Preparing To Submit

Yesterday I was sitting at home enjoying the rain and happily hosting my time slot during an Indie Author Promotion event. All the while I was being taunted by a cardboard box on my cocktail table that had been delivered from Amazon earlier in the day. For Christmas I had requested gift cards for Amazon in order to purchase a few books including the Writer's Market. I knew it was waiting patiently inside that  box but I was busy doing the online event so I couldn't dive in no matter how eager I was.

Well today is a different story. I am in a business frame of mind so I see no better time than now to tear open the box, settle in with my coffee and set to work on the daily schedule I created last night. I intend to get about an hour worth of exercise in. I will be taking some time to read. I have already made a list of places to contact about holding book signings in the area so all I have left is some dedicated writing and revising time. 

I have written before about the four main stories I am working on. Sharing Strength being my biggest focus at the moment, it needs to simply be completed as a first draft. Chocolate Covered Cherries is in the same boat but much further behind though I have had a number of recent breakthroughs as the main character finally revealed her concerns to me. Breathe and Welcome to Syn on the other hand have been drafted. Breathe has even been edited to a degree. There was an issue with the ending so I created two different endings and allowed my main beta reader to go through them and figure out which seemed more appealing to the reader.

Now that I have all the feedback I have found a way to incorporate parts of both endings so all I have to do now is the rewrite. Welcome to Syn has the initial draft completed but it has been sitting giving me time to gain perspective and objectivity. While I believe there are no rules carved in stone when it comes to how to write a book it is nevertheless important to take professional advice in order to improve the possibility of success.

For my reading time today I will be reading some of the Writer's Market Guide to Literary Agents. I am hoping to gain some insight into what agents look for as well as what they hope to avoid. I am planning to share the information I learn from this book over the next few days here in my blog so if you have any questions about submitting to agents please comment and I will do my best to find the answers.