Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Those 71,405 Words You Wrote Means That Your Soul Belongs To Me

Length of completed novel entitled Line 21: 69,389 words.
Length of completed synopsis: 1,720 words.
Length of query letter template: 296 words.

Total amount of words that my soul is apparently worth to the familiars who bought it to use and abuse until I screamed for something they are unable to give: 71,405 words.

During this past weekend (March 25th thru the 27th) I took the first three steps in a new journey of debauchery, heartache and pulling my hair out with a pair of tweezers:

Step one was cutting off anymore internal debate about what I wanted to do with my book (hence, selling my soul).

Step two was going to QueryTracker to finish researching my wickedly short list of agents that I had chosen to start my journey with.

Step three was putting together four query/submission packages and mailing them out this past Monday.

In days gone by, or at least, what I've been doing in the present with my short stories, I would create a basic database to properly track my queries. However, since QueryTracker has a nifty feature in which you can track your queries in the various stages of digestion, that has more or less eliminated the need for me use up valuable computer memory cells.

But that did leave me with the interesting problem of how to share the data with my friends and readers. You see, I figure that since I brought you along on this journey, sometimes willing and sometimes kicking and screaming like a two year old toddler, I might as well continue inflicting just a teeny weeny bit more pain on you.

Well, that plus the fact that I valuable blog space that needs to be filled up on a thrice-weekly basis.

So what I decided to do with that useful information (because you just know I love playing around with useful and useless information) was to create yet another page for my blog.

Called "Submissions for Line 21", this page will be my handy dandy easy peasy lemon squeezy home for my all my submissions for my novel. Among the things that you'll find are these nifty items:

1} Agency/Publisher
2} When Snail Mailed/E-Mailed
3} What The Result Was
4} And maybe an interesting tidbit or two.

Kewl, eh?

It will be updated whenever I get the opportunity to either submit a query or when I when I get some wholesome/unwholesome news about my queries. Also, for an added bonus, you can leave comments on it if you so desire.

Please check it out today for the initial four queries that were sent out.

9 comments:

  1. I still have my records list of subs and places from way back when I began the process. It's kind of a cool record to keep, and very necessary.

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  2. I gotta hand it to you G; you got balls. Not many would detail this much info - especially as everyone knows the road to publication is a bloody one:( Good Luck!

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  3. Charles: I still have all the query letters I sent out back in 2006 when I really didn't know what I was doing stashed on my computer and I think I got the rejection letters somewhere here at home.

    I think its cool, if only to see how far I've progressed over the past few years in doing something right instead of half assed.

    And I agree with it being necessary. Don't really want to duplicate any query by accident.

    Jane: I figure since I set this blog up back in 2008 to write about my adventures in writing and trying to get published, this would be a natural extension of that topic.

    Besides, what good is having a blog if you can't open yourself up to ridicule every once in a while.

    And thanks.

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  4. Hey, if I'm not careful, I might learn something here!

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  5. Mama Z: I hope so. Perhaps you can learn how not to do something the way I tried to do. :D

    Seriously though, if I can be a guinea pig and share my trials and tribulations with everyone, I'll be more than happy to be that guinea pig.

    Especially if someone learns from missteps or successes.

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  6. Fingers crossed! Hope you get good news soon!

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  7. Libby: Thanks.

    Even if I get a rejection with a comment, it'll still be something to latch onto and work on.

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  8. Good for you and good luck! I have my list of agents ready to go...

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Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.

About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.

So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.

G. B. Miller

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All the content that you see here, except for the posting of links that refer to other off-blog stories, is (c) 2008-17 by G.B. Miller. Nothing in whole or in part may be used without the express written permission of myself. If you wish to use any part of what you see here, please contact me at georgebjr2006@gmail.com