0:09 so what I did was is I set aside a whole
0:12 day to be querying day it was gonna be I
0:14 just said to decide on my calendar and
0:15 that's all I was going to do that day I
0:16 was gonna finalize my materials and I
0:18 was gonna send out some query letters
0:20 and that wasn't gonna be the whole the
0:23 whole day I'd set it aside and then I
0:25 had to I turned out I had to rebuild my
0:29 website which you know pretty pink ink
0:30 in that plan and then I'm actually doing
0:33 some remote work for my day job as well
0:37 and then during that Photoshop sort of
0:40 crashed my laptop where I had all my
0:42 materials open that I was working on
0:45 that day and then my laptop blue
0:48 screened completely and and then it
0:51 wouldn't come back on and I think that
0:52 was I guess the universe telling me that
0:55 that wasn't the day of reckoning the the
0:56 promise today that I would be sending
0:59 out query letters that I was definitely
1:03 definitely not the day and then I I lost
1:06 my my hard drive on that computer I I
1:09 took it in and they had it for about a
1:12 week at the computer repair place and my
1:14 hard drive was indeed uh was indeed
1:16 corrupted completely and I needed a new
1:19 one so then I got a new brand spanking
1:21 new hard drive in my laptop thank
1:22 goodness I didn't need an entirely new
1:25 laptop which was a at least one one
1:28 shining moment but I had lost my hard
1:30 drive now of course thank God I had my
1:33 work backed up I didn't I didn't have
1:35 like the last two days of edits and
1:36 things like that
1:38 but I didn't I did I did have the rest
1:40 of course because I am paranoid about
1:41 these kinds of things because it's
1:43 happened to me before and so I do have
1:46 my writing backed up on lots of little
1:48 um you know USB sticks hidden around the
1:50 house like an Easter egg hunt so I have
1:51 several copies at any time in fact I
1:53 actually always travel with the USB
1:56 stick with my most important files when
1:58 it comes to like writing my books or
2:00 like my edit my notes things like that I
2:01 keep those on a USB stick that I
2:03 actually just keep with me no matter
2:05 where I am at work in the car any time I
2:07 have one of those on me because I'm that
2:09 paranoid about it if I lost my book I
2:12 think I would literally you know lose it
2:14 so luckily
2:15 I had all that backed up but this is
2:17 just a disclaimer to let you all know
2:18 that you need to go back up your stuff
2:21 all right now so if you don't have your
2:23 you know creative work your pictures you
2:25 like whatever whatever your stuff is on
2:26 a clip if you don't have that backed up
2:27 you need to go do that right now
2:30 that's just this is just my note from me
2:33 to you here and you need to go back up
2:35 your stuff so um
2:39 yeah now of course this did set me back
2:41 a little bit but before I get into how
2:43 and when and all the details of our I
2:46 actually queried or sent my first few
2:48 query letters at least let's talk about
2:50 a few things first and get a few things
2:52 straight how do you get a book published
2:55 anyway um and first you have to write a
2:57 book now I know this can take some time
3:00 and it's a bit hard I've done it you
3:02 know at least once now and but you're
3:03 gonna have to write a book first so
3:04 there's that and then you are gonna get
3:07 a literary agent hopefully and that's
3:08 why you you have to query which we'll
3:10 talk about in a second but you're gonna
3:11 get yourself a literary agent who is the
3:13 one who then gets you hopefully a book
3:15 deal and connects you with a publishing
3:17 company a publisher and then the
3:19 publisher is the one who makes and
3:21 markets your book for you since they
3:23 they've invested in it they want to make
3:26 sure it does well and they help connect
3:27 you with the course booksellers who then
3:31 sell your book to readers who are in my
3:32 opinion the best part about this whole
3:34 equation because there is nothing like
3:36 people who have read your work in liked
3:38 it it's just it's pretty magical so I
3:39 think they're probably my favorite part
3:41 of this process but then again there's
3:42 so many of these things that I haven't
3:43 experienced yet and I can't wait to find
3:46 out what it's really like but this is
3:47 the traditional publishing process here
3:49 of course self-publishing is quite
3:51 different but at this current time I'm
3:52 not interested in self-publishing I am
3:54 interested traditional publishing so
3:56 this is as far as I know the process
3:59 that I will be hoping to go through ASAP
4:01 here we here we are you know now what is
4:02 a query letter anyway
4:04 well according to Wikipedia a query
4:06 letter is a formal letter sent to
4:08 magazine editors literary agents and
4:09 sometimes publishing houses or companies
4:11 writers write query letters to propose
4:13 writing ideas the query letter is an
4:15 author's first step towards getting
4:17 his/her their manuscript published so
4:19 what was my process like in writing my
4:21 query letters well first thing you want
4:22 to do is gonna you're gonna want to read
4:24 all of query shark which is an excellent
4:27 blog by literary agent who
4:29 she knows what they're talking about so
4:31 you got to read all of query shark and
4:32 that'll that'll really prime you for
4:33 what you should be and shouldn't be
4:35 doing and then you're gonna want to go
4:38 ahead and write your query letter it's
4:40 not easy but give it a go and then then
4:42 you're gonna have to be too afraid for
4:45 several months to do anything else after
4:47 that which is good cuz that sets you up
4:49 to then have some time off before you
4:51 revise your career letter which you know
4:52 of course you're gonna come back to it
4:54 and be like what and revise all of that
4:57 and then you're gonna have your computer
5:00 crash oh wait no that's probably just me
5:02 so hopefully you can skip this step and
5:04 then you're gonna stay up till about
5:06 like two am looking for typos before you
5:09 actually send any letters you could have
5:11 sent the motor out seven pm but you're
5:13 just gonna have to read everything
5:15 eighty thousand times to make sure
5:18 there's no typos you know hopefully you
5:19 have a friend who can assist you in this
5:22 but I I didn't so I just had to rely on
5:25 me and I don't trust me very much and
5:27 then finally you're going to submit
5:30 those letters and send those emails
5:34 which is just terrifying really just
5:37 just terrifying [Music]
5:55 [Music]
5:58 the scariest part of all this is my fear
6:01 of simple mistakes typos or missing a
6:03 detail of certain agents requirements
6:04 being the thing that gets me an
6:07 automatic rejection we all make typos
6:08 and just because we may make little
6:10 mistakes typing or grammar mistakes
6:11 doesn't mean that we can't be great
6:13 storytellers and my greatest fear
6:17 remains typos not rejection firstly
6:18 because I know that even great and
6:20 successful authors get rejections before
6:22 they get agents and secondly because no
6:25 matter what happens I freaking love my
6:29 book like even now on the 140 mm to edit
6:30 through I still give myself goosebumps
6:33 reading certain parts I love it and one
6:35 should probably love their own art at
6:37 least right so that's good and thirdly
6:39 the feedback from my beta readers is
6:41 like having a superpower or something
6:42 when it comes to fending off the sting
6:44 of rejection the positive feedback from
6:47 readers is like armor I know there are
6:49 other people out there like at least
6:52 four of them ish but still who like this
6:55 book if they like it and if you seem to
6:57 really like it then there will be others
7:00 out there who like it too I just have to
7:01 find one agent who will give this book a chance
7:02 chance
7:04 I just need one agent who loves it the
7:06 way that I do there are many many
7:09 literary agents in this world and I will
7:11 keep trying but I know I will get
7:13 rejections first and I did in fact think
7:16 it would really hurt but you know what
7:18 when I received this very first
7:19 rejection letter I was literally talking
7:21 with someone who was currently reading
7:23 my book we were talking about the story
7:25 in that very moment when that email
7:27 pinged through onto my phone and getting
7:29 that first rejection felt like something
7:30 to almost celebrate in that moment
7:33 because here was this reader in the
7:34 middle of telling me all about how they
7:36 had loved the last chapter they read and
7:39 nothing not even my very first rejection
7:41 letter could hope to knock me down from
7:43 that kind of high people loving your
7:46 work must be addictive and sure I'm
7:48 positive you can OD on that kind of
7:49 thing and get into a dangerous
7:52 overinflated headspace but I'll be
7:53 damned if it doesn't help having someone
7:55 tell you how much they liked your work
7:56 while you receive news someone else
7:57 doesn't even want to give it a chance
8:00 and if this first round comes to nothing
8:02 and the rest come back for merge
8:04 actions like these first two well I'm
8:07 going to keep going I'll change my query
8:08 letter a little bit of course but yeah
8:11 oh oh I'll keep going I'm going to fight
8:13 to get my work published to have this
8:15 story out there because even if all the
8:19 agents say no thanks I've already got
8:21 readers saying more please and I know
8:23 whose voice is loudest which one matters
8:25 most to me of all and it isn't even
8:27 those lovely obviously highly
8:29 intelligent perfect in every way beta
8:33 readers of mine it's my own heart saying
8:37 don't worry you've got this and not even
8:39 the fear of typos can compete with that
8:42 no rejection no review no one's saying
8:44 no things can take away how I feel about
8:48 this work how it has changed me how it
8:53 has saved me how it still does so keep
8:57 it coming I can take it and I'll keep writing
8:59 writing [Music]
9:11 [Music] you
9:11 you [Music]
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