Both Cindi and I have been actively crafting queries to selected agencies. As a new author, I'm learning that every one wants something different, from 250 words to a page and the first fifty pages of the manuscript! Some want a chapter by chapter summary which is much more work than it sounds like. I thought, hey, no problem, since I had just named all the chapters. But, as I told Cindi, I have been feeling like someone is squeezing my brain while I work on the now-projected 10-page document...single spaced. Makes you wonder--is that really what they want? I sure hope so, after all this work!
One unexpected pleasure is actually found in discovering what each of the potential agents wants. So many want historical fiction, soft sci-fi (para-normal/time travel romance), literary memoir, upmarket women's fiction (anyone want to explain that?) and other descriptors that sound like NPD. That gives us plenty of queries to write in ways that are unique to each. http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/definitions/what-is-upmarket-fiction-defining-the-classification
Some of the most promising agencies are based in Minnesota and for obvious reasons, we are giving special attention to those. Still, the themes of multi-generational intrigue seem to be popular to a large market, so we're hopeful NPD will find that market!
Then, there's the eternal task of editing. I don't think there's a page that doesn't need a comma added or removed, a word that isn't perfect or a transition that is a little glitchy. Of course, at some point we'll have to be done, but we're not there yet. Most of the time, I love the story more after working over a scene.
I have a note to the few readers we have spoken to, if you're out there: We look forward to lots of comments from you!
Our dad read the rough draft and blew us away with the mostly positive feedback. He's not known for turning a flowery phrase, so we figured either Mom told him he had to say nice things (which she denies) or he was pleasantly surprised/proud.
Mom is reading the book now and everything predicted in "What Will My Mother Think?" and more has become a reality. She's not even to any sex yet--seems you can't say hell, damn, shit or oh, God and be a good person in Mom's eyes. We're sad to say this has embarrassed her and even hurt her health. We go back and forth between placating her and calling foul, having caught her in a rare, yet true, expletive in her day--or was that one of her sisters?! Bottom line: Trust us, Mom!
So to our potential agents out there...give us a shot! To our first readers...give us some feedback! Don't be our Godot ;).
