Tag: querying

  • Substack: How to know when your book is ready to query?

    Substack: How to know when your book is ready to query?


    So you’ve finished a novel—congrats! That’s a huge accomplishment—most people never make it that far. But now comes the terrifying question: how do you know when it’s done? The short answer is: you don’t. But here’s what I’ve learned about deadlines, querying, rejection, and whether hiring an editor before you query is actually worth it.

    Today over on Substack, I talk about how you know you’re ready to submit.

    Read it here: http://lizwritesbooks.substack.com

    Have a Q you want A’d? Ask it on Tumblr: http://lizwritesbooks.tumblr.com/Ask

    Subscribe, comment, and share!

  • Q&A: Is there a place you can go to find a critique partner?

    I’ve been in the querying trenches for months and all the feedback I’ve gotten is to find a critique partner to work with. How does that happen? Is there a place you can go to find someone like?

    I don’t really have critique partners so much as I have friends who are writers with whom I exchange work whenever one of us needs an extra pair of eyes. But to answer your question, I got these friends by basically just talking to them. I commented on their blogs, liked their contest entries, engaged with them on Twitter, responded to their message board posts. Eventually, we became friends and began sharing our work with each other. 

    I’m sure there are places one can go specifically to find a critique partner, but I’ve never had much luck in that arena, so I wouldn’t know. Hopefully if someone else sees this and has ideas, they’ll chime in.

  • Q&A: How long did SHEIKH take from conception to this point now (w/ your agent and full r/r request)?

    How long did SHEIKH take from conception to this point now (w/ your agent and full r/r request)?

    I wrote the first few pages (all of which got scrapped in the final version) in December 2013 as a timed writing exercise, then promptly forgot about them. I found them again in late May/early June and decided to hang onto them, maybe they could be a story.

    The actual writing commenced in July 2014.

    In August 2014, I submitted synopsis and 1st 3 chapters to Harlequin.

    Harlequin’s So You Think You Can Write contest kicked off in September 2014. I entered the first chapter. Didn’t final, but I received a full request, and several agent requests. This is when I started researching agents.

    I began querying in mid-October 2014. Jessica was the first agent I queried and the first to request (that same day, even). Responses trickled in over the next few months.

    In February 2015, I received a revision request from Harlequin. Multiple pages of feedback on what I had done well in addition to what needed improvement. Great stuff.

    Jessica offered on March 4th, 2015. I accepted her offer a week later (THE. LONGEST. WEEK. EVER.) on March 11th, 2015. I finished revisions on March 18th, 2015. Tomorrow (March 25th, 2015), I’m starting a new book.

    And that’s where we are now.