Today's post is sponsored by the letter
I SUCK AT WRITING
QUERIES!
No big surprise there. After sending out over 100 of the dang things, and getting NO requests for partials or fulls, I've come to this conclusion.
I know it's not my book. It's a great story and everyone who's read it says it should be published.
No, really!
And not just my family and friends, but people that don't even know me, an editor even. So where to go from here?
I'm going to LDStorymakers Writers Conference in May and I'm taking a class on how to write a killer query.
By the incredible queen of queries, Elana Johnson
YAY!
I've also won a query critique by Jenn Johansson, who totally rocks, I might add.
Maybe with any luck I'll have a kick butt query by this time next month and an agent will beg to read my book. What? A girl can dream, right?
So, how is your query? Are you getting any hits? Does it need revised? Have you got any advice for someone like me?
Are you taking the query class at storymakers? I am. Maybe I'll see you there. I hate writing queries too. It's so much harder than anything else in the writing world. Argg! LOL
ReplyDeleteHave you read Elena's e-book, From the Query to the Call? I read it when it first came out, and it's very helpful. I believe it's free now.
ReplyDeleteI know just how you feel. I haven't sent out quite as many letters as you have, but I have had quite my share of the query crazies. I wrote my query 3 times, then sent the final one to a woman's blog to be critiqued, and it was torn to shreds. I then wrote a new query, read it over a million times, sent it out, then showed it to my advisor, and SHE tore it apart. Wrote a new version. Sent it to her. "It's better," she said. "But it needs more work." Wrote another, sent it, and am now waiting to hear back, but I THINK, I'm pretty sure that I got it down now.
ReplyDeleteWhat I learned is not to follow too closely to the guidelines you see all over the web. Introduce your MC and his/her age, asap. Write a sentence or two to describe your MC, (or two, if your story is told from 2 POVs like mine), and then go write into the action. Write it in the tone you wrote your story in, but add a bit of suspense. Make sure the agent knows the who, what, and why of the characters, and if a character is fighting against something, make sure the agents know WHY it's so hard for that person. Yeah...my advisor, who had a 50% success rate with her queries, gave me a lot of advice, so hopefully I'll have it up on my blog soon. :-)
<3 Gina Blechman
P.S. Every week, hopefully starting next week, I'm asking people to send their query or bits of their manuscript or synopsis for critique or discussion on the work's success, so you might want to check it out. :-)
I don't mind queries. The first book I queried really sucked, but I don't think it was the query! LOL
ReplyDeleteThe query that landed my agent got a lot of hits. I think I only rewrote the query once. I really don't mind them. Synopsis' however, are my downfall. Horrible horrible horrible.
Queries are indeed evil. I've rewritten mine several times, received one request for partial, and have received maybe a dozen rejections so far. I figure the query is never perfect so I'm continuously tinkering with it. Eventually it'll grab someone's attention!
ReplyDeleteI keep rewriting my query. I have no idea if it's all right or not. People say yes but I get no response from agents/publishers so I go back and rewrite it and try again.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was teaching, I showed a very old draft of one letter to a group of my students. One of them said, "You actually sent that out?" I have since retired that particular letter...
Good luck with the query-- I'm sure Elana's class will be awesome. And maybe I'll see you around at Storymakers!
ReplyDeleteI've done crazy amounts of revision on my query letter. They really are hard to write! I actually posted on my blog today about some things I learned in the process, if you want to take a look.
Good luck with the Query Letter. I have not gotten to Query stage yet, but the thoughts of it have me shaking in my boots!
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures! We must be on the same wavelength as I posted about querying on my blog as well.
ReplyDeleteGreat meeting you through the A-Z!
nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com
Good luck with your query! I've heard a lot of great things about Elana's book, so I'm sure her class will be awesome!
ReplyDeleteI love your post. LOVED the cartoons and you WILL make it. I'll bet your Query letters are already killer good. It's just you havn't found the right spot. YOU WILL!!!
ReplyDelete