One Writer's Dilemma:Querying is the bane of my existence...
There is this thing we must do as writers if we want to get published traditionally.
That is...
you guessed it write a query letter.
(I think I just threw up a little in my mouth)
I've researched, read, reached out, edited, edited, edited, bugged my beta readers, edited, reached out to Agents who offer their help in exchange for a little personal ridicule....edited, stalked agents, edited, read how to write blah blah blah... edited some more, stalked some more, made lists and lists and lists, and edited.
Now, I have 8 different versions of my query letter and a very efficient excel spreadsheet
What have I learned?
What I actually learned:
- I think I wasted about three weeks of my life.
- Half the agents contradicted what they want
- Everyone wants something different
- Your letter must be perfect or it's implied you suck
- Don't expect a response letter
- The response letters you get back will be few and far between
- Some of the response letters are so poorly written it makes one wonder... I'm not going to finish that thought
- Some of the response letters, were inspirational
- I think the only thing getting published right now is young adult (seriously, I went to B&N today and the YA section had taken over the first three bookshelves. I had to ask for help finding an adult best seller, they had been moved to the back of the store)
With the success of Amazon and drama from the merger of certain publishing companies, I'm thinking Indie might be the way to go these days.
But who knows, I might actually get a response.
A bit of advice - boil your story down to 25 words! That's by far the toughest task of all.
ReplyDeleteOnce you've got it the way you like it, send out your queries with that, plus a big about yourself.
DON'T SAY mss available upon request!!! They already know that.
Good luck
You should also add the Follow link to your blog.
ReplyDeleteI decided early on that going indie was the route that was best for me.
ReplyDelete