Before I left for my trip I discovered via Janet Reid's blog that the Alaska Writer's Guild was hosting a conference later this month with agents and editors. Let me tell you, living in Alaska we don't have a lot of opportunities for stuff like this. The other day I was reading random blogs and someone said you should try to have as many face-to-face meetings with prospective agents as possible.
Right. Maybe that works if you live in New York, but not for those of us in places like Alaska.
So anyway, I was thrilled to discover that not only was I going to have a chance to listen to people in the business, but also that I could submit 15 pages of a manuscript and a query letter for review. I decided to send the first 15 pages of my book because honestly, I don't feel they're the strongest part of the story. I've edited them a gazillion times so I'm interested in hearing feedback from someone else, especially an agent. Unfortunately, I was leaving town the next day and had to get both the manuscript and the query done that night. So let me say that the query is not as squeaky clean as I'd like, but I still really want to hear the feedback.
But you know what's even cooler? There was a scholarship program to help cover the costs of the conference. I entered, just to see what would happen, and found out the other day that I'm an alternate. But the Writer's Guild decided to cover half the cost of my conference payment and that is pretty flipping awesome. Someone out there likes my work! I get to go to the conference on the cheap, get feedback on the first 15 pages of my book, and hopefully watch Janet Reid critique my query letter. What could be better than that?
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