This is how I'm feeling today!

P.S. I'm working towards my dream of owning a coat in every colour possible.
P.P.S. Just one day till my birthday!

Skirtzilla

I found this gorgeous green crinoline in an op-shop on Friday for $15 ... one of my favourite finds yet! It was actually one of those magical thrifting days that unearthed many treasures ... they'll all make appearances soon. LOML calls it Skirtzilla and pretends to be attacked by it.

Now that the book is finished and sent off, the usual post-book blues have set in. I'm looking forward to continuing work on New Book while I wait, but I've also become painfully aware of things that went to the back of my mind during the final weeks of rewrites. Things like my healthy eating and exercise regimen, which suffered somewhat in the final stages of the book. Housework. Money. They all took a back seat to the book, and now they're jumping up and down in the front seat saying "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" I suppose now is a good time to concentrate on all those neglected things. I feel a bit yukky at the moment, because I haven't been eating well and my hair is driving me completely mental, so those will be the first things to tackle.

Fin

The book has gone! I emailed it off today. And now ... we wait. (Said in Hollywood blockbuster voice). I'm actually pretty happy with the book now that it has undergone its gastric bypass and plastic surgery (it slimmed down a lot - from 100,000 words to 75,000), and I have all my fingers and toes crossed hoping that it will come to something. Wish me luck!

I was in cosy mode today, as I finished the final changes. This sweater is the most deliciously soft thing I own - it's from the 1970s, and still had its tags on when I bought it. I suppose a vintage purist might not have cut them off, but they would be very uncomfortable.

In other and completely irrelevant news, I'm so looking forward to cutting my hair off next week. It's driving me crazy.

Jacket of Fate (and hello to Annette)

I finally picked up the Kismet Jacket (it's a long story). It is wonderful. I am planning to wear the dress and jacket together to my first book launch, whenever that may be. Seeing it hanging there will be another reminder of what I'm working towards. (And besides, it's pretty).

Also, hello to Annette, who I bumped into today in Sydenham! It's the first time I've ever been recognised by a blog reader in 'real' life, and I came over all shy and couldn't think of anything to say. So sorry for being awkward, Annette, and it was lovely to meet you. Hope you thrifted something wonderful!

P.S. Best Friend Ally has posted pictures of herself with a home-made moustache on her blog, and I really think you should take a look. I was impressed.

Thank you!

First of all, thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my giveaway post - I'm excited about the number of people entering, it's going to be fun! If you haven't entered yet, it's the post below this one - or you can click on the icon in the sidebar to be taken directly to the page. I am a bit behind on responding to comments, because life is a bit jam-packed at the moment, but I will reply to them all soon. Thank you also to those who commented for the first time, it's really nice to (virtually) meet you.

I am feeling a million times better today, and we're off to a wedding rehearsal and barbecue tonight - LOML is the official photographer for the wedding on Saturday, and I am acting as his assistant. I also (fanfare, please) picked up my bag. It is an antique doctor's bag, and I love it, particularly because it has my initials in gold on the front.

I could have sworn it opened and shut and that the lock was broken, but I can't get it open now for the life of me. I will probably have to take it to a locksmith - darn. But worth it. Mink isn't impressed, however.

I found this quote of Neil Gaiman's on David Anthony Durham's blog this morning:

"It does help, to be a writer, to have the sort of crazed ego that doesn't allow for failure. The best reaction to a rejection slip is a sort of wild-eyed madness, an evil grin, and sitting yourself in front of the keyboard muttering "Okay, you bastards. Try rejecting this!" and then writing something so unbelievably brilliant that all other writers will disembowel themselves with their pens upon reading it, because there's nothing left to write. Because the rejection slips will arrive. And, if the books are published, then you can pretty much guarantee that bad reviews will be as well. And you'll need to learn how to shrug and keep going. Or you stop, and get a real job."

- Neil Gaiman

When I see I have a response from an agent in my inbox, I do this: say to myself "this is a rejection", take a deep breath, click on it and read it as quickly as possible so there is no suspense at all and I don't get my hopes up. This is definitely not in keeping with The Secret or the chirpy philosophies of Positive Thinking, but it works quite well. If it is a rejection I can say "oh well, no surprise there" (although inside I am ripping a couch cushion apart with my teeth and wailing like a cat on a fence), but if it is something else I am pleasantly surprised. I received two not-rejections over the last couple of days - the first was a request for a full from a partial - yay! and she said she enjoyed the partial - and the second was a note from another agent saying that she was really enjoying the full and would get back to me in the New Year. Hooray! In keeping with my system, however, I'm not getting my hopes up. It's just easier that way. But fingers crossed, all the same.

I posted the full manuscript off to London this morning (to a company that doesn't accept email submissions) - sixty dollars! Holy cow. It still hurts. I think my wallet will need stitches.

Update: LOML opened the bag in five seconds flat. Typical.

The agent-hunting process

A couple of you left comments on the last post asking how this whole agent-hunt shebang works, so I thought I would give a brief description for anyone who's interested. Feel free to skip if you know all this already! And published-type friends, feel free to jump in with any other information in the comments.

Step 1 - write a book. A year of your life passes, waves crash on distant beaches, a tree grows in Brooklyn. When you're finished, revise and edit over and over until you're sick of it. Then do it again.

Step 2 - you're ready to submit your manuscript ... to publishers? Nope. Bad idea. Unless you live in New Zealand and you want it published in New Zealand, because we're so tiny that you can submit directly to publishers here and they don't get grumpy. But if you think your book would do better in an international market, then you need to research agents in your country of choice. I went to a UK database and went through all of the listings to find my selection - you can also look up authors whose work is similar to yours, and see who represents them. And ask for recommendations from writerly friends.

You need an agent. Because publishers really don't like getting unsolicited submissions and often will only look at agent submissions, and because an agent will handle the contracts, financial stuff, legal rights and all the things that, if you're like me, you probably wouldn't be too good at. And they'll also get you a good deal, because it is in their interests.

Step 3 - so, you've found some agencies that look promising. You now need to research the individual agents to find one who would be interested in you, as it would be silly to send your erotic historic vampire romance novel to someone who only deals in science-fiction.

Step 4 - once you've found your agent, you need to write a query letter of great brilliance that will make them want to look at your manuscript. This is hard and evil, but once you have a good query letter it will be the powerful weapon you wield against the forces of darkness (got a bit carried away there), and so it has to be done.

Oh, and check the agency's submission guidelines first - most of them will ask you to send a query letter via post or email (SO much easier and cheaper than post, I wish they all allowed email submissions), but some will allow you to submit a synopsis and partial (that is, part of the manuscript) as well. Always good to check. No point making them crankier by not following the rules.

Step 5 - PERSONALISE the query letter and please don't do what I did once and forget to change the name before you send it to a different agent. Oops. I wrote a post on query letters here which gives Nathan Bransford's excellent query letter formula and my example of how this can be filled out (tee hee). Then read it through, bite your nails, have a stiff drink and send it to your selected agents.

Step 6 - the time scale of publishing is a glacial one, usually. Some agents will reply to you quickly, but some will take ages. It is quite soul-destroying. Hopefully, however, you will receive some chirpy responses from agents saying, yes please, we would love to see your masterpiece. Even better if they allow you to send it as an email attachment rather than asking you to send a pile of paper that looks like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey through the mail. They will request:

a) a partial, which could be anything from the first three chapters to the first 100 pages, or
b) a full.

They might also request a synopsis. These are, if anything, more evil than the query letter. I would actually suggest you write one as soon as you've finished the book, just in case, instead of drinking twelve cups of coffee and doing it in one day after an agent requested it, which is what I did. Once you have a synopsis, it's worth sending it along with your partial or full, even if the agent hasn't requested it. Makes their jobs a bit easier, which is always a good thing. Keeping the agent in a good mood is key.

Step 7 - make sure your manuscript is formatted correctly. There's a good guide here. Make sure you number the pages and put your name and the title of the work on each page, in case they get out of order or lost. This is really important.

Step 8 - send it, along with an informative, polite and businesslike email which has your previous correspondence embedded in it, because agents are busy people and you don't want them to have to go through their inbox searching for your information. That makes them cranky.

Step 9 - this is where the glacial pace kicks in again. A lot of agencies say you shouldn't expect to hear anything until after 3 months have passed. It varies. But hopefully you will receive a request for a full from an agent who had the partial - or perhaps you will even get an offer of representation - sooner rather than later. If you haven't heard from them in 3 months, give them a polite nudge (not literally), like I did yesterday, and hopefully they will respond. It can take months. It can even take a year. Or more. I have only been doing this for three months, so I have a long way to go.

It is a long process, and it is only the start of the even longer process that is publication. Glaciers, slow-moving land mammals and the plots of really boring movies have nothing on the speed of the publishing world. Do I sound a bit impatient? It's probably because I am. Anyway, I hope that answers your questions! Thank you again for all your comments, I really do appreciate them greatly.

I have it!

I sprinted down to the thrift store five minutes before it opened, and, to my horror, saw that they had opened a few minutes early and a lady was already examining the dress. Of course, the shop is on the other side of the road, and it's one of the busiest roads in the city, so I had to wait for the little green man to start blinking before I could run across and burst dramatically into the store.

The lady who was looking at MY dress had turned away to look at something else, so I grabbed the nearest shop assistant and asked them to take it off the mannequin so I could try it on. I told them the whole incoherent story of how I had been dreaming about the dress all weekend, and they were very nice and did not back away and press the panic button as they would be entitled to do. I tried it on. It fit perfectly. I looked at the price tag. Twenty dollars! Really? Shop assistant confirmed it.

Twenty dollars!

I am thrilled.

If this is any indication of how the rest of September is going to be, well ... I can't wait.