I've decided to start writing a series of entries called 'How to Stay Sane,' describing the things that I do to keep from losing my mind while I wait to see what will happen with my book. And so, without further ado, my first piece of advice:
So I recently posted my first 4 chapters of Jasmine Powers, Super Geek on InkPop.com. (That's right, you read correctly, the first four chapters. So if you wanna read more than what I've posted here, you can join InkPop and hopefully select me as a pick!)
What is InkPop, you ask? It's an online community where writers of YA fiction can post their work, read other peoples' stories, and get comments on their own. Plus, you can choose up to five stories as 'picks' and at the end of each month, the 5 stories with the most 'picks' are selected to receive a critique from editors at HarperCollins. Pretty awesome opportunity right? But what's even cooler is that it gives you an opportunity to get your work read by actual teenagers.
Even though some really amazing agents have requested my book, getting query rejections still stings. It starts to make me paranoid like 'omigosh, this agent didn't love it, so that means every agent is going to hate it!' Of course we all know the business is subjective, and even the most popular, successful authors in the world have some rejections under their belt (Meg Cabot says she has a whole bag of them under her bed!) but it's still discouraging that everyone I've queried isn't clamoring to represent me (dare to dream right?)
And when I start to think this way, instead of feeling excited about the requests I have out, I start feeling gloomy and waiting for the other shoe to drop, like I shouldn't even get my hopes up because bad news is worse after you've gotten hopeful and the news is destined to be bad.
Then I give myself a reality check. The truth is, although I am dying to find the right agent, my real goal is to impress teen readers. I want an agent to help me find a great publisher who will make my book available to the masses, but after that, I'm not really marketing my book to literary agents. I mean, I would love it if they buy it too (heck, I want EVERYONE to buy it!), but my target audience is teenagers. And if every literary agent in the world hates my book, but teen readers love it, I've still accomplished something pretty cool. And InkPop gives YA writers an opportunity to get feedback from the people they are ultimately catering to, people who read (and buy) YA books.
So, unnamed agents who do not love my book, you might not be head-over-heels for it but guess what? Some total strangers (who are in my target audience) have loved it and that makes me feel GREAT. And that is the feeling I'm going to hold on to, instead of the stomach-dropping sadness of query rejections.
Glowing Inkpop reviews = my anti drug.
LOL.
