Hi, dear friends,
So, now that my deal has been announced, I thought I'll summarize what happened during the time my YA thriller, WHEN MIMI WENT MISSING, was out on sub (and also add a few writing tips along the way). Buckle in because this isn't one of those instant success stories of a deal landing within days or weeks of submission. This book went through several tortuous rounds of polite rejections, regretful rejections, rejections packed with lovely feedback, multiple reads. Until finally it died on sub.
WHEN MIMI WENT MISSING is fourth in line among my completed manuscripts and the one that got me my agent. The process from book one to signing with my agent is detailed in the previous blog post, so I won't regurgitate the entire backstory here.
Writing tip. Writing backstory is a fine art. It involves walking that thin line between info-dump / boring your reader out of their minds, and providing too little information / confusing the heck out of them.
I'm still learning how to walk this line btw.
So, anyway, the thriller started off over five years ago as a young sapling, a general mishmash of all the ideas crowding my brain. A pinch of romance, a dab of horror, sprinkling of humor, a generous helping of family drama and angst, and most of all, huge chunks of mystery (my favorite genre).
Which leads me to my 2nd writing tip: avoid juggling too many apples at once (or something similar).
Or in other words, however convoluted your story is, be prepared to describe the entire 300 page plot in one SINGLE sentence magical enough to grab attention (and the right agent).
So I streamlined the plot with the help of awesome CPs and my AMM mentor and was agented in Nov 2018. My thriller then went through several cycles of rewriting and revising until it rolled out, brand new and shiny, on its first round of submission in April 2019.
It was querying all over again, but I had my agent on my side (which made a huge difference). But then the rejections started rolling in. It was disappointing (anguishing, depressing, heartbreaking), but then... a stroke of positive news! One editor loved it! She's taking it to her boss. So, we waited while using the feedback from the passes to revise and send out round two in October of 2019. During this time I did what I usually do to avoid obsessing; I started plotting another book.
Sub round 2 fizzled out with several editors responding with regretful passes, but passes nevertheless. The one thing that kept me going was my agent's complete and fierce belief in this story and his constant refrain that we just need to find that right editor. So, after another set of revisions, round 3 was initiated. This was done in several stages between Jan - June 2020, with a small list of editors each time. This was to be the last round.
The passes came in, some quick, some sluggish. One went in for second reads.; one editor replied saying she's halfway through and loved the book. But both then ended up passing.
By now it was Nov 2020, almost a year and a half since we started subbing and this book was dead. But I'd shifted attention to an adult horror which had already gone out on round 1 and was receiving some positive feedback.
Which takes me to another writing tip: write something else while on submission so you can focus your attention on it. Your writing is under your control, but the editors' responses are not. You can also use the feedback received from any previous passes to hone your plotting skills (thus turning a negative into a positive). One constant refrain in my passes was the MC's internal monologue; there was either too much or too little of it. So, I researched crafting ideas and tried to implement them.
Anyway, with the YA thriller put to rest, I was full into Book 2 when in July 2021, we received an email from the round 3 editor who'd loved the book but ended up passing. She had my writing on her mind and wanted to know if I've written any other manuscripts. Since she didn't take Adult, I created a few plot outlines for story ideas I'd had in mind for a while. My agent sent her the pitches.
And then I waited, hoping against hope. Soon after, we received an email from her. She liked the pitches, but kept circling back to my YA thriller. She wanted to know if I was willing to undertake some big dev edits on it.
For which I was like...
So, that ended up in this:
In short, ultimately, in my opinion, It is about finding the right editor, the one who loves your story, who can't let go.
Which leads me to my last writing tip for now: write what you love, write for yourself. And build your writing community, lifting other authors, encouraging and promoting their writings. They're your support, they get you. The submission process in itself is largely out of your control, but there's so much within you.
For my dear author friends, keep writing beautiful stories so I can build my TBR list.
Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know your thoughts and if you want to read further about my book, WHEN MIMI WENT MISSING, and add it to your "want to read" list, please click on the button to get to my Goodreads page.
Love you all,
Suja