Novella Submitted

Well, I did it.  My first time submitting to an epub.  I've got the category romance subbed with Harlequin while I still have queries for it out to agents, and now the first novella in what I hope will turn into a series is in an epublication editor's inbox. 

In three years, I've gone from taking up my dream to become a published author to this point.  I'm really proud of what I've accomplished so far.  I've still got a long way to go, but just knowing that I began this journey, took my time with it and have gotten to where I have more than one finished, polished work out there on offer makes me want to pat myself on the back.

I spent time in the playground (created world) of someone else, creating stories with characters not my own.  Thank you, Joss Whedon, for allowing your fans to play that way.  I learned about story structure, beta readers and proper formatting.  I also found a great bunch of writers/readers online that I now call friends.  During this time, I worked on my grammar, sentence variety and dialogue.  I enjoyed every minute I spent writing stories that I could never make a dime off of.  Stories that fellow fans could enjoy. 

When I felt like I could do original fiction justice, I still had a lot to learn, but I had the confidence to know I could finish a story if I put my mind to it.  I knew I could handle tough critiques and many hours revising and editing my stories.  And I enjoy every minute of the process.  I don't find it tedious or boring.  I love writing the first draft; I look forward to making corrections and adding and subtracting from the first draft.

I won't lie and say I enjoy writing query letters or synopses, but I love when they are finished to my satisfaction. 

I'm still not good at hitting send when I query an agent or submit a package to a publisher.  I get jittery.  My hands tremble, and I feel like I'm going to be sick.  I wonder if that will ever go away?  Probably not.  A little fear is a good thing.  It will keep my on my toes, and help me to stay diligent and professional.

I will be very disappointed if I get a rejection on the novella, because I love that story and I love the epub that I have subbed it to.  They are my first choice.  There are others out there and I do have a second and third choice that I'd be happy with, plus four others that I would be okay with.  After that, there are still options.

So, now, I will keep busy writing the two works in progress that I am most interested in right now.  I've got 14,000 of the sequel to the novella written and just under that amount of my single title fantasy story written.  Plenty to do to keep my mind off possible rejections.

Getting Ready to Query Literary Agents

I'm going to try using Query Tracker to keep track of queries that I send out.  I really like how the website is set up.  I'll be able to keep track of who I have sent a query to and when I get a rejection.  I really love how they have a place to paste in the exact query letter sent to the agent, because while the blurb section will always be the same, each query will need to be personalized and I like the idea of being able to see exactly what I sent to different agents.

I have used Query Tracker to find some of the agents I plan to send the first wave a queries to, but I have also found agents in other ways and went back to tracker and added them in to my personal list.  I've found agents in forum posts and on other writer's blogs.  I pay attention when someone praises their agent and then I look them up and see if they would be a good fit for me.  

If all goes well, I will start sending out queries in the next few days.  *bites nails*