Comments on: 5 Surefire Ways to a Trashed Query http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/ About the craft and business of genre fiction Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:33:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.4 by: Kev http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-10006 Tue, 08 May 2007 09:52:18 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-10006 You know, I suspect it has a lot to do with the calibre and maturity of your sense of your own work. It shows pretty quickly when you want something to be what it is not. If you know where it is at, whether it deserves your complete faith and have at least a semi profession sense of honesty, you don't need to add all the hoo ha to try and sell it, you just tell it how it is and say what needs to be said... perhaps. I spent short time going through submissions in a publisher a way back, and while there spent something like two days going through submissions. After a while I stopped reading the actual work and just worked off the feel of the letter. So many of them spoke about the writer's hope for the piece, as you point out, something of a turn off. As human beings, it seems as though anything we do that involves the same old stuff over and over again turns on kind of natural filters for the familiar, the try hard and the uninspiring, and keeps a feeler out for something grown up, focused and engaging. I had a long conversation with a friend and literary colleague about this a while back, and her view was that too many query or intro letters don't actually talk about the core of what a book is about. That I suspect is what an agent or - though these days how many of them even look at stuff not through agents - a publisher wants to know. In this case she was actually reading a query letter I had wrote and commenting on it, and said, that is all very well, but tell me what the book is about. When I could not actually do this without sprouting reams of waffle and talk of great plotlines and themes, I realised the book was not ready to be pitched. I had a lot of hopes for the piece, but not enough genuine grasp of what I was doing. But then this is trying the ... write a few chapters and a synopsis approach, which does seem to be a good idea these days unless you are loved and trusted in the first place. You know, I suspect it has a lot to do with the calibre and maturity of your sense of your own work. It shows pretty quickly when you want something to be what it is not.

If you know where it is at, whether it deserves your complete faith and have at least a semi profession sense of honesty, you don’t need to add all the hoo ha to try and sell it, you just tell it how it is and say what needs to be said… perhaps.

I spent short time going through submissions in a publisher a way back, and while there spent something like two days going through submissions. After a while I stopped reading the actual work and just worked off the feel of the letter.

So many of them spoke about the writer’s hope for the piece, as you point out, something of a turn off.

As human beings, it seems as though anything we do that involves the same old stuff over and over again turns on kind of natural filters for the familiar, the try hard and the uninspiring, and keeps a feeler out for something grown up, focused and engaging.

I had a long conversation with a friend and literary colleague about this a while back, and her view was that too many query or intro letters don’t actually talk about the core of what a book is about. That I suspect is what an agent or - though these days how many of them even look at stuff not through agents - a publisher wants to know.

In this case she was actually reading a query letter I had wrote and commenting on it, and said, that is all very well, but tell me what the book is about. When I could not actually do this without sprouting reams of waffle and talk of great plotlines and themes, I realised the book was not ready to be pitched. I had a lot of hopes for the piece, but not enough genuine grasp of what I was doing.

But then this is trying the … write a few chapters and a synopsis approach, which does seem to be a good idea these days unless you are loved and trusted in the first place.

]]> by: Buffy http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9855 Wed, 02 May 2007 14:57:39 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9855 Brilliant. Thanks for this. Brilliant. Thanks for this.

]]> by: Trish Ryan http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9782 Tue, 01 May 2007 00:28:54 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9782 Oh, if folders like that only disintegrated after a 60 day expiration date! My primary solace, as I think back over all the truly awful queries I sent out into the agentsphere, is that they weren't quite bad enough to be memorable, just bad enough to be trashed quickly. Sometimes it's best to be forgotten :) Oh, if folders like that only disintegrated after a 60 day expiration date! My primary solace, as I think back over all the truly awful queries I sent out into the agentsphere, is that they weren’t quite bad enough to be memorable, just bad enough to be trashed quickly. Sometimes it’s best to be forgotten :)

]]> by: Nienke http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9775 Mon, 30 Apr 2007 21:08:58 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9775 So simple yet so hard. As a writer/editor by day - I find it good practice to write something, put it away for a day or two and then check it with a fresh eye. Some of us are just to 'send' or 'mail' happy! BTW, check out my April 30 post! So simple yet so hard.
As a writer/editor by day - I find it good practice to write something, put it away for a day or two and then check it with a fresh eye. Some of us are just to ’send’ or ‘mail’ happy!

BTW, check out my April 30 post!

]]> by: Melissa Marsh http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9762 Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:46:32 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9762 Great tips, Kathleen. Great tips, Kathleen.

]]> by: Therese Walsh http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9746 Mon, 30 Apr 2007 15:51:15 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9746 <i>I had 10 crisp lovelies all ready to go, and I was so anxious about the whole thing, I mixed up the envelopes.</i> Ouch! Writers' growing pains truly hurt, don't they? Thanks for the post, Kath. I had 10 crisp lovelies all ready to go, and I was so anxious about the whole thing, I mixed up the envelopes. Ouch! Writers’ growing pains truly hurt, don’t they?

Thanks for the post, Kath.

]]> by: Kathleen Bolton http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9741 Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:59:28 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9741 Those early queries were soooo embarrassing. And I'm not even going to get into the synopses. Exercises in puerile junk! Those early queries were soooo embarrassing. And I’m not even going to get into the synopses. Exercises in puerile junk!

]]> by: thea http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9732 Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:05:55 +0000 http://writerunboxed.com/2007/04/30/5-surefire-ways-to-a-trashed-query/#comment-9732 every editor i've talked to wants the facts, just the facts. thanks for the reminder, kathleen. every editor i’ve talked to wants the facts, just the facts. thanks for the reminder, kathleen.

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