The Truly Rejected 99%

Well, I'm just about finished polishing the first draft of my new novel All We Know of Heaven and completely done refurbishing Scout's Honor based on some great feedback by a top agent. I've been reinvigorated this summer by something I heard at the WestConn MFA residency last week, which is not surprising since when I was in the program, all my invigoratory writing came from those few days in Danbury.

One of the agents giving us a little talk on the industry mentioned that he rejects 99% of the queries he receives. 99%. Think about that. Basically, my chances of getting a yes from an agent are the same as an American getting a tax cut from Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. This got me to thinking, though. I had heard so many stories of people going through 20-30 rejections before getting published.

Scout's Honor was at 41. At least.

But with this new number in mind, and some important revisions based on the aforementioned agent's advice, I'm at it again. I've decided to do a query a day until I get to 100 queries. Unless my writing stinks, which I don't think I would have gotten through my MFA program and a scrutinizing mentor like Daniel Asa Rose if it did, I should get a yes from one of the 100. Basic math, right?

Meanwhile, I'm facing revisions on novel three, which I'll give myself until next summer to fully finish. I've got plenty of readers who want a shot at All We Know of Heaven, including former students, former classmates, and a friend from church. Hopefully their feedback will make this one a winner.

Right now it just kind of blows my mind that I've written three full novels. Published or not, that kind of kicks ass. I'm pretty proud of that. And I've had enough people read and love my work to not be discouraged by a lack of publication. What's even more mind blowing is that I think I have a series brewing...at least a trilogy.

Agents beware! If you don't grab me up soon, you're going to have quite a backlog of work to deal with. Just sayin.'

Oops...what I meant to say...

With a Little Luck...

I am officially writing my lack of success in getting published off as a lack of luck...

So, starting today, my career takes off in a different direction. So far my two novels have both been young adult. Well, today I'm writing what I want to write, and I have a unique thought about how to get the next one published.

A few weeks ago, Levi Luck was born. Levi is the protagonist in my next novel, which has barely begun to get underway. Levi's a rock star, albeit a reluctant one (at least at first), and boy does Levi have some surprises in store for you.

Born Levin Gluck, a transformation at the hands of a wannabe producer makes his first album No Such Luck a hit. But stardom always comes at a price, and Levi struggles to see the good in the world through the sparkling glam of the record industry. Disillusioned by a year on the road, Levi decides to spice it up a bit for his big performance as a headliner at historic Madison Square Garden.

Now, I typically do some character building exercises before getting going, like finding a picture online of what I want the character to look like and writing some background stuff I won't actually use in the novel. This time, I decided to take it to the social media level.

I have created a Facebook for Levi, and filling out all the information necessary has certainly helped me get to know my new character. He also has a Twitter. Now, not only did I have to sketch him out in full to create his accounts on both, but I can practice being him--sounds schizophrenic I know--with his Tweets and Facebook commentary. He will also reveal some of his character quirks and maybe some smaller plot points or tips about the plot in doing so.

Having set this up, it then occurred to me that this could be a sales tool. When querying, why not give agents the Facebook and Twitter accounts for them to check out. Also, if some lucky publisher should decide to publish No Such Luck, readers of the book could actually friend, follow, and interact with the character online through social media. How cool is that?

Well, I'm off to do some more pre-writing for the novel. I'll keep y'all updated, and hopefully by the end of summer 2012, Levi's journey will be complete. It'll just take a little perseverance. Oh, and a little bit of Luck!

Follow Levi on Twitter @LeviLuck or friend him on Facebook!