Well, hello there! I hope you’ve all been having a great summer!
It’s been a while, and part of that is because there hasn’t been a whole lot to update you guys on. I’ve still been deep in the querying trenches, but this past week, I saw a fantastic example that helps explain just how rough this process is.
A couple weeks ago, I was scrolling through various apps (TikTok and Instagram, to be specific), and I was recommended a video (yes, the same video on both) by a literary agent. It was an announcement that she would be opening back up to queries.
In this post, she listed out the types of stories she was looking for and the books she enjoyed. Everything about her post lined up perfectly with VERITAS, so I set a reminder, got my query letter and submission package ready, and waited for her to open to queries. I saw an update from her this week, and in the week that her query inbox has been open, she’s received almost 1,000 queries.
Can you imagine getting that many emails in a single week? And not just promotional emails from stores or newsletters. 1,000 emails that you have to carefully read through and consider.
That’s an insane number. And my query is just one small fish amid the sea. Granted, not all of those are going to be the same genre as my manuscript, but still. My writing has to stand out above 1,000 other people. The reality is… She’ll probably have to reject almost all of those.
Those are the kinds of odds I’m working with, which is why the tone of some of my posts have been really discouraged throughout this process. Granted, I do believe that when the timing is right, my work will stand out the way it needs to. It’s just going to take some time.
As far as how other writing is going…
I am about a third of the way through my second draft of my fantasy novel! Not only that, but I have the next third outlined, and I’m working on writing that. My goal is to have a completed second draft by the end of the year.
Which means that I need to squeeze in writing whenever I can. One thing that’s been helpful is that I have to have something written for my critique group. So sometimes that means I’m writing just enough words for them to read over, but that means words are getting written. Progress is progress. But I’m really excited and happy with where this story is going.
Britnie Jenkins 