Dear Author Dearest

Dear Author Dearest...

“I’m an aspiring author. I’ve finished my manuscript, but keep getting rejections. What do I do?

                 -Sincerely, Stuck in Query Land 

First of all, every author has received his or her share of rejections. Isn’t it nice to think even the greatest best-sellers were told… “Nope. Not good enough” at one point in their career? That always gave me hope. Just because Ms. Agent is being a picky-pants on the day she scanned your query doesn’t mean you should toss out your book baby.

 

Despite all the “stay positive” mumbo jumbo, it still stings when you get that form letter in the mail.

So…what do you do when you can’t hook the big fish agent?

In my experience it’s all about who you know. Now maybe that’s just me. Maybe there are a ton of authors who queried, agented, and sold, but that isn’t my story. 

I got picked up at a writer’s conference.

A writer’s conference can help in a ton of ways. First, it will put you face to face with agents/editors who can clue you in on why they think you're getting turned down. The other awesome thing about the conference is it will give you the opportunity to revisit and work on your query, synopsis, first ten pages, etc. It’s always nice to have fresh eyes review your work. Not to mention you might actually meet some pretty amazing people.

Hope my advice helps! Good luck, and keep writing.

Remember, this is actually the fun part. You have all the free time and creative license in the world right now. No deadlines, no redrafting the storyline. Enjoy the freedom of writing when you please. It’s never the same with the pressure of a deadline stressing you out… 

-- Jessica Therrien, author of Oppression (Children of the Gods #1) and Uprising (Children of the Gods #2)

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