The Querying Game

by Carmen Ferreiro-Esteban

If you are serious about becoming an author you must be willing to play the querying game. The looking for, and seducing that agent, that publisher you think would be perfect for your story.

And you have to be willing to accept defeat and move on to the next target, taking rejection in stride and giving any suggestion you are offered the utmost consideration.

Querying is painful not only because of the rejection that usually follows but because of the long waiting in between.

I hate waiting. So the minute I send the queries for a finished project, I start a new one. A new project includes reading to get ideas, and, when the idea starts to take shape, reading some more to research the subject, the time period, the geography of the place where the story will take place. I love this part of writing, as I love the writing itself and the editing that comes later.

So today I should be excited because last week I finished and sent my third novel, and I am free to move on. Yet, for all my preaching, the waiting is nagging at me, more than usual. Maybe because this time it is three fold:

1. My publisher at Tanglewood Press has my second novel (The King in the Stone, the sequel to Two Moon Princess) downloaded to her e-reader and has promised me she will read it over the summer.

2. A fantasy and SF publisher in Spain has also promised to read my fourth manuscript this very summer, the one I called Garlic for Breakfast when I first started. He read the first chapter here in my blog (https://carmenferreiroesteban.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/garlic-for-breakfast-2/) and liked it well enough to request the whole manuscript.

3. Finally, I sent the revised version of my third novel, The Revenge of the Wolf King to my dream agent who had asked for me to resend it to her if I considered her suggestions.

And so now I wait. But, even as I wait, there are things I could be doing about my finished manuscripts. For instance, if the Spanish publisher likes my novel, I’d have to translate it into Spanish. So maybe, I should make the translation my next project. But my third novel is screaming for a sequel. And there is a character in Garlic for Breakfast whose story I think needs telling.

So as you see, I’m a little confused on which way to go. Not a good way to start the week.

If only I knew who will answer first.

If only I knew who will say yes.