By Cam
Hey guys! So whatcha doin’??? Anything good in the paper? No? Hmm…the only news I have to report is that I ate THE most perfect banana for breakfast this morning and — what’s that? You don’t really care about my stinkin’ banana? Well, fine. Whatever. I guess I’ll just announce the winner from yesterday’s giveaway, then. Hrmph.
The winner of a 30-page critique from Martina Boone AND a copy of Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr is:
Rachel Harris!
Congrats Rachel! I’ll be in touch soon with how you can claim your prize.
I want to take this time to thank everyone who’s tweeted, blogged, commented, and visited during this past week. My agent story was nothing super crazy but you all have made me feel like a total rock star. I’m still in awe by the support I’ve received and I hope you’ll come back to visit me even when the giveaways are over (for now! You never know when I’ll start itching to give stuff away again!). But just know that this has truly been an AMAZING experience for me. The love! The support! The willingness to stay tuned! <3<3<3!!!
So before I step away (until 9pm EST TONIGHT!), I want to thank the incredible ladies who made this week possible:
Ricki Schultz
Carolina Valdez Miller
Kristine Asselin
Martina Boone
Vickie Motter <– Like, for real.
So make sure you visit them often because they offer fantastic blogs with AMAZING writerly insight. 
Since today is Friday and apparently no one cares what I had for breakfast *grumble, grumble* here are the AWESOME prizes up for grabs:
A premium membership to QueryTracker
A copy of Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
A copy of Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
A query letter critique by me
Just a reminder of the rules:
- You must be a follower of this blog.
- If you want to stop by Vickie’s blog to say hello, I’m sure she’d love to hear from you!
- Complete the entry form below to enter. You can earn extra points for blogging about this contest (include a link in the Comments) or tweeting a link back to this post (@reply me on Twitter — @CambriaDillon — and make sure to leave your Twitter user name in the Comments).
All entrants from previous days will automatically be entered into today’s contest…HOWEVER, you can still earn extra entries by blogging or tweeting about the Grand Prize Pack (just make sure to fill out the entry form). Today’s winner will be announced right here at 9pm EST. Unfortunately, I have to limit the contest to US residents only. 
Sorry international folk!
And the only thing left to say is…GOOD LUCK!!!!
By Cam
Yay! It’s Monday and you know what that means? Yup — it’s the first day of my WEEK-long fest of awesome giveaways! But FIRST — kicking off my contest in grand style is Ricki Schultz — writer, blogger, online organizer extraordinaire!
In addition to interviewing literary agents for the Guide to Literary Agents blog, Ricki is a contributor to Writer’s Digest Books, with articles in the 2011 Guide to Literary Agents and Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market as well as in forthcoming editions. She speaks at writers’ conferences (most recently, the 2010 Romance Writers of America national conference); has published poetry in The John Carroll Review; has written for St. Ignatius Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, and The Villager; and has won awards for two of her young adult manuscripts. As coordinator of the online writing community, she’s hosting the Write-Brained Network’s inaugural writing workshop this fall in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She’s also a recovering high school English teacher.
To connect with Ricki, please visit her Web site, blog, follow her on Twitter, or join the WB!
First off, thank you SOOOO much for kicking off my giveaway week, Ricki! You’re my absolute favorite Twitsom ever! (And for those of you wondering what a Twitsom is, well, it’s a Twitter Soulmate and yes, her and I are both aware how uber-cheesy that term is…which is probably why we <3 it!)
So okay, you’re a freelance editor, writer, and founder of The Write-Brained Network. For those people who still think The WB is a TV channel airing The OC, can you tell us more about it?
OMG—if there were a channel still airing The O.C., I’d so be watching it right now. I miss me some Seth Cohen! (Although—what am I saying?—I have the DVDs!) What was I talking about? Oh, yes. The WB.
Well, unlike the now-defunct TV channel, the Write-Brained Network is an online community dedicated to connecting writers for the purposes of networking, socializing, honing their craft, and sharing tips with others. It’s kind of like a Facebook, but just for writers. We have several chapters and subgroups being started by Write-Brainiacs according to region, genre, and interest as well as a forum to ask and answer questions, get feedback on queries, post and read reviews of writing and nonwriting books, etc.
And even though we’re constantly growing, it still feels like a close-knit community. It’s a great group of folks.
What made you decide to take on this venture?
When I started it back in December 2009, I had recently moved to a new state and stopped teaching in order to write full time. In short, I went from being in the hub of a school to dressing like a schlub, alone in my home office!
I had attended a few conferences at which I’d met some pretty awesome peeps from other states, and Facebook just didn’t seem quite the right medium to discuss all things writing and stay in touch with them.
And so the idea was born.
At the time, we were Shenandoah Writers Online—since I had also just started Shenandoah Writers (in real life) or SW(IRL), as I like to call them—but when we started getting members from Utah and Washington and Florida and Australia, I recruited a few of my most active members to help me with a bit of a relaunch as the more inclusive WB.
Are there any events coming up for writers to check out?
Yes! On March 22, we will be having our monthly WB Live Chat from 9-10 p.m. The topic is “Plotters & Pantsers,” and the chat will take place right on the Write-Brained Network.
If you can’t make it on such short notice, we do these every month (it’s usually the last or second-to-last Tuesday of the month). Check out our Web site for the latest.
Even more exciting, we will be holding our inaugural workshop—The One-Stop Workshop for the Serious Writer: A Roadmap from “How to” through “I Did” in September, and that’s open to members and nonmembers alike!
For more info—or to register—please visit the WB Web site.
You also interview agents for the Guide to Literary Agents blog – which was a great resource for me when I was querying. How do you approach agents and prepare for an interview?
The key here—just like with querying—is RESEARCH. I go to at least three or four sites (AgentQuery and QueryTracker are usually among the first) before I even contact an agent, just to make sure I have a decent handle on what and whom they represent before I contact them.
There are a few questions Chuck (Sambuchino—Writer’s Digest Books editor, who runs the GLA blog) wants his interviewers to ask every time; however, when deciding what to ask for the rest, I try to think about what I would want to know, were I to query this person. He or she might say they rep YA, but I try to dig a little deeper—what kind of YA? Are they drawn more to dystopian? Edgy? Contemporary stuff?
If the agents have blogs or have been interviewed elsewhere, I soak up all the info they’ve already provided and try to either get clarification about something they’ve written, spin it a different way, or ask questions they haven’t been asked before.
I have a lot of fun with this gig, and I’m very grateful to be able to do it!
How do you balance your writing time with all your freelance projects? What’s a typical “Ricki Day?”
Heh—I never balance it as well as I want to, but I think I sometimes have unrealistic expectations for what I can get done in a day. I mean, writing down 12 things on one to-do list isn’t always possible. Especially not in an hour. J
But, on my more organized mornings, that’s essentially what I do—write lists. I’ll get up, start the caffeine drip, and write out what all I want to get done (from a much bigger, ongoing to-do list that never seems to end!).
If I’m under a strict deadline, I might even write out certain hour allotments for how long I need to be doing x, y, and z. If I’m being really good, I won’t come out until I’m done. Or my husband comes home. Or my beagle starts looking at me with those “I have to pee” or “It’s six—hello—where’s my food?” eyes.
If I’m not being that good, stick Regis & Kelly and Kathie Lee & Hoda in there somewhere. J
What are you working on right now?
At the moment, mostly WB Workshop stuff as well as agent interviews and editing and critiquing for friends. I have a few ideas swirling around for a new manuscript, and I hope to be getting a rough outline down on paper soon to distract me from querying my latest YA contemporary manuscript (which is also what I’m doing on right now).
Okay, and now for some Mad Libs – Writer’s Edition! Tell me the first word that pops into your head:
Adjective: peanut-buttery
Noun: beagle (sorry—as I type this, Molly is working on getting peanut butter out of a Kong)
Adjective: hungry (this is what I am right now)
Present tense verb: types (I am SO BORING!!)
Adverb ending in –ly: (adverbs are THE DEVIL) devilishly
Present tense verb: bounces (Molly’s now trying to bounce the treats out of the Kong)
And here are Ricki’s words MADLIBBED:
The peanut-buttery beagle looks at her query letter one last time. Her manuscript is hungry, but she still types for the little things — like grammar and sentence structure and spelling. Before she can change her mind, she takes a swig of Moscato and devilishly presses the Send button. Little does she know, her future agent may only be a few bounces away…
Thanks for an awesome interview, Ricki!
And in honor of today’s guest, here are today’s fabulous giveaways:
A 5-page critique by Ricki Schultz, founder of The Write-Brained Network
AND
The rules:
- You must be a follower of this blog.
- If you want to be eligible to win this prize pack, please stop by Ricki’s blog and subscribe or follow her RSS feed.
- Complete the entry form below to enter. You can earn extra points for blogging about this contest (include a link in the Comments) or tweeting a link back to this post (@reply me on Twitter — @CambriaDillon — and make sure to leave your Twitter user name in the Comments).
Today’s giveaway will run until 10pm EST tonight and the winner will be announced in tomorrow’s post. All other entrants will be added to the drawing for the Grand Prize Pack on Friday. Unfortunately, I have to limit the contest to US residents only. 
Sorry international folk!
Don’t forget to stop by each day this week for more great interviews and chances to win these fabulous prizes:
PRIZE PACK #2: TUESDAY (3/22)
A 5-page critique by Carolina Valdez Miller, fellow Agent-Sister!
AND
A signed copy of Feed by M.T. Anderson
PRIZE PACK #3: WEDNESDAY (3/23)
A query letter critique by Kristine Asselin, fellow Agent-Sister!
AND
A signed copy of The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
PRIZE PACK #4: THURSDAY (3/24)
A 30-page critique by Martina Boone, of Adventures in Children’s Publishing!
AND
A copy of Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
GRAND PRIZE PACK: FRIDAY (3/25)
A premium membership to QueryTracker
A copy of Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
A copy of Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
A query letter critique by me
A five-page critique by Vickie Motter, Agent Extraordinaire from Andrea Hurst Literary Management
GOOD LUCK!
By Cam
Several weeks ago I posted some news. And since then, I’ve completed a few rounds of revisions, attended a conference, celebrated good news with friends, and dusted off my WIP. It’s taken me this long to figure out what I want to say because, truthfully? My journey to getting an agent isn’t anything spectacular. It’s not full of lightning fast response times, or overwhelmingly positive responses, or multiple offers, or anything like that. My story isn’t really a story. It began with the slush and ended with the slush…and you know what? I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
But that would make for a pretty boring post, yeah? (ETA: I really should’ve just stopped here because HOLY MOTHER this post ended up long!)
So here are the details — I sent my first query for LIFE AFTER SEND at the end of August 2010. This was way too early. And I know, I know — EVERYONE and their mother tells you not to send out your story until it’s so polished you can see that huge zit popping up on your forehead in the glare of your computer screen. I’d heard this before. I’d given this advice before, too. But when I got a partial request during WriteOnCon for the first fifty pages, did I listen? HECK NO. This is where I tell you, “Do as I SAY, not as I DO!” BUT…in my defense, I didn’t send out the partial right away. I told this agent that I needed to make a few tweaks before I felt comfortable sending it out, and she told me she preferred I wait until I was ready, too.
THIS was the big push I needed to really get me into the querying game.
THIS is also where I made my first mistake. Because I sent it out two weeks later. Two weeks is NOT enough time to revise the latter half of your book. Two months probably isn’t enough time. But it’s like when you see a cute guy sitting on a bench and you waffle back and forth on whether you should or shouldn’t strike up a conversation with him, only to keep on walking before realizing (three blocks later!) that you totally should’ve gotten his number, and then when you go back to that bench, HE’S NOT THERE. Yeah. I didn’t want THAT to happen.
Surprisingly, sending off that first query wasn’t so bad. Call it liquid EMAIL courage. For me, it was like stuffing your mouth full of Pop Rocks and then waiting to see what happened if you took a sip of Coke. Querying was DANGEROUS and I wanted to feel that thrill of hitting the SEND button again. So I sent out ten more. Just to test the water, I told myself. Well, after I sent out that first batch, I went to Louisville, KY with BicycleDude so he could compete in the Ironman and practically kill himself, but that’s not relevant to this story (Sorry, BicycleDude). What IS relevant is that while I was there spectating and sweating bullets of valuable moisture in hundred-degree heat, I got two full requests. So my query seemed to be working…but then I panicked. Like, BIG TIME, because I didn’t really mean to start querying. Those queries I sent? They were just to test the water. There were still things in my story that needed ironing. Things I always figured I would have time to fix. Later.
LESSON NUMBER ONE: There is no later. Just like celebrities should always be ready to answer who they’re wearing on the red carpet, you should be ready when you’re taking the plunge in the query pools. I always find it a bit ridiculous and annoying when some celebs don’t bother remembering their designer’s name because the whole time I’m thinking, REALLY? They’re letting you borrow everything for free and you don’t remember?!? So I repeat: “‘Do as I say and not as I do” and really — don’t query until you’re totally ready because you never know when an agent will want to read the whole thing!
So while more agents requested to see my story, more rejected it. But then there were some agents kind enough to reject me with really encouraging, helpful notes. Notes I could use. So I revised. And revised. To the point where I finally felt comfortable with my MS. This was probably late October/early November. So looking at the time line, I queried about two months too soon. And then I basically threw myself into the pool and trolled Twitter for agent query comments, combed through Absolute Write posts, (over)analyzed QueryTracker stats, and constantly refreshed my email. I also stayed true to my rule of ‘One Rejection In, One Query Out’ (at least). I never stopped researching agents and always visited Mother. Write. (Repeat.), Literary Rambles, and Guide to Literary Agents. These blogs helped me gain a sense of what agents were looking for and I would’ve been completely lost without them. I also don’t think I would’ve stayed sane without QueryTracker. It’s free, but I highly recommend upgrading to the premium membership to take advantage of additional reporting and other analytical ways to drive yourself crazy.
Fast forward to December. December 20, actually. A “New Agent Alert” for Vickie Motter of Andrea Hurst Literary Management popped up in my Google Reader from Guide to Literary Agents. Because it was almost Christmas and the publishing world had pretty much shut down, I took a chance and queried the next day, even though I still had a bunch pending. BEST DECISION. Seven hours later, Vickie requested a partial. Twelve days later, she asked for more pages and a synopsis and bio. Ten days later, she asked for the full…and the synopsis and bio that I thought I’d sent, but apparently hadn’t because Gmail ate my attachment. *Stupid Gmail*
LESSON NUMBER TWO: Double-check what you’re sending! Make sure you’re not copying every agent on your query list. Make sure you’re following sub guidelines from the agent’s website. Make sure you didn’t copy and paste the wrong thing into your email or that you copy and paste the entirety of what you mean to send. (In addition to NOT actually sending my syno and bio when requested, I also looked back and saw that I ended my partial in the middle of a sentence. Yeah. *headsmack*) That said…
LESSON NUMBER THREE and THREE AND A HALF: Mistakes will happen and agents are human. Sometimes fonts get screwy in the email. Sometimes you send an extra page or two. Agents don’t spit fire. Agents don’t sprout horns at midnight. Most of them will understand if you make an honest mistake because that’s sort of what humans do. We make mistakes and we move on. So if you happen to make a mistake, don’t dwell on it. Look at who’s next on your list and refer back to LESSON NUMBER TWO.
So lucky for me, Vickie was completely understanding. At least, I assumed she was because she emailed me on February 4th saying she’d like to set up a phone call to “discuss a few things.” I might have passed out at this point. I remember I was working from home and had a conference call scheduled fifteen minutes later, but to this day, I have no idea what that conference call was about, or who was on the phone, or what I may have said. Obviously, I was excited and nervous and totally NOT thinking Vickie was calling to offer representation. See, in my day job, when I say I want to “discuss a few things,” they aren’t necessarily good things. In fact, they usually aren’t. So I paced around my house, eating my daughter’s Scooby-Doo fruit snacks like they were going out of style, until the time came when I had told her I’d be free. And when she finally called, I figured she would talk about my story, point out major areas that would need revising, and then send me on my merry way. I was not expecting her to say how much she loved my story and my characters and how she would like to REPRESENT ME.
Come again?
All the excitement (and Scooby-Doo sugar) I’d kept contained during the first part of that call, came screaming out all over the phone and I think I asked her, “Are you serious?” about ten dozen times. Then we talked shop and I loved all the revisions she suggested and I also asked her a ton of questions (thank you Martina for your awesome list of Agent-y questions!) and she was so helpful and thorough and I felt at ease. I can’t tell you how much that last part is important. You want to feel comfortable with your agent. You want to know that you can approach him or her with whatever question or concern you have because communication is SUPER important. As writers, we get used to internalizing everything, but you shouldn’t keep things from your agent that directly relate to your writing, your online presence, your career. He or she is the champion of your work. Trust them to do their job unless they’ve given you reason not to trust them. And if that’s the case? Find someone else.
These past few weeks have been incredibly awesome. The camaraderie of the writing community always amazes me and the support I’ve gotten from my dear writing friends touches me to no end. I’ve also met new writing friends — including two awesome agent sisters (Carolina and Kristine) who I’m excited to share this journey with.
My book just went on sub this week and it’s a terrifying and thrilling thing, and I know the publishing process isn’t a fast one…and I know there are never any guarantees, but I’m still pinching myself that I even got to this point. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and genuine love and respect for the craft in order to bring words to life. This is my life’s dream that I can see forming just around the edges. It’s blurry and still far away. Sometimes I want it to get closer…and sometimes I want to tell it to go loooong just so I can savor every moment. So that brings me to…
LESSON NUMBER FOUR: Savor and enjoy the journey. It can be a long one. It can be a short one. It can be a bumpy one or free of all obstacles. However your journey develops, it’s specific to YOU. And it’s up to you to embrace it, learn from it, and grow bigger from it.
So to celebrate the start of my journey, I’m giving stuff away EVERY DAY NEXT WEEK! And some of the dear writer friends I mentioned above? They’re giving stuff away too!
Here are the rules:
- You must be a follower of this blog.
- If you want to be eligible to win a prize pack sponsored by one of my writing friends, please stop by their blog and follow them, too, because their generosity blows me away and their blogs are amazing and I promise you won’t be disappointed!!!
- Come back and visit! There will be an entry form each day to enter and win that day’s prize pack. You can earn extra points for blogging about this contest (include a link in the Comments) or tweeting a link back to this post (@reply me on Twitter — @CambriaDillon — and make sure to leave your Twitter user name in the Comments).
And now for the prizes!
PRIZE PACK #1: MONDAY (3/21)
A 5-page critique by Ricki Schultz, founder of The Write-Brained Network!
(You’ll need to subscribe or follow her RSS feed)
AND
A copy of Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott
PRIZE PACK #2: TUESDAY (3/22)
A 5-page critique by Carolina Valdez Miller, fellow Agent-Sister!
AND
A signed copy of Feed by M.T. Anderson
PRIZE PACK #3: WEDNESDAY (3/23)
A query letter critique by Kristine Asselin, fellow Agent-Sister!
AND
A signed copy of The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong
PRIZE PACK #4: THURSDAY (3/24)
A 30-page critique by Martina Boone, of Adventures in Children’s Publishing!
AND
A copy of Radiant Shadows by Melissa Marr
GRAND PRIZE PACK: FRIDAY (3/25)
A premium membership to QueryTracker
A copy of Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
A copy of Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr
A query letter critique by me
A five-page critique by Vickie Motter, Agent Extraordinaire from Andrea Hurst Literary Management
Contest winners will be announced every morning starting on Tuesday, and entrants from each day will be added to the drawing for the Grand Prize Pack on Friday. So even if you don’t win one of the daily prizes, there’s still a chance for you to win an awesome critique from Vickie (and the other goodies)! The Grand Prize winner will be announced Friday night at 9pm EST. Unfortunately, I have to limit the contest to US residents only. Sorry international folk!
Thanks for stopping by and GOOD LUCK!
By Cam
I HAVE AN AGENT!!!!!!!!!
Whew. I’ve been waiting to say that since Friday. But today, I can officially announce that I’m represented by Vickie Motter at Andrea Hurst Literary Management.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
I’ll post a separate entry on my road to getting an agent later this week because right now? It’s still sinking in. I mean, I have an AGENT?!?! Like, a REAL one?
Yeah. I can’t stop shaking my head and checking my glass for suspicious liquids.
In the meantime I’m going to start revising LIFE AFTER SEND (for my agent) (really????). My plan is to read through the whole thing by Sunday, while notating general areas I might want to change, and then layering in the things Vickie and I discussed. I think that process will probably take a couple of weeks. Then I’ll read through again. Tweak. Rinse. Repeat. And then send off for comments and line edits.
Holy moly this is INSANE. I have an agent. Who will be reading my MSS. And pitching my MSS. And then editors will be reading my MSS (hopefully). And tear it apart. Or love it. Or love to tear it apart. I don’t know. This is a total dream. I mean, not to have my poor MSS potentially be viewed and ripped apart over and over, but THIS–this whole journey is a dream.
Pinch. Pinch. Pinch. Pinch.
Yup. A total dream.
Cambria Dillon - YA Writer represented by Vickie Motter, Andrea Hurst Literary Management
