For every story of a struggling modern-day (and best-selling) author, who sent almost hundreds of queries or ended up self-publishing before finding success/a publishing house, there's a story about an author who sent out a whole 10 queries and found a reputable agent within weeks.
In short: for every Still Alice success, I stumble across a Twilight.
I have been in the agent-searching business for about 5 months. I have easily submitted over 100 queries, sometimes to a different agent in the agency after being rejected by the first agent. Stephen King queried something over 200; the writer of The Help queried in the ballpark of 70. But then you hear of Stephanie Meyer sending 15 queries.
I know a lot goes in to finding an agent, and that finding an agent doesn't mean you'll be published, but it's still frustrating when you've contacted nearly every reputable fiction agency in New York (as well as all over America).
But I live by the Dora mantra: just keep swimming. If I find myself at a dead end in my agency search (which I'm getting scarily close to), I plan on focusing my writing efforts on getting my short stories published, either in magazines or for free in downloadable/e-book format, and working on my second novel, which I label as the Catch 22 of the day care world. It has a lot more farce than my first book, which is a combo parody/homage of "chick lit", as well as a coming-of-age tail of a semi-recent college graduate who realizes she has to make something of her life. I know writers talking about their writing is akin to a girl looking at herself in the mirror and exclaiming, "My, my, aren't I pretty?" But, like I mentioned before, this blog is for all the little "creative" things I do, writing included.
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