Queries: Really Not That Complicated

>What if you do all of the right things, but agents still fail to respond? It's frustrating when they won't even give you the courtesy of a reply, even if it is a rejection.
Even more irritating is when you do get requests, then they don't bother to reply after a few weeks or months of polite status requests. (Once a month, according to Nathan)

What about AGENTS following a standard polite protocol? Agents, if you're too busy to respond, then maybe you shouldn't hang out your shingle until you catch up on all your work!

>…anon sounds titchy.. maybe you should hunt out their query letter *grin*

>I think it's easier, as a writer, to assume that you're missing some top secret information about How To Query, than it is to accept that the proposal itself, or even the manuscript in question, is not quite up there yet. And no one wants to feel like they're excluded from the club, even if it is all in their head.

After all, it's a lot less daunting to revise a one-page query letter to include that top secret code language that everyone else seems to know about, than it is to revise a 100,000-word (give or take) manuscript.

Speaking as a writer, it's certainly comforting to think that all you need to do is find the right way to query. It may well be that this is a much-needed cushion for our confidence when we do fail. It just becomes problematic when we stop looking at other factors.

>Thank you for being so straight forward. It's like oxygen to starved lungs.

>When I first began the process, my query letter sucked worse than a clogged up Kirby. It screamed, "Hey, look how long-winded my query is, can you imagine reading my book???" Unfortunately, I sent it out way too many times before I realized it was horrible, and closed a lot of doors I think that might have opened with a better query. Even now, I read it and get embarrassed. But I've learned that brevity is the key. I keep the whole thing under three hundred words. When you do that, you have to write smarter anyway, and your query becomes snappy, interesting. And I get requests from it. Lesson learned.

>@February:

Ack, I did not mean my comment to sound critical, though reading back over it I can completely see where I went astray. I wasn't actually responding to your post specifically, just musing about how it can end up so difficult for us as writers. I'm at that stage too where I'm trying to figure out how to do this whole querying thing, and fighting my own denial demons. Nothing but admiration for you having the guts to ask questions, trust me!

>Your bolded comment is spot-on. I think many writers struggle to pull together a concise, compelling pitch regarding their work. Thanks for breaking it down for us.

Marissa

>I haven't reached the query stage yet, but I so appreciate your clear, concise advice! Have a great day.

>I try to tell people in my crit group this all the time. Sure, one agent may prefer that you put the title in the first paragraph, while another prefers it goes in the last paragraph – but they're not going to reject you for that.

And I agree whole-heartedly with Meagan's first comment. It's so much easier to blame someone else.

>I have three versions of my query letter and I have a trouble deciding which to use. 1) There is the sedate, informative, "professional" one that lists what happens, 2) there's the snazzy, hip, fun query that kind of sounds more like MG than YA, and 3) a chancy one that is really good, but starts with a kind of a joke.

Personally I think that the 3rd one is the best, but as I said, it's a bit chancy.

Any idea which to use in general?

>I think it all comes down to capturing the agent's attention based on the pitch. Of course it matters that the letter is well written. I also feel it's extremely important to study the submission process well.

The process is similar to sales. You have to have a great sales pitch. You have to believe in your product. You have to convince others to purchase your product. You have to present your product in the best light.

The agent is the first step in presenting your product. If the agent likes it, he or she will begin to sell the product to the publishers in a similar manner.

I think it's best to pretend you're the one receiving the query. I know that's hard to do because it's difficult to be objective about your own work. You have to ask yourself a couple of questions. Does the pitch grab you? Do you feel compelled to read on? Could your book be of interest to thousands or millions of people who may be interested or able to relate to what you've written?

I also feel the pitch and query should reflect the personality of the writer. I think the agent can automatically tell whether the writer will be able to connect well with the masses.

That picture is great! I love it! Too bad I can't use it in my sales pitch for my query; it would complement my opening paragraph perfectly!

>I'm new to this whole process but something occurred to me as I read this post and the comments. Isn't a query letter just like a resume? Perhaps I was in the corporate world too long but I think of a query letter like I think of a resume. It's a one pager in which you have to sell yourself (or your book.) If you were to send out 100 resumes, you are not going to get feedback on any of them. No one is going to follow up to tell you the formatting is incorrect in your resume or your experience stinks, or perhaps your skills don’t match the job description. You would just get a phone call or email if the powers at be like what you said in your resume. Otherwise, we assume they don’t and go to plan b, which may be a rewrite to our query letter or looking for another agent to send to. I think we are lucky if we get feedback on query letters but we shouldn't expect it.

>I absolutely see what you mean, but it is in fact the case that some agents will say "give me a few writers that your work can be compared with" and others will blow you away with guffaws if you dare to do this. That kind of thing is annoying.
It feels like you can't win. It still boils down to tailoring letters to individual agents re: their pet peeves, requests ("I want to know the word count in the first sentence!" "I want to know why your book is different in the first sentence!" etc.). And that is just exhausting given the numbers involved.
But I also trust that a solid, compelling query that follows your general rules might well be a hit with any agent, irrespective of pet peeves.
So much of the advice we get from agents on their websites etc. is "don't suck." We know that, but hearing it makes us anxious.

>"A uniform cover letter"

Then there's no sense whatsoever in writing the letter. In this case the agent can only expect the same meaningless compliance with the formal rules. No individuality, originality can shine through, there's no way to get one hooked.

>Starry: Don't miss the point of this whole post. Individuality and originality CAN and DO shine through in the context of a brief letter – and in fact, they can only shine through if the letter is like I said, well-written.

Also, you may be seriously underestimating people's creativity if you believe that individuality couldn't shine through in a "uniform cover letter." I assure you, even if I gave very specific instructions (i.e. word count, number of paragraphs, what information to include), every writer's personality and skill would still shine through very brightly, for better or worse.

>Simple, yet not. And I'm guessing people like Starry may be bristling under the notion of subjectivity rather than following the rules. "A reasonably intelligent letter that pitches the book in a way that makes it sound interesting and makes us want to read it.

Yes. Simple, yet not. And something to think about. Thanks, Rachelle.

>Thanks Rachelle. I needed a little chuckle to take the edge off.

>This was a great post as always. I wrote about this recently on my blog.

http://tinyurl.com/Please-Don-t-Kill-Me

The problem is, some preferences and pet peeves are so strong, the agent passes and the author has no idea why. Some agents will post comments while they go through queries.

"I hate vampires. Pass."

I often go to their site to see if this is mentioned in their guidelines and it isn't. If an agent feels so strongly about something that it earns an automatic pass, I think they should put it in their guidelines.

Janet Reid posted about a writer she met at a conference. The woman mentioned two other agents had the fulls. Janet contacted them and they were indeed interested, but never received them. Janet asked if the writer followed up and she hadn't because she assumed no reply meant no interest.

I'm getting ready to query. I've studied the agents and arranged them in order. I know what they want, but part of me still wonders if I missed something and it puts my guts in an uproar.

>Thanks for this clarification! I particularly appreciate the "stop worrying so much" advice. When I stop worrying it's much easier to let my natural voice shine through. This is important to me, even in a somewhat formal query letter. If I can't make my initial contact with an agent reflect who I really am and how I really write, then it feels like little more than an exercise in formality.

>@ Meagan: No worries, thank you for the clarification. Was kind of you.

@ Robert: Ouch. Unless you've read someone's manuscript I really don't think automatically blaming their confusion with the process, especially at first, is fair at all.

@ Everyone- yes, the picture would be funny- honestly- but it is an unhappy coincidence that I have to wear disfiguring glasses in real life (plus 15 correction for aphakia)or I can't see. The picture in my blogger profile is glasses I can't wear anymore that were paired with contacts that are no longer an option for me. I also happen to have as anyone can see, blue eyes and dark hair. Still you've got to have a sense of humor when these things happen…

@Ms. Gardener

Thank you again for the post- it may have made me look like a whiner and opened me up to insult by people who haven't even read my work, but if it helped one other writer in that you responded to it, it was worth having made the original comment. Now I don't ever have to question the process again because someone in the know gave a straight answer.

Thank you.

>You have a very interesting topic. Reading your post is so much fun. The comments are all so good. Reading it will definitely going the topic clearer.

>Rachelle,

Lauradroege brought up some excellent points in her post regarding a platform for non-fiction.

I'm sure many of us would be interested in your reply to some of her concerns.

It would be great if you could elaborate about the importance of when a platform should come into the picture.

Most of us realize that there's a great advantage for the writer who has an established platform.

What about the writer who has the confidence in their ability to establish a platform based on their past performances in sales and marketing?

Could this also be considered as an asset?

>P.S. For a truly hilarious post on "addressed personally to" see Nathan Bransford's blog here:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/06/query-stats-salutations.html

We're still trying to figure out how one of the unfortunate queriers came up with "Martha Bransford."

Hey would you mind sharing which blog platform you’re using? I’m going to start my own blog soon but I’m having a tough time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your layout seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something completely unique. P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!