So the Great Querying is commencing. One rejection so far. I’ve got Black Hole Son, Defender, Merm-8, and Mudbow Sisters out now, and right now I’m only querying the top houses. Those are: Writers House Greenburger P.S. Literary Janklow Root ICM Dystel Goodrich William Morris Inkwell Folio I forget where I got this list from, but it’s been in my scratchpad for quite some time. I haven’t done my Replaneted query yet because I’m waiting on feedback from The Query Shark, which will come at the beginning of February. I think I’m paying $150 for that. Which will mean, once that’s paid, that I will have spent about $200 on…
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Getting Too Old For This…
It’s hard writing around the Christmas season. Besides being pulled in a bunch of different directions, I’m in a bit of a transition phase. Replaneted‘s submission package is done being prepped. But I’ve been disappointed in the response. Essentially speaking, IT’S FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE TO WRITE A QUERY LETTER AND SYNOPSIS. You leave out so much. In a novel, it’s not big events that lead to motivations. It’s subtle stuff. For example, one critique that’s really bothering me says that my protagonist doesn’t sound like she has a lot of volition. That’s a fundamental problem, but it’s a fundamental part of the story. Because she’s a victim to her circumstances. But…
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Prepping for the Query Blitz
I should write something here, but I really don’t have anything to say but an update. I think I’ve written out all the opinions I’ve got for the moment. Or they don’t warrant whole articles. Hades is fun, but you gotta turn on God Mode if you don’t want to play it forever. Battle for Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is repetitive, but killing orcs is strangely addictive. Stealth games are too frustrating for me. Dead Space still scares me. And Quake is still fun, especially the expansions. Maybe I should talk about what I’m doing these days. I’ve taken a break from my next attempt at a novel (The Fairy…
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Query Letters Give Me Hemorrhoids
I am having a serious problem with writing query letters. It’s not that I hate writing the query letter. It’s difficult, but nothing I can’t handle. If I can’t condense down my story to 250 words then I haven’t done a very good job of forming the story in the first place. At least not in a commercial way. What I hate is that I keep failing but with no knowledge as to what I got wrong. I get no feedback like “well, we weren’t interested because of this.” I never get anything like “the word count was too long for your genre”, “we’re not interested in science fiction romance…
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Trends in the Queries
Here’s two trends I’ve noticed when doing my queries: One) a lot of agents are using QueryManager, which is good. Online forms make it easy, make the formatting more universal. And QueryManager’s changed their interface so it’s more formlike. Two) the agents want to know about your platform. I still can’t really explain what a platform is, but the short answer is: how many followers do you have? Do you have people following you on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Who are your fans right now? Are you on the social media 24/7 instead of writing? What kind of audience are you intending to reach? What books is your book similar…
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My Query Was Totally Off
So I finally made enough posts in the Absolute Write forum to be able to post my work for critique. It was recommended to me when I asked the question on Reddit, and I’ve been impressed with the quality of the feedback. Case in point: I’ve been unintentionally sending out misogynist queries. I was focusing too much of the internal conflict instead of the external, which is that Caden’s the only boy in a mess of girls. He’s doing a traditionally female-oriented job when he wants (and is better suited for) a more masculine job. It’s like forcing Hulk Hogan to do ballet. Wait a minute… that actually happened. But…
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The Last of my Query Letters
I sent the last of my query letters for Defender today. A little less than a year after I first finished the thing. Total queries sent: 89. Total bites: 1 Man, I don’t know how you don’t curl up into a ball weeping in this business. Between Black Hole Son, Merm-8, and this, I’ve sent hundreds of query letters and had very minimal response. Not even people who were intrigued with the idea and wanted to see the writing style. Just whoop, reject, not even the 250 words were enough to put the foot in the door. I guess it’s not my third novel. My third novel, I get permission…
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Merm-8 Query Letter
Right now, I’m working on my query letter for Merm-8. Like most other writers in the world, I am not good at the query letter. I worked very hard on it for Black Hole Son, which was a challenge in itself, since its got two main characters and two storylines. Merm-8’s working out to be a littler easier, either because the storyline’s simpler or there’s only one main character to worry about. But now I figured out why I’m having trouble… I cannot advertise my book and say what it’s about at the same time. It’s just too difficult. It’s two different audiences. I think the biggest problem is that…
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A Nibble
Out of the dozen or so agents I’ve sent to, I’ve now received one nibble from an agent. I sent him my query, and he requested to see a partial manuscript over the weekend. Of course, it was rejected quickly, but this is a good sign. It means my query is now of sufficient quality to be able to entice someone. Now I just need to find that right someone. It also means my premise is intriguing enough to garner interest from, at least, one person. My biggest difficulty about this was the feedback. Sure, it’s a blessing that I got some feedback, because I have no idea how this…
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Where I’m At
Well, where are we at? My time travel flash story is now up at Critters. People seem to think it’s funny, which is good. I haven’t seen any negative criticism so far, but I’ve only glanced at the critiques. One thing I was concerned about was how funny it was. Because I was concerned I was being too conservative. But it’s also a situation where I could keep going and going forever, making the fish as big as a whale. Got to know when to get off the treadmill. Old Dragonslayer story is going fine. No major structural problems, and the changes I’m making are being nice and letting me…
