I did it! Between 3/8/21 and now, I queried all 161 agents on my list, 121 of them in a big push I made starting at the end of September this year. It took longer than writing the book and feels like almost as much of an accomplishment. The book doesn't feel like a waste though. I was getting rejections to old queries as I was sending new ones out (I've gotten 50 actual rejections so far and 7 presumed). I couldn't imagine Jack Kerouac doing this weird chore, so I looked up how he got an agent. Apparently he "shambled" in to see Sterling Lord in person and made an impression (but it took 4 years to get a publisher - ouch!). Wonder how many agents he tried. Not to compare myself to a genius like Kerouac. I'd rather make 161 queries than try to sell my book in person! 5 agents are currently closed to queries so I may need to come back to them (Ernie Chiara at Fuse, I'm watching for you), but maybe I'm done. It's short story time. I did not query the agent who said she was a "literal bookworm". And, of course, the very last agent asked for something special and different: a curriculum vitae. I didn't even know what that was. So I spent a couple hours making a resume of my writing (and proofreading) education and experience. Then I forgot to proofread it. It had one error, which I just caught, too late. Gosh, I hope my book is better than the 5 published newspaper articles, 1 published short story, 2 unpublished screenplays, 10 unpublished short stories, 37 poems, and 2 songs I've apparently written. Never added them all up before! A lot of creative types do a lot more and are dead long before, but I'll take it.
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