Check Your Head

Man, it's been a while. Anyway, I'm over at Project Middle Grade Mayhem today, expanding on a theme I started a long time ago, in my old post Storytelling. If you have time, please drop by and check it out.

So What Does It All Mean?

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who reads this blog. Even if you only lurk, or even if you only clicked "follow this blog" once, years ago, and never came back, I appreciate your support.

For me, personally, this journey to publication is something I could not ever have achieved alone. To have friends, people who truly understand, that is what makes it all bearable.

Some of you are new here, so I will give you a little history. I started this blog in March of 2009, almost two years ago. At the time, I'd given up on wanting to be a writer, you know, a real writer. I hadn't written a thing in months, and I was so frustrated by how difficult it seemed to be to break into the publishing industry, I was ready to give up on my passion, and settle for the table scraps of a life the corporate world was willing to give me.

The real reason I was discouraged, though, is that I was trying to do it alone. I did not know a single other person who was a writer. I was not in contact with a single person who was a professional in the publishing industry. Sure, I researched query letters, and I wrote to some agents, but I wasn't going about it right. I didn't connect with anyone.

So long story short, before I go on for way too long about all this, I started a blog, met some amazing people, and now feel more energized about my creative passion than I ever have in my entire life. I've had short stories published, I've met agents, editors, and famous authors, but most importantly, I've begun real friendships with people whose love of writing is the same as mine.

Back when I first started, I remember looking up to bloggers who had a thousand followers like the were some kind of paragons.

I remember first meeting Elana Johnson, and she already had just over a thousand followers at the time. We became friends, and she has probably taught me more about the ancient and honorable art that is the query letter than anyone, except maybe:

Lisa and Laura Roecker have been friends of mine for a long time. They were always so nice, and were one of the first people to lend their fame to my blog, offering their support to someone just starting out. I remember being so excited watching them reach that thousand follower milestone.

I think I met Shannon Messenger before she had a thousand followers, but she's been so famous for so long, it's hard to remember. What with being the queen of the writing/publishing conference circuit, and running WriteOnCon with the ladies listed above (and Casey and Jamie), it's hard to imagine how Shannon found the time to respond to my inane comments, and send me rambling emails (which I loved, hugz, Shan).

Rock Star of the literary world, Nathan Bransford probably had more than 2500 followers when I first started reading his blog, and in fact, his blog was probably the only thing that inspired me to start a blog more than watching that movie, Julie & Julia (yes, I'm a dork, deal with it). In spite of all the people he interacts with and helps, Nathan still always found the time to respond to questions in his forums, and had the best attitude of any publishing professional I knew.

Now ... now that I'm here, wherever here is, I hate to have to tell you: having a thousand followers really doesn't mean a thing. It's just an arbitrary number, and while it's fun to look up there and see it, it means so very little compared to real, human connections, or something tangible, like actually finishing a manuscript.

I'm not saying that if you're inspired to build a popular blog with a big following that you shouldn't go for it, because you should, but I am saying that now that I've reached this milestone I'd hoped for for so long, it puts things in perspective. Things like: writing a novel, finishing the manuscript to the point where it is submittable, earning author representation from a literary agent, and selling a book to an editor, that's what really matters.

At least to me.

What about you guys? Where are you in your journey? Do you care about having a lot of blog followers? Do you read and follow the blogs I mentioned? Because if you don't, you should.

Bryan Russell's Query Letter

Okay guys, so for a little more Bryan Russell, today he is going to share his query that won him an offer of representation, after revision, from Nathan Bransford (who, for those who noticed, stopped by my blog yesterday ... yes, I am that awesome).

I want to get right to it because Bryan and I (mostly Bryan) will be analyzing this query for you all tomorrow. You will see that it is a little unconventional, but then so is Bryan, and so is his novel.

Dear Mr. Bransford,

I stumbled across some of your comments as a guest-host at Absolute Write and was impressed enough to trace my way back to your blog. I've been happily lurking there ever since. As a fellow lifelong fan of the Sacramento Kings… um, well, I'm not exactly a Kings fan, despite being an NBA addict. I do, however, miss watching Vlade drop dimes… and drop to the floor. True artistry is hard to find. Along with your NBA devotion, I was also impressed by the diversity of your reading interests and by your emphasis on representing stories that truly appeal to you regardless of genre or form. Considering this, I thought you might be the right agent to represent my novel, The Dreams of Crows, a dark epic fantasy with literary undertones.

After killing his father, Japheth flees into the wilderness only to be captured by Legion soldiers. He's given a choice: face a trial or join the Legion. The choice is not so simple, though, as a war between empires looms on the horizon. Japheth, however, has no desire to face the Strangler's Rope, and so he becomes a soldier, as his father was before him. Embroiled in the politics of the Malisc Empire, Japheth is sent to Maresh, his mother's homeland, a place simmering with rebellion. Balanced between two empires, between love and betrayal, Japheth must find a safe path to travel, guided only by the Ghost King, an enigmatic figure with uncertain motives. Unclear where his loyalties lie, he is given little time to decide, for war descends on the city known as the White Garden. Amidst death Japheth finds his path in life and an answer to his question. He is a soldier, and his loyalty is to the men who stand at his side.

My professional publishing credits include two previous literary stories (The Windsor Review), as well as an interview and an article on writing. I have participated in many writing workshops, and hold both a BA and MA in Creative Writing, as well as a degree in Education. I currently haunt numerous writing blogs and sites while running my bookstore, Inklings Bookshop, from its cozy home in Windsor, Ontario.

I have appended the first five pages of The Dreams of Crows. Upon your request, I'd be happy to send you a partial or complete manuscript. Thank you for considering my work for representation. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
Bryan Russell

So that's it. That's the query. I will share more thoughts tomorrow, but for now I will just point out that this is a clinic in how to personalize a query letter.

Feel free to share your thoughts or ask Bryan questions, but please save any of your own analysis or feedback for tomorrow.

Thanks!

A Bittersweet Goodbye.

I really wanted to write about this yesterday, but there was no time between work and family. That's okay. What I have to say will mean just as much today.

As I'm sure most of you have already heard, Nathan Bransford, AKA Agent Orange, and sometimes known around here on the QQQE as Him, is leaving agenting.


When I first read Nathan's post about his decision to move on I was devastated. It hit me like a ton of e-readers. You might wonder why it would matter so much to me. You might ask yourself why would I take it personally. To understand that you would have to know more about my story. And I don't mean the story that I'm writing. I mean my story.

I won't go into all the gory details but I had a pretty rough life, especially in my teens and early twenties. I got myself into a lot of trouble but the thing that really matters here is that I stopped writing. I had always loved reading and writing and anything that was even remotely related to the English language. When I was in school I wrote poetry, short stories, essays, articles for the school paper, even songs for girls, and I always excelled in English and Literature classes, charming every instructor I ever had with my passion for the written word. Then after high school life got in the way and I gave it up. I can't quite pin down one single reason but I didn't write a thing creatively for over a decade.

Then two years ago the bug infected me again and I set out to write a novel. When the story took me it ruled my life for 9 months or so, pounding out thousands of words a day until I had possibly the longest first draft of any aspiring novelist (okay maybe not, but those of you who know me know my first draft was LONG). I line edited it and did some simple but lazy revisions and then jumped right into querying. I didn't know any other serious writers so I had no one to show my novel to and I had never even heard of a query letter until after I finished the story. I had no idea how unprepared I was to enter the publishing world.

Those of you who know this blog know a lot of the stories from my first round of querying. They are mostly pretty terrible. I got a few requests, and did hear some very kind words about my writing, but the overall sentiment came down to "you're talented, but this needs a lot of work, and no one can represent something of this length." There were also some harsher statements. I got frustrated. Eventually I gave up. I spent several months last winter angry and in despair. Something that I had always dreamed of, even if only in the very back of my mind, now seemed impossible.

Then one day last spring, just out of curiosity, I was browsing literary agent blogs. I can't remember how I found it but I discovered Nathan Bransford's blog. Then I found his forums. I read his posts about 10 Commandments for the Happy Writer, How to Write a Query Letter, Examples of Good Queries, and many others. I couldn't believe it. After all the cold cruelty, or at least professional detachment I had felt from every other literary agent out there, here was one who was human. I felt his passion, his optimism, his kindness. I was inspired. I joined the forums, posted my query for critique, did my best to critique some other writer's queries, and suddenly I was making friends, with other writers. Suddenly there was hope. I began to connect with people who knew what they were talking about, people who had the same dreams I had, and who knew how much courage it took to pursue those dreams.

I started this blog, inpsired by Nathan's desire to give back to the writing community, I wanted to help other writers avoid the same mistakes I made. I began by posting all my terrible early queries so that people could see what not to do, and then it evolved into posting the successful queries of other blogging writers I had met, some even published or soon to be.

I got to know Nathan better. He is a well known internet phenomenon, and I'm sure he corresponds with thousands of people every week, but he took the time to respond to every direct question I asked him in the forums, even if they were just links to stupid stuff on the internet. Eventually I found the courage to email him directly, and we developed an online acquaintance, his graciousness always shining through. I became even closer with his right hand man from the forums, the sheriff Bryan Russell (Ink), who has given me so much help with my writing I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay him, even featuring some of my creative writing on his blog in the form of some flash fiction pieces (see the "my writing" page above if you would like to take a look).

I was full of hope, optimism and drive to get my novel published, and I dreamed of one day being ready to query Nathan properly and have such a brilliant human being represent my endeavors into publishing. So when I saw that Nathan was leaving agenting, I was devastated. I spent a couple hours feeling sorry for myself. Then I wondered about Bryan, suspecting, as I did, that Nathan unofficially represented him.

I wrote to Bryan, and we discussed it a little bit, and I thought about it more and I realized that I was being foolish. Of course Nathan is an amazing guy, and I'm sure that every writer he ever took on as a client would tell you that it was a pleasure to work with him, but really publishing is just a business. Your agent does not need to be your best friend. Any literary agent with connections, who is professional, and who shares your vision for the story you want to tell can represent your work. Nathan taught me that there are agents out there who are kind and giving, but he also taught me that they don't need to be placed on a pedestal.

I asked him once if he thought it would be appropriate to query agents using a little joke for my genre description. I was worried they would be insulted. He basically asked me if I would really want to work with someone who was that uptight. He had a damn good point.

So I've gone on and on now about myself and how personally affected I was by all of this but that is not what I had intended for this post to be about. First, I want to wish Nathan the best in all his endeavors. He is going to work for CNET, where he is going to help them coordinate a social media strategy. They picked a pretty good guy for that position.

Nathan is also still going to keep writing books, and he will keep the blog and forums going strong. He remains ever impassioned about books, reading, writing, and publishing, and will always continue to keep us all up to date on the newest developments in e-books.

Secondly, and truly foremost, I would like to thank Nathan for everything he has done for me, and for writers everywhere. Finding his blog and becoming encouraged again changed my life. I can't conceive of how one person could possibly find the time to do so much, and be so giving, and compassionate. He's probably too humble to ever admit it, but I believe that Nathan has touched thousands of writers in similar ways, so I just want to say that here is one man who sees it.

Thank you for everything you do Nathan.

Up with orange and monkeys, and down with mosquitoes and the Lakers!

Step Five

Hi. My name is Matthew and I'm a blogaholic.

There is never enough. Never enough time, never enough posts, never enough comments, never enough followers. Each single one is like an injection of happiness.

Today I am on Step Five.

I've admitted to Him, Nathan Bransford, to myself, and to another human being (my readers) the exact nature of my wrongs.

- I didn't shower for 2 weeks when I reached 100 followers.
- I gave my kids pop tarts for dinner because I was working on the guest post for Elana Johnson.
- I fed my kids Ritz crackers and cheese from an aerosol can because I was working on the guest post for Lisa and Laura Roecker.
- I cried and ate ice cream and took too many muscle relaxers when no one read any of my posts for the first week.
- I laid in bed for weeks when I got hard to swallow feedback about my novel. I neglected hygiene, parenting, taking the dog out and going to work for so long I developed bed sores and my leg muscles atrophied.

Soon I may share about Step Six.

Disclaimer: This post is satirical. It is not meant to offend anyone, or to belittle the integrity of 12 Step Programs anywhere, which have saved countless lives since their inception.

Step Two

Hi. My name is Matthew and I'm a blogaholic.

I can't stop reading and commenting on blogs. I get a huge adrenaline rush when a blogger responds to one of my comments.

Today I am on Step Two.

I have come to believe that a Power greater than myself can restore me to sanity. His name is Nathan Bransford.

Tomorrow I may share about Step Three.

Disclaimer: This post is satirical. It is not meant to offend anyone, or to belittle the integrity of 12 Step Programs anywhere, which have saved countless lives since their inception.

That is all.