Isabella Sparks

Hey, #litagents and #querying writers! I am prepping a complete re-write of a novel I queried around a year and a half ago with little success. I have a few agents who showed a bit of interest, and I plan on re-querying some. Any advice/caution I should take reaching out again?

Essentially, the honorable mention has been a wonderful ego boost, but I’d love to see if I could put it to practical use.

My second question: Could I mention it while submitting to literary magazines or applying for publishing internships?

I’m currently working on submitting to contests and magazines to hopefully build up my bio before I dive back into #querying sometime this summer. I’ve received an honorable mention from the Writers of the Future Contest, and I have a couple of questions.

Alright, #querying community, I’m starting a full new draft of the novel I recently stopped querying. I really believe in the story and think my writing has vastly improved since I queried it. Would it be wrong to re-query it to certain agents once it’s in much better shape?

#NaNoWriMo is kicking my ass. I’m quickly falling out of love with the project I’ve been working on for awhile now and planned to finish this November. I’m not gonna give up, but I need some advice as to how to find me way. Help 🥲

I’m just a girl, standing in front of Twitter, asking my fellow writers and readers to go follow me on Medium (Link in my bio) ~Poor college student trying to start a side hustle

Why is my #writing so much better when I have something else I need to be doing? I have a midterm in my Symbolic Logic (weird mathy philosophy) class tomorrow, and I am nowhere near ready for it. But damn, the words flowed like water today.

I’m drafting my 3rd novel right now and researching the editing process. I always feel like the weakest part of my process is editing, and I want to step up my game. What’s something you do/a writer you love does for editing? Tips a tricks for a lowly writer? #writers

@ROSALYNBARCLAY1 @JNeiraAuthor That’s absolutely an option for some people, but it’s not what I want. I want to work with a team of professionals to make my work as good as it can be. To hire that team myself is out of my budget.

@IJSparks @JNeiraAuthor Sorry dont understand your reply. Maybe in Usa its different to Uk. I ve done everything my self and recorded my book on audio

I’m sad to say that my #querying journey on my second novel is coming to an anticlimactic close, 70 queries sent, 0 interest. I’ve been working on a new, hopefully more sellable project that I hope to be querying by new years. Little heart breaking but I have hope 🥹

@ROSALYNBARCLAY1 @JNeiraAuthor I know that self publishing does not have to be expensive, but my goal is to have my book(s) professionally edited and marketed. If you want to self publish a book that way, you usually have to either have really good connections and an established following, or spend min $1000.

@IJSparks @JNeiraAuthor Self publushing costs little or nothing. Lulu was free. My 2 nd book cost me £2 to print in a printers. I sold 200 for £5. It was a small book. I also recorded it myself on audio

Well, the numerous people telling me that 70 isn’t enough have inspired me to push to at least 100. I still don’t have much hope, and this project is certainly sitting on the back burner for now, but I will continue to send out a few more, just in case.

@lucas_kinkaid I did about three full re-writes and an insane amount of smaller changes. I ended up with a lot of encouraging personalized rejections and “query me with something else” responses, but no luck on requests.

@IJSparks Have you thought about redoing your query letter? I was at a writer's conference once and showed my query letter to an agent who pointed out several mistakes.

@mariannevill714 @BrunoStBernard @E_T_Ballard After reading some of these replies, I am considering sending out a few more, maybe stopping at 100 instead. The difficulty I have run into is that I am struggling to find any more open agents that would be a good fit.

@IJSparks @BrunoStBernard @E_T_Ballard Can you work on a new book but keep querying your second novel? You can slow down the process, but not stop completely.

@Tongueofwood Usually, I query until I feel I have hit the point where I have run out of agents that would actually happily and successfully represent my work. 100 is what people usually say, but I’ve been told you are wasting your time is you keep going after 50. To each their own.

@edaugusts I’m a bit confused. What do you mean by that? I assure you I write all my novels, edit, and polish them before I query them.

@IJSparks Write it, and then query! You're sure to get 100X the response!

@StatonRabin (2) I didn’t have any referrals or meet any of the agents. I did have a few people show interest from pitch events. I just am quite young for this industry, still getting my degree, so I don’t have any credentials or the money to be attending writing conference to meet agents.

@StatonRabin (1) I got no requests. I genuinely believe the novel is in good shape but was just not a good enough “hook” for a debut. I edited and edited and edited my pitch and it didn’t change the reception of it. I even had my query professionally edited, not inexpensive.