The Fine Art of the Query Letter

Today I attended a lecture on the Query Letter, aimed at removing the mystery surrounding this beast.

It was put on by Taryn Fagerness from the Sandra Dijkstra Agency, and I thought she did a wonderful job. If there was one thing Taryn hammered home today, it was this:

Be professional, and be concise.

Beyond that, there were a handful of really key tips, which I will share... well, now:

• For any of the below tips, don't bullshit. Be upbeat, but don't turn into a used-car salesperson. Hype is bad.
• In your summary, themes are less important than plot. And don't spend a lot of time trying to explain the deeper significance to your masterpiece.
  
• Address it to a specific agent. Do your homework, make sure that agent represents the type of book you've written. Actually say that you are contacting them for this reason, and even mention another writer they represent that you admire (or are familiar with).
• Don't be afraid to say your book is similar to other works, but don't set your bar impossibly high.
• Your pitch should be very concise. Enough to get them the flavor, and an idea of the plot, but keep it short. Your job is to get them interested enough to read the synopsis, or first fifty pages.
• Say what genre your book belongs in, and roughly how many words it is.
• Don't add irrelevant information. You should include applicable bio (and remember, no bullshit), but not your hobbies, etc.
• They like "exciting" things they can highlight off the bat -- previously published titles, endorsements, etc.
• You're basically helping them sell the book. She said it is very common for the verbiage on a well-written query letter to end up on the flap of the book. Read the backs of books in your genre to understand how to capture the essence of yours.
• Don't wait until the end of your pitch to say what is interesting about it. Get to the point right away, be upbeat and interesting.
  
• Follow submission guidelines to the letter.
• One page only. No exceptions.
• If you've met the agent at some point, say that.
• Don't bend the agencies interests to suit your needs. If they don't normally represent your genre, don't try to explain why they should.
• Are questions good to start with? No.
• If you are submitting to multiple agents at once, you can mention that at the end. If this agent is your top choice, you can say that, but only if its true.
• Good to imply you are not a "one hit wonder", if you're already working on another project or sequel, its OK to mention that -- but only one project per query letter!

She shared a number of query letters, examples of both good and bad approaches, and went into detailed analysis of them. On the whole it was fascinating, and one of those rare lectures where almost everything said was valuable information.

She also spent about an hour critiquing query letters from the students attending. I did not take part (I've only just discovered this part of the publishing process -- such a newb!), but her fair and honest analysis of those that were read was just as interesting as the rest of the lecture.

I definitely feel less daunted by tackling this, now. Just need to finish the damn book.

If this class pops up again at San Diego Writers Ink, I highly recommend it to any of my fellow aspiring novelists from 'round here.

The Dragon Ring

The Dragon Ring
Originally uploaded by LowFuel

May 24, 1986.

This is the cover of the (hand written) novel Jake G and I started during the 8th grade.
It was about a British military officer named John Crimson, who is sent to India to solve a murder against the backdrop of the fall of the British Empire there (I'm not kidding.. we were clever little bastards!). The "Dragon Ring" is the fraternity of assassins he uncovers.

We got about 60 pages written before summer started and other priorities took over (D&D, ahem).
Jake found it in a box in his garage last year and was kind enough to give it to me.

Perhaps I should pick this project back up... hmmm..

Gee, that went well...

My whole grand scheme of tracking my Nanowrimo 08 progress on this Blog didn't work out so well. I guess I realized I'd rather work on my book than tell people (read: no one, currently) how it is going.

Here's the re-cap, to be logged in the historical record: I "won", hitting 50,231 words with a few days to spare. On the whole, it was a successful jump-start to my novel.

I've set a goal of March 1st to finish the first draft, and currently I'm at around 75,000 words -- right on target, Miss Moneypenny.

After that, I'll take a two month break to do Scriptfrenzy, and then get back to the novel. I'm going to try to do a second draft before ComicCon 2009. My sincere hope is to have something good enough to start showing agents and/or publishers by then.

Nano Day 4 - Word Count 10,124

I don't like to get into politics too much, but it was a historic day. Honestly, I've been paranoid the last month or so that a McCain victory on 11/4 would kill my writing mood. But tonight's delightful news still had that effect. It's a damn big event, and my mind keeps wandering to it.

What can I say? Someday my kids will ask me where I was the day Obama was elected, and I'll be able to say I was at home, writing a novel.

I like that.

My goal tonight of 2000 words was stalled at 1500 by the headlines. Tomorrow I should get my pace back, once the excitement dies off. And I'm still head of schedule, so a little break for celebration can be forgiven.

Nano Day 2 - Word Count 6,888

Well, I've managed to jump out to a nice head start. This weekend, my word-churning came mostly at Monica's Cafe, followed by a few hours down at Writers Ink, and a fair amount at home.

Now that the opening weekend's write-ins are over, I'll probably hunker down at home for most of the rest of the month. I just need to figure out how to be as productive here.

Last year, my goal was to focus on good dialog, which I feel was a success, and that work turned into a nice little screenplay. This year, I've got a big and complicated story, so my goal is just to get it written, and worry about the quality of the writing later. Frankly, the key this year was in the planning. I'm finding my ridiculously detailed outline is both an amazing help, and a gap-filled surprise. It's not quite as complete as I thought. But no matter: it's nice to have some blanks to fill in as I go. Feels less like a chore.

Scary Neighbors

Pop quiz
Originally uploaded by LowFuel

From a house down the street from me: Thought it was mildly ironic that this giant scare-children-shitless display (complete with serial killer Michal Myers music theme playing) has a "Yes on 8" (yes on h8) sign prominently displayed. Won't someone think of the children?

Differences Between 2007 and 2008

Two more days until Nano begins.

Probably the biggest difference for me this time around is that I've done this before.  Last year was a great experience -- a thrill ride, in truth.  As fun as it was, there were a lot of lessoned to be learned.

So my approach this year is changing in two key areas:

• Preperation:  My post below details all the prep work I've done up front this year.  Last year, I formed my idea about two weeks before 11/1, and wrote an outline that was maybe 100 words.  This year I'm using an idea I've been gestating for quite a while, and my outline is 3,300 words.
• Organization:  Last year, I used Word 2007 on a Windows PC.  Nothing wrong with that, quite frankly, but all-in-all it was really hard to keep myself organized.  This year, I've become a Mac convert, and will be using the wonderful Scrivener to write my drafts.  I'll only move it into Word (or, more likely, Pages) when I've got a second draft that I'm ready to start editing.