Querying Update and Building Your Platform

 Querying Update

 

I got my very first rejection -- a form rejection. 

Phew. I've truly been initiated ! I'm really a writer now.

One down, nine to go and I take hubby out to dinner.

Building Your Platform

You've all heard it. In today's publishing world, if you want an agent and/or publisher to consider your book, you'd best have an online presence.

So, you sign up for Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Google+, and whatever else out there strikes your fancy. You begin to stalk agents and other writers/authors to see what they're up to.

You begin blogging about your writing journey and start following loads of other writers, hoping they will follow you in return. You sign up for bloghops and contests. You're starting to get some regular followers who consistently comment. And, of course, you have to visit all their blogs and comment back. That's what it's all about, right? Networking?

And you find that you're having so much fun. The Internet has introduced you to hundreds if not thousands of interesting, entertaining people--and you've connected to many of them. You can't wait to read their next posts.

Then it starts to happen. You wake up in the middle of the night, wondering if you remembered to schedule your next post. Or worse, you wake up in the middle of the night because you can't think what to write for your next post.

The pressure mounts. What if your post is stupid? What if the people who've been commenting find other blogs they like better?

Your hands begin to shake when you haven't had your daily Internet fix. You're dying to know what everyone's up to, what things might inspire you in your blog posts.

And your writing?

When's the last time you actually sat down to write? Or when you did, your hand moved to the icon for your web browser? You didn't even realize it was moving of its own volition. Suddenly, a hour's gone by. Or two. Hours of precious time that you promised you'd spend on your book.

Because the whole point of all that platform building has been in preparation for your book.

Right?

 So, what do you do

to keep social media

from taking over

your life?

Book Review - Queen in Exile . . . Plus Awards & Querying

I've got a guest blogger today. Her name is Bobbie Staley, and she's one of my clerks at my day job. She's not an author or an aspiring author. She's one of those people we're all hoping to bring into our camps

She's a Reader.

All right. So am I. So are you. But you know what I mean.

She's highlighting Queen in Exile by Donna Hatch.

Isn't this a great cover?

Book Description:
Rumors of War hang over Princess Jeniah's peaceful country of Arden, a land that shuns both magic and warfare. Following a lifelong dream, Jeniah forms a telepahtic bond with a revered creature called a chayim, who is prophesied to save her kingdom. But when a Darborian knight comes upon Jeniah with her chayim, he sees only a vicious monster about to devour a maiden, and he slays the beast.

Devastated by the loss of her chayim, and fearing that her own magic is evil, Jeniah doubts her destiny. When an enemy invades Arden City, they slaughter the people, storm the castle, and execute the entire royal family except the princess. Rescued by the knight who slew her chayim, Jeniah is now heir to the throne of Arden and the only hope for freeing her people from tyranny.

On the run and hunted by enemy soldiers, Jeniah must place her life and the fate of her kingdom in the hands of this trained killer. Torn between embracing her destiny as queen af Arden, and her love for a mere knight, she must ultimately rely on her magic to save herself and her people from death and tyranny. 

What does Bobbie think?

As I began to read yet another book about magic I was skeptical since I have read a few lately.  I was pleasantly surprised to find this one caught my  attention right away with the bond that Jeniah has with her Sacred animal.

I was taken with the tale of trials and love and anger and tears and oh-my-gosh moments that kept me wanting to read till the weee hours of the night.  I love this book, and I would recommend it to all ages.  I am going to have my 13-year-old read it because I know she would love this book.

Awards

I want to acknowledge the kind ladies who gave me a couple of awards this week:

• Robin Weeks granted me the Kreative Blogger Award.
• April Plumber over at If This Doesn't Scare You gave me a different Versatile Blogger Award. 

 You can check out the charmers here.

Querying

I hope you all had a great weekend. On Saturday I clicked the "send" button for the second time. It was harder in some ways because this one was unsolicited. I'm surprisingly calm about everything.

Hubby and I are going to go out to dinner every time I hit 10 rejections. I got my inspiration from author James Dashner as he mentioned in LTUE last year that that's what he did. The hard part will be those unofficial rejections because the agency has a "no reply" policy. You just tick off the time, and when you haven't heard anything just assume it's a "not interested".

*Rubs hands together*

Where shall we go out to eat?