The First 10%: Presenting Your Novel

For Valentine's Day, my sisters and I made dinner for our lovely parents. I cooked the steak, lobster, etc. and they served. Now, the foodies among us (and I am one) will agree - presentation may only be 10% of the battle, but it's the first 10%.  (I have my Uncle Karl to thank for that bit of wisdom, although he was referring to the physical appearance of prospective dates and not manuscript submissions or lobster tails...)

Every writer among us wants to be considered adept at the craft. Presenting our books to a prospective agent is part of this consideration. There are certain steps we all must take to prepare our beloved manuscript for the wide and oft' treacherous world of publishing.

My friends, I'm shivering with joy to tell you that my agency submission package is almost complete.

Query letter - Done. And it looks fabulous! BIG shout-out to @janet_reid and @kaelinewman for all their assistance. I could not have done it without the Query Shark's bite and Dreamland's better judgment. ;)

Synopsis - Done. What started out as a blind stroll through a valley of metal spikes eventually turned into a fantastic learning experience. (That being said, I will soon post all the resources I had to literally scrape from the vast and frightening web to share what I learned about the *shudder* synopsis)

Partial - Near done. I have one more comb-over before it's fit to send. A few writer/novel parting procedures:  1) Read it over. 2) Read it aloud. 3) Read it more than once. These steps alone put you one step closer to a clean manuscript (and one further from the slush).

Agent list - Done. I compiled my top ten agents about a month ago. My apologies that I won't reveal them in the not-so-secret-scrolls of this blog. Now or ever. Oh, pardon the intensity. Here, have a cookie instead.


NEW DEADLINE:  Query all ten agents before I head to Mexico on March 20th. That way I can send them and use the sun, sand, and........er......sun? to calm my nerves for a full 10 days. And yes, I just had to throw that in there. Can't help it, writer friends, this freezing-ness HAS to stop.