Writing Wednesday: Does This Manuscript Make My Ass Look Fat?

When we first decided to put pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboard) and actually write a novel, never in our wildest imagination did we think we would end up here.  Having a blast writing this blog, interviewing authors that we idolize and, um, even tweeting!(Although, admittedly, we still aren't the tweepiest tweeps...)  And we never thought that our search for a literary agent was going to be more difficult and take longer than birthing a child.  Well, maybe that makes sense because The D Word has kind of become our baby... But sometimes it feels like breaking into the publishing industry is like trying to get in the hottest club on Saturday night.  We wait, wait, and then wait some more for our turn to get in, just to have the bouncer tell us that our outfit just isn't right.  That it just didn't hit the right note. They just don't feel connected to our outfit. So we say whateveh, that's just fine, the next club will LOVE this damn outfit. Because it's the kind of outfit you just can't stop looking at and never want to take off. In fact, all the other people who have seen this outfit said it's even better than the last!

But the bouncer at the second club tells us that he had really been hoping to like our outfit better than he did. That it just didn't live up to the brief glimpse of cleavage we gave him while in line. Oh, but we shouldn't be discouraged because he thinks we're very talented at putting outfits together.  And if we ever want to show him another outfit, he'll be happy to tell us whether or not we look fat in it.

Undaunted, we make our way to yet another club.  This club was recommended to us by people who wear really, really great outfits all the time.  We always LOVE their outfits.  But this line never seems to move and we aren't sure if they even saw our outfit?  Oh wait- maybe leaving us in line is their way of telling us that our ass looks huge without actually having to *say* it.

Hold on! Is that a celebrity we see breezing past the velvet ropes?  Because from here, her outfit doesn't look that great-our outfit looks way better than that.  In fact, she looks like a hot mess!  Well, maybe they think people will want to see her outfit no matter what. Her outfit will probably be on the Today show and Regis and Kelly next week. *sigh*

We're not gonna lie, some days we just feel like taking that damn outfit back and building a new one from scratch.  That even though we believe in and are proud of our outfit, maybe the dressing room mirrors had played tricks on us.  What had looked fabulous in the store now felt out of style when being given the once over by the powers that be. I mean, how many times could we be told that people just don't buy those kind of outfits anymore?  Which is odd to hear anyway, because we see people buying those outfits everyday. Interesting. Very interesting.

But what we've learned is that you just have to get your ass out of bed each morning, put on that freakin' outfit and strut around like you are America's Next Top Model. Because at the end of the day, even if our outfit isn't perfect, even if it gives us camel toe, there must be at least ONE bouncer with a camel toe fettish out there that will be willing to let us into his club.

What about you guys?  What are your thoughts on the agent search? Leave a comment and tell us!

xo, L&L

Writing Wednesday with Allison Winn Scotch: The Agent Hunt-How long is TOO Long?

As many as you know, we've been on the agent hunt for the last couple of months.  And while things seem to be going pretty well (keep your fingers crossed!), we've often been asked the question: How long is TOO long to hunt for an agent? And who better to answer that question than NYT Bestselling author Allison Winn Scotch?  After all, she answers Qs like this one every day on her fantastic Ask Allison blog and she's a must-follow on Twitter. And, well, because we totally crush on her and are dying to hear her expert opinion!

So please welcome the lovely and talented Allison to Chick Lit is not Dead!  (Oh, and don't forget to check out her latest novel, The One That I Want! You'll love it!)

The Agent Hunt: How Long Is Too Long?

How long should it take to get an agent? Is there a certain point when an author should move on to writing another ms?

This is such a personal question and one that doesn’t have an exact answer to it, but I’ll give it my best shot. I’d say that on average, most authors who land agents end up querying between, say, 35-70. Which obviously is a huge, huge range. Some get lucky (and by lucky, I don’t mean actual luck involved – they’ve done their homework and also have a good manuscript), and land one much sooner. Some will query up to 100. Some won’t stop until they’ve queried every last agent they can possibly dream of. But in general (again, with no hard figures to back this up), I’d say that up to about 70 is average. For my initial query hunt, I probably went through about 40. When that agent and I parted ways, I was much better-informed about the process and also had a much stronger manuscript, so I think I only went out to about 15.

So how do you know when to throw in the towel? Again, I’m not ever going to tell someone specifically to throw in the towel, but I do think you reach a point when you have to accept that it may not happen for this manuscript. It’s not a failure, it’s a learning process, and I can almost promise you that your next manuscript will be stronger. So just when do you hit that wall? I’d say when you’ve gotten little positive feedback about the manuscript, when you really haven’t gotten many viable bites or interest, when you’ve exhausted nearly all of the agents to whom you’d be well-matched (remember, a bad agent is worse than no agent at all)...well, if all of these things have happened, and you’re still unrepresented, I’d say move on.

I think it’s really easy to keep going for the sake of it, but that’s not what’s going to be best for your career and your book. It’s a very, very emotional thing – accepting that this book might never be published, but again, try to look at it as a learning process rather than a failure. That’s what I did when my first manuscript (with that first agent) never sold. I realized that I had a wonderful opportunity to go out there and write something better. So I did. Eventually, with a new agent, that manuscript sold at a 4-way auction, and to this day, I’m grateful that I wrote the initial ms that never sold: it taught me how to be a better writer, and the agent query process taught me a lot about what I’m looking for in an agent.

Last words of advice: please be sure to do A LOT of research so you’re actually querying the right people. Look in the acknowledgment section of books that are similar to yours. Sign up for Publishers Marketplace. Check out Agent Query. The more you know, the smoother your agent hunt will go. Also, please, please, please be sure that your manuscript is ready to actually be read by the pros. This means that your first draft IS NOT the one to query with. Your fifth might be. Finally, hone your query letter to best represent your voice and spark some interest. There are some good ones floating around on the web to serve as examples.

With all of these things, I’m hopeful that you won’t hit 70-100 queries and still come up short. Good luck!

Thanks so much Allison!  xo, L&L

Writing Wednesdays By Lisa

Happy Hump Day! We’re excited to be debuting our feature, Writing Wednesdays where we’ll, well, write about writing. On Wednesdays.

And to celebrate, we're giving away five HeartThreads t-shirts with messages about love, wisdom, faith and inspiration worn close to the heart! Get it? Just leave a comment on this post (like how much you love us and our writing! *wink* *wink* ) and be entered to win.

So, back to Writing Wednesdays. As much as we LOVE to bag on The Bachelor and spout off about our relationships here at CLIND, "wax poetic" about books for Barnes and Noble and She Knows and make quips about parenting for Real Moms Guide, writing books is our #1 passion.

As many of you know, we’re in the homestretch of completing The D Word, our dual narrative novel about two women who walked away from their relationships because they thought they wanted more. But when more turns out to be the complicated world of divorce, they begin to second-guess everything.

And as we prepare to plunge head first into the pool with all of the other hungry writers hoping to find the perfect agent and publisher for his/her book, we hope you’ll follow along with us as we reveal the good, the bad and undoubtedly, very ugly parts of our literary journey.

We’re proud to report that so far, it’s been mostly good with just a tiny bit bad and one part fugly mixed in!

104,000 words

6 months

3 days at a “writing retreat” in Palm Springs (shout out to our cabana boys!)

2 plot changes

1 virtual door slam=

Our nearly completed manuscript.

We’re almost there. So close. We can smell the paper of the final draft as it’s coming off the printer. We can see the manuscript being sent to prospective agents that have requested a partial or *crossing fingers* a full! But it’s just out of reach because we’re still in the editing process. A place we could live for the rest of our lives if we’re, or should I say “I’m”, not careful.

Which brings me back to the virtual door slam. Which I can say I deserved. Liz was fed up with my editing tactics and basically hung up on me over email. If I was my own writing partner, I would’ve done the same. Because there comes a time when you just have to let go and accept that you’re officially done tweaking your ms. Or you run the risk of ending up like my eyebrows did after I finally discovered tweezers- with not much left. And without getting into all the “gory” details of  the angry email Liz wrote to me, I can tell you it was something along the lines of: You. Have. To. Freakin’. Stop. Now. (Okay, so maybe she used a different variation of freakin’-one that rhymes with plucking.)

But it’s just so hard. I’m like a crack addict trying not to hit the pipe. Like the woman on a diet who swears she won’t break into the leftover Halloween candy. Like the shopaholic who convinces herself that “online” shopping isn’t as bad. I go into the ms with the intention of only looking for missing words or punctuation errors. But then I notice a sentence that maybe if I worded it just a little differently, could be even better. And before I know it, I’ve re-written two paragraphs! And Liz is using variations of freakin’ all over again.

So I’ve now made an official promise to Liz that I’m letting go. This week, we’re doing our final read through and unless there’s an entire chapter missing, I’m really not allowed to touch it. And this is why it’s good to have a writing partner. You can balance each other out. Her weaknesses (remembering not to write emails before caffeine) are often my strengths (remembering not to read her emails before 10:30 a.m. CST) and vice versa.

Wish us luck reaching our editing deadline in one piece! Although I’m assuming that if we haven’t killed each other so far (and believe me, there have been opportunities that could have sent even Gandhi down the violent path), we’re really in no serious danger of a death by Chick Lit manuscript anytime soon.

xoxo, Lisa