The Thrill of the Query

There's a certain thrill in querying. I'm serious! When those pages are "out there" life is more exciting; there's a drop of extra adrenaline in my blood as I check that inbox. The rejection part is a pain; I'm in it to win it and there's no glory in defeat, but there's also no victory without starting the battle.

The good thing is, if the agent's guidelines request even the first five pages of a manuscript, then the writing is finally fulfilling its true purpose: to be read, enjoyed, and hopefully sold. I'm the one who decided to write books, and if I'm serious about writing then being in the position to sell books will be my best-case scenario from here to forever. 

I guess I think of it this way...right now I'm trying to "sell" to an agent. During this time I have to keep writing, because that is my product, and I can't run out of product or I'll go out of business. If I'm lucky and an agent wants my book, the process will repeat with selling to a publisher and to booksellers and hopefully to people in a bookstore. No matter where I am in the writing process, I also have to be in the middle of the selling process, and that goes double if I'm ever published.