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Query Round-Up
So I realized I haven’t listed out my query statistics for Looking For Home for a while, so here we go:
Total presses queried: 39
Rejections (including those last year): 17
Queries/manuscripts outstanding: 22
Presses left on list: 13
So about normal, I guess? I am still occasionally searching to see if other presses I don’t currently know about are opening up to submissions. When I’m done, it will have gone out to 50+ outlets. So still lots of time for something to happen.
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Lots to Celebrate with Lots of Links!
So today represents the first fiction I’ve placed since I published Hurricane Baby–this work is a storyline I first created in 2009 as part of a novel about a week of loss in the small community of Rock Star, Mississippi. Much later on, I took one of those stories told in the book and turned it into a short story of the day Glenn Crawford buried his wife, Gina, who died of breast cancer at 33, leaving him with two young children. That story, “This Side of Heaven“, published today in Salvation South, a magazine committed to telling the multiplicity of stories that feature the mind and sensibility of the modern southeastern United States. Thanks so much to Chuck Reese for taking this story and putting it out to the world.
Also this weekend, my alma mater, Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi, put out a news release about my upcoming appearance there. You can see the whole story here: From the Eye of the Storm: New accounts of Katrina shared at MSU Price Caldwell Lecture | Mississippi State University.
But this is my favorite paragraph: “I admire the way Whitehead brings her characters to life so vividly and makes us care about them. This collection is a literary page turner that my students and I have enjoyed reading and discussing,” said Becky Hagenston, MSU English professor and director of the department’s creative writing emphasis. Hearing this about the student reaction makes me really look forward to the classroom Q&A I’m scheduled for.
I also got word about what sounds like a cool event in Picayune, Mississippi, the Picayune Semi-Annual Spring Street Festival: Events. I am partnering with Tracy Ledford and other authors to man a bookish tent at the event where I can sell and sign books from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, April 12. Picayune is about as far southwest you can go and still be in Mississippi. I’m really looking forward to visiting and seeing what all they have going on in their creative communities.
Whew. That’s a lot going on. I really never thought I’d still be promoting my book six months after the one-year anniversary of its publication. But it’s a lovely surprise to be doing so.
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Stripping the Work Down to Basics
So I have actually been thinking about Book #3 quite a bit lately. (I know. I know. I said I wouldn’t work on anything until Looking for Home sold. I also reserved the right to change my mind.)
On Friday night while I was out of town, I remembered one of the guiding principles I used when revising Hurricane Baby–cut all the boring parts! For this rough draft, I figured out that meant to cut every part of the book where the two main characters weren’t directly interacting with each other.
Well.
I set to doing that this afternoon after we got back from the conference.
And that process cut the manuscript from 321 pages to 115.
Yikes.
While doing it, I realized that much of what I was cutting was extremely wordy setup for the next interactions between these two main characters. I was using a lot of words/dialogue/description/character thoughts to explain everything that was happening behind the scenes–then summarizing all that action in the next encounter between these two main characters.
So. What’s next?
I’m going to let it sit for a week or so–until April 1. Then I’m going to go back and re-read the stripped-down version, looking for what may need to be done to further develop their relationship. Because their relationship is where the heat is, the smoke. The action.
So we will see what happens.
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Nervous!
This weekend, I go to the Mississippi Philogical Association meeting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and I will be reading the first story from Looking for Home in public for the first time ever.
I remember the weekend at the end of February 2023 when I went to the MPA event in Columbus, MS, to read the first story in Hurricane Baby. I was so scared reading this one out loud for the first time, too. My hands were shaking as I held the pages and read them. I read too fast because of the nerves and the fear that I would take up too much time.
It went live for pre-sales that weekend. too–I got the email that night while I was answering messages after the last event. I remember sitting there in the hotel room, at turns both giddy and terrified that my book was really out in the world after so many years of wishing and striving and writing.
When I submitted this excerpt to MPA, I had hoped that the event would be the launch for Looking for Home to be out in the world, too. But alas. Hopefully it will make an impression on those listening at the session. I have another writer reading their work after me, and I’m looking forward to meeting them. And to seeing so many friendly faces of people I’ve gotten to meet over the past few years while traveling for Hurricane Baby.
And Monday I get to have my conference with Chuck Reese at Salvation South about my short story they are interested in. Onward and upward! Wish me well!
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More Encouragement
Late last week I got an email from Chuck Reece at Salvation South–he opened with, “No one should have to wait eleven months to hear from a submission.”
I didn’t even remember sending him anything. After some checking, I realized the submission had been sent in April 2025, probably just after they ran a story from my very good friend Ellen Ann Fentress about Dusti Bonge’s second-act reinvention in mid-century Mississippi.
Even though it took eleven months, I was gratified by the fourth sentence where he wrote they liked my story “This Side of Heaven” and wanted to publish it with some trimming being done.
I’m cool with that.
So the first step in that process is a video conference with Chuck, probably this Thursday. (He had to catch his breath from being at the week-long AWP Conference and Bookfair in Baltimore. I could understand that.)
Otherwise, this month I go to William Carey University in Hattiesburg for the Mississippi Philogical Association meeting on March 20-21 where I’m going to read from Looking For Home at a creative writing panel late Friday afternoon. Then on April 6, I head up to Mississippi State University for the Caldwell Reading Series event that I have been looking forward to ever since I got the word that Hurricane Baby had been accepted for publication.
And that’s the last book event I’m scheduled to appear at for 2026. I plan to go to other events, like Possumtown Book Fest in August and Mississippi Book Festival in September. I have a couple of submissions out for other events but not any real expectations to be accepted.
I am doing some thinking about what comes next. I’m still sending out Looking for Home to small presses; the last one on my list is Four Way Books, which opens for submissions on November 1. I’m still thinking I won’t go back into a book project until I have a contract for Looking for Home. But I may change my mind again, too. That’ll be fine, too. Maybe I’ll write more short stories. Maybe I’ll get back into poetry. I also saw a call-for-papers for creative nonfiction, research, or academic work about revisiting childhood favorite books. I’m slowly drafting an abstract for a paper for that project.
Thinking counts as writing. Don’t forget that. Happy March, y’all.
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A True Statement
Two oceans are no longer enough.
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Decision Time
So since I hate indecision more than anything, I’m making the decision that feels the most right for me right now.
I’m not going to work on another longform fiction manuscript until Looking for Home sells or I exhaust all avenues to get it traditionally published.
I’ve been trying to work on What Lies Ahead in fits and starts ever since the beginning of January after I got word that my deal for Looking for Home was cancelled. And that has been really painful and stressful for me. I’m sure you can imagine the stress–the primary thought that goes through my head at this point is WHY BOTHER?
I know all the very good reasons to bother writing–I enjoy it, it’s fun for me, I can’t know if it will be good or not until I actually write it, etc., etc.
But I also need to take care of myself and my own mental health. And right now, writing a longform fiction manuscript is neither enjoyable nor fun. I need to be in a place where I can regain my perspective on why I write and where I know that I am not hurting myself with my process or my words.
This is the pattern I took once I finished Hurricane Baby: Stories and started shopping it. I did not begin work rewriting Looking for Home until I got the offer from Madville Publishing for that first book. Currently Looking for Home has 12 rejections and is still out to 19 publishers, with plans to send to 10 more presses.
So we will see what happens.
I will continue to post here weekly about different thoughts on writing, my adventures in book events, craft articles, what it’s like being a debut author still, etc. I also have my Substack I also plan to continue posting on once a week about what helped make me a writer in the first place.
So I’m not stopping writing altogether. Just stepping back a bit. Please continue to visit and drop a note in the comments when you feel led with encouragement, questions, or requests for information about my upcoming schedule or my availability for any event. Thanks for understanding!
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Keeping Records
I watched a college baseball game this weekend and marveled yet again at how absolutely every action on a baseball field is recorded and quantified for the record books–every ball, strike, error, hit, at-bat, catch–every movement has a statistic associated with it. It’s one of my favorite things about the sport–no action ever goes unnoticed.
(Did you know it’s possible to get no hits in a baseball game against the pitcher and still win? It’s happened once in MLB–on April 23, 1964, Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt .45s became the first pitcher to throw a nine-inning no-hitter and lose. In fact, he is still the only individual to throw an official nine-inning no-hitter and lose. The one run was scored on two fielding errors, a stolen base, one ground-out, and one fly-out.)
What does this have to do with writing?
I like to keep records of my writing life. I keep up with daily word count when I’m actively writing. I make lists of what scenes I want to revise when I need to work on a draft. I make lists of what presses I have sent manuscripts to and when and note when I hear back from them.
That tendency comes in handy for two reasons: 1) keeps me from going back over my tracks so I don’t send to the same publishing company twice, etc. and 2) gives me a sense of accomplishment in a trade that so rarely scratches the itch I have to feel like I am accomplishing ANYTHING.
I am wondering though if this recordkeeping is adding to my anxiety around writing, though. I try not to have word count goals, but I definitely set deadlines in my head to be at a certain point by a certain day on the calendar, etc. And I have definitely let myself get incredibly anxious about missing a self-imposed deadline or letting a few days go by without racking up words.
Anyone else have ideas or opinions around such quantifying of writing or any other creative endeavor? I am just trying to sort it out for myself but would appreciate others’ perspectives as well. Drop any insight into the comment section if you would–I’d appreciate it!
Happy writing!
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2025 Numbers
GOOD NEWS!
I got my royalty statement for 2025 from Madville Publishing, and . . .
Hurricane Baby: Stories made some money last year, y’all!
I’m not going to get into exact numbers in this post, but sales were over what they were last year, and while I had returns, the number was lower than I expected. Miscellaneous sums for printing, etc. aside, I earned a chunk of change for the publisher, and my percentage of that was high enough that the publisher can actually cut me a check for it (which was not the case last year).
Do the royalties cover what’s been spent traveling to various events, publicizing said events, etc.? No. So as a total endeavor, I’m still not making any money. But the hole isn’t quite as big at this point.
But I still need to fulfill my pledge to the church to give them my first royalty check, since I didn’t get an advance for this book. I will gladly do that once I get the funds in my bank account.
A good day on the author front all around!
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HOMEGROWN 2026
I had the pleasure of going back down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast again this weekend and meeting Madville Publishing’s Kim Davis in the flesh for the first time, as well as meeting Micheal Amos Cody and reconnecting with Susan Cushman on our Madville Publishing panel on Saturday. We all talked about our books and read and did a little Q&A after the readings. We had people go in and out of our event–other events were going on at the same time at staggered times, so there was a lot of fluidity in the schedule. But it went well, and I think I sold right at half the books my publisher brought with her so that was good.
I did some chatting as well–I reconnected with Johnnie Bernhard; we had met at the last HOMEGROWN event I attended in 2024 and we talked on and off a good bit throughout the day. I talked with the owner of Pass Christian Books, Scott Naugle; he said nice things about how my book had sold well at his shop, so that was nice to hear! And I got to talk with other authors I had not met before like Micheal Farris Smith.
I also met with Monica Walton, who was talking with authors as a representative of Dogwood Press here in Brandon. I’ve sent occasional manuscripts to the publisher there, Joe Lee, but this project we discussed was something I don’t believe I’ve ever sent to him. So we will see how it goes once she gives him the information about this book. Fingers crossed!
Next on the agenda should be getting my royalty statements soon for 2025 and see how sales stack up, then in March is the Mississippi Philogical Association meeting at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, MS, and then in April, I visit Mississippi State University for the Caldwell Reading Series.
So lots of things still cooking over here. Hopefully the South can continue to thaw out, and we can have seasonable temperatures throughout February! Looking forward to that! Happy writing!
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Julie Liddell Whitehead 