How much can you really tell about a novel from its query? A lot, actually.
It's the rare writer who actually enjoys writing a query (I'm one of those now, but that wasn't always the case). Say the word query around a group of writers and you'll most likely hear groans. Odds are, someone in that group will ask, "Why do we need to do this? It's not like an agent can tell anything about the book from two paragraphs anyway."
Would it surprise you to hear you can tell a lot about a book from the query letter?
As a writer, I've critiqued more queries and novels than I can count, and I don't even come close to the number agents and editors see every month, if not every week. But I can tell what problems I'm likely to find in a manuscript after reading just the query letter.
If you’re self publishing, you might think your query-writing days are over—but they’re not (sorry!). The target of those query letters has simply changed.
A good query letter bears a striking resemblance to good cover copy. They’re both designed to entice a potential reader to pick up the book. The same skills that go into writing a strong query letter also apply to great cover copy, and you’ll need great cover copy for your self-published book.
Think about it—a query for an agent or editor only needs to convince a handful of people to read the book. Cover copy has to convince every reader to read it. That’s a lot of pressure for a few paragraphs.
Luckily, some of the details that complicate a query letter don't apply to cover copy, which makes the process a little easier.
By L. Diane Wolfe
Part of the How They Do It Series
JH: The query letter is often the first thing an agent or editor sees from you. And first impressions count for a lot. L. Diane Wolfe, visits the lecture hall today to share tips on getting your query letter in tip top shape.
Known as “Spunk On A Stick,” L. Diane Wolfe is a member of the National Speakers Association. She conducts seminars on book publishing, promoting, leadership, and goal-setting, and she offers book formatting and author consultation. Wolfe is the owner and senior editor at Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C. and contributes to the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy Writing a query letter before you write the novel to identify problems before you run into them.
Writing a query letter can send many writers into a cold sweat, but I like to write queries before I start a novel. It helps me pinpoint the core pieces of my plot and lets me know right away if I'm missing something critical I'll need to write the book. Typically, if I can't write a query, that's a big red flag I won't be able to write the novel either. There's an inherent flaw in there, and until that gets fixed, the query (and novel) will never work.
The query is also a solid test for why a finished novel isn't working (or selling) for the very same reasons. Problem query letters often holds clues to problems in the novel we aren't seeing.
If you're just testing your novel idea before you write it, getting stuck on the query letter isn't so bad--but if you've spent years writing your novel, and suddenly find yourself struggling with the query letter, it can be pretty disheartening. It can also mean the novel's not yet ready.
Here are four common query letter issues that often reflect a problem with the novel itself:
By Roseanne Brown, @rosiesrambles
Part of the How They Do It Series
JH: Pitch Wars and other online pitching events are all the rage these days. While more options for getting our work to agents and editors is good, the public nature of it comes with its own share of downsides (as well as benefits). Please help me welcome Rosanne Brown to the lecture hall today to share some tips on surviving an online pitching event.
Rosie Brown is a graduate of the University of Maryland, a former editorial intern for Entangled Publishing, and an alumnus of the Pitch Wars contest. She is represented by Quressa Robinson of Nelson Literary Agency. She can be found on Twitter @rosiesrambles, where she is usually yelling loudly about Star Wars or complaining about how much she hates the cold.
The query letter is a valuable tool for writers. Not only does it help them clarify their idea, it's the letter that will hook and agent or editor, or become the cover copy that will make a reader buy the book. Writing one is a smart move, whether you're going indie or traditional publishing.
The query letter is the first impression your manuscript will make on someone, and when it doesn't make a good impression, it's not uncommon to ask (often in frustration), "How much can you really tell about my book from a query anyway?"
JH: Please help me welcome literary agent Mark Gottlieb to the lecture hall today, to share his thoughts on writing that all-important query letter.
Mark Gottlieb attended Emerson College and was President of its Publishing Club, establishing the Wilde Press. After graduating with a degree in writing, literature & publishing, he began his career with Penguin’s VP. Mark’s first position at Publishers Marketplace’s #1-ranked literary agency, Trident Media Group, was in foreign rights. Mark was EA to Trident’s Chairman and ran the Audio Department. Mark is currently working with his own client list, helping to manage and grow author careers with the unique resources available to Trident. He has ranked #1 among Literary Agents on publishersmarketplace.com in Overall Deals and other categories.
In this series, I’ve been analyzing the early stages of writing a novel. Part One is the Idea Stage, focusing on my own four-step process of developing an idea enough to turn that idea into an actual novel. First, we went through step one of the process, The Inspirational Spark. Then, we discussed Brainstorming the Idea. Last week, we brainstormed and Clarified the Idea. Today, we’ll wrap it up with ways to test our idea.
So I had an anxiety attack the other day—heart racing, sweats, irregular breathing, the whole nine yards—because I was considering the query process for my latest novel.
Just considering it, mind you, (I haven’t even hit ‘send’ yet), and suddenly I was convinced of so many things: that my novel isn’t interesting.
That no one wants to read a story about a haunted cop set in the Canadian Rockies. That not a single soul will ‘get’ the high concept underpinning this supernatural story. That every gorgeous love scene within it is nothing more than gratuitous sex. That even if my novel is worthy, it will be me who is rejected because I am ‘too old’, for surely no agent will think I can actually crank out enough material to make them a lucrative cut at this age—right?
Oh, and my first published novel—my small press publisher is now defunct. Certainly somehow I will be blamed for that, won’t I?
Or at least considered to have had bad judgment to go with them in the first place? And as a result it is a guarantee that no agent or editor will want to put a toe within a ten mile radius of my projects….right?
The query letter is a valuable tool for writers, no matter what publishing path they choose to take. It’s needed to submit to agents and editors, and can be a solid foundation for creating cover copy for those planning to self publish. It’s even a handy letter to write before you write the novel, to make sure you have the right pieces in place.
Having a literary agent has been one of the major first steps of writers seeking publication for decades. Getting an agent was sometimes harder than getting a publisher, and writers agonized over no one ever taking them on as a client. But in today's changing publishing landscape, many writers are questioning whether pursuing an agent is necessary, or the right path for them. There's no right direction here, it's just what you want for your writing career.
If you choose to go the agent route (still the preferred method for those seeking a traditional publishing path), here is a handy-dandy guide for finding an agent.
Most writers know that after they've written their novel it's time to write their query. But I've found that writing the query before you start the novel is a great way to make sure you have the core elements needed for a solid story.
For those I just sent into sheer panic, never fear -grin-. I'm not talking about an agent-worthy query, just something that sounds halfway decent and nails your protagonist, antagonist, inciting event, story goal, conflict, stakes, and how the protagonist wins. Because if you can't specify those seven things before you start your novel, you're very likely going to run into problems at the halfway mark, if not sooner.
I'm a huge movie buff, so I see a lot of trailers. Even when I watch a DVD I've had for years, I still watch the trailers. There's something fun about a whole movie summed up in a few minutes or less. A good trailer makes me want to see the movie again, while a bad one reminds me why I never saw the movie in the first place.
Besides being entertaining, movie trailers are also excellent examples of what makes a good--and a bad--query blurb.
The Too Much World Building Query
If you're familiar with the Green Lantern mythos you'll probably understand more about this trailer than someone who doesn't know the comic, but what is this story about?
A guy gets a magic ring and helps an intergalactic group defend the universe. Hmmm. That's more of a premise than a story. There's no solid protagonist with a goal here, it's all setup. It feels like you know what it's about, but you can't actually give a specific plotline.
Notice how this trailer plays out. First, it's all backstory about how the world works, how the magic works. Then it goes into the Lantern core and who they are and how they work. It talks about the past bad guy who did something to setup what this story is going to focus on. Then it finally introduces the protagonist. But it never really says what that protagonist has to do or what the story is going to be about.
This is a great example of a query that spends all its time telling you what the world is about and the events that happened to get the protagonist ready for the story to actually happen. And then totally forgets to tell you anything about that story. If your query focuses on the worldbuilding and not the story, it might feel a lot like this.
Can you tell me what this story is about? I have no idea from watching this trailer, and that's a problem if this is supposed to make people go see the movie. It tells us there's danger right away, then goes on to show a lot of cool action scenes. A mysterious ship with a cryptic unicorn reference. People escaping from something. A plane crash. More chases. Folks lost in the desert. Cool image of a ship and ocean crashing into the desert. Then telling us "they can't turn back" like it means something.
This trailer is a perfect example of a query that focuses too much on the specific scenes in a novel and forgets that without knowing the story beforehand, those scenes don't mean anything to someone reading it without knowledge of the novel. It lacks context for these moments so no one cares. If your query reads like a string of events that only someone who read the book would understand, you probably have an all action, no story query on your hands.
Now that we've seen two of the most common problems, so let's look a couple of trailers that work and why.
The I Get the Story Query
This trailer clearly states what the story is about and what conflicts the characters will face. Two people who don't get along wind up the guardians for a child they must raise together (and see how easy it was to give a one-line pitch for this?). Hilarity ensues and they fall in love. You get snippets of what the story is going to be like, who these people are, and the types of problems they'll encounter.
This is a great example of a working query. A little setup in the beginning to set the scene (the pair goes on a disastrous first date) then the inciting event (the friends die and they get custody of the baby) and the conflict (they must overcome their dislike for each other to raise the baby). You also get the thematic "this is what it's about" part because you know these folks are going to fall in love after going through this experience. "Love conquers all."
Think it's just easier with a romantic comedy? Try this one:
A 98-pound weakling with a big heart volunteers for an experimental program and becomes a super soldier to help fight Hitler. One sentence sums it up. Again, you get a feel for the characters, the setting, the problems and what issues the protagonist will face. Even if you've never heard of Captain America, you come away from this with a good idea of what this story is about.
If you're struggling with your query letter or having bad responses with it, try looking at it as if it were a movie trailer. You just might realize you're focusing on the wrong aspects of your book and forgetting to just tell the story.
Go step-by-step through plotting and writing a novel. Learn how to find and develop ideas, brainstorm stories from that first spark of inspiration, develop the right characters, setting, plots and subplots, as well as teach you how to identify where your novel fits in the market, and if your idea has what it takes to be a series.
With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure offers ten self-guided workshops with more than 100 different exercises to help you craft a solid novel. Learn how to:
Create compelling characters readers will love
Choose the right point of view for your story
Determine the conflicts that will drive your plot (and hook readers!)
Find the best writing process for your writing style
Create a solid plot from the spark of your idea
Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure also helps you develop the critical elements for submitting and selling your novel once it’s finished. You’ll find exercises on how to:
Craft your one-sentence pitch
Create your summary hook blurb
Develop a solid working synopsis And so much more!
Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure is an easy-to-follow guide to writing your novel or fixing a novel that isn’t quite working.
Janice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins. The Shifter, was chosen for the 2014 list of "Ten Books All Young Georgians Should Read" from the Georgia Center for the Book.
When she's not writing novels, she's teaching other writers how to improve their craft. She's the founder of Fiction University and has written multiple books on writing.
Feels like a good day to pull out another handful of reader questions. Everyone offered so many great ones that I'm still working my way through them. This time, it's a round-up of some querying and submission questions.
Q: If we have writing/publishing work experience, but it was long ago, should we mention it in a query letter? I was the managing editor of a magazine way back in 2000/2001 and I would like to mention this in my letter, but...I fear it would look like I must have sucked or quit since I'm no longer in that business. The truth is, the turn of the millennium was rough, economy-wise. After 9/11, lots of publications went out of print. I became a lawyer when my final magazine shut down and I got tired of getting laid off. But since one shouldn't talk in a query letter about work experience that's not relevant to writing, my whiny lawyer story will remain untold. How do we explain good, writing-related work experience that is...old?
I'm extra delighted to welcome Anita Mumm to the blog today. I first met Anita when she joined Nelson Literary Agency several years ago. We got to chat over weekly emails, and she always had something funny or interesting to share (and kept me updated on Denver trivia as well as my business things). Now she's the Submissions & Asian Territory Rights Manager, with quite a few success stories under her belt. She recently launched a blog about writing and publishing at Word Cafe, but she's been offering helpful advice for years as part of the NLA monthly newsletter. She's here to answer some questions about her job and the query/submission process.
Anita joined Nelson Literary Agency in early 2010. As NLA’s talent scout, she screens all incoming submissions and presents and takes pitches at conferences across the country. Anita has picked a number of exciting new authors for the company, including Stefan Bachmann, whose debut novel The Peculiar (September 2012) sold in a major auction to Greenwillow/HarperCollins; Jennifer Shaw Wolf, author of the edgy young adult novels Breaking Beautiful (Walker, April 2012) and Shards of Glass (Walker, 2013); and Monica Trasandes, author of the debut literary novel Broken Like This (Thomas Dunne, November 2012). In addition to her role as submissions manager, Anita is NLA’s foreign rights manager for the Asian territories. She taught English and creative writing to international students in the U.S., China, and France before joining the publishing industry, and she is thrilled to bring her love of language, books, and cultures to her work at NLA.
By Elle Strauss Part of the How They Do It Series JH: Queries are the bane of many writers, so I'm always delighted to offer advice on how to write one. Today, Elle Strauss is here to give us her tips on dealing with these often difficult letters.
Elle writes time travel and merfolk chic-lit, light SF and historical YA fiction. She has one husband, four kids and two cats. She’s fond of Lindt's sea salt dark chocolate and hiking in good weather. CLOCKWISE is her first YA release. You can find her on Facebook,twitter @elle_strauss,and her blog at www.ellestraussbooks.blogspot.com. Come say hi!
There are lots of ways to write a query, but this is one approach that has never let me down. It's also a really good test to see if your book has all the right pieces. It helps identify your protag, antagonist, core conflict, and stakes.
With so much information out there on agents and editors, personalized queries have become the standard. (As if writing a query wasn’t hard enough already, right?) What do you say? How personal is personal? And what just sounds dumb?
All “personalized” really means is that you took the time to write a letter specifically for that agent. It’s not a form letter addressed to Dear Agent. You don’t have to know personal details about them or have any prior connection or anything. You’re saying “I cared enough about this to find out something about you and chose you for a reason, not just because you were a name on a list that included the word agent.”
Let's talk about things we know are coming, eagerly anticipate, but still catch us completely by surprise.
Page requests.
We spend years writing our novels, so it's only natural that when we're done (or think we're done) we hurry to write our queries and send them out as fast as we can. Sometimes we even justify this by saying, "Publishing moves so slowly, by the time anyone asks for pages I'll be able to tweak those last few things in my manuscript."
Writing a novel is only the first step to getting published. Believe it or not, it's the easiest step. But once it's done, what do you do next? Here's a checklist to help you get from first draft to first query sent.
1. Polish your manuscript until it shines.
Seems simple, I know, but it's easy to want to send it off right away, but don't rush it. Use your critique group, beta readers, whatever resources you have to check your work and make sure it reads as smoothly as it can.
2. After it's all shiny, let it sit while you start researching agents.
Agent Query is a great start. Make a list of every agent who represents the type of book you've written. Check out their websites and blogs to get a feel for who they are and what they like. Cross off any who aren't the right fit for you, highlight any who are good fits for you.
