It’s all about selling your story
Photo credit: Emma Matthews Digital via Unsplash
Querying a book is both a lot simpler and a lot harder than it may appear. Simple, because there are very specific things you need to include, and there is a very simple outline you can follow to make sure those elements are present. Hard, because holy cow — creating a compelling short synopsis of your book in one or two paragraphs is a major challenge!
The first thing to understand is what a query does: Sell your book! That is its purpose. Think of it as your cover letter, and the 1–10…
Is it just me, or is it getting harder?
And you thought writing the book was hard. Now you actually have to query the darn thing. This is as much an art as a science, and everyone will have their own journey. I’m sharing mine, and a little about my process, in hopes it will be helpful to you.
The honest truth: My full querying journey so far
Book #1: Really wasn’t ready. It was MFA thesis novel, the one where I learned how to write a novel, and it got some really nice feedback from agents and editors, but ultimately never sold.
Book #2: Again, some nice feedback, but two glaring points that I kept seeing over…
You have to take action and have faith, without knowing the outcome
Some people just seem to have it all figured out. They choose a life goal and they take action to achieve it. They understand what needs to be done, and there are clear steps and milestones along the way. They persevere, and through luck and hard work, they make it.
I am not one of those people. My path has been meandering, more full of accident than plan. For a long time I straddled two worlds: An approved academic professional one, and a creative one (writing and book coaching) that was at best a “side hustle” long before the term…
For women who like their history a little more visceral than Bridgerton
I don’t know what it is about me and lockdown, but this whole year my TV-watching schedule has been dominated by large, muscular men beating the crap out of each other, preferably half-naked.
Spartacus (gladiators beating each other), Vikings (Vikings beating each other), Black Sails (pirates beating each other)… you get the idea. Last week I even watched a documentary with re-enactments called Age of the Samurai with, you guessed it, samurai beating each other. And themselves: I don’t think one episode passed without a seppuku, ritual suicide by self-disembowelment. Frankly, the blood doesn’t bother me in the least. Heads…
How I figured out “what’s next” and how you can too
On February 5, 2020, I raced through a blinding snowstorm in the middle of the night to be at my mother’s hospital bedside. I wasn’t sure she’d still be alive by the time I got there (a five hour drive turned into a seven hour drive by the snow). I’d last seen her two weeks earlier, writing in the Gratitude part of my journal, “Grateful Mom is still around to visit.”
Before that, 2020 had been looking pretty good. In January my diary was filled with days out with friends, cooking, work, teaching, working on research to apply for my…
A quick lesson on perfection, mindset, and process
This past couple of weeks, I’ve been in video-making hell. I cheerfully signed up to provide a video lesson for a course creativity guru Eric Maisel is putting up, figuring that what I didn’t know about making a video I would learn as I went along.
I’ve never felt so ready to throw my computer across the room (I refrained).
Yesterday, after many hours and many attempts, I sent the final version to the guy who’s putting it all together. Actually, this was the second video I sent to him, because I wasn’t happy with the sound quality of the…
And what I’ve learned to do instead
It’s understandable that writers want to see their books out in the world as soon as possible. We see certain bestselling authors who seem to manage a book a year (or self-publishers who pump out several) and we think: I should be able to do that too.
Maybe you can. Or at least, maybe you will, eventually. But for most writers, at least those who care about the quality of their work, it takes time. There is a lot to learn at all stages of the book writing and publishing process. It doesn’t make sense to rush through it. …
And why I don’t listen to audiobooks
I read 6 books this month, surprising even me (and I’m in the middle of 2 more, but won’t finish them until March). I am getting quite a bit more reading done by adding a 10–20 minute reading time in the morning. Not that “number of books” is the goal, but it does mean that if I don’t get time to read later, at least I’ve done a little bit for the day.
A note on audiobooks: I don’t listen to them. I’ve never gotten into them, for whatever reason, even when I was regularly spending 5+ hours in the…
And skyrocket your motivation and productivity
I used to set vague, general goals for my writing. Things like, “I’ll finish the first draft of this novel by the end of the year.” What would happen, of course, is that on December 31st I would have half a draft and a bunch of notes, at best. I hadn’t thought about how I would make that particular goal happen.
Also, I only thought in terms of big goals, like completing a novel, and long-term, like a whole year. I failed to break down the larger goal into concrete steps. And I engaged in what psychologists call future discounting…
And what I do instead to be productive and stay sane
So you’re becoming That Person. The Tireless Evangelist for the latest blog post, Medium article, or self-development book you picked up on Kindle Unlimited last month (or last week) that explains how you need to do a specific set of things in a certain way first thing in the morning to be successful. We get it, this stuff is life-changing.
And I’m here to tell you: Relax.
The idea is not to slavishly follow another person’s advice, but to figure out what works best for you. This would seem to be self-evident, yet I keep reading articles about people who…
Jana Van der Veer
Writer and Book Coach at www.setyourmuseonfire.com. I’m all about firing up motivation, accountability, and strategies that keep writers writing.
