Query Challenge

Tip of the Day: haven't queried on any of your books in awhile? Sometimes the best medicine is just to get back in the game.

Despite having the pseudonym Miss Querylicious on this blog, I haven't been doing much querying at all lately. In a desperate attempt to reasure myself it hasn't been "that long," I searched my email and was shocked to find my last real query was sent in June of 2008.

A whole YEAR.

As is 52 weeks.

365 Days.

8760 Hours.

525600 Minutes.

OMG times 10. Not only can I not get the Rent song out of my head now, but I honestly can't believe it has been that long. My mind must have been playing tricks on me, because it's felt more like a few weeks since I last queried. The stings of the rejection letters seem fresh.

Moving on to new books does seem to lessen the querying process, because it takes awhile before you can query again. At least that's what I must have been telling myself, despite the fact since those queries were sent I've done extensive revisions on two of my last books for either editors or old query requests that had been coming in.

And even though my books had improved dramatically through those revisions, I still never queried them to more agents or editors, instead I was enticed by my new, shiny books that screamed, "work on me, don't query that old, warn out book. I'm pretty and new and much more fun." Now that those new books aren't as fresh, I've decided to look up some more agents and query on my last two books, which I still love and believe in.

So I'm issuing a query challenge to myself and to all the blog readers who'd like to participate. The challenge will be easy and in fact there are no rules. (Okay, well maybe one rule...which is to make your own rules to challenge yourself in regards to queries. Mine is going to be to query five agents by the end of the week. Your's might be to query someone new, send out more queries than you have been, or just to write your first query or write a query for the book you are working on.)

Let me know if you are up for the challenge...

--Emily, Miss Trying to be Querylicious Again

So What's Up With Procrastination?

Tip of the Day: Need a smile? Check out the awesome writer-focused cartoons at www.inkygirl.com, the talented Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Daily Diversions for Writers. The new site design looks great, Debbie!

Now that the worst is over, I can talk about it. I just emerged from a horrific case of writer's procrastination.

See, I came up with a great plan to revise my novel. I have a chapter-by-chapter map for revision, a spreadsheet, a timeline ... Anyway, I thought I had exactly what I needed to do laid down. And figuring out what to do is the hard part, right? It's like in cooking. Once you have the carrots peeled and the garlic minced and the pasta drained, once you have all the ingredients prepped and in place, the rest is fun and easy. That's what I thought.

So armed with my outline and timeline and storyline, I proceeded to clean the house. Switch out the summer clothers. Get some sewing done. Remember how to play Spider Solitaire. I had totally forgotten that.

I could not, to save my life, get myself to sit down and write! Soon I started stressing and feeling down about it. What was wrong with me?

Fortunately, Kristi Holl had a great blog post recently about procrastination at http://tinyurl.com/nkyzvf. She talked about procrastination as fear. Fear, me? Ha, I procrastinated by labeling all the fear I had:

1. Fear of Failure: By far my biggest problem. What if, even after making this revision, this novel still isn't good? What if it's basically unrevisable? What if I'm totally wasting my time because I'm not smart enough to write this story?

2. Fear of Success: When I finish this, I have to send it out again, don't I? Write query letters, check my email all the time even though I say I won't. Oh no.

3. Fear of Standing Still: What if this revision isn't enough? I've been revising this novel forever. What if I'm stuck in some kind of sick cycle where I'll be revising this novel over and over until I die? And my descendants will read it and think it would have been good if only I had edited it more?

Finally this weekend, my daughter went to a birthday party and my husband took my son out for haircuts. I realized that if I blew this chance to write in peace, I'd be so angry at myself I'd be impossible to live with. So I forced myself to open Chapter 1. And I revised two and a half chapters! Woo-hoo!

The fear is still there. I stopped because I hit a hard part (the end of chapter 3 needs an entire rewrite) and it will be hard. But you know what? The revision went a lot better than I thought it would. I came up with a great way to solve a problem in chapter 1, right there on the fly. Sure, it was one line at a time for a while (OK, she could say that, and then my MC could say that). But I'm happy with the work I did. Maybe it wasn't fear. Maybe I just needed a break before I could approach the novel with the right distance ...

Nah, it was fear. But we writers have to face our fears, don't we?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

When it comes to bookstores, I've hit the jackpot

Tip of the day: Powell's has 11 copies of FAR FROM YOU that are signed, by me! You can order them on-line by simply putting one in your shopping cart. Try reading it on a hot day this summer - it'll cool you off! Go here to order!

When people think of Portland, they think of this bookstore:

That's the downtown store, and I'm just not downtown very often. There's a Powell's store close to my house, though, that I do love, and that's where I've had my book signings.

But I also really love Annie Bloom's, a bookstore in this cute little neighborhood called Multnomah Village. It's convenient to my work, so sometimes I go there on my lunch hour and shop. When we have a baby shower at work, we often get some great books for the baby and mom, ones we've bought at Annie Bloom's.

But there's one place I go weekly to get books. The Beaverton City Library:

Isn't it beautiful? I love it!!! I actually have my 14 digit library number memorized, I reserve books on-line so often. I always have at least one book on CD in my car to listen to during my 30 minute commute to and from work. It allows me to get two more books read per month than I'd normally be able to.

Anyway, have you been to Powell's? If you ever come to Portland, let me know and we can meet up for coffee and books!! It's a fun place to take out-of-town guests!

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

Best. Indie. Ever.

Tip of the Day: When you're signing books don't use a black pen. Use blue or another color. The booksigning coordinator at the bookstore I'm talking about today gave me this tip and I'm passing it along.

This is Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL (west suburb of Chicago).

I don't mean to brag...okay, I do. I live near the BEST. INDIE. EVER. There is no arguing-- it just is. Let me tell you why:

1) It's in a totally cute location. Really, downtown Naperville is one of the BEST places to spend an afternoon.















Lots of shopping, awesome dining, and a beautiful riverwalk to walk along. You can grab a latte, stop off for some cute candy at a specialty shop, feed the massive amount of ducks in the river, and then pick up some new books.

2) They love young adult books and love young adult authors! If you're a blog reader of authors you'll seriously see every author mention them at least once. Great place to visit.

3) Which bring me to the next one-- everyone comes here! For real! When ever you hear an author is about to start a tour I bet you see Anderson's as one of their very first stops. Here's me and Meg in 2007 (the week I got my publishing deal-- I was a bit delirious).

4) Book selection. Duh, I should have mentioned this earlier but they have EVERYTHING! And this is really a big deal. Let me tell you why. I walk into my local (hmm. Maybe I shouldn't say. It's a chain. We'll leave it at that. I'm sure you can guess. :) ) and I can't find half of what I'm looking for. (I'm not trying to bash this chain but they don't seem to get a lot of the new releases. They mostly just carry the Twilight, Harry Potter, best sellers.) For example, about a month ago I went in with a list of TEN new books that came out in 2009. I found TWO of the ten. Hmph.

5) They hook you up! Anderson's is awesome for hooking authors up with schools for visits.

6) They host an annual Children's Literary Breakfast every year! Very cool. Picture superstar big name authors speaking, 600 or so librarians and educators, 40 or 50 Illinois children's authors hopping from table to table meeting everyone, and yummy food. Oh, and did I mention schwag? I love schwag.

and last but not least

7) They make my social calendar happy. There are always GREAT authors coming to Anderson's . Check out just who is coming this month. Julianne Moore, Lauren Conrad (yeah, THE HILLS' Lauren!),
















and Ally Carter. Next month Lauren Myracle, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Sarah Dessen! (note: they actually have a LOT more authors than this coming-- these are just the people that I want to see!).

So, see what I mean? Best Indie Ever right?

Kristina, Miss Delighted to Debut

Raindrops on Roses (or Whiskers on Kittens)

Tip of the Day: Be an ergonomic reader -- keep paperbacks on hand for lightweight treadmill reading, and hardcovers on hand for stationary/bedtime reading.

Here in the Rochester, NY area, we have one -- count 'em ONE -- indy bookstore that carries new books. Lift Bridge Book Shop in my college town of Brockport! They have a fantastic assortment of children's, YA, and adult books, not to mention a basement full of college text books.



I have ordered books from Lift Bridge for my holiday shopping, and the guy who handles the orders is always friendly, fast, and communicative. You're not talking to a pre-recorded message! For out of town friends and family, Lift Bridge will giftwrap your books for free before shipping them! I've used this service a few times as well and they do a great job.

I love my old college town and hope this bookstore is a staple there for years to come! Yay for indies! Buy from them when you can! When my book sells, I would love to have an event there. Who will join me?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Confessions of a Bargain Book Buyer

Tip of the Day: looking for good writing exercises? This Web site has tons.

Almost every weekend during High School, my friends and I would invade our local Borders for entertainment purposes.

We'd cosy up on a couch, scan through house floor plan books (those ones that show page-after-page of nothing but the blueprints to house plans--is it any wonder I'm now obsessed with HGTV?) and then dream of what type of houses we'd have when we grew up.

But we never bought a single book, and only occasionally splurged on a coffee or hot chocolate. Rebelious teenagers that we were.

In short, I was the type of customer bookstores hate. And I still am (sorry bookstores--I love you though, doesn't that count for anything?)

All these years later, I still love visiting bookstores. Being surrounded by nothing but pretty books to look at = awesome, not to mention the warm atmosphere that makes you want to stay longer than any other store. I love going into my local Barnes & Noble (like, Kate) to just browse book titles, see what's new, and add to my "must read" list.

But then...I leave.

Maybe it's the budget shopper in me, but knowing you can get a book cheaper online makes it nearly impossible for me to fork over my money in the store. Saving one or two dollars is like hitting the jackpot on a penny slot machine to me. It's a thrill just to win, no matter what it is. Not to mention working at a library, and knowing I can go in, have it ordered for the library, and then confiscate it as soon as the book comes in to get the first read. Penny-saving Emily likes to get the best deal.

So in short, I love book-and-mortar bookstores. I just love them to browse for books, get hot chocolates, and then get ideas for books to order on Amazon or for our library, depending on if I want it for my own collection or not.

If that makes me a horrible book buyer/reader, then so be it. Somethings you can change, but getting the "bargain" out of your brain seems to be a superhuman feat, and apparently I'm not ready for my purple and gold spandex suit yet.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Do You Have a Book on Russia? That's Red?

Tip of the Day: Are you reluctant to share your good writing news because you're not sure how your writing friends will feel about it? Hey, good news energizes me! I've heard some great news from people I know lately and I love it. I think it might be time for a celebration party! Let your crit partners know how you like to celebrate.

This week at A2A, we're talking about books, books, and more books. We heart books. And specifically, we're thinking about buying books. That's, you know, our patriotic duty to boost the economy. Sure, that sounds good.

Do you know, I've had the worst luck with independent book stores. I'm like a curse on them. I move into a town and they close down. This has to be coincidence because I know I'm spending too much money on books. (Although my husband is more concerned with space issues at this point.)

I tend to buy my books at Barnes and Noble because I'm a former employee. That gives me a familiarity with the layout of the place, how the peons get underpaid, etc. Not that I'm complaining about working there. I loved it! The employee discount was the bomb and the work was fun, fun, fun. I shelved books and talked to customers about books and got paid for it. It just didn't pay well.

I worked at the Barnes and Noble in Charlottesville, VA where our most famous customer was Sissy Spacek. She used to come in with her kids all the time. Howie Long was usually around, although you could've said that about any place in Charlottesville. John Grisham, Dave Matthews ... you could star spot at the Charlottesville B&N.

I used to get totally fueled up on that yummy Starbucks coffee and dash around the store, deciding which titles to face front and answering customer questions. I didn't get too many stupid questions; it was mostly people ordering books we didn't have in stock. My favorite questions were the cover-type questions. I guess a lot of people remember what book covers look like after they forget the title and author. So people would often describe covers to me and we'd play "Guess the Book." I never guessed any of these correctly. It's a hard game. How do you answer "I'm looking for a book I read a few years ago on Russia, and I remember that the cover is red. Do you know what it is?" Here's the thing about books on Russia--ALL their covers are red. Just not read. Ha. (Sorry.)

Eventually I needed a real career to pay the mortgage, so I left my bookstore clerk job. I'd definitely do it again someday. Sigh. Why do all the fun jobs pay so poorly?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages