I Was Once Like You Are Now

Wiki

Dear Readers of this Blog,

I received the following letter in my Gmail account. I asked the author if I could post it anonymously. The writer agreed. Does anyone have any wisdom they can share?

Hello Ms. Lerner, my name is XXX I am a creative writing student at XXX and an aspiring author. I was hoping to take a moment of your time to ask you about publishing. I am looking to improve my craft however I can and would greatly appreciate it if I could have to honor of learning from you. 

Before self-publishing my first novel on Kindle I inquired at about 100 agencies around the U.S. to see if I could get it published traditionally. All attempts failed, and I think I now know why. Even after much research and practice, I am admittedly poor at the actual selling of my stories. Letters, blurbs, summaries, and pitches are well outside my expertise. 

So I would like to ask you, what is it that truly grabs you and keeps a manuscript in your hands? How do you know what you should read out of the endless piles of manuscripts?

 Thank you so much for reading. Any wisdom you can provide would be greatly appreciated.