Writing is a gamble

 And I'll tell you why.

Every agent and publisher is looking for the next big thing.  Except...what is it?  Nobody knows.  Timing in publishing is every role of the dice taken.  No one can predict the next big thing, but when it hits, OH MAN!  Suddenly every book takes place in the woods in the pacific northwest with dead bodies and a psychic.  Or every romance has a vampire.  Every summer read is about three sisters unfolding their past.  Every teen book is a dystopian novel.  And then the tide recedes, and every writer who tries to hook an agent with any of the above?  The market is saturated.  😖

OR...You wrote one of these perfect books two or three years earlier only to find no one remotely wanted a full, much less to represent.  

Timing.

The other issue with writing is finding your babies a home.  A lot of the established agents are still out there with their homes in New York.  Brilliant.  And quite a few of them are closed to queries until a referral or meeting at a conference.  

Those of us who haven't queried in a minute (years) now Google to look around and see what we can find.  I recommend QueryManager.  There is no charge, and you can query agents by genre.  If they use QueryManager, it will keep track for you next to the agent.  Love this.

There is also: Association of American Literary Agents.  You may separate by genre, also.

I dipped back into my Twitter even though I loathe the owner.  You can follow agents and support fellow writers there.  There's been a decrease in numbers since change in ownership.  Still waiting to see if the ship rights itself.  But also, I found mention of a publishing house I may be able to directly query.  I had never heard of it before.

There's no way in this life or any other I can keep up with all of social media and its many arms and mouths.  But I try to stop in and say "HI!" and check on people.  See how everyone is doing.  Celebrate.  Commiserate.  

Going to the "Sixth Annual Holiday Party" for the Manuscript Academy this evening via computer.  Never been to one.  But merriment and fun are promised.  And in the writing world?  That's a win.

Always writing*

...and rolling those dice  

Puzzle Pieces

When I write, I have a "click" when I'm going in the right direction.  I hear it in my head.  Pieces have to fit juuuuuussssstttttt so.  No problem.  But that goes with a lot of other things in my life.  It's mostly intuition.  A quiet sense of knowing exactly what I should be doing.  And it's comforting.

I've finished a couple of works since the beginning of the year, and I'm looking at agents and publishers.  And they're looking at me.  A decade ago, you might receive an incredibly brisk dismissal and that was the end.  The agents now seem to be kinder and gentler.  I thank social media for some of that.  Word gets around quickly.

Some of the rejections are simply that the agent didn't feel strongly enough, and I respect that.  I don't want anyone half-assed representing my work.  I don't.  No one else is going to, either.  It's a partnership.

I've gone on agent sites where I didn't like the font and immediately crossed them off.  Didn't like some of the layout or colors with other ones.  Too utilitarian.  Several little things that I could not see myself working with. 

But I have hope that there will be a fit.  Pretty little puzzle pieces connecting in my writing journey.  Because I won't stop until I have that.  And if it means self-publishing, I've done it.  And I enjoy it.  It's not like that's a threat.  It's simply another direction.

I'll continue to produce my work while trying to find someone to help distribute.  That'll never cease.  My heart and soul require the writing.  And isn't that the best?

Always writing*