so what I did was is I set aside a whole
day to be querying day it was gonna be I
just said to decide on my calendar and
that's all I was going to do that day I
was gonna finalize my materials and I
was gonna send out some query letters
and that wasn't gonna be the whole the
whole day I'd set it aside and then I
had to I turned out I had to rebuild my
website which you know pretty pink ink
in that plan and then I'm actually doing
some remote work for my day job as well
and then during that Photoshop sort of
crashed my laptop where I had all my
materials open that I was working on
that day and then my laptop blue
screened completely and and then it
wouldn't come back on and I think that
was I guess the universe telling me that
that wasn't the day of reckoning the the
promise today that I would be sending
out query letters that I was definitely
definitely not the day and then I I lost
my my hard drive on that computer I I
took it in and they had it for about a
week at the computer repair place and my
hard drive was indeed uh was indeed
corrupted completely and I needed a new
one so then I got a new brand spanking
new hard drive in my laptop thank
goodness I didn't need an entirely new
laptop which was a at least one one
shining moment but I had lost my hard
drive now of course thank God I had my
work backed up I didn't I didn't have
like the last two days of edits and
things like that
but I didn't I did I did have the rest
of course because I am paranoid about
these kinds of things because it's
happened to me before and so I do have
my writing backed up on lots of little
um you know USB sticks hidden around the
house like an Easter egg hunt so I have
several copies at any time in fact I
actually always travel with the USB
stick with my most important files when
it comes to like writing my books or
like my edit my notes things like that I
keep those on a USB stick that I
actually just keep with me no matter
where I am at work in the car any time I
have one of those on me because I'm that
paranoid about it if I lost my book I
think I would literally you know lose it
so luckily
I had all that backed up but this is
just a disclaimer to let you all know
that you need to go back up your stuff
all right now so if you don't have your
you know creative work your pictures you
like whatever whatever your stuff is on
a clip if you don't have that backed up
you need to go do that right now
that's just this is just my note from me
to you here and you need to go back up
your stuff so um
yeah now of course this did set me back
a little bit but before I get into how
and when and all the details of our I
actually queried or sent my first few
query letters at least let's talk about
a few things first and get a few things
straight how do you get a book published
anyway um and first you have to write a
book now I know this can take some time
and it's a bit hard I've done it you
know at least once now and but you're
gonna have to write a book first so
there's that and then you are gonna get
a literary agent hopefully and that's
why you you have to query which we'll
talk about in a second but you're gonna
get yourself a literary agent who is the
one who then gets you hopefully a book
deal and connects you with a publishing
company a publisher and then the
publisher is the one who makes and
markets your book for you since they
they've invested in it they want to make
sure it does well and they help connect
you with the course booksellers who then
sell your book to readers who are in my
opinion the best part about this whole
equation because there is nothing like
people who have read your work in liked
it it's just it's pretty magical so I
think they're probably my favorite part
of this process but then again there's
so many of these things that I haven't
experienced yet and I can't wait to find
out what it's really like but this is
the traditional publishing process here
of course self-publishing is quite
different but at this current time I'm
not interested in self-publishing I am
interested traditional publishing so
this is as far as I know the process
that I will be hoping to go through ASAP
here we here we are you know now what is
a query letter anyway
well according to Wikipedia a query
letter is a formal letter sent to
magazine editors literary agents and
sometimes publishing houses or companies
writers write query letters to propose
writing ideas the query letter is an
author's first step towards getting
his/her their manuscript published so
what was my process like in writing my
query letters well first thing you want
to do is gonna you're gonna want to read
all of query shark which is an excellent
blog by literary agent who
she knows what they're talking about so
you got to read all of query shark and
that'll that'll really prime you for
what you should be and shouldn't be
doing and then you're gonna want to go
ahead and write your query letter it's
not easy but give it a go and then then
you're gonna have to be too afraid for
several months to do anything else after
that which is good cuz that sets you up
to then have some time off before you
revise your career letter which you know
of course you're gonna come back to it
and be like what and revise all of that
and then you're gonna have your computer
crash oh wait no that's probably just me
so hopefully you can skip this step and
then you're gonna stay up till about
like two am looking for typos before you
actually send any letters you could have
sent the motor out seven pm but you're
just gonna have to read everything
eighty thousand times to make sure
there's no typos you know hopefully you
have a friend who can assist you in this
but I I didn't so I just had to rely on
me and I don't trust me very much and
then finally you're going to submit
those letters and send those emails
which is just terrifying really just
just terrifying [Music]
[Music]
the scariest part of all this is my fear
of simple mistakes typos or missing a
detail of certain agents requirements
being the thing that gets me an
automatic rejection we all make typos
and just because we may make little
mistakes typing or grammar mistakes
doesn't mean that we can't be great
storytellers and my greatest fear
remains typos not rejection firstly
because I know that even great and
successful authors get rejections before
they get agents and secondly because no
matter what happens I freaking love my
book like even now on the 140 mm to edit
through I still give myself goosebumps
reading certain parts I love it and one
should probably love their own art at
least right so that's good and thirdly
the feedback from my beta readers is
like having a superpower or something
when it comes to fending off the sting
of rejection the positive feedback from
readers is like armor I know there are
other people out there like at least
four of them ish but still who like this
book if they like it and if you seem to
really like it then there will be others
out there who like it too I just have to
find one agent who will give this book a chance
chance
I just need one agent who loves it the
way that I do there are many many
literary agents in this world and I will
keep trying but I know I will get
rejections first and I did in fact think
it would really hurt but you know what
when I received this very first
rejection letter I was literally talking
with someone who was currently reading
my book we were talking about the story
in that very moment when that email
pinged through onto my phone and getting
that first rejection felt like something
to almost celebrate in that moment
because here was this reader in the
middle of telling me all about how they
had loved the last chapter they read and
nothing not even my very first rejection
letter could hope to knock me down from
that kind of high people loving your
work must be addictive and sure I'm
positive you can OD on that kind of
thing and get into a dangerous
overinflated headspace but I'll be
damned if it doesn't help having someone
tell you how much they liked your work
while you receive news someone else
doesn't even want to give it a chance
and if this first round comes to nothing
and the rest come back for merge
actions like these first two well I'm
going to keep going I'll change my query
letter a little bit of course but yeah
oh oh I'll keep going I'm going to fight
to get my work published to have this
story out there because even if all the
agents say no thanks I've already got
readers saying more please and I know
whose voice is loudest which one matters
most to me of all and it isn't even
those lovely obviously highly
intelligent perfect in every way beta
readers of mine it's my own heart saying
don't worry you've got this and not even
the fear of typos can compete with that
no rejection no review no one's saying
no things can take away how I feel about
this work how it has changed me how it
has saved me how it still does so keep
it coming I can take it and I'll keep writing
writing [Music]
[Music] you
you [Music]
Chrome Extension