It's done! It's finally done! After today, I have finally decided to no longer touch Taio & Regit as it is finally complete!
The final draft is done. The concept art for my pitch bible is completed as well. Just look at the wonderful illustration created by Abigail Jacoby There's only one thing left to do.
Query literary agents.
Now for those of you who aren't familiar with the querying process, it is a daunting and exhausting experience. This is the first of many hurdles to overcome in order to land a publishing deal. Basically, these big publishing companies such as Simon and Schuester, Scholastic Kids, Candlewick Press, etc. will not take unsolicited material. If I were to send them my manuscript, they would simply throw it in the trash because I didn't submit it correctly. These big publishing companies only consider manuscripts that have been submitted by a legit literary agent.
Now you may be thinking 'oh that's not too bad, just get an agent'. Yeah well, that's just as difficult. Getting a good literary agent is hard. There are MANY literary agents out there, some good, some bad, some representing YA books, others representing picture books, horror books, non-fiction, and so forth. These agents work closely with publishing companies so they can know what kind of books these publishing companies are looking to publish within the next couple of years. There are hundreds of other authors who ALSO want their books to be represented by these cool literary agents, so I need to convince these agents why I should be one of the authors they should represent.
What makes querying daunting is that it involves a lot of rejection.It is not uncommon for debut authors (many of whom become best-selling novelist) to be rejected 50-100 times before finally finding an agent to represent them. It's like applying for a job, one where each agent gets hundreds of other inquiries a month and has to decide whether or not that author is what these publishing companies are looking for.
Anyway, I'm excited because yesterday I sent in my first query. I know it's going to be the first of many, but I'm still proud of myself. I've NEVER gotten this far in my career, so the fact that I'm here means I'm doing something right.
I'll post the final manuscript of Taio & Regit eventually. I do want to get it copyrighted because, well, it's my baby. Until then, I will continue to update my experience as I continue to reach out to agents. Until then, enjoy your week and I will see you all soon!