Old People Writing for Teens, IV

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Kewii

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Hey guys!

Congrats to everyone on babies, books, and requests and condolences to those who are sick or hiding under the covers to avoid the apocalypse. :D

I had a good writing day. I started a new project, even though I haven't outlined it and haven't finished the revisions on Magic Wanted. I think, for the time being, I need to give up on Magic Wanted. I just don't know if I can fix it up to a good standard and I'm so much more excited about other things I've written. Anyone else ever have this happen?

How do you know when to trunk a novel?

And now I have to go back to school. It's Back to School night where parents get to give the third degree meet the teachers for the year! If only any of them ever came to see me ;)
 

Nicole River

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@casualrungal: About half the time rejections have absolutely nothing to do with either your query or your MS. It's called the slush pile for a reason, and i doubt many agents actually enjoy going through it most days. :) So maybe they were in a bad mood, or tired and wanted to just go home already. Or the previous query was so infuriating they auto-rejected the following five.... or your MC has the same name as their evil ex. We'll never know and dwelling on it is pointless.

In general news and updates...
I've had one of those 6K days. Bliss. And a really sweet rejection on a full (yes I'm happy about a rejection... the reason she passed was highly subjective as the agent herself said, and besides that she complimented my ideas and my writing in a way that just made me go *squee*. I think that's supposed to be one of the signs that you're getting closer to the YES? *hopes*) followed by an even sweeter request. So not giving up just yet.
The fantasy WIP is nearing 60k. And a new project materialized in my head out of nowhere, and I'm totally in love with it.
So yeah I had worse weeks... now let's hope I don't jinx myself and accidentally bring an avalanche of rejections upon my head.
 
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wampuscat

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Hey everyone! Question for all you experienced queriers:

Here's my situation (and I understand if you ignore it, because I've been a sporadic poster here, at best). I've sent out about 25 queries, received 6 form rejects, 2 full requests, and the rest are non-responders (it's been 2 1/2 weeks). I'm just wondering, at what point do I retool my query? Should I wait till I send out 30 queries and then see if I have a 10% response rate? Stop now and retool?

Thanks for any advice you can offer!

I'm a sporadic poster here too (Can't keep up with this thread. Not enough time at the dayjob. :() and an inexperienced querier, but I'd wait out the 6-8 weeks for other responses to the current query before deciding (unless there's already something about the current query that you don't like/think needs to improve). But when you say "non-responders" do you mean the agents haven't responded yet or the agents are known to not respond at all?
 

parumpdragon

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I just saw on Twitter that it's PIRATE DAY!!!

mini-graphics-miscellaneous-059920.gif


ARRG and good morning to ya all - again ;)
 

cscarlet

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Well good morning to you, PD!

...You scallywag. ;)

Regarding CR's post: Agreed 2.5 weeks just isn't long enough to judge. That said, do you think if you retooled your query that it could be better? I don't ever see a problem with that. Even if you have a good response rate, if you really think you can make your query better... do it. The problem comes when you have a good query and you over work it. That's what you want to avoid.

Just my opinion.
 

casualrungal

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Wow, Nicole - 6,000 words in a day??!!! That's crazy good.

Wampuscat - I looked into some of the agents who have yet to respond and some of them can take up to a month to respond to queries, so I guess the jury's still out on those.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I personally like my query, but it got a lot of flack in QLH. I ended up sticking with one of my revisions, though, because I thought it was good and I'd gotten some positive feedback on another site. Then when I got my first request for a full, I decided to go full steam ahead... questioning that decision a bit now. I still have another 5 queries to send out before I make it to 30, though. In the meantime, I'm working on some new projects that are more for me than anything else, but that's good, too :)
 

Windcutter

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I think the majority of replies I got were within the first three weeks. Then it became a slow trickle. It seems a lot of agents work faster now (and maybe reject more because of it, heh). I'd retool it after a month. Though I can't call myself a really experienced querier yet.
 

parumpdragon

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I once got a rejection letter that came 8 months after I sent the query!
 

Windcutter

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I had one about six months later, but still, despite what many people said about interactions taking a looong time, I'd say 80% percent of interactions of all kinds happened within 3 months. The "thickest", most intense point was at about 2 to 5 weeks.

Also, I need to stop obsessing over big projects. I mean other people's published ones. I'm an analyst by trade, so taking something apart and picking at it to find out how it operates is sort of natural. Yet it stifles creativity.
 

mellymel

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Where is Kansas? I need my fix on backwoods sarcastic humor!!!!!!
 

Nicole River

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I had one about six months later, but still, despite what many people said about interactions taking a looong time, I'd say 80% percent of interactions of all kinds happened within 3 months. The "thickest", most intense point was at about 2 to 5 weeks.

This. And acceptances always seem to arrive fastest... if they're waiting two months to get back to you, it's not because they're so excited about your query :/
 

Windcutter

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This. And acceptances always seem to arrive fastest... if they're waiting two months to get back to you, it's not because they're so excited about your query :/
This, too.
Here's the time pattern for my full requests (approximately): 10 days, 2 days, 2 weeks, 1 day, 3 weeks.
Though I only actively really queried one ms by now. And it's ultimately a failure.
 

Nicole River

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This, too.
Here's the time pattern for my full requests (approximately): 10 days, 2 days, 2 weeks, 1 day, 3 weeks.

Yeah. Most of mine came within the week. Which makes me not feel good about the batch of queries I emailed in early September :p
 

Emmet Cameron

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I had a good writing day. I started a new project, even though I haven't outlined it and haven't finished the revisions on Magic Wanted. I think, for the time being, I need to give up on Magic Wanted. I just don't know if I can fix it up to a good standard and I'm so much more excited about other things I've written. Anyone else ever have this happen?

How do you know when to trunk a novel?

Ack, I have no advice, only parallel agony. I've been in the same boat for the past six months, at least. This was me...and now I live alone so I don't even have anybody to keep track of my fickle declarations. Part of me keeps hanging onto this manuscript because it's so reassuringly existent (in fact, about 5000 words too much so), whereas the others are still just scraps and pins.

On the other hand, if I abandon this project, the terrorists win, right?
 

parumpdragon

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Kewii
I had a good writing day. I started a new project, even though I haven't outlined it and haven't finished the revisions on Magic Wanted. I think, for the time being, I need to give up on Magic Wanted. I just don't know if I can fix it up to a good standard and I'm so much more excited about other things I've written. Anyone else ever have this happen?

How do you know when to trunk a novel?

Ack, I have no advice, only parallel agony. ... Part of me keeps hanging onto this manuscript because it's so reassuringly existent (in fact, about 5000 words too much so), whereas the others are still just scraps and pins.

On the other hand, if I abandon this project, the terrorists win, right?


Okay, here's my experience with my 'first book' ever finished. ...

I subbed it to agents, they loved the query, but not the book. After 87 rejections I trunked it, because there was no one 'agent-wise' left to send to.

I wrote another 2 novels as continuations, in hopes that one of them would get picked up, and then the first book would be viable again.

I subbed one of these 'sequels' to agents. No one wanted it. So I trunked it too, after 50 some rejections.

The novels sat on a shelf for about 4 yrs.

Then, over Christmas, I rewrote the first 'sequel'. It was good. Shorter and cleaner, and I just had to try again. So I sent it to agents. No one wanted it [again] and I was going to shelve it [again], when a representative of an e-publisher asked to see the novel.

They accepted the manuscript for publication. They asked if I had other books in the series. *grins*

So, even when you think something is dead and done - it might not be. You might not get it out there in the exact form/words you started it in, but it can get resurrected. Make no mistake about that ;)

*Hope that answers your question and gives you some encouragement, cause ya never know what might happen :)
 

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Arrr, it be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I guess what I'm saying is, if you do reboot your query, don't take too long. ;)
This is interesting, and I never thought about it that way. Most of my successful querying hasn't taken place at the end of the year, but I've done a lot of querying in November and December that have had less-than-stellar results. Not saying that my query was amazing then or maybe the concepts weren't as great, but maybe it was poor timing.

Unfortunately, here I am on hold for TM querying, and I'll prolly be ready again in winter.

Srsly, the best thing you can do to stop thinking about it and going crazy is start working on your next novel. And try to resist the urge to check your inbox 7,482 times a day (like I always do ;))
Sometimes querying can make it impossible for me to work on a novel because I'm so impatient about e-mail that I constantly want to refresh. Since gmail automatically checks and so does my phone, this means I refresh AW a lot instead.

I was doing my usual e-mail obsession because of querying TM and the IaPT sub (which reminds me, I need to nudge on that), but then I got the LSG idea and the R&R and those two things really helped push e-mail from my mind. In fact, because I'm more in a maybe-I'll-get-a-request phase than a maybe-I'll-get-an-offer phase, mentally, I'm kinda relieved not to be getting requests until I finish this R&R and decide what to do with the novel. Anyway, the point is that thinking about new stuff really helped calm me down.

This. And acceptances always seem to arrive fastest... if they're waiting two months to get back to you, it's not because they're so excited about your query :/
This actually isn't true. If you're waiting months, it has nothing to do with their excitement over your query, it only has to do with timing and how fast the agent is going through her inbox. Think of it this way: she can only be excited or not excited about your query if she reads it. And once she's read it, it's time for a response. I think it feels like the requests come early compared to the rejections is for two reasons. Non-responders might read all their queries on the day you send, and a request would come right away, but you wouldn't know if it's a rejection for months. And also the agents who have a humongous backlog could be less likely to request (if they're that behind on the queries, why would they add to their workload unless they really truly loved it?).

Yes, your query might pop into their inbox and they might see a line from it, depending on how their e-mail is set up, or the title might intrigue them, so you can catch their interest and jump the line with timing and luck, but I doubt an agent reads a query, decides to reject it, and then sits on it for months.
 

Nicole River

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Arrr, it be Talk Like a Pirate Day!

This actually isn't true. If you're waiting months, it has nothing to do with their excitement over your query, it only has to do with timing and how fast the agent is going through her inbox. Think of it this way: she can only be excited or not excited about your query if she reads it. And once she's read it, it's time for a response. I think it feels like the requests come early compared to the rejections is for two reasons. Non-responders might read all their queries on the day you send, and a request would come right away, but you wouldn't know if it's a rejection for months. And also the agents who have a humongous backlog could be less likely to request (if they're that behind on the queries, why would they add to their workload unless they really truly loved it?).

Yes, your query might pop into their inbox and they might see a line from it, depending on how their e-mail is set up, or the title might intrigue them, so you can catch their interest and jump the line with timing and luck, but I doubt an agent reads a query, decides to reject it, and then sits on it for months.

Good point, good point! And then there's that mythical place called the Maybe Pile where I myself have resided at least twice (that I know of, because of a personalized R).

And I also completely agree with you about needing another project to distract you from checking the inbox 7,345 times a day. (In fact I checked it twice while I was writing this post, thanks to auto-refreshing Gmail. Pathetic, huh?) It took so damn long for me to find the next big project because I just couldn't get into anything while my creative mind was still invested in the old WIP.

And parumpdragon, you give us all hope! I wish you the best of luck with the series. :)
 

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It took so damn long for me to find the next big project because I just couldn't get into anything while my creative mind was still invested in the old WIP.
Yeah, I usually have this problem too. I tend to have long breaks between working on novels. On one hand it's nice because it gives me time to revise and beta and revise and work on the QL and research agents all before I throw myself into a SNI. But on the other, then I start querying, and I'm still not ready to work on something. Usually. (And even now, I'm not writing, just researching)
 

Smiley0501

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So I'm almost done with Grey's Anatomy season 1. yeah I know, late to the party...but I love it ;)

I am really afraid of opening these chapter-by-chapter notes. It's from the beta who suggested the total rewrite. O_O :crazy:
 

Sage

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Smiley, sometimes readers think that a problem they're having requires a full rewrite, and when you see the details of the problem, you find out that it's a much smaller or different fix than the reader suggested.
 
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