Pride of the Lions: This time, query with feeling

I got back on the horse last night. In early April I started sending out query letters for my manuscript. I sent eight and had to put together a paper package to send to the rest. In the intervening three weeks I got a cold and found my momentum gone as I practically did nothing to further my writing career.

The decision was simple. Look up agencies in the fantastic 2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market, find the ones that didn't obviously disfavor my genre, and send queries in batches of ten. I started on the first, even wrote down the contact info and submission requirements for the following ten and let it sit and fester.

Momentum is a tough thing. You can get it without realizing that you have it and you can lose it in a moment. When I told myself two weekends ago that I was going to send my queries by the following Monday, a mean cold had me sitting on the couch for four days. I probably could have persevered but I felt sorry for myself and mainly watched TiVo and read instead.

Writing additional queries after the first batch shouldn't be that hard of a chore. I have a quasi template with my catchy opening sentence, quick summary of the book and even quicker summary of my writing credits, as I have none save three blogs that are updated inconsistently. If you want a raw, untested writer, I'm the man.
Last night I had to decide if I wanted to tweak my message. I could posit that my manuscript is the opposite of Woman's Lit, or Chick Lit. Call it Man's Lit, or Guy Lit, or my politically incorrect favorite, Dick Lit. Would an agent like this term and get me out of the slush pile, or is this the kind of desperate gambit that automatically gets one's query deleted for eternity?

Men sometimes do manly things like spend too much time on the can, especially when the man in question has his own bathroom. Would it not make sense that my manuscript would be a perfect way to spend such a time? Crafting that thought into a pithy sentence that was not too vulgar while grabbing attention proved to be a daunting task.

I got two queries out last night. The first was a simple cut and paste job. The second took longer because while the agency had blogs on submitting queries and proposals, their submission guidelines were not clear on which one the unsolicited writer should choose. I ended up sending my standard query introduction followed by the first four chapters.

Once I finish this batch of ten, I'm looking forward to some honest, real, and occasionally form-letter rejections. I deserve at least that much.