The Final Read-through and Edit

Whew. All feedback is compiled and the consensus is:

I need to curate a better list of readers. Two got back to me a week early. One had very general, gushy comments. (One of the friends that they say never to use as readers.) The other early finisher had more complete notes, and valuable ideas. Which is good, because the last two never finished the book. I managed to pull a few detailed notes from them, but will never use them as beta-readers again.

The good news is, I have good ideas for fixing the beginning, which I knew was a problem for querying. So I'm into the final reading and edit. All the simple changes are done, and I started working on the troublesome beginning, but need a little more work there. Then I'll just do a final reading and fix tiny things I notice as I go.

As far as querying, I finished the list I was working on, then went to one of the other websites I'd found. I made a new page on my spreadsheet (to track which website I'm getting names from) and was able to add 77 agent names!

Having learned from the first page of my query list, this time all I did was list agent and agency on the first go-through. Second go-through I went into the websites and was able to cull about 25 names from the list.

Next query task will be to fill in the rest of the details on the remaining names, pray, be inspired, all that. Then I'll draft letters.

Meanwhile, reviewing the book and formatting it as necessary.

Hopefully I can get all this done this month. If I can start sending letters in November I may do Nanowrimo again while I await answers. 

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