Waiting to hear from a Literary Agent or Publisher? Here is a handy "To Do" list to keep you busy while you wait.

What do you do when you are waiting for an agent to respond to your manuscript submission enquiry and even a few weeks seems to take forever? When you so badly want to hear from your first chosen agent, but the silence is deafening? When the overwhelming desire to email in and ask if they received your enquiry is barely held in check by general politeness?

Here is what I am doing whilst waiting to hear from Justin Wells of Corvisiero Literary Agency.

I have set a new record on how many times a day a person can look for an email from an agent.

I have had my laptop die, making me restore entirely from my backup. Grrrrrr. On the upside, my five year old laptop seems to be working better than the one year old laptop every worked.

Started three blogs, one on fantasy adventure, one on getting published and one on self-publishing. Never half do things.

Updated my Website www.osullidan.com. Now it’s almost too cool to view.

Updated my Amazon Author page. Mainly because I seem to be two people on Amazon and the other Dan O’Sullivan is, I am certain, a lot brighter than me judging by what he is publishing. 😉

Posting on Twitter and several Facebook pages.

I am now on Youtube, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so you may now address me as “You Instant Twit Face”.

Sending out info to those on my email mailing list. They love me. Truly. I’ll just keep on telling myself that. 💜💛💚💙

Dusted off exercise bike and ab-roller. Stared at them miserably for a long time. Decided the only way to stay on an exercise bike is watch old re-runs of Star Trek. It works!

Watching an entire series of Dr Who. Sitting up late each night with extremely freaked-out daughter after watching Dr Who. 😨

Continuing with book 4 of my original self-published series. This is my favourite thing to do by a long shot.

Here are some other suggestions:

Start a new blog on something stupid like “50 ways to annoy your sleeping cat when you are bored.” Include safety tips and suggestions for protective clothing.
Dust off your exercise bike and ab-roller. The exercise bike is possibly that contraption in your back room that has two handle bars, one generally used to hang ironed clothing and one to hang un-ironed clothing. Do not use the bike, just put it in the lounge room to impress your friends.
Watch an entire series of Dr Who. Or Star Trek. Or Frasier, or All Creatures Great and Small.
Start writing a new book in a genre you don’t particularly go for. For me, that would be romance.
Try for a world record in chocolate consumption