A quick look at QT Representation Stats

I went through Query Tracker's Success Stories for the past six months (November 2010 to first week May 2011) and assessed the stats for those indicating an offer of representation.

There were 140 reported offers (where genre was indicated). Here's the percentage by genre:

*Only those specifying a genre were included

And, because I am just that much of a Type-A personality, I went back and compared it to the same period last year.

Here's how they compare, percentage-wise:

*Again, only those indicating a genre were included.

For the 09-10 period, there were 79 offers reported.

Are you surprised by any of these numbers? I'd been feeling like Sci Fi and Fantasy were getting a lot more attention these days and, at least according to this, it seems to be the case. And I'm not sure if the genre was changed from Chick Lit to Women's Fiction in the interim, or if they are different genres.

Obviously, this is only looking at one source. But it is still an interesting snapshot.

If you don't use Query Tracker, go check it out. They have a great blog, a fantastic agent database system, and things like Success Stories to keep you motivated.

Stay tuned for my next May/Type-A extravaganza post: QT's Query Stats!

Visually Mapping Tension in Your Manuscript

I think we've established I'm a bit of a geek. (If you don't believe me, go check out my posts on storyboarding and statistics). I love what programs like Word, Excel and Writer's Cafe can do for me at the click of a few buttons. If you are a visual person, like I am, there are tons of ways you can use these programs to help you with your writing other than just putting words on a page.

I've finally finished the revision on my WIP (phew!). While it is with my beta readers, I'm going through and polishing it up. One of the most critical elements I'm checking is that I have effectively woven my conflict threads (internal, external, and relationship) through the entire book, building tension to the end. Reading through is one thing, but I find it a bit tedious to take written notes as I read. So it got me thinking: what if there was a way to see at a glance how conflict and tension build through my manuscript? There is!

I'm using Text Highlighting to do this. I've assigned each conflict thread a different color:
Internal- yellow
External -red
Relationships (there are three) blue, pink and green.
This WIP contains a story within a story. This storyline will get a separate highlighting treatment, so for the time being I've highlighted it in black so that I know to overlook it this pass through.

So then I've gone through the manuscript and highlighted each scene of conflict in the appropriate color, like this:

Then, I change the zoom level down to 10% so that I can see multiple pages in the window like this:

It gives me an instant visual of where my conflict threads are and how they weave together. I can start at the beginning and scroll down, making sure I continue to build the tension throughout. I can click on a thread in question and zoom back in so I can read it. At a glance, I can see if there are scenes/chapters without some form of conflict, like this:

See the red-circled area? It looks like I might have a lull so I'm marking that down on my list of things to work on after I get my beta feedback. (I'm not making any changes in this particular document -- I've saved this as a separate file).

It only took me about an hour or so to do this and I think it will save me lots of time in the long run.

Do you have any visual tricks you use while editing or writing?

Fighting First Sentence Fatigue

That'll do it.

Are you sick of seeing your first sentence every time you open your WIP file? Try this...select your first sentence, go to Text Highlight Color, and choose Black. Tada!

Just don't forget to remove it before you send it out.