Queries and Prom Dates

The Climbing Rose Line of The Wild Rose Press is celebrating May with a little Prom Mania. Lots of quizzes and stories and prizes going on at the Climbing Roses blog too, so be sure to stop by.

But over here I was thinking about querying agents and how it is like trying to get a date for the prom.

When prom time came around my senior year of high school I wasn't dating anyone and there was no obvious person that I would go to the prom with. Since I wasn't tripping over offers to go to the dance I decided to take matters into my own hands and ask someone.

But who to ask? There was one boy in particular, who'd already graduated, I'd always liked and it was wonderful to dream about going to the dance with him, but another friend had indicated she was going to ask him, so I didn't.

So I tried to think of other people I'd like to go to. And of course the first step there is dream about what it would be like to be at the prom with that particular person. And I thought of someone who had been a long time friend and it decided I'd really like to go to the prom with him. I dreamed of what it would be like at the dance with him, and it was a nice dream. I screwed up my courage and asked him. And he said no. The dream ended.

And that's how I feel about querying. As long as I don't actually ask, and get a 'no' then I can keep dreaming about what it would be like to have a certain agent be my agent. But once I ask, then they can say 'no' and then that particular dream comes to an end. Of course if I don't ask, they can never say 'yes' either.

And as for the Senior Prom, I did ask someone else, a recent graduate who was also a good friend. We had a lot of fun at the dance and everything worked out just fine.

As for querying, that paid off for me too when The Wild Rose Press offered me a contract for When Mike Kissed Emma.

If you don't ask, no one can say yes. Whether it's prom dates or agents.