Since the first material an agent will ever see of your book is a query, I'm very interested in anything that will peak the agent's interest, and I think I found a great article from an agent's website. It's called the Perfect Pitch from Sarah Jane Freymann's website. It's really interesting, and it's packed with good ideas. The thing about the perfect pitch is that whenever I go to a bookstore or library to talk to someone about scheduling a book talk or book signing event, they always ask me what the book is about. And the perfect pitch really helped me hone mine down. So please, take a look at the Perfect Pitch.
Another thing, comparing your book to the current bestsellers is not the best idea, but on the other hand, there are a few agents who ask for that info. For instance, one of the early readers for my current book told me that my book reminded her of the book Gone with the Wind. She and I would talk about the book, referring to it as the Gone with Wind, Korean style. But I didn't mention that at all in my query letter. It's not that I didn't agree with the reader. I did. There were many similarities, but I didn't want to come across as pretentious. However, I've done something like this before. "My readers would also enjoy readying xxx, xxx, xxx, and xxx." Trying to give the agent some idea as to how I see my book being marketed, but ultimately, I stopped doing that for the same reasons. I didn't want to come across pretentious, arrogant, or worse yet, clueless. So, beware.
As far as bio section in the query, I write about my writing credits, such as an essay contest I've won, a short story that got published, and self-publishing Waiting for Appa. I don't include much else because I'm not sure if it'll be helpful. It could also be that since engineers are not known for writing emotionally moving prose, I just keep that to myself. However, there are agents who specifically ask for 1 page bio, so have that on hand and be ready to submit that.
At the end, I end with the basic ending of "I look forward to hearing from you soon," along with included SASE. I know. This could be boring, but I like hitting the basics. When I was a manager at a high tech company, I would receive 500+ page stack of resumes for one or two openings I had in my organization. All I cared about was finding the relevant information as quickly as possible. I spent matter of seconds on a resume. All the other stuff that people did to make their resumes supposedly "interesting" only irritated me, and I would quickly pass on those. So, that's what I'm going for here.
If and when I'm lucky enough to get an agent, I'll post my "winning" query letter and the query letters of my past for your comparison.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Lessons Learned: Queries1
As I was researching online to see which agent would be most suitable for my genre, I came across a very curious thing. A lot of the agents would list their email addresses in a very weird way, I thought. Like submissions at literaryagency dot com or something like this. When I saw something like this, the agent in question explained that he/she didn't want a writer to just cut and paste their email address and send out a massive mailings.
This got me thinking...why would anyone want to do that? First and foremost, a query, whether it's on a snail mail or email, is a business letter. Or a resume. No self-respecting job seeker would or should send massive emails out in one shot.
Last week, I've queried six agents, all via email. I wrote a query letter for each one, with appropriate business addresses, personalization, etc. It took a long time to write your book. Take the extra time to make sure that one of the last steps of this important process is completed to the best of your ability. Don't short change your efforts by doing a shabby job or cutting corners. This is what my husband told me after he read my first attempt at writing a synopsis. Needless to say, I've learned my lesson. I mean, how much time do you actually save by mass emailing a query?
I think I write a pretty decent query, and I stick to the basics. I don't try to be cute or gimmicky. At the end, the cuteness and gimmicks just become unnessary distractions and irritations to the material you want the agents to read.
Waiting for Appa update:
I had hoped to schedule some book talks/signings at the local Barnes and Noble stores, but when I went to the biggest one in the are where I already had an event, I was told that 1)they don't usually hold two events for one book, and 2) that since my book came out in 2009, it's old. They wouldn't schedule any events for the book unless some school or organization asked for it.
I'm thinking that's $300 down the drain for renewing the returnability with iUNIVERSE when it seems like there's very little hope of me scheduling an event this way. Mind you, it's only been one store. I need to drive around to more stores, but with synopsis, manuscript, and job search in the way, it's rather difficult.
This got me thinking...why would anyone want to do that? First and foremost, a query, whether it's on a snail mail or email, is a business letter. Or a resume. No self-respecting job seeker would or should send massive emails out in one shot.
Last week, I've queried six agents, all via email. I wrote a query letter for each one, with appropriate business addresses, personalization, etc. It took a long time to write your book. Take the extra time to make sure that one of the last steps of this important process is completed to the best of your ability. Don't short change your efforts by doing a shabby job or cutting corners. This is what my husband told me after he read my first attempt at writing a synopsis. Needless to say, I've learned my lesson. I mean, how much time do you actually save by mass emailing a query?
I think I write a pretty decent query, and I stick to the basics. I don't try to be cute or gimmicky. At the end, the cuteness and gimmicks just become unnessary distractions and irritations to the material you want the agents to read.
Waiting for Appa update:
I had hoped to schedule some book talks/signings at the local Barnes and Noble stores, but when I went to the biggest one in the are where I already had an event, I was told that 1)they don't usually hold two events for one book, and 2) that since my book came out in 2009, it's old. They wouldn't schedule any events for the book unless some school or organization asked for it.
I'm thinking that's $300 down the drain for renewing the returnability with iUNIVERSE when it seems like there's very little hope of me scheduling an event this way. Mind you, it's only been one store. I need to drive around to more stores, but with synopsis, manuscript, and job search in the way, it's rather difficult.
Some news
Sorry about being gone for so long. This is supposed to be a definite no-no for bloggers who are trying to build a following. All I can say is that I needed this time off to enjoy the holidays with my family, concentrate on finish editing my new book, and take care of a sick dog. We enjoyed the holidays, my book is finished, and the dog is still languishing with lung cancer. We're doing the best we can to make him comfortable.
After I finished my book, I started querying last week, and I've got some good news. An agent has requested my full manuscript. So, since last week, I've been busy getting that package ready. What she requested are a synopsis and the full manuscript. Now, my manuscript is ready to go, but my synopsis isn't.
I hate writing a synopsis. I hate it so much that in 2004, I've only queried the agents who didn't list synopsis as a part of the submission requirement. I thought I was doing that again this year when an agent who requested the full manuscript asked for a synopsis when it hadn't been listed on her website. Yikes!
Well, I've moaned and groaned but got down to writing a synopsis. My first one sucked. After my husband read it, and frame my effort to write the synopsis with what's at stake, I've thrown away the 1st effort and then started anew. My second one was much better, and I'm currently working on my 3rd effort. I'm hoping to make this one a keeper.
I'm not alone in hating synopsis'. I mean think about it. Trying to squeeze the "essence" of the book (my happens to be 460+ pages) on 1, 3, or 5 page synopsis seems like an awesome task, but I've done it in 7, trying to cut it down to 5.
In my desperation to do a better job after my 1st attempt missed the mark so spectacularly, I went online to check out some examples out there. The best advice I got was the one that said to write a synopsis IMMEDIATELY after finishing a book and BEFORE querying agents. Also, incorporate some of your material from the novel in the body of the synopsis. I wish I had read this article before I queried this time around, too. The only consolation I have is that the agent who asked for the full manuscript is probably too busy to keep tabs on how long it's taking me to send it to her.
So, please, write you synopsis before rather than later.
About querying agents, I like to shoot for the stars. If I fail, I'll fail spectacularly, but if I succeed, I'll succeed beyond my wildest dreams. So, I chose the best of what I could find for my genre. Do the same for yours. Why not?
I was initially going to write about lessons learned about agents this year, but I think I'm going to blog about my real time experience of trying to find an agent for my new book. In the next blog, I'll start with writing a query.
After I finished my book, I started querying last week, and I've got some good news. An agent has requested my full manuscript. So, since last week, I've been busy getting that package ready. What she requested are a synopsis and the full manuscript. Now, my manuscript is ready to go, but my synopsis isn't.
I hate writing a synopsis. I hate it so much that in 2004, I've only queried the agents who didn't list synopsis as a part of the submission requirement. I thought I was doing that again this year when an agent who requested the full manuscript asked for a synopsis when it hadn't been listed on her website. Yikes!
Well, I've moaned and groaned but got down to writing a synopsis. My first one sucked. After my husband read it, and frame my effort to write the synopsis with what's at stake, I've thrown away the 1st effort and then started anew. My second one was much better, and I'm currently working on my 3rd effort. I'm hoping to make this one a keeper.
I'm not alone in hating synopsis'. I mean think about it. Trying to squeeze the "essence" of the book (my happens to be 460+ pages) on 1, 3, or 5 page synopsis seems like an awesome task, but I've done it in 7, trying to cut it down to 5.
In my desperation to do a better job after my 1st attempt missed the mark so spectacularly, I went online to check out some examples out there. The best advice I got was the one that said to write a synopsis IMMEDIATELY after finishing a book and BEFORE querying agents. Also, incorporate some of your material from the novel in the body of the synopsis. I wish I had read this article before I queried this time around, too. The only consolation I have is that the agent who asked for the full manuscript is probably too busy to keep tabs on how long it's taking me to send it to her.
So, please, write you synopsis before rather than later.
About querying agents, I like to shoot for the stars. If I fail, I'll fail spectacularly, but if I succeed, I'll succeed beyond my wildest dreams. So, I chose the best of what I could find for my genre. Do the same for yours. Why not?
I was initially going to write about lessons learned about agents this year, but I think I'm going to blog about my real time experience of trying to find an agent for my new book. In the next blog, I'll start with writing a query.
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