It's always wonderful to share a success story from a former contest veteran. Karen was one of Mike's picks for our recent Nightmare on Query Street! Congrats, Karen!
I was one of those kids who wrote constantly. By middle
school, I had an entire library of books I’d written and (badly) illustrated.
But once I started the college-career-family trajectory, I let my interest in
writing slide.
A few years ago I started reading YA books and was inspired
to try my hand at writing again. I spent months writing at night and on
weekends, and for the first time since my childhood, I finished a book.
Not a GOOD book, though.
It was a classic first effort that should have been trunked
as a learning experience. In late 2014 I didn’t have critique partners or beta
readers. Nobody except my sister and a friend had read ever my book. While it
had some characters I still love, it also had gaping plot holes, pacing
problems, and so much first-chapter exposition that my MC sounded like a tour
guide. Plus it was dystopian-themed, which had been off-trend for years.
But I didn’t know any of that. I attempted my first query, which
was basically plot teasers and adverbs strung together with clichés like “she
doesn’t fit the mold.” Which mold? Who knows. I didn’t specify.
Not surprisingly, my inbox was a mixture of crickets and form
rejections.
A breakthrough came when I joined Twitter in spring 2015 and
met other writers. I found my first critique partner, who became my writing
soul sister. I learned the market and studied writing as a craft, reworking
both my query and my novel. I gave PitMad a try. I participated in a YA first-page
critique party and met another amazingly talented CP. But while I finally managed
to eke out a few agent requests, I realized my first manuscript was
fundamentally flawed and put it aside.
(I did enter that MS into the 2015 PitchWars as sort of a
Hail Mary, hoping one of the mentors I applied to might help me fix it. They all
quite rightly turned me down.)
I wrote another book, a YA contemporary fantasy my CPs praised,
and started querying in the fall. I had a better request-to-rejection ratio
than my first manuscript, but still heard “just not for me” plenty of times. Then
in October I entered Nightmare on Query Street (NoQS), a contest run by
Michelle Hauck and Michael Anthony, and was chosen for Michael’s team. That was
a huge confidence booster that came with bonus helpful mentoring.
I received three contest requests, but I’d also gotten a couple
passes on querying fulls. Things were moving slowly—one step forward, one step
back.
Meanwhile, back in September, I’d been inspired with an idea
for a third book, a YA contemporary mystery. I wrote it madly in every spare
minute—the characters completely took over my brain—and finished a draft in two
months. My CPs thought it was The Book, but I wasn’t sure. I put it away for a
few weeks, and when I came back to it I saw clearly what plot threads had to be
reworked.
I’d met some amazing beta readers during NoQS, and they
helped me revise more intensively than I ever had before. I took every
opportunity I could find for additional feedback, searching for common issues
that tripped readers up and trying to fix them. It was a complete 180 from my
early days of writing in a vacuum.
In January 2016 I was ready to jump back into the querying trenches.
I’d gotten a subscription to Publishers Marketplace, and had carefully researched
agents I thought would be a good fit for my book and the career I wanted to
have. I kept getting drawn to Rosemary Stimola’s website, admiring her list and
the editors she’d worked with. So one Friday afternoon, I took a deep breath
and submitted a query via her online form.
She requested the full three hours later. I’ll let you
imagine the unprofessional flailing about that followed.
I sent my manuscript and settled in for a long wait,
submitting a few more queries and getting additional requests. I also drove
myself crazy looking at QueryTracker statistics and preparing for what felt
like inevitable disappointment. But when Rosemary emailed a week and a half
later, she wanted to set up a time to talk.
Flailing. Unprofessional. Lots of it, again.
When Rosemary offered representation, her vision for the
book was so perfectly in line with mine that I was tempted to accept on the
spot. But I had other fulls out between my second manuscript and this new one,
and needed to give those agents a chance to read. By the end of the week I had additional
offers and considered them carefully, but ultimately Rosemary’s immediate
connection to the book won me over. I happily signed with her in February.
I learned a lot while querying, but the lessons that stuck with
me the most are these: Connect with other writers. Constantly improve your
craft. Above all, even (or especially) when you doubt whether you have what it
takes, keep writing. Don’t give up. You never know which of the projects you’re
working on will turn out to be The Book.
Updated: In news
of the pinch-me-I’m-dreaming variety, Delacorte Press will be publishing my
debut and a second book, which is the best postscript I could ever have hoped
to add.
Karen McManus writes contemporary and fantasy YA, and is
represented by Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio. Her debut, ONE OF
US IS LYING, about the
fallout from death of a high school student who created a gossip app and its
impact on the four teens whose secrets he was about to reveal, is forthcoming
from Delacorte Press.
You can find her on Twitter @writerkmc and at www.karenmcmanus.com.
This is a great story! A lot of us start out querying before we're really ready; it's so great to see someone stick with it, learn, and succeed!
ReplyDeleteHuge congrats to you Karen!!! And just what's so unprofessional about flailing, lol!
ReplyDeleteThe opportunities to engage in flailing about are too few and far between in this industry! Embrace them when you can! Huge Congrats to you!!!
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