Yikes! I made my first query!

So, the synopsis finally clicked. I struggled and struggled with it, unable to condense it enough, then something kind of fell into place and I rattled it off in no time. I spent the best part of a day rewriting and tweaking it until I arrived at something I thought was pretty good. It's quite exciting to read (at least I thought so!) and gives a good outline of events without being too specific - I think you could read it and still be surprised by the twists in the novel. And I managed to squeeze a 400 page manuscript into two and a half double spaced pages, which isn't bad going.

Once it was done, I decided to take a big step. I looked up one of the agents on my shortlist - the smaller, one person agency that happens to do a lot of business in my genre - and wrote up a personalised query letter, using what I've learned from Miss Snark's last Crapometer, and put it and the first chapter, my synopsis and an SAE into a big envelope. I took it to the post office and sent it first class. Now, I know I'll most likely get a rejection. This agent has a full client list and isn't particularly looking for anyone new, but I wanted to take this important step just to get it done. It'd be great if the agent requested a full manuscript, even just some more pages, but I won't be holding my breath. I'm just glad to have made this particular leap.

Scary!