It's in the mail

Well, I did it. I typed up my synopsis and my query letter for book #3. The fate of the third Immortal Guardians novel is now in the hands of my publisher. Fingers crossed it is accepted! I hope they like it!

E-books

E-books, E-books, E-books... Not quite as good as the real deal, but still pretty powerful.

I. Love. Books.

And I don't mean just any books, I mean actual printed-on-paper, flip through the pages books. I own very few E-books because I love the smell and feel of having an actual book in hand. But, that being said, after going back and forth on it for a few weeks, I finally decided to submit my first Immortal Guardians novel, Dark Seduction, to an e-publisher. I researched a lot of different companies and found one that I think is perfect. If they accept my submission (which I sent to them not even an hour ago), they would publish my novel in an E-book format. If that sells well and there is a demand for actual publication, then they offer that as well.

So, what did I send them you ask? Well, I sent them what is probably my 15th revision of my query letter, my 10th revision of my synopsis (hey, its hard to get the story of a 100,000 word book down to just a few pages...) and the first 3 chapters of my novel. I decided to send the prophecy that holds a spot right in the beginning of the book, before any of the story line comes into play. Okay, okay, I know its not the best idea to send "prologue" type stuff when querying, but I feel that the prophecy is really powerful, and I wanted whoever reads my submission to be drawn in by it. Warning: Tooting my own horn in three, two, one... The prophecy is pretty bad ass. Did I mention that it just came to me one day and I wrote it in, like, minutes? Hmm, maybe I'm related to the Fates or something. :o)

Holy Crap!... and then, not.

Wow, I got really excited today. I looked in my email and saw a message from the agent that I pitched to (and submitted my 10 pages with synopsis).

HOLY CRAP, right??

Haha, not so much. It was the autoresponder coming through saying that she got my submission. I guess I'm just playing the waiting game now. *pout.

The Pitch

Dun, dun, duuuun (scary music).

The Pitch...
Could there be scarier words when it comes to an author? I doubt it. Well, except for the dreaded "Your book sucks."

For weeks I've been trying to write my synopsis, perfect my first 3 chapters, write my cover letter (which I kicked ass at by the way), and type up my pitch.

At first, I tried to use my cover letter as my pitch, but it filled a whole 2 minutes instead of the minimum of 4 that I need to fill. So, scratch that one! Instead, I started using parts of my cover letter (because again, I really did kick ass at writing that thing up), but I had to make it flow a bit better for the way I talk. I didn't want to go in there and sound like I was reading something. I wanted to be bright and cheerful and... me.

Welllllll.... nothing really goes as planned, does it.

I had the hardest time memorizing my pitch. Even in front of my wonderful husband, I would freeze up and giggle. (Yes, I'm a giggler). I started to panic.

I can't do this, holy crap I'm going to puke on the agent...

So, my friends and I get to the conference. On and on, I kept memorizing my pitch, and I finally got the dammed thing memorized. I had it flowing well (in my head), and I thought that maybe I could really pull it off! Yeah, not so much... As soon as I tried it outloud (meaning on the phone with my husband while trying not to look at my cheat sheet), I blew it.

Panicking... Shaking... Sweating... Urge to puke building.... This is going to suck.

So, my time comes up, and it is time for me to pitch. I walk to the elevator and hit number 6 to go up to the suite for the pitch appointments. I feel sooo sick. I'm going to screw up this chance and I'll never try it again...

I get to the suite, and sit down. The agent took a quick break to grab some food, which left me some more time to rehearse my memorized pitch in my head. My shirt was sweaty under my pits and I just knew I would die if I eff'd this up. The agent walks in and sits down, and the strangest thing happened.

A calm came over me. Now, really its the strangest thing. Every time I go in for an interview, I'm nervous as hell before it. But as soon as I actually see the person I'm meeting with, I calm down. Cue "me."

I smiled. I introduced myself. Introduced my novel as Dark Seduction, and that its currently 100,000 words. Yes, I said currently, I couldn't help myself. You just never know if you need to add a little or take a little away. The only thing I said to her that I actually memorized is my hook line. Everything else I pulled out of 'Calm Kristie's" mind, and I nailed it! The agent actually liked my idea and asked me to send the synopsis along with the first ten pages of my novel.

And here I thought I was going to puke on her and screw the hole thing up. I guess things never go as you planned. Sometimes they are better!

The Synopsis

Okay, so my book is 'completed.' (HA!)
I knew I was going to the RWA Conference and I had signed up to pitch to an agent. Well, that means I need to get everything ready for that pitch, right? Cue the Synopsis...

Wow, that sucker is hard to write. I researched online about the best ways to do it, and found some helpful sites. I tried it their way, and within a few days I gave up on their idea (because my 1-2 page synopsis ended up being 11 pages). I decided to go my own way. I closed my eyes and watched a fast-forwarded view of my novel and wrote down the parts I felt were the most important.

Anything involving the hero and heroine that were important to the storyline went into the synopsis. It was pretty quick to type it all up, but the darn thing was still too long. I had a friend from work critique it and we got it down to just the right size.

All I can say on that one is: follow your gut and type up the synopsis on things YOU feel are important to the storyline. They don't need to know that the grass was wet, or at that the sky was blue. They just need to know what's important to the storyline that would keep readers a-reading.