oh for the love of....

Welcome to AW, Electric Violet!

I highly recommend you post your query in Share Your Work before you send out more queries. You'll get some great advice and discover why you're getting rejections.

Hon, IMO you are entitled to a happy dance. I have 3 novels in various piss-poor stages of progress, none ever finished in a first draft, and haven't even dreamed about an agent. The novel on which I have written the most doesn't even fit into a recognized genre.

Have hope & press on; you have passed at least one of the major milestones - finishing the novel!

And...Welcome to the Cooler. It's a great place to learn, share and have fun.

electric violet said:

wow. is it insanely lame that a few 'welcome to the board' posts already made me feel better??

Click to expand...

Have another, on the house. Welcome!

Welcome to the Cooler, Electric Violet. You'll be as insane as the rest of us within a week.

Clio said:

Welcome to the Cooler, Electric Violet. You'll be as insane as the rest of us within a week.

Click to expand...

Well, maybe on average. Certain individuals may present more of a challenge, however.

caw

Welcome to AW. Hope you enjoy your stay with us.

How do you like your popcorn?

SYW is the best place to start. Good luck and much success.

electric violet said:

hello everyone- i'm new to this board, decided to join after 50% of my literary agent googling escapades led me here.

i just finished my first novel in september, and after almost twenty e-rejections i am getting ready to send out the mass snail mail queries to all the places i picked out of the writer's market.

i guess that what i'm really looking for is another human besides my husband telling me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. is there even such thing as an agent who would like my writing style? god, i hope so. how long did it take all of you to find an agent?

Click to expand...

Agent? I'm at 15k words in my first full-length piece, so...you're lightyears ahead of me .

Welcome, btw.

Welcome electric violet! And congrats on finishing your novel. I look forward to reading your query.

Teena said:

The novel on which I have written the most doesn't even fit into a recognized genre.

Click to expand...

I know what you mean. My current wip seems to be historical/thriller if there is such an animal. Can't help it. That's what it is.

electric violet - have a bit more time so I'll run down to SYW and have a look. Welcome to the Cooler.

Welcome and congrats on having such a supportive husband. Mine is too. I found my agent through going to a conference and having the director of the conference introduce me. It's a long story, but that's the short version. Good luck with your search.

Hope you enjoy hanging out here!

Okay--there are few things more cool than finishing a first novel; most don't make it that far.

But your next step before trying the snail mail route is to find a beta reader(s) to look it over and offer feedback. Twenty e-rejections means there is more work to do.

Check out the Share Your Work forum and see how others are posting stuff and what kind of feedback they're getting. See if anyone might be willing to beta the whole book for you.

The writers here are amazingly generous with their time.

Many writers cannot see the forest for the trees when it comes to their own work, and another set of eyes is needed.

It's not just for neos. A couple years back I finished my 20th novel and knew something was seriously wrong with it. It just didn't feel right. I turned it over to a trusted writer friend who instantly saw where it had come off the tracks.

One rewrite later--and seriously, it's not that hard--I turned in one heck of a good read if one may believe the reviews.

One thing I can recommend right away from reading your posts here is to start capitalizing that first person pronoun. It's a way of showing respect to your fellow writers.

Also fellow editors. If I happened to be an acquisitions editor lurking on this board I'd not be inclined to take you seriously.

How long to get an agent? That depends how good your writing is and how much more work you're willing to put into it.

In the meantime, be working on your next book. An agent is absolutely going to want more than one title from you.

Good luck!

Welcome! I came to this forum about a year ago in your shoes. And yes, I did get an agent. But it took about five months and two novels (my first got 100% rejected, my second got an agent immediately). Lots of query drafts, lots of drinking...

Hang in there.

Electric, first off, welcome to the board. If you take a look through the novel writing board threads (especially Uncle Jim's) and through the Share Your Work stuff, it will almost certainly help you find out what's not going right. It may be the novel, it may be the query, or some other problem we don't know about. Heck, there may not even be a problem -- many, many well known novels have been rejected more times than yours!

I would like to echo what Gillougly says about capitalization, however.

You're not posting in private here, and there are editors and agents who frequent these boards. And more who will check it out if they're a little bit interested in representing a writer, but unsure as to whether or not to take them on.

A note to everybody is in order here: The internet is not a private place. Potential employers can and do look up your myspace and Facebook pages. Lawyers have done it in legal cases.

You may be posting from the security of your own home, in your pyjamas (or even less in some cases ), but that doesn't mean you're posting in private.

And Electric, this is a writers' board, with some folks here who are pretty serious about writing, grammar and style. If you can honestly take the time to make your posts thoughtful ones that adhere as much as you are able to standard English, you'll be taken a great deal more seriously than otherwise.

We're friendly folks here (for the most part--like every other place, we have our trolls), and we like to play and cut loose ourselves. But we're also writers and readers, and we see the world from that lens.