The Official Plan of Action
I’m starting to gather the copies of my manuscript that I passed out to my first readers. So far, I haven’t looked at the detailed comments—I’ll save that for later this week when I plan to hang a Do Not Disturb sign on the door to my cave and put in a marathon rewrite session—but I have read and been pleased with the general overviews I’ve received.
So it’s time to look beyond the spit and polish and revisions.
Beginning with tonight. I plan to attend a joint Sisters in Crime/Pennwriters meeting which will focus on the pitch. I have the start of one, but it needs more polish than the manuscript does at this point. Hopefully, I’ll find some guidance in tonight’s presentation.
Next on the agenda is the annual Festival of Mystery. Someday I hope to take part in it as an author, but once again, I’m serving as an escort for one of the participants. Besides being a fun way to spend the day, it will also be a prime opportunity to rehearse my pitch whenever someone asks what I’m writing about. No pressure. Just practice.
And then comes the big event. The Pennwriters Conference. I’m not coordinator this year. That task falls to the very capable hands of Ayleen Stellhorn.
I’m taking the day-long fiction intensive on the Thursday before the conference. That should help put the finishing touches on the manuscript. Then, beginning on Friday, May 14, I’ll be just another conference attendee, stalking agents. (Just kidding, guys!) The pitch will be for real.
I also have some smaller, but no less vital, tasks planned between now and then. Like updating my website. I’ve basically been ignoring it for months as I focused on the writing. It’s now time to take action and give it a facelift to match the new work being shopped around. Okay, I won’t be the one actually doing the facelift. I write the content and allow my wonderful webmaster to create the pages.
The other task is subscribing to Publisher’s Marketplace. It’s the best bang for your buck when you’re researching agents to query. There are other free sites that deal with agents, but this one is the most up-to-date.
So there you have my plan of action covering the next couple of months.
Oh. I almost forgot. There is one other item…
START WRITING THE NEXT BOOK!
So it’s time to look beyond the spit and polish and revisions.
Beginning with tonight. I plan to attend a joint Sisters in Crime/Pennwriters meeting which will focus on the pitch. I have the start of one, but it needs more polish than the manuscript does at this point. Hopefully, I’ll find some guidance in tonight’s presentation.
Next on the agenda is the annual Festival of Mystery. Someday I hope to take part in it as an author, but once again, I’m serving as an escort for one of the participants. Besides being a fun way to spend the day, it will also be a prime opportunity to rehearse my pitch whenever someone asks what I’m writing about. No pressure. Just practice.
And then comes the big event. The Pennwriters Conference. I’m not coordinator this year. That task falls to the very capable hands of Ayleen Stellhorn.
I’m taking the day-long fiction intensive on the Thursday before the conference. That should help put the finishing touches on the manuscript. Then, beginning on Friday, May 14, I’ll be just another conference attendee, stalking agents. (Just kidding, guys!) The pitch will be for real.
I also have some smaller, but no less vital, tasks planned between now and then. Like updating my website. I’ve basically been ignoring it for months as I focused on the writing. It’s now time to take action and give it a facelift to match the new work being shopped around. Okay, I won’t be the one actually doing the facelift. I write the content and allow my wonderful webmaster to create the pages.
The other task is subscribing to Publisher’s Marketplace. It’s the best bang for your buck when you’re researching agents to query. There are other free sites that deal with agents, but this one is the most up-to-date.
So there you have my plan of action covering the next couple of months.
Oh. I almost forgot. There is one other item…
START WRITING THE NEXT BOOK!
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Comments
Oh, and only reputable, non-fee charging agents are listed on QT.
Don't bother with the Agent Query site, though. Their database hasn't been updated for months.
Joyce, I'll have to look at Query Tracker. I may have been getting it mixed up with Agent Query.