Timeline

Ok, since I am a little  extremely behind on starting this blog, I'm going to quickly do a review of these last few months. First, I suppose it would make sense to make a timeline, and mention the stats on the book I'm getting ready to pitch! I will update this when new stats are available! Oooo, charts!

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2012

1. April 20th-ish: Started writing.
2. September 20th-ish: Finished writing. Only six months?  It's like I nabbed the star in Mario-Kart! Not having an outside job helps too.
3. September 21st-ish-through-December: Extensive edit passes. I also edited during the six months of writing--which I do not suggest! I will make a separate post about that!
4. Started thoroughly researching literary agents sometime in October.
5. Wrote a query letter after finishing the manuscript in September. Realized it was terrible in December and started reading as much as I could on queries. A query is your first impression, and if it isn't a good one--it's your last. 

2013

1. First week in January: I read all the backlogs on AgentQueryConnect, and tried to make notes of fairly consistent criticisms. I also read samples of successful queries on that site, and started typing in my favorite authors to see if I could take a peak at their queries too (since I was familiar with what their books were actually about). I then spent three agonizing days cutting my query down to size; re-writing it in as many different ways as possible; and finally, obsessively re-tweaking 198 words until I felt I would go mad. I let the query sit for a couple of days; revisited; a couple more tweaks; let it sit; looked at it again: YAY! This is it!
2. January 15th: Finally had the guts to post my query letter on AgentQueryConnect !
3. January 17th (today): Getting good feedback on the query! I am so on cloud nine right now!
4. --To end of January: Working on synopses. Yep, plural. Since so many agents ask for specific lengths, I want to have a detailed 5 pager, and a short 2 and a super short 1--since those seem to be more often requested. Can't hurt to be prepared for anything!