Poor kid

No worries. You're going to go write something even better. You bury your head in you newest WIP for two weeks, not even bothering to check your email. Between work, school, writing, and your social life, looking for an agent completely slips your mind.

Until that one day...

You open up your email account and see you have eight replies. Eight. EIGHT! You're afraid to look through them. You're afraid they might be rejections like the last time. You're afraid that this novel might end up like your last one. Shelved. Collecting dust. You start to question your abilities as a writer. You're not good enough. You suck. You'll never make it. But there is that voice in the back of your head that begs to differ. You know you have what it takes. You know your idea is brilliant if someone...anyone...would just take the time of day to read it.

But you can't put this off any more. You have to open the email. You have to know...

REJECTION!

Nothing but rejection.

It's crippling. You want to cry. You want to scream. You want to voice your frustration to all the agents who rejected your work. You want to beg them to give you a chance. But you know you can't. That's unprofessional. Not only that but you know they won't look twice at you. They'd know they made the right choice, even if you know they didn't.

You file those email in your 'Rejection' folder while thinking about self-publishing. There are no gatekeepers in the world of self-publishing. Breaking into that world doesn't require the validation of someone you don't even know.

But just as you're about to close out of your email, your phone buzzes its email notification. You click refresh. The email pops up. From the preview, you read, Please send me the full of...

In the sea of rejection you've just swam out of, you think, where the hell did that come from?

No. Seriously. Where DID that come from.

You send off your manuscript and file the email in your 'Request' folder. First one! You know it's going to be a long wait. The agent is one of your top choices. You know they have a hellacious slush pile and it's going to take 6 to 8 weeks for them to get back to you.

You wait. You're a patient person. You worry. Because now you have a lot of time for that. You hope they get to chapter five because you're sure they'll be hooked from there. That's where one of your many twists occur. All they have to get to is chapter five.

Those words practically become a mantra...a prayer. Dear God, just let her read to chapter five. If she gets to chapter five I'll never ask you for anything else.

Two weeks pass. Those weeks are filled with three rejections and two partials from agents you want...but not as much as the agent who is considering your full. You're unsure what to think. You wonder if you truly are good enough to make it in such a competitive field. The question presses on your mind night and day. The moment you gain even a morsel of confidence, you find an error in your story. You become confident that the agent is going to reject your work because of that one, STUPID mistake. 

You lose hope. 

You break down.

You want to cry, but you refuse to allow yourself tears. You stone your heart and you get back to working on your WIP.

Just as you're finishing up the fifth chapter, your phone rings. It's a 212 number. Probably a bill collector. You don't answer it. It rings again. Same number. Geez, these bastards are persistent. 

You: Hello.

Agent: Hi. This is Awesome Agent from Awesome Agent Literary. Is Awesome Writer around?

It's the agent who requested your full. HOLY SHIT.

Agent: I read you novel and I loved it. I especially loved the twist at chapter five. I was hooked before, but that hooked me even more. I'd like to offer you representation.

And that is the moment you become a Pokemon trainer.

Ash catches the legendary AWESOME AGENT!

The truth: This post could have ended in tears and depression. The agent who has your full could have left you with a form rejection, and the two partials you have out could have ended with no response. The road to publication is not for the feint or weak of heart. You will questions yourself, you'll want to quit, you'll be driven to the point of making a rash decision (vanity press or an extortionate agents) just to feel like you've made it.

You have to be strong enough to fight against those feelings. You have to be strong enough to persevere.

 I wish every journey could end in success and happiness, but the fact is, many don't. If you take the first steps of this long long journey, you have to be okay with never reaching the end.

You have to be.

Natasha's Interview with Pooja Menon

As promised. This is the One on One interview that should have happened on the blog. As you know (and if you don't, check previous post) the interview had a few issues so was conducted over the phone. This is the transcript of the conversation between Natasha, winner of the One on One contest, and Pooja Menon, agent at Kimberley Cameron and Associates.

What are key attributes you like to see in a query that compel you to make a request for additional pages?

It should be one page. When I read the first paragraph, it should introduce me to the name of the book, the word count, the genre, and any themes you think I should know about up front. You should state why you think the agent you sent it to would be a good fit for this particular book.

Then, I look at the pitch and the bio. What makes me want to read more, is if it’s organized, that’s the most important thing, then I can find out all the pertinent information right up front. The pitch should be tight. Sometimes, people get creative and they ask a series of questions. That’s a huge no-no. Stick to the traditional format.

It’s good to have comparison titles, where you think if people enjoyed that book, they might enjoy your book, as well. For example, you share some themes or issues your antagonist deals with… This is important because when we pitch to editors, we have to give them comp titles so they can decide how they can market the book. And who knows comp titles better than the author who wrote the book?

You’re [MARKED] pitch right now is great, but if you have to include your bio it gets a little long. So, that’s something you need to work into compressing into one paragraph. You can end it on a little bit of a mysterious note.

If the query is good, we want to see the pages. If it’s not done well, agents wonder how well the pages will be done.

Your bio mentioned that in fiction, you’re currently looking for mystery/thrillers and YA fantasy. Can you tell us a little more about what you look for in those genres?

A good story. Crime issues and thrillers that’s done well, a fresh spin on what’s already out. Something intelligent and smart for adult mysteries and thrillers.

In YA, I’m open to all kinds of mystery and thrillers, as long as they are different. The same thing applies to YA fantasy. I see a lot of the queen/princess of a kingdom has to escape and do something to save her kingdom, she meets up with a prince… It’s a very common theme that I see a lot of. I’m looking for unique concepts.

I open to all kinds of fiction as long as they are different, they are unique, and they have a different plot line that I haven’t read before.

Are agents open to authors who have already pursued the indie route?

That’s a smart question. There’s no harm in going the indie route, as long as they’re not trying to get an agent for the indie book. If it’s an independent book by a small, reputable publisher, then agents are open to it.

Agents are open to negotiating contracts. However, there are a lot of small publishers no one has heard of, and sometimes writers come to agents because they have an offer for which they want an agent to negotiate the contract. Sometimes, we’ve never heard of the publisher, we don’t know how they market books and we don’t know how they work, so we have to be careful about it.

Publishing companies like Spencer Hill Press or Entangled are places most agents are aware of, so it would be fine. 

If you’ve already published an indie book, and you’re submitting a different query, it shouldn’t impact your present manuscript. 

With the rise of indie publishing, what do you see as the agent’s role in 2014?

The thing about indie publishing is that there are people who don’t do decent contracts, who don’t give you advances, who make you do most of the marketing. It’s important to pay attention to the details, the terms of the contract. You also have to keep in mind how well previous books have sold.

Most writers like to focus on writing books, and they find the whole social media and the business aspects to be very tedious. What we do as agents for our clients, is help the find strategies for social media, marketing their book, along with polishing their book to go on submission, we take a look at the contract…

Pretty much, instead of you spending 50% of their time trying to figure out things outside of writing, you have an agent who knows the business. Even with the rise of eBooks, you have agents negotiating eBook contracts, hard cover print contracts…

Self-published authors even come to agents and say, “Hey I published my book, it’s not taking off as much as I want, and now I want to go down the traditional route. Can you help me?”

Agents are still going to be a necessary part of publishing.

What do you want potential clients to know about you as a potential agent?

The most important thing for me is to have the same vision. If I want to take the book in a different direction and you don’t agree about it, that’s a relationship that’s going to be contentious as we move forward. For me, it’s always important for the author to know right up front what I have in mind, so we are on the same page. My way of working is like a 50/50 partnership; we brainstorm ideas and marketing, so client’s need to be open to the vision. Critiques are not easy to hear, but they are important.

I’m looking for clients who are open to working together, willing to brainstorm new ideas, communicative, and willing to put in the work. Authors should talk to me about their issues or concerns, if they have them.

It’s important for clients to have a realistic view of the industry and the timeframe agents work with, have patience. Things take time.

I’ve heard it mentioned that an author has other completed material in a query can put unintentional stress on an agent. When is the best time to mention other completed works?

That’s a question for a phone call or follow up emails. Mention that this is your debut novel or whether you’re published by an indie publisher. If an agent likes your work, she will ask you what kind of other books you write.

An agency looking for author relationships with a client is looking to build together.

Which do you prefer, a story that’s well-written or easily marketable?

First and foremost, is a story that’s well-written. You don’t have to write to market trends, but you do need to read widely and see what’s been done to the point it’s becomes no longer marketable. For example, people still like reading dystopian fiction, and writing dystopian. Unless the book is really different, editors aren’t looking for it anymore, unless I can bring something new to the table.

Writers should know what’s been overdone.

What qualities do you think an author needs to succeed?

Patience. A thick skin, this is a tough industry. You need to be positive, willing to re-work things. Authors need to keep writing, keep confidence that something is going to happen, keep learning about the industry, go to conferences, read widely, do critique workshops, be tenacious, stay positive.

 What advice do you have for unpublished authors?

Join a critique group. That’s really important. Always get your work critiqued by other people.

Get short stories out to as many places as you can, get as many credits as you can. It’s not mandatory, but it’s nice to see. Start with small magazines and anthologies, and then aim for the big ones.

Writing short stories is a good exercise because you have to economize your words.

Okay, now it’s time for some fun questions. Have you ever met a celebrity?

Not face to face. I saw Julian Moore and the Grumpy Cat at a book signing event.

What is your favorite food?

I love food, all kinds. I like Ethiopian food, Japanese food, and Indian. I eat everything.

What’s the last movie you watched?

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.

If you could eliminate one thing from your daily schedule, what would it be and why?

Someone who could help me go through my slush pile…. Otherwise, my schedule is just fine. Perhaps, more free time. 

Name something beautiful you’ve seen in nature.

I like the whole autumn thing. Where I come from in Dubai, you don’t really have different seasons. That’s something about nature that I love, especially the autumn season. It’s something I never had growing up.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

We have some Turkish friends who took us to this restaurant and mixed this dish with vinegar and chili. They told me to eat it. I asked them, “What am I eating?” and they said if I knew, I wouldn’t eat it. After I finished the soup, I told them it was delicious. It was sheep’s brain. But it was delicious, as long as I didn’t know it. That was the most recent weird thing I’ve had.

Thank you very much for taking the time to talk with me today. I really enjoyed our conversation.

This was absolutely fun for me. Great questions, by the way.

About The Agent

Pooja Menon joined Kimberley Cameron & Associates as an intern in the fall of 2011, with the aim of immersing herself in the elusive world of books and publishing. She soon realized that being an agent was what she was most drawn to as the job was varied and challenging. She represents both fiction and non-fiction for Adult and YA markets.

Find more here.

Once again, congrats to Natasha, and good luck on your partial request.

One on One Interview with Pooja Menon

Edit: So everyone is probably wondering what happened with the agent interview. Well, it's kind of a funny story. Pooja lives on the West Coast while Natasha and I live on the East Coast. Between Pooja and I, neither of us thought to bring up the little issue of time zones. Noon here is 9am there. 

So, I finally got in touch with her when she was on her way to the office. Being the awesome person she is, Pooja was going to do the interview at 12:30pm EST (9:30am her time) BUT Natasha was driving somewhere and I couldn't get it touch with her. On top of that, Pooja couldn't seem to leave a comment on my blog so even if everyone showed on time, things would have still been chaotic. 

To remedy the situation, Pooja offered to do the interview over the phone. After dozens of emails (with me acting as the middle man) the interview finally happened over the phone. Natasha recorded it and is transcribing it now. She'll send me the transcription and I will post it on the blog for all to read.

Now, on a personal note, I want to say how utterly awesome both Pooja and Natasha were during this entire ordeal. I've had several dealings with Pooja (through contests) and every time we've worked together I am left stunned how nice, friendly, willing, and approachable she's been. She truly is a class act.

Natasha. Things got a little crazy for a while. Thank you for keeping your head and being amazing about the technical and non-technical difficulties we faced. I'm glad everything worked out. Good luck with your request!

Entrants, check you email. Pooja made some requests. 

Natasha and Pooja, please conduct your one on one time in the comments section of this post. If you have any questions for me, don't hesitate to ask.

Good luck!

Winning Query:

Dear Pooja Menon:

Lexi Ripley doesn’t do bloodshed. She’s co-president of her high school PAW Club, loves all things animal, and hates anything that brings people or creatures harm. When the family secret turns out to be a heritage of monster slaying, her birthright goes against her beliefs.

Her family’s legacy was forged centuries ago, when the Brotherhood swore to defend mankind from rogue paranormals. From that moment, sons of the eight bloodlines have answered the call with pride. Now, with the death of her Uncle Lucas, a daughter is Marked. It’s unprecedented and unacceptable. She’s not the chosen one; she’s an accident.

Lexi is plagued by visions of bloody battles, despairing dreams of loves lost, and stuck with a few jerks who refuse to take the “No Girls Allowed” sign off the entrance to their secret hideout. Worse, she senses danger watching, looming in wait, but the warriors won’t listen to her. The Brotherhood’s patriarchal practices may deem her unworthy, but this…thing, whatever it is, doesn’t care about their judgments. It’s closing in, and with it, the evil that killed her predecessor.

MARKED, a YA urban fantasy with series potential, is complete at 70,000.

Winner of the One on One Contest

With 6 votes, the winner of the One on One contest is... (drum-roll) NATASHA for her magnificent query for an even grander story, MARKED! Congrats, Natasha. You are the winner of a one on one interview with with the wonderful Pooja Menon of Kimberley Cameron and Associates.

As a reminder, the interview will take place on Friday, January 17th at noon (EST). The interview will be on this blog using the comments section of a special blog post.  It will be the first post and clearly marked so their is no confusion.

Good luck and once again, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Our Perspective (The QK Crew)

The last three years have been pretty amazing. Michelle, SC, and I have helped so many writers achieve their dreams, and that alone makes everything we do worth it. QK and NoQS have grown to be so much bigger than we ever expected, and I'd like to thank the writing community for that.

I'd also like to apologize.

As most of you know, SC is no longer a member of The QK Crew. I thought the diplomatic and professional thing to do was to stay silent. But you can't really do that in a community, and I'm sorry for trying.

The decision to part ways with SC wasn't made lightly, and I don't think I can stress that enough. I didn't just discuss it with Michelle, I sought the opinion of complete, unbiased strangers (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3gskyk/does_lack_of_diversity_in_any_given_industry/). Why? Because I'm not arrogant enough to think my way of thinking is always right.

I have a few issue with the campaign, one being the use of the word 'racist', and the fact that it's being used without evidence. If you read my conversation with SC over twitter (August 11th), you'll see exactly where we disagree. He feels it's okay to call an industry racist without indisputable evidence (https://twitter.com/SC_Author/status/631157498058309632). I don't. I think it's mean and inconsiderate to the people who work in the industry (and who have donated their time to helping us with the contests). SC believes that a system can be racist, even if the people that comprise the system aren't (https://twitter.com/SC_Author/status/631147467405434880). I believe that a system can ONLY be racist if individuals within the system are acting on racist impulses. Lastly, I don't believe anger fixes anything. I think it makes things worse.  SC disagrees(https://twitter.com/SC_Author/status/630486476183203840).

As you can see, most of the tweets referenced above are recent, yet I  knew about the #WriteInclusively Campaign during QK2015. In fact, Michelle and I gave the go ahead for SC to use the #WriteInclusively campaign as a submission requirement for Query Kombat. Why? Because we believed in what he was doing, and we felt QK would be an excellent platform. As The QK Crew, we endorsed the #WriteInclusively campaign by partnering during QK2015.

Since then, Michelle and I feel like the tone of the campaign has darkened. On August 11th, Michelle brought her concerns to my attention. She, as well as others, were hurt by some of the things SC was tweeting. I decided to talk to him to get his point of view. During our discussion (both over twitter and via email) I asked him to consider creating another account for his campaign. Why? Because people who feel hurt by his accusations still need to read through his tweets to get pertinent contest info. Do you see our predicament?

The email I wrote to SC took a long time to write. I started and stopped a few dozen times because it was one of the hardest emails I've ever written. I DID say that "his passion for the Write Inclusively campaign may be unsettling or uncomfortable for people who don't write from the POV of ethnic characters, or who don't portray ethnic characters as 'honestly' as you would like." 'Passion' is the operative word, but SC interpreted it as us siding with racist white people. We're not. Michelle and I WANT more diversity. What we don't want is for writers/agent/editors/publishers to feel attacked because they don't consciously tackle racial issues in their work. I don't want agents to feel attacked because their agency is comprised mostly of white people. And I don't want to accuse the industry that makes our contests possible without evidence.

There is a need for diversity in the publishing industry, but I don't feel the lack of it is due to racism or oppression (http://careers.penguinrandomhouse.com/ Check out the image on that page.). I think  the stigma of little to no money in publishing drives the lack of diversity. Instead of shaking our fist and calling the industry racist, I think we should work with the industry to disprove negative statistics, and help advertise them to minorities in high school and college. The fact is, creativity is lacking in the education system (http://www.businessinsider.com/a-ted-talk-on-how-the-education-systen-is-killing-creativity-2013-1) and until we fix THAT (the foundation, IMO) we have little chance of making a lasting change.

I agree with SC's vision. I don't agree with his conclusion, and I don't think it meshes well with the spirit of our contests. Since SC post (http://scwrite.blogspot.com/2015/08/a-query-kombat-noqs-announcement.html), I've cut all communication with him. After the laughing, joking, and good times we've had over the years, to even imply that I'm racist because I don't agree with his conclusions is utter ridiculous. I never said he was wrong. Never once. I simply asked for evidence/testimony. I side with facts, and SC doesn't have them. Only when it is proven that the publishing industry has a track record of turning away qualified applicants of color will I accuse it of racism. To do so at any moment beforehand is shortsighted and hurtful.

One on One Voting Instructions.

Edit: Please vote in the comments section of the particular query you are voting for. Sorry about the confusion.

The top ten have been chosen! Now, it's up to the ten of you to choose who will be numero uno.

Each of you have a total of THREE votes. You can spend them in anyway you wish, but you CAN NOT vote for yourself. If there are any ties, I will cast the tiebreaker. All votes must be in by noon on January 14th. Good luck!

I wonder who will win...

Edit: If I made a mistake on your entry, let me know A-SAP.

Satellite Hearts (One on One Contest)

Query:

Dear Pooja Menon:

Sixteen-year-old Zahra Mbali has 150 days until her preprogrammed body explodes.

Zahra’s country, Botswana, is populated by programmable humans. She’s different; she is a treasured soldier, one designed to kill. Considered valuable military weaponry, the government relocates her to a boarding school in South Africa to train her as their soldier; one that kills programmed humans incompliant to the system. But the system is unaware of her timed detonation and its malware effect.

Unbeknownst to her society, her world is a computer program designed by her father and run by a government agent. A system administrator is constantly tweaking their subroutines, and no one knows of life outside the program, and if they have a physical body. Feeling betrayed, Zahra’s desperate to uncover why the father she loved deceived her and made her a monster. Her only way out is to discover the secret memories her father deleted from her and to reprogram her body to stop her timed explosion. But tampering with her biological technology is risky.

One mistake could end her life but Zahra wants to live…outside the program.

SATELLITE HEARTS, a YA sci-fi, thriller, is a multicultural novel complete at 98,000 words. It can be described as The Matrix meets Debra Driza’s Mila 2.0.