The process of sending submission letters is grueling to say the least. Every publisher or agent that I queried wanted something different, which made the fulfillment of the demands challenging. It was bad enough, at times, that I wanted to pull my hair out or quit altogether.

The variations for submission requirements were endless. Some wanted a one page synopsis, some five pages, one wanted the synopsis whittled down to two paragraphs. That was challenging! Imagine condensing a three hundred page manuscript, with crucial character interactions, plot twists, and theme into two paragraphs, and hoping that whoever was going to read that tiny blip would interpret the work as intended. In my case they did not.

The upside to all the work you put into query letters and synopsis is that you get good at describing your book in a clear, condensed manner. I have never been to a pitch session but I imagine that is what is necessary to sell your project to an agent in a short amount of time.

In the end, I found that all the work it took to meet the specific requirements of those accepting or rejecting my MS was worth it–a new learning experience under my belt. Yea me!