Destiny Vandeput

August 6, 2014

My summer lull…

What started out as what I thought was a pretty simple revision has joined forces with the fact that it’s summer and I only have a sitter two days a week, along with the fact that I work from home and actually have – you know – paid work to do and then mix in the fact that this SIMPLE revision has turned into something not so simple at all… here I stand.

a little over halfway through a huge revision/re-write since the end of June and just now starting to pick up the pace!

As much as I’ve enjoyed hanging out with my littles all day, I’m quite ready for the rhythm that school will bring. Although I really thought I would be done by now, I’ve had a pretty awesome summer, so I can’t complain.

Hope yours was awesome as well!

June 30, 2014February 14, 2015

An end to querying – for now

So recently, I have revisited my manuscript for a particularly exciting reason!

It’s been fun getting back into these lives that I spent so much time with. These voices that once lived in my head for a year.

It’s made me think about a lot of things, but the main thing is my manuscript is just not ready yet.

So I’m taking this incredibly opportunity and am going to stop querying until I can get this MS in tip top shape!

So for my wildly unsuccessful stats for my first time ever querying:

Queries sent: 48
Requests: 11 (10 fulls and one partial that upgraded)
R&R: 2 (one I accepted, one I did not as it was too far from my vision)

I wasn’t ready this time, but I’ll be ready my next round!

What I learned during round one?

Only send 7-10 queries out at a time. and WAIT. Yes that means this process is slower, but it will be more precise.
Wait to start getting feedback on requested materials before you start sending more queries out. For me, I started getting requests trickling in, so I got excited and blasted like 20 queries in one day. But then within a few weeks, I started getting passes and they all listed a very similar reason. If I would have waited, I would have been able to revise before continuing to send out queries.
Don’t get too excited and start querying before you’re ready. How do you know you’re not ready? Oh. You know. And I really did if I was honest with myself, but I told myself it was just nerves. It wasn’t. It was too soon and you only get one chance with agents. Don’t screw yourself by querying too early.

In the end, this is all a learning experience and it might be super weird to say it, but I’m actually really enjoying the process.

PS. rejections suck.