Celestial Chicken Blog

Unfortunately, for all my grumbling about not having an agent, and not having this, and not having that, all of that is my own fault. My own damned fault. I just have not put the time into it that I should. How can I realistically think I can sell any of my books if I’m not willing to do the ugly boring part of the agent/publishing thing?

So today I opened an account on Query Tracker, paid for a premium membership (a bargain at $25), and started reading their articles on writing a query letter. I had heard of this site before, several years ago, at a St. Louis Writer’s Guild meeting. I just never checked it out. It gives me a place/way to keep track of any queries I send, and also gives me a list of agents that have been vetted, saving me a bundle of time in research. So, good move there.

Secondly, I printed off the membership form for Romance Writers of America, an organization I know I should be a part of if I am going to continue down this path of writing romance novels (and I think I am headed down that path). The membership is steep (over $100) but probably worth it. We’ll see what I think next year when my renewal comes in the mail.

Third, I got some really great advice from a friend of mine that I’m going to try to stick to. “Set a schedule,” she said. As in, set a schedule when I’m going to work on query stuff, when I’m going to work on writing stuff, etc. Baby steps, small steps, little bits, but devote myself to completing that stuff on a regular basis. If I tell myself I am going to spend two hours a week working on queries, then I need to stick to that and make it happen. Yes, that’s two precious hours of writing time lost, but I also know realistically that I waste two hours a week doing nonsense stuff that I can certainly put to better use. So this coming week I’ll see what I can figure out as a regular schedule for doing not only writing, but also the ugly part of writing and sending queries.

I have great stories and they deserve an audience. They will never have one if I don’t start working towards getting an agent and getting these things traditionally published. I have to keep that goal in mind, or I will continue to be unproductive. I am not getting any younger.