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In the Trenches: My Old Frenemy Depression
I’m at a cross roads and frankly rather depressed. The world seems stacked against me. You know the feeling, nothing is going right, everything seems to be harder than it should be. The type of days where the septic backs up, the dog is sick over the floor, your credit card is declined, and shoelaces…
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In the Trenches: Late Response v No Response
When do you call a late response a no response? This brief note is a bit of a follow up to the last post. I got curious and so went and looked at the stats I am generating off my database for queries. The longest query still open is *drumroll* 331 days old. So that…
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In the Trenches: OMG- 240 days
It’s an all around win, where everyone loses.
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In the Trenches: Harshing on Hope, the Hamster Wheel
Well, I can at least report some progress. Areas of the website are being updated to make sure that all images and photography are correctly attributed. yesterday was spent surveying possible agents. I think after four weeks of working on it, I may have a better query letter ready to go out. There is no…
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In the Trenches: Editors, agents and trolls, oh my!
August! How the **** did that happen? Oh, yeah, family vacation. And, then just family. Oi. Ok, after an embarrassingly long absence, I’m back. The list of items that needs to be dealt with is staggering. And it also has me freaked out. There is a book that needs to be edited and then handed…
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In the Trenches: How to Avoid Troll Bullies and Scams
You might notice my website has a new look. I could claim I was going for a new zen-like vibe, but that’s not it.
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In the Trenches: The Great Agent Shuffle
One thing I am learning while I am spending my time here in the querying trenches is that the publishing industry and the agents are constantly in flux.
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In the Trenches: Latest Editing Update
I’m working my way through Chapter 12. That’s the good news. I have 18 chapters to work my way through. That’s the disheartening bit. I might have to go back over Chapters 1-11. That’s the crushing reality. But, the really crushing thing, other than being so poor I can’t afford my own Ramen without selling…
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In the Trenches: In Querying No Death, No Surrender
In brief, it’s late June and the world is grinding to the summer halt. Except, of course, if you are querying a novel. There is no Armistice Day in these trenches. I’m guessing I am about mid-point through my entire list of ‘potential’ matches. There, of course, have been additions and deletions along the way.…
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In The Trenches: The Querying Ordeal of Silent Rejection
As a writer there is an intrinsic part of this journey that cannot be avoided – unless you are a frikin’ unicorn. The rest of the 99.999% of us must query. And querying is hard. No lie. As a writer, you hear ‘no’ a lot. And really – most, like 99% of the time, there…