Tuesday, April 21, 2009

How to Have Fun with the Crickets in Your Inbox


Querying is a tough process. The hardest part, by far, is the inevitable rejection. However, the WAITING is a close second. How many obsessive email checkers are out there? Come on, raise your hands...you know who you are *she says as her own hand waves proudly* My writers buddies call that sad emptiness inside their inboxes Crickets...cause that's all you hear when you open the box ;-)

Now, I've been querying for a long time. Not intentionally. But, every time I decide to shelve my book, another request will come in, and then some nice rejections with a few revision suggestions will squeak by...so I revise, send out a few more queries, get a few requests, get a few rejections, decide to shelve again, get some more suggestions.....well, you can see how this goes.

I've been doing it long enough that I've gotten pretty good at just ignoring the fact that I even have queries or submissions out. The crickets can still get pretty irritating though. So I came up with a few ways to distract myself from them.

1. Spam Your Friends

Now this one is fun :D Especially if they are waiting on agent responses too. Cause you know every time they get a message saying they have email, their heart jumps a little (wicked, ain't I?) ;-)

I dig up funny stories, pictures, etc to put a smile on their faces, so it's not a total evil past time :D I mean, it's fun to get mail, even if it's not from an agent.

Oh, and this ONLY works on very good friends. Never, NEVER spam an agent. They will not appreciate your message full of funnies. They have enough mail to read. If you send them more, it will just take that much longer to get to whatever query or submission you are waiting on, and that wouldn't be good.

2. LOLcats

Ah, what a wonderful distraction. I am pretty heavily addicted to LOLcats (as you could probably tell seeing as how I post one with almost all of my posts!). The dogs, celebrities, political jokes, graphs, and FAILs are pretty hilarious as well. Not only can you spend hours reading (and emailing) these, you can also make your own. Tons of fun!

3. Research a New Project

Okay, this might only be fun for me. And maybe a few select others. So...moving on...

4. Blogs

Read them, write them, search them, comment on them, follow them....you get the picture ;-)

And, while there are many, many, MANY other things you could do to distract yourself from the pesky crickets, the single best way is...

5. WRITE

Pull out a new project and write. Focus on something besides the book you are querying. Work on that sequel because you know the first one is going to sell and sell big! Lose yourself in the world of a new character. There is nothing like get swept away in a new story. Get excited about it, swim in it, devote all your available brain space and some that is not so available to it. Pretty soon you'll find that you don't even hear the crickets anymore :)

12 comments:

Katie Salidas said...

Hahaha! I am currently in the impatient group, constantly checking my email and only hearing the crickets.

I am a lolcat/loldog/engrish/failblog/etc... lover.

Off to check my email again...
*crosses fingers for something other than a rejection letter.*

Kathryn Hupp-Harris said...

Receiving blog comments is the best way friends can help exterminate crickets.

Or am I the only one who finds blog comments to be a little ray of sunshine filtering into my inbox?

Michelle McLean said...

hehe Fingers crossed for you too Quixotic!

And I'm with you Kat - blog comments are a definite pick-me-up ;-)

Danyelle L. said...

I love your evilness. ;)

Good ideas for not being driven crazy by the crickets. I'm doing the same thing--hearing crickets and cursing them.

Tess said...

I am of the mind that :

rejections come by mail/email

acceptances come by a telephone call

so, I wish for my mailbox to stay empty (no news is good news, right?) and get all giddy and hopeful everytime the telephone rings.

Unknown said...

Nice to see I'm not the only one who enjoys research! I have awhile before I get to the query stage though. Practically eons!

Elana Johnson said...

This is awesome! Man, I have crickets bad. Real bad. So I'm expecting something in my inbox later just to make sure it's working, 'kay?

Great post, Michelle!

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Some great suggestions! I certainly plan on working while I query. Sitting around waiting is not something I like to do at all, as shown on my last post.

Good luck with you querying!

Anonymous said...

HAHA...I was just talking with soeone about crickets....so funny! Love this post!!!

Kate Karyus Quinn said...

Oh yeah, I definitely hate those email crickets. Makes me wonder why exactly I'm excited about getting ready to query again.

I also agree with your other commenters that blog comments in the inbox are an excellent antidote!

Weronika Janczuk said...

I enjoy this, and do it all the time regardless. :)

Kat is right, though: BLOG COMMENTS are the best way to get the adrenaline running.

Suzette Saxton said...

I love your blog, Michelle. Have you thought about putting a "subscribe by email" widget on it? I would love to find it in my inbox...