HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!!

Did I hear there was an aspiring author around here who was too afraid to send out more queries? BE GONE, EVIL FIEND! Optimistic Stina is here to defeat the evil pessimism!

Now, before you go thinking I have multi-personality disorder, I don't. I'm just in a very good mood today! Really no specific reason, I haven't heard back from any agents lately, but it's still early as most of them take about four weeks to reply. I don't know, I guess I just have this new sense of determination/optimism today.

I don't know if it's just the beautiful sun shining down on me, the blue sky, or the smell of barbecues wafting the neighborhood, but I was just sitting outside and just had this incredible feeling come over me. It was such a peaceful feeling mixed with a bit of excitement, and all of a sudden I just knew that something great was coming, just around the corner. Crazy? Maybe, but I'd rather stick with this great feeling then lie on bed, staring at the ceiling, being miserable.

I sent out two queries yesterday and another today. I know that's not many, but I'm still waiting to hear back from six others. I'm just going to take it slow, wait for some more feedback, and if needed, make some more changes and then send to some more.

I highly recommend querying no more than ten agents at a time. You don't want to kill too many birds with one stone, meaning, you don't want to send out thirty queries and get thirty form rejections and realize there's something wrong. Out of the first ten I sent, eight were no's and two were interested but weren't connecting with the sample chapters/partial, so I knew it was time to sit down for a rewrite. I know it can be hard, you just want to get those letters out there and land your agent, but patience is really a virtue in this business.

So let's tally my journey so far:

Rejections: 11 (just got another while writing this)
Partials: 1
Liked the idea but didn't connect with the sample chapters: 1
Waiting on: 8
Rewrites: 3

And onward we go!