Early Friday morning, I dropped Mrs. V off at the airport for her two-week trip to China. Since then, I have:
1) Eaten food from McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, and Arby’s,
2) Not shaved at all,
3) Not washed a single dish,
4) Admired some very “artistic” pictures while cruising the web (don’t worry parents, I won’t provide the links),
5) And have finished two chapters of my novel.
As much as I enjoyed Task Number 4, I’m really happy that I was able to get a lot of writing done. Maybe two chapters doesn’t sound like a lot to you, but for me, that’s monumental. I’m usually lucky to finish one scene in a week, much less two full chapters. If I can keep up this productivity rate, I can hopefully get up to 1/3 of the novel finished before Mrs. V gets back home. And as much as I like to write and as much as I complain sometimes about not having time to write when Mrs. V is around, come March 19th, that manuscript won’t even register on my To-Do list.
On to other news, it’s been two months since I sent in my manuscript to the Delacorte Contest, and I’m at the point where I want to scream. I’ll be honest – I’m not sure if my manuscript will even win. I’m not saying that the ms is bad, because it’s not. It’s just that I’m afraid it may be too edgy for the Delacorte line (I fear I have one too many of those pesky f-bombs scattered throughout the manuscript). But I digress….
The winner of the contest is announced at the end of April – a full four months after my submission date. I know four months isn’t a long time in the writing world, but it still sucks to wait that long to hear something back. And being that the submission is exclusive, I can’t submit the ms anywhere else until I hear back. The good news is that it doesn’t stop me from submitting my work to agents, which is what I planned to do during my four month wait in the first place. Which brings me to my next point…
The contest doesn’t stop me from submitting to agents, but agents that prefer exclusive submissions do stop me. Nothing against exclusives, but like the Delacorte contest, I hate wasting two months just to find out that an agent doesn’t want to rep my work. I understand why it takes so long; an agent’s first priority is his or her current clients. I’m not complaining about agents, per se; I’m just commenting on how much I dislike the process. (In other words, don’t hate the playa, hate the game).
I am a published author, and while I would love to believe that that gives me some clout, it doesn’t automatically get me a contract with an agent. At the most, my publishing status may help to get my work read at some agencies that are closed to submissions, but even then, that’s a stretch. In the grand scheme of all things literary, I’m about where I was five years ago, but at least I’m a hell of a lot smarter, and if I keep eating all this fast food, I’m gonna be a hell of a lot fatter.
Anyway, it’s off to bed…right after I say goodnight to Jessica Alba.
Ok, I won’t comment, but I’m crying after reading #4.
Hey Varian, someone once passed along to me a “super secret” list of agents that accept e-queries and are seeking to acquire YA. I found my agent from this list.
If you want it, holler at me. In the name of writers having one another’s back – I only supply it to people who want it. And the recipient is free to pass along as freely as well.
BTW I hate exclusives to agents too. I’m waaayyyy too impatient for that.