You have written the most awesome mystery novel, screenplay, memoir
or children’s book. Now it’s time to send it out to an agent or
publisher.
Yeah! You know they are going to love it! You wonder how you will
decide which publisher to go with because they all are going to want it.
But what is this in your mail box? Oh, my God. It’s not even a letter. It’s a freakin’ post card.
“Dear Ms. Onceselfconfident,
Thank you for your submission. We regret to inform you that your manuscript is not of the slightest bit of interest to us.
Sincerely,
The Editor of Stomp on Your Dreams Press”
Years of work cast aside with a post card. And not even a thick post
card with a picture of the Grand Canyon on it. It’s a thin,
mass-produced, impersonal, light green post card.
But please don’t despair. The agents and publishers are not really
trolls sitting hunched over a desk, gleefully cranking out little green
post cards of death. When they receive your submission, they too are
actually hoping they like it.
But the chances are, they probably won’t. It is just a reality. They
are receiving massive amounts of submissions each day and they have to
weed through them. And yours has a high percentage of being a weed and
not a flower.
An agent once told me that out of about 100 submissions she received
each week, she chose around three to request a full manuscript from the
author. Then, out of these dozen or so in a month’s time, she only
picked two or three to represent. Odds…not in your favor.
So in this blog I will take you on my journey to try and “up my odds” by improving my craft, writing the best query letter I
can and making my submission as strong as I can. I will share with you
the resources I find to help me along the way.
And yes, I will share with you the rejection letters I collect. My
goal is to send at least one submission a week, so there will probably
be plenty to show you.
Hopefully, I will learn how to get a little closer to the elusive letter that says,”Please send your full manuscript to…”
