Shouting into the Void

For whatever reason, today ended up becoming my annual Query Day. With only a few breaks and a lunch, I researched and narrowed a list of 89 literary agents who accept e-mail queries, and queried the 15 who accept fantasy.

I discovered that e-mail queries are much more time-consuming. Chugging them out a rate of about two per hour is really discouraging. Even worse, the rejections started coming in before I'd even finished the list. That was fun.

On the upside, I saved so much postage! I didn't have to send the query or waste money and time on SASEs. Not to mention the agony of waiting.

An interesting development: one agent sent me a very nice rejection, and asked to see my YA, even after I replied that it was unfinished. So I got a little two-for-one. I really liked the agent, too, so hopefully her response to my YA synopsis and pages will be positive.

Now that I've got a raging backache, I guess I'll quit procrastinating and get back to polishing Book One. I worked through it some more the other day, and so far, I haven't wanted to change much. It's definitely ready to send off to anyone requesting the full. The story is solid, the writing is solid; all I'm doing is picking at words, and I could do that forever. I am about to officially rename this process "nit-picking" and declare Book One done.