Stuff I Help With

So I figured that now is as good a time as any to plug a couple of ventures that I am associated with. Seeing as no one is really reading this, I don't know what good a plug will do, but I wanted to talk about it so I will. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am aspiring to be an author. I write fiction and want to be a storyteller. It's something I enjoy, and I hope it is something I am at least marginally talented at. It's very hard to tell. If you are a published author and your story sells several million copies, then it must be easy to say, "Well. I must be a pretty good writer!" Awards are pretty good for letting a writer know that they are accomplished in their craft, but I am far from the Pulitzer, so I have to work on faith. My wife and kids love me, thank God, so they can't say, "Gee, Jason, this really sucks," so I have very little to gauge my work against. That is why I just have to do what I know how to do, and then redo it until a book is done. After that, all I can do is hope that someone down the line will read it and say, "Hey, this is pretty good. Maybe I can sell it." Anyway, what this is all leading to is that my good friend for many years and writing partner, Patrick McDonald, has put together a couple of websites that I am involved in, and I felt that this was the perfect place for me to talk about it.


The first site is http://www.farwalkers.com/. This is the official site for the series of middle grade stories I intend to finish one day. The first book is called "Farwalkers: The First Crossing," and is currently in the submission process, or as I have come to call it, the rejection process. The site is very cool, though, and won an award in Writer's Digest for being one of the top ten author's websites. That's right, my name was in the esteemed pages of Writer's Digest right there alongside the man who did all the work. I'm still pretty proud, even though I almost feel like I was riding on his coattails. I hope that when I finish my next couple of books that he will help me design at least pages for them if not entire websites.



The second site I am very excited about. In the process of learning about how to query agents in an attempt to get someone to buy our book, we found that there were several sites out there that listed the agents that were available, but nothing to keep track of which agents you had already queried and which ones were left. From this simple problem, http://www.querytracker.net/ was born. Querytracker is much more than just a list of agents, though. It had become much more than that. It is a tool for authors to more accurately target their queries to agents who are interested in their genres. This is accomplished by providing users with statistics gathered from all users on the site. As each user inputs data, it is compiled and presented in query statistics reports that show authors how quick an agent responded to a query, how often they rejected it and how often they asked for more material. Querytracker also shows you what genre individual agents are more likely to respond to, what sort of word count they are partial to, and even what seasons they are more active in. It is a fantastic site and every writer should be using it. Once again, Patrick McDonald is responsible for creating this wonderful tool and community for writers. His "Social Data Gathering" model uses the power of the Internet to benefit everyone involved. I am proud to be involved in such a great endeavor and hope that one day it revolutionizes how authors reach agents.