The Plunge

I have officially done it. Not the wimpy way like I did last time (a half-hearted email) but FOR REAL. I sat my little self down and typed up a query letter and a synopsis of my novel (the one about the French Revolution--death and betrayal--that one) and sent out packets to some literary agents.
For those of you not so well versed in the publishing protocols, that's what you have to do, really, before you can find your book on the shelf at Schulers. You have to convince an agent to represent your book, then that agent sells it to a publishing house, and the publisher--ah, publishes the book. THEN you can find it on the shelf at Schulers.
It's a daunting endeavor for me, though, because whilst I was at my residencies for my MFA, the mantra we all chanted to ourselves at night, so lulling and soothing, was this: "No book without an agent, no agent without a book." Yeah, the same thing that happens in the work world happens in the book world. You can't land a job without experience, but you can't get experience without a job. And most agents don't like to handle unpublished authors...but you can't get published without an agent. Sigh.
But I mailed out my packets this afternoon, and I'm crossing my fingers. But I won't keep them crossed--it can take anywhere from four weeks to never to hear back. So meanwhile, I'll just keep writing, keep reading, keep etsy-crafting (I'll get my shop up soon! Promise!), and keep doing all the other things that take up my time. Oh, and blogging too.