Alphonse Mucha, 1897
Recently, Christi Craig made a comment in her blog post that parted the heavens for me concerning the query letter I’d been trying to write for my novel The Brevity of Roses. I realized I hadn’t been describing my book the way I wanted to, I was describing it the way I thought I should. Don’t ask me why. So I quit all the over-thinking and just wrote about my novel. The result is a concise query letter that fits the tone of my book. That was the hard part.
Now, the harder part.
For months, I’ve been making a list of agents who represented the kind of book I was writing. If you’ve been around here lately, you know I’ve vacillated between categorizing my novel as literary fiction or women’s fiction—or literary women’s fiction. You get the idea. So, to be safe, I narrowed my list to agents who represent both those categories.
I will follow each agent’s specific submission guidelines. Right now, I’m querying only agents who allow email queries, which is the majority of them. Some ask for query only, some ask for query plus five to ten sample pages (a few ask for a whole chapter) to be pasted into the email. Since I’ve not met any of these agents at a conference, or been referred to them, I don’t have to personalize my query EXCEPT to make sure I change the generic “Dear Agent” salutation to reflect the proper agent’s name. But it takes time to make sure I have the correct info in the To and Subject lines … and to fiddle with the formatting so the pasted sample pages are readable!
I will query many agents simultaneously because I believe that agents, for the most part, have already made up their minds BEFORE they read my query letter. By that, I mean that each agent is looking for a very specific book … not just any book … not just any GOOD book, even. Most agents say they like to represent books they love personally. Occasionally they may be surprised by a book too good to pass up, but in general they know what they’re looking for because they know what they can SELL. And if that’s not my book … they aren’t interested. No offense meant; no offense taken.
So, fellow writers, I’ve set off on my query cycle to find the agent who’s looking for my book. And if I get to the end of the list without an offer of representation, I’ll start again at the top of the list. Because, in six months, what the first agent I queried is looking for could be something completely different. Something exactly like my book!
I can state -- almost unequivocally -- that the title of this blog does not refer to my mental state. It refers to my writing, which does, of course, flow out of my mind. Sometimes the process of writing is messy, sometimes weird, sometimes beautiful -- and always harder than I wish, but I love it. As I wander back into the real world from time to time, I hope to entertain you with my musings.
Wahoo!!! It’s time for querying. I love it! Keep me updated.
Actually, I wasn’t planning on telling you a darned thing!
(I came back and added the smilie because someone might not know I was just kidding with you sweet friend.)
This is exciting and wonderful, Linda! I’m so proud of you for getting your query all sorted out and written the way you want it to be. Looking forward to updates, too!
And go NaHoCleMo! 237 minutes, I see – great job!
Yep, I put on my brave hat and took the leap.
And the NaHoCleMo thing? Right now, I’m thinking I should have gone for the 50,000 words, but by the end of the month I should be mostly just maintaining a sparkling house and then I won’t regret it.
Niiiice!
This is a huge step. I’ve begun sort of kind of maybe possibly dipping my toe into submitting short stories to a few markets, and I have to admit, it’s a little scary. Doing a query cycle would be … well, scary.
And I’m a horror writer. (Or is that “horrible writer”? I can never remember.)
Best of luck! I can’t wait for the results!
Well, Darc, if you have a book or stories that you think are good, and you’ve polished them as well as you know how, what else can you do?
Just remember not to take a declination of your work, as a personal rejection. So grab your wheels and peddle as fast as you can.
I didn’t take the declination personally. I also asked a couple of other people to look it over and see if the story I had in mind for submission was good — I don’t want to be the only opinion on that — and I’ve gotten sort of mixed reviews.
I’ll make some adjustments and see what happens.
Thank you for the encouragement, too.
You’re welcome. I predict you will be published (again?) soon.
That’s awesome! I’m envious of your sense of equilibrium.
Writing is personal. Publishing is a business. That’s what you have to keep in mind.
Today is certainly not the best of times to get your foot in the publisher’s door, but some writers will. The only way we’ll absolutely fail, is if we don’t try. And try. And try. As long as it takes.
Such an exciting time! Have fun and good luck!
Exciting or madness? Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
In just reading your post, I felt the relief and excitement in a query well-written and a book sent out into the world. May it land in the right agent’s hands, sooner than later!
Congratulations!
Thank you, Christi. Sooner sounds good to me.
I wish you the best of luck in landing the right agent for yourself. Please be careful, however, as there are a lot of folks out there that just want your money. Yeah, I learned that the hard way with my very first novel that I wrote in high school. SIGH
Thank you. First rule: the money flows to the writer not from the writer.
You have a great attitude toward this, Linda. I wish you every bit of luck there is. A good attitude will go a long way in the business!
Thank you, Laura.
Reminder to self: keep the good attitude, no matter what!
Yes, wonderful attitude. Good luck, godspeed, blessings and all the best wishes that put wings on your book. May it soar.
Thank you, Mary. So may it be.
I’m glad the heavens have parted for you. I’ll have to hop on over to her blog and see if I get lucky with some heavenly eye opener.