Writing Your Query Letter

If getting your manuscript in the hands of an agent or editor is your goal for 2010, you will need a strong, titillating, one-paged query letter.  Many agents and editors ask either for a query only first or for the query, synopsis and possible sample chapters, so no matter how you slice it, you will inevitably have to create a query letter.

Agents and editors can receive hundreds of queries in a week, sometimes in a day, so the look of and content within your query letter are extremely important.  You don’t want to give him/her an unnecessary reason to reject you.

THE LOOK

You know the saying, Image is everything.  Well, it’s true.  The look of your query letter is important.  For one thing, the letter should be addressed to a specific agent or editor.  This means you need to do your homework.  Buy Writer’s Market or Guide to Literary Agents.

Research editors and agents who publish or represent the type of work you are trying to get published.  “Dear Editor/Agent” will not suffice and will show that you’re lazy and not up for the task of seriously seeking representation or publication.  Also, place your contact information on the letter, too.  Consider the business letter format in which your mailing/contact info is top and center, followed by the date, the agent/editor’s contact info, and Dear So and So are on the left hand side of the letter.

You want to also make sure you have good margins (1” all the around is typical) and good font size. Do not narrow your margins or decrease the size of your font just to give you more space. These things make you look amateurish.  Two additional “look” factors are spelling and grammar.  You want clear, concise, and vivid writing.  Consider your query one of many at a cattle call.  There are hundreds of query letters and any little thing can cause your letter to get booted during auditions.  This is the easier of the two important components (look and content) to do; don’t let it be the reason your audition ends abruptly.

THE CONTENT

Three important things should occur in the content of your query letter – intro/hook, book synopsis, and short bio, and each of these should be developed in a paragraph.

Intro~Hook

The first paragraph of your query letter is crucial and needs to do a few things. It needs to give the agent/editor critical information about your book and supply him or her with the hook.

Typical “critical” information we find at the onset of a query letter includes title, word count, and genre. Agents and editors want to quickly ground themselves in the letter they read, and this information is a good way of doing this. Why? Because, for example, knowing your genre helps them to determine if your work is something they might be interested in. Of course, you have done your homework, so you are submitting works to editors and agents who actively seek the genre you write. However, I know of many writers who blindly submit query letters to agents and editors and lose out because their genre does not mesh with those they submit to.

What can raise the eyebrow of an intrigued editor or agent is the hook. If you read my article on synopsis writing, then you know of the logline; the hook is very similar to it. A hook is a concise, one-sentence tagline for your book. Three questions that are typically asked within the hook include who is the main character, who/what is standing in the way of the main character, and what makes this story unique.

QueryTracker.net Blog talks about the high concept hook here.

Book Description ~ Mini-Synopsis

Once your hook snags an interested agent or editor, the second paragraph of your query letter should tell the agent/editor what the book is about.  This is not your full synopsis.  This is not the place to write how much your mother loves your book.  This is not the place to state that this is the best book you’ve ever written.  You have a paragraph, perhaps a bit more in which to entice the agent/editor with what your book is about.  Introduce main characters.  Introduce main conflict.  Consider reading back copy of books that are in the same genre your book falls in.  Oftentimes, the back copy is what sells a book to a reader who happens to spot the book in a store. 

This section takes a lot of work.  If you had a minute to tell someone about your book, one minute to make someone want to run out and buy your book, what would you say?  Write that, fine tune it, tweak it, make sure your main characters and your book’s conflict rings in the paragraph.

Bio

The third paragraph of the query letter is all about you – your writing experience and credentials, professional memberships, and any significant information relating to the book and your writing of it.  If you have published books, articles, and other works by reputable houses or in reputable magazines, you will want to showcase them.  If you’ve written a book that’s set in a cable newsroom, and you are a producer/writer for a cable newsroom, it is definitely relevant to tell an agent/editor this; it shows that you have first-hand experience with the setting to which you write about.  You do not want to write your autobiography here; you want to showcase any information about you that is relevant to the task at hand:  trying to get your book read, represented, and published!

You want to make sure you end the letter with a few sentences that thank the editor/agent for taking the time to read your material and offer to send additional material per request.

At the end, your query letter should be a shining example of your book and you as the author.  It’ll take some practice to get the letter where you want it because after all, your book is thousands of words long, and now you’re being asked to sum it up within a page; however, if you want representation and publication of your masterpiece, an exciting, tightly written query letter will be your key.

Agent Kristin Nelson has wonderful examples of query letters on her blog, complete with commentary. And it’s good to note that the writers of these letters received representation, too! Here’s the link.

Finding Agents & Editors

OK, so you have a great book that’s been revised, rewritten. You have had your book professionally edited [link to Editor article: http://www.apooobooks.com/finding-editor-literary-baby-shonell-bacon/]. You have a query letter that sings [link to Query Letter article: http://www.apooobooks.com/writing-query-letter-shonell-bacon/]. You have a synopsis that succinctly tells your tale [link to Synopsis Writing article: http://www.apooobooks.com/writing-synopsis-shonell-bacon/].

Now, you’re ready to try to enter Publishdom by looking for an agent or an editor. The journey is arduous, but it’s not impossible.

Unlike other articles, what this post does is highlight some places on the Net that offer excellent advice, resources, and databases to help you find a literary agent or editor.

What you will notice, once you’ve checked out these resources, is that several key components seem to resonate:

1-    You need to have a solid product – must have a compelling story, a well-developed story, an edited story.

2-    You need to have components that help sell this product – must have a query letter that hits each component [intro, story, bio, etc.] well, that is written to appropriate editors and agents who publish the type of book you’ve written, and that gives these editors and agents a reason to want to read your work. Also, must have a synopsis that tells (not reports) your story, the whole story and nothing but the story—including the ending. No cutesy “Will she survive to find the love of her life?” questions.

3-    You need to have done your homework – must research editors and agents. Don’t just open up the latest Guide to Literary Agents and send to the first 50 agents. Agents and editors receive piles of query letters and submission packets every day. Don’t let yours get dumped because you failed to follow directions and submit to those agents/editors who are looking for the type of work you write. Also, pay a visit to your local library. Skim the acknowledgment pages of those books that fit within the category to which you write. Take note of editors and/or agents that are mentioned. These could be potential agents, editors to submit work to.

4-    You need to persistent – must accept that rejection could be a part of your journey to Publishdom. Learn what you can learn from the experience and move on to the next letter to be (e)mailed to the next agent or editor.

5-    You need to think outside the box – must think beyond just writing pretty query letters and sending them to agents/editors via snail or e-mail. Author friends (reference to an agent, editor anyone?), conferences, author chats, readings – NETWORKING – can help you get the big toe inside the door so that you can slip that pretty little submission package to your potential agent or editor.

If you have experience with looking for an agent or editor and capturing (or not) an agent/editor, share those stories here. This is a great opportunity for all of us to learn from one another.

Agent Query

[http://www.agentquery.com/]

AQ was recognized by Writer's Digest in its June 2009 issue as one of the best websites for writers--five years in a row. Not only is this a site to find an agent; AQ offers a plethora of information for writers, such as info on major publishers and small presses, literary magazines, conferences, and grants and foundations.

SFWA

[http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/agents/]

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) has great information about literary agents, especially discussion on dishonest agents and amateur, marginal, and incompetent agents. It's just as important to know what NOT to choose in an agent as it is important to know what TO choose in an agent. Worth the read.

ACFW Conference

[http://www.acfw.com/conference/edsnagents.shtml]

"The Premiere Christian Fiction Conference"-- American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) will be coming to Indianapolis, Indiana, from September 17-20, 2010, and on their site, they have a list of the editors and agents that will be in attendance.

Larry Brooks

[http://storyfix.com/get-published-series-part-5-%E2%80%93-what-agents-and-editors-are-really-looking-for]

Larry Brooks, author of psychological thrillers and great books on writing, offers a truthful look at what agents and editors are really looking for at his blog, StoryFix.com.

Tara Lazar at Jacket Flap

[http://www.jacketflap.com/megablog/index.asp?Year=2009&Month=03&Day=05&postid=314226]

Last year, literary agent Colleen Lindsay hosted "QueryFail" on Twitter, where agents and editors got together and shared the worst query lines from their slush piles. Tara Lazar at Jacket Flap took notes of some of the things learned from checking out QueryFail.

Poets & Writers

[http://www.pw.org/content/agents_and_editors_qampa_four_literary_agents]

Last year, Jofie Ferrari-Adler wrote the feature for Poets & Writers--a Q&A with four literary agents.

BookEnds, LLC – Literary Agency

[http://bookendslitagency.blogspot.com/]

The blog for BookEnds, LLC, a literary agency, has great advice on all things writerly--including, of course, those staples that can help you get the attention of an editor.

Guide to Literary Agents

[http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/]

This excellent blog is developed by Chuck Sambuchino, editor of Guide to Literary Agents-Where and How to Find the Right Agents to Represent Your Work through Writer's Digest.

Author Nikki Duncan

[http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/]

Author Nikki Duncan offers a great write-up on professionally grabbing and keeping the attention of agents and editors.

How Solid Is Your Plot?

Every story should have a main plot; most stories have several sub-plots within the main plot.

What is a plot?

Plot refers to the pattern of events within a narrative or drama; these events culminate into the story’s resolution.  The development of the events and how the main character(s) react to these events often give a story its meaning.

Most books that you read about plot will tell you that to have a solid plot, your story should have five components:

• Conflict
• Complications
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action

Conflict refers to the basic tension, predicament, or challenge that propels your story’s plot.  The conflict is experienced by your main character(s).  The character can be at battle with him or herself, or the character can be at battle with outside forces – like a pain-in-the-butt boss, an overprotective mother, or a cheating spouse.  The conflict will propel the character forward in order to resolve the conflict.  Question to ask yourself:  what is the initial conflict that propels your main character(s) forward in your story?

With any good story, the main character can’t solve the problem simply and ride off into the sunset.  Not if you want a novel, anyway.

There have to be Complications, those obstacles that prevent the main character from resolving the problem; these complications are what causes the tension to heighten in a work.  Question to ask yourself:  you know what your main conflict is.  What are the things that keep your character from resolving his/her issue quickly?

Rising Action occurs when the complications have created enough tension that the character realizes that something must be done and it must be done quickly.  Question to ask yourself:  now that you have your character on a tight rope of stress, anxiety, and conflict-driven insanity, what is the last thing that drives your character to resolve his/her issues and to do so NOW?

Once the character has done whatever is necessary to “kill” the conflict(s), we reach the story’s Climax, and Falling Action quickly follows, ending the story.  By the end of the story, something has changed – usually in the character or in the situation the character had to go through.  Question to ask yourself:  What is the result of your character taking on his/her conflict and resolving it?

Here’s a brief summary of the movie Fatal Attraction using this five-part model:

    Conflict:  Man has affair with woman who wants more than an affair.

    Complications:  Man learns woman is pregnant.  Man also realizes woman is crazy.  Woman wants him to be a part of her and the baby’s life.  Woman calls repeatedly.  Woman shows up at his house in the attempt to buy his place.  Woman destroys his car and leaves a tape for him to listen to.  Once man actually moves away, woman still finds his home and kills his daughter’s bunny; he’s forced to tell his wife about the affair and baby.

    Rising Action:  Woman kidnaps the man’s daughter, which causes his wife to drive off, frantically looking for the girl; she’s injured in a car accident.  Man realizes he needs to fully face his actions and gets the police involved; he vows to protect his family.

    Climax:  The woman breaks into the man’s home and tries to kill his wife.  He and the woman get into a huge fight, but ultimately, the wife shoots and kills the woman.

    Falling Action:  Police and paramedics arrive and take care of things.  Movie ends with man shaking the hand of a police official, going inside his house, hugging his wife, and walking off camera into another part of the house.  Very last image, a photo of their happy family on the mantel; we can assume they try to patch things up, but besides that, we can safely say things have CHANGED – for the characters and for the situation.

The “Questions to ask yourself” above?  Think about those as you develop your work.  If you’re a pantser (someone who gets an idea and writes without organizing most of the work), then think about this once you’ve gotten to a “quiet” part of the book.  If you’re a plotter (pretty self-explanatory, but it’s someone who likes to outline work before jumping in), then definitely think about these components before you delve into PAGE ONE.

Finding an Editor for Your Literary Baby

Books completed. You’ve read through and revised as much as you can as creator, and you have formatted your manuscript according to traditional specifications.

What’s next?

Well, before you get all gung-ho and start submitting your book to publishers and agents, you should first send it to an editor.

Why?

Because as creator of the project, you are very close to the characters, the storyline, and all other components that makes your book – in your mind – sing.

It often takes a second set of eyes – and sometimes a third set – in order to see spelling and grammatical errors, holes in plot, weak characters, etc.

First thing to ask yourself is “How publication-ready is my manuscript?”

The answer to this will help you discern if your book needs proofreading, copy editing, and substantive editing. Below, I talk a little about each.


Proofreading focuses on two types of problems: 1) details that have been missed in the editing stages, such as spelling, punctuation, and serious grammatical errors and 2) glitches that have been introduced during layout, such as errors in headers/footers, page numbers, widows/orphans, and bad hyphen breaks at line ends. If you have had your book edited at least once by someone else for the “big” issues involving story development, then having your book proofread might be the way to go.

Copy editing tackles the manuscript line by line, paying attention to the small details: grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, passive voice, word choice, consistency of detail, spelling, consistency of style, clarity, etc. This process is a step above proofreading, and definitely suggested, even if your book has been edited once.

Substantive Editing seeks to achieve clarity of subject, logic, and consistency. Confusing and awkward writing may be reworked. Sentences are analyzed for structure/syntax. Long sentences may be enumerated or separated. Although some of the issues that are present in the proofreading and copy editing stages are handled in a substantive edit, it’s important to note the distinction amongst these three forms of editing. In seeking to achieve clarity of subject, logic, and consistency, an editor will be looking for holes in plot, weak characters, development of beginning and ending, strength in dialogue—essentially those components that make your book a book.

Although there are some editors, like myself, who blur these types (I’m always FIRST AND FOREMOST looking to develop the story, but I can’t help but to look at the minute details, too); it is important to know that you will probably need more than one edit.

Editing is an important process in getting your manuscript to shine; as a result, you should make sure you have your work edited more than once. In the initial stages, having a strong story is important; hence, you would look at substantive editing. As the “story” is perfected, you would look toward getting your manuscript copy edited, and in the final stage, once the manuscript is in layout form, you would seek someone to proofread your manuscript.


When you find an editor you’re thinking about using, be sure to talk with him or her before agreeing to have the person edit your work.

What kind of questions could you ask?

1- What books have you edited that have been published?
2- Do you have any clients/references that I can contact about your services?
3- What is your editing philosophy?
4- What is the process in which you edit and communicate with a client?
5- Do you have a free sample edit so that I might see your work before making a decision?


This last thought has more to do with YOU than with the editor.

I have had people in the past come to me for editing, thinking I would have their book done within two weeks and they would be ready to send it out to be printed as soon as the book is in their hot little hands.

NEVER is that the case.

Here’s a drop of wisdom – you may have finished your book, but it’s not perfect…or as perfect as it can reasonably be.

When you send a book to an editor, prepare to have it returned with revisions (sometimes major) to be done. Editors don’t write your books to make it better; that’s a ghostwriter, and he/she gets paid a lot more money to write your book than we do to edit it.

Editors, and I’m speaking from my own experience, clean up errors and make a lot of suggestions. If I see a hole in the plot, I state where I see it and make suggestions on how to fix it. If I see weak dialogue, I explain why it’s weak and offer suggestions on how to fix it. If I see an underdeveloped main character, I point this out, explain why I think the character is underdeveloped, and offer suggestions (or ask questions) that can help the writer develop the character further.

The editor’s job is to fine tune, but most importantly (and specifically) the job is to help YOU make your book the best book it can be. We offer you the advice, suggestions, and tweaks that YOU – as creator of the work – can go back and develop to make your literary work shine.

Be prepared to put in the work needed in revising and don’t be in such a rush to have a book in between covers.

You’ll thank me later.

Using Characters and Scenes to Trim the Fat from Your Story: Part One

Every year, I edit a slew of manuscripts – short stories, flash fiction, novellas, novels, etc. The biggest book I had ever edited before this time was about 200,000 words, and that story was about 80,000 words too long. A lot of slash-and-burn occurred for that literary baby.

But in 2009, I met my biggest adversary: a book that was over 330,000 words. No, this was not a Twilight saga. No Harry Potter. No The Lord of the Rings. This was a contemporary novel, a blend of street, urban, and literary fiction.

It was, by far, one of the cleanest reads I have ever read. The writer is extraordinarily creative and talented.

Despite these glowing praises, the book was way too long. Typically, I would have helped the writer slash and burn the book down to a nice length, but it was difficult to do so with this project because everything in the book “seemed” to belong there. After reading the book once before editing, I realized that two problems hindered this VBB (very big book) from being a good size: characters and scenes.

In May 2009, I wrote a piece for the Blood-Red Pencil titled “Eight Questions for Writers.” The very first question in the list is “Who is your main character?”

If you have a book that needs to be cut and cut BIG TIME, then you seriously should consider this question. In the book I edited, though the client told me who the main characters were, everyone was a main character. Every character had a backstory, nearly every character had a story arc, and there were so many characters that I needed to index them and take notes while I read so I could keep up with who did what when and how all the characters connected with one another. No reader will take that kind of time to read your book. They just won’t. We read, typically, to escape and to enjoy another place, another set of people. There’s nothing escapist or enjoyable with having a slew of main characters that we have to keep meticulous tabs on.

So, ask yourself, “Who is your main character?” Realize, there will be supporting, minor characters that help main characters, but all of these characters do not need full-blown stories of their own; that’s why they are minor and supporting. At least one read-through of your completed manuscript should be conducted to edit out any material that over-inflates a minor/supporting character’s role in a novel and to make sure your main characters are developed as necessary.

Part two will look at scenes and scope.

Using Characters and Scenes to Trim the Fat from Your Story: Part Two

In addition to examining the characters in your story to trim unnecessary material, you can also look at your scene development.

As I edited the VBB, I saw a major need for the client to edit scenes. Back in 2008, I wrote a short piece titled “Developing Scenes” that’s worth a check out. It’s important to remember that scenes don’t have to start at the beginning. Now, what does this mean? Let’s say you wanted to write a scene in which your main character’s conflict was revealed. You plan to do this by having the conflict blurted out during an argument between the main character and her boyfriend. In your scene, you start with allowing us to see the main character driving home, then she walks into her apartment, then she checks her mail and phone messages, then she takes off her clothes and puts on something comfortable, and then after all of that the boyfriend comes home, and there’s a lot of conversation about nothing before we even get to the argument. This would be considered a very slow-reading scene. As a reader, I would be waiting impatiently for something to happen. You would be amazed, if you went back and read through your manuscript paying close attention to scene development, at how many words go into revealing nothing important about the story and characters.

With this issue, it’s important to ask yourself, “Where’s the best place to start a scene and end a scene?” You don’t want to start too early and slow the read, and you don’t want to drag a scene on.

In my piece “Developing Scenes,” I write, “Typically, we are ‘placed’ somewhere (setting). People are revealed to us (characters). Some idea, point, purpose, situation is presented to us (beginning). There is interaction amongst the characters (middle), and the scene concludes in a way that propels the story forward and makes us want to know what happens next (ending).” As you edit through your manuscript, you want to make sure that these elements are in your scenes and that each scene does what it needs to do to make your story sing, not lag.

To those writers who tend to write epics when a particular book doesn’t necessarily call to be epic-size, place this word on a Post-it near your computer: SCOPE.

I know there are a lot of pantsers out there, those who just sit and let fingers fly across keys until a story is done. However, to help limit scope, it might be a good idea to actually outline books before writing them. An outline can give you a sense of how big a book will be. If it looks like your book will hit the scale at 125k or more, then you can work to revise an outline instead of revising a whole novel. And as you do so, you can ask yourself what is the overall purpose of this story, what characters are absolutely necessary to tell this specific story, and what tension, development is necessary in order to tell that specific story.