Newbie writer's homework

I've been building a database of agents.

Well, more like a spreadsheet, but still.

I made sure to check their websites, and discovered a few were not what I thought they were. Deleted. I don't want to waste my time, and they don't want me to waste theirs.

Each one has her own submission quirks, so I'm going to be careful to keep track of who requested what. See, my column with that section? And dates and email address and that sort of thing.

Even if every single agent rejects me, I want to make sure I didn't make a stupid mistake, like misspelling a name, or completely missing the genre they wanted.

Book #1 is still off at the beta readers. I haven't seen either of them online, which means they're either too busy to read it, or couldn't put it down. One can only hope it's the latter!

Today's Work

The MadCap Writer, Catherine Blakeney, has arrived! You may shower me with flower petals and book contracts now. (In a dream universe, book contracts would be hand delivered by hunky UPS men who then offer to mow the lawn.)

Today has been devoted mostly to Internet housekeeping - I have a functional website, but no links to content, so I've been fixing that. I now have a Twitter, and a Facebook page, and of course, this brand new blog.

I considered installing a word press directly on my website, but my URL is being hosted under another URL's directory (for my personal website) and I wasn't sure of the logistics of it all. Plus, I've already used more than my fair share of CMS databases, well beyond what I was allotted, and Maia Host (who has been wonderful!) has said nothing. I don't want to press my luck.

So, an external blog it is.

What is the point of this blog?

Well, I have a pretty heavy online identity already, under a nickname, that has a lot of this content on its own. I'm trying to separate myself from that online identity, and out of all my friends under that nickname, only one is also a writer. (Love you Rachel!) Rather than bore all my non-writer friends with the nuts and bolts of this crazy career change of mine, I've opted to keep things tidy. Those that care about what I'm doing may keep up with me here. Those that don't care don't have to bother.

Goals for today:

• Compiled list of ten agents to query: Done!
• Query letter composed: Done! Husband approved. Now this ages for a week before anyone sees it.
• Create online presence: Done!
• 2000 words on Book 2: . . . I'll get back to you on that
• Revision of Book 1: I'm going to add another scene near the end, I believe. I'm also way too "tell-ey" and not enough "show-ey" in the entire third half of the book, so there's still some revision to be done.
• Reading assignment: Another chunk of "Idiot's Guide to Getting Published" out of the way. Hey, it can't hurt. And as much as the blogs from the agent friends and editor friends have helped me so far, I still have a ton of stuff to learn!