by Colby Marshall, @ColbyMarshall
You’ve done it. You’ve finished and polished your first manuscript. Let’s see, what’s next. Whaaat to do next…
Oh, no… Not that…
*cue Jaws theme*
The query. You have to write a damned query.
This one page pitch beast is to publishing what that obnoxious 900 sheet stack of mortgage paperwork that requires a signature every page is to a homebuyer who just wants the damned key to their house already. But it’s a necessary evil. And it’s not easy.Continue reading
by Colby Marshall, @colbymarshall
The first time I pitched agents in person was a terrifying, enlightening, fantastic, and awful experience. I met my now-agent that day, but I also made some mistakes that—trust me—I would be sure I never made again. (For Example: that bad joke I threw out as I sat down across the table from an agent with a sign hanging behind her that read, ‘No genre romances, no unicorns.’ The first words out of my mouth probably shouldn’t have been, “So, I guess you’re really going to love A Tail that Shines, my Unicorn Romance complete at 97,000 words.”
But, after a dodging a few cuss words, outrunning an intern who’d been promised a partnership if she returned wearing my scalp, and vowing to myself that I’d never joke about another directional sign at a pitch conference so long as I lived, I ended up taking the paper sack off my head for the last day of the conference in order to actually taste the food I’d already paid for once before heading home instead of sitting behind it blindly and in shame like I had the rest of the week. Continue reading
