Author Archives: jtagliere

I have a good excuse this time…

If it seems like a long time since my last post, you’re not imagining things: I haven’t managed to post an update since I started my new job.

Which I love.

But nothing in life is free, which means that that which I am loving also comes with a few sacrifices: a more-horrible-than expected evening commute; less hubby, family, friends, and personal time; more stress; and, of course, less time for my own writing, including this blog.

But, in spite of a crazy weekend (which included an on-site assignment all day Saturday–sigh–and my first-ever TV interview–hooray!), I was hellbent that this blog would be updated before I went to bed Sunday night. And since staying awake past 9:00 p.m. is also included on the sacrifice list, it’s now or never.

The battles against traffic, parental guilt, and the eternal work-life balance are nothing new to many of you out there, but they have certainly intensified for me since my return to work full-time. However, although the last few weeks have been an enormous adjustment for me and my family, I think, on the whole, it’s been a positive experience for all of us (though how something so good for me could leave me so exhausted is still a mystery to me. I mean, other than running 10K races, which are also good for me and which also leave me exhausted. Coincidentally–no deliberate lead-in attempt here whatsoever–I’m doing another 10K on June 30th. Please visit this link if you want to support me: http://support.childrenscancer.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1459792&pg=personal&fr_id=1190. I’m running in honor of my son’s dear friend, who died at age 7 from a brain tumor; this race races money for pediatric brain cancer. But I digress–hugely).

The TV interview I did today was exciting; could not believe how nervous I was. The lights! The camera! The lack of advance questions–eek! It was for the “It’s A Woman’s World” show on SPNN 6 out of the Twin Cities, and they were interviewing me about what it’s like to be a writer. Hope I didn’t embarrass myself too thoroughly. At least I didn’t throw up, which was my goal. Once it’s up and running, look for the link here.

My apologies for how disjointed and short this is–I usually like to put a little more thought into my posts, but (sigh) perhaps that–thought?–is another thing to add to the list of sacrifices. I hope not. Maybe I sound a little negative, but please don’t get the wrong impression–it’s only that it’s getting close to my bedtime, and I get cranky right around this time every night. Yep, cranky. Like a big, whiny baby just needing her bottle and her bed. Only skip the milk for mine…

Life is good–crazy, challenging, but good, good, good.

A Fork in the Road

What? There’s a fork in the road? Better pick it up before someone gets hurt [rimshot].

Sorry, I couldn’t resist—I seriously hope bad puns are not an uncontrollable side effect of all the impending changes ahead this week. What changes, you ask? Patience, my friends, patience. Submission updates first:

I haven’t sent out any additional submissions since my last post—why will shortly become clear—but I did receive 1 ½ rejection letters. No, that’s not a typo. If you want to be perfectly literal about things, then it was really 2 rejections, but I’m a fiction writer—I don’t do literal very well.

The first rejection was pretty standard—“We don’t normally write form rejection letters because we want to give you a personal touch when we reject you and your sorry piece of work, but in your case, we’re making an exception. Thanks, but this is not for us.” Meh. I’ve read worse.

The second rejection, however, thrilled me right down to the ragged toes of my fuzzy fuschia slippers (that’s why I’m only counting it as half a rejection: no crying). First, it was from my “dream agent.” Second, my dream agent clearly has the patience of a saint, because she is still corresponding with me even after I queried her three times for this book. And third—and this is huge—one line after informing me that she still didn’t feel she was the right agent for this manuscript, she wrote that she would “happily read” other material I sent to her. “Happily read!” Woohoo! That’s a door left ajar if I ever saw one. On the other hand, maybe delusions are another side effect of change? Nah. I’m sticking with huge.

Never has a rejection letter left me feeling so euphoric—and then, immediately, so panicked. Yes, panicked, because clearly, now I really need to get crackin’. But…that’s not going to be as easy tomorrow as it was yesterday.

Remember those changes I mentioned before?  Well, in addition to working on my manuscript for the last few months, I’ve also been doing some Other Writing. Writing that included, among other things, resumes, job applications, and cover letters. And that writing, as it turns out, was the more successful of the bunch, because…

I’ve got a new job.

Yay!!!!

But…I’ve got a new job.

Waaaaa!

To say I have some mixed feelings is a classic understatement: I am so thrilled about my new position (associate editor for a trade magazine) that I haven’t been able to sleep since accepting the offer. It’s exactly the job I’ve been hoping to land during all these years of freelancing. But unlike my freelancing gigs, this new one is a full-time position, which means the hours I’ve been able to while away on my own writing will now be consumed by writing for someone else.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing, really. It is. (And I’m not just saying that to avoid hate mail from desperate job seekers out there). It is a good thing (ew: first puns and now I’m channeling Martha Stewart) for me to enter the corporate world. After all, it’s been more than eleven years that I’ve been at home taking care of my family and freelancing. Eleven years—has it really been that long? Of course I’ve got some mixed feelings—it’s the end of an era.

And while we’re on the subject, oy, you want to talk mixed feelings? How about this response from my youngest child: “Mom, I don’t want you to work over the summer—I’ll miss you.” Ouch. A moment of silence, please, for the author to take a deep breath and compose herself.

Thank you. I think I can type again now.

So that’s my Fork in the Road: it’s big and it’s shiny, but it’s some got really sharp tines. And there it looms, smack dab in the middle of my road, turning me away from the path I was on and nudging me onto a strange new one, whispering smugly “You always knew this day would come, didn’t you?” Okay, that turned out a little more mixed than I intended. Ugh.

I’m happy! I’m happy! I’m happy! There—balance restored.

Well, we all know what they say about two roads diverging, don’t we. So–Here’s to my new, unexplored road—wish me luck!

 

 

 

 

And the beat goes on…

Where was I? Ah, yes. updates. I haven’t done much since the last post. I’ll cop to it: I could not muster any enthusiasm for queries the last couple of weeks. But today, I forced myself back to the task and found myself surprisingly energized. I’ll blame the Bloomington Writers’ Festival I attended last weekend for that–a great event, and very motivating.

So where are we today? According to my submission spreadsheet, I’m up to 8 total queries, 3 of them completed today. It’s such a time-consuming endeavor, these queries, and I’m not even talking about the wait to hear back from anyone. I would feel guilty complaining about that after listening to one literary agent speak at the festival this weekend about receiving 3,000 queries a month. I understand why it can take a very long time to hear back about a submission with that kind of work load.

No, the time-consuming part for me is, and always has been, that each agency is so different in what they require. Take 2 of the 3 I completed today (hopefully someone will). One was very old-school: snail-mail only, absolutely nothing by e-mail, and roughly 60 pages–query letter, synopsis, and 3-chapter sample–to print out and send. Just the printing took half an hour! And of course, then I opened my address book only to find I had used my last stamp yesterday. Grumble, grumble…Add in a trip to buy stamps.

The other agency could not have been more different: e-mail only, no attachments, don’t send us any paper or we’ll hunt you down and horse-whip you and make sure you’re never represented by anyone. (I added that last part, though it was clearly implied in the submissions FAQ.) Sigh. Why can’t they all be like that? Minus the horse-whipping, of course.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed trying to follow each agency’s specific directions, which is probably why I took a couple of weeks off. But then I started trying to think of the steps as a sort of quest, a test of my endurance and my determination. Maybe, just maybe, if I jump through all these hoops they lay out, this’ll be the one that bites. Not in a pejorative sense (though this process definitely does)–I mean like the big fish biting at the hook I’ve so painstakingly buried within those reams of paper.

Here, fishy, fishy, fishy…stay tuned.

 

Update…

The querying process is well under way at this point: Believe it or not, I’ve already received my first rejection letter! This one didn’t sting too badly, however, as it was kind of a long shot, anyway. I submitted my manuscript to this agent last year, before working with C. to edit it, so I thought it couldn’t hurt to reach out to her again, especially since she’d offered me some very positive and encouraging feedback the last time. Alas, she is, as she put it, totally “swamped” and behind on her current load, so she declined a second read.

Hey–the way I look at it, any rejection letter that doesn’t begin or end with the words “You suck” or “Drop dead” should be viewed as a positive experience. I’m just messin’ with you again–I’ve never actually had anyone respond that way. Though one agent did respond so quickly to my query last year that he might as well have used those words–we’re talking perhaps 60 seconds elapsing between my hitting the ‘Send’ button and his reply hitting my inbox (and my gut). Ouch.

So–where are we this week? I reached out to another long-shot agent, who read me twice last year, providing good feedback; we’ll see what she has to say. I also submitted to the Tarcher-Penguin contest, as well as sending e-queries to 2 other agents. 

Research on other possibles continues apace…stay tuned.    

 

  

The 877th Time is the Charm

Surely it hasn’t been that many, has it? 

Queries, that is. Well, it can certainly feel that way. But once again, I am embarking on that same old journey to publication, but this time, I’m riding a brand-new wagon!

C. and I finished our edits, and I think the manuscript is worlds better than it was when we started, so I am much more optimistic about finding an agent or a publisher this time around, more so than I have been since I wrote my very first query letter.

Now the real work begins. (I bet you thought the hard part was writing the novel, didn’t you?)

Submission-tracking spreadsheet? Check.

2012 Writer’s Market? Check.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Book Proposals & Query Letters? Um. No. I skipped that one. I already feel enough like an idiot without broadcasting it to the world by buying a book titled to confirm it. Uncheck.

Here we go. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, let’s review the steps:

1.) Research the market.

2.) Research the specific agent/publisher to whom you wish to submit.

3.) Craft the best damned query letter you can (after, of course, having written the best damned book you can write)–if you don’t know what that looks like, see The Complete Idiot‘s reference book mentioned above.

4.) Research the agent/publisher’s guidelines and follow them to the letter.

5.) Wait.

6.) Wait.

7.) Wait.

8.) Wait.

9.) Wait.

10.) Repeat steps 1-9 as needed with new agents/publishers until a.) published; b.) definitively rejected; c.) death.

Nah, I’m just yanking your chain. It’s not that bad–it can just feel that way sometimes. Let’s face it, it’s a competitive endeavor, and some agents receive hundreds of queries–perhaps thousands–every month. This is not an endeavor for the faint of heart.

But wait–this is the new optimistic me, so let me turn over a new leaf: I’ll say step 10 this time around will be “open celebratory bottle of champagne when offer is made by agent of choice.”

After all, tomorrow is another day, right? Stay tuned.