How to know . . .

I have two novels that should and will not ever see print . . . or sunlight.  Funny, one of them actually snagged me an agent for a year at a reputable agency.  That was 2001.

Since that book, I’ve written 6 others, all YA.  It was during these years where I developed my voice, style and made up my mind (sort of) as to what my focus should be.  All of these have rode the “query go round” in the past, but what makes me decide what to resurrect and what to shelve?

Typically, it’s the agent rejections themselves. I really didn’t get alot of form rejections on these projects and all of them had at least twenty agent requests for partials or full reads. Many rejections commented on market conditions or the “hard sell” of the genre. 

My other home is the local B&N.  It’s really close to where both B2, B3 and B4 practice sports, so if I have a couple hours to kill, that’s where I’ll go. As I browse the YA section, the shelves are crammed full of girl-centered urban fantasy. I mean crammed freakin’ full of it.  Now I’m certain these novels were queried, agented and contracted a year to a year and a half ago, so a brilliant writer could submit a great YA urban fantasy to an agent or publisher, but it would still be a hard sell. Not because the book wasn’t worthy but just because the market is so darned saturated.

The particular project that I’ve decided to resurrect and query is a YA boy-centered civil war historical. I got wonderful feedback from agents about three years ago. During that time agencies and agents have come and gone.  I sent out ten e-queries on Sunday and I’ve already received three requests for the manuscript.

Today, I need to finish the read through of the manuscript before I send it off tonight. I also need to start plotting two book reviews for the November Issue of the SDR.  I also have to get to work.  Have a wonderfuly day!