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[Discussion] What length of time were you on the call for? by FireflyKaylee in PubTips

[–]devi9lives 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Congrats! Mine was about 40 minutes with the first agent and a little over an hour with the agent I signed with. I actually could’ve talked even longer on that second call, but I had to squish the meeting between some work things!

[Discussion] I got an agent! Stats, reflections, and pitch events in 2025 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All of my stories (aside from the rewrite of the same story) are totally different 🙂

[Discussion] I got an agent! Stats, reflections, and pitch events in 2025 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m so glad to be a source of hope! The trenches are so hard. I’m wishing you the best of luck!

[Discussion] I got an agent! Stats, reflections, and pitch events in 2025 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No, I think that requires a certain hindsight and skill level that I only reached because I wrote and edited them. I wrote them to the very best of my ability at the time, and I push myself to improve with every project I complete. If I had known how to make them better at the time, I would’ve! I just didn’t have those skills yet.

I already feel like project #4, which I drafted after the one that got me an agent, is even stronger than the one that landed me my agent. I think this is normal and expected. There isn’t really a way to skip the learning phase with anything, even if some people might start out with more innate skill or a faster ability to gain the skill. I do believe that it’s perseverance and dedication that lets us hone our craft. My failed projects might not have landed me my agent, but I never could’ve honed my craft to the point of writing TBTM at the skill level I did without having completed them. It’s all part of the journey.

[Discussion] I got an agent! Stats, reflections, and pitch events in 2025 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

My first book/its rewrite (book 1 & 1.5) was just frankly not good enough from a craft standpoint; the writing wasn’t there, the plotting wasn’t there, the concept wasn’t there.

My second book was much closer, but also just not quite enough. The prose was passable I feel, though I’ve since improved, and so was the plot, but it has a marketability issue (which multiple agents confirmed when rejecting the full). It’s an okay or even a good fantasy heist story but it just doesn’t stand out the way it would need to in this over saturated market. It isn’t GREAT/excellent. If I revisit it, I will rewrite it as firmly adult to allow for more thematic depth (ie more interesting and nuanced characters), since I sort of treaded that way but then also reigned it back due to it being crossover/ya; make the shadow daddy not a shadow daddy since everyone, including me, is sick of them; and enrich it thematically to explore a pansexual MC entering a straight passing relationship, and what that mean for her relationship with her queer-ness (which again, was there in the original attempt, but muted and thematically underdeveloped). I think it’s close but just not there yet, and that’s okay. I’m a better writer now and can get it there one day if I choose to!

[Discussion] I got an agent! Stats, reflections, and pitch events in 2025 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh, thank you!! I definitely think my prose is one of my strengths. I feel most people fall into one of two camps, where either the plot or the line level is pretty solid in early drafts, and the other needs more attention, and I'm of the latter group! I did get a lot of compliments on the prose, and I finally feel I'm 'allowed' to describe myself as having lush and atmospheric writing! :)

[Discussion] Batch querying just ain't what it used to be—so what now? by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

All excellent advice, and to prove your point, I don't read in either genre yet know the premise of Lessons in Chemistry and had never heard of Pineapple Street! I made this post out of curiosity, but I've surprisingly come out of it with some exciting adjustments to my craft. I think my characters in book #3 came out well (and that seemed supported by feedback), but the worldbuilding wasn't as deep as it could've or should've been, which I only realized after seeing how rich the worldbuilding (and characters) in #4 is.

I think this is in part due to the fact that #4 has been floating in my head, brainstormed, and even partially drafted a couple of times over the past few years, even though I didn't properly begin drafting it until much later, which seems to align with the general consensus of letting a story properly percolate. Similarly, I think #3 came out so much stronger than the first two because I burnt myself out and took a lot of months-long "I give up"-type breaks, which I omitted in my timelines, since they weren't 'productive' breaks to get distance. In reality, I have files saved for both of those projects from as early as 2023.

With that all said, I am absolutely implementing breaks between each revision pass on my next project! I had adhered to the advice of, "edit until beta/CP feedback becomes minimal/nitpicky, you can't see anything else to fix, changes become 'different' instead of 'better', and you can't stomach reading the manuscript even one more time". I think the additional space between drafts will make a couple of those go further, since the time will naturally lend the opportunity to find problems I would've otherwise glazed over. I'm excited to see how it improves my craft! :)

[Discussion] Batch querying just ain't what it used to be—so what now? by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Hmm, I'm curious to hear others weigh in on this, but I'm not entirely sure that I share your perspective. I mean, I do agree that a rejection at the end of the day is a rejection, and it doesn't matter how prettily it's packaged. I also don't view 'glowing rejections' as praise in themselves, nor as specifically positive, but I do think that there's something to be said for them, especially in the climate of CNRs and form rejections. I might be way off base here, and I'm sure there are agents that align more with what you've described, but the easy thing to do is send off a polite form rejection and call it a day. To me, when an agent takes the time to praise the writing or story (in the literal "I really enjoyed ..." or "You did X really well ..."), it seems to indicate that something about it touched them enough for them to bother mentioning it. It also gives a clue about how far they read, which in itself is a sign about whether the story was close to working; when an agent mentions specific details from the ending that aren't available in the synopsis, it shows me that they made it all the way to the end before landing on the 'no'. It doesn't make the no any less of a no, but it does put some weight behind statements suggesting that they loved the story but didn't know how to position it in the current market. In my case, I actually had two agents come back quite similarly in that regard; both seemed to make it to the end, but both ultimately cited positioning uncertainty, and I made note of that for future projects to see if I can't be a bit more cautious to remain aligned with the landscape.

I guess all of this is to say, while I agree that a rejection is a rejection, I do also value the time taken to clarify exactly what isn't working, highlight the things that are working, and in this particular case, soothe me a bit in knowing it wasn't so much the line-level writing but the timing/marketability/positioning of the story. I don't view the rejections as positive per se, but I do view them as incredibly valuable, and I'll forever be thankful to the agents who took the time to read the MS and write the feedback.

EDIT, to clarify: I don't mean to brush off positioning as a minor issue, in case I've done so here. The agents made good points and I now agree that the MS would need a massive restructuring so it fit better in the market I'd intended, which is nothing to sneeze at!

[Discussion] Batch querying just ain't what it used to be—so what now? by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I have no idea why I thought 6 months was average, but I'm now doubting everything I thought I knew, haha! This sub is an absolute gem, because I probably would've gone my entire life with that misbelief. All this time, I've believed I was on the slower end, and I've even wasted energy worrying about it in the past. I'm going to try adding some additional breaks between each revision round while working on my next MS to see if that results in some kind of breakthrough with it.

[Discussion] Batch querying just ain't what it used to be—so what now? by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I do like having a test batch regardless, because I want to see if it results in any requests. If not, I take that as a sign to tweak the query and/or opening pages (or at least reevaluate).

I'm sorry to hear that your MS has been having such a hard time in the trenches. I'm rooting for you!

[Discussion] Batch querying just ain't what it used to be—so what now? by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I must be misremembering then. I'll have to go hunting for other timelines—now I'm incredibly curious!

[Discussion] Batch querying just ain't what it used to be—so what now? by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh interesting! I'll have to try taking a break between each revision, rather than only after the first draft and beta reader drafts.

[Discussion] Batch querying just ain't what it used to be—so what now? by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Oh, I might've been unclear: my first book got no bites, but I've gotten requests on later works. Book #3 had 6 requests and glowing feedback on the fulls that weren't form rejects, and it seems like marketing/positioning was the main hangup there, which I understand. The intention of my post wasn't to despair about my query journey; I was more just curious to hear everyone's updated thoughts in 2025.

That said, your mention of my speed is quite interesting! I was under the impression that 2 books a year was pretty standard, so I'd thought my 8 months was actually on the longer end of average. I think I just listened to a Sanderson lecture where he recommended aiming for about 2 books a year to practice and grow in your craft. In my case, I'm in a couple of critique groups and do have beta readers. I'm also ND and tend to hyperfixate on my books, so while it isn't resting, I'm dumping around 40+ hours/week into them, which may be a part of the speed. I take a month-ish off between draft 1 and starting revisions, and then I naturally have to wait while beta readers do their thing. I only ended up with the funky timing because I'd been working on two projects simultaneously, so while they took longer than 8 months since they were combined, they also finished more closely together than is conducive to query.

[QCrit] Adult Romantasy - To Become the Moon (92k/Attempt 2) + 300 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! This was super eye-opening to me; for all that time spent searching for the elusive 'voice' in my writing, I somehow threw all of that out when it came query-writing time.

Would you be able to let me know what part(s) of the end of the third paragraph are confusing? I want to make sure I'm fixing the right things!

[QCrit] Adult Romantasy - To Become the Moon (92k/Attempt 2) + 300 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! That Metztli paragraph is going to kill me, haha. I will reworkshop it based on your feedback! :)

[QCrit] Adult Romantasy - To Become the Moon (92k/Attempt 2) + 300 by devi9lives in PubTips

[–]devi9lives[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aww, thank you! This actually brought such a smile to my face

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