You may remember a few weeks ago when I found a brand new motto for life: What the hell? It can’t hurt to try.
Yeah.
Well, that’s pretty much down the drain.
The contest I entered, I didn’t make it through to the next round. 1000 entries made it through. Mine was not one of them. So, yeah.
I knew going in I wasn’t going to win. I knew going in that no one thinks my attempts at queries are any good. So it’s not a surprise that I didn’t make it through to the next round. But it does suck. It kinda pisses me off that no one in the publishing world is ever going to read my book because I can’t write an interesting query.
Maybe my book sucks. Maybe it isn’t just the query. But I don’t really believe that my book is bad. I really don’t. It’s not the greatest thing ever written, but I think it’s pretty good. And yet, I can’t move forward with it because I can’t get an agent interested in it.
Or maybe that’s my real problem: my book is bad, but I don’t realize it. Which may just be the saddest thing ever.
So my new motto is What the F***. I like it better than the other one. It’s more me, I think.
I Picked Up a Pen One Day... 
At the risk of you telling me where to get off, I thought I’d let you know that the book I’m getting published this year was written in 2005. It took me all this time to get it ready for the publishing world. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying your ms isn’t ready, but I am saying that it take tons of patience and a lot more perseverance to get your writing before the right pair of eyes.
Hang in there and keep believing in your ms.
Keep believing in and keep improving on your ms, I say. If YOU don’t think it’s (at least among) the greatest thing ever written, why would anyone else, you know? That doesn’t mean be delusion. But if you know there’s room for improvement, don’t query just yet.
But what you did do is write an entire manuscript and a query, and you sent them in. This is far more than many people who say they’re writing a novel will ever do.
It takes time.
Corra
from the desk of a writer (I moved my blog! I’m at WordPress again – different address.)
You know what I did? Nothing. I never even bothered. Im just too lazy. Well, guess what I didn’t make it into the top 1000. I guess for me, I agree with the comments above… we need to be patient.
ann
left you an award on my blog…
http://annellealtman.blogspot.com/
ann
thank you! that’s sweet 🙂