Fellow writers, you know the drill. You’ve spent months, sometimes years pouring a story out from your heart onto paper. It takes even longer perfecting and editing until you finally reach, “the end.” In order to introduce the characters you’ve fallen in love with to readers, you must turn that manuscript into an actual book.
This is where I start sweating.
Querying literary agents isn’t just intimidating; it’s a roller coaster ride with long breaks of waiting in-between each jolt and curve. First, you must research which agents represent the genre you’ve written. Then you must research their submission standards which differ for each agency.
It takes a lot of time and if you make a mistake, (which I have) you’re pretty much finished.
Even if your query is perfect, most agents are so busy, you’ll either not hear back from them for weeks/months or not at all if they’ve rejected your submission.
Sometimes, I feel like even though I’ve created something great, I’m nothing more than a beggar, quivering my lips for just the chance to see my books in print. That combined with rejections (from the agents who do respond) can be so discouraging.
But I will say this: This process, while painful, has helped shape me into a better writer.
When I sent my first query nearly a decade and a half ago, I had no idea what I was doing. Yes, I researched what I could online, but there wasn’t much to discover.
I had to dig.
Books upon books to make my writing better combined with actually going to writer’s conferences and meeting authors, editors, and agents has taught me a lot.
While my writing isn’t perfect—and I’ll never think it is because when I do, that’s the moment I stop improving—it is better.
I feel a lot more confident in pitching my manuscript this time around than I ever have.
Does that mean I’m impervious to rejection?
Of course not! Rejections still sting.
Regardless, if I cannot find an agent to represent my work, I’ll self-publish. I’ve done it before. One HUGE pro about self-publishing is you get to keep everything the way you want. For example, I love detailed clothing. When I’m reading a book and a character is wearing a new dress, I don’t want to read simply, “her dress,” I want to know what color and length it is and any special details. Yes, I can image, “her dress,” in a million ways. Guess I’m odd in this regard, but I enjoy seeing what the writer sees when typing those two words. Naturally, I love sharing those details in my own fiction. From what I’ve heard, that’s not widely accepted. When self-publishing, things like that can be as detailed as you want.
My favorite pro on self-publishing, is meeting the readers who took the chance and gave my work the time of day. I have been so blessed to be encouraged by these awesome risk-takers. Their opinions mean the world to me!
Two large cons of self-publishing are the lack of editorial and marking teams that I’ve heard come with most book deals. Maybe not so much with the marketing anymore, but I’ve heard that there used to be several polishing processes for each manuscript before being sent to press.
In my opinion, the biggest con of self-publishing is how difficult it is to have the story taken seriously in the marketplace. This limits your reach for readers, which is why I’m sending out queries instead of just self-publishing from the get-go. These characters and their struggles are important to me. I don’t want them hidden in a digital document forever. I want my characters to come alive. That can only happen if people read about their struggles and victories.
My fellow writers, isn’t that why we do it? Why else would we spend the time typing and weaving up plots and people if not for them to be read. It’s not for glory or fame, and for most writers, it’s certainly not for money. It’s for our creation being heard and seen by others.
What a gift.
In my writing journey, I have written ten manuscripts. The first four were general market fiction, two of which I self-published, although I queried for all of them. Those first two self-published stories can stay in the rearview mirror. They’re good stories, but my writing has improved so much since then, to go over them would feel like swimming on the shallow side of the pool after just learning how to conquer the deep end.
I want to move forward.
The other two stories might be worth returning to when I feel the time is right.
After writing, “the end,” on four manuscripts, I decided to write about the strongest person I know: My daughter and her struggle with congenital heart disease.
For that story I was fortunate enough to get a referral to a literary agent who appreciated the concept and what my daughter had been through, but it was my lack of a platform, (followers) that earned that rejection.
After that, I took a break from writing. Oh, not because I couldn’t take rejection. My husband’s military service called him away and with my children’s needs and their young age, I had no time to pen anything. In fact, those were some of the hardest days of my life. I’d just moved to a new place located thousands of miles away from anyone I knew. I had infant twins and a toddler that needed me strong. For her heart, my youngest daughter had multiple doctors’ appointments every week it seemed, while my oldest child was diagnosed with autism and began therapy. The only way I could be what my kids needed was with God’s help. It was during this time that I drew near to Him in a way I never thought possible. I went from being a lukewarm Christian to making God the center of my life.
I’ve been better for that ever since.
When the idea for The War Torn Trilogy formed in my head, my husband was overseas. I had to wait an entire year to have the time to write down the first draft. I did so during Christmas Break of 2017. The flow of that story broke like a dam. I wrote 30,000 words in one day. The draft was completed at 60,000 words. I wanted to make it one book, but after reading it, my husband convinced me to expand on everything I tried to compress.
Nearly two years later, I tried traditionally publishing it, but was met with rejections. I needed to level up my writing and taught myself as much as I could. I was blessed to have the first three chapters professionally edited. That one polish revealed many mistakes that I’ve done my best not to repeat.
In 2020, I self-published the first book of the trilogy. It’s been incredible seeing how the story has blessed those who’ve read it. The entire trilogy was written to give glory to God, and I feel honored that He gave the story to me in the first place.
After that, I wrote the short story, “Sphaira,” and released a new chapter every week to help promote the first book of The War Torn Trilogy. You can read that Christian dystopian tale for free, here: https://kimberlyhumphreys.com/sphaira/
Shortly after that, in 2021, a new idea spawned in my head. This story is different from anything else I’ve written. Because of that, I kicked it around for a while, pondering if writing something that’s not Christian could offend the readers who took a chance on my Christian dystopian trilogy.
“The Agent Who Loves Me,” is a dark story that showcases the dangers of our digital world. It’s a romantic thriller that is nothing like Kira and Ruger’s journey. Instead of being set 600 years in the future, its set in our time, dealing with issues like privacy, PTSD, suicide, and the lies people post online that poison their real lives. There’s not a single Bible verse in it, unlike The War Torn Trilogy, where the word of God is the foundation of everything. The last thing I want is to alienate my readers, yet to address these issues in the way the story wanted to go, it has to be secular. Still, I’ve managed to write it without descriptive sex, cussing, nudity, or graphic violence. That said there’s only a hint of Christianity in the pages. That’s not due to my losing faith or wanting to appease anyone. It’s the way story flowed out of me. I really hope it’ll resonate with people who have seen the darker side of social media.
With that disclaimer out of the way, back to my sweating over query letters.
So far, I’ve sent out nine queries. I keep a word document for each. This helps with making sure everything is organized because like I said, each agent wants something different. Some only want a query letter, others want a query letter with a synopsis, and then there are those who want sample chapters. Having a folder dedicated to who I’ve queried also helps to make sure I don’t double-dip agencies. I hear that’s a big no-go.
From what I’ve researched, a query letter must contain your credentials and a pitch. I’d like to share my pitch for “The Agent Who Loves Me,” with you:
She moved from flyover county to D.C. to marry her childhood sweetheart, just to have heart broken. Invited onto an exclusive platform, (think Instagram meets OnlyFans) her debut goes viral, which rocks her world until she gets a stalker. With her life on the line and nowhere to hide from this digital invasion of her life, will she survive unscathed, or be killed by a man she’s never met?
For those who’ve read my blogs, you know how much I despised living near D.C. To anyone who wasn’t tracking, here’s a taste of my experience there:
https://kimberlyhumphreys.com/2022/10/the-origins-of-zyandite/
I always said that if I wrote a thriller, it would be set in D.C.
Now, here I am, presenting “The Agent Who Loves Me,” to the world.
Even if every agent rejects me, I’m not going to stop writing. I’ll self-publish this story and move onto what I’ve got planned to finish this summer.
I’m a prolific writer.
The only reason this manuscript took so long to write is because of surgeries and two moves getting in the way. Writing is a part me. It’s ingrained in my DNA. My very soul was created for this. If you’re a writer, you know this to be true. So don’t let AI, current market trends, and rejections stop you from pouring your heart out via pen (or keyboard). Keep writing!
Kimberly Humphreys