Agents and Query Letters

My experimentation with query letters is leaving me unsatisfied that I have gotten it down pat. I see dozens of examples of query letters sent to agents that ended up with the authors being published and wonder how to duplicate it with my own flair. I'm afraid of not getting it just right but at the same time, I have to have confidence in my work. So far those that know me usually give me compliments on my written work but I can't help but wonder if they simply say such things out of sympathy or simply because they are expected to like it. I know that I will be rejected by some agents but I only have so many to work with. I want to make the best work possible but sometimes this new world of agents and editors seems too much for me. However, the desire to be a published author is greater than my apprehension.

A Novelist's Doubts and Worries

Even as I'm finishing up my manuscript, I know that I'll have to rewrite and rewrite several more times before the book will be completely ready for publication.

Publication! Oh that's another nightmare that I'm not certain that I'm ready for. I've ordered a couple books on the subject but they won't get here until next week. It's so completely out of my element that I hope that I won't mess things up when I query my prospects for literary agents. I do hate that I'm scared of the unknown but there it is. Perhaps it will go easier than I think, and I won't have to deal with very many rejection letters/e-mails before I land my big break. Then, the agent will have to find a publisher for the book. Even after all of that, I'm not sure if my book will sell. 

Perhaps this is all in my head and it will all be well. I'd like to think that if my book made it that far, it would sell fairly well. I just don't want to end up as the novelist that no one has ever heard of. I'll just have to wait and see.

Night's End

I've always found it interesting that as the night ends, the wisps of trailing thoughts find their way to my mind. All throughout the day, trillions of thoughts burst through my head and fade just as quickly as they began. Many linger to repeat themselves but nonetheless they too vanish in light of trivial things such as taking out the trash, cooking, cleaning, etc. 

In any case, when I lay in bed and several thoughts drift back into my mind, I wonder: why is it at that time that the thoughts must return? Why do I seem to think the most when I am struggling in vain to fall asleep? Perhaps I will never know, but I still find it curious.

Now that my book is finished, and all that is left is going over the rough draft, I am struck by a great irony. When I began to write it, I thought, "I'm never going to finish this in less than six months." At times I would write with a flourish of words and prose but at others I went weeks with not a single letter placed on a page. Now that it is done, I am strangely sad as if I had pushed a great effort into making something and now that it is made, I have lost something. I'm not sure as to what that means, but perhaps someday I will. Perhaps this will lessen as I write more and more.

Well, I think I'll be off to bed or something else if I cannot quiet my mind :)