Query Fear: to send or not to send

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I’m freaking terrified to query. When it's time to hit send I freak the heck out. Pretty much exactly like this kid.




Yeah, seriously scared.

Dark thoughts get the best of me and I start down the familiar road of self-doubt: 'what if those agents I admire think I’m a flake?' I don’t want to be a joke. I don't want to...fail. *Gasp*

Now, I'm not completely paralyzed by my fear. I have dipped my toe in the bottomless slush pile a few times this year. I've sent three or four ‘test’ queries into the wild. But I’ve never actually sent my novel out into the world in any real, meaningful way.

I procrastinate like so many of us: endless hours on Twitter or YouTube. But I do productive stuff too, like a lot of research on Querytracker and Publishers Marketplace. I know that this process is meant to be a learning experience. I also know I can’t succeed without this process.

If I chicken out now I’m at risk of pulling a Gordon Bombay. You know, form the Mighty Ducks (an awesome movie, btw):




“You’re not a has-been, you’re a never-was.”

So what's a scaredy-cat writer to do? Well, for starters, I can put on my big-girl-writerly-panties and start sending queries to real, living, breathing agents. I could actually hit send.

For some kick butt motivation to query check out Mark O’Brien’s recent pep talk post here.

Or this great post on defeating query fear by The Renegade Writer, here.

How do you combat the query fear?