I'm sure hidden among your writerly New Year's resolutions is a line about querying that manuscript you're working on as a goal to apply bottom to chair and actually finish it. But, before querying, please do put on your polite hat. You might want to take a few hints from this rant by Fizzygrrrl about how to react when (yes, when, not if) you receive The Rejection. (Hint: blowing up is not an option.)
Before querying, you need a query letter, right? But how do you follow all that advice on the web of 'writing in your novel's voice' when your novel is written in first person? Jane Lebak of Query Tracker has a few excellent warnings to read before going down that route and embarrassing yourself.
However, once you've achieved that bottom to chair fusion that typical results in a completed first draft as well as second, third and so forth, you might want to enlist some fresh eyes to copyedit before sending it out. Marcus Trower has a few good reasons why a pair of fresh eyes is a price well worth paying.
But, we've deviated slightly. New Year's resolutions. We all have them. But Stina Lindenblatt thinks that this is also the time for laying out business plans. You might say, wait, do business plans belong in the same sentence as writers? Stina says yes and I think she has a point.
Ash Krafton has four major resolutions which she hopes to hold to this year, not least of which is wrangling herself into setting goals and deadlines.
Finally, Jane Lebak has some good advice about the types of writer's groups out there and how to choose the right one for you. Isn't it a writer's dream to find the perfect group of critique partners? I know I'd love to find the right group.
Now for the fun bit! I only found out about this today or else I might have tried to enter. I'm sure everyone's familiar with Amazon's breakthrough novel contest (which is currently accepting submissions and which I may never enter because, have you read the fine print?!!) but I found another smaller contest with a similar reward. The contest is sponsored by Curiosity Quills Press and they only accept NaNoWriMo novels. There are three rounds, each with prizes and the grand prize winner is offered publication by them. Right now, the voting for round two is going on. Sadly, the only thing the readers can vote on at this point is the cover concept but each of the remaining entrants has a synopsis, cover concept and excerpt up on the site. Go here to read and vote (they give out prizes to readers/voters as well!). I'm quite keen to enter this contest so it looks like I know where my NaNo novel later this year will end up!
Until next time!
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