After several days of scouring QueryTracker, the acknowledgements sections of my favorite romance authors's novels, and online lists of successful agents, I have compiled a list of ten agents/agencies to query right away, selected six agents as "replacements" to query as the rejections roll in, and found six dream agencies that are currently closed to queries to keep my eye on in case they open up.
It's a start.
But there is still so much to be done before I send those letters and fill out those query manager forms...
1. I need to polish my query letter, short and long synopses, and one sentence pitch (which is actually two sentences...). To this end, I have hired Nathan Bransford to do a critique.
2. I have consolidated two years of post-it notes, notepad notes, and iPhone notes onto one master list of clever ideas and bits to check. There are 143 notes. This will take a few days.
3. I need to finalize comps. I have discovered three excellent comps for the celebrity/common person + Hollywood/small town tropes and one brilliant novel that's set at Christmas featuring forced proximity with a celebrity, but I could still find a nice British/American couple comp. It doesn't bother me to keep reading!
Additionally, I need to print and do a final edit on the last 10K of the novel, which is relatively new after all the cuts. But this will only take a few days and can wait until after the queries are sent. I have a two week window of time before the first day of the last year of my day job.
Funny thing... My mom mentioned recently that she'd love to see me have a week off before school starts. But I'm having more fun working on Dash Away than I'd have being bored around the house doing nothing.
This calls to mind something Sandra Tayler said last summer at the Writing Excuses ReGenerative Retreat. Here's my note:
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