Found an old checklist from 2007, when I began shopping the novel:
Tasks to complete before shopping a manuscript:
1 ) Write a novel you would pay for. Check.
2 ) Solicit feedback from people who have no love for the concept, your writing, or your wit and hopefully know a lot more about the material than you. Check.
3 ) Receive and implement that feedback. Check.
4 ) See step 2 and 3. Check.
5 ) Revise, revise, revise. Check.
6 ) Develop a two page synopsis proving there’s a story behind that novel. Check.
7 ) Craft an engaging query letter reducing the story, and your qualifications to write said tale in four hundred words or less. Check.
8 ) Realize that the publishing world has changed dramatically in the last twenty-four months, and that step 7 need serious reconsideration.
And that’s where I am right now, working on and towards a new step 7–and beyond. What seemed unthinkable and hardly an option at all in February 2007, which is when I began and then shelved this entry, now in January of 2007 seems worth a try.
More on this in the next few days . . .
Or as The Great Russian Poet says of query letters… they should all begin, “Dear Mother F***er….” and end with “Go f yourself. Sincerely, ”
At this point, what do you have to lose?
Just a thought, though.
Yay, I know of the great Russian poet you speak. Something tells me he’d be successful in any milieu.
True at this point, what do I have to lose . . . except my sanity.
But you can only lose your sanity once! After that you are in the clear! Just don’t put any uncapped pens in your khaki pants pockets– it may just be the only unsuccessful milieu the Russian Great has problems with.