Untitled. Get published Workshop#2 Composing a pitch letter From the Mslexia Laptop to Bookshop Roadshow Introduction Every submission needs to be accompanied by a pitch letter, also known as a ‘query letter’ or ‘cover letter’. If you’re a submitting a novel, the letter will be addressed to a literary agent or an editor in an independent publishing company (see SUBMISSION PROCESS). It should tell them what they need to know – which is not necessarily what you want to tell them. Agents and editors are people besieged.
They long to discover a marvellous new author, but they have to wade through a mountains of submissions for every one they take on. A friend of mine recently took leave of absence from her high-powered job to write a novel. I tried again. I hope you can see how an agent reading the first version might sigh and drop her head into her hands – and how the second might make her sit up and turn eagerly to the rest of the submission. What’s in a pitch letter? EXERCISE 1 - What is your book about? Dear juliet... - Jessie Burton - Writer. How to Write a Killer Query Letter. Congratulations! Your manuscript is ready to be viewed by the world. We’re proud of you. But now it’s time to get back to work and write the most important part of your future best seller: the query letter.
Knowing how to write a query letter is important because it acts as a cover letter to your work; it lets agents know why they should want more. Once you’ve got your query letter, check the publisher’s submittal guidelines to see if they prefer snail mail or email and how much of the manuscript, if any, you can send with the query letter. Finally, remember that every author has been rejected, even the best-known ones. Query Shark: User-submitted, Critiqued Query Letters Example Query Letters That Worked Sample Magazine Article Query Letter Sample Screenplay Query Letter. TOP TIPS FOR GETTING PUBLISHED « Tor Books Tor Books. Last June I was asked to provide my top tips for aspiring authors for a blog post over at One Chapter More.
With the New Year not far behind us, many of you may have new year’s resolutions to write a novel so I thought I’d re-post this post, in case it is useful: One of the perks of working for Tor is reading the ‘slush pile’. Many well-known authors have found success after having been discovered on the slush pile, including a few of our own long-term authors.
We are one of the few major publishers in the UK to accept direct submissions. When you consider how much work there is involved in publishing, how many agented scripts are submitted and how few hours there are in the day – you can understand why! However, in January of last year, we decided to open our doors to the SFF community; there’s plenty of talent out there and we know that many of them would still find it preferable to be published traditionally than go down the self-publishing route. Think about your pitch letter. The Secret Strength of Killer Queries: Specificity. People often say to me: "Listen, agent person (they don't actually call me this). You agent blogging people always talk about what not to do in a query, why not talk about what people should do in a query!
" The people have spoken. They want things they should do. And here's what I think is one of the very most important thing to do in a query: be as specific as possible. Allow me to be even more specific: be as specific as possible about the right things. When I say "be specific" I don't mean that we need to know every character's name and the name of every city and place in the Realm of Unpronounceable Cities and Places. When I say be specific I also don't mean that we need to get bogged down in tangential details either, like ages and hair colors and other things characters are doing if they don't play a major role in the story. Instead I mean this: be as specific as possible about the plot. Character Name is living peacefully in Hometown. As always, specificity wins. YA Highway: querying.
You worked for a long time in children's books marketing and did some editorial acquisitions at Penguin, as well. What was it about agenting that enticed you to move into that side of publishing? What do you miss about marketing? How does that experience and those skills give you an edge in the agenting world? Before I jump into my answer, I want to say a big thanks to Kristin for having me here on YA Highway. There are so many writers here that I admire and tons of helpful information.
I’m so glad to be included! Most of the time that I was in marketing, I focused on librarians (since I have a MLS and was a children’s librarian). I adored working on this project – reading every piece of fiction we published, selecting just the right titles for it, talking with writers and editors about the process – all of it was thrilling. Luckily, the parts of marketing that I like best are key to being a good agent, and I carry it all with me. Mystery is always top of my wants list.
Ah. Untitled. In our Query Series, authors discuss the queries that landed their agents, and the agents explain why the query worked. Today, we are so pleased to welcome M. G. Buehrlen and her agent Holly Root of Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. Mandy's YA novel, THE FIFTY-SEVEN LIVES OF ALEX WAYFARE, releases tomorrow (!) , and she's here to share her querying experience -- and to give away a signed copy to one lucky reader! See the Rafflecopter widget below to enter. Want to write a guest post of your own?
My querying days started back in 2009 after I finished my first novel, a YA epic fantasy. I set to work and hammered out THE DESCENDERS, which was the original title of The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare. After I sent the query, Holly got back to me right away with a response, something eloquent like: YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Hi Holly, Thanks so much for agreeing to take a look at my new YA fantasy sci-fi, THE DESCENDERS. When she’s not writing, M.G. YA Highway: Query Series and Giveaway: THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER. When we received Megan’s submission of THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER, we knew from the moment it came in that it was something special—and we’d have to act fast. (What we didn’t know yet was just how special Megan herself is—she’s the “real deal.”)
We get more than 10,000 submissions each year at Adams Literary, and we consider each and every one, but Megan’s really stood out. We’d been hoping to find a dark and intriguing historical YA, and we were fascinated from the first line of her query. First of all, we loved the title: THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER. It had a sinister and intriguing ring to it, and we knew from the start that the heroine, Juliet, would be the star. We liked that it was a retelling of an H.G. Her pitch was essentially pitch perfect.
The final thing that drew us in was the fact that Megan managed the children’s section of an independent bookstore, so we could tell that writing this novel was not just a lark, but was something she had been passionate about for years. How to Write the Best Query Ever in 3 Simple Steps | The Secret Life of Writers. I think one of the most daunting things about writing a query letter is looking at your 60k (+) novel and going, how the hell am I supposed to describe this in one page or less? The overall goal of your query is to get the agent to read on. Therefore, your query needs to intrigue them--not bore or confuse them.
Although these are my own opinions, I really believe there are just three steps every person should follow to write the best query ever (or at least an attention-grabbing query). 1. Characters Establishing your main characters in your query is vital--but don't misinterpret that as trying to stuff all your main characters into your query. Although President Snow is an important character in the Hunger Games, I doubt that he made it into Collins' query. The characters that you choose to introduce in your query should relate back to the tension and conflict in your book, which I'll get to in a minute. The takeaway: avoid being vague if you can. Edittorrent: How to Put It Together Into One Neat Tweet. In our last post, we gave you homework. You all did your homework, right? Of course you did. You are all prodigies and wouldn't slack on such a thing. (Secret message to Laura: This means you.
*ggg*) I'm going to pretend I'm pitching something and will craft a fake list for us to use as an example. The protagonist:Heroine: Laidback earth-motherHero: meticulous craftsman The goal/reward:To convert the heroine's garage into mother-in-law quarters. The obstacle(s):She needs $10,000 as a down payment. The antagonist:Crappy economy and frozen credit. Consequence of failure:Mother-in-law will be in spare bedroom, and heroine will lose her workspace for her art.
Motive:Heroine promised dead husband she would always care for m-i-l. Challenge to self-image:Until this all happened, my character used to think he was: family-oriented and generous. Inciting Event:Nursing home kicks m-i-l out because she keeps stealing the other patients' candy. Ticking Clock:Nursing home is paid up for six weeks.
Eh.
Find the Agent Who Will Find You a Publisher. Query letters? Do literary agents really read them? Agents take queries very seriously, and yes, they really do read them. It’s not some universal rumor that agents have perpetuated because they all have a secret fetish for being bombarded with mail. Sure, agents make it sound like digging through the slush pile is the last priority of their day. Some agents even relegate the ambivalent task of reading unsolicited queries to an assistant or intern. But the fact of the matter is that most agents do read queries. So write a professional, intelligent, concise, intriguing query and not only will you entice an agent to ask for more, but you’ll move yourself one step closer to a book sale. Query Letter Basics A query letter is a single page cover letter, introducing you and your book. A query letter has three concise paragraphs: the hook, the mini-synopsis, and your writer’s biography.
Paragraph One—The Hook: A hook is a concise, one-sentence tagline for your book. How to Write a Query Letter: 10 Dos and Don'ts. Learning how to write a must-read query letter is nearly as important as writing a must-read manuscript—after all, an enticing query letter is what will get an agent to say, “Love your story. Send me the full manuscript.” While query letters vary a little depending on who the agent is (and their guidelines) and what type of book you’re writing (novel, nonfiction, poetry, etc.), there are many elements that remain the same.
That’s why I’ve developed this list of dos and don’ts to help you navigate what’s really important to include in your pitch and, also, what should be avoided at all costs. By sticking to these 10 specific dos and don’ts of writing a query letter, you’ll give yourself the best opportunity to find success and land an agent.
Good luck! When Writing a Query Letter Do … Address the agent by name. Cut right to the chase. Sell your manuscript. Explain why you’ve chosen to query this specific agent. Mention your platform (if you have one). Study other successful query letters. JULIET MUSHENS ON HOW TO APPROACH AN AGENT: DOS AND DON'TS « Tor Books Tor Books. When I became an agent in 2011 I didn’t really know what I wanted to represent. Good books, sure; nice people, definitely, but above and beyond that I had no idea as to the genres I wanted to focus on. ‘Growing up’ in an agency where everyone had a specialism led me to believe that I should probably develop one… but the truth is that my reading tastes have always been incredibly broad, and my list reflects this fact.
Now, two years into my career as an agent, I represent everything from bestselling crime novelists, to inspirational memoirs, from epic fantasy to literary historical fiction. Genre has always been one of my key loves. As a teenager I found refuge from puberty in Robin Hobb (I might have had spots but at least I wasn’t a royal bastard), David Eddings, Isaac Asimov and Tad Williams.
A list as diverse as mine means that I attract a lot of submissions. I average around 150 a month and I do read all of them (although it can take time). Sweat the small stuff. Michelle4Laughs- It's In The Details: Query Questions with Juliet Mushens. Writers have copious amounts of imagination. It's what makes their stories so fantastic.
But there's a darker side to so much out of the box thinking. When a writer is in the query trenches, their worries go into overdrive. They imagine every possible disaster.Here to relieve some of that endless worrying is a new series of posts called Query Questions. I'll ask the questions that prey on every writer's mind, and hopefully take some of the pain out of querying. Is there a particular time of year that is better to query? Not really - the only bad times are April and October because of the book fairs. Does one typo or misplaced comma shoot down the entire query? Not at all. Do you look at sample pages without fail or only if the query is strong? Yes, absolutely. Do crazy fonts caused by email gremlins make for an automatic rejection?
No, but do try sending it to yourself first to make sure it looks normal! Is there a bias against querying authors who have self-published? No. Pretentious Title: How to write a query letter. A short expert from my NaNoWriMo thread, in response to a question on how to write a query letter: "The point of a query letter is to convince an agent to ask for more. You don't have to tell her everything, you just have to make her interested enough to look at your sample pages. A query letter is basically a sales letter. Think of it as if you were writing a letter to sell a toaster: Would you describe every detail of the wiring?
Would you describe the coils? This is a query letter. ADDENDUM: Even though it's a sales letter, please don't use corny sales talk and DON'T talk about how many millions of dollars your books will make. This is now my official answer to this question FOREVER. Pretentious Title: Editing for People Who Hate Editing. Note! I am giving away signed copies of my new omnibus on my blog starting tomorrow (Wed, February 8!). Check back for a chance to win! Since I wrote my posts on how I drastically upped my word count and plotted my novels, a lot of people have been asking me to do a post on editing. I can totally understand why, editing can be very intimidating. I actually used to dread edit time because that was when I actually had to deal with all the problems I'd been putting off while writing, not to mention that by the time I'd read through my book the requisite 5 times it took me to finish an edit to my satisfaction, I invariably hated it.
But after 8 finished books, I've come around to a different way of thinking. So, without further ado, here is my take on the editing process, complete with the tools I build for each book. Disclaimer: Unlike my work count tips, which I think can work for anyone, this process is highly personal. But Rachel, I HATE Editing! Editing is writing. Ok, Ms. Ch 1 (7452)