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.