What other authory folks have tried QueryTo? I opened up an account there just yesterday. I was not prepared for the wave of optimism and excitement that hit.
One of my goals had been to start the querying process this year. Between work and life in general, progress has been slower than I’d like, and I’d kind of given up hope that I could enter that particular trench this year. Querying is overwhelming; I’ve done a little bit of preliminary work (looking up agents, selecting comps, writing a query letter, and so forth) but only ever got as close as personalizing a letter that I never ended up sending. There are just so many agents out there. How does anyone ever find anybody, let alone a “dream agent”?
I think the most exciting thing about QueryTo is how organized and clean it all is. My brain doesn’t work that way, but it sure does like it when there’s a trellis it can wind around. I love a clean house; I can’t keep one to save my life. I love a list; making one is exhausting. Time will tell if QueryTo is the thing that actually helps me get to the next level, but I think it’s got a decent chance.
So for now: new goals! I’ve set myself the ambitious (unrealistic?) goal of querying five agents before December, which honestly kind of means before Thanksgiving. I know this isn’t the best time to query, with the end of a quarter moving into the holiday season, but I feel like I need to rip the bandage off. I have a long history of stalling out on projects, but I believe in Once Upon a Wrensong and the story of its characters, and I don’t want that to happen this time.
So! New goal: five queries before American Turkey Day. Will I succeed? Will I fail? Will I even get a response back? I don’t know, but I certainly can’t get an offer of representation if this thing only ever leaves my hard drive for the editor’s and then comes right back to get gussied up and then just… hibernate.
Back to the editing room so that, someday soon, I can check a BIG goal off the list and climb a little higher on the scaffold: Jamie’s First Agent Query, to be quickly followed by Jamie’s Second Agent Query, and so on and so forth, as many as are needed.
Onward!
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