Some time ago, I got curious about how many hours I sunk into querying a book. Then, because I’m a professional data analyst, I thought “I should get some data and analyze it.” So I decided that since I was going to query a book, I’d simply track how long it took me using a timekeeping site. What I soon realized is that, yes I have some data now about how long it takes to query a book. But I also quickly realized the limits of my own data in really tackling this question. As I go through how long it took me to query my last book, I’ll try…

I know that writing a How I Got My Agent post is a rite of passage of sorts but honestly… I haven’t particularly wanted to. I feel like I’ve talked about my experiences so much, and my How I Didn’t Get My Agent post pretty much says what I want to say about my querying journey. While I could talk about my stats on this book, they don’t feel like they really mean anything except that I got lucky. And before I got lucky I was straight up not having a good time. But I did want to share my query letter. Not because I think it’s particularly instructional. Mostly…

Can I tell you a secret? I’m not sure I believe in heart books. At least not in the sense that there’s one story that you were just born to tell. Kind of like I don’t believe in soulmates, the idea that there’s one person you’re just meant to be with. But maybe I’m just a cynic because it’s never happened to me. What I do know is that some books are special in some way. I did write one of those. I had already written 11 other full books and countless partials when I sat down to write a YA contemporary romance. It was my second stab at this…

I suppose because I am someone who talks a lot about my feelings, I get a lot of platitudes and advice on how to stop being so darn sad all the time. Sometimes this is well-meaning. Sometimes I think it comes from a place of annoyance or guilt or whatever other feeling the toxic positivity machine has made people feel. One of my recent favorites is the insinuation that I just haven’t yet learned how to manage my feelings. I need to get better at handling rejection and don’t I know that it’s just part of the industry. I need to adopt some sort of coping mechanism. This is another…

In a few months, I’ll hit the ten year anniversary of the very first query letter I ever sent. If you couldn’t guess from the title or my constant whining on Twitter, I still do not have an agent. I guess this can be sort of a ten-year anniversary post, though. Note, this post does contain request rate numbers, so feel free to avoid if you don’t like seeing those. How it started I’ve been writing basically since I knew how. My first completed work that I can remember is a mystery short story that I wrote in first grade and submitted to the school paper. Through middle school and…