Some Recent Realizations

My query letter has gone from sucking to so-so. Those letters are a bitch to write. I’ve seen some examples of good ones, but mine is not quite there yet. It’s serviceable, I guess, but hopefully I can get it a little better. That being said, I’m sending it out. Since I’m sending submissions in rounds, I’m hoping the letter will get better as I learn things. I don’t expect it to be perfect from the get-go.

In my research, I’ve read that agents and editors do not want long books (generally speaking, not more than 100K words) from debut authors. So I’m debating not mentioning my 146K-word count in my cover letters anymore. One of my readers had suggested cutting one of characters in the novel (one of my favorites, naturally). If I do end up following her suggestion, I may lose about 25k, which is still a long novel, but if length becomes an issue, he may be a good place to start cutting. In some ways, it would be hard to lose David. He gives me warm fuzzy feelings, but my friend might be right. The novel focuses on a family, and he’s the only narrator who isn’t an immediate member of that family. I thought it gave me an outsider’s look into a closed group, but maybe it takes the reader off track, as my reader said. I’m still mulling this over, but am more willing now to consider cutting him.

I’ve come up with a new reading strategy. Usually when I’m reading a book at home, I read before I fall asleep and leave the book on my night table. Since I am not and have never been a morning person and often wake up late, I usually forget my book at home and don’t have anything to read at lunch. I’ve solved this by having a second book at work (revolutionary concept, I know). Right now I’m reading Julie and Julia at work.

I just finished reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It’s the second or third time I’ve read it in about ten years. This time I was trying to figure out how she’d pulled off a couple of things in her novel. One of the things I’ve always loved about books is how you can connect with a place (Cornwall, England) you’ve never been to, read about a life very different from yours (landed and titled British gentry), during an earlier time, and still completely understand and connect with the characters. As I was reading the book there were definitely times I was thinking, Damn, girl, you can write. But she was a Dame so you probably wouldn’t call her “girl.” Dame Daphne, if you’re nasty.