I normally like to do short blog posts so that you can get on with your day and back to things that matter like your book but this one is going to be a long one so get a snack and a drink and enjoy my journey.
I am starting this blog post well in advance of its posting. As I write this I hope that I will get an agent out of this process but this is March 2022 Cass, future me will have to let past me know what happens.
On March 7th, 2022 I sent out my first batch of query letters to 5 agents. It was a mixed bag of “Dream Agents” and agents who had a list of clients I loved and would be more than happy to be apart of. I have to say that I wasn't nervous opening/writing the emails, double-checking that the agents were still open to queries. But when it came to hitting SEND that's when the nerves set in and it took me a good 10 minutes staring at the screen before I could hit send on that first email.
Then came the fun part. WAITING!!! It took me a few days of constantly checking my inbox before I could focus on writing anything else, which is normal from what I have been told. But once that passed I was able to carry on with life as normal, still checking my inbox at least 3 times a day.
Then all that changed when the fire nation attacked… wait… no that works here. On the 26th of March, I got my first reply. There I was staring at the screen, heart pounding in my chest. Time seemed to be moving backward at this point. So I put my big girl pants on and clicked. It was a rejection.
I expected to feel gutted, like the ground beneath my feet dropped away but I didn't. There was one glaring problem with this rejection… Dear Mr. (Legal last name)
For those that don't know, I am a transgender woman and I made that blatantly obvious in my query as it states in my short bio.
“I am a transgender woman.”
Now you may be asking yourself “Well how did they get your legal name?”
Thank you random reader in my head that is a good question and the answer is I gave it to them.
You see I read and watched dozens if not hundreds of blog posts and videos on how to send the perfect query. The one common thread was if you are using a penname end your query like this.
“Signed preferred name” “Legal name publishing as Penname” “Other personal information”
So I finished my query like this Thank you for your time, Ms. Cass Cutting
LEGAL NAME Publishing as Cass Cutting she/her Other personal information
But you might be wondering “Ok so what's the big deal, they used your legal name?”
When it comes to trans people, especially trans people who tell you they are trans and everything from the name associated with the email to the email address to the signature all points to one name USE THAT NAME! It is rude and disrespectful to misgender a trans person.
Now I am not going to sit here and say this agent did it maliciously because I don't know for sure that they did but what I do know is they read my submission in full because of the way they worded their rejection. So I know they read my query.
Not going to lie I saw red when I saw the way the letter was addressed and I REALLY wanted to message them back or go on Twitter and say something but I didn't. Why? Because if you piss off the wrong person in publishing you can be blacklisted even if that person is in the wrong. So I held my tongue publicly (until now) but privately I was talking to all my writer friends.
I was put in contact with people who could help me. People who have worked in this industry for a while and thus are better connected. They could tell me what agents I should contact and who to stay away from.
In addition to a list of agents who are known LGBT supporters, I was also told that you do NOT have to tell an agent, in your query, your legal name (whether you are trans or cis) there is no need for this person to know anything like that until you are about to sign a contract.
Armed with this new information I edited my query slightly. I kept my legal name in my query for one reason I still had unverified agents on my list and while yes it pissed me off to be misgendered but that's all it did. Another trans person could be closer to the edge and being misgendered could cause them to harm themselves in the worst-case scenario or at the very least cause them to give up on their dreams.
So I kept my legal name in my query but the end of my query now reads like this
Thank you kindly, Ms. Cass Cutting LEGAL NAME (Writing as Cass Cutting) Preferred Name Cass Cutting She/Her Other personal information
With the changed query I sent out another batch of 5 queries. because its best to query in batches of no more than 10 at a time that way if you get an R&R (Revise and Resubmit) with suggested changes you like, you are then able to make those changes then send them to other agents. You can’t change your submitted chapter(s)/page(s) once you hit send. *That being said you can email a queried agent and as long as they haven't read or given a response to your sent query you MAY be able to withdraw and resubmit.
Since sending out the changed query I got 3 more rejections 1 from my first batch of 5 and 2 from my second and not one agent misgendered me. Which I was happy to see. That being said, that second rejection letter hit me like a brick wall, mainly because it was one of those “Dream Agents”.
Let's flash forward to present day Cass, I am sitting on 38 queries sent and 38 rejections. While I am disappointed I am not throwing in the towel.
There is one common thread I got from both the form rejections (aka the ones the agent has ready to go and are not overly specific in their reasoning) as well as the ones that came with reasoning. That thread is “It's a good manuscript BUT I don't think I can fight hard enough for it.”
That last part “I don't think I can fight hard enough for it” got me thinking. They may not be able or willing to fight hard for my book but I am!
In the coming weeks I'm going to make an announcement about the future of Project Rune 1 so stay tuned for that. Yes that means I am going to publish it myself so no that's not the announcement lol.
Where does that leave me with traditional publishing I hear you ask…
It is still a dream of mine to publish traditionally but I think starting with a planned 3-5 book series isn't the right move for me. I don't know which of my standalone WIP’s are going first but I will talk more about it once I get to the point of querying again.
Do I think this past year was all for nothing?
Absolutely not! Being a writer/author is all about the journey and learning as you go. I learned what not to do when querying. I learned that the query trenches are hard, a lot harder than at least I thought. But above everything else I learned that you have to be willing to fight for your work even if that means you have to adjust your plans.
There you have it, my year spent in the query trenches.
Tell me below where are you on your journey? What's your current WIP? Are you willing to fight for it if others arnt?
Good luck and happy writing.
