Yeah, while Janet says she reps romance, with the exception of "All Roads Lead to You" (a fabulous story, BTW), she doesn't really. However, I have a very close friend who's been running an RWA chapter for a few years, and she concurred about the length. Get it to 120-125K if you want to pursue publishing it as a first timer. Maybe some of the backstory can be eliminated? Any scenes acting as bookmarks? Any scene that doesn't contribute to the heroine attaining her goals? Any scene without conflict? And have you done a 'That-ectomy'? I swear, I got rid of 2,000 words right there. :-)
I'm not exactly the rejection queen, but sometimes it feels like it. I have about 40 more queries to send out - these are the ones that asked for a synop as well as a query. And I don't got one yet. I'm not a big fan of the synopsis - especially since every agent wants a different length. Blurg.
Because of my critique group, I have a great query letter for my current book. But even then some agents I thought would eat it up sent me rejections within a day. Go figure. I'm trying not to take it the wrong way and to keep moving forward.
You, too, okay? I'd love to see your query in its next incarnation. Keep going and keep writing!
Yep, I've done the That-ectomy, a Had-ectomy, and oh-lord-have-mercy, a Reached out-ectomy. You should see the bruise on my forehead from banging my head against the desk. Amazing how you write something, let it sit for a while and then go back and read it and end up wondering "What was I doing??" Why write, "Katie pulled the door closed behind her," instead of "Katie closed the door?" I've also utilized susiej's Contractions Are Our Friends advice (unless, of course, they're the childbirth kind of contractions in which case they're not our friends but pure, unadulterated evil.)
Still working on the query letter, but since I've gone back to the manuscript to kill, maim and otherwise disfigure 20,000 words it might be a while before I give it my best shot. But I'll certainly be asking y'all's advice when I do!
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