Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Queries, queries, and yet more queires


I spent the last few months reworking my Middle Grade novel, changing not only the POV but also the central theme. It's been a slow-going, hair-pulling, occasionally
gut-wrenching experience.


[frustration by sara.atkins at Flikr Creative Commons]


The revision is on its way, so I thought I should work on a new query.

[Yikes! by photojenni at Flickr Creative Commons]

Isn't it funny how when your mind is on something
, you see it everywhere? Well, I discovered the QueryFail event on Twitter, in which agents and editors Twitter on queries they receive in real time, for all the twitter-following world to read. *shudder*

Lots of reaction. Lots and LOTS of reactions. Loud ones. Rude ones. Loudly rude ones. Read some over here at the comments section at agent Nathan Bransford's blog.

Or. Don't read any of it. Instead, if you're in the midst of writing your three-paragraph letter that tells all about your book while allowing your unique voice to shine through, you may want to read these instead:

Associate Editor and writer Jill Corcoran's compilation of agents' and editors' guides on how to write a query

The article on AgentQuery on How to Write a Query.

Time to revisit mine. ("Query: I command thee, gel! Be brilliant! Knock the socks off some agents!" Um. I need a magic wand. Anyone?)

4 comments:

Cheryl Reif said...

Thanks for the great roundup of query resources. Query-writing is definitely harder than writing the actual book! Let me know if you find that magic wand....

Cheryl

PS--I can't wait to read your rewrite!

Yat-Yee said...

Maybe the wand is hidden in your new writing space. Do you mind looking? :)

I am picking up some speed this morning with the revision. I feel a bit of rush. I am considering not even going to my Tae Kwon Do class for fear of losing my momentum.

Sarah Stevenson said...

I really felt...weird about the Queryfail event. I actually feel pretty good about my query, but I had just recently sent it to one of the agents involved in the Queryfail event--so I immediately felt freaked out and paranoid that if I read too many of the Tweets I'd find mine!!

Yat-Yee said...

If I had sent a query to one of the participating agents, I would have been horrified. I really think they should not have shared in public things sent to them as private business.