Querying: The Nine Circles Hell Part 2
Querying: The Nine Circles of Hell
Part 2
by Raquel Garcia
It has now been two weeks since I sent out my first five query letters. I have not received any type of follow-up.
Last week I began to explore the nine circles of querying hell and left off on the fifth one.
The Fifth Circle of Hell: the blurb. It is a cruel and unusual punishment to force a writer who just spent months, even years, writing a novel to condense their efforts into a three-sentence statement that is solely responsible for piquing the interest of an agent. It is even more infuriating that struggling to perform such feat has any reflection on your ability as a writer. In some of my research, I found advice that stated things like “creating the perfect blurb will showcase your writing chops.” Ridiculous. No pressure.
The Sixth Circle of Hell: moving forward. Eventually, you have to move forward. But when? How? I am still trying to figure that one out, and getting out of this particular circle of hell has been difficult. I should just start writing again, something else something new. But I keep wondering should I continue to work on the final draft? Should I send more queries out now? How long should I wait before sending out the next round? When is it time to look into self-publishing? Maybe this draft is not perfect yet?
I have more questions than answers. Hopefully, NaNoWriMo will help me move forward and leave my questions for when I am feeling stronger and more self-assured.
We are continually, if unconsciously, mutilating and deforming our own character. .
- Adam Phillips
The Seventh Circle of Hell: self-doubt. I began to question my ability to get the book published immediately after hitting send on the last query letter. Most of the time, I feel very proud and believe in the book I wrote. But when forced to convince others to believe in it for me, I began to doubt and second guess every word in my query email. Did I make it sound interesting enough? Did I use the right buzzwords, and make it stand out? Is it different? Is unique enough? The self-doubt starts as a whisper, and I managed it to quiet down for a day or two.
After the third day, it was a booming voice: you weren’t clever enough, your story is not unique, they won’t care. The circle of self-doubt is excruciating and exhausting. To move out of it, I have to had to surrender to it for a few days, and slowly begin compiling a list of why I need to keep going. I either write my story or read someone else’s version of it.
The Eighth Circle of Hell: post-query blues. I wrote an entire blog about that you can find here.
The Ninth Circle of Hell: waiting. The waiting is different than the post-query blues because it lasts longer. Even after you’ve decided to move forward or start work on something new a part of you is still waiting. You wait quietly for news: good or bad. You want closure as if ending a long-term relationship. But unfortunately, you won’t get it. Therefore, waiting is a circle of hell that you never transition out of and that should be okay.
Thanks for reading,
Raquel Garcia