Writing Conference: Monday Night

Dear Diary,

The conference wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. Apparently, I get a bye on the whole pitch thing! What does that mean, exactly?

Well, there are basically three steps to getting published. First, you send a query letter. If that sounds interesting to them, they ask for a partial, or the first three chapters of your book. If they like that, they ask for the whole manuscript. Getting past the query letter part is hard. By going to this conference, a very nice editor is letting us skip the query letter part, and go straight to the partial! No pitch needed. Whew! Of course, she also mentioned that her publisher gets 10,000 partials a year, and 35 get published. We aren't going to dwell on those kind of odds, though.

Oh, and remember how last time, I had a hard time not giving authors a hug that were so good at sharing their expertise? Well, this time, a giant in his field, Tracy Hickman gave ME a hug! Pretty darn cool.

Love,

More Relaxed on Monday