Thanks to everyone who commented on my post for the Catch Me If You Can blogfest. You confirmed that the last line (the reference to a dream) could scare away a charging silverback gorilla. It's gone, never to be heard from again.
And hello, welcome, HI to all the new faces at the Cheetah! I hopped around some of your blogs over the last two days, and I'm so excited to follow your journey toward publication. We'll all get there together! :)
So, what's with the title of this post, right? David Bowie told us to turn and face the strange. Well, strange for me is accepting how incredibly difficult it's going to be to sell a college-set novel. Strange for an agent would probably be taking a chance on a brand new author who refuses to change that tough-to-sell setting. So, I'm turning, facing, and EMBRACING the strange.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pulling Kat and company back to high school and declaring my first novel (formerly known as Outta the Bag) Young Adult. I've always considered it YA, but even with a strong teenager-style voice, it hasn't moved forward on the query side. Now, I'm not so naive to think that's the only issue, but this is the one I've heard the most about.
Thanks for all the feedback on this change, you know who you are. Will editing be an uphill battle? Yes! Am I excited? YES! This is the 'fresh and new' I've been needing for a while now. My big question is this. Can I requery agents who've passed on me before? Different setting, different title, revamped query. Anyone have any experience with this? I'd love to hear from you.
What changes have you made to your darlings throughout your writing careers? How difficult were they? What 'strange' do you see on the horizon that needs to be faced? And have you been high-fived this week? If not, consider my hand raised. :)
-Marie
5 comments:
the answer yes. You can requery anyone. If they requested but rejected it, you can requery just tell them in the query you've done this.
Ex: After a second revision on my YA genre... that you requested and read however many pages in whatever month... then post query underneath.
I'm glad you found my blogfest helpful! Good luck with the changes :)
Oh, btw, I was actually popping by to tell you I gave you the Stylish Blogger and One Lovely Blog award. They're waiting for you on my page.
Good luck on the rebraning of your wip! And congrats on the awards I've given you at my blog.
Zan Marie
www.intheshadeofthecherrytree.blogspot.com
Oh, that's wonderful! So exciting. I've heard that "new adult" or "college lit", etc. can be a hard sell. I hope you have better luck with the high school crowd.
And, yes, the agents I've seen have said that you can re-query as long as it's been a while (six months or more) and you've significantly revised your MS. Of course, with those revisions and a new title and all the time that will have passed, they probably won't even know that it's a re-query. Good luck!
Very exciting! Good luck with your changes, I hope it's going well :)
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