Seth Godin’s Purple Cows for Queries

March 16, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

I finally figured out why writing query letters sucks (and I mean aside from the repeated stick-in-my-chest rejections): boredom. I have sent out twenty slightly-modified versions of the same query letter as of last week and frankly I’m tired of it. In fact, I think I may have a brown on my hands. According to […]

Literary agent webinars: dream makers or advantage takers?

March 9, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

I received several notices about webinars offering ‘exclusive’ access to literary agents in my email this week. I’m not sure whether to be excited—or irritated. When I was fourteen my mother made me an appointment to see a modeling agent. The agent’s name was Dyan and after taking my photo and measurements she apparently decided that […]

Literary Rejection: ‘Own it’, says Miss Snark

March 2, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

I was recently rejected by a literary agency. It went something like this: “The pages you sent are well-written and enjoyable, but unfortunately, J did not connect to the story as much as she was hoping to, and so she will not be offering representation” Of course, this happens a lot these days but this […]

The Joy of the Nightmare of Querying

February 22, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

Vanilla Ice said it best. “Love it or leave it you better gain weight, You better hit bull’s eye the kid don’t play.” Okay, that actually makes a lot less sense than I remember rapping as a teenager, but the key here is that there are some things that I really hate doing and writing query […]

The Succesful Query Letter: doing the opposite of everything I have been ever been told

February 15, 2014.Reading time 3 minutes.

Because sending emails with missing attachments, pocket updating my Facebook status with such as gems as ‘Jackie is slkdjfsldf’ and broken links on my LinkedIn account weren’t enough I have recently been introduced to a whole new arena of potentially damaging electronic embarrassment: the query letter. Misspelling agency names, classifying my work in the wrong […]

Death by Query Letter

January 13, 2014.Reading time 2 minutes.

Convince a stranger to risk their job and profession by investing in a completely unproven product…in 250 words or less. Enter the query letter, described best by Nathan Bransford as “part business letter, part creative writing exercise, part introduction, part death defying leap through a flaming hoop.” I have recently started composing queries in hopes […]