Stepping forward in trepidation

Now that the manuscript of The Cauliflower Ear Club is finished (for today at least), the next steps are daunting. How to decide if you want to find an agent and get traditionally published or to self-publish? The Canada Writes blog has been leaning toward self publishing for many good reasons, but I want to explore the former route.

My first step: write a query letter to send to agents who, in turn, pitch the book to publishers. Sounds simple, especially after writing and rewriting and rewriting a novel. But no, not at all, as I learned from the Toronto Writing Workshop earlier this month.

Literary agent Cassandra Rogers, advised getting a one line hook and proceed with a specific format with no more than 300 words. First personalize the letter to the agent to show you have done your research. Nothing is more exciting for an agent to get a letter promoting a mystery when they exclusively represent fantasy. Then write a paragraph summarizing the book. One paragraph!! For 83,000 words! And don't use exclamation marks!! Next step is mentioning comparable books, like saying your book is a cross between Finding Waldo and Anna Karenina. Your bio comes next, including why you are the best person to write this book. Hint: it's not because your mother loves your work. Finally, thank the agent for their time, because they like that after skimming 200 other query letters that day.

Time to get to work.