Book update
I sent out a ton of query letters to literary agents this weekend. Unlike the other publishing I’ve done in periodicals and textbooks, with novels, you don’t send your samples directly to publishers.  Instead, you send them to agents. If the agents are intrigued, they ask to see your full manuscript, and if they think they can sell it, they help you find interested publishers and negotiate a deal for you.
From the research I did, it seems like there’s a pretty good market for this type of book, which is pretty much “woman gets into hilarious adventures.” It’s not the most hoity-toity literary thing I’ve ever written, but it’s fun and would be a good airplane read. It would be very exciting to see my book in an airport bookstore. Since I travel a lot, I often find myself killing time during layovers by wandering around in airport booksellers, and I see all the books and think about the people who wrote them. Wouldn’t it be crazy to be one of those people?
My goal was to write a book before I turn 30, and I’ve done that much. The loftier goals (getting it published, making it into a whole series, making enough money out of it that I can quit my day job, going to glamorous book signings, hanging out with Hemingway, being advisor for the movie version starring Chloe Sevigny) can wait.
The Hemingway part might have to wait until science has advanced to the point where he can be cloned from the DNA found under the claws of the descendents of his six-toed cats. We’ll see.
Chloe Sevigny? Really?
Well, I was thinking Cameron Diaz but she’s awfully expensive. You got a problem with Ms. Sevigny?
Uh, no. I suppose not. I just never would’ve guessed. What about Reese?
You’ve never even read the book! Now you think you get to cast the movie? Reese is too pretty for the role. Our heroine is a little quirkier.
Quirkier than Tracy Flick? I hate to tell you, but that Christmas shot of you below could’ve come from the promo material for Pleasantville (come to think of it, Denny even has a bit of the Tobey Maguire thing going on). But, you’re right, it’s your book (and movie).
PS — Chloe has no appearances on The Simpsons or King of the Hill.
I will take that as a compliment, as Ms. Witherspoon is lovely, but this book is not an autobiography. It’s a novel. So thanks, but Lydia Porter, Skeptorcist, needs to have a nose that’s been broken a few times.
Congratulations, Aprille! That is a huge accomplishment. Can’t wait to read the book (and view the series and watch the movie).
Whoa, teh r0xx0r! I remember you saying you were writing a book, but I didn’t realize you were, like, *done*. Here’s hoping it gets picked up.
All creative considerations aside, I think you’re right about the market. There’s a bajillion clams waiting for the next person to successfully fill a niche on the Helen Fielding / Janet Evanovich axis.
I look forward to the many juicy excerpts to be released on this very blog (hint, hint).