Coming to it Again

In all likelihood I will finish the latest revision of Traitor this week. Possibly today or tomorrow.

Normally, this would fill me with joy because it would mean I can move on to the next book. That is also written, but needs to be cut down significantly. So I'm looking at a major rewrite again.

But I won't be able to move on to the next book when I finish. I will still have two problems: Traitor will be more than 130,000-words. I am told that for a new author, that is means "dismissal out of hand". Any agent or editor who sees a book that long by a first time author will immediately reject it without another thought.

Only there is a problem with that, too. The query letter.

I hate them. Query letters are a combination of begging and persuasion. I'm no good at either. When I beg, people respond by telling me to "get the h*ll out of here". When I try to persuade, people respond by telling me to "get the h*ll out of here".

I've seen examples of "bad" query letters. Then I've seen how they have been punched up to be "good". And you know what? I really can't see the difference. I suppose it's like diamonds. I can't tell a fake from a real, but experts can.

Maybe it's like wine, or cheese tasters. They can tell imediately which sample is better. All the same to me. I'm no connoissuer - of wine or query letters.

I make what I believe to be a very good lasagne. Yet I know if I served it to one of those television chefs they would probably spit it out. You see, I used pre-grated parmesian cheese from a cardboard tube. You've seen them in the grocery store, I'm sure. Kraft? I've heard some of these chefs speak with great disdain over this.

That's the wall which looms before me. The chasm I have to cross.

I don't know how.

Crap.