Question of the day: Is it advisable to submit to more than one agent from the same literary agency? Eg. Can I submit to Bob from C&C ltd AND Sheila from C&C ltd in separate letters?

While you can and SHOULD submit to multiple agents at once, the general rule is that you should NOT submit to more than one agent within the same agency at the same time. There are exceptions to this rule, but to play it safe, I would research the agents thoroughly and then decide which one is the best fit. If he or she subsequently rejects you, in most cases, you can then query your next choice within the agency, and so on. 

That said, there are a few exceptions to this rule, I believe. I want to say that Trident is one of the agencies who doesn't stick to this rule, but that's going from memory, and I may be wrong. I'm hopeful that blog readers who have been on the query wagon more recently than I have will chime in with the agencies who welcome multiple queries. Anyone want to help out this reader?

Question of the day: I have spent five years and three major revisions on my first novel. I belong to two critique groups and I've been querying agents for the last six months and contacted about 30 of them. I've gotten 3 full requests, 3 partial requests, and 1 full request from an editor I met at a Writers Conference in April. The problem I'm facing is that everyone seems to have a different (and contradictory) reason for rejecting the novel. What do you think I should do? Should I continue to query agents or set this novel aside? (I'm already working on my second novel, but I'm having a hard time giving up on the first one.)

I can't tell you what to do in this specific circumstance, but I do think this opens up the much broader question of when is it time to set something aside. In your case, 30 agents isn't that many for a really in-depth agent hunt, and because reading is so subjective, you really are likely to get a wide variety of opinions in your rejections, so ultimately, whether or not you pursue this novel is up to you. Maybe it's your query letter, maybe it's timing, the agents you're contacting, the industry...there are so many different reasons as to why it might not be making its mark.

But yes, sometimes, it is just that the book isn't good enough. Writers, especially first-timers, often have a hard time accepting this, but it's the simple truth: just because a book has been completed, and even when a book has been revised - and revised again - it simply still isn't going to sell. If you've been reading this blog for long enough, you know that I speak from experience, and the reason I call out first-timers is because until you've written something that is a hell of a lot better, you really can't tell when a novel stinks. (Which isn't to say that the reader's manuscript in question stinks, only that it's very, very, very difficult to be objective when you have no basis for comparison.)

So how do you decide if you should set it aside? I think this is a really personal decision, but for me - beyond the fact that I was getting rejections from publishers (hee), I was also getting lukewarm feedback from readers I trusted, readers I was sure would rave about it. When they came back with "eh," I started to wonder if maybe I hadn't created the masterpiece I thought I had. (Yes, opinions are totally just that, but again, these were people whose opinions I valued, so I had to give them some weight.) I think also, sometimes you keep pushing a book because of the sunk costs - namely, how much time and effort you've put into them in the past, NOT because you're really so gung-ho on them for the future. Again, this certainly applied to me. After all of my blood, sweat and tears, I simply couldn't IMAGINE that this book wasn't going to be published. BUT, despite my agony, that didn't mean that it SHOULD be published. There's a big difference, and maybe that's not fair, maybe that's the really crappy part of our industry, but just because you THINK it's worthy doesn't mean that the marketplace will agree. And that's the gamble that you take in writing a manuscript in the first place.

I wish I had more concrete answers for you. I can only say that once you write something new - and better - then you really finally get clarity on why that other book didn't sell. It's nearly impossible to articulate the specifics behind this enlightenment (at least impossible for me to articulate them), but the good news is that you WILL finally get it, even if means that you have to write something else to do so.

Readers - I would LOVE to hear from you: have you ever decided to set a book aside, and if so, how did you reach this conclusion?

Question of the day: I'd love to hear what happened to that first novel that didn't "make it" with your initial agent. How did you part ways?

I was just about to write a long post detailing the journey of that first novel - which, thank the LORD, will never see the light of day - when I realized that I'd done just that for Meg Waite Clayton's blog a few months ago. So I've cut and pasted that post below. (Apologies for the few of you who will notice the crossover. I really don't think there's a better way of retelling the story of when I told it to Meg.) Here you go. If you have questions about the agent hunt/cutting ties/starting over once you've read it, feel free to post in the comments section, and I'll address them!

STUBBORNNESS HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY STRONG SUIT:

I had several starts and stops along my road to publication, and any of them, I have to say in retrospect, might have been enough to knock someone less bullheaded out of the race. Fortunately, stubbornness has always been my strong suit, and I was undeterred.

Prior to transitioning to fiction, I was a full-time freelance magazine writer, but had always felt that pull toward novels. So one day, about eight or nine years ago, I realized that all the day-dreaming in the world wasn’t going to get an actual manuscript written, and thus, sat down – with no clue what I was doing at all – and started writing. The manuscript took me three or four years to complete, mostly because I stopped halfway and had no idea what to do from there…getting started was easy, finishing it? Not so much.

Eventually, I put my head down, dug in and wrote those last 150 pages, and well, I’d be lying if I said that I thought they were anything less than brilliant. BRILLIANT! I had already envisioned the bestseller list, the movie soundtrack, the cover art when I started my agent search. I can’t remember now how many queries I fired off, but it was somewhere in the ballpark of average: more than twenty, less than fifty, when I got that sweet, sweet offer that every writer hopes for – representation for my novel.

My agent said that the book would require fairly extensive editing, and so we got to work, cutting exposition, axing unnecessary scenes (brilliant, as I was sure they were), fine-tuning until she deemed it ready for submission. Oh, those anxiety-filled days waiting for word from editors – every second passed like an hour, every email in my inbox a quick sign of hope (then deflation when it wasn’t from my agent) that I was about to transition from unpublished to published author. Alas, the rejections rolled in…and rolled in…and rolled in. Many of them were very gracious and a few were near-misses, but lo and behold, by the end of our process, not one had come in as a “yes.”

Devastation. Despair. What’s a gal to do?

Well, for me, ever that stubborn toddler, I refused to give in. Within a few days of mourning, I sat down at my computer and started fresh. This time, I actually had a vague idea of what I was doing, how to create a story arc, how to write the whole damn thing without a two year lag in the middle. So I did. I wrote frantically, completely the entire manuscript in three months. I passed it off to my agent with much euphoria. Unlike the first time around, when I blindly deemed myself brilliant, this time around, I actually had a basis for comparison, and I knew this one was good. At least much better than before.

My agent came back with edits, and I made them. And then….nothing. Silence. My phone calls stopped getting returned, my emails went unanswered. And very slowly, and then very quickly, I started feeling very, very sick to my stomach. My agent, I knew in my gut, had lost faith in me. Despite the fact that I loved this book, that this book, I was certain, was sellable.

A month or so of silence went by, and finally, we spoke. Yes, she admitted, she wasn’t gung-ho on this. She thought, and I’ll never forget this, “That going out with this manuscript will do more harm than good for my career.” And what did I want to do? She asked. Revise the original manuscript. (No.) Start an entire new one that she would take a look at. (No.) Or find someone else to represent the current one. (Yes.) To be fair, I hesitated and mulled it over for about two hours. And then, that was that. We parted ways amicably enough and that same afternoon (need I raise that stubborn toddler analogy again?), I started querying agents all over again.

Two major set-backs: 1) an unsellable completed manuscript, 2) an agent who didn’t think I was viable in the marketplace.

So what?

I queried my little heart out, and this time, I received several offers of representation within the first few weeks. I signed with my agent –Elisabeth Weed - who remains my agent to this day, and a few weeks later, she sold that manuscript, the one that would have done more harm than good for my career, in a four-way auction. Could it have gone a different way? Could my first agent have been right? Well…sure. Some stories will end like that. But mine didn’t. I refused to let it. I refused to let one person’s opinion – my original agent’s – dictate the course of my future AND refused to let it override my instinct that my book was a worthy one. Thank goodness for my gut. Thank goodness that I was born stubborn as a mule. Thank goodness that I connected with the right agent for me. That’s the story of how I became a published author. Was it easy? No chance. Was it worth it? Indeed. 

Question of the day: How did you make the switch from magazines to books? Was it easier to find an agent via your magazine experience?

I made the switch in the most elemental way possible: I wrote a manuscript and shopped it around to agents while still juggling my freelance work. It really was that simple! I don't think there's a magic formula or anything to making this transition, though certainly, it requires discipline, as you're not getting paid to write your fiction, and without a deadline, it's very easy to let it lapse. Most magazine writers are excellent at meeting mandated deadlines, but when they're self-imposed deadlines - with no guarantee of publication - they're a lot easier to ignore.

Actually, let me rewind - it wasn't simple. That's probably not the right word to use. But in terms of overall formula, that's how it worked. The details though were a little trickier. My first manuscript took me four years to write, thanks partially to what I stated above: deadlines and motivation, but also partially thanks to the fact that I didn't know what I was doing. Once I finally completed the ms, I landed an agent but an agent who didn't end up selling the book. So I wrote another one. Which did sell. Albeit with a new agent after I parted ways with the old one. All the while, I was still freelancing at a very rapid pace to keep the checks coming and to keep my byline out there. I would work on magazine pieces in the morning - they had concrete deadlines after all, and I needed to be sure that I met them - and write fiction in the afternoons. I was crazy busy, too busy probably, but I didn't want to let that deter me: once I'd written fiction, I knew that I had to see it through. So I did. 

Again, both simple and not. I wrote a good query letter (which, yes, referenced my magazine experience) and cast a wide net in a blind agent search. I found one (after the first agent didn't work out) who I knew was right for me, and well, four books later, she still is. That's truly all I did - not much different than anyone else. Now, did my magazine experience help? It probably got my query letter read more frequently and also probably got me more requests for partials. But 100%, it did NOT land me representation. The manuscript has to stand on its own - I don't care if you have ever magazine credit known to man - without a strong manuscript, you're not going to land an agent. So again - and I've stressed this countless times here! - please be triple sure that your manuscript is ready to see the light of day.

So that's how I did it. There really isn't a secret handshake or magic formula. It's mostly about self-discipline and writing a good book. (Really! And that should come as good news to those of you who don't come from the writing world - it really is anyone's ball game.)

Namely: your agent.

Yup, guess what? You're allowed to have certain criteria and expectations of your representation, and today, I'm over on Writer Unboxed talking about why these criteria are critical to your success and what, specifically, you have a right to expect from him or her.

Check it out here.

Also, I'm thrilled to be in this month's Women On Writing Ezine, in their 20 Questions Feature. As you guys know, I'm a big fan of supporting other women and other working moms, so I hope you'll take a second to click over to my interview. I enjoyed it a lot.