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Completed Novel  

One of the most difficult things for writers to learn is how to market ourselves. Crossing the bridge from the safe retreat of our characters' world to the published world can be daunting. When we're writing, we don't think about the courage it takes to expose our innermost fears and foibles through our writing because we've handed these risky things to our characters. But if we ever hope to see our novel as a book everyone else can read, we have to step out of our sanctuary and engage in hawking our product.

When I was half-way through my first novel, I passed through a frustrating patch where I still couldn't see who the traitor was. I've since figured out my muse keeps me writing by not showing me the end, but at this point I didn't know that. So, I changed hats midstream. I researched agents, read how you are supposed to prepare queries to catch their attention and, as a challenge to myself, proceeded to create one. Naturally I was curious to see if the query would work--The Writers' Digest cautioned that the average response time was six weeks. Since I hadn't completed the novel, a quick turnaround time was not a concern. I mailed out 12 queries just for the fun of it. Ten days later, I was faced with ten responses, and two of them wanted to see the completed novel. My husband asked me, "Now what are you going to do?"

Then I wasn't even dreaming about computers. Every page was typed on my old Underwood. On my best day I was a lousy typist, so I told both agents I had to have the manuscript retyped to meet their requirements. As soon as the novel was ready I would submit it. Both agreed that would be fine. With pressure like this, I was sure the novel would come together in the same way as articles always seem to gel just in time to meet a deadline. It didn't happen. Six weeks later I still didn't know who the traitor was and had to admit to both agents that my novel wasn't finished. Foolish, foolish, foolish, I know, but I was curious, and you know what Curiosity did to the cat. I will never know if it was the timing of my query that drew such a quick response or the letter itself. Certainly I have written many queries since and have not seen that immediate response again. Three years later I saw the end and who the traitor was. For the following two years I tried to find a publisher or an agent. No luck. The window that had once opened was banged shut.

Now my curiosity drove me to self-publish. I wanted to know what readers thought of the novel. Books, however, don't sell themselves. My dear husband, Wally, was my chief fan and sales director, but I had to learn how to promote and market the novel. The reviews I received astonished and humbled me at the same time. So much praise and excitement. Even with this positive trial run, no agent or real publisher was interested in the book. Finally I took the trial novel off the market and set to work on a whole new series...

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 E-mail: bonnie.toews@rogers.com

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