Agents and Publishers

Before I go back to the editing / writing, I'm taking a few weeks off to clear my brain. Now I've been looking at how to contact agents in order to get the GIANT published. I've been reading through a lot of books on the subject and have learned valuable information. The best of which has been how to find an agent, how to write them, and get noticed. Every book stresses the importance of tight and professional correspondence, but that one I already knew. The process of landing an agent isn't too far off from landing a job.

I'm currently working on a query letter - a one page synopsis of the book. A thirty second pitch of sorts. Soon I'm going to put together a longer synopsis - which could be in the neighborhood of twenty pages. I'm going to work from my already established outline, but translate it into prose, and add in the best sentences and passages from the book.

The downside of reading all these books on publishing and writing is that they have instilled doubt in me. Am I really a writer? I don't know all the writing rules, I'm certainly not a professional. I don't even have a creative writing class to my credit. I'm confident the story is there - flow and motivation and all that (that is until I reread the latest draft), but I'm doubting my technical ability. I'm hoping though, that on a reread I acutally do know all the rules, just not what an infinitive (and all the other fancy writing words) is - like a person that can't read sheet music, but can play by ear.