Are You Ready to Query?

Some last-minute tips and encouragement.

Photo by Julia Raasch on Unsplash

So you’re ready to start looking for an agent. Congratulations!

Querying is one of the most emotionally difficult parts of the writing process. And that’s saying a lot, considering that you actually have to finish writing a novel to get to this point, which is the part of the process that tends to weed out a lot of the weak-willed.

Seriously, keep that in mind. You finished a novel.

You did finish your novel, right? Because, if you haven’t, you’re not ready to query. No if-ands-or-buts.

Take that in again. You finished a novel.

That is no small accomplishment. Most of the people who talk and dream about being writers someday never make it to that part of the process. But you did. You did the work. You pushed through it.

It may seem like there are a lot of people putting out novels these days. And that’s not exactly wrong. But when you consider the subset of people who are actually writing and finishing stuff to the number of people who want to be writing and finishing stuff, but aren’t, you’ll realize that you’re part of a comparatively small and elite group.

You did that. You.