The Waiting Game (Laurie)

Laura and I didn't plan this, but her post on Query Survival a few weeks ago came at a perfect time. She walked us through the preparation for sending queries and dealing with rejection, and today my focus is on the time in between - the days, weeks, or months after you send your query before you hear anything back.

Patience is not my strong point. Whether it's dealing with my young boys, making a purchase, or holding off to tell someone good news, waiting is really a challenge for me.

But I have found submitting my manuscript to be the hardest waiting of all.

I'm sure my fellow writers can commiserate. You work so hard, writing that first draft and then editing and polishing every sentence, paragraph, and chapter until you hope your story shines. You fret over the query letter, proposal, or synopsis - how much detail should I include, how do I boil my story down to a page or even a few paragraphs? You research contests, agents, or publishers until you think you've found a perfect fit. Then, at last, you double-check the submission requirements, review the e-mail or form one last time, and hit "Send."

You did it! You were brave enough to submit your manuscript, and this could be the beginning of all your publishing dreams coming true. But now what? Will they read it tonight? Or in six months? If you're anything like me, you start to check your e-mail religiously, at times resorting to pressing the "refresh" button every few minutes. Some days you spend extra time on social media to see if you can glean a clue to whether anyone has taken a look at your manuscript yet. But in the end, nothing will speed the process. Checking your e-mail a million times won't make them respond any faster. You just have to WAIT.

As I'm writing this, I am in the midst of the waiting game. It feels a little like that scene in Tangled where Rapunzel vacillates between exhilaration and uncertainty a dozen times. What if they love it? What if they hate it? What if they can't wait to publish it? What if they think no one will ever want to read it? What if they didn't even get my submission?!

Now, I can't profess to be an expert at this waiting game, because if anything I'm probably more neurotically impatient than the average writer. But, in the past weeks I've found a few strategies that can at least make the wait slightly less painful:

1. Get away from your computer / phone

This can be hard when you're waiting for that all-important e-mail, but it's so worth it. Get out and enjoy nature, see your friends, do some shopping, etc. If you have to take your smartphone with you, silence it. Engaging with the outside world provides a great distraction and important perspective. It can be so easy for writers to get caught up in their own minds - that's where the story creation starts, after all! - but getting out of that bubble helps reinforce that there is so much life beyond your story and your potential publishing contract. So many opportunities, so many projects worthy of your attention, so many other people trying to accomplish their dreams.

2. Indulge in engaging entertainment

Along similar lines to the suggestion above, letting yourself get swept away in your favorite form of entertainment can be an effective way to spend hours at a time not thinking about your submission. It can be movies, TV, a video game, a sport, whatever will engage your mind so fully you won't be tempted to check your e-mail. For me, it's reading (shocker, right?). I've been reading some intense speculative fiction lately, but a few days ago I scanned my bookshelves and chose a lighthearted romance. And it's been such fun! I've spent the past two evenings blissfully losing myself in these delightful characters, smiling at their sweet interactions, and pondering the mystery of an abandoned house. Meanwhile, my computer and phone sit in another room. Out of sight, out of mind.

3. Find a sympathetic listener

While it may be tempting to vent about the trials of the waiting game on your Facebook or Twitter account, I wouldn't recommend burning any bridges in that way. But, if you have a friend or family member who is particularly interested in your writing or just a good listener, opening up to them can really help. Just last evening, a friend who has been thoughtful enough to ask about my writing many times inquired if I had any updates. I took the plunge and told her I had submitted my manuscript to several publishers and shared the expected wait times, and although she's not a writer herself, she listened eagerly and completely sympathized with how hard it must be to wait to hear back on a project that's so dear to your heart. Following that conversation, I felt better.

4. Start a new project

I've heard this advice so many times I felt I had to include it, but I'll admit, thus far it's never worked for me. The concept makes perfect sense - if you start writing something new, you'll get excited about that and have something waiting in the wings if the manuscript you've submitted doesn't get the results you'd like. But my problem is that it takes me a while to distance myself enough from one project to embrace another. As the querying process goes on, I may need to tweak my query letter or create a synopsis of a different length to fit someone's submission requirements, which brings me back to the heart of my story. Or I may receive feedback in a rejection that I want to incorporate and thus delve into another round of edits. I ended up doing at least two major revisions during the process of querying my first manuscript. For me, that possibility makes it hard to put my heart and soul into a new project until I've set the old one aside. But if you can balance multiple writing projects better than I can, diverting your energies to a new story may be the most productive way to handle the wait.

5. Help fellow writers

I'm going to be brutally honest here. Pursuing publication can sometimes bring out the worst in me, beyond just impatience. Competition, jealousy - my mind can be a very ugly place at times. Suddenly the writer friends I've been cheering on become enemies who might snatch up the opportunity I was hoping for. I scrutinize other writers' work, trying to calculate whether they have a better shot than I do. It's not pretty, and I'm not proud of it. But recently when I was feeling in competition with a writer friend, I made myself write her an e-mail wishing her luck. In the process, I realized I really did wish her the best on her queries, and those negative feelings lost their hold. It happened again when I helped a friend polish up her submission materials. At first I felt awkward, knowing she was sending them to a publisher I had also submitted to that presumably had limited slots to fill with new authors. But as I began to type my comments and suggestions, I got engaged in truly helping my friend make her work the best it could be, because that's what I want for her. By overcoming my reluctance and helping the fellow writers I felt in competition with, it's like my true self fought past those petty emotions to shine through and remind me that I can rise above those ugly moments to be the thoughtful, caring person I want to be.

6. Pray

This sounds so obvious, but at least for me, it can be easily overlooked. I tend to let my problems bubble inside for far too long before I take them to my Creator. But so much peace can flow from those still moments of prayer, where I finally let myself go and recognize that the control isn't in my hands. But it doesn't always happen right away. Lately I've been praying for patience every day, but feeling just as impatient as ever. Then as I was driving last night, thinking through aspects of my story, my eyes were drawn to the brightest shooting star I've ever seen. While logically I know thousands of people probably saw that same shooting star, this sense of peace and contentment settled deep within, as though it had been intended just for me. In some strange way it felt like a promise - that my publishing dreams may not come true this week, this month, or even with this manuscript, but God has a beautiful plan for me, if I can just persevere long enough to see it through.




So there you have it! I hope at least something in this post has resonated with you and that sharing about my time of waiting can help make your current or future waiting game a bit more tolerable.

Do you struggle with patience? Can you think of any waiting tips I missed?


Thanks for reading!
Laurie

Twitter for the Unpublished Writer (Laurie)

If you're a fellow writer and either aren't on Twitter, aren't active on it, or feel confused/intimidated by all the events and hashtags you see referenced, this post is for you! Regardless of how you feel about it as a social media site in general, the writing community is very active on Twitter, and it can be a fun place to find writer friends, possibly even critique partners. Twitter is also full of information and opportunities, especially for writers who are or soon will be seeking an agent or publisher. I'm sure I won't manage to cover everything in this post, but here's a look at some ways Twitter can be beneficial for a writer seeking publication:

Inside Info on Agents & Publishers
Many agents, editors, and publishers are very active on Twitter. As you're doing research before sending a query or submitting your work, it's a great idea to check out their Twitter account first. This will give you a better sense of their communication style and personality, and you may find out more specific information about what they're looking for, the opening or closing of a submission window, how actively they're seeking new clients/authors, and whether you have interests in common that might help you personalize your query letter in a way that will catch their attention. In an era where there are so many agents and publishers to choose from, and so many writers trying to find someone to publish their work, having access to more information during the querying process can only be a good thing.

#MSWL
The #MSWL hashtag is a great starting point for any writer trying to figure out which agents or editors to submit their work to (a hashtag is something people include in their tweets, or posts on Twitter, to make them easily searchable).  It stands for "Manuscript Wishlist," and agents and editors use it to post about what kind of manuscripts they're looking for at a given time, or to post a link to an updated blog or website where they've shared their interests. Sometimes the posts are pretty generic, such as "I'm looking for character-driven women's fiction." But they can also be really detailed, like asking for a retelling of a specific fairy tale from a certain point of view or in a particular setting. You never know, you might find out your project is exactly what an agent or editor is looking for!

Every once in a while there is a specific #MSWL day, where many agents and editors post about what they're looking for throughout the day. The best part about catching one of these days is that if you query someone based on one of their #MSWL posts, they may specify that you should include #MSWL in the subject line of your e-mail, which could move your query to the top of the slush pile.

Please note, the #MSWL hashtag is only for agents and editors to use, writers using it to promote their work are not well-received.

This hashtag also inspired a website that's worth checking out: http://manuscriptwishlist.com/

#tenqueries
Some agents take the time to do #tenqueries on Twitter, where they go through 10 queries in their inbox and post a brief comment on each. This can be especially helpful if an agent you're interested in querying has done #tenqueries to see what they're looking for and what they consider to be turn-offs in query letters. But it's also helpful in general to get a sense for how agents approach their slush piles and glean some query tips.

While #tenqueries is the most common hashtag used, some agents do something similar using a different hashtag. For instance, agent Laura Zats at Red Sofa Literary provides a lot of helpful and entertaining query advice using the hashtags #500queries and #everyquery.

Note that these hashtags are also only meant for agent and editor use, not for writers wanting to pitch their work.

Query Contests
There are many query contests out there, all set up a little differently, so I can only speak generally on this one. The contests I can list off the top of my head are: Query Kombat (hosted by Michelle Hauck and Michael Anthony), Sun vs Snow (hosted by Amy Trueblood and Michelle Hauck), Pitch Madness (hosted by Brenda Drake), Pitch Wars (hosted by Brenda Drake), and Pitch Slam (hosted by L.L. McKinney), but there are many others! Most are open to all genres, but some are more specific.

The basic way these contests work is you first figure out what you need for your submission. Typically it's some kind of pitch for your project (something like a short, one-line pitch or your entire query letter), and a short excerpt from the opening of your story. Most of these contests have limits on how many submissions they'll accept, and they tend to fill up fast (the contest I entered closed within a matter of minutes), so I would recommend that you have your e-mail ready to send as soon as the submission window opens.

Once the submissions are in, usually there are multiple people running the contest who review all the entries and pick their teams. After the teams are announced, there is generally a mentor round, where experienced writers review the chosen entries and give the writers feedback. The writers have a chance to make revisions, then the updated submissions are posted on a blog or website, where agents can review them and make requests.

The benefit of these contests is if your entry is chosen for a team, you can receive feedback on your writing and get your work seen by a number of agents. Plus it's a huge compliment if your entry is chosen from among so many, which is a definite sign your pitch / query and opening pages are on the right track. It can also be a fun way to meet fellow writers as you get to know and cheer each other on through the duration of the contest, regardless of whether your submission ends up getting picked.

The downside to these contests is they can be draining for some writers (at least the one I entered was for me). During the course of a contest, people tweet about it almost non-stop, plus those in charge of the contests often will give vague hints about their team picks, which could leave you wondering for days if the "YA with a strong female MC" was referring to yours, even though it probably could've referred to at least a third of the YA entries. Plus, not getting picked for a team never feels good, of course, and may cause more discouragement than necessary due to all the hype surrounding the contest and the subjective nature of the teams' picks.

I am by no means discouraging involvement in these contests, they're a wonderful opportunity for writers who are able to have fun with it and not take it personally. If you tend to be emotional and a bit obsessive, like me, however, consider carefully before entering, as it may end up causing more pain than it's worth.

Pitch Parties
I may be biased since I've had some success with pitch parties, but I find them to be a lot of fun :)  They can be a great opportunity to connect with agents or publishers that take an interest in your story idea, possibly even ones you may not have otherwise thought to query based on their descriptions of what they're looking for.

The way a pitch party works is that on a given day (or sometimes a more limited period of an hour or two), writers pitch their completed, polished manuscript in a tweet (up to 140 characters) with a certain hashtag associated with the event, often with an additional hashtag indicating genre. Agents and editors review the tweets and favorite the ones they're interested in.

In my opinion, the best way to approach pitch parties is with low expectations. Many tweets don't get favorites, so don't be discouraged if nothing comes of your pitch. But if your tweet does get favorited, yay!! Take a look at the agent's or editor's Twitter account, most will specify what they want you to send (typically a query letter with a certain number of pages or chapters). Generally they'll want you to include the pitch party title in the subject of the e-mail, which may send your query to the top of their submission pile. I was lucky enough to get a few favorites in the pitch parties I've participated in, and each time I heard back from the agent within a few days - twice with a full manuscript request!

Like query contests, each pitch party is a little different, so make sure to familiarize yourself with the rules of a given event. Also, the event coordinators don't moderate which agents or publishers are looking through and favoriting pitches, so make sure to research anyone who favorites your tweet before you submit to make sure they're legitimate and someone you'd like to work with. A favorite doesn't commit you to submitting to anyone you're not comfortable with.

Pitch parties are also a fun way to see what other writers are working on, and you can encourage others whose story ideas you find intriguing, either by retweeting their pitch, or by responding to it, depending on the rules of the particular event. But don't favorite other writers' pitches!! That's only for agents and editors - a favorite from anyone else will falsely get the writer's hopes up.



Here's a link with great information about query contests and pitch parties that happen throughout the year, organized by month: http://www.kristinvanrisseghem.com/blog/upcoming-twitter-pitch-parties-after-pitmad-pitchmas-sffpit-pit2pub-writepit

Also, as a general note, some hashtags where you can find other writers' tweets are #amwriting, #amediting, #writerslife, #querytip, #writetip, and #amquerying.

What do you think of Twitter? Have you participated in any of these events? Let me know if I missed anything, and feel free to ask questions!

See you next time!
Laurie


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