Success and Support and Success

Friends and Critique Partners doing well while you're still pestering agents' inboxes? 

 This is me--trying to get some 'inbox' love'n...

If you're not feeling the momentum to wonderful things, don't panic or feel left out.

                       

Continue to surround yourself with good friends, reaching for success, and apply examples of how they are achieving their goals.

Seriously? Taylor Swift and Lorde are pals. Pretty good example that I'm right about this point.

How do WE, the rest of us non-Taylor Swift pals (at least outside of our imaginations and charity connections) achieve this?
Luck?
No. Work.

I've compiled an easy to follow list.

Some things I've gleaned from wonderful friends and fantastic writers

(in no particular order):

Never stop trying

 

Agents aren't going to chase you down and offer representation if you quit.

This includes always seeking opportunities to improve, grow, stretch, and risk. It's difficult and scary. Join the #TalkFear thread hosted by the lovely @Rock_andor_roll to voice the things that try to hold us back in life, but are not permitted to rule ;)

REVISE

You knew it was coming.
You can't improve without revision.
It's painful and tedious and absolutely required.

Seek a variety of methods to both query, pitch, submit, and learn

Pretend that says: And then he found the Perfect Agent

 

Be active on social media, blogs, and conferences in order to learn and grow, and let other's get to know how awesome you are

Be true to who you are and represent yourself as honestly and positively as possible.
Don't troll it up.
Don't be a pest, hound, or creepy shadow.
Be the butterfly that is most true
Personally, I lean toward #AwkwardButterfly in an endearing way

 

Don't let rejections define your talent

Harsh.
But, you wrote a whole book.
Now all you have to do is make that product marketable and you're golden!
Let's face it. This one's hard to do.

 

Continue to find joy in the success of those around you

(this is common-sense-karma so they can also celebrate with you when the happy news of agent representation or a book deal knocks at your inbox)

It's okay to feel deflated in the process (and evidence you're a human with emotions)

don't stay there.  

I know this from personal experience-the deflation is real.
The picking ourselves back up is real too

Being a writer is not easy.

Enjoy the process and the friends you make along the way.

WriteTip: Query Smarter

Query anxiety should be a DSMVI listed phobia.

I spent days working-reworking; checking, double-checking my files needed to send off submission requests received after a pitch contest.

I mean, I had one foot in the door- my pitch did well enough to garner agents interest and they asked me to send my query, synopsis , and additional sample pages.
Happy Dance, Right?

Except Moronic-oversight never rests--especially when I'm anxious. My chances of doing something stupid rise tenfold.

The synopsis had me most concerned, since I struggle with that document, which is a step-by-step guide on the major events throughout the book. It let's the agents know what will happen, if the story arc is interesting and if you know how to close the dang thing satisfying enough for readers.

What I hadn't anticipated, was file corruption when working from a document. And it wasn't my synopsis- it was the actual query section--the first item in the email--the thing that says "I'm either a competent writer you can trust, or a total moron."

My query file looked perfect, when I copied and pasted it in the body of the email, because no one wants to open mystery attachments in emails anymore--virus/malware candy, but as soon as I hit send the document added shadow files from the file I had worked from in order to develop and spruce my query letter.

I didn't even know it. Until, later, out of writer-anxiety to make sure I sent files to the correct email accounts, I noticed something odd. My parenthesis marks indicating areas I needed to add for my query, which I only use when developing a document. Inside the parenthesis says, (personalize for agent).
Seriously.
How much dufus-ier can it get?
Much.
It duplicated the shadow files multiple times in the sent emails.

So the first thing any agent I sent the query to  sees, after the actual query I intended to send,  is impersonalized notes about needing to address and personalize my document--repeated two to three times.

Good first impression. I was mortified to say the least.

First I panicked and assumed my writing career was over, because obviously I'm a dufus. Who wants to sign a dufus? I don't--and I'm not even an agent.
Completely embarrassed and highly apologetic I sent an email stating my error and apologizing for sending a confusing and unprofessional submission.
I heard back from two of the agents, who were so kind and reassuring- informing me that human error happens, and computer error likes to jump on board wherever it can.

I wanted to jump through the screen and hug these agents, because I was truly in despair over this error.

I also learned a valuable tip. Here it is:
When copying and pasting files to the body of an email send a test copy to your own email address first to check how it's translating once sent through the internet. Or have a good buddy willing to receive your tester submission to check the files- do this at least once for each file you are copying to the body of an email.

Believe me. This is a good tip.

Dignity is something I gave up on in third grade when I ran into a tetherball pole during a recess game of freeze-tag, knocking out my front tooth and bloodying my entire face in the process.

It was my twelve embarrassing occurrence in my elementary experience and I realized it was best to stop holding myself to a dignified standard.
My nature opposed such things.

Basically, I'm Elaine Benes of Seinfeld.



Learn from me:
Send a dummy version of submissions to yourself. There's no harm in checking how your submission looks once it's been sent. And it's a whole lot less horrifying than realizing you sent something riddled with shadow file duplicates.

Write Smart--or if you're like me, Just Write On.