It happened! I submitted my first couple of queries to literary agents for The Wars of Meridian. I am so excited to share that, on my first try, I got officially rejected. A single, respectful decline. It was almost guaranteed to have happened, but I won’t lie that the little boy heart in my chest had hoped I would somehow hit the lottery on my first try. But sitting here now, with just a little more clarity about what it takes, I thought I would share some of my next steps.
A query to a literary agent really depends on which agent you’re targeting, but just about all of them require an official query letter. The letter addresses why you’re reaching out to them, what your manuscript looks like, and the general gist of your story. It sounds simple, but the truth is far more complicated. This query letter is your one shot. It’s your pitch. It must possess both brevity and intrigue. It’s 3 to 4 paragraphs of golden-tongued stardom. It’s difficult, but it doesn’t even end there.
Most literary agents are also looking for a one-page synopsis of your book to accompany your query letter. To be perfectly honest, I found this to be the single most daunting ask of all. It seemed impossible to summarize my 185,000-word epic (written from 5 different character perspectives) into a single page. After doing some digging with my wife, I found that I wasn’t alone. The synopsis had stopped many writers' dead in their tracks. A single page is simply too small of a box for all the passion that created your work of art.
As I am currently on parental leave, I’ve been leaning on my infant daughter a bit for support. Not in the sense that she would allow me any time to write. Of course not. Rather that we can sit with one another over a lukewarm bottle of milk and chat it out. It’s like therapy, but your therapist either giggles, babbles, pukes or screams in response. The key is understanding if it is an affirmative puke or a strong recommendation in opposition. Either or – I began by hashing out my story to my wife and baby. If I could speak it, I could write it.
Turns out, it took me a few times to distill my rambling into something clear and linear. I owe great thanks to the patient ladies of my household. With enough attempts I began to understand where I wanted to start. I wanted Meridian to stand out in its creativity, and I wanted my plot to demonstrate the diversity and scale of my character arcs. While I am not sharing my synopsis just yet, I feel a bit relieved that I have it behind me.
The query letter took shape from there – breaking down my synopsis even further while still adding some hooks for a potential agent. At this point it hasn’t done the job, but some authors have to query hundreds of agents and still never find success. It’s the nature of it. It may be my end, but we’re only at the beginning.
Following my first rejection my wife and I really went back to the basics about what should and should not be included in a query letter. Instead of some easy next steps the internet delivered some tough love instead. My novel is likely too long for most agents or publishers to show much interest. 185,000 is simply far, far too many words. In reality, they typically max out at about 150,000 for an epic fantasy like mine.
I have to cut 30,000 of my hard fought, bitterly loved, painstakingly carved words. A whole sixth of my novel. And that’s just to reach the top end.
I’ve experienced heartbreak before – and this falls right in there with it. It’s not discouragement, but rage. It makes me want to clutch the words to my chest and run out to self-publish. But I know that’s not what I want either.
So I’ve tried to change my mindset. Queries are on hold for now. I’m going to get back in there and edit. Edit like crazy. I’ve bulked up to slim down. I’m going to sculpt this story as best I can.
Let’s do it.
