Great post, Lee Ann, thanks for writing it! Publishers Marketplace also has a tool called Agent Matcher. You enter a short description of your book, and it returns a list of agents who might be a good fit. I've experimented with it. The key resides in the specificity (and conciseness) of the prompt you write. Anyway, not a bad starting place.
As a reader, I've never thought about this aspect of getting a book published. I appreciate the way you are pulling back the curtain on the whole fraught process! Thank you for continuing to share your adventures as a serious, committed author.
My field involves auditioning, where at least we are likely to have someone hear some bit of our work before judgement! But just as getting published requires different skills from the writing itself, auditioning requires some very different skills from normal performing. With an initial rejection rate of 90 - 95% in the first round of orchestra auditions, you can't let your sense of artistic worth get tied to a positive outcome. Coming close (making to the next round) can be an encouragement rather than just a disappointment.
While being able to take repeated rejection is an important trait that any serious artist must develop, tenaciousness and genuinely taking the long view can stave off discouragement and keep you in the game. (Because getting published and winning auditions are, after all, the contest aspects of our respective art forms.)
I helped a friend audition for a local community orchestra (oboe, English horn) and we were both amazed at how rigorous it was. He had to do scales, exercises and three pieces with me accompanying him and then upload a video to my YouTube account. He got past that stage and then had an in person audition with several prescribed pieces. I think he’s going to make it, but wow. But yes, you need to learn to not take all rejections personally.
I saw a violinist come out of Orchestra Hall and burst into tears after not advancing past preliminaries in Cincinnati and I remember thinking, this person is in real trouble if they react like this every time.
I do wish I had kept a complete record of my various rejections, though, as a testimony to all the time and effort!
One thing I tried to do, because auditioning was expensive and involved traveling and staying overnight everywhere, was to plan a touristy event to go with each city in case I had time to spare. When I didn't advance in St Louis, I got to go up the arch and then visit the Louis & Clark Museum - a nice memory from the only time I visited the city. I just pretended I had just flown off to the city for the day as a quick vacation. Violinist/ Jet-setter.
I wonder if there is a similar lemonade-out-of-lemons tactic available to striving novelists?
QueryTracker sounds interesting -- I'll check it out. Are you familiar with the Submission Grinder? (https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com) It's a free and useful database for tracking one's story submissions and researching the market, and your description of QueryTracker made me think of it. So what I'm really wondering: Is QueryTracker for agents what the Grinder is for submissions?
Hi, I don't do short fiction submissions. QueryTracker is focused on querying an agent who will represent you in submission of your novel for publication. QueryManager is what agents use -- it's the flip side of QueryTracker.
Great post, Lee Ann, thanks for writing it! Publishers Marketplace also has a tool called Agent Matcher. You enter a short description of your book, and it returns a list of agents who might be a good fit. I've experimented with it. The key resides in the specificity (and conciseness) of the prompt you write. Anyway, not a bad starting place.
Thanks, I will give that a try.
As a reader, I've never thought about this aspect of getting a book published. I appreciate the way you are pulling back the curtain on the whole fraught process! Thank you for continuing to share your adventures as a serious, committed author.
My field involves auditioning, where at least we are likely to have someone hear some bit of our work before judgement! But just as getting published requires different skills from the writing itself, auditioning requires some very different skills from normal performing. With an initial rejection rate of 90 - 95% in the first round of orchestra auditions, you can't let your sense of artistic worth get tied to a positive outcome. Coming close (making to the next round) can be an encouragement rather than just a disappointment.
While being able to take repeated rejection is an important trait that any serious artist must develop, tenaciousness and genuinely taking the long view can stave off discouragement and keep you in the game. (Because getting published and winning auditions are, after all, the contest aspects of our respective art forms.)
I helped a friend audition for a local community orchestra (oboe, English horn) and we were both amazed at how rigorous it was. He had to do scales, exercises and three pieces with me accompanying him and then upload a video to my YouTube account. He got past that stage and then had an in person audition with several prescribed pieces. I think he’s going to make it, but wow. But yes, you need to learn to not take all rejections personally.
Oh, he just let me know he was accepted to the Southern Delaware Orchestra!
I saw a violinist come out of Orchestra Hall and burst into tears after not advancing past preliminaries in Cincinnati and I remember thinking, this person is in real trouble if they react like this every time.
I do wish I had kept a complete record of my various rejections, though, as a testimony to all the time and effort!
One thing I tried to do, because auditioning was expensive and involved traveling and staying overnight everywhere, was to plan a touristy event to go with each city in case I had time to spare. When I didn't advance in St Louis, I got to go up the arch and then visit the Louis & Clark Museum - a nice memory from the only time I visited the city. I just pretended I had just flown off to the city for the day as a quick vacation. Violinist/ Jet-setter.
I wonder if there is a similar lemonade-out-of-lemons tactic available to striving novelists?
.
Well I get to keep reading and writing - and picking up nuggets of wisdom and inspiration along the way.
And there’s always the writers retreat!
QueryTracker sounds interesting -- I'll check it out. Are you familiar with the Submission Grinder? (https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com) It's a free and useful database for tracking one's story submissions and researching the market, and your description of QueryTracker made me think of it. So what I'm really wondering: Is QueryTracker for agents what the Grinder is for submissions?
That does sound like a very helpful tool, though!
Hi, I don't do short fiction submissions. QueryTracker is focused on querying an agent who will represent you in submission of your novel for publication. QueryManager is what agents use -- it's the flip side of QueryTracker.