Wednesday, March 7, 2012

While You Wait and I've Been Tagged

I, as I have mentioned, am in this horrible period of waiting while the agent who requested my revisions reviews my newly revised manuscript. It's much like the query waiting, it seems, but it also feels a little more intense.

Of course, the advice from everyone while you wait is to write (which I am doing). But I have some advice of my own: Prepare your marketing.

Here's the deal. If you have faith in your book, or even if it's not this book, there are things you can do now, before you are agented. If you get signed - when you get signed - you will be busy with edits and other marketing then, why not give yourself a leg up and get some of it done now?

Last month, Lynette Labelle had an EXCELLENT post about this very topic: Before THE call: Ten Tasks to Complete Before an Agent Calls. Go read it now. Seriously.

I've been working on #6, Grow Your Marketing List, in case you were interested.

On another note, I was tagged. Twice. So you get to find out about me and my manuscript whether you want to or not.

First, from Freya Morris, I was tagged in Jaycee's Lucky 7 Meme.

The rules:
1. Go to page 77 of your current MS
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating
4. Tag 7 authors
5. Let them know

Here's mine: 

“Memory Transportation?” Mina scoffed. “You can’t do that!”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Porter said.
“I just mean you’re only a marvel,” Mina said. “A marvel can’t do Memory Transportation. Can they?”
“I think I can. With the wand.” He held his right hand out to Mina, still clutching the wand. “Porter, we can’t use that! There’s a SCUM in the building. Don’t you think she’s going to notice?”
“That’s why we’re going to have to do it quickly. Now shut up and hold our hands.”
Mina obeyed, the wand held firmly between her and Porter’s clasped hands.

Then Krista from I Take the Pen tagged me. Here's my answers to the tag questions:

1. What is your dream vacation?
I want to take a cruise with my husband that starts in Spain and ends in Venice. It was our goal to do it when we'd been married 10 years, but I think it's going to have to wait until another big anniversary.

2. Are you spontaneous or do you like to plan ahead?
I'm pretty laid back about things that I know will just happen and be fine. But if I'm at all worried about something, I'll plan.

3. Tell us one thing you want to do but don’t dare to do.
Skydive.

4. What's your biggest phobia?
Hmm. I'm not sure. I guess spiders. I really don't like spiders.

5. If you were stranded on a desert island – what 3 things would you want with you (not including laptop, or family).
A pen, a notebook, and lots of diet A&W rootbeer.

6. Name three blessings in your life.
My husband. My daughters. My talents.

7. What was your nickname in High School?
Fuji was one. Larla was another. You could call me Larla now and I'd still answer. Don't call me Fuji, though, because it brings back some pretty crappy memories.

8. If you could meet the President of the United States, what would you say to him?
Probably not much. I'm a bit of an introvert.

9. If you could be any literary character for a day, who would you be?
Ooh, I don't know. Most of the books I like, the characters are in some pretty dire straights. So maybe someone who's got cool things going on. Like Anna from Anna and the French Kiss.

10. What is your favorite quote?
I have many that I love and can never remember them. But I love this line from an Ingrid Michaelson song called Keep Breathing that really seems to sum up my wants for the world versus what I actually do, "I want to change the world, instead, I sleep."

I am tagging the first 7 people in my reader. You can choose if you do the Lucky 7 or answer the questions. Or both! Or neither. :)

6. Krista

What are you doing while you wait?

21 comments:

Sarah Pearson said...

I hope you get your dream holiday one day :-)

mithrilwisdom said...

Good advice - I've seen so many authors spend their time worrying rather than putting their time to good use. I like the sound of that cruise too - you could trade the ship for a gondola once you reach Venice :)

Shannon O'Donnell said...

Spiders are horrible. And I absolutely LOVE that quote!! :-)

Thanks for the tag. Now I know what to post today. He he.

P.S. How's my blog looking? Better? It was so scary to change it, but your comments were to awesome to resist. :)

Jaye Robin Brown said...

Thanks for the fun! I'll post Saturday. It's funny snakes or spiders - I'm a snake girl.

Southpaw said...

I like the idea of starting a marketing plan.

Nice little 7 lines there.

Laura Barnes said...

Thanks for the compliment!

Laura Barnes said...

ME. TOO.!!!

Laura Barnes said...

You're right - snakes or spiders. Snakes don't bug me so much.

Laura Barnes said...

You're making me daydream again. Ahh, how nice it will be....

Laura Barnes said...

Glad I gave you a posting inspiration! So true about that song. It's totally my heart.

Carol Riggs said...

Best wishes as you wait on your revisions response. I know--it's difficult!! Nice exerpt! Fun way to do it, with the page # and 7's and all. HA!--I have some things I'd like to say to the prez. LOL

Sher A Hart said...

First, I tried 3 times to leave a comment under your 300 follower post, and it keeps giving me an error, something about disqus. So I hope it's okay to comment here. I got tagged a couple weeks ago and I went through 30 blogs trying to find enough that hadn't been tagged. I only found 4,and wasted a couple hours, so I decided not to take any more awards or tags or I'll never finish rewriting my book. But I may come back to do that first tag exercise. Your 7 lines sound absolutely intriguing. Now I wonder if mine will sound anywhere near as "I MUST read your book!" good.

How do you get those "you might also like" icons to show up under your posts?

Jamie Ayres said...

Wow, what a grreeeaaaat post:) I'm in the same stage . . . waiting for my agent to make revisions on my revisions to send it to the 3 editors that requested the full at the conference I attended 2 weeks ago. ~Thanks for the info!

AlexJCavanaugh said...

Jump out of a perfectly good airplane? What nutty person does that?
I didn't build until after I signed a deal. Bet it's much easier before signing!

The Golden Eagle said...

Fun to read your answers! :) I probably wouldn't say much to the President, either, due to being an introvert as well.

Thank you for the tag!

Laura Barnes said...

If I ever get a chance to talk to him, I'll make sure I contact you first for a prepared speech. :)

Laura Barnes said...

I totally get that, Sher. And kudos to you for trying to tag new people. I was lazy and tagged the first 7 people in my reader. I think if you've already been tagged with something, it's fair to skip it again. :) But I'd love to see the Lucky 7 lines from your book. I hope you choose to do that :)

I wonder what's up with disqus. Someone else had a problem today. I'm sorry (and embarrassed!) by its behavior. Did you get to enter the contest at least?

I love the "You might also" tags. They are awesome! They come from link within. You get the code at www.linkwithin.com and its really easy to add.

Laura Barnes said...

It's always a waiting game, isn't it? Sigh. Good luck to you! I'm glad you liked the post :)

Laura Barnes said...

Thanks, Golden Eagle!

Laura Barnes said...

I totally know that there are a lot of things that I should be doing because they're going to be harder later. But I don't really follow my own advice too well. I'm trying, but I'm easily distracted. :)

Miranda Hardy said...

I decided to do the lucky 7, since I haven't done that before. Should be fun. Thank you. Your dream vacation sounds AMAZING!

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