A 30 Day Challenge For Writers
And Other Creative Projects I’m Working On
I’m in the process of trying to get my newest book published, so I recently bought the Guide To Literary Agents 30th Edition, which is packed full of listings on agents and what they’re looking for. I didn’t even read the full cover before buying it, and I wasn’t planning to read the whole book. I just bought it for the listings, but I happened to get curious when it came in the mail, and I started looking through it to see what else was in there.
I was excited to find a section with helpful information on how to craft a professional query letter, bio, and synopsis. There were things in there that I didn’t know and most likely never would have learned if I hadn’t read that part of the book. I took what I learned and wrote a great query and synopsis. I sent it directly to a publishing company. I’d heard about a new publishing company that was looking for under represented voices in fiction, especially books that have potential to become movies. I wrote my new book with the intention of turning it into a movie, so it seemed like a great fit for me. Believe it or not, I heard back from them the very next day, asking me to send my full manuscript. I was shocked. In the past when I queried agents it took six months before one agent said “yes, send me the full manuscript,” and by then it was too late because I was already in the process of self-publishing.
I just sent them the manuscript on Saturday night and I don’t know when or even if I will hear back from them. They said I’d only hear from them if they wanted it, but they didn’t give me any idea as to how long I’d be waiting to find out, so at some point, if I don’t hear back from them in the next few weeks, I’ll start querying some of the agents from the book, but right now I’m hoping to hear from them and I feel like I should be as patient as possible and use this down-time to get things done that I’ve been meaning to do, as well as fun activities with no pressure.
I did a few art therapy projects this past week. The first one was to draw three animals that represent who we are. They were supposed to represent 1. the way we look and move (turtle), 2. the way we feel emotionally (lion in cage) and 3. the way we think or see the world (butterfly).
The next assignment was supposed to be a crest of my play personalities…The personalities to choose from were Joker, Explorer, Collector, Creator, Story-Teller, Competitor, Director, Athlete.
I chose Creator, Story-teller, Collector, and Director. I could have also said Joker because I do enjoy humor and everyone always tells me my books are funny. At one point in my life I could have said Explorer or Athlete too, but not so much these days, and I’ve never been much of a Competitor, other than competing with myself to become better all the time.
This wasn’t an assignment, but Cori gave me a squirrel themed magnetic poetry kit, so I wrote these…
The other helpful thing I found in The Guide To Literary Agents was a 30 Day Platform Challenge to help writers build their writing platforms. There are assignments every day. I’ve got a lot of extra time right now so I’m doing a few assignments a day and it’s already making a noticeable difference. They’re fun assignments too. I got to Google myself yesterday for both links and images and I was pleased with my results. I’m the first person to come up when making a search for Jymi Cliche, with many relevant links to find me. Unfortunately I’m competing with a taxidermist named Jimmy Cliche, but I am winning the battle, especially if my name is spelled correctly.
Today’s assignment was to write a blog post with a Call to Action. I guess the easiest thing to do here would be to share my linktree account and ask that you look me up and follow me on social media. It’s quick, easy, and free to do so. The little icons at the bottom of the linktree page are the social media links, but feel free to check out my main web site and Amazon Author Page as well. Everything is linked there…
I would highly recommend the Guide To Literary Agents to anyone trying to get a book published for the first time. It’s been a learning process for me, but I feel that if I keep on it and keep doing what I can when I can, that I’ll get to where I’m trying to go.
