DTP Blog 5, Book 3 and Agents.

Hello, everyone. Sorry, I haven’t blogged in a while. I have been preparing the 3^rd book, Swayed, for publication. I am very happy with book 3 and can’t wait to release it. It has been a bit of an odd week for me in a couple of different ways. Let me tell you about it and see what your thoughts are.

First, I have been fighting a horrible cold and trying to feel better. It’s been a rough one. Second, I am working on writing the cover description, and I am stumped. So much information to narrow down to 150 words and not give too much away. But I want to tell you a little, so some of you have an idea before I release the cover hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Book 3, Swayed, is fascinating (from the reader’s perspective) because you start learning more details about Danni’s assault and other’s involvement. Finally, Danni starts learning painful details while trying to understand the relationships she has with Collin and James. The reader might start to piece some events together or just have many more questions. (I want to keep you guessing.)

My final struggle this week is a few rejections from Agents. As I have mentioned before, this writing stuff is new to me, and I am learning as I go. A few Agents have responded they don’t feel the story is interesting enough. After processing the rejection, I think I figured out what I did wrong. I wrote a query letter to them based only on the first book. I didn’t encompass the whole story. (Again, this is new to me.) I am going to write a new one and resubmit it to a few of them and see if anything changes. But, what bothers me is that they make their decision based on that letter and perhaps scanning over the first chapter. As a writer, I feel they miss so much by doing this. I understand they get so many letters from authors, but how can they judge something by only a chapter or letter? As a reader, I don’t feel I could make an accurate decision if I liked a book based on such little information. For example, recently I started watching a show and was very intrigued by the storyline and told a few friends about it. One friend made fun of me based on just the first episode or two because of the unique storyline that starts it. But, that storyline is what sucked me into binge watching all three seasons. (Personally, it is one of my favorite shows because it made me think about what was really going on.) It made me anxious and nervous as I watched it. That is a great thing!

So, I guess what I am saying is I should have done a better job writing my letter and that an Agent should take more time to read the whole book. As a new author, I am learning as I go and I would hope they would understand that because I am sure they had to start out somewhere too. But, really I am just happy I learned from my mistake and their rejection. I think without it I still wouldn’t understand why so many readers like the books, but yet I can’t catch the attention of an Agent. I always welcome advice on anything writing.

If anyone wishes to discuss the books or my blog, I would love to hear from you. I am excited for everyone to get the next book and perhaps a few answers as well. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

LT