Greetings, everyone! 
For most of my life I've written for fun. Around 4 years ago, I felt the Lord leading me to take my writing more seriously. I've always had a good grasp of style, spelling, grammar, etc. so I honed my craft with creative writing courses, mentoring with established writers, writers groups, and reading anything and everything I could find on the writing process.
I've dabbled in essays and short stories over the past several years, but my true passion is in novel writing. About a year ago, I finished my first manuscript and was encouraged by numerous people, both within and outside the writing world, to seek out an agent for it.
Long story short, over several months I sent out dozens and dozens of query letters and chapter samples to prospective agents. A few nibbles, but no bites. Lots of form rejection letters, but a few really nice personal letters stating they liked my style and my story but that it wasn't for them.
I was about to begin another wave of queries when two people I know (both established writers) took a look at my query letter and told me to stop sending out any more for now because, even though my query is solid, I have no writing credits in my Bio. I then asked if maybe I should just omit the Bio section of my letter, but I was told that leaving it out tells a prospective agent the same thing - you haven't been published anywhere, and that no agent or publishing house is going to take a chance on a new novelist who has zip writing credits.
I brought this up in one of my writing group meetings and was met with some varied (and hotly debated! LOL) responses. I would love to know what others think here.
Do you have to be published before you can get published??
Cheryll
For most of my life I've written for fun. Around 4 years ago, I felt the Lord leading me to take my writing more seriously. I've always had a good grasp of style, spelling, grammar, etc. so I honed my craft with creative writing courses, mentoring with established writers, writers groups, and reading anything and everything I could find on the writing process.
I've dabbled in essays and short stories over the past several years, but my true passion is in novel writing. About a year ago, I finished my first manuscript and was encouraged by numerous people, both within and outside the writing world, to seek out an agent for it.
Long story short, over several months I sent out dozens and dozens of query letters and chapter samples to prospective agents. A few nibbles, but no bites. Lots of form rejection letters, but a few really nice personal letters stating they liked my style and my story but that it wasn't for them.
I was about to begin another wave of queries when two people I know (both established writers) took a look at my query letter and told me to stop sending out any more for now because, even though my query is solid, I have no writing credits in my Bio. I then asked if maybe I should just omit the Bio section of my letter, but I was told that leaving it out tells a prospective agent the same thing - you haven't been published anywhere, and that no agent or publishing house is going to take a chance on a new novelist who has zip writing credits.
I brought this up in one of my writing group meetings and was met with some varied (and hotly debated! LOL) responses. I would love to know what others think here.
Do you have to be published before you can get published??
Cheryll
