querying

Weekly Ramble #173

Lee Hall Leave a comment

The process of querying has a lot of moving parts. Right now I’m arranging my pieces to begin playing what might be an enduring game of chess with patience and foresight being the attributes needed to survive.

If you don’t try, you’ll never know – that’s my philosophy as I look over my drafted synopsis and query letter. The truth is, I can follow as much guidance one can find online to perfect them but this is always going to be leap of faith. These days, it is a lot easier to find ways to connect with others online and I’m hoping social media and wider online world can be used to my advantage. Finding the right person to enjoy and then embrace my work is a game I’ve been playing for many years now. Being an indie author to me is convincing one person at a time to have faith in my stuff.

My very own chess board already contains some distinguished pieces and so I’m hopeful they can help with the process. Right now ideas are forming in my mind about putting together a specific query diary series to share with my closest and best followers. Afterall this is going to be a journey of learning.

Weekly Ramble #54

Lee Hall 1 Comment

I need an agent. That is my conclusion if I want to achieve what I want to achieve. With every book my following goes from strength to strength and without disparaging any of my supporters, it’s not enough. My reach or lack of it belittles what I have achieved in writing. Without sounding high and mighty, my efforts as a story teller are falling on deaf ears. 

As a person who started this at absolute zero I cannot help but look back and be damn proud of where I am. But if this dream of mine was a house I built from the foundations, I’m still siting in the footings of the basement. For the stories I have written and the efforts I have put in, the return if I were to look at this as a business person is lacklustre. The board of directors would have shut me down after book 2’s release.

It’s conflicting because ‘business’ is not what this journey is about. I’ve written 5 books. Every single one them became a huge learning experience in both publishing and the written word. Some incredible folks have helped me get them out there; editors, cover artists and the like. Reviewers have kept my belief alive. For all these efforts in vain I am a story teller and I know what a story is. You can only learn to write stories by finding it within yourself. Anyone can be taught grammar, punctuation, spelling and all of the functions of language, but to be able to pen a story from beginning, middle to end with everything in between, that is what I learned while putting together 5 books.

And now after everything I set out to do, even in creating this blog, I am back where I started – looking for a literary agent. But this time I am armed with experience and the know how of story telling. The times have changed and everything I thought I knew about getting an agent, the last time I queried circa 2013, has changed. Apparently science fiction isn’t looked down on anymore. It just so happens to be the genre I am going to use to find an agent. But I need a book and I’ve got one. This year I drafted ‘Jack Thorn’ a story, the story that got me into writing. It’s funny how things go full circle. And as I said, I need an agent…

Have you queried to agents recently? Any good responses? Let me know via the comments, this is our journey, not just mine…